baseball7897

I dont think Prior is done. He is just going through a hard time right now. If you ask me, he still has a shoulder issue. All of his pitches are not as sharp as they were last year, or in 03. His fastball seems to be cutting, not sure if he is throwing a cutter, but that could be a sign he still has a shoulder problem.

I dont like it. Cubs need a impact bat in the OF. None of those guys you mentioned will be a impact. I doubt the Yankees will deal Melky, considering Sheffield could be a FA.

Why do you hate them? I could tell you why he hates the White Sox. He had some anti-White Sox blog last year. He used to post there under a different name, but he says all the same things. One reason was that there was some Sox fan at his high school (New Trier) that he hated and the other was that he used to post on southsiders.net, which is a small-time White Sox message board. I guess they banned him and it was the mortal wound of his life because after that he went on a real rampage, trolling all the Sox message boards, kicking his blog into overtime, trolling non-White Sox boards with anti-White Sox messages, encouraging people to spam and troll the southsiders.net board, etc. He'd report his anti-White Sox activities on his anti-Sox blog (which is gone now). A lot of it was funny to read, particularly his defense of his activities (White Sox fans are bad because they hate the Cubs obsessively, so he hates the White Sox obsessively)and his theory that MLB is conspiring to keep the Cubs from ever winning the World Series. A little too much time on your hands? If you're implying that I might have made this up, I can assure you that's not the case. viewtopic.php?t=22103 This thread contains an encounter I had with the person I am talking about. If that person is not the same person who now posts as CubsBullsBears then I apologize for my mistake. Recalling that conversation as well as some of the things said here as well as what I remember from that blog (for example, calling Carlos Lee "El Horso" or claiming that Mark Buerhle tried to murder Travis Hafner), I simply put 2 and 2 together. Who the hell cares? I mean, this is getting ridiculous.

I seem to remember Gonzalez dropping a routine DP in game 6 of the NLCS. Yeah, I guess defense isnt important.

Free swinging Randall Simon.

I never used to believe in "fairweather fans". I now do. Ignorant statement. I have always been a Angels fan. I even write in LAA fan forums. Didn't you have an Oakland A's Barry Zito avatar before the John Lackey one? Your right I did. The reason for that is because im a Zito fan.

Huge blow to the Twins playoff chances.

I never used to believe in "fairweather fans". I now do. Ignorant statement. I have always been a Angels fan. I even write in LAA fan forums. Ok, well until recently I had assumed you were a Cub fan because of your posting about the Cubs on a Cubs message board. MY MISTAKE IM IGNORATN. I am a Cubs fan. When did I say I wasnt a Cubs fan? That dosent mean im not a Cubs fan. BTW, your sox were smoked last night. http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/mlb/ps/y2005/wrap.jsp?ymd=20051016&content_id=1252324&vkey=ps2005wrapup&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb It's sort of easy to talk smack when you have a variety of teams to choose from. Totally different series if the AL Cy winner was pitching in that series.

I never used to believe in "fairweather fans". I now do. Ignorant statement. I have always been a Angels fan. I even write in LAA fan forums. Ok, well until recently I had assumed you were a Cub fan because of your posting about the Cubs on a Cubs message board. MY MISTAKE IM IGNORATN. I am a Cubs fan. When did I say I wasnt a Cubs fan? That dosent mean im not a Cubs fan. BTW, your sox were smoked last night.

I never used to believe in "fairweather fans". I now do. Ignorant statement. I have always been a Angels fan. I even write in LAA fan forums. Ok, well until recently I had assumed you were a Cub fan because of your posting about the Cubs on a Cubs message board. MY MISTAKE IM IGNORATN. I am a Cubs fan. When did I say I wasnt a Cubs fan?

