Andy

Danyelle Sargent on ESPNews: WHAT THE **** WAS THAT?

7-3 4-2 against the Mets too. This team is completely befuddling. The Cubs went 3-3 against the Mets losing the first series 2-1 and winning the second 2-1. Oops

Very true, he hit three game winning homers in one week - if he only hits one of them, we may have missed the playoffs because we won the division by only one game. You'll have to refresh my memory. Did those home runs come when the Cubs were losing or when the game was tied? If they came when the Cubs were behind, then you are correct. If they came when the Cubs were tied, then you don't know if the Cubs would have won/lost the game. One was against SF, two against STL, and I am pretty sure that the SF one occurred when they were losing. I remember he almost had a 4th one a few days later at Milwaukee but Geoff Jenkins robbed it.

I'll second this. Thirded. Also, the mods have done an outstanding job making this place hospitable for said Cardinals fans.

7-3 4-2 against the Mets too. This team is completely befuddling.

Juan Pierre is now 2 stolen bases behind the total I predicted he would get in preseason. Oops.

This is stupid. Just because Dempster is the closer doesn't mean he shouldn't ever be removed from a game. The only reason I am slightly put off about it is that Dusty never, not once, did this to LaTroy, and he was much worse as a closer than Dempster.

Very true, he hit three game winning homers in one week - if he only hits one of them, we may have missed the playoffs because we won the division by only one game.

Usually, the record difference won't be that high though. What happened to Clemens last year was little short of legendary. If you're referring to the best pitcher getting hosed out of a Cy Young because his W-L wasn't the eye-catching, it's happened a few times in recent years: 2005 NL Cy Young went to Carpenter (21-5, 151 ERA+), should have gone to Clemens (13-8, 221 ERA+) 2005 AL Cy Young went to Bartolo Colon (21-8, 120 ERA+), should have gone to Santana (16-7, 153 ERA+) 2004 NL Cy Young went to Clemens (18-4, 145 ERA+), should have gone to Randy Johnson (16-14, 171 ERA+) 2003 Al Cy Young went to Halladay (22-7, 145 ERA+), maybe could have gone to Pedro (14-4, 212 ERA+, but had 187 IP to Halladay's 266) 2002 AL Cy Young went to Zito (23-5, 169 ERA+), should have gone to Pedro (20-4, 196 ERA+) 2001 Al Cy Young went to Clemens (20-3, 128 ERA+), could have gone to Mays (17-13, 143 ERA+), Mussina (17-11, 142 ERA+), Garcia (18-6, 138 ERA+), or Buerhle (16-8, 140 ERA+). I was referring to his lack of run support. The Cy voters screw people every year. :D

The Twins would be twice as entertaining to see in the playoffs as any other wildcard contender.

I don't have enough interest in any other teams to post on their message boards

I agree that the teams record should not be taken into consideration... but unfortunately it sometimes is. A teams record is also indirectly taken into consideration because the number one criterion used for evaluating the Cy Young winner is wins (not that it is the correct way). Who is more likely to get wins, the pitcher on a first place team or a pitcher on a fifth place team? Look at last year. Clemens was the best pitcher in the league but got no run support. Carpenter played for the best team in the league, got run support, and won the Cy Young even though his ERA was almost a point higher than Clemens' because he went 21-5 while Clemens went 13-8. Usually, the record difference won't be that high though. What happened to Clemens last year was little short of legendary.

The last 15 years has been the Sammy Sosa era? I keep forgetting that. Quick, who is the best running back of the Sammy Sosa era? Roughly 1992-2003. I'd say Emmitt Smith. This is a commonly used expression. I use it all the time. I agree, I'm pretty sure Sammy was just referring to the time he's been in baseball and not claiming possession of the era.

Unless you are going to New York tomorrow (which is unlikely considering the game is at 12:10 Eastern Time), you won't be seeing Prior this weekend. According to Cubs.com Hill pitches Thursday, TBA (maybe Marmol) on Friday, Maddux on Saturday, and Z on Sunday. It's Monday-Wednesday games next week against Arizona.

