Sammy Sofa

Nice!

Great job, Z! Hit himself out of his shoe!

Nice! And Z gets to hit!

Gotta get something here. Come on, Geo.

I'll take it.

No-no-Soto/No-no-no

Go-go-Soto/Watch him go-go-go

Clearly. Relievers that tend to be reliable also tend to be relatively rare commodities that teams hold onto or trade only for a decent return. Teams that are bursting at the seams with reliable relievers and are nice enough to let them go for marginal prospects are mythical.

Yeah, I'm hitting Soriano/Soto 4/5 right now if I'm Lou. It especially doesn't make any sense to have Soto hitting 8th.

Man, be a little optimistic. At least he didn't strike out, he worked back into the count and he made good contact.

Well, it's an out, but it's a promising out.

Christ, it's like Aramis is always instantly down 0-2.

Whew. Exhale. He was looking much better by the end there.

Lilly pitching poo.

You seem to be suggesting different things. Yes, you probably could snag a reliever for a couple of low level prospects...but he's not going to be, as you put it yourself, good and dependable. Good and dependable relievers are a luxury. Teams aren't just going to give them up without demanding a good return.

BtB, stop saying the Cubs can get a good, dependable reliever without overpaying. This is the real world. They can take chances on scrap heap relievers who might pull a decent season out of their asses, which is a totally different thing. There are no dependable relievers just sitting around waiting to be signed right now. They'd have to be traded for. Stop pretending otherwise.

Good.

My desired lineup for the Cubs today: Theriot Byrd Lee Soriano Soto Aramis Nady Baker

You certainly implied it. Why else bring up the Edmonds move, which had a significant impact on the team? You seem to be implying that there's a good chance that the Cubs would get similar results out of a reliever if they pick one up off the scrap heap or buy low. That's tremendously unlikely. Actually, their "track record" indicates that this could very easily be a very long year. Just last year we went through a similar streaky/feast or famine style of offense, and the team has changed little and it's old core group of players has only gotten older. What a ridiculous conclusion. This bullpen largely doesn't have much of a track record because of how many young pitchers are a part of it and likely will be a part of it from the minors. The Cubs would have to overpay to get a dependable reliever. There's no way around that. You're deluding yourself if you think they're going to somehow sneak a good reliever away from another team without having to overpay, and the guys available right now are out there because they're NOT dependable. Picking up any bullpen FA's right now would be a crap shoot, just like actually seeing what you have in-house. Getting a bullpen FA wouldn't be a huge deal, but if you're counting on them to make a "big difference" you're almost certainly going to be very disappointed. One of the worst things Hendry could do right now is trade for a reliever. If he wants to take a gamble on an unsigned or released one, hey, great, but trading for a reliever right now is not smart at all.

The Bears were not going to be able to immediately help the OL with their picks. That's a pipe dream. The only chance they have to shore that up for next season is through FA signings.

For the love of... Adding a reliever isn't going to fix the team. There is zero point in overpaying in a trade for a reliever right now so long as the offense isn't given any indication it can produce with any kind of regularity AND before they've even bothered to try cycling in some of the pitchers from the minors AND actually given the young arms we currently have up more work.

Oh my God, I am so sick of night games.

Nope. My point is that he got a bit of work yesterday warming up and getting the final out in the 9th. They could have then just sat him down and sent out one of the kids and just left him out there since he had 7 runs to play with.

Screw that. They could have spared a single guy to go out there and handle a 7-run lead. At some point soon Lou is going to have to figure out how to get the kids some pitching time in these blowouts.

its been like a year since anyone complained about his contract Ah, I see you missed the crazy rant earlier this season about how much of a waste Dempster is.