Laura

Yeowsa! Let's see how much playing time the Cubs decide to give him...and where! Well, Omaha is a loooong way from Chicago, it may take him weeks to show up. :wink: Congrats to Scott! Looking forward to him getting some playing time in the bigs.

The Cubs' usual team of Expert Medical/Training Advisors worked their usual magic on this one. --- Deadline story from the Sun-Times Barrett Banged Up: Cubs catcher Michael Barrett had to leave the game Saturday after the fifth inning. He had gotten hit in the groin by a batter's foul tip earlier. O'Neal said he didn't think the injury was too serious. ''He just felt sick to his stomach and wanted out,'' O'Neal said. --- Next Day on Cubs.com. Notes: Barrett on DL after surgery CHICAGO -- The Cubs' injuries continued to mount as catcher Michael Barrett was placed on the 15-day disabled list Sunday with an intrascrotal hematoma... Barrett was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital Saturday, and an ultrasound revealed the injury. He then underwent surgery, Cubs athletic trainer Mark O'Neal said. Is Barrett done for the season? "We don't know yet," O'Neal said Sunday. "We have to see how he responds and have to see with the swelling. We're definitely sure he'll miss two to three weeks, and we'll have to see." --- ESPN's Take Today Barrett was injured by Matt Cain's foul tip in the fifth inning Saturday. He left the game after batting the next half-inning. Barrett went to the emergency room and an ultrasound showed bleeding inside his scrotum. Surgery took less than an hour, O'Neal said. "He had enough of a bleed that it needed to be addressed surgically," O'Neal said. "Guys get hit a lot. You see guys get hit and very rarely does it get to this extreme." Barrett felt ill after his at-bat in the fifth. Cubs manager Dusty Baker said no one knew Barrett was hurt during Cain's at-bat. "He went down [after his at-bat] and said, 'Bake, I'm feeling sick man. This is hurting badly,"' Baker said. "So I said, 'OK, go see the doctor.' He tried to tough it out." ---- Good thing Barrett has seen enough pitchers go down to know to ignore any medical advice he gets at Wrigley Field (especially given that no one noticed when he was hurt or had any clue that it might be serious ... though I'd guess that if O'Neal had an intrascrotal hematoma that required surgery, he might deign to classify it as "serious"). I'm glad Barrett hauled butt and everything to the hospital instead. I know there's some humor to be had, but -- seriously -- this team is a complete joke and basically everyone needs to be fired. (not to kill the thread or anything ... After all, Barrett might get better followup advice here than he will from the Cubs)

One could only wish it were a more joyous occasion.

Anyone going to the Beloit games?

Congratulations to Sean! Thanks to everyone who participated in the general discussion and poll -- participation went up a lot from last year, which was the first year NSBB had the award. Thanks to Tim for making this possible!

UMFan is out of control! He may end up with a bat to go along with the Aramis jersey he won in the predictions contest last year.

He should stay focused this off-season and start out at Wrigley. He starts strong.

Who was the ump who followed Sosa back to the dugout and tossed him for muttering? Sounds like grandstanding. It's never good when umpires are the story.

SEASON IP H BB SO SV BLSV ERA 2004 82.0 72 14 69 25 9 2.63 2006 62.2 63 32 54 24 7 4.45 If the "closer" position needed to be replaced in 2005, in needs to be replaced in 2007 as well. Hey! Hawkins just didn't have the mentality to close, man! I guess all the old threads debating this have disappeared. Closing may not affect 95% of all relievers. Unfortunately, Hawkins fell into that 5% that it did affect. That wasn't a completely unforeseen result by some posters here. Perhaps he had an undisclosed injury. Who knows? He wasn't an effective closer. We can debate his mentality from here to next year ... again ... but I'm not sure what good that does now.

I think Walrond's play was just the latest in the litany of almost-but-not-quite plays. Though his AAA fielding record was not impressive.

