Andy

I'd love to live in a world where Q knows in advance what inning he's going to suck. If it's early enough Joe could move him to LF or some horsefeathers, if it's late enough he could just take Q out.

Eh. How much would Rizzo know unless he's close with Russell (and there's been no indication he is like with Bryant for instance)? Rizzo would probably, and does probably, know that Russell is a dick, but I doubt Russell was parading around the locker room bragging about how he was treating his wife like property, and Rizzo probably didn't spend a lot of time with him outside the locker room.

He didn't mean to swing at it (or at least finish swinging at it); he was moving out of the way and couldn't stop the follow-through.

All we needed was a day off, now we're gonna score 15

He may end up doing something dumb later or having done something dumb, but I think Rizzo to this point has earned the benefit of doubt. From his perspective there weren't many good answers to that question, and he chose one of the poorer ones. I would agree with Bryant's Disco Ball that Rizzo's reaction would be Tweeted out regardless. He's basically the player spokesman for the Cubs and has been for a while.

ND is apparently benching Brandon Wimbush for Ian Book, which extends Brian Kelly's streak of not having an undisputed starting QB all season to... Every season he's been there.

Russell not in the lineup today. I wouldn't be surprised if there's more to come there since Joe and Co. seemed to be hinting at a Schwarber LF/Russell SS/Murphy DH alignment earlier this week.

Yeah, I suppose it's some level of progress that there's the level of outrage about these things now that there is. Did we know Bradley was a DV offender when he played? It was my understanding that stuff came out after he was done. Of course, we already knew he was an horsefeathers.

Other than being wrong on almost every single thing on that list (how the horsefeathers would he know who has better 'clubhouse leadership'?), that's truly compelling.

Adrien Brody was too. And Dermot Mulroney. That movie is loaded with people.

I'm not great at math, but is it even possible for a swing in batting average that great at this point in the season? Theoretically it's possible, but the combination of the difference (Javy is .022 behind Yelich, not a huge margin but not small either) and the fact there are 8 other guys between them makes it in practice pretty much impossible.

Maybe next time don't spend $10M a year on the guy who you have to baby the horsefeathers out of to get down to a 70/30 chance he's going to get hurt

Kyle is the most fun to watch pitcher on this team, by far, when he's on.

I've seen him actually do that swing like 5 times since he came off. That was never going to stick.

That's just incredible. Never mind that Joe basically never challenges unless the call was clearly wrong (and he lost the one on which Strop got hurt)

God Javy is pure straight badass

Well, Russell is dead, everyone get excited about Murphy vs lefties going forward

You'd want St. Louis to beat Milwaukee? Does it have to do with them having to play Monday, Tuesday and then Thursday (against us) in that scenario? Yes. I'm speaking solely from a pragmatic perspective here. In reality I want St. Louis to lose every remaining game they play for the rest of the franchise's soul-sucking history, but I know that's not going to happen.

With the caveat that I'd prefer STL as far from the playoffs as possible, our best realistic scenario now, I figure, probably involves STL and LA tying for the second wild card and the winner of that tiebreaker beating Milwaukee.

Carolina has wasted the bulk of Cam's career with pathetic receiver play. I'm tired of watching perfectly thrown TD passes flutter to the turf.

Top 25 games ------------------------------ (22) Texas A&M at (1) Alabama (3:30 pm, CBS) (2) Georgia at Missouri (12 pm, ESPN) (3) Clemson at Georgia Tech (3:30 pm, ABC) Tulane at (4) Ohio State (3:30 pm, BTN) Army at (5) Oklahoma (7 pm, PPV) Louisiana Tech at (6) LSU (7 pm, ESPNU) (7) Stanford at (20) Oregon (8 pm, ABC) (8) Notre Dame at Wake Forest (12 pm, ABC) Arkansas at (9) Auburn (7:30 pm, SEC Network) Arizona State at (10) Washington (10:30 pm, ESPN) (10) Penn State at Illinois (9 pm Friday, FS1) Kansas State at (12) West Virginia (3:30 pm, ESPN) (13) Virginia Tech at Old Dominion (3:30 pm, CBSSN) (14) Mississippi State at Kentucky (7 pm, ESPN2) Texas Tech at (15) Oklahoma State (7 pm, FS1) Florida Atlantic at (16) UCF (7 pm Friday, ESPN) (17) TCU at Texas (4:30 pm, FOX) (18) Wisconsin at Iowa (8:30 pm, FOX) Nebraska at (19) Michigan (12 pm, FS1) Florida International at (21) Miami (3:30 pm, ESPN2) (23) Boston College at Purdue (12 pm, ESPN2) (24) Michigan State at Indiana (7:30 pm, BTN) McNeese at (25) BYU (6 pm, BYUTV/ESPN3) Other nationally available games --------------------------------------------------- Tulsa at Temple (7:30 pm Thursday, ESPN) Washington State at USC (10:30 pm Friday, ESPN) Buffalo at Rutgers (12 pm, BTN - Regional) Minnesota at Maryland (12 pm, BTN - Regional) Ohio at Cincinnati (12 pm, ESPNU) Kent State at Ole Miss (12 pm, SEC Network) Nevada at Toledo (12 pm, CBSSN) Navy at SMU (12 pm, ESPNEWS) Akron at Iowa State (12 pm, FSN) Pittsburgh at North Carolina (12:20 pm, ACC Network/ESPN3) Louisville at Virginia (12:30 pm, FSN/ESPN3) Western Kentucky at Ball State (3 pm, ESPN3) Northern Illinois at Florida State (3:30 pm, ESPNU) Kansas at Baylor (3:30 pm, FS1) NC Central at Duke (3:30 pm, ESPN3) South Carolina at Vanderbilt (4 pm, SEC Network) UConn at Syracuse (4 pm, ESPNEWS) Arizona at Oregon State (4 pm, Pac-12 Network) North Texas at Liberty (6 pm, ESPN3) Florida at Tennessee (7 pm, ESPN) NC State at Marshall (7 pm, CBSSN) UNLV at Arkansas State (7 pm, ESPN3) New Mexico State at UTEP (7:30 pm, ESPN3) East Carolina at South Florida (8 pm, ESPNEWS) South Alabama at Memphis (8 pm, ESPN3) Texas Southern at Houston (8 pm, ESPN3) Air Force at Utah State (10:15 pm, ESPN2) Eastern Michigan at San Diego State (10:30 pm, CBSSN) Duquesne at Hawaii (12 am, Stadium)

2nd time in a row, actually. Brutal performance by the alma mater. Great first drive that they couldn't finish and then it was a bloodbath from there. IU looked really good.

They're basically down to Ohio State and Penn State. I don't see any possible way Michigan beats OSU and that's their only way in. None of it matters because Alabama is an unstoppable engine of death as long as Tua is there.

I've had that thought, which is strange because this is probably the worst team of the Maddon era. Sports are weird.

It sounds like his hamstring injury was not suffered at practice, so perhaps that was a factor.