Cubzfan64

I believe he was out at 2B too, but the umps didn't give them the run, just the stolen base - the Cubs gave him the walk followed by the hit.

and of course we get a call against us and can't find a way to overcome it - sigh. I can't believe we might leave St Louis with only 1 win when there's no reason we shouldn't have taken all 3. I can't stand this for too many years!!!!!!

Dusty sure loves certain players doesn't he? TO A FAULT!!!!!

I have a gut feeling that Hendry isn't particularily excited about any of the trade possibilities out there right now. If it's true that Nomar and Williamson will be back very shortly, I think it's likely that Hendry looks at that similarily as "trading" for a more offense oriented SS and a decent relief pitcher without giving anything up. It remains to be seen what if anything either one of those guys can provide for us for the rest of the season but I believe Hendry is gambling that the additions of them will be significant enough that he doesn't have to make any big deals. It also seems as though Hendry has had good things to say about Corey's play in AAA, so unless he gets traded for LF help, I'll bet we see Corey back up here soon as well. Those are just my gut feelings this year.

total agreement! whatever it takes to get the win tomorrow we need it!

and in further news, Farnsworth struck out 2 of 3 hitters in the 9th to earn his 4th save in a 2-1 game

All I can say is it's REALLY NICE to finally get an easy win against the Cardinals!!!!! :roll: Let's get that other win tomorrow and get out of town on a high note!

Hehe, way to stay positive :-) wish I was an optimist :-)

VERY happy to have Novoa make me eat my words!! Let's get some insurance and then get this thing over with!!

Ok, so I'm a pessimist at heart, but I can tell you that I REALLY don't like having either Novoa or Remlinger working here!

This is an utterly maddening inning

Looks like Wuertz. Thanks! We really need our bullpen to carry us through this! Yesterday was a really tough loss and with Pujols, Sanders and Rolen out we have no reason not to take 2 out of 3 from these guys! Good teams make teams having injury problems pay for those problems! It's time we become a "good" team here!!

Now if we can just find a way to keep the Cards from "pecking away" at these leads!!! I get very uncomfortable with teams that keep finding ways to stay close inning after inning. Too many times they find a way to finish us off in dramatic fasion at the end of the game! I can't watch the game, so who's gonna come in for Williams soon?

What you said is exactly how I feel about Corey - unless some new "stance" will improve how he sees the ball and allows him to be more selective I don't think any new swing will help him. Pitchers exploit that lack of patience with him over and over again and will continue to do so until Corey can read the strikezone. I saw someone mention some machine that can be used to build "eye control" or something, but I believe I saw where the Cubs don't use it because they don't have the room for it (I wish I could recall the thread). Something like that is what I'd put Corey into every single day and have him keep working on it until he can better identify where the ball is going. Dang it's frustrating to root for a team where there have been a number of "potential" stars the last few years who just can't seem to get over the hump (Wood with his injuries, Farnsworth with his head or whatever and now Corey with his inability to read the strikezone).

Tucker I didn't care much about, but I was very sorry to see Bill Mueller go. He was one of those quiet guys who just went about his business professionally. He made all the routine plays and a few exceptional ones and was one of those guys I wanted to see come up to bat with the game on the line. I know some of you wouldn't consider there to be many similarities, but I always thought of him somewhat like a Mark Grace who played 3B. I think the Cubs thought his knees weren't going to hold up much longer but he's sure been a steady rock for Boston. As an aside, I've heard rumors of him possibly being packaged in a trade to the Twins for a relief pitcher.

From what I know, Pedroia is penciled in as their 2B next year and they are fairly high on him although he was recently hurt. Hanley Ramirez is playing 2B these days and the rumor is that he may be up soon to help with that position (although they just picked up Grafanino (sp?)). The Red Sox are also very enamored with at least 3 of their potential home grown pitchers (Lester being one of them). Kelly Shoppach can definitely be had, but from what I've heard and seen, he's not a young guy (I don't think) and his strengths are all on the defensive end - he doesn't have much of a stick. Truthfully, I just don't think the Red Sox are in the market for offense right now - I think they need pitching (both starting and relief) and I think if moves are going to be made, Theo will trade for improvements in that area. They have the sticks to win the division this year - they just don't have the consistent pitching. I'm not saying all those young guys the Red Sox have are great phenomenal prospects because I honestly don't know much about them. What I CAN tell you is that the Red Sox organization thinks very highly of all the guys you mentioned - perhaps they are overvaluing their own prospects (no teams do that do they??? :-P), but that's what I hear about them out in the NE

