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Sheffield is out again tonight in this big weekend series. It was close as the Yankees waited until 15 minutes prior to the game to submit the lineup. For Team Buddiga's sake, I hope he's back tomorrow as the outfield is falling apart.

Macias is the classic case of the organizational take on utility/bench players; the more years you have in the league, the better suited you are for the job. It is especially beneficial if you can switch-hit. The Cubs love that versatility. It doesn't matter what skills, or lack of, that you bring to the table. What's rather amazing is that Macias isn't too far off from the numbers he put up last season: .268/.292/.376/.668, 2 dp, 4 bb in 198 PA Projected 05: .269/.285/.333/.618, 7 dp, 5 bb in 155 PA He has actually managed to suck slightly more than he did last season. This is a remarkable achievement.

i ain't exactly throwing gibson, koufax and ryan out there either... Well, Sheffield won't play today and is questionable for the weekend. I would think he'll play in some capacity this weekend considering winning the division probably rides on this series with the Sox. injuries have really hurt us both this week. my pitching staff is remarkably suckier w/o sheets in there, and you're w/o griffey and now possibly sheffield. i thought i'd be down by more than 8 when i checked it this morning... yep, both Willis and Arroyo gave up their fare share of hits, runs, and xbh thus negating much of the 7 pts gained from the QS...

i ain't exactly throwing gibson, koufax and ryan out there either... Well, Sheffield won't play today and is questionable for the weekend. I would think he'll play in some capacity this weekend considering winning the division probably rides on this series with the Sox.

Joe Buck and Al Hrabosky were discussing who should be the Gold Glove CF in the NL this season. This got started after Buck stated that Chipper Jones believes Andruw should win it this season without any question. Buck said no way and that Edmonds should win the award because of how he plays the wall along with his arm strength and accuracy. Hrabosky chimed in saying that Edmonds makes a lot of great plays. For starters, Andruw plays 81 of his games in a ballpark that from gap to gap is anywhere from 10-20 feet deeper than Busch Stadium. Andruw Jones is second in the NL in assists from CF with 8. Edmonds has 5. You can certainly argue that people don't run on Edmonds because he has a good arm. In fact, while Edmonds has a very accurate arm from short-CF and the gaps. Andruw has a much stronger arm on deep throws. However, I don't think there is any grounds to say that either guy has a better, or more accurate arm than the other. Going back on balls in CF, I think the case could be made that Edmonds is better. Given the fact that he plays so shallow, this is often highlighted with all the catches he is forced to make going back over his head whereas the typical CF catches the ball standing on the track. Andruw, on the other hand, is the best in the league gap-to-gap. If you weigh all the factors, Jones should be the Gold Glove winner in my mind.

QS Willis QS Arroyo SV Dempster My pitching is saving me right now, but I'm not going to win the week without some production offensively! you're 4-4 on QS so far, which is nothing new. i'm a damn magnet for QS...i've had a couple of weeks of giving up 5+ QS. your pen has been awesome...mine has sucked, even w/ the gift win for street today. wagner has three losses on the year...two in the last two days. :evil: Both teams have a very good shot at 300+ pts. 3 starts remain for both staffs. Zito was pushed back to Sat. at Texas because of right shoulder blade problems and Vasquez is in Colorado. Only Suppan looks to be a good bet for the weekend and that isn't saying much. I may get little help from the pitching on the weekend.

QS Willis QS Arroyo SV Dempster My pitching is saving me right now, but I'm not going to win the week without some production offensively!

It has been determined that Griffey will not play this week, but he hasn't been put on the DL because he'll play again this season. Is it legal for me to bench him and replace him with S. Stewart (not that he'll score points, but better than nil) ?

And in the American League the Yankees lose to the Devil Rays for the 8th time this season. With the Cleveland win, they move to within 1/2 game of the lead. Oakland is also ahead and should they win, they also close to 1/2 game.

He'll play against Mulder because he has success against the lefties, dude. Ronny will learn from veterans Walker and Hairston how to interpret signs. It's all good. Steve Garvey said so.

Brutal: 1 Jerry Hairston Jr., LF David Eckstein, SS 2 Neifi Perez, SS Jim Edmonds, CF 3 Derrek Lee, 1B Albert Pujols, 1B 4 Jeromy Burnitz, RF Yadier Molina, C 5 Nomar Garciaparra, 3B Mark Grudzielanek, 2B 6 Todd Walker, 2B So Taguchi, LF 7 Michael Barrett, C Abraham O. Nunez, 3B 8 Corey Patterson, CF Hector Luna, RF 9 Glendon Rusch, P Matt Morris, P

o/u on IP for Rusch tonight: 4 and 1/3rd

yep, that's why I dropped him! and then he homered and walked twice in Oakland! actually, it is because Shannon Stewart hasn't scored a point in three weeks and Jay Payton was out there...

Cedeno misses the sign because he's young: No word yet on whether Walker and Hairston missed signs because they are veterans.

