BigbadB

Looking over the live scoring page, TBA should be contracted.

Or not. What Valverde does is no different than what Zambrano does. Zero percent different. but when zambrano does it, it's cute Actually, it's quite hot when Zambrano does it.

I really don't like my pitching match ups for next week against either team that makes it out of week 1.

Valverde didn't bother me. JC Romero, on the other hand,..........

The suicide pool I've seen is worth about 18k to the winner. It's all fine and dandy to make stupid bets on your team, but I wouldn't do that in a suicide pool, with the Bears, in Indy, in week 1. Throw $20 on them with the local bookie if you must. The pool I'm in is definitely not 18K. Maybe $600 to the winner. It's out of the local bar I hang out at, and as I've already said, I won an NCAA pool already, so it's not a big deal if I lose $20 in this one. Plus, I'd really like to see the Bears win this game.

Yes. Marmol's slider is more than 10 MPH slower than his fastball. If the hitter can't pick up what's coming out of his hand, the hitter has to guess. With the late movement of Marmol's slider, it makes it even harder for the hitter to make an adjustment, thus creating swings and misses rather than foul balls.

I have to get excited about the Bears. I dropped a $20 on them beating the Colts in a suicide pool. A lot of Bears players have a lot to prove. Hope Clark and Olson are ready to catch a lot of quick, short passes. I know. It's a crazy pick. But, I won an NCAA pool and am still way ahead in winnings. Not to mention the fact that I'm about to win two more bets. Mike Cameron only needs to hit one more home run and Tampa needs to stay ahead of Toronto in the NL East for the other bet. These are bets I made in the preseason. Realistically, I see the Bears at 8-8. The offense will be quite frustrating, but between defense and special teams, there are enough possession guys on offense to score enough points to be a .500 team this year. Wait you picked the Bears to beat the Colts in your suicide pool?? The Bears going into Indy, in their first game in their new stadium, and beating the Colts? I know Peyton might not be 100% and I know everyone has been dogging the Bears, but you must be crazy! Maybe he thinks a suicide pool means killing your chances of winning a bet. And won't you all look like fools when all those people who picked Indy are signing up for a new suicide pool? :grin: If you can't bet on your favorite team to win a stupid game, what good are they? And I trust that my allegiance to the Bears will never again be called into question.

I have to get excited about the Bears. I dropped a $20 on them beating the Colts in a suicide pool. A lot of Bears players have a lot to prove. Hope Clark and Olson are ready to catch a lot of quick, short passes. I know. It's a crazy pick. But, I won an NCAA pool and am still way ahead in winnings. Not to mention the fact that I'm about to win two more bets. Mike Cameron only needs to hit one more home run and Tampa needs to stay ahead of Toronto in the NL East for the other bet. These are bets I made in the preseason. Realistically, I see the Bears at 8-8. The offense will be quite frustrating, but between defense and special teams, there are enough possession guys on offense to score enough points to be a .500 team this year.

The pitch was down and in. Lee swung at a pitcher's pitch, a ball he would not be able to drive even though he did get pretty good wood on it. As wild as this guy was throwing, Lee had no business swinging at that pitch. That game had a lot of goats. You really cant pin it all on Lee. Just a lot of bad baseball in general. You're right about that. Howry wins the grand prize. Lou finishes a close 2nd for the stupid bunt attempts, bringing up a kid to the plate who has never seen a major league pitch in his life at a critical time, wasting Wood and Marmol for Wednesday, bringing in Howry. I'll give Lee third prize since he swung at a borderline ball 2 after the pitcher just walked the previous hitter on 4 pitches. Aramis did have 3 errors, but the first two didn't affect the game and the third one was actually a web gem if he nails the throw. 4th prize goes to the umpire, who should have called Berkman out on strikes on a ball right down the middle of the plate, which instead was called ball 4. I'm all out of prizes for now, but I'll restock for today's game since Howry will likely get the call at some point today.

The pitch was down and in. Lee swung at a pitcher's pitch, a ball he would not be able to drive even though he did get pretty good wood on it. As wild as this guy was throwing, Lee had no business swinging at that pitch.

Watching Marmol transition from a catcher to a pitcher makes me want to see the Cubs switch out all of their farm system hitters into pitchers, since most of them can't hit anyway.

