Dirt Dog Sparly

Its the old baseball glib saying that is 100% truth. "You just have to play them one at a time." Its all a moot point till if/when the Cubs get that far. Dont worry about it now, ulcers arent any fun. Edited to add. Ask me again if this question becomes relevant to the Cubs.

The pen needs a go to shut down guy so Lou will quit riding Marmol like a rented mule. A bat off the bench with some pop would be nice, but who would go or go down? Staying healthy is the thing this team needs the worst. Playing better on the road is number two with the bullpen shutdown guy third.

I heard that too. The point I took away from that is that the A's got guys who at least have been on a 25 and are establishing themselves at that level. Laporta on the other hand hasnt done it yet on the Major league level. A bit of looks pretty, but can she cook thinking.

He will be on at the top of the three o clock hour with Rob Dibble on XM's "The Show" Notes from the Hendry interview. (My notes condensed for your viewing) Billy Beane: Very good to work with. One of the best GM's in baseball. Has good working relationship with Beane which made this trade easier. Trade: Started weeks ago letting Beane know of interest. Hughes and Bush scouted Hardin regularly. Beane lets you know who he wants. Deal is not done w/o Gallager. Tried to hold him out, offered other names, but by last Friday accepted that Gally would have go. Told Beane that Gally was going to be swing guy, Beane offered Godan for additional pieces for A's. Open disclosure of all medical records both ways. Youcum was consulted on Hardins health. Players: Godan can fill several roles well for the Cubs. Allows Lou to not have to use the back of the bullpen as much. Hurts losing Gally down the road but it is the time to win now. Murton deserves better than what they can do. If Sori hadnt been hurt earlier this year Murton would have already been traded. CC Sabathia was interested but couldnt offer a player like LaPorta. Shapiro took the package that could help the Indians the best. The Division: The Cards will try to make a trade he believes. Knew this winter that cards would be good because of TLR and Dave Duncan. TLR always get the most out of what he has. The Cubs: Try to make the Cubs as good as they can be. Cant look ahead to playoffs because they havent earned a spot yet. Wont make a move to just make a move. It takes a DeRo, the LSU twins, the guys in the bullpen to win games. (Making the point that it takes a team to win.) Sori will not play in the All-Star game. Talked to his agent this AM. Lou is a pleasure to work with. Just wants to win all the time and that is good. Talks to the coaching staff regularly. Has good relations with all the staff. Notes from interview w/ Asst' GM A's. (Forgot his name. I appologise) Gally was the player that the A's had to get to make deal happen. They had eight of their people look at Donaldson in college and liked him. Gally was turned in by A's people in NWL as a rotation guy and future All-Star. Beane saw him pitch in minors. Murton and Patterson were tagged as A's players early in the minors and they have been following them. Hendry and Beane have a good working relationship. At Winter meetings they schedule a meeting just to talk to Hendry. Fun guy to be around, enjoys what he does. The A's people look forward to this meeting. Hendry is easy to work with. He and Beane are straight shooters so that deals move forward quickly or agree to let them drop. Knew Hendry would not take a no on Hardin. Rest of interview was about A's problems/opportunities being a small revenue team.

In Nashville he would always sit in the the "Latin corner" of the clubhouse shirtless. Very quiet guy, just wanted to hit, hit and hit some more in those days.

Best of luck to Sean, Matty Mo, E Patt, and Donaldson. Once a Cub always a Cub.

XM is getting ready to talk about it on XM175. FYI

Timmy Hudson please.

But that doesn't account for the complete loss of control. For example, the game against the Rays. His control has never been outstanding to start with. His strike out slider starts in the zone then breaks before it gets to the plate alot of times. Advance scouts are there charting the counts and pitching patterns. They see this and pass it onto the hitters. The hitters know in these counts I will be getting the sweeping slider that isnt going to be a strike. Once they get ahead he comes with a fastball that tends to be a bit flat. You cant hit a flat fastball, you shouldnt be playing Major League Baseball as a position player. Marmols bread and butter has been made outside the zone most of the year. Now that hitters know this they are making him come to them. At this stage Marmol is still a thrower, lets see if he can become a pitcher now.

