imb

There's such a huge difference between expecting to lose and having all your bases covered.

sweet, i wish our other players (foreigners) would be more like him

Tradition continues, IMB over Raw once again.

does anyone have a score update? was it just me or was this week of football really boring? I struggled to stay interested all day long.

i see what you did there

(sh)It's gonna happen!

you blew that post right over the water

I was going to go a game diary but I was too drunk after the OU-Texas game. So then I was just going to post a topic that said "Game Diary" and then post nothing in it since the game was so terrible. But this post did that nicely.

When Prior gets here next year and wins 20 games we're going to be unstoppable

pulling z early allows him to be in better shape for his next start AND marmol fresh is better than carlos having thrown 85 pitches he pulled z to go to a better pitcher, and allowed z to be in better shape for his next start. he accomplished two things at once, or at least he would have, if marmol hadn't sucked. agreed completely. at first i hated the move, but looking back on it, it was a pretty solid move and if it worked out we'd be crawling over each other to (kiss) lou

What? So soon? His days as a prospect are numbered then too. Not if he can play center. His bat would play at either position.

he did DFA Rusch after he nearly died Heartless. breastless

03 broke my heart 04 broke my spirit 07 im pretty ok

It was a pretty childish move, but I think people are just making a big deal about it because it was Lilly and he usually pitches with the expression of an accountant. The OMC "have you ever even played sports" line pretty much made the thread though. Like a cornerback that jumps a route, he saw his chance and he took it to the house.

