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Except that it's not. He never had a season with a significant number of starts where he's more than 2 games under .500. Look at who else has been number 5 or better on the Cubs recently -- Rusch? Mitre? Estes? Maddux? Clement? They are all still floating around, and though Maddux is a wonder, Marquis is a clear upgrade on the others. Look at it this way, if your #5 starter is two games under .500, and your #4 starter is at .500, it's reasonable to expect your team to be at least 20 games over .500, with a strong performance from the pan and the rest of the rotation. Zambrano and Dempster have held up their ends this year, the others haven't. Yet, the problem in the rotation is the number 5 starter, even though they are .500 in his starts, and he has a better ERA than Lilly? There is every reason to believe Marquis will get bumped in the second half. Until then, he is performing exactly as would have been expected -- as a major league #5 starter. And no one has done enough to take that job away from him. We're picking starters based on W/L record? Wow.

I agree, and this is the inherent problem with this absolute disgrace of a park. In an effort to manufacture nostalgia, the Astros have embarrassed themselves. What they've done is essentially copy "quirks" of old baseball stadiums. The problem is that all of these prior quirks were not anyone's intent. The hill in CF is copied after the old Polo Grounds. Nobody built that hill, it's just the result of trying to fit a baseball diamond in a huge polo field. That's just the way the ground naturally was. The flagpole in CF is there to copy the fact that the monuments and flagpole used to be in play in the "Death Valley" outfield in Yankee stadium. It was so deep out there that the pole never came into play. It wasn't meant to be an obstacle, like this one is. Like someone mentioned before, it's a short porch in LF at Fenway because of the urban layout in that area, not because someone thought it would be cool to have a short porch. Nostalgia has resulted from all these unintended quirks in the old parks. You can't manufacture nostalgia, especially in a park that has had 3 names in 10 years. The freaking hill had a name before a game was even played there. The hill and the pole are a joke, and trying to be cute with the left field wall has led to only confusion, to the point where nobody can figure out where the ball even lands in more than half of the home runs hit there. Arena baseball? Lines on a wall determining a home run? It's a joke. I'm probably in the minority, but I'm actually offended by that park. Build something original, that brings nostalgia naturally. Don't plagiarize other parks to try to artificially get a feeling. That there's a good post.

2-1 when Gallagher starts. Am I missing something here? I realize his performance doesn't necessarily dictate a 2-1 record, but he's far from causing the Cubs to concede games. Am I missing something here? Gallagher has started for a total of 10 innings and given up 10 runs in those innings. Granted, I'd still rather have him out there than Marquis, but Gallagher hasn't impressed me in the least thus far (and I was very excited to see him in the rotation). 3 starts: 15 IP, 10 ER, 13 K, 1.60 WHIP

god awful? wrong year, i said is. i dont really have anything against depodesta, but i think it's incredible that he is treated as being beyond reproach. we all like him because his philosophy differs from the norm but what has he done to earn such adoration? the Padres right now have the fewest wins in baseball and some still pine for him to take over as the GM for the team with the most wins in baseball. i understand thats a bit of an oversimplification, but a better question might be- which team, purely talent-wise, is set up better for both now and the future: SD or SF? at least the Giants (with likely the worst GM in the game) have a ton of quality pitching talent both in the majors and minors, yet the Padres are going to hold a garage sale for their pitiful collection of useful talent this summer for the trade deadline. teams will get a chance to haggle for their 27 year old AAA players back. "i'll give you 50¢ for this Scott Hairston..." He's like an assistant to the GM or something and has been there for less than two years. How much of the team's current makeup is really his doing? That's exactly right. We have no way of knowing how much input he has and what Towers does with it. It seems obvious that Towers respects his opinion, since DePo has a a special assistant job. But whether Towers makes every more DePo recommends is not known (and I highly doubt). And what has DePo done? Trade Lo Duca, Moto & Juan Encarnacion for Brad Penny (Choi and a minor leaguer). Result also got Martin a place in the lineup. Allow Seattle to overpay Beltre, rather than re-sign him. Sign Drew, Kent, and Lowe. He put the team in position to be very good and was fired so that his replacement could sign Grady Little, and JP and Jones to inflated contracts to take time away from the very talented young OF they already had. And maybe I'm missing something, but what does SF have to do with Paul DePodesta?

I'm very happy with his production. Wouldn't be surprised to see him end the season with 10-15 HRs. I'd be even happier if that .400+ OBP was hitting 2nd. Soto is more than enough protection for ARam and should move to 5th (note: I don't care about lineup "protection" but obviously Lou does).