I understand what you're saying, but it's just really impossible at a fan's level to compare what one pitcher can do with what another is capable of. Schilling essentially is only trying to rebuild ankle strength so he can drive off his foot - he doesn't have arm trouble as far as I know, except that he's probably trying to rebuild his strength after such a prolonged downtime. Kerry is in a whole different ballpark and I'm honestly concerned that his arm problems would only be further exasperated (sp?) if he were to be moved into a bullpen role which his body/arm isn't conditioned for. That said, he and the Cubs have to come to a decision soon, because "experimenting" with your #1 or #2 pitcher from start to start never knowing what you're going to get from him is NOT a good thing for the team and probably not a good thing for Kerry long term either. I'm just so disappointed with how things have turned out for him it makes me very sad to see.

Welcome as well!! I think it's going to be totally up to the doctors and organization to decide what happens with Kerry - the rest of us here are just speculating whether he should rest or continue on. I don't know what his problem is, but I get the feeling sometimes that it's more than just one problem that's affecting him. I don't know what his future holds and I'm hesitant to say that any kind of surgery or rest will ever make him the pitcher he really has the ability to be. The comment someone made in this thread about relievers generally being guys who aren't good enough to start is true for most relievers with the exception of closers - closers are generally in that role because they have the mentality and the ability to dominate for short periods of time - either that or they have fantastic control and have the ability to work hitters and change speeds to also dominate for an inning or maybe two. I would like to think that if it turns out Kerry's arm just won't allow him to throw 50+ pitches per game, I think he has the makeup mentally and the physical ability to be a very good closer, but I don't know that his arm will let that happen. Closing requires you to get up and warm up quickly and be prepared every day, 2 out of 3 days etc... and I'm just worried that his arm won't hold up under those circumstances. It has to be physically taxing even if a guy doesn't throw more than 15-20 pitches - it's like starting your car up in the dead of winter, letting it warm up for 20 seconds and then driving 100mph 200 feet and then stopping - that isn't good for a car either. Sometimes I find myself just thinking about what Kerry would have achieved had his arm acted like Roger Clemen's arm for him. I hate to see that kind of talent wasted - and although in a way, this isn't wasted talent, it's certainly not fully achieved talent either :-(

I also think you're right, but I disagree that Grieve is expendable but I think that's exactly what the organization thinks. My guess is some kind of deal will happen that will move 2-4 of our guys for 1-2 of someone elses players and that would also help.

Personally I always look to see how the team did first if I wasn't able to see the game. The box score to me is secondary and when I do glance at it, I always look to see who pitched and how well they did and often look and see if any of the batters left a ton of guys on base. Then I usually read the "recaps" of the game to see how it all happened and make sure nobody got hurt. Very very rarely do I look at any one person's stats specifically - don't care if it's Macias, D. Lee or Sosa during his season. A season is a failed season in my mind if the team doesn't make it to the playoffs - any individual performances above and beyond that (even extraordinary ones) fall a very low second to me and only soften the blow of not making the playoffs slightly.

Amen, Stubbers. I'm glad I'm not the only one sick of this same old story with him...... I've felt that for a long time as well. To some extent, the same can be said of Zambrano - the guy has the arm to be dominant, now he just needs to become a pitcher instead of a thrower. I'm really disappointed with Kerry's health issues - I honestly doubt he will ever be a starting pitcher you can count on.

What I highlighted in bold is the comment that I just don't fathom at all! You mean to tell me that Corey can't "get it together" at the big league level for more than half a season with the coaches, equipment, films, training areas he has access to up here, but he can go down to AAA for a couple weeks and all of a sudden he's a different ballplayer??? I'm sorry Jim (Hendry), but that doesn't speak very highly of your big league coahces being able to do their jobs, and it doesn't say much about how Corey reacts to pressure if the lack of it is what "changed" him. I don't know, personally I think that comment has to be a smokescreen to drive up Corey's value (from very little right now I would guess). If it's true, I sure would like to know how and why Corey couldn't "turn the corner" when he was in Chicago.

I don't recall exactly, but they are very very very bad. Like worse than Neifi and Corey in their slumps bad. I will be disappointed if we get Kearns or Pierre for anything less than peanuts. yah, those 31 or so at bats he's had in Wrigley field are certainly enough to assume that would be his career numbers if playing here :roll:

I could care less who closes as long as they're successful - Dempster is my closer until he proves to me that he can't get the job done. That said, Williamson (if healthy) could be a huge boost to our bullpen!

I could care less who closes as long as they're successful - Dempster is my closer until he proves to me that he can't get the job done. That said, Williamson (if healthy) could be a huge boost to our bullpen!