bukie

I'm of the opinion that chemistry is the result of winning, rather than the other way around. As far as Theriot/Cedeno goes... Coming into the year, there was a choice between two below average in-house options for SS. Cedeno was a younger player with better tools that looked awful in the majors for a year, but looked fantastic in the minors last year. Theriot was two years older, tired at the end of last year, and never had very impressive minor league numbers. Either way you go, you take a risk, and some would've rather taken the higher risk/higher reward player over the player with a decent chance at mediocrity. Offensively, Theriot has been solid this year because he's hit more line drives, and earlier in the year he was being a lot more patient. Lately, his patience has been down along with his walk rate, but I'm not sure whether that is more due to pitchers challenging him more, or him swinging at more pitches earlier in the count. Cedeno started out with unbelievable patience and was spraying line drives all over the field. Both have tailed off significantly as his patience has all but disappeared, and as a result pitchers don't feel the need to throw him strikes, as he'll get himself out. Defensively, if he gets to a ball, he'll get it cleanly. His range is below average, and his arm is below average, which would indicate he'd be better suited as a second baseman defensively. Contrast that to Cedeno, who has better range and a stronger arm, but is more prone to misplay a ball he gets to. So, really, the choice there is whether it's better to get to more balls and have more errors than have more balls get through the infield, but create fewer errors. Six of one, half-dozen of the other. So, then, obviously, Theriot has had the better year overall, as he hasn't tailed off offensively yet. If he wants to continue to be a reliable part of the offense, he'll need to keep hitting LDs at the rate he has, or improve his patience at the plate to where it was earlier in the year.

Yes, that's the next logical step in the argument. Well, either that or that's a fantastic strawman you've built.

Calls that can be completely objective without player interaction would be easier to handle electronically. These would be obvious calls such as balls and strikes, fair/foul balls, and HR/not a HR calls over the wall. Calls that are somewhat subjective or require player interaction are still much more easily managed by a human umpire. For example, safe/out calls, catch/not a catch, fan interference, fair/foul off a player. There's still plenty of room for human interaction without being so dependent on human error for critical issues that would just as easily be handled electronically.

I look at this year's Bears team like last year's Cubs team. If things fall right, they could sneak into the playoffs with 9 wins.

even he's had 3 He hit one on June 1st, so since then he's hit 2.

Alfonso Soriano

I like the OKC Thunders.

aside from all the errors, his defense has been great. Maybe he's just piling on, saying besides the errors, he has no range at third base. He's like a rock.

Carlos, you're going to have to do this without further balls hit to second.

You have got to be kidding me, Uggla.

Slider working so far.

C'mon Carlos, not like last Saturday against the Giants, more like the previous Saturday against the Cardinals.

Got all of that one.

Sherrill getting a little wild.

So, who would you rather see drive in the go-ahead run, Corey Hart or Ryan Ludwick?

Nice bunting, Guzman.

I normally hate the bunt, but this is Cristian Guzman.

On the bright side, it's unlikely Uggla is going to bat next inning.

But...there's already a K in Cook...

Cook is probably still in because Hurdle doesn't have to justify using him to another manager.

haha, Uggla.

Or....still Cook.

The NL could always choose to put the DH in the field (David Wright).

So, Webb or Marmol?

Dan Uggla.