Cubs playoff diary Game two Ted Lilly (15-8, 3.83 ERA) vs. Doug Davis (13-12, 4.85 ERA) Well, game one came and went just about how I figured it would. Webb won a Cy Young last year for a reason and he seems like he might have been tailor made to give our lineup fits (he likes to get guys to pound sinkers into the dirt, we like to swing at anything). Looking it up real quick, in the last three years he’s 3-1 with a 3.42 ERA against us, sounds about right! I literally walked in the door last night about 30 minutes before game-time, so I had to take a quick look at the earlier games to see what happened. Aside from being stunned at the awfulness of Josh Beckett’s goatee (it looks like he just forgot to shave a patch), I was startled to see that the Phillies big four (Rollins, Utley, Howard and Burrell) went a combined 1-for-14 with two walks and eight strikeouts. I said to myself “boy, I hope we avoid doing that tonight.” What did our big three (Soriano, Lee, Ramirez) do? They went 1-for-13 with five strikeouts and seven men left-on-base. Outstanding work, thanks guys! Lee k’d three times all by himself, looking completely perplexed at the wicked movement on Webb’s assortment of pitches. It’s hard to be too tough on him, since everyone not named DeRosa looked just as bad. So on to Thursday! Doug Davis exemplifies the Diamondback’s team perfectly. He sports a 4.85 ERA, a 1.59 WHIP (!!!!), 95 walks and 211 hits allowed in 192.2 innings pitched. That means he has given up 306 runners in under 200 innings…and he has a winning record. That’s the Diamondbacks for you. On one hand, we should destroy Davis. We have a lot of right-handed power and he’s a crappy lefty. On the other hand, he’s a crappy lefty and they seem to always kill us. Do they really? I don’t know, I can’t find the split for that stat on baseball-reference (get to work, guys). Winning this game is absolutely crucial. If we lose, we go back to Chicago down 2-0 with Rich “The offense never scores any runs for me” Hill. Is that who we want to bet the farm on? In actuality, his peripherals are as good as Ted Lilly’s, he just inspires no confidence in me for some dumb, primal reason. Speaking of Lilly, besides looking like a serial-killer, he has been a pretty money pitcher this year (9-1 in games after a Cubs loss) and Doug Davis is dog-crap, so I feel good. After the game last night, I kept the TV on TBS and watched the post-game stuff, and you know what? It was really pretty enjoyable. Obviously the chemistry between EJ, Cal Ripken and Frank Thomas is nowhere near the level that Johnson enjoys with Barkley and Kenny “The Jet” Smith, but it’s not bad. Something about Ernie Johnson just puts me in a good mood. Maybe it’s his desperate “hey guys, check out these Weezer glasses I got, cool right?” clinging to his younger days. Whatever it is, it works. Quick note, I just looked at the Rockies and the Phillies starting pitchers today. I only saw their respective last names, Kendrick and Morales. I couldn’t tell you their first names if you gave me a hundred guesses (Maybe I could, I bet they’re Spanish). Rockies and Phillies, playoff baseball on TBS! None of that sentence sounded right. Anyway, on to the diary! (Or dairy, if you have dyslexia. Or have dyslexic, like Kige Ramsey would say.) 9:07 – Soriano (0-5 last night) digs in and takes the first pitch for a strike. Meanwhile, the graphic on the bottom of the screen shows that Cleveland is up 12-3 over New York. All my poser Yankee fan friends can suck a fat one. 9:08 – Soriano strikes out on a pitch that bounced about 11-feet in front of the plate. Doug Davis has the slowest windup I have ever seen, even Steve Trachsel was complaining. 9:10 – Theriot lines a single over Reynolds and into leftfield. Now it’s time for Lee and Ramirez to do something. If Theriot gets a good read, he could probably take second here. 9:13 – And Lee grounds into a force out at second. The one-to-ten jokes are already flying. “On a scale of 1-10, Lee looks pretty bad right now.” 9:16 – Ramirez K’s on a 60-mph breaking pitch. Last night Soriano, Lee and Ramirez went 1-13, in the first inning? They combine to go 0-3 with three strikeouts. Great start, fellas. 9:18 – I switch over to FX during commercial to check out “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” and apparently Dee and Charlie are working at a Bennigan’s-type restaurant. Can’t wait to watch that when the game ends. 9:20 – Lilly walks Chris Young to lead off the bottom of the 1st. Playing with fire, guys. 9:22 – Lilly is alternating between throwing fastballs two-feet out of the zone and slow, lazy pickoff moves to first. Bad feeling creeping in. 9:27 – With Chris Young dancing around on first base, Lilly looks confused with whether to go home or to first with each leg kick. This is why you don’t walk the leadoff guy. 9:29 – Eric Byrnes walks, putting runners on first and second for Conor Jackson. I’m pretty much totally anticipating a bases-clearing double right now. 9:31 – Jackson grounds into an apparent double-play, but Lee drops a low toss from Theriot, leaving runners on first and third with two outs for that bastard Mark Reynolds. 9:34 – Lilly bears down and whiffs Reynolds. 0-0 after one inning (the score is low but my blood-pressure is sky high. That there’s a joke, folks.) 9:38 – Matt Murton leads off the second inning with a little chopper that bounces off the bare-hand of Mark Reynolds. I can’t count how many times in the last two years that Murton has reached first on one of those crap singles. Either he’s mastered the art, or he’s one lucky SOB. 9:41 – GEOVANY SOTO rips a liner to LF that sneaks over the fence, giving the Cubs their first lead of the series. Davis (95 walks in the regular season) went to a 3-1 count, lobbed in a meatball and Soto spanked it. On a scale of one-to-ten, I feel pretty good right now. 9:46 – Lilly bunts foul for the third time in his at-bat – strikeout. The Cubs pitchers have been absolutely brutal at bunting all year. Lilly is going to go back to the dugout and turn someone’s skin into a lampshade. 9:56 – Lilly gives up a single, walks Justin Upton and throws a first-pitch ball to Augie Ojeda. At this point I’m think of turning him into a lampshade. 9:59 – Doug Davis taps a sac bunt to Lilly, who lets it sneak under his glove. Luckily Ramirez fielded it and threw him out at first. Dick Stockton offered up this fantastic play-by-play, “Lee……………………………………………………………”. Thanks Dick. 10:03 – Literally seconds after I told my brother “have to be careful with Young, he could hit one out and make it 3-2”, he hits one out and makes it 3-2. To be fair to Lilly, the homer barely snuck out of the park, winding up in about the 45th row in leftfield. 10:06 – Eric Byrnes triples in a run off the left-field wall, making it 4-2. Lilly is getting rocked but if we go to the pen, who comes in, Marquis? Can’t say I feel too positive about that. 10:09 – Well, we’re out of the inning, time for the fifteenth frankTV commercial of the night. At this point, I hate these commercials almost as much as I hate the Diamondbacks. 