Ah yes, great point on Wendell Kim. I'm curious about Rothschild's status for next season in this regard. I never see Baker and Rothschild discuss things in the dugout coupled with the "it's Larry's department" comments make me wonder about the status of Larry for next year and beyond ? In fact today, Rothschild went out to the mount to talk to Prior and it looked like they were going to go after Pujols. Then, just as Blanco sat back at the plate, he got up on a signal for the intentional walk - which I assume came from Baker. My perception is, and it may be totally off base, that there isn't much of a relationship left between Baker and Rothschild (if there ever was one to begin with).

Bayless (God help him) seems to be the only "writer" in the Bay Area to have noted Baker's fallacies. I'm curious to see if he puts anything to print on Dusty this weekend given the current state of the Cubs. With this all being said, I have a hard time grasping how the Cubs could possibly offer to extend Baker through '08. Is it the fact that the club won two years in a row, filled the seats daily, and filled them again this season ? Is it the fact that so many fans don't realize the failures of Dusty and just give this organization a pass ? I've often wondered how good the relationships are between Baker-Hendry, Hendry-MacPhail, and Baker-MacPhail. Does MacPhail still pull more organization and personnel strings than we realize ?

I was hoping you guys would go to town on these players and coaches. I look forward to reading the fishwraps tomorrow AM. I watch these guys everyday because I love the team, but I'm so sick of so many of the individual parts. Keep up the good fight Bruce. Hopefully change will come.

i like walker, and i want him back next year, but what is this guy's obsession with what the announcers are talking about? he knocked stone and chip last year, brenly last week, and the cardinal announcers today. someone get him xm radio so he can weigh in on pat and ron. I'm wondering how he managed to avoid this in Boston. Maybe the fact they won ? I watch the NESN Pre-game and Post-game shows and those guys take the players to task on a regular basis. Jim Rice and Gary DiSarcina tend to border on just ripping the players and coaches. I miss the Louisiana Lumberjack comment five times a game. Those were good times.

This club is a disaster: Bad News Cubbies Some guys missed signs, some didn't even know there was a sign, and some just didn't know what was going on. And the common refrain: blame your players. It's never Dusty's fault, it's never his coaches fault.

give me a break...this guy always finds a way to cut down a young player and make excuses for an older player. his bias is so ridiculously obvious that i can't believe he even makes an effort to dispel it with his comments. well, i'd love to start cedeno at ss, but his throws to first run just a little bit into the runner. i think we'll go w/ neifi and his sub-.300 obp...his throws to first are awesome! No, you give me a break. Honestly, would this quote raise an eyebrow if any other manager had said it? If Tony LaRussa or Bobby Cox were saying this we would be saying, "see, it is their eye for detail and the level of excellence they demand of their players that gets them where they are". This is a perfect example of people who already have made up their mind about Baker taking a perfectly innocent quote and trying to turn into evidence that supports their already-made-up-mind's position. Baker may deserve to be fired, but this quote has nothing to do with it. Go find me a quote from Bobby Cox nit-picking to the beat writers at areas where a young player needs to improve. Kelly Johnson came up and went 1-35 with the Braves, yet he said it was easy to come out of that slump because Bobby took the pressure off him and told him to just play. He said your here because you can play; just go out, bust it, and you'll begin to hit at this level. Kelly Johnson, despite the struggles is at .278/.368/.808 since that 1-35. The point is, Baker puts pressure on these players by saying "you need to do this" "oh, he can't do that" "oh, he'll never be this" rather than allowing the player to just play the game and work with these players to improve. Instead, he can't stop defending his vets, but finds the time to spout to anyone who will listen about the younger player faults.

I hope the media (please Bruce) takes Baker to task this evening for his handling of the game. They need to hit him with questions until he's so fed up he leaves the room or blows up at them. I want to read all about what this idiot has to say for himself following his performance on the bench today. I've seldom seen the late innings of a ballgame managed any worse than Baker and any better than LaRussa.

Brilliant use of the charts by LaRussa and Duncan. You could see them thumbing them through when Lee came up to bat and they had Grudzielanek shaded to the middle. I can't think of another duo in the game who studies the charts and aligns the defense better than those two. This should be a 6-5 game, 2 on, 1 out.

Macias to bat for Cedeno. FUDusty.

There you go folks. Today's 8th inning demonstrates the importance of a manager who has a clue versus one who has no business doing this for a living. Baker did exactly what LaRussa wanted him to do in the top half. Hairston got on against a wild pitcher, Cedeno bunts him over on the first pitch. Cedeno is the perfect canidate to work the pitcher, let Hairston take the bag on his own, or even use a hit and run. Don't we want to learn what Ronny can do in a game-situation ? We know he can bunt. Lets learn if he can hit behind the runner! Fast forward; LaRussa uses the same wild pitcher to walk Lee and bring in his LOOGY to face Burnitz. Of course, he gets Burnitz to roll out to first. Then, he has him pitch around Garciaparra to load the bases. Walker promptly flies out to center on the first pitch. Baker doesn't have aptitude to think 5 batters ahead in the ballgame. He just double-switches and pretends to himself that he's using some strategy. Baker is an idiot and LaRussa owned him. Same situation in the bottom half and he has Nunez swing the bat with Eckstein on first forcing Novoa to face Pujols. No need to go any further. I can't watch this idiot for 3 more years. I can't.

That's a decent lineup, with the exception of the fact that Prior should hit 8th. Also, it appears Murton is still not ready to face those RH pitchers.