I enjoy cool temps more than hot temps and can withstand cold temps rather well (love to ski). I'm Irish, give me cloudy days and a cool breeze. But that's just anecdotal and not indicative of female preference re temperature.

He has a gold glove. I've heard that those gold gloves can drive in runs.

Who can blame him? It's amazing that speed & defense were the catchwords last off-season.

Sometimes it's not so easy to play on the road, eh? San Fran media will be in town for the series this weekend. It will be interesting to see what stories emerge regarding Dusty's status.

Thats why I'd love to see him traded. Hendry gets all moony-eyed whenever he's asked about Pierre. Eliminating the possibility that he'll be re-signed is worth foregoing the possibility of draft pick compensation (which may not happen and would require Hendry to 1) not re-sign him and 2) offer him arbitration). If Pierre is still here October 1, it's incredibly likely that he'll still be here next year with a fat new contract to boot.

That's why I think it's important to distinguish between what should, could and will be done. Vance asked "should" be blow it up. I say no, you should go for it because only a couple of good moves could make this team a winner. As for what will happen, well, there's no chance Hendry blows up and starts afresh. And there's only slightly more of a chance that he'll actually succeed in his efforts to build a winner. What needs to be blown up is the front office. That may not ever happen while the Trib owns the Cubs. One possibility of the Cubs being off-loaded -- or at least seeing changes in the front office -- would be seeing Aramis walk this off-season and Zambrano walk the next off-season. Maybe then there would be a reaction? By then, though, Hendry will have locked up mediocre replacements in CF, LF, SS (don't want Cesar to walk after '08!), 3B and 2B, and given them all multi-year contracts with no-trade clauses. Because he can.

Even if Aramis stays I can't believe it wouldn't at least be worth a look at what it might take to get A-Rod. Like you said, unless he explodes and becomes a hero during the playoffs, he's probably gonna be the cheapest and most available he'll ever be during his prime career years. Hell, he could finally play SS again, where he friggin' belongs. The Cubs would play ARod at 3B so Cesar can play SS.

The headline over that blurb is "Doomed from the Start? (cont.)" It's meant to refer to the Girardi situation, but it can also be applied to the '07 Cubs at this point.

Why would he stick around minus being paid a lot of money? For the joy of watching this trainwreck? And you know Hendry will have a gut attack at paying him more than Derrek Lee. Hendry knows the consequences of not re-sigining, especially given how weak the offense is and how limited the free agent power hitters are. And Aramis supposedly has said he likes playing for the Cubs. :shrug: Yes, but Hendry has made several bad decisions over the past few years, and letting Aramis walk while resigning Pierre might be another (x2). Aramis will cost some money and a lot of people don't think he's worth it (I do, within reason). He talked about how it was difficult for him and his wife to move from Pittsburgh to Chicago and that he likes Chicago. Part of the reason he liked it was because of the other Dominican players here. Who's left on the roster? Novoa and Mateo are the only other Dominicans. I hope he decides to be the Cubs third baseman, but I'm not counting on it until it happens.

Why would he stick around minus being paid a lot of money? For the joy of watching this trainwreck? And you know Hendry will have a gut attack at paying him more than Derrek Lee.

There won't be any changes. There wasn't any changes after we were swept by the Padres at home. There weren't any changes after the 8 game losing streak. There weren't any changes after the Braves series. There weren't any changes during the All-Star break. Don't expect any changes right now. Besides, it's not like these are important games. But isn't the point that ... were there any urgency to win, that those games would have been important games? I'm guessing that's your point. The front office -- Hendry & MacPhail -- conceded the season long ago. Why not? The cash register keeps turning over.

Great pics, thanks! #2 & #3 = Baseball on Mars

Is the 4th one when Neifi made his two errors on the same throw? Defense kills, dude.

I know ... and that's one of the reasons one wouldn't suggest he was 'dogging it' yesterday, just like his putting together some very nice starts in August after joining the Dodgers doesn't mean he was 'dogging it' with the Cubs.