If you can get get a cheap deal on a closer, I'd consider adding one. But if you're legitimately in first in a roto league (not b/c you're over the IP pace by 50 or b/c you're way up on games played, etc) and you already added Wagner, I'm not sure I'd look for more saves. With 2 good closers, you can finish middle of the pack in saves, which is more than enough if you're great in other categories. This is a horrible trade though.

Kevin Towers must've thrown away a chain letter or something Hopefully DePo will take the fall for their struggles this year and get fired...just in time to replace Hendry.

No, I hate Fenway. The HR lines, the Pesky pole, LF so shallow Pierre could throw someone out at the plate from the wall, fans that are sitting down the first base line are facing CF. Stupid. ETA: Minute Maid Park is stupid too.

My 3 poor, poor fantasy teams. Tulo, Peavy, who's next?

Yeah, I really expected him to come in here and just start raking. Huh.

One more would be a streak. The chemistry stuff is crap, imo. But the attitude argument might hold some water. I do find it odd that Cabrera was sleeping rather than watching film of a pitcher he'd never faced that's as good as Haren is. I thought going to a winning atmosphere was going to bring new life to the kid.

I can assure you that I'm merely brinoch and not a semi-famous personage, television writer or sports-blogger. Just a little Ace Ventura reference. No harm intended.

Shanoff is brinoch? brinoch is Shanoff?

Remind me to ask for you as my opponent litigator the next time I have a contract dispute case that hinges on the contract's verbage. Or should I just say "wording" in lieu of verbage, does that makes things easier for you? did you mean "verbiage" there?

You're a real class act. I'll buy you a Funk & Wagnall's--you're such a witty guy! i don't know what that is, but i'll assume it's from the 1950's and politely decline. or should i "smartly" decline...? You're a law school grad who can't decode a common usage of "smart" really? And you think that "foolish" is the antonym in this case? since the usage of the word "smart" made no sense, i didn't know exactly what the proper antonym was. sorry. Since one definition of "smart" is "quick and brisk" and the bolded section explains how he was using the word, I'm guessing that's what he meant.

Ah. That explains it. I just thought Hendry was an idiot.

BUT HE HAS THE MOST RBIS

being stretched back out to a starter in AAA.

So you're looking to sign guys to contracts that pay them equal or just above what they'd likely get in arbitration with 1 or 2 team options for their FA years?

What do you mean why isn't he considered? It looks as though McCann is leading the All-Star votes and his numbers aren't as good as Soto's although there are very good. Oh, I thought you were saying he wasn't on the ballot. The answer to your question is very simple, and obvious. It's a popularity contest and Geo isn't that well known. If he keeps hitting, and keeps getting awards, all the fantasy people are going to know him, and he'll probably make the team. Believe me, all the fantasy people know him, that's not the crowd you have to worry about.

god awful?

in his defense, it's probably impossible to sell playing half your games at petco park to a power hitter. In the comments section, DePo actually dispels this myth. I'm not sure how much of it is true, but it sounds like he doesn't feel like playing in PetCo is hurting them.

Yeah, but that thread is only 2 weeks old, and it's only been "brought back" twice since then and most of the thread isn't even related to the budhouse comments. The guy who started it has made multiple threads about his hatred for the sham closer. It's not like a one-time overreaction that people are hanging over his head. That was one example. I'm just making the point that if you don't want people to make "I told you so" posts when a player is doing badly, you shouldn't have 5 "I told you so" posts every time Wood gets a save or Soriano hits a HR.

Apparently misplaced his power. Yeah. Good thing we finally got ourselves that power hitting RF we've been missing the last few years. Some people are never happy... I'm perfectly happy with our RF. I just like that we're winning and everyone loves Fukudome and he's hit for less power than Murton, who apparently didn't have enough power when he was in the majors. Right now, whho would you rather have in RF Fukudome or Murton? Offensively, they're closer than you might think. Closer than the salary difference warrants. But Fuku. Offensively (for now) perhaps, but as an all-around baseball player Fuku over Murton. Fukudome is the better player. But he's making $5m more than Murton this year and he'll be making $13m in a couple years. It's just puzzling to me that we couldn't find a spot for a cheap source of league average production.

Maybe he'll take you to the prom if you ask nicely. oh burn. Lets please stop this gentlemen. totally my bad. sorry i posted a baseball stat, was personally attacked, and then took the high road. won't happen again. If you feel personally attacked by that post, you have incredibly thin skin for all the shots you take at others.