Kobe will never be thought of the same again. Bad enough he was an adulterer, but a lot of people just assume he raped the woman based on nothing more than an accusation. The Duke "rapes" are another prime example. These men had their entire character ruined forever because one woman embellished an accusation. it's a bit of a leap to say they didn't do anything just because they weren't found guilty. also, the duke guys will be out of this as soon as they graduate as long as they dont feel the need to bold the fact that they we're on the team on their resume. Well obviously, I'm sure they did some inappropriate things, but nothing I imagine that was deserving of jail time.

Boston Detroit Oakland WC - White Sox (don't think the Baseball Gods are nice enough to give us a complete Sox collapse) Mets St Louis Arizona WC - Cincinnati AL Playoffs Detroit over Oakland White Sox over Boston Detroit over White Sox NL Playoffs Mets over Cincinnati St Louis over Arizona Mets over St Louis World Series - Mets over Tigers

The NL record for homers by a pitcher is 7 by Drysdale, from the Muskat's Cubs Notes article today. If a vote were held today, I think Glavine or Z would get it, but Webb should get it as of now. If Z continues doing what he is doing the remainder of the season though, I'd expect him to get it.

Kobe will never be thought of the same again. Bad enough he was an adulterer, but a lot of people just assume he raped the woman based on nothing more than an accusation. The Duke "rapes" are another prime example. These men had their entire character ruined forever because one woman embellished an accusation.

I could give a crap about the result. I'm just glad Prior had a good outing.

I'm looking forward to college even more, but I can't wait for Carolina either. This could either be the best football season of my life by far or the most disappointing by far. I'm excited and scared at the same time.

From what I read, Hendry's body language blatantly indicated there was no chance of Sammy coming back.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: The Cubs are unlucky AND (mostly) inept. And for the record, the good things that have happened are thus: Barrett has blossomed into one of the best hitting catchers in recent years. Not Piazza good, but really friggin good. Derrek Lee had one of the greatest non-Sammy seasons in the history of the team and competed for a Triple Crown into September (at one point in late August he was still only 2 HR and 7 RBI behind Triple Crown pace). Aramis Ramirez has become a pretty consistently good hitter after some rough pre-Cubs times. His defense has also improved by leaps and bounds. Carlos Zambrano has turned in a very short time from "3rd of 3 aces" to "ultimate badass player and possibly the greatest human being ever". It's almost inarguable that if you had to pick one player to follow around for an entire season, that most anyone who knows enough about him would pick Z. It's also worth noting that despite way too many pitches thrown, Z still hasn't suffered any ill effects, and this is the 3rd straight year of this. Odds are he will someday have some ramifications, but you never know. Granted, the Nomar deal didn't work out the way we all wanted, but for about 6 weeks from Aug-Sept 2004, the Cubs were THE team that no one wanted to face in a postseason series. The bad things are already listed, and heavily outweigh the good things, but there are two sides to this coin, and I'd still rather be a Cubs fan than the alternative.

I think we can take the question mark off the title now

How on earth did that happen? Motley Crue? That's embarrassing. For a lot of people (me included) that wasn't so much a vote for the Crue as it was a vote against Floyd. A little John Kerry syndrome. We are Motley Crue and we approved this message

Ok, I don't like Aramis that much. He has done some things that rub me the wrong way, whether it be not hustling or occasionally looking extremely aloof out there. He doesn't look like someone that really enjoys playing the game, he looks like someone that is really good at it, so he figured why not make a bunch of money doing it. And, his hustle problems do need to be fixed. Dusty, Hendry, whoever needs to have a talk with him and tell him that anything he hits that looks remotely like it might be a base hit should be run out, and anything less will get you benched the rest of the game. Now all that said, other than Barrett and Z, Aramis is the only one putting up even decent numbers relative to position. So he may not be putting forth the necessary effort on the basepaths, but it sure looks like he's putting forth the effort to make himself a great hitter, and if you make me pick one or the other, I'll take the loafing great hitter over the hustling average ballplayer every time.