JC

Does anyone know if Nomar plans on staying with Peoria through the weekend? If he does, I may get to catch him play.

http://baltimore.orioles.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/gameday_recap.jsp?ymd=20050727&content_id=1147014&vkey=recap&fext=.jsp&c_id=bal Further proof that it is a dangerous thing to start questioning another person's class, or lack thereof.

What exactly is the purpose of your post? You seem to be looking for conflict moreso than having a serious interest in defending Dusty. You could just as easily come on here and authored a post showering your praise on Dusty. Instead, you are primarily taking issue with people that don't have the same opinion as you do. Veiled dares to have posters respond, looking forward to people eating the proverbial crow -- borderline trollish behavior if you ask me.

I saw the highlight. Barajas was understandably mad immediately after the play. Sosa was immediately apologetic. I think Sammy was trying to slide in hard, but simply made a bad slide. How many players do we see that never apologize for such behavior? At best, Sammy was making a bad slide. At worst, he committed a dirty play, but apologized for it. People sure love to revel in Sammy's failings.

:) Be careful that I don't start a thread about you, NCCF...

I think I'm obliged to retell this joke at this point: So, a rope walks into a bar and sits down. He orders a drink. The bartender remarks, "Hey! Can't you read the sign?! It says we don't serve ropes around here!" The rope leaves the bar and walks around the corner. The rope proceeds to pull its end apart in several different directions and contort himself into a tied up bundle. The rope returns to the bar and orders a drink. The bartender sees him and asks, "Aren't you the rope I just threw out of here?" Answer, "No. I'm a frayed knot." In response to the question about Wade Miller's return from the same injury, there really is no reason that Kerry couldn't return if is just a minor fraying. I feel like I can do everything I used to do at this point. As I said, with high end physical therapy, I would guess Kerry would have quicker results than I did. However, the sooner he starts, the better. Oh, yeah. And anyone who thinks arthroscopic surgery is painless is crazy.

Name W L ERA G GS CG SHO SV IP H R ER HR BB SO Cliff Bartosh 1 0 0.00 10 0 0 0 1 12.0 11 2 0 0 5 12 Not too bad from Cliffy.

Link How long have the Cubs known about this, I wonder? This sounds exactly like the injury I had surgery for last February, only mine was frayed in two spots. It hurt to throw a ball, and I don't throw 97 mph! The repair hurt through most of the summer, but I didn't have physical therapy that a professional athlete would likely receive. Regardless, it takes some time to heal completely. If he does need surgery, shutting him down now and having surgery may be a better bet to have him ready for 2006.

I'm not sure the Cubs are going to have lots of money to spend. I think Wood, Lee and ARam all have escalating contracts. Z will get his raise. In the meantime, we still have OF and SS questions, along with the bullpen to worry about. The Trib has to be frustrated with the return on this year's investment, making a return to $100M payroll far from a foregone conclusion. As far as shifting Damon to LF or RF because of his decreased defense, that likely coincides with a decrease in speed. One could then argue that such a decrease in speed would affect him adversely from the offensive side, too, making him that much less desireable, while still forking over $10M/year. Then, you have to deal with the fact that you have nearly zero power coming from a traditional power position. That would suck. Finally, just because he is producing better now than he has the previous two years doesn't make it persuasive to sign him. See also, Adrian Beltre.

Without question, the corner outfield will be a difficult question to address next year. Without trying to rehash an old argument, I blame the organization for not being more forward thinking when other options were available. But, that is just crying over spilt milk. The think not to do is compound the problem by needlessly spending in an area that has a greater likelihood of being filled from within. Though many people have written him off, Patterson is still a CF option. Then, there is presence of Pie who certainly has more people than just those within the organization talking. IMO, you can't have Damon in center and Pie at a corner for several reasons, one of which would be a striking lack of OF power. I think Pie will develop into 15-20 homer power, but not for a while. He will take his lumps early on, likely finding his stroke and utilizing his speed at the outset of his ML career. So, where does that put the outfield for 2006? Heck if I know. Some people here clamor for Brian Giles. His age seems detrimental to me. Hendry should find a way to pry a Cincy OFer sometime during the off season, but there is little question he needs to look into the trade market. The FA class stinks, and a forward looking organization would have recognized that and resigned themselves to trading some young pitching for some young hitting. Thus, Damon doesn't solve anything. He merely clogs perhaps the only OF spot that is replaceable by the Cubs, at a premium penny to boot. He is a nice player, one I suspect will re-sign with the BoSox. But, he simply doesn't have a reasonable place with the Cubs.