10:22 – Freaking Mark Reynolds dumps a single into right field. I’m really sick of him right now. Lilly appears to have absolutely nothing. 10:24 – Chris Snyder grounds into a double-play, Theriot-to-DeRosa-to-Lee. Snyder, who might actually be slower than GEOVANY SOTO, looked to be either halfway to first or maybe ordering a hot dog. 10:30 – “You know what the Cubs need to do? They need to get in that ass,” says my mom, who has apparently been watching BET again. 10:37 – Ojeda reaches on a bunt single. That’s all well and good except for the fact that he was about a foot out of the baseline. I really, really, really hate this Diamondbacks team. 10:43 – Lilly walks his fourth batter of the game, putting runners at first and second and bringing Soto out to the mound. How do you think that conversation is going? “What?” “Que?” “What?” “Que?” “What?” “Que?” 10:46 – Stephen Drew laces a triple into right-field, scoring two runs and putting me on suicide watch. The score’s now 6-2 and Ted Lilly is busy sharpening his cutting tools in the locker room. Stephen Drew has quickly become my most hated person on the planet. 10:50 – I inexplicably get a prank phone-call from someone using a Crank-Yankers soundboard. Truly the pinnacle of comedy, I thought I had flashed back to 2001 for a minute there. 10:52 – I just realized that it’s only the bottom of the fourth. God Lilly and Davis were working slow. There’s still a chance guys, maybe we can hit five solo homeruns. 10:58 – Soriano destroys one, bouncing it off the wall and missing a homerun by about a foot. Byrnes wildly throws the ball in and it literally almost hit the first base dugout in the air…and inexplicably Soriano returned to first base. On a side note, I thought that I hated the “light guy” from last night, but the idiots in that seat now are constantly waving during every pitch of every at-bat, and I think I hate them more. 11:01 – SON OF A BITCH! Theriot crushes one to left, unfortunately it only traveled 470-feet, so it ended up being a lazy, warning-track flyball. I really hate this ballpark. 11:06 – Ramirez whiffs after going up in the count 3-1. Soriano, Lee and Ramirez are a combined 1-for-9 tonight and 2-for-21 in the series. Sweet. 11:17 – Someone just walked and there are runners on first and second for Augie Ojeda. I don’t even know what’s going on, anymore. Apparently Lou is taking Hart out and bringing in Scott Eyre, who looks to have just downed a 12-pack in the bullpen. This will not end well. 11:24 – Augie F’ing Ojeda just singled in a run. What in the world is going on? It’s like I entered into a bizarro world. The liner went straight up the middle and bounced off one of Scott Eyre’s fat, sausage-like fingers. Arizona leads 7-2. Those new episodes of Sunny are looking pretty good right now. 11:28 – Justin Upton just scored, but I don’t really know how, because I was too busy tying the noose around my neck. Of course, Dick Stockton announced it as “Mark Reynolds crossing the plate”. I’m surprised he refer to the bunt as a layup. 11:38 – Did you guys know that Frank Caliendo is getting a new show? I know, crazy, right? 11:41 – Soto flies out 683 feet to centerfield. Have I mentioned that I hate this field, yet? 11:52 – Daryle Ward works the count to 3-1. Theoretically he could walk here and load the bases, and a single swing could get us right back in the game. Theoretically, I might [expletive] out a Nokia. 11:53 – Ward, our best pinch hitter all year, just drove in two runs with an absolute shot to straightaway center that just missed the 576 sign that’s painted on the wall out there. 11:55 – Our $136 million dollar man just struck out for the third time today. The big three are now a combined 2-for-22 with ten strikeouts. Fantastic. 12:00 – I can’t believe it’s just the bottom of the sixth inning. We’re going on three hours now for god’s sake. Kerry Wood just blew away Eric Byrnes to get the first out of the inning. They just showed him on the mound and a guy in a Prior jersey in the stands (it might as well have actually been Prior for all I know). That just made me really, really sad. 12:10 Derrek Lee just singled into center and Ron Darling said something about the Cubs not wanting to have to win three in-a-row against this “Diamondclub” squad. Excellent insight. 12:13 – “Frank Caliendo is changing the face of something something”. Sorry, I dozed off there the minute I saw a preview for that show for the twelve-hundredth time. 12:23 – Stephen Drew just threw someone out at first, eliciting cheers from the crowd. I hate this guy so much right now. 12:26 – The camera pans to Ronnie Woo Woo sitting (actually, standing) in the crowd. Oh, wow, that must just be great. Pay a few hundred bucks to come watch the Cubs lose, and you’re stuck next to Ronnie Woo Woo. I’m surprised that no one has chucked him onto the field yet. 12:38 – Is this thing over with yet? Oooh, another Dane Cook commercial. On a scale of one-to-ten, who do you hate more, Dane Cook or Frank Caliendo? 12:43 – Alright, a single up the middle for Soriano. Now if Theriot gets a hit, and Lee homers and Aramis homers….maybe, just maybe. 12:46 – Uh oh, Theriot just grounded into an easy double-play ball, but Ojeda bobbled the toss (off of his head, no less) and everyone is safe. Maybe, just maybe. 12:49 – Of course, I forgot that god hates me, and Lee gets blown away by a 96-mph fastball. Up to Aramis now. 12:50 – Chris Snyder misses a ball in the dirt and Soriano and Theriot advance to second and third. A base hit will most likely cut the lead to two, now. 12:51 – Well, Ramirez strikes out swinging and the game is over. I’m not sure what to think about tonight, to be honest. I was willing to let game one slide, since Webb is so good, and Zambrano pitched so well. Tonight is a different story, there is no way we should have performed so poorly. It’s interesting that Lou took Zambrano out too soon and probably left Lilly in too long. One thing’s for sure, Soriano, Lee and Ramirez are going to have to produce some runs, or Saturday night is it for us. The bad news is, of course, that we’re down two games-to-none. The good news is that the Diamondbacks next two pitchers are Livan Hernandez and Micah Owings, and our next two pitchers are Rich Hill and Carlos Zambrano. We can tie this thing up. Hell, we’re going back to Chicago, we SHOULD tie this game up. They showed a stat on TBS tonight that said that something like only 2-out-of-50 teams that have gone down 2-0 have come back to win. If we were to get back to 2-2, though, we’d be throwing Lilly on normal rest, and who wouldn’t feel good about that? In conclusion, we’re down, but not out. On a scale of one-to-ten, we're still in it. See you guys on Saturday.

