USSoccer

2 hard hit balls that inning...maybe a good sign

Trinidad Rodruiguez makes a great catch......

dangit

Hopefully we can get Carpenter's PC up...

So will ARam see a good pitch tonight batting 5th with Holla protecting him?

Easily. Hell, they could trade for Kelton, get him to play 3B, and he'd become the next Rolen in about 2, 2 1/2 weeks, tops.

Me too. Me too. I'm sick of every scrub going there and somehow becoming an all star.

Where does St Louis get these players from?? Dammit.

We do so well when we get squeezed...

Oh man... It would have been nice to see Ramirez follow Lee. Z has to have his A game tonight.

Classiest fans in baseball. Yeah. Right.

way to be patient, Jerry....

So basically, it's 2 out of 3 or bust here, right? I'm seeing a lot of similarities to this series and the series in Houston in 2003 where Z hit the HR to keep us from falling 6.5 back.

Why on earth would you waste Ramirez in the 5 hole? Wouldn't you want him getting more AB's??

I'm not sure the Cubs are going to have lots of money to spend. I think Wood, Lee and ARam all have escalating contracts. Z will get his raise. In the meantime, we still have OF and SS questions, along with the bullpen to worry about. The Trib has to be frustrated with the return on this year's investment, making a return to $100M payroll far from a foregone conclusion. As far as shifting Damon to LF or RF because of his decreased defense, that likely coincides with a decrease in speed. One could then argue that such a decrease in speed would affect him adversely from the offensive side, too, making him that much less desireable, while still forking over $10M/year. Then, you have to deal with the fact that you have nearly zero power coming from a traditional power position. That would suck. Finally, just because he is producing better now than he has the previous two years doesn't make it persuasive to sign him. See also, Adrian Beltre. Given that the FA class for this offseason is bloody terrible, I would not be averse to resigning Burnitz at a reasonable price to fill RF, provided we aren't able to aquire a better option via trade. Damon isn't the answer, as JC pointed out accurately. Also, as he pointed out, were in this bind mostly because CPatt hasn't lived up to the expectations the club had, and because the club didn't figure on the drastic decline of Sosa. It will be interesting to see if Murton shows enough the rest of the year to be a viable option for LF in 2006, everyday.

Other people posted stats in the first Pierre discussion, some people just chose to ignore them because it hurt their argument that "Pierre sucked". I posted stats that supported my argument of "Pierre won't be worth the cost". We disagreed. However, the argument was a bit more nuanced that "Pierre sucks". It was more like "Hairston has nearly as many walks in 1000 fewer AB's". But thanks for lumping everything together. Thanks for pointing out the only category that Hairston may be better than Pierre in. You didn't point out that Hairston's K/BB is worse than Pierre's or that Hairston's career OBP is considerably lower, but then again this was argued ad naseum in the other thread. Career numbers: G AB R H 2B 3BHR RBI BB SO SB CS BA OBP SLG OPS 773 3119 482 958 106 44 9 226 206 190 236 86 .307 .356 .378 .734 604 2052 274 537 113 13 30 177 183 259 100 47 .262 .335 .373 .709 They are very close in OBP, BB's, 2B SLG, OPS and RBI, despite Hairston having 1100 fewer AB's. Pierre doesn't exactly blow him out of the water. I'm not, however, saying that Pierre isn't better than Hairston. He is better. It's a question of how much better, and then, how much more is he worth. In my opinion, he's not worth what we would likely have to give up for him. I don't think he's a major upgrade. If we can get him for a Welley and Hairston, great. If it costs us anyone major, I'd rather pass.

Other people posted stats in the first Pierre discussion, some people just chose to ignore them because it hurt their argument that "Pierre sucked". I posted stats that supported my argument of "Pierre won't be worth the cost". We disagreed. However, the argument was a bit more nuanced that "Pierre sucks". It was more like "Hairston has nearly as many walks in 1000 fewer AB's". But thanks for lumping everything together.

The key with trading for Pierre is going to be the price. If it's a reasonable cost in prospects, ok. If we have to give up anything of real value, I'd pass.

39 premium pages and counting... :willynilly: :willynilly: :willynilly: I think the mods need to pull a "Choi for Lee" style locking on all of these until something actually happens. It can't be helping the site's bandwidth.

I don't think anyone who knows baseball would tell you that Wood isn't a good pitcher. That's partly why there's so much angst every time he gets hurt. The Cubs really need him, and he seems to have the durability of a graham cracker. I'm holding a fools hope that he doesn't miss a start, that it was just the humidity or some rust from only throwing 75 pitches last start. But I'm not going to bet Aunt Bea's farm on it.

I have an Adam Dunn update for you... He's not a Cub, he might not be a Cub, and if the Dunn threads continue, I might go crazy.

Somehow I'm not optimistic about this one. I was at the night game in late september where Maddux faced the Red team we beat down the night before....and got owned. Absolutely rocked. Dunn hit 2 homeruns through the wind, over my head in RF.

Was there anything in the post game about Wood?

I would not give up Mitre and Williams with Wood potentially going back to the DL.

Welcome! Check out the minor league forums for detailed prospect info, but the reader's digest version is: 25 , lefty, great K numbers, dominant curve, average fastball and command.