Rob

Why the hell would you send Ramirez? Lou is batty.

We have very, very little in the high minors. We'll be seeing Samardzija at some point... and Jake Fox has been tearing the cover off the ball, but Hoffpaiur has his bench slot unless he learns to play some 3B. Mitch Atkins and Randy Wells may or may not come up. Ascanio has been starting in the minors... so I have no idea what they have planned for him. Kevin Hart is sitting down there for whenever we need him... but all those guys are righties. If Cotts continues on like this, I'd imagine Gaub might get the call sooner than the lot of us expected.

Today would be a great day for DLee to stop trying to pull the outside pitch.

That's an interesting definition of darn good. The fact of the matter is that you just cant expect much from the average major league reliever. And I expect a good deal more out of Gregg...

we all knew our bullpen would suck before the season. should die hard nat fans not worry about their rotation after one week? I'm actually not that concerned about our pen. Marmol and Gregg are obviously darn good. I'm a huge Heilman fan. If Gooz keeps his arm intact, I have no doubt that his performance will be fine... hell, even Vizcaino aint half bad, provided he never faces a lefty. Patton is a gamble, and Cotts sucks. That's still a good deal better than most teams. I don't get how Gregg is obviously darn good. He's a fairly questionable bullpen arm. I suppose that's the danger of using subjective terms... Gregg has shown an ability to be quite effective at the major league level, though whether his ballpark helped him keep all those flyballs from being home runs is something we'll be figuring out quickly. Regardless, I have no issues with him having a spot on any major league roster at the moment... which to me is what defines him as darn good. His leverage, on the other hand... that's up for debate.

Yo momma so fat that after sex she smokes a turkey.

we all knew our bullpen would suck before the season. should die hard nat fans not worry about their rotation after one week? I'm actually not that concerned about our pen. Marmol and Gregg are obviously darn good. I'm a huge Heilman fan. If Gooz keeps his arm intact, I have no doubt that his performance will be fine... hell, even Vizcaino aint half bad, provided he never faces a lefty. Patton is a gamble, and Cotts sucks. That's still a good deal better than most teams.

Actually, it was Carl Pavano's fault. It wasn't just that he was hurt a lot. It was that he didn't work hard in rehab. Then there was that car accident he kept to himself. I'm sure there was other stuff. His team mates were calling him out in the papers. How does that make it his fault? The Yankees brass didn't evaluate his work ethic properly before they offered him that absurd deal.

Don't know a name, but I am guessing it wasn't you. Good day. Oh thank god... I finally figured out you were just trolling. My radar has been off for a while now. Welcome to the ignore list, whoever's alt login you are.

I picked a good game to go to.

BB / PA for Soriano 2001 - 4.7% 2002 - 3.1% 2003 - 5.2% 2004 - 5.0% 2005 - 4.8% 2006 - 9.2% 2007 - 5.0% 2008 - 8.6% 2009 - 12.8% He hasn't looked good this game, but Soriano has been showing much improved discipline so far this year.

If anybody was wondering, Z did indeed have the longest active streak for PA without a walk.

Better be careful using the word "almost" there. flyseye is looking for something else crazy to latch onto...

Those stupid, stupid Cubs. I am firing off a letter today informing them that if they would simply hire Rob from NSBB, that Lou would suddenly become a much better manager. Ohhh...yeah...the classic "just a message board poster" attack. I think it's been around since the dawn of the internet. It's great when you have no other way to argue a losing point. Drop the argument and attack the "message board poster" aspect. Well done. Banedon, I guess I must of upset you because I called him on EXACTLY what he said.As a matter of fact he continues to say it. So why the heck don't you all write the Cubs and tell them how much better off Lou would be if he listened to Rob from NSBB ? Why don't you see if Bruce Miles will write a column about it ? Heck, why doesn't somebody just do a front page article on this site about it ?If you really think it is a true statement, there should be no problem, should there? If, on the other hand, you do not think it is a statement worth backing, you have no business ragging on me about it. Unless of course you know it is a ridiculous statement, and you just think I am being mean to him. Perhaps you feel sorry for him ? If the latter is the case, I commend you for your loyalty to your fellow poster, and I will let it drop, and I apologize. But to say I attacked the poster is pure BS, and you know it. No, you're absolutely using hyperbolic statements to imply that I don't know what I'm talking about at all... nevermind that I am working on a degree with a heavy slant on stats, a bio minor with a heavy slant on kinesiology, and am currently applying to postgraduate sports management programs. Might grab an mba while I'm at it too, if you were interested. I've read dozens and dozens of articles simply devoted to the when a sacrifice bunt might be warranted... same for lineup construction, pitcher workloads, how absolutely stupid it is to hit and run... and I can back up every single opinion I have on the game with hard data to support it. Go ahead and make overly sarcastic remarks. Do you even realize that every single professional baseball team employs people exactly like me to help influence their decision making? Not every team has the kind of army Billy Beane employs, but who exactly do you think it was that convinced Hendry to start focusing more on OBP?

I feel pretty good for being one of the very select few to not get terribly concerned about Fukudome.

Those stupid, stupid Cubs. I am firing off a letter today informing them that if they would simply hire Rob from NSBB, that Lou would suddenly become a much better manager. Ask around before you continue with your absurd tirade. I'm not the same sort of message board poster that you are... I actually know of what I speak.

Nobody here has said that. Lou does a lot of things for this team that none of us here could even come close to him at. But I absolutely understand the numbers behind the game better than he does. I'll guaran-damn-tee it. His lineups are suboptimal. His bullpen leverage last year was off base. He still insists on using the hit and run. He occasionally lays down sac bunts at silly times. He lets Aaron Miles into the game... I've never said I could do his job. But if I had his ear, he'd be able to do his job a lot better.

Mark Fidrych died today. http://wbztv.com/local/mark.Fidrych.dies.2.983934.html

Words like "bad" and "terrible" are awkward when it comes to judging managers... as the pool of people you're comparing them to can be different. With players, we know we're comparing them to other players... with managers, are we comparing them to other managers or to what decisions any of us might make? Lou is probably about average tactically compared to other mlb managers... but I'd venture to say that he's not nearly as good as those of us on the board that have taken the time to familiarize ourselves with the math behind the decisions. That said, a good portion of his job also consists of handling the egos of everybody on this team... which almost certainly has some impact on a few of his oddball decisions. And that is a job that I don't think anybody on this board is even remotely qualified to criticize him for, as he has (generally) done a pretty good job... with a few notable exceptions (Hill, Pie, etc...)

Albert Belle probably belongs on the list... Robbie Alomar certainly does, after spitting on that ump (as well as the allegations he purposefully gave HIV to his gf). I can't recall if Carl Everett was just garden-variety crazy or if there was violence in there either... but any excuse to bring up the fact he doesn't believe in dinosaurs is a good one.

It's early, but Theriot is turning on a lot more pitches this year. If he keeps this up, he might develop slightly below average power.

Dusty would love this inning.

I guess.

We should slap the next person who says this. It doesn't matter. It's not Theriot's fault. The game was over when that ball came off Braun's bat, barring a miracle one way or the other. There's a solid dozen things to be legitimately pissed about after this game. Theriot's defensive error early in the game, Soriano misplaying Weeks double in the 9th, every single move Lou made after pulling Harden... Theriot's decision to throw home in the ninth is not one of them.

That's absurd. Hoff had a good chance to drive the run in with a sac fly or a hit, and probably less of a chance to gidp than Miles. Gathright was extremely unlikely to ground into the dp.