Jake

All three have been more productive offensively than Sanchez this year, and by your own estimation, Sanchez has been absolutely horrendous at 2B this season. Sanchez produced enough offense to be a top 7 third baseman last year. So far this year, he ranks 26th in VORP for 2nd basemen. That's not good. If the game is supposed to be meaningful, Sanchez shouldn't even be considered as an option. I Don't think I said Horrible at second. Certainly not good. Getting better, to be sure, though. Remember, he's never played there on a regular basis before this year. Track his average month to month. If you were the Cubs GM in '03, we'd have gotten a hell of a lot more for Aramis.

I'm just over City Line Ave. from where you are.

Touche I never said that. But, to say those three guys are more deserving? THat sounds bitter. Let me ask: Which one of them would you NOT trade straight up for Sanchez? Incidentally, Snell & Gorzo certainly deserved to go more, and Freddy will be the first one to tell you that.

Wow. Still bitter over the series loss last week?

Couple of things.... First of all, Nady isn't going anywhere. Period. As others have said, he's cheap for the next two years, nad he's playing some good baseball right now. Next: Paulino. True, he's having a sucky year. He did hit .310 last year, and he's starting to hit again. Management likes him enough to have moved Neil Walker to third base. Next: the Bobby Hill trade. (I refuse to call it the Arams trade) I can't believe you guys keep bringing that up. I've posted enough on that trade around here, and others have too. If you think that trade was a pure fleecing by Hendry, I'll let you consider that. Finally: Winning the division. It's true, we do have a chance. It may be 1%, but we do have a chance. We couldn't say that at this time last year. But, we've been playing a lot better lately. LaRoche is hitting, finally. Mahalom has finally settled down his pitching, we seem solid 1-3 over the past month, and Youman looks like the real deal. Freddy is getting comfrotable at Second base. Nady has been coming on of late. Paulino has been sucking less lately. Our Bullpens is melting down a lot less often. We just won four series in a row, which included the top two teams in our division. Our lineup sometimes has a solid 2-6: Freddy, Nady, LaRoche, Bay, Doumit (I wish Doumit would play more often!) McClouth is hitting in the 290s when he starts. Things are coming together for us. We're still a long shot. But, look what happens when teams take us for granted. If we could just get that proverbial lead off center fielder, we'd have a lot better shot. Ain't gonna happen, but it's nice to dream...

I'm not sure what typical Cubs means... Predicting 7-0 or 6-1 was unrealistic. I was hoping for 5-2 but, all things considered, I'll take a 4-3 road trip. People will bemoan losing to Maholm and Youman but they both have pitched decently. Maholm is 4-0 in his career against the Cubs so it's not necessarily a flaw of this 2007 team that they haven't been able to get to him. Also, we all made fun of Shane Youman but give him credit as well, he shut both the Cubs and Brewers down in his first two starts of the year... For all the people that say "at least the Brewers lost to Snell and Gorzelanny...," don't forget that Youman also beat them and they lost to Simontacchi and Redding in WSH (both of whom lost to the Cubs). The Brewers went 3-7 on their 10 game road trip (losing 2 of 3 to the Cubs, 3 of 4 to the Pirates, and 2 of 3 to the Nationals). The Cubs are 6-4 during the same time period. Today's series loss is disappointing but the Cubs aren't playing poorly overall. Just to add to this - Mahalom pitched decently in the opener against the Brewers, but Kuwata melted down in his inning of relief in that game.

I'm not surprised by this. Two major items contributing to this would be Freddy Sanchez at second and Ronnie Paulino behind the plate. Freddy's playing a new position this year and missed most of spring training with a knee injury. Having said that, his defense is starting to come around. Paulino, to be kind, has been abysmal defensively. Many of us wonder why he's playing so much, especially with his average down 90 points off of last year. And, our outfied defense has also been very lax. Everyone is running on Jason Bay. Doumit is a catcher playing the outfield some times. We've also had Brad Eldred out there. However, Chris Duffy, when he plays, has been getting to some balls that others wouldn't. Jack Wilson is doing above average at SS. Bautista seems competent at Third, and getting better. I think, with Zach Duke out of the rotation, our defensive numbers will improve.

Well, again, they're the 26th-best defensive team in MLB. Not making errors doesn't necessarily mean good defense. Good defensive teams usually are winning teams. The Cubs of last year were a (glaring) exception. Where are you getting this from?

Wow. Yinz guys aint up on the Buccos N'at lately, I see. Bay is in a funk. Mahalom is on a Roll (look at his last 8 starts). LaRoch is having an MVP week. Doumit is on fire. Even Jack Wilson has been hittin a bit lateley. I was hoping we could borrow Mackowiack for the weekend. And no mention of Freddy? Nady? The other two pitchers you'll see are John VavB. and Shane Youman. VanB has done some decent work in his three starts, Youman in his one. (Youman did OK in the first game of the Brewers series, which we lost. He left after 6 with a 3-3 tie) This should be some pretty good baseball, actually, base on the way the two teams are playing.

We'll see over the next three games. We need to take two of three from yinz guys, with three pitchers not named Snell and Gorzelany. If we do, then, .... Nah, it will never happen. First of all, we're too far back right now. Second, our management won't go out and get us that one player that could put us over the top (I WISH FOR KENNY LOFTON!) Third, while Mahalom has come on as of late, VanB & Youman are still unknowns, so our starting pitching is suspect.

Loved him in the 'Pen today!

What signed? I don't know.

What are Kip Well's chances of remaining in the rotation? I sure hope he stays. (Assuming he doesn't get hurt.) :roll:

Zach Duke.

Wow. I thought Pirates fans had little to talk about....

One of our walking wounded collection of first round pitchers. It'll be good to see another one in the majors!

WE WON AN INTERLEAGUE SERIES!!! OK, so it's the Rangers. We still took the first two. And, we can sweep tonight! OK, so we'd still be 8 games under .500 We're NOT in last place! And, we're only 7 out of first! (Just trying to find something happy to talk about.)

Now we're in second to last. Feels a little bit more familiar. Gues what the brain trust of the team is going to do about it? Nothing!! Wheeee!

This is how bad: http://www.tbo.com/sports/rays/MGBFFUJMG2F.html

Oh does this sound familiar.

Is the division really this bad? I guess so.

Mahlom is pitching for his spot today, I hope. On the team, not just on the rotation.

Is Z hurt? If he gives up a hit to LaRock....

Jake, I know you're happy and all but the Cubs definitely gave the game away. Lilly should have pitched a shutout; runs scored because of a missed pop up and a potential DP that wasn't executed correctly. Not scoring in the 8th was killer and Dempster blowing his first save sucked (especially considering it was a walk that scored). Sounds like an awful game all around. Remember the Cub's go ahead run in the 7th was unearned. And, the Post-Gazzette thought Soriano was out in the third: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07129/784533-63.stm Wish I could have seen it.