I guess in a perfect Cubbie world, the Yankees would be consumed by the signing of Barry Zito. The Mariners would sign Schmidt allowing him to come home and pitch; therefore, they are not willing to ante up for Matsuzaka. And well, since the Mets and Kaz Matsui had a bad experience together this scares Matsuzaka and his agent forcing them to look elsewhere. (If he's friends with Kaz Matsui this may help out more). Oh and of course the Cubs have to be willing to spend the big bucks for him. And the Dodgers and Angels forget that Matsuzaka is available? The Dodgers devote all their time to Zito fighting off the Yanks(but lose out). Would the Angels be interested in pitching? They have a pretty good staff as it is unless Colon's injury is something that will persist next season. (Note: I don't know his injury) Since they were rumored to be willing to part with Ervin Santana I sort of ruled them out whether right or wrong in that assessment. Lackey Colon Weaver Escobar E. Santana Batrolo Colon has a partial torn rotator cuff . He has said he would like to come back in Septemeber, but isnt totally sure about that. He wants to rehab the injury, but isnt really sure just yet either. With only 7 weeks left in the year, he is probably done for the year. That being said, yeah its a big loss for the Angels, but Joe Saunders has thrown the ball very well so far this year. You might want to pick him up on your fantasy team if he is still on waivers. Joe Saunders elected to rehab his rotator cuff tear, and he is pitching pretty well right now.

I never used to believe in "fairweather fans". I now do. Ignorant statement. I have always been a Angels fan. I even write in LAA fan forums.

Joe Saunders also.

Escobar was on his game tonight. Locating his fastball in and out of the zone, his splitter was enough to keep the hitters guessing. Good game all around for the Halos.

http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site200/2005/1011/20051011_024623_angct.jpg

This is one thing you can give Baker, and his coaching staff credit for.

The Angels are going to put a serious beating on the sox tonight.

Barrett would be totally lost behind the plate when he pitches. Kelvim Escobar, was the guy I wanted the Cubs to get, but the Angels re-signed him.

I think pitchers baby their arm's these days. Not throwing enough on the side between their starts. Back in the day, pitcher's were always throwing. Thats one reason why they could throw 300 innings a year. Their arm's could handle it, because they were always increasing their arm strength. Thowing across your body can lead to shoulder/elbow injuries. Kerry Wood experiences this problem. Another guy who probably could have a shoulder problem will be Jered Weaver.

Well, no sense in talking about Loretta since you said that you read he is unwilling to come to the Cubs. Loretta does not want to go to the cubs, because he thinks they will never win a world series. After 98 years of not winning a world series, I dont blame him.

I dont want Grudzielanek on the cubs. I was just, having Loretta as the leadoff hitter will be like having Grudzielanek leading off. If you sign Loretta, he would excell in the 2 spot. Just like how Grudzielanek seemed more confident batting in the 2 hole. I wouldnt mind Loretta on the Cubs, but I wouldnt have him leading off. Pierre and Loretta at the top of the order would be nice.

If you ask me Murton can put up the same kind of numbers Catalanotto can. They are very similar players. Both players will have a high OBP, hit around .300, and they both will hit for the same kind of power numbers. Why not let Murton have the LF job? Dosent make sense to sign a player the Cubs already have.

Im not sure you could win with that lineup. Loretta would be your leadoff man. I guess the Cubs could go the Mark Grudzielanek route again. I wish I had the paper in front of me where Loretta in 03 was quoted "I wont except a trade to the Cubs". Loretta will be 36 in 07, and im not sure he would sign a deal to be the leadoff man. He excells in the 2 spot. Catalanotto is like having Murton in LF for a full year. Not enough production for a corner outfield spot. The Middle of the lineup is going to be horrible if Lee goes down again. Same problem they are having this season. Pie in CF, probably means your not expecting to win in 07. I prefer to package Pie, for a Impact bat, or proven SP. The Schimdt idea scares the crap out of me. People on here talk about pitchers being overworked, this guy is always seemingly throwing over 100 pitches in a a game. Felipe Alou probably is worse than Baker when it comes to managing a SP. Im not sure I would give him a 3 year deal, to a 33 year old pitcher, who has so much wear and tear on his arm. If your going to go the cheap way for your lineup, and spend it on a SP, sign Zito. He would be 5 years younger than Schmdit. Zito will make 30-35 starts a year, and pitch over 200 innings each year. If im spending money on a SP, im signing Zito.

With everyone in the NL playing crappy baseball, and the Cubs 11 games out in the wild card, it remarkably isn't out of the question. That's the crazy thing-it's not going to happen of course-but to not even be basically mathematically eliminated is crazy in the NL-the wildcard race is one thing, but we're not even much farther out of the division-13 out right now. You just think about games like those Braves games earlier in the season where we didn't care about losing them (The 2 run sac fly, the Aramis ball off of his head in the 11th)-just a few of those, and we would actually be a possibility for the division. Just a very strange year. Don't forget about todays game, when Cedeno was thrown out at 3rd before the runner crossed the plate.

Time to print those playoff tickets!!!