Sammy Sofa

Earn his paycheck? Sure, but it's beyond moronic to single him out when he strikes out when nobody else on the team has a [expletive] hit.

Carlos Lee knocked a rope that woulda hit the wall except Soriano snagged it with a jump catch going back.

Huzzah for Soriano!

Sorta scared that Carlos Lee's love of Wrigley will wake him up.

Shut up, Lou. Ugh, I can't wait until he's gone.

Oh, I completely agree. I want the two of them switched ASAP.

There's no argument over it here. Just consensus over Lee's amazing ass.

Not necessarily perfect, just don't walk anybody. Then again, Lou hasn't exactly been consistent with his first impressions. I'm pretty sure Grabow walked the first guy he saw as a Cub yet he maintained a relatively safe position ever since (at least until now). You can give up hits and he won't kill you, see Howry. And for some reason Samardzija keeps getting chance after chance despite sucking hard (although I don't believe he walked the first guy he saw). The common line between Grabow and Howry is that Lou always seems to have some veteran he inexplicably trusts too much in the bullpen regardless of how bad they stink. Their "veteran-ness" wins out with him. I have little doubt that Hendry has at least implied very strongly that Shark needs to get innings, and Lou's response seems to be as petulant about it as possible to the point of putting him out there at the wrong times and leaving him out there too long.

Well, therein lies the problem. He basically HAS to be perfect his first outing.

Nothing disturbing about recognizing perfection.

Yeah, but Lou is managing the bullpen, so of course he'll be used wrong. His first appearance will no doubt be high leverage, it probably won't go well, he'll end up in the stupid "doghouse" for a week or so and not get another appearance until another high leverage situation.

I'd like to think that being a good pitcher in your most recent amateur stop should be a basic prerequisite of being a professional pitcher. You have higher standards than you think. Indeed.

OK, from now on only good pitchers can be in the farm system. MAKE IT SO.

Too bad.

No.

question: would it be worth the payroll hit to just dfa him right now? he may have been sitting for a week, but even then he was still off by a lot. felix heredia thinks jeff samardzija is horrible at baseball. it had to be the inning i decide to watch the game on my phone instead of listening to it on my phone. spellcheck did NOT look good. while i understand that an injury call up would have been the only way to get gray up, it should not preclude the team from removing samardzija from the active 25 man roster on the same day. Why would they DFA him when they can still send him down? how many times has he been sent down and how many times has he not improved on his return? if he gets sent down, he needs to STAY down until he can show significant improvement of his pitching. I totally agree, but so long as he can be sent down there's no reason to DFA him.

Ugh, enough. This isn't going anywhere.

question: would it be worth the payroll hit to just dfa him right now? he may have been sitting for a week, but even then he was still off by a lot. felix heredia thinks jeff samardzija is horrible at baseball. it had to be the inning i decide to watch the game on my phone instead of listening to it on my phone. spellcheck did NOT look good. while i understand that an injury call up would have been the only way to get gray up, it should not preclude the team from removing samardzija from the active 25 man roster on the same day. Why would they DFA him when they can still send him down?

Uh no. I've already said Russell should be used more and I think everyone is in favor of Shark being sent anywhere but here. We used Marshall and he sucked. We used Shark and he sucked. We used Grabow and he sucked. There is nothing we could do today because even our good RP (Marshall) didn't do well. "Nothing that could be done?" What? Were Berg, Gray and Russell all locked out of the stadium before the game? In no way did Shark have to pitch 2 innings. And Marshall gave up 1 run to the heart of the lineup of a good-hitting team on a day with a very tight and inconsistent strike zone with the Cubs still having 12 outs to go. It's unrealistic to expect the bullpen to not give up ANY runs. They used Shark, and yes, he sucked. They got very lucky that he only gave up 2 runs given how badly he was pitching. Yeah, Grabow had his error, but the Brewers' run that inning was manufactured by bad defense beyond that and infield garbage. This loss wasn't any kind of "bullpen disaster," especially since the bullpen could have been managed so much better. This is nonsense. I'm trying to look at it realistically. Yeah, the bullpen has sucked early on, but a game where the bullpen has to throw 4 innings in a tight game with today's circumstances and it's unlikely that they wouldn't have given up any runs. You look at it closely and the key problem was inexplicably leaving Shark in there (or even just using him in the first place) as opposed to the bullpen as a whole just sucking.

You're still not seeing the big picture, but whatever. Let's just keep acting like the bullpen sucks and it doesn't matter who gets put out there and when, right? Typical Cubs fan defeatist [expletive].

Grabow committed the error and thus rightfully is to blame for another bad outing. Shark shouldn't have been left in for another inning but the fact of the matter is our bullpen is given up a run in all four innings pitched in this game so yes they deserve the blame for the loss. Way to completely miss the [expletive] point. Way to not make your point. Your post is calling out people for saying the bullpen is hopeless and sucked today. I pointed out how all of that is indeed true. So what was your posts point? I'm sure it's a great point. My point is that the "bullpen is hopeless" crap is just that and it's reflective of the same moronic, defeatist mentality that Lou is managing it with. Leaving Shark out there as long as he did is inexcusable. Has Grabow been pretty [expletive] far from ideal? Of course, but to act like the 8th was indicative of more "bullpen implosion" as opposed to garbage hits and defensive miscues is stupid. The "bullpen" didn't suck today in terms of proving that the "bullpen is hopeless." Shark sucked and Lou's management of it sucked. It's pissing me off because every dumb "woe is us" summation of the bullpen as a whole I see here seems to be the same mentality that Lou is using to manage it.

[expletive] him.

Grabow committed the error and thus rightfully is to blame for another bad outing. Shark shouldn't have been left in for another inning but the fact of the matter is our bullpen is given up a run in all four innings pitched in this game so yes they deserve the blame for the loss. Way to completely miss the [expletive] point.

Wait, are people really acting like last inning was ye olde "bullpen problem?" How much of that was just garbage infield hits and bad defense? And yeah, Shark sucked, but who the [expletive] forced Lou to leave him in there for 2 innings, or put him in at all? But yeah, [expletive] it, go with the lazy "OMG THIS BULLPEN IS HOPELESS" crap just like Lou is. So [expletive] stupid.

Oh, come on. Even Fielder hates that [expletive].