His arm definitely isn't. His arm is as good as Pierre or Hairston. And his balls out into the wall defense strongly makeup for his lack of arm power. You can't have everything!! Unless of course, you're Lee :) His arm isn't nearly as good as Hairston's, and that isn't to say Hairston even has an average arm. Regardless, Pie will be in Wrigley soon. I suspect they are targeting next year now, unless Corey comes around. Giving big money to a "speed" guy on the wrong side of 30 or 4-5 years without any semblence of an arm when the only close OFers in the system worth a darn play the same position would be silly.

I don't mind Dusty intentionally walking Griffey to get to Kearns. While I don't live and die with righty/lefty matchups, I'd rather see Dempster face a righty. Plus, the walk allows for forces at any base. The problem was Dempster not making enough good pitches. (Or, while I didn't see it, Neifi not being able to field his position.)

Oakland is something like 33-13 since May 30. Despite his many detractors, Billy Beane appears to have constructed a very competitive team. They are unlikely to catch the Angels (though it isn't impossible), but when you look at their youth, you can certainly see reason to be optimistic. A good job by Billy and Ken Macha to turn around a club that was struggling early.

All of the articles I've read this morning indicate he may just miss one start. He pretty much refused an MRI, resigned to the fact that the discomfort was the same that he felt earlier when no structural damage was present. Perhaps an edit in the thread title is in order.

I think Brenly made a note during Prior's outing that Blanco loves going on the outside corner. Maybe this is an issue as much with our catchers as it is with Wood and Prior themselves. Just throwing it out there, I haven't seen Wood or Prior pitch much this year to make any sort of judgment. Could this, in part, by Maddux's influence? We all know that Atlanta preached working the outside corner. We hear with some consistancy that Maddux gives tips to players all the time, and Blanco certainly made his name with the Braves living on the outside. I never bought into the idea that Maddux could help Prior and Wood. They are simply too different with respect to their approaches. Sure, Maddux can reinforce the strategy of limiting damage when runners are on. But, do you really need Maddux for that? Living on the outside corner seems more effective if you have Maddux's two seemer, or are a lefty like Glavine who can break his curve over the outside black of the plate. Of course, Smoltz is more of a power pitcher, but I don't see him live outside like Maddux and Glavine did. (Though, I could be wrong.)

What happened to the Prior and Wood of 2003 when they would consistently bust people inside? Remember the classic series against the Giants when Wood hit Bonds one day, and Prior hit him the next day and didn't back down? Has there been a change in philosophy, a change in execution, or a mistake in my perception?

Positives? Its only a three game series.

Question: What in the hell are Brenneman and McCoy doing agreeing with an opposing GM that the price for one of their players is too steep? Doesn't that strike anyone else as odd? Just think O'Brien were in the Cub booth and Ron and Pat said, "Yeah, you should really get more for Dunn than Mitre, CPatt and Hill." Even worse, imagine if Steve Stone said it! :shock:

The thing about Lee is that he is a great guy on top of having this mind blowing year. He is charitable, polite, warm and sincere. Now, I've done my share of defending Sosa as much of the hate showered on him is ridiculous. Sosa had his moments, such as those surrounding the 1998 homerun chase, carrying the flag around the bases after his first post-9/11 homer, etc. But, Lee is the kind of person who isn't flashy, but is quietly philanthropic seemingly consistantly throughout his life. I am happy for Lee. He is a testament that good guys can finish first. That freaking Pujols scares me, though.

Just think if we acquired Gonzo and then next year we landed Damon as many people hope for (excluding me). Two thirds of our outfield wouldn't be able to throw out a guy with one leg.

"Hi, Larry? This is Jim. You haven't shipped Burnett to Baltimore yet, have you? How badly would you like to get rid of Pierre's salary?"

Rem in as a long reliever was silly. Mitre and Rusch are the more obvious choices to come in in the fourth inning of a game in long relief situations. Nevermind that the lineup was stacked with lefties. After the Cubs scored three runs in the 7th to get back into the game, a runner was at third base with 2 out and the pitcher slot at bat. Instead of ph'ing Hairston, good ol' Macias (who was fighting off an injury to his wrist) was selected as the pinch hitter. Ok. If nothing else, this game once against demonstrates the stupidity of a 12 man pen. If the long relievers aren't used for long relief, I can see why Dusty can burn through them.

Okay tough guy. Like I said, I must have been the only person who thought Nomar was an injury risk. Crazy gut instincts. I always assumed Wendy City was a girl. A girl named Wendy. That is a reasonable assumption. Alas, my understanding is that it is not a girl. It is not a girl named Wendy. Only a mischievious frog would make such a mistake...

Color me disgusted. How in the world do you live with an open wound that continues to leak blood a year after surgery? That can't be good.

He actually did give another screen name from ESPN......alot of pages ago. But did someone check it out :?: Does this really require legwork? I mean, why not just wait the 48 hours and see if it pans out? If not, crucify the guy if its warranted. Ban his IP. Go to other Cub sites and post Most Wanted posters. In the mean time, what difference does it make?