Illini Iceman

This would have been a dumb deal. If they are going to pay pretty much all his salary they may as well keep him around as a bench player. It's not like they have anyone significantly better to replace him in that role. Murton could come up but he is better off getting regular at bats at AAA instead of rotting on the bench.

Is this a record for the most time the word "pickle" has been used on a broadcast?

Actually he said it alarmed "some folks", not that it alarmed the Cubs. My interpretation was that the alarm was with scouts, etc from other teams that might be looking at these two in potential trades.

Yeah, think about all the quality alternatives we could have in the rotation if we didn't have those guys and their under 4.00 ERA's getting in the way. Neal Cotts, Ryan O'Malley, Les Walrond....awesome!! BTW, did Juan Mateo get hurt or something? Seems odd to me that he is in Peoria unless he is rehabbing some type of injury.

Guess we've signed on for a dictatorship. If this is Barrett's idea of what happened (and it must be him as the source if this is true since there were only two people in that closed door meeting) and reasoning why he is gone then he is in major denial. I think Lou did want him off the team, but I am sure it was because of his passed balls, bone head baserunning, dropping of throws to home that would have cut down go ahead runs, and getting in fights with starting pitchers that forged this opinion, not one lame meeting.

Well there's this from Jayson Stark, which directly contradicts the Washington Post article I linked to above: http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/columns/story?columnist=stark_jayson&id=2910803 Don't be surprised if the Orioles add Don Baylor to their managerial-interview list. But Dusty Baker was never a candidate for that list. Every indication is that MacPhail thought Baker wasn't the right fit for this team. Baylor and CPatt....reunited and it feeels so gooood

Michael Jordan did not punch Danny Ferry. he never punched any Piston, he never punched any Knick, he never punched anyone on the Heat. he never punched anyone. no matter how hard they hit him, no matter how many times they hammered him in mid-air, and trashed talked about it afterwords, he didn't punch them back, no matter how many times it was deserved. you know what he did? he had Stan Livingston and Will Purdue and Scott Williams take care of the dirty work for him. don't sit there and tell me that adult human males are incapable of showing restraint in that situation and that in so doing it was keeping the teams best interest in mind. I don't blame Lee for throwing a punch, but the insinuations that it was uncontrollable or good for the team or the right thing to do or morally superior to others actions are just insane. at some point someone has to be the 'mature baseball professional.' Soriano has to at the very least be a little more discrete in his celebration. Peavy has to shut his punk mouth. the Pads manager has to tell his team to suck it up and get payback on the field, not in the papers or with beanballs. Chris Young has to not be Peavys puppet and just go about the business of winning baseball games, not evening scores and being a punk when he does so. and Derrick Lee has to take it like a man, go to first, and get his revenge with his play. if any one of these idiots just acted like a 'mature professional' it wouldn't have gotten as far as it did. of all people, the one who wasn't a total fricken idiot is David Wells, who said he didn't even see Soriano's dance and he'd have to file it away. that's how you handle it. you wait until the next time you face the perpetrator, and even the score personally, either through getting him out and showing him up, or with a harmless beanball at the hip. I dont disagree with what you say about Peavy or Wells, but as it has been pointed out already, Jordan DID throw punches. It's just a fact that sometimes, when you feel you have been so wronged (or in this case, your safety has been endangered), there is no way you can expect any man to think about 'the team.' Lee did what anybody would do in that situation. Was it right? No, but you can't fault him for snapping at that moment. you're missing the point. the point is there were literally hundreds of times where Jordan was brought to the point of anger like Derrick Lee, and literally hundreds of times he did not throw a punch he wanted to throw. quit saying 'anybody would do it' when Jordan is only one of hundreds of millions of people on the face of the earth who have repeatedly shown the ability to restrain themselves. we are talking about voluntary actions that take volition and aforethought. maybe in your gangsta rap ferry tale world the compulsion to be violent is involuntary, but it's not in the real world. Is the gangsta rap ferry a new ride at Disney? Anyway, Lee probably also has also been upset a lot as well and not snapped. I am not so sure about "literally hundreds of times" as I watched a lot of Bulls basketball during the Jordan era and don't remember it being a nightly problem. But I will leave it at "a bunch of times" and get your point. People have given examples of times when MJ did "lose it" and now there is ONE example of Lee doing the same. Therefore, the fact that there were many times that MJ did not do it does not make him any better than Lee since he has snapped at least as many times (once) as Lee has so far in his career.

I admire you for remembering what Jacque Jones home run routine looks like. It's been so long, I completely forgot. :lmao: I saw it on one of the Ken Burns documentaries.

