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USSoccer

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Everything posted by USSoccer

  1. USSoccer
    For some reason this is what I see happening after Marshall shows that he isn't a ML starter at this point. I see Dempster starting. And we've been down that road before. Is Hendry incapable of learning a lesson? It's a lot easier to find a random reliever than it will be to find a #5 starter with Guzman's stuff and upside.
  2. USSoccer
    Marshall isn't going to do better than Angel, and is more likely to do worse, while Angel isn't going to get consistent work out of the pen if Piniella continues to use the pen like he has. This isn't a hard concept.
  3. USSoccer
    This is why Guzman is going to the pen. The rotation is not the problem. that was my thinking when i suggested it a few days ago. i got verbally stoned for the suggestion. So Guzman is going to the pen so that Howry still gets the nod in close games and gets shelled? What's the point? Critical thinking, anyone? The problem is Piniella bullpen management more than anything. Howry had no business being in that position if his performance is so bad that we needed to weaken our rotation AND bring a guy up from AAA just to sit while he blows games.
  4. USSoccer
    Again, if Lou Piniella is so damn worried about putting Bobby Howry in close games, maybe he should stop doing it. Like he just did. I called the HR the second I saw Howry in the game; why did Lou put him in if he's so bad they needed to pull Guzman from the rotation? What's the point of having Guzman and Marmol be the 4th and 5th RH options out of the pen?
  5. USSoccer
    God forbid the training staff do anything but tape ankles. You trust them to even do that? Hell no.
  6. USSoccer
    God forbid the training staff do anything but tape ankles.
  7. USSoccer
    You're right. He was starting because he is the best option to start in the organization right now.
  8. USSoccer
    As several people have pointed out, there are other setup otions besides Eyre and Howry. There are 3 bloody lefties in the pen, along with 2 options in AAA. There are 2 perfectly acceptable RH setup options in Marmol and Wuertz that you can use before Howry, and a couple more in AAA and AA that you can use. There's no good reason to justify this lunacy. Maybe Piniella ought to learn from his own mistakes and not put those two gascans in a position to blow games until they fix their issues, instead of crippling his starting rotation. For the most part, Piniella has stopped using Eyre. Only 6 appearances since April 24th, and half of those were either blowouts (the 9th inning of a 7-1 win or a 10-1 win) or extra innings after most everybody else had pitched. So, then, why call up Marmol and then demote Guzman to the pen? All on account of Howry? That's stupid. You don't need to hurt two guys in order to hide one. If they plan on Marmol starting, they're stupid. If they demote him just so Marshall can pitch, they're equally stupid, because Marshall is not going to be better than Guzman, has a good chance to be worse, and Marmol would be better suited to relief than Guzman would be anyway. This move can't be justified any way you look at it.
  9. USSoccer
    Finally someone explains better than I can. Whether it proves to be the solution, who knows. There's certainly no silver bullet approach to this, but I'm all up for bringing Gooz down to the strenghten the pen while Marshall should get the job done as 5th starter. Marmol was allegedly brought up to "strengthen the pen". Now one of them is going to sit most of the time and piss away more developmental time. Seriously, if Howry and Eyre are such a damn problem, then make them the last LH and RH options. Don't weaken a more important part of your team to make a less important part marginally stronger. Howry and Eyre being exposed is as much Lou's fault as it is theirs. He's the one that keeps putting them into setup situations.
  10. USSoccer
    As several people have pointed out, there are other setup otions besides Eyre and Howry. There are 3 bloody lefties in the pen, along with 2 options in AAA. There are 2 perfectly acceptable RH setup options in Marmol and Wuertz that you can use before Howry, and a couple more in AAA and AA that you can use. There's no good reason to justify this lunacy. Maybe Piniella ought to learn from his own mistakes and not put those two gascans in a position to blow games until they fix their issues, instead of crippling his starting rotation.
  11. USSoccer
    I don't believe it. And I am pretty sure it was 2 starts - one for Iowa last season and the one on Thursday. Z has had to leave as many games over the past few years because of cramping. He had to leave the start on Sept 3 for the Cubs last year with cramping as well. Then the incompetent training staff need to make sure he hydrates himself properly before his starts. Cramping is no reason to put a good starter in the pen.
  12. USSoccer
    Who in everything that's good and holy is referring to ability? I'm talking about production. Marshall should pick up for Guzman just nicely. Guzman's success is directly related to his ability to make opposing hitters swing and miss. Marshall is a guy who has to have a low BAA and low WHIP to succeed, because if he's not striking out overly aggressive AAA hitters, he's not going to strike out ML hitters, which means it's going to be VERY hard for him to duplicate the results.
