BigbadB

Have you seen their line up and rotation? They seem to like getting rid of the good players and keeping the marginal players. Not sure how Young and Tex have managed to keep their jobs in Texas this long. This is the same team that traded Travis Hafner and Aaron Myette for Einar Diaz and Ryan Drese. It's the same team that signed Chan Ho Park for a ridiculous amount of money. Traded Alex Rodriguez for Alfonso Soriano and Joaquin Arias.

Yeah, I never overcame a horrendous start by Paul Byrd. I do have favorable match ups this week and next, and my pitchers are scheduled against some really weak hitting teams this week and double starts for my best pitchers next week, but you just never know what's going to happen on a given week.

Yeah, I'd rather see Griffey on Cincinnati's DL, not the Cubs DL.

How well does Gagne handle the bat?

Yeah, good one. There haven't been 749 complete games during this entire decade, including every pitcher.

There are a lot of records that will never be broken, but the 56 game hitting streak isn't one that I label as unbreakable. Maybe it will never be broken, but guys can at least come close to breaking it compared to Cy Young's career wins.

$12.5 mil through '08, $16.5 mil club option in '09 ($4 mil buyout). So he'd be roughly $18 mil through '08 it seems. I thought for sure I saw somewhere that Griffey's contract was deferred and that he'd be getting paid yearly all the way through 2024.

Yeah, I really don't understand that part. I don't know if the Padres could have telegraphed it any more obviously.

He doesn't have to do his own laundry. :wink:

Considering what Peavy said in the paper the previous day, warnings probably should have been issued before the game even started. Maybe all 4 umps were completely unaware of the remarks made by Peavy, but someone could have mentioned it at one point or another. Maybe Lou could have said something to the umpiring crew during the exchange of line up cards or even during BP. Of course, the warnings may not have prevented what happened from actually happening, but maybe Young's suspension might be lengthened by disregarding an umpire's warning.

Is this 15 days out of baseball long enough to make him eligible for HOF consideration?

I doubt he wanted to hit Lee in the head either. But I do think he was wanting to hit him high in the ribs and the ball got away from him a little bit. When making a point, it would be best to throw at a hip so if you miss by a little it will hit the ribs or thigh. That was at least the way I was taught. It is surprising how much harder it is to throw a ball that far out of the strike zone where you want it to go than one thrown in the strike zone. I never had the best control to start out with though so maybe that just applied to me :) Exactly. It's actually quite entertaining sometimes watching a pitcher intentionally walk a guy. They couldn't hit the catcher's mitt from 10 feet away. It was definitely a purpose pitch. The umps should have tossed Young on the spot. Young's 95 MPH heater at Lee's head was much worse than Lilly's 83 MPH curve ball off of Renteria's shin.

Nah. They are pretty happy with Napoli. Oakland hasn't been happy with Kendall, but I think they're kind of stuck with him.

I doubt that Young really wanted to hit Lee in the head. It's possible he just wanted to send a message by making him hit the deck, and the pitch went further inside than he planned. It's also possible that he meant to hit him in the rib cage and the pitch ended up higher than he planned. I have no doubt it was a purpose pitch. I just doubt he really went head hunting. But, that's what ended up happening and the unfortunate thing is that Lee's suspension will be more damaging than Young's. And that's just wrong.

I admire you for remembering what Jacque Jones home run routine looks like. It's been so long, I completely forgot.

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 agree. While what Soriano did was wrong, but it was so much less than several other people around the league. He looked at it for a second or two, trotted backwards for another couple seconds, and then started on a pretty quick jog around the bases. If the Padres are going to start throwing at people because of what Soriano did, they are going to have starting beanball wars every couple weeks. Since they aren't, I don't know why they were so upset in this case. The Cubs just lost a whole game from one of their very own starters after plunking a Braves player in what the umpire believed to be a retaliatory purpose pitch. This stuff goes on all the time. If Soriano runs the bases like a mature professional athlete, we aren't having this discussion today.

Pujols also started a bench clearing brawl once after standing their admiring a home run.

Really? Why did Young throw at Lee today? Because Young didn't like the color of Lee's shoes? No Because he doesn't like Derrek Lee's player number? No Because Soriano showed up his teammate yesterday? Yes

No, they don't. But I watched that game, and each time he bitched, it was on a pitch I would have called a strike. In fact, the first one that Wells eventually had a cow over, I was absolutely shocked the umpire called the pitch a ball. Nah, the Cubs have never had a pitcher complain about the strike zone. But, standing there admiring a home run is not comparable to being upset with the umpire. A better comparison would be if the pitcher walked back to the dugout with the guy he just struck out and asked him how he liked that last pitch.

And Peavy isn't alone in his belief. Most pitchers don't like to be shown up.

Agreed. Since pitcher's are basically every 5th day players, they should get 5 day suspensions for each 1 day an everyday player receives. Might even make a guy think twice about throwing at someone else's head.

I can't believe anyone would be upset with Lee. A guy is messing with his livelihood. He needs to send a message. If you want to get upset with someone, get upset with Soriano. I've said it before and I'll say it again. It's immature and just plain stupid to show up a pitcher after hitting a home run. It was Soriano's actions that caused the intentional beaning of Lee. And this is not the first time benches have cleared over some guy standing there admiring his home run. The thing that torques me about standing there admiring a home run is that anyone in a major league uniform (except maybe Juan Pierre) can actually hit a home run. Home runs are hit in just about every game. Sometimes many home runs are hit per game. Sure, there fun. But, what's the point of standing there admiring it. Should Mike Fontenot stand there and admire his home runs? If not, why should Soriano stand there and watch his (or should I saw trot backwards, which is basically the same thing). Is Soriano's home run that much more special because he makes about 18m a year more than Fontenot? Fact: Standing there watching your home run is about the biggest insult you can hand to the opposing pitcher on the mound. As long as you don't mind the retaliation that comes with insulting the pitcher, then I suppose one should continue showing their ass to the opposing pitcher. But, in this case, Soriano's actions ended up getting Lee a suspension. I hope he thinks it was worth it. Rewind. Soriano hits his home run and runs the bases like a mature and professional baseball player. Fast forward. Derek Lee maybe gets the game winning hit in today's game, and is not at risk of missing future games because of one his own teammates actions.

It was going to be interesting to see what Lou was going to do with the line up if the Cubs managed to score a run in the 9th. I'm guessing Floyd moves to 1b, DeRosa back to 3rd, Theriot to SS and Jones to RF.

What a great day for a ball game. Let's play 2. What's going on? Nevermind. Just kidding.