bukie

Since it is considered a purposeful out to benefit the team, the player is not credited with an at-bat. Similar to the sac bunt in that thought. It still counts as a plate appearance, and thus will count against a player's OBP.

The Cubs ended the 1984 season 96-65. This may have been answered in a thread or two already today, though.

You can't count the Mets because they've only played the Cubs twice this season. I can, did, and will continue to count them!

He's been working on a splitter since the Cubs drafted him as a strikeout pitch. Since he's gotten the hang of it, he's been really good. Remember, Samardzija's only been a full-time pitcher for about 2 years.

It all gets balanced out by Atlanta, the Mets and the entire NL West laying down for the Cubs and getting up for other teams.

24 for a playoff spot. 28 for the division. 24 is the Stl number -- I think the 2nd place NL East team (Phils or Mets) has an excellent chance of passing the Cards before a clinch date, so 24 is a little misleading. It's lower than 24 for the Phils, so 24 is accurate for the time being.

The good news is that after Villanueva, the Brewers are out of quality relievers. The bad news is that the Pirates have been out of quality relievers since Capps pitched.

It helps that the Brewers are among the league leaders in IP by starters (meaning their bullpen has thrown fewer innings than just about everyone else), but I agree that it seems to be pretty unsustainable. There's something to be said about winning close games, but 24 of their 74 wins being by 1 run is pretty ridiculous. And maybe I'm being a bit of a homer here (and feel free to call me out on it if this is silly), but I don't think the Brewers' bullpen is as bad as it's been made out to be. Everyone looks at Gagne's problems and thinks it's indicative of the entire bullpen struggling, but the bullpen ERA is right around league average. ESPN.com has their current team ERA ("as reliever" split) at 3.88, good enough for 6th in the NL. The Cubs are 5th at 3.86. Again, it probably helps that they pitch so few innings lately, but they're far from atrocious. Shouse and Torres are exceptional this year, and Riske is a bit above average, which makes 3 guys the Brewers can count on out of the pen. With Sheets/CC going 7+ each time out, the seedy back-end of the pen (Gagne, Mota, Villanueva, McClung, Turnbow...who I think is gone now anyway) doesn't come up too often, which helps. On the Cubs' end of the bullpen, the poor pitchers have slowly been weeded out over the year (Hart, Eyre, Fox), leaving the current pen with an exceptional 6 pitchers (Wood, Marmol, Gaudin -- if it's OK that I toss out yesterday's performance as an anomaly since someone had to get outs, Samardzija, Cotts, Marshall) and one below average pitcher that should be in the back end of the bullpen, but throws strikes, so Lou keeps tossing him out there. Never mind that the strikes are belt high and 85 and are hit either off the wall or onto the street, they're strikes. Maybe I'm being a homer here, but I'm holding out hope that one of three things happens with that last spot. One, Howry figures out how to paint the corners again. Two, Wuertz finds the strike zone consistently enough in Iowa that Lou sees how good of a pitcher he actually is. Three, Angel Guzman's arm holds up for a month of pitching. That happens, the bullpen suddenly becomes amazing, despite being awful enough during May/June to put the overall numbers at average. EDIT: I apparently didn't notice Stetter was reassigned to AAA about a month back. Why?

24-11 in 1-run games with that bullpen is some Houdini-esque trickery. And though the Pythagorean estimates are just a simple tool, they would suggest that the gap between the Cubs and the rest is more likely to continue to grow than it is to shrink.

That sentence is structured oddly. Are you saying he's hitting with a .143 OPS against the Nats, or do the Nats have a .143 OPS against Harden?

The Cubs have officially clinched a better record than the Nats, whom they lead by 33.5 games with 33 to play. One down, 14 to go.

What a bum. More like Geovany Suck-to

Yeah, that's just not true. Unless he's just taking a sample size of, oh, the last inning or so.

Most of the complaining is completely hyperbolic Chicken Little crap that occasionally gets old, based on expectations that have gone through the stratosphere. And yet nobody thinks they are being irrational about it. It's practically trolling. Unless you think the majority of the board wasn't aware that a 13-5 loss to the Nationals isn't good.

Jesus pitching now.

Gaudin gets the Orr swinging, and the inning is over.

Jesus can also hit a fastball, apparently.

I think Rafael Belliard just homered or something.

If only.

Maybe they're expecting a 90's Bulls team, the kind of team that loses 10 games in 6 months.

Because the Cubs are a perennial winner with a storied history of World Series titles, and a loss to the Nationals at the end of August permanently tarnishes any possibility of a happy ending this season may have.

Yes, probably closer to 30%.

Jesus can hit a curveball.

I can't help but giggle a bit after an IBB to Willie Harris, after he hit a go-ahead grand slam.

On a day where the wind is blowing straight out, a 4-run lead is nothing. For all the times the Cubs have come back from 2-3-4 run deficits early in the game, one would think that there would be occasions where the reverse would happen. Last I checked, though, the wind is still blowing out, and the Cubs are still the highest scoring team in the NL. Does that guarantee victory? Absolutely not. But it's not absurd. The wind blowing out has nothing to do with walking the bases loaded. No, that was Marquis and Cotts. The wind blowing out did help that HR ball, though.