I'm not saying a guy can't stand there and admire their handiwork. But, if they show up a pitcher, expect and accept the retaliation and the consequences that follow. If Gonzalez stands there admiring a home run today, I hope someone sticks him in the backside on his next at bat. What Soriano did was disrespectful of the opposing team. I doubt Young really meant to throw it at his head, but he did and now Lee is probably facing a suspension that he wouldn't be facing if Soriano just ran the bases. I just watched it again in Cubs.com and don't see what the big deal was. He definitely did not "moonwalk", so whoever said he did was either just exaggerating or doesn't know what a moonwalk is. He honesly didn't even stop and watch it, he was moving down the first base line the whole time it was in the air, just walking then running backward about half way down then running with his head down the rest of the way around the bases. It is not worse than any other sure home run. Guys never hit the ball and just run unless the HR is in doubt. ARam does the toss of the bat and pose, even Jacque Jones does his little bat flip and usually watches for a second or two. Heck, Wells was even mad at Lilly for having the nerve of bunting and making him move his fat butt off the mound. Wells is one of these guys that think he is old school and can tell everyone else how to play the game but in reality is more of an embarrasment to baseball with his comments and attititude than any guy with a home run trot.

Yeah, I think he realized just as he started swinging that he made a mistake. Hopefully nothing (in terms of reciprocation) occurs tomorrow, and Lee can appeal his suspension, serve it, then get back and help this team out. No way Maddux is throwing at anyone tomorrow. He was probably in the dugout the whole time laughing at the stupidity.

With what Peavy said before the game I definitely think he was throwing at him. MLB needs to evaluate suspensions and take into account that starting pitchers need longer suspensions in order to have the same penalty. If they both get 5 games Lee will miss a lot of action while Young would just need to push 1 start back a day.

I'm not sure that is a great idea. I know personally I would not be very happy if someone went "out on a limb" accusing me of something without actual facts. If there's footage of you mouthing it, then it's totally called for. What footage?? What did he say!? you get a pretty good view on the highlights MLB.com has up right now. I couldn't pick up what he was saying. Whatever he said made Derrek turn and say, "what!?" I can't find any, can you link me to it? it's on MLB.com's main page. here's another look The Fight this view isn't so great and the quality is meh. Who is the Padre in the warmup jacket that grabs Lee from behind in a bear hug and sets off the second incident?

Well if this isnt the biggest load of crap Ive ever seen on this site I dont know what is Your sig would be a good candidate.

Seems to me that Piniella thought about make a drastic change (moving Dempster to the rotation), considered the ramifications, took into account other opinions, then came to the rational conclusion that the best option was to leave Dempster as closer, put Guzman as set up man to improve performance in getting the game to the closer, and promote Marshall to the rotation. Despite all the hand wringing, it seems like a good decision making process. Except that if Marshall can't go many innings in his starts, we just sent out guy most capable of long relief other than Gooz to AAA. This is where DFA'ing Eyre would have made the most sense, cause we could still use Cotts in long relief and have Gooz set-up Dempster. What is with this DFA infatuation? People here always complain about Hendry selling low but is there any more extreme example of selling low than DFA'ing a veteran LH reliever that is coming off two solid years because of one bad month? Let Eyre work out his problems in long relief if you don't want him pitching in key situations, but giving him away for nothing makes no sense. This isn't the NFL where you don't have to pay his contract if you cut him.

no we dont. That BS he pulled yesterday,with the wind blowing in, nonetheless, certainly is a cause for concern. yeah, how DARE he insert himself into a bases-loaded situation not of his own making! Was the gopher ball he served up also not of his own making?

Seems to me that Piniella thought about make a drastic change (moving Dempster to the rotation), considered the ramifications, took into account other opinions, then came to the rational conclusion that the best option was to leave Dempster as closer, put Guzman as set up man to improve performance in getting the game to the closer, and promote Marshall to the rotation. Despite all the hand wringing, it seems like a good decision making process.