  13. USSoccer
    Marshall, Lilly, and Hill in the same rotation. All three are basically the same pitches with similar styles. That would be stupid. I heard Bruce Levine said there is talk about making Demptser a starter! Now that would be stupid! So what, you want to revisit Wade F. Miller as a starter? The guy who still thinks he can throw 96 but really can't crack 88? The guy who sucked in every appearance? The guy the organization should know has no upside or future? Put him in the bullpen if you don't think Howry can cut it. True. I don't know. I'm getting a headache and the game didn't even start yet. If Piniella and Hendry really think the problem with this team is the late inning set up role, they need to wake up. If they want to fix it, there's no shortage of better options. Trade Eyre. Demote him to the 3rd lefty in the pen. Use Howry as the 3rd option behind Wuertz and Marmol. Wasn't Marmol called up to strike guys out? Now you are going to have Guzman and Marmol not getting any work in a bullpen for the sake of depth. This is so stupid it's sadly predictable. Baseball has got to have the dumbest collection of people in positions of power.
  14. USSoccer
    This is so wrong it's not even funny. Marshall doesn't have close to the same kind of ability Guzman has to strike people out.
  15. USSoccer
    Marshall, Lilly, and Hill in the same rotation. All three are basically the same pitches with similar styles. That would be stupid. I heard Bruce Levine said there is talk about making Demptser a starter! Now that would be stupid! So what, you want to revisit Wade F. Miller as a starter? The guy who still thinks he can throw 96 but really can't crack 88? The guy who sucked in every appearance? The guy the organization should know has no upside or future? Put him in the bullpen if you don't think Howry can cut it.
  16. USSoccer
    Today's idiotic move simply reinforces my belief that everyone outside of Wilken and his specific people need to be fired without hesitation, including Piniella.
  17. USSoccer
    Wade's ready after his "rehab." He was with the team for the Mets series. It's a shame they don't realize Guzman is better than Marshall or Miller. I'm sure the realize this, but they have to do something about the pen. We have no late inning setup guy. With Guzman, Wuertz, and Marmol(?) well have guys that can strike guys out in the latter innings. Do you seriously not realize that having a good starter is about a million times more important than having a late inning set up guy? It's a tough call. What do we do? Just ride out Howry and Eyre all year and hope for the best? Gee, how about stop letting Eyre set up, use Marmol to strike guys out, and use Wuertz as the primary RH setup guy? Too logical? What you don't do is sacrifice 5-6 innings of quality work so you can have 1 inning every 2-3 days while your 5th starter gets shelled over and over.
  18. USSoccer
    Wade's ready after his "rehab." He was with the team for the Mets series. It's a shame they don't realize Guzman is better than Marshall or Miller. I'm sure the realize this, but they have to do something about the pen. We have no late inning setup guy. With Guzman, Wuertz, and Marmol(?) well have guys that can strike guys out in the latter innings. Do you seriously not realize that having a good starter is about a million times more important than having a late inning set up guy? We've seen Wade Miller suck. We won't have a lead to protect trotting his soft tossing self out there every 5th day. Sean Marshall is trade bait. Guzman was doing just fine. This is an idiotic, short sighted, poorly reasoned decision by an inept organization that deserves to fail.
  19. USSoccer
    STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID. Seriously, what is wrong with these people? This is why everyone in the organization needs to be fired. Everyone. Guzman starting is so much more valuble than Guzman making the occasional middle relief appearance. Jim Hendry is a flaming idiot for allowing this. Lou Pinellia is a bloody fool for doing this. And when our 5th starter sucks, he'll have no one to gripe to in his post game pity parties other than himself, for pulling a perfectly fine 5th starter for the sake of bullpen depth.
  20. USSoccer
    Yi Jianling, please.
  21. USSoccer
    Chelsea's central defenders are pretty poor. This was a very blah game. Man U were gassed, and both teams had been shellacked so hard by injuries that it's not hard to believe it took extra time to decide it.
  22. USSoccer
    Why would you take an effective pitcher for 5-6 innings and make him into a 1 inning guy every couple days?
  23. USSoccer
    It's not Hendry exacerbating overaggresive tendencies in hitters, or underemphasizing command in pitchers. It's the development people, the minor league coaches and instructors. Those may be dictated by Hendry/Hughes, or may not, but why waste time trying to find out?
  24. USSoccer
    They might want a fresh start, but what you're proposing is firing every coach in the system, plus a few assorted others. No ownership group could possibly hire a GM who could do that in a single season, and only maybe in 2-3 seasons. There's simply no way to have a good chance to find, interview and hire that many people while at the same time trying to get done the business of the ML offseason. Meh. I think it can be done, and I'm not sure what real business there is to have at this coming offseason. This team is beyond more than one or two offseasons worth of tweaks.
  25. USSoccer
    It really doesn't matter how good or bad Wilken is. If the same development people are in place, and the same GM, then the end result is still going to be the same. We're still not going to develop any kind of consistent ML talent. When was the last time the Cubs developed a really, really good position player? Grace?
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