nilodnayr

I never said his SINKER was falling off the table, because (I and everyone else in the free world not named badnews (how appropriate)) believe that his sinker was at least adequate tonight, but his off-speed stuff was absolutely filthy. Thus he was able to keep us off balance. I don't think we are helpless against good pitching, but I emplore YOU to go back and watch the game and see how far our swings were from the pitches. Of course it plays two to tango, but when you are making 3 of the better hitters in the league look like fools, you must be doing something right.

I agree, I usually HATE it when a manager trots his starter out there to start an inning with his trigger finger ready to pull him at the slightest sign of trouble. HOWEVER, usually that is because the starter has been struggling. Z, was getting much better as the night went on (I thought he was walking on a cliff the first few innings). I understand wanting to get him out with as few pitches as possible, but he was at 85. In the 6th he threw 15 pitches, and the 5th/6th/7th hitters were due up (who he had not let up a hit against) so he had a good chance of pitching the 7th and still coming out of the game with less than 100 pitches. I would have left him. But then again, I would have pinch hit DWard for Theriot in the 6th with the bases loaded.

Seriously,what game were you watching? His stuff was falling off the table.

No, we lost last night because our hitters couldn't hit Webb....no big surprise from me. I was hoping that somehow we could pull it out, but in my heart I knew the Cubs would look like little girls at the plate....and little girls they did look like. Hopefully, tonight we'll look like men. Actually had a lot of good swings against him. None fell in. I thought the approach was ok, other than the inning of the Zambrano double. Also, did anyone think after Theriot reached 2B on the error, that the Cubs should have bunt w/ Zambrano? Granted he had the hardest hit ball to that point and hit it hard again, but if he puts a bunt down, Soriano's line drive to CF, probably scores Theriot. Yes and no. How's that for a two sided answer! If i'm the Backs....I'm thinking Z's bunting. Most of the time the ball will be a fastball and since Z is a good hitter he swung and hit it hard. Now, if Webb threw a sinker or something else for a strike or ball, I would bunt Z on the second pitch. I agree that a bunt with 2 pitchers like this would put the Cubs in position to tie the game but imo it was a pitch by pitch thing. Its very difficult to bunt against a sinker as nasty as Webb's, and his curve was on too. A bunt most definitely would have ended with a strike out. I like the decision to let Z (who had the only decent contact against Webb) swing away. A couple more inches and it would have been over Drew's head and Theriot would have scored. Maybe I wrote it wrong but I would only put Z in a hitting situation knowing it's a fastball. Look how foolish Z looked when bases where loaded and Webb treated him like a real hitter. Usually when Z gets behind in the count he strikes out. In fact, half the time in the last 4 years when hes been 0-1 hes struck out. Compare that to Marquis, who has struck out in 1/3rd of the ABs hes been 0-1 in in the past 4 years.

Nonsense. He was filthy. I'm reasonably optimistic about doing better against him in Game 5 because the Cubs looked much better as the game went on. But he was really good. Filthy? Give me a break. I can't wait until that one gets rolled out again for Livan Hernandez. "Big L was flat out NASTY." I don't believe you actually watched the game. I think you must have seen the 9 strikeouts and said "Wow, I guess he was good." He wasn't. I believe you might be forgetting the first 5 innings of the game, where Webb was indeed quite filthy making Soriano, Lee, and ARam look like little leaguers (although ARam did have a warning track fly). And he wasn't even crazy hittable in the 6th, he only let up two singles. What game were you watching? As Warren said, the Cubs looked better as the game wore on, but in the first half of the game, Webb was dominating, and Z was seemingly holding on by a thread.

