illiniguy

isnt his elbow screwed up? Why would tony do that? If you are going to stick someone at 2nd who can't play it, wouldn't you go with someone other than your franchise player?

i just wanted to clear up my position is all. dusty and hendry are definitely to blame for the ballclubs that they either assembled or managed while dusty was here. Yep, and I wonder had Hendry seen more of Fukudome if he would have pursued him. The Cubs had been scouting Fukudome for years. It's not like he just fell into their laps. Yeah but he was a masher there. Had they thought he wouldn't mash here would they have wanted him?

Pujols would have hit into a dp but Weeks threw a crappy ball to fielder/ :D

Ankiel K's Pujols up 1st and 3rd 1 out.

the cardinals always have guys with funny names. remember tripp cromer? Yeah. I just can't believe the guy is hitting so well for them.

i just wanted to clear up my position is all. dusty and hendry are definitely to blame for the ballclubs that they either assembled or managed while dusty was here. Yep, and I wonder had Hendry seen more of Fukudome if he would have pursued him.

Skip Shumaker singles. 1st and 3rd no one out. Skip Shumaker.

After Izturis took stirke 3 for a called ball.

Might have, but I think you have to go after it to avoid the shorthop.

Man should have pulled Lilly.

No kidding. Me too. I told Hendry today that he'll have the Baseball Prospectus writers on his speed dial pretty soon. This is culture shock. Does Jim even know walks are a good thing? after being so vehemently against hendry's lack of love for the base on balls, i've grown to believe that he is at least partially right in a sense: walks are generally a symptom of being a good hitter. you can't really teach a hitter to be patient if he isn't already. when someone's isod goes up with age, it generally means that more and more pitchers are growing to respect his bat. you can teach a young hitter some tricks regarding pitch recognition, but if his core processor isn't fast enough, there's no way that having him attempt to shrink his strike zone will net positive results. it will probably just end up ruining a perfectly serviceable baseball player. great hitters walk a lot because they get pitched around. Yeah that is true, I think the big thing that was working against Jim in many of our minds was the manager he hired hated walks.

No kidding. Me too. I told Hendry today that he'll have the Baseball Prospectus writers on his speed dial pretty soon. This is culture shock. Does Jim even know walks are a good thing? I reminded him today and yesterday. He said, "Anything to keep you happy, Bruce." (He was smiling when he said it.) Nice. Keep up the good work.

No kidding. Me too. I told Hendry today that he'll have the Baseball Prospectus writers on his speed dial pretty soon. This is culture shock. Does Jim even know walks are a good thing?

Good lord, I don't think he is solely responsible for the whole team, but man has fukudome been great or what? It is so refreshing.

Did you watch the 8th inning last night? Yeah and it wasn't pretty either. It ended well, but we damn near blew that chance too. So you're counting 2 out hits that score 2 runs as a failure in that situation too? That doesn't seem fair. Cedeno's AB wasn't ugly at all. He did a fine job. Actually, it was kind of funny. They got Soto on a high fastball -- Hershiser says "I'd like to see that same pitch here" -- then the pitcher throws it, and WAP! Ronny serves in over the infield. It was beautiful. Yes it was, but it never should have came to that. TIme and time again the Cubs fail to get the runner in before it comes to that.

lix with a knock.

Garnett: 18.8 PPG, 9.2 RPG, 3.4 APG, 1.2 BPG Jefferson: 21.0 PPG, 11.1 RPG, 1.4 APG, 1.5 BPG C'mon now, let's be honest here. There isn't a single rational person that would take Jefferson over Garnett at this stage, regardless of what those numbers say. Plenty of players have put up big numbers for bad teams. This also isn't baseball; defense matters a great deal (as, to a lesser extent, do intangibles). Garnett is a much better player at this time than Jefferson. The above poster was correct, Garnett will be in the Hall of Fame and it's not likely Jefferson will join him. I'm not arguing for Jefferson being as good as KG, I'm just giving one example of KG not being the most valuable player in the league this year. KG had a wonderful season for a great team, and I'm sure he did in fact have some intangible impact on the team too, but there is simply no way I can justify voting KG the MVP, especially in a season with three otherworldly candidates the caliber of Kobe, CP, and LeBron. I'm not supporting KG as MVP; you can see an earlier post I think it should be LeBron. KG would be fourth on my ballot. However, in arguing against him, posters have totally discredited how good he is. He's a great, great player. This isn't baseball. Numbers mean a lot, but they're not everything. Defense matters a great deal and KG is a phenomenal player on that end of the court. Intangibles also come into play and KG thrives here, too. Amassing stats on bad teams is one thing (Abdur-Rahim, Randolph, etc), doing it while leading a 67-win team is different (though KG had been on poor teams the last two years). That's also something I hold against LeBron - he's not a horrible defender but he's not anything special either. Kobe, on the other hand, has been on the All-Defensive team for seven of the last eight years and frequently will guard the better player late in the game if necessary. There was a game earlier this year where Allen Iverson had 49 points through three quarter but Kobe switched onto Iverson and held him to two points in the fourth while scoring 12 himself. Ha did Kobe lock him up, or did the law of averages finally catch up to AI?

Must win every day.

Did you watch the 8th inning last night? Yeah and it wasn't pretty either. It ended well, but we damn near blew that chance too.

lay off the cedeno bashing, he's actually doing really well Blanco on the other hand... bash away Blanco and Fontenot are not big leaguers. At least Fontenot is making no money. Aren't we giving Henrcy about 5 million a year?

I love how I have no confidence in this team to get a run in when we have the bases loaded and 0 outs. It's almost like we all know what is coming.

awesome.

Hart singles in Braun. Fielder gets caught in a run down though so now two down.

tie game.

.388 BA, 1.281 OPS for Generic White Cardinals' Minor League Outfielder X. Barton has a .333 BA, .894 Ops going on right now, imagine if he was white :shock: ps. i'm not racist, it was a joke... Even the Brewers announcers were saying that this was supposed to be a rebuilding year for the cards or they wouldn't have kept Barton. But, they then said the Cardinals were in first place. Sorry guys the Cubs still exist.