Why now? Why again? Because Giambi was quoted recently (USA Today?) once again apologizing for using "that stuff", and saying "we" should have been more honest. He gave them ammo to once again look to getting out of his contract. He gave them more ammo? That ammo had already been given with his grand jury testimony in 2003. I don't see how he gave them more ammo, he just game them the same ammo again. He (sort of) admitted to using steroids for the second time. Which gives them ammo to revisit the notion of getting out of his contract. Had he not said anything, they wouldn't be leaking this story. It's not that confusing. I understand why the Yankees would want to get out of his contract, and I understand that the Yankees would want anything Giambi says regarding the situation to be ammo. But, regarding the voiding of his contract, they either can or cannot void the contract based on his steroid use. Since he already admitted to it -- in front of a grand jury, no less -- they don't need the extra ammo. The admission has been made. If the Yankees can void the contract, they don't need a second admission -- the first one would work. I don't understand why that's so confusing. Good luck building a case around sealed grand jury testimony (leaked or otherwise) that MLB has no rights to see, let alone act upon. Obviously the Yanks and/or MLB weighed their options the first time around. Now by shooting off his mouth again, Giambi has given them reason to revisit those options. In the end they may still not have enough to punish him on. But thanks to Giambi himself, they have more now than they did a week ago. McGuire is dishonest scumbag that shouldn't go into the hall of fame because he dodged questions about steroid use and if he had just came clean everyone would respect him so much more. Giambi is a moron shooting off his mouth and should get his contract voided because he has been relatively honest and come clean about his steroid use. Seems to me there is no way to win in public perception. Everyone wants honesty until you give it to them and then they want to string you up.

In other words, this organization doesn't understand what the heck they're doing. They shipped out the wrong player. It should had been Eyre, regardless of contract or whatever else is in the way. Zambrano has been pretty bad too so maybe they should DFA or send him to the minors also, right? Eyre has had one bad month, why in the world would they just dump him to keep around a mediocre Cotts who still has options. It makes no sense to throw away a guy that can still be an asset to the team either on the field or via trade at the deadline (when veteran lefties are overvalued) if the alternative (Cotts) is about equal in talent.

The below makes me believe it might have been staged. Either that or North is the biggest wuss ever. Maybe both. http://chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/whitesox/cs-070518cubssoxozziemikenorth,1,5359412.story?coll=cs-home-headlines

Because blue will blow the call? no, because it's dumb. why? because there's a very low chance of success? Not if you have a smart base runner that is able to get a very good lead because the pitcher isn't paying enough attention to him. In that case your chances are very good unless the umpire misses the call.

Up 4-0 in the third inning of the first game of a series and you are already thinking sweep, huh? You must be a glass half full type. As for me, I am just hoping they Z doesn't have another epsiode and blow THIS game.

journeyman, he made a few starts for the Cubs last year (and sucked) and pitched a little bullpen in september. Ever since spring training he's been lights out. I just don't get it. Those stats Fred posted clearly show how terrible he was last year, the only bright spot being his high K rate, which was completely overshadowed by his inability to prevent hits or walks. Oh, and I guess it's spelled "Walrond". Looking at his Baseball Cube stats I can see that he's really just been everywhere, never really finding success. The guy is 30 now! I keep thinking that "Walrond" is a cross between a Walnut and and Almond, but I can't figure out where the stupid R comes from. It's a cross between *walrus* and almond. Every time I hear his name, I think of walrus'. Odd. Also, I seriously doubt - as bad as Miller's been - that O'Malley or Walrond would do any better. I'm not sure Marmol would right now either. I'll take Guzman personally. I agree about O'Malley and Walrond. They are AAA rotation filler and should not even remotely considered for the major league rotation. Pie seems to have the tools but the Cubs are too desperate for offense to stick with him right now. My guess is that he goes down any day now and they bring up Cherry to fortify the bullpen. When time comes to need the 5th starter again they bring up Guzman, send down Cherry and exile Miller to long relief. I don't see Hendry giving up on him just yet. First of all, he will want to be sure that Guzman can cut it so he will want him as insurance, secondly he probably would want to hold on to him in an effort to get something for him in a trade somewhere down the road.

he earned his spot in spring training. it's stupid to just give up on the kid after you put him on the 25-man. You mean after almost a whole year now of horrible offensive and average defensive play? Because that's what he's given the team so far. He had a decent April 2006 and nothing else. Wuertz also "earned" himself a demotion to AAA last year in Spring Training and 3 appearances in the regular season (all of 2.2 innings). Was that the right move? Ronny needs to be sent down to AAA to work on his hitting and one good game is not going to change my mind. The problem is that if you send down Cedeno there is no other MIF on the 40 man roster that can replace him. You would wind up with a bench of 3 outfielders, 1 catcher and one infielder. With Floyd, Ward, Murton, Blanco and Theriot there would not be much flexibility in making late game changes.

If the starters can keep going deep into games like they have recently the need for a 11 man staff really diminishes. Z should hopefully be able to get his act together soon and start putting together quality starts. Miller is then the key, and if he can only provide 5 inning, three run outings then that will be a constant drain on the bullpen. That would be another reason to trade him anywhere that is desperate for starting pitching for a low level prospect and put Guzman in the rotation.

If that is the case I wish he would have "played around" with Theriot at SS. Once Soriano is back he could go with a lineup of Soriano, Theriot, Lee, ARam, Murton/Floyd, Jones, Barret, DeRosa. That would have to produce some runs.