How did Lee look silly tonight? He was 2-5 with a walk and the double play was just bad luck. He hammered that ball. He should have been trying to get it in the air, but still, it's not like he reached out and guided it weakly to the shortstop like he usually does. Oh, and they scored 4 runs after Zambrano left the game. The thing is that Lee has been hitting ground balls at people for a long time already. His inability to drive the ball on a consistent basis is a reason for his movement out of the 3 hole. That spot in the lineup, as shown yesterday is one where you are expected to drive the ball or hit it in the air at times and with his inability to do so anymore, Lee should not be moved somewhere else in the lineup. He simply is not the run producer that he once was. Derosa and Soto have driven in more runs from spots in the lineup that are less conducive to collecting RBI. Part of the reason for Aramis' tear this year has been Lee missing out on RBI as well. Agree. And that was not a good pitch that he swung at. There was a struggling pitcher on the mound and the count was 2-1, IIRC. The pitch was way inside. He should be looking for a pitch he can put in the air to bring in the go ahead run. Terrible at bat and this is happening way too often with DLee this season. I don't want him benched, just moved down in the order. If I recall correctly, Fontenot walked on 4 pitches and Lee actually had a 1-0 count when he grounded into the double play. That at bat was almost as frustrating as watching Bob Howry suck.

But, there's 4 weeks of playoffs. Week 1: 2nd vs. 3rd Week 2: 1st vs. winner of week 1 Week 3: winner of each divisional playoff final Week 4: ?? All I can figure is that week 3 is two weeks long.

Is the championship match 2 weeks long?

Haha. Whoops. I have no idea why I thought was more recent than that.

Didn't Craig test positive for PED's during the last offseason? Could be another reason he didn't get the call.

C- Geovany Soto 1b- 2b- Alexei Ramirez 3b- Alex Gordon SS- Stephen Drew OF- Jacoby Ellsbury OF- Vernon Wells OF- Matt Holliday U- Ian Stewart SP- Brandon Webb SP- Roy Oswalt SP- James Shields SP- Ubaldo Jimenez SP- Johnny Cueto RP- RP- Carlos Marmol This is my current keeper wish list. Unfortunately, there are 4 names too many on this list. But, I should be able to trade some of the guys that don't make the cut for draft picks or minor leaguers. If I had to make the cuts today, Carlos Marmol, Johnny Cueto, Ubaldo Jimenez and Jacoby Ellsbury would be my casualties, making my official keeper list: C- Geovany Soto 1b- 2b- Alexei Ramirez 3b- Alex Gordon SS- Stephen Drew OF- Matt Holliday OF- Vernon Wells OF- U- Ian Stewart SP- Brandon Webb SP- Roy Oswalt SP- James Shields

As a baseball fan, I love watching pitchers throw a no hitter. But, changing a 1 hitter to a no hitter several days after the fact doesn't really do it for me. I actually liked Joe Morgan's thoughts on official scorekeeping on Sunday Night Baseball (and I despise the man). His comment was that an official score keeper should never award the first hit of a game on an uncleanly fielded ball. I would agree with that. However, the official score keeper did score it as a hit, and at no time during the game did the official scorekeeper feel the need to change the call, therefore, it should stand as a hit. I think SouthsideRyan has hit the nail on the head from several angles in this thread. The pressure of actually throwing a no hitter is why many no hitters get broken up late in a game, and CC never had that pressure. There is no way to know if he could have maintained his composure in that game if the possibility of a no hitter was within reach, which is part of the reason I enjoy watching pitchers throw a no hitter in the first place, and why so many more times a guy ends up giving up a hit late in the game. As much baseball as I watch each season, I can come up with numerous occasions where hitters are awarded a hit on mishandled fielding plays. As relaxed as the official scorekeepers have become in marking errors season after season, I wouldn't be surprised to see the word error eventually stricken from MLB's vocabulary altogether within another decade. That's probably a bit of an exaggeration, but it has gotten ridiculous. I watched A-Rod screw up 3 times in a game that were very clearly and obvious errors. When I read the box score, they turned two of his errors into hits. Probably because they didn't want to make their golden boy look bad. The game I'm referring to was actually several years ago, but I still see this kind of stuff everyday.

I know that. What I meant was a contract extension.

You're definitely going to have some tough decisions to make.

No. And I didn't say that I was going to keep him. I said I was glad he decided to implode during an off week. The negative points from Brandon Webb is what I don't mind to try to keep Webb, Oswalt, Holliday and V.Wells under the cap. They are currently sitting at 1701.

I'm quite pleased to see RJ implode during my off week. Also happy that Brandon Webb took a dump last night while I had a big enough lead. Those negative points will be very beneficial come keeper selection time. I think I'd kind of like to see the Dodgers slip past Arizona in the West. I'd much rather face a combination of Billingsley, Lowe and Kuroda rather than face Webb, Haren and RJ.

While that is surprising, I think his broken wrist earlier in the year might have a lot to do with his disappointing season.

What's really nice with this team is that they can fill most of the position needs for next year from within. Pie and Hoffpauir can replace Edmonds and Ward. There are plenty of pitching options to replace any departing starters or relievers with names like Hill, Ascanio, Hart and Guzman to name a few. Any outside addition just adds to the options. I don't think I'd try to spend on a bat this offseason. I'd be looking for ways to keep Dempster and Harden. If the Cubs can manage to do that, they are looking at being a dominant team for several more years.

What's wrong with the offense lately? In their last nine games, they are averaging 6.67 runs a game.