Rob

Royals pitcher Joe Mays

Hey, don't wish that on Neifi. This is his once chance to look like a truly dominant player in comparison to somebody, at least let him have that.

Is anybody listening to the game? I just want to make sure Santo doesn't sound on the verge of a heart attack.

Ah, it was all part of Freddie's master plan to get Chan Ho Park out of the game... now it makes sense.

I know quadriplegics that could catch that.

That son of a b...

This might come down to whomever runs out of pitchers first. Good thing we have seven men in the bullpen. And Dusty has no problem leaving guys in til their arms end up in the catcher's mitt.

Nah, cause then Dusty would have pulled a double switch for no apparent reason and they would've had to face cedeno instead of mabry.

Actually, I wasn't sure it'd get past the pitcher.

On the plus side of things, we successfully doubled the amount of hits we've had in this game, and increased our walks by 200%

if they score here he would ... Wouldn't whoever pitches the 8th get the win? Nope, but they could get a hold, save, blown save, or loss... but technically the only way for them to get the win in a game where they came in with a lead would be to blow the save first and then still be in when we score another run. Edit: Now that they've actually entered in a tie game, they could get the win.

So Park finally broke the 100 pitch plateau there... We draw a card against one of the pitchers with the worst control in the league, and it takes us 8 innings to get him to 100 pitches.

I know, I almost messed myself I was laughing so hard...

You know, if only we could get 4 outs an inning, we could sac people in every time...

Dear lord, Aram elevated...

I think I finally figured out Dusty's lineup for tonight. He realized his bench has been waaaay too weak so far this season, so he stuck Murton and Cedeno there to help his bench look better. I mean, really, it makes perfect sense.... if you're as crazy as Dusty is.

I don't know if this is specifically directed at me, but I'm egocentric so I'm going to respond as if it is. Yeah, I know Carp was a higly touted pitcher. That's why I was referencing the fact he didn't really have an injury-free level of performance established. His one year prior to '05 where he pitched over 200 innings, he amassed a WARP1 of 5.6. That's exactly why I said I'd make allowances for people with injury problems being healthy for once. I suppose in Carp's case, regression to the mean would be mostly PT based. Arroyo was never really a great prospect. Looking at my old copies of BP, he's referred to as "a poor man's Jimmy Anderson: great record, good ERA, lousy peripherals and mediocre stuff" and "basically a right-hander with a marginal left-hander’s repertoire" The best thing about his pitches is that he manages to throw most of them for strikes, but he's got nothing really special. I don't think he's just "found his stride." His absolute ceiling is an innings-eater type of #3 starter, not the top of the league ace that he's impersonating now. Looking at Phillips' record, perhaps I jumped the gun on him a bit. He could post a .800 OPS if a few balls fall in for him... but I don't think he'll keep up the .996 OPS with runners in scoring position.

to play devil's advocate...didn't we all say that about chris carpenter in '04 and '05? Carp didn't exactly have an established level of performance... at least not while healthy. 05 is the first year I can think of where he spent the entire year healthy and pain-free. I can understand making allowances for injury in regression, but there are plenty of cases where the higher level of performance has nothing to do with lack of an injury, and it's natural to be more skeptical about those performances.

It's times like these we could really use Tom Goodwin, Troy O'Leary, and Doug Glanville... Now repeat after me, "it's not as bad as it could be."

True, but players will regress towards their established levels of performance. Brandon Phillips and Bronson Arroyo wont help keep the Reds on top all year long to the degree that they're doing now.

Is that like saying I'd rather be kicked in the head than punched in the nuts. It's more like kicked in the shin or punched in the kidneys. It's not like we're pursuing Tuffy Rhodes.

I'd much, much rather have Millar than Conine.

umm, where are these evaluations coming from? i'm going to have a really hard time trusting anything you say about hill if, apparently, the only two potential outcomes of his career are ace and complete bust. The evaluations come from what I've seen from them personally and what the numbers bear out. I don't think you could find more than a handful of people on these boards that truly believe Hill would be anything less than magnificent if he finally gets some control of his pitches, which it looks like he's getting closer to doing. At the same time, I just don't think Marshall will end up being quite that good. His middling strikeout rates don't bode well for an overpowering presence. He's going to rely a lot on his defense because of that. That's not to say he can't be a very effective pitcher, by any means, I just don't think we'll be mentioning him in the same sentence as somebody such as the Big Unit, unless we're talking physical appearance alone. At the same time, I do realize there's a very good chance that Hill wont even approach his ceiling. So perhaps I exaggerated a bit to say that he's got a 95% bust rate, and no chance for a career in between. I simply used that to illustrate a point, and I think you probably had a pretty good idea of that before you called me out on it. But let me just say how happy I am that which pitcher is going to be better is the argument, and that we're using these two pitchers. I don't know what I'd do if I were a Cardinals fan, with a grand total of 2 decent pitching prospects.

I don't quite agree with you on that point. Marshall has plenty of potential, that's for sure... but Hill is just oozing with it. Unfortunately for Hill, it's all unrealized at the moment... but if he reaches the top of his game, I don't see any way that Marshall isn't left in the dust. At the same time, Marshall has a much better chance of reaching his ceiling than Hill does, even though it is lower. I see Marshall as having a 50% chance of being a "good" major league pitcher. Hill has a 5% chance to be an ace and a 95% bust rate.

That's a good thing. It's kinda nice for the cubs to have a guy who comes out of nowhere and suceeds. I know it's a good thing for the club, but I had been dying to see Wade Miller in cubbie blue for years... :(