Voted other. League catching up to his pitching pattern sitting on certain pitches.

Fear leads to hate. Hate leads to being a White Sox fan.

After three days of helping bail hay and get it into the barn; the call for ARam's walkoff was better that a tall cool glass of water followed by a bottemless beer \:D/

http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/board/rosters-photos-quick-starts/142293-2007-mlb-minors-pack-logos-caps-jerseys-real-teams-fictional-players-template.html The Icey quick start template. I think that once you load the Icey quick start you will need to release all players and then delete them. Then import the 2008 rosters. http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/board/rosters-photos-quick-starts/ That is the board for the roster mods.

In all honesty there really isnt a fair comparison IMO. OOTP9 is deeper, richer, more imersive baseball experience. It is a Text Sim. If you want Madden style graphics and that is all that is important to you then stay away from OOTP. If you think you could do a better job running the Cubs than MacPhail or Hendry have done the last decade then this is the sim for you. From the Arizona league to Chicago you can have control over the full minor league system, or if you want to you can simulate the way baseball was from 1901. All you have to do is import that year and start your league. Honestly it is about that easy too. OOTP is all about options and the community has talented modders to fill in the cracks for what they cant give you because of legal reasons. The game ships with opening day rosters from this year, but not with the team logos. Easy enough to fix. Download the ICEY mod and now your players pictures will have the correct jersey and cap logos along with the correct logos on team pages all the way down your system to rookie ball. I have been playing since OOTP3. Every year it has made strides improving, and becoming more imersive. Yes the AI isnt as great as a human opponent but for an AI, I have seen lots worse out there. Go to the boards and ask any questions you have. There is a very helpful, dedicated, and knowlegeable set of fans over there. http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/board/ootp-9-general-discussions/

The CBA prohibits them playing more than 20 day in a row w/o a day off. Due to special circumstances that can change but has to be approved by lots of folks up and down the chain. Quite a few teams come into Wrigley every year and play a day game after a night game. Was it last year or the year before that a west coast team got into the hotel about six hours before first pitch?

I personally dont think that Hills problem is mechanical. Pie isnt coming back as long as Edmonds can still run it down and hit a little bit. The emphasis is little bit there. Marshall by process of elimination becomes the first one to come back. LLF however has it right, Hoff will be back before any of the other three barring an injury.

Since I first saw him in high school Uggla has always hit. My money is on Uggla staying hot longer and giving you better numbers assuming this is a 5x5 league.

At least when the Cubs are at home I can turn down the TV and turn on the XM to listen to Pat and Ron. \:D/

May be that he is used to MLB level of umpiring and points that out to the men in blue. Quick way to get the heave ho is to use a personal pronoun. Trust me I know. #-o

Headhunting on purpose no. Pitching tight inside with a purpose yes. Remember a few years ago when the Cubs pitching staff tied up Pujols and Bonds by pitching inside with a purpose? Wasnt it Bonds who threatend Prior after a HBP and Prior made a come and get you some motion back? That is what Dejan K. means when he wrote that. I am amazed since I didnt get to watch any of the games that as hot a Sori has been that he hasnt been sat down yet, or at the very least forced to move his feet at least once since he has been on this hot streak.

Maybe Edmonds was too busy [insert homosexual joke] to pinch hit Actually without the joke it may very well have been a situation where Edmonds wasnt ready to hit at that time. The folks that do know wont ever tell, but since we all are doing a great job with our lives lets take a little time and take turns managing the Cubs. ](*,)

Cant argue with the attitude problem here. Are you sure that columnist isnt someone who posts here? :-s

The evil I know vs. the evil that I dont know completely.

:rotfl: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead:

Will Nieves is your winner tonight.