No, we lost last night because our hitters couldn't hit Webb....no big surprise from me. I was hoping that somehow we could pull it out, but in my heart I knew the Cubs would look like little girls at the plate....and little girls they did look like. Hopefully, tonight we'll look like men. Actually had a lot of good swings against him. None fell in. I thought the approach was ok, other than the inning of the Zambrano double. Also, did anyone think after Theriot reached 2B on the error, that the Cubs should have bunt w/ Zambrano? Granted he had the hardest hit ball to that point and hit it hard again, but if he puts a bunt down, Soriano's line drive to CF, probably scores Theriot. Yes and no. How's that for a two sided answer! If i'm the Backs....I'm thinking Z's bunting. Most of the time the ball will be a fastball and since Z is a good hitter he swung and hit it hard. Now, if Webb threw a sinker or something else for a strike or ball, I would bunt Z on the second pitch. I agree that a bunt with 2 pitchers like this would put the Cubs in position to tie the game but imo it was a pitch by pitch thing. Its very difficult to bunt against a sinker as nasty as Webb's, and his curve was on too. A bunt most definitely would have ended with a strike out. I like the decision to let Z (who had the only decent contact against Webb) swing away. A couple more inches and it would have been over Drew's head and Theriot would have scored.

what have like 3 of his pitches actually been strikes.

OLD

hey now, we did win the WS in 1908, so its not like in NEVER happened.

Because 26 yr old career minor league relievers are impossible to find? Leo Rosales has good #s, but seriously. Ones projected to have an OPS over 800 are hard to find. To be fair it was 844. Byrnes was owned.

Well you better start now...you'll be testing them on it in February, right?

Actually, thats the same as regular season tickets too. We're all stuck in one big VWR...Seth touched me.

I'm pretty sure it's the same as when they sold playoff tickets five days before clinching - you're buying the actual tickets, and in the event that you have seats to a game they don't end up playing, then refunds go out for all. thanks .. that makes sense. to those who have gotten tickets in the past, is one typically more successful over the phone or internet? any words of wisdom? If you have an out of state #, do the phone.

6:30 You and your Eastern Standard Time....look where thats got you now!

5:30 central, but I think there was some pre-game stuff.

No, it just makes my decision much harder whether or not to keep him or Bedard on my fantasy team next year.

He who shall not be named!!!!!!! I was only 7, but I swear he hit 14 grand slams that series.

What hes saying is that would you rather have Sori for the life of his contract and get to the playoffs in 2007 (ie would you like reality), or would you rather not have signed Sori, miss the playoffs, and sign ARod in 2008. Basically the question is, do you think ARod could get us into the playoffs 2 or more years over the life of his contract, than Sori (since we got into the playoffs this year). Thats a good question. If we assume ARod will sign for 30M, thats 13M more than Sori. Or, the difference of Tejada, or the difference of Renteria and 7M. If money is a finite resource, I'd have to take either of the latter two scenarios, rather than get ARod. Again, it all depends on how much ARod will get. Now if we are going to go back in time and not sign Sori (17M), Marquis (7M), and Jones (5M), then I'll chose ARod.

Fear of the almighty ROOGY

Yayyy Lou has Ramirez cleanup. Too bad Theriot isn't batting 8th and DeRosa 2nd. That would be the optimal lineup. No, this is the optimal lineup. Lee Soto DeRo ARam Floyd Sori Jacque Z Theriot Holy crap- tony larussa has joined us!!!!!!! Read this

Because 26 yr old career minor league relievers are impossible to find? Leo Rosales has good #s, but seriously.

Yayyy Lou has Ramirez cleanup. Too bad Theriot isn't batting 8th and DeRosa 2nd. That would be the optimal lineup. No, this is the optimal lineup. Lee Soto DeRo ARam Floyd Sori Jacque Z Theriot Soto's #s are probably not exactly credible. If we weight his last year's MLE and his line from this year 2 to 1 then the optimal lineup looks like this. Floyd Lee DeRo ARam Soto Sori Jacque Z Theirot If you want to do some minor common sense adjustments you can get DeRo Lee Floyd ARam Soto Sori Jacque Z Theriot or Lee Aram DeRo Sori Floyd Jacque Soto Z Theriot Moral of the story, Theriot should be nowhere near the top of the lineup.

That guy who called Bradley a piece of dog feces has done playoff games. Although, its arguable whether or not that was a bad call.

This constant gushing about small ball makes me want to puke.

I was at that game so that one is forever in my memory. I was at the Neifi-bunting-with-2-out-in-the-9th game. Just terrible. And equally embedded into my memory. I was on a rooftop for that game. Wasn't that Woody's first start back? yep, I was sitting with Mark R and Sethuel and Fred for that awesome game There was also that 5-6 year old girl with the "We Got Wood" sign for that game. Was I at that game? Are you leaving me out, Brian!!!!