I like how everyone assumed I was talking about them, specifically. I'm not too stoked about this outcome, either. But i've read over a dozen "TED LILLY IS A PIECE OF [expletive]!" and "DERREK LEE IS AN OVERRATED PIECE OF GARBAGE!" comments. Take it easy, fellas.

I know that emotions run high in the game threads, but a lot of you guys are really just terrible people.

thanks a lot silver, you dick

Jocketty gone Yost back Thanks, guys.

I seriously was wondering that very thing before the game. It's not like with Ron Darling (who was terrible), who we know has announced baseball for years. The only time I've heard Stockton's voice has been during basketball. It was like the first time I heard Gary Thorne doing baseball, my mind couldn't wrap itself around the fact that I wasn't watching hockey.

Game one Carlos Zambrano (18-13, 3.95 ERA) vs. Brandon Webb (18-10, 3.01 ERA) . It’s 8:22 p.m., I just walked in the door and the nerves just hit me. The Cubs are in the playoffs for the first time since 2003! In 2003 I had a really good feeling about the series against the Atlanta, going so far as to guarantee a series victory to my Braves fan friend. This series I don’t feel so confident about. I think we’re the better of the two teams but I also think that we’re the Cubs and that god hates us. Offensively, we’re the better team (we scored 752 runs this year, Arizona – 712). I think our pitching staff is overall better, though their bullpen is probably the superior of the two pens. We allowed only 690 runs this season and the D’Backs gave up 732. Final total? We scored four more runs and allowed 42 less, a swing of 82 runs. Unfortunately, the god bonus that Arizona has going for them – or more accurately, we have going against us – is probably worth more than 82 total runs. Oh, and if you don’t think that god is a D’Backs fan, look at this stat. Arizona won 32 one-run games this year, most in the league. 8:35 – Ernie Johnson, Cal Ripken and Frank Thomas are commentating over highlights of the Rockies vs. Phillies game. No Kenny “The Jet” Smith or Charles Barkley? I guess Barkley wasn’t available so they grabbed another fat Aubur alum. Somehow, seeing Cal Ripken’s face in a “gone-fishing” hat just isn’t going to cut it. 8:42 – They just cut to a shot of starting Diamondbacks third baseman Mark Reynolds. Who in the hell is Mark Reynolds? I didn’t even realize that Chad Tracy was injured. A quick look at http://www.baseball-reference.com shows that he’s a rookie with 17 homeruns and 129 strikeouts in 366 at-bats this season. He’s striking out in more than one-third of his at-bats. We’re going to eat him alive, and he’s batting fifth! Maybe I’m starting to feel a little better about things. 8:56 – Here’s another clip of the Barrett/Zambrano “tussle”. Great work guys, what’s next, Bartman? Hey did you know that we’re cursed by a goat? A GOAT. Go to hell TBS. 9:01 – Are you kidding me? Dick Stockton is announcing this game? Does he even know anything about baseball? I feel like I should be making fun of Craig Sager’s suits and watching Kobe take 40 jumpers. Stockton’s partner in the booth tonight? Ron Darling, best known for his roles in Shallow Hall and The Day After Tomorrow. Oh, and that [expletive] with the Mets, too. 9:02 – Barrett vs. Zambrano reference No. 2. Is this the new Bartman video? 9:07 – First pitch to Soriano – groundout to Reynolds. I have a feeling we’ll see a lot of those tonight. Soriano might see a total of five pitches during the whole game. 9:11 – Derrek Lee strikes out, I have a feeling we’ll be seeing a few of those, too. 9:14 – Leadoff single by Chris Young. Bad feeling returning. Now he steals a base. No way we keep Arizona from scoring this inning. 9:22 – Hey, I was wrong. Byrnes grounded out and Zambrano came back to strikeout Clark after falling behind 3-0. Somehow Zambrano only threw 17 pitches in the first despite going to two three ball counts. 9:31 – Arizona’s bottom half of the lineup is seriously 5. Mark Reynolds, 6. Jeff Salazar, 7. Chris Snyder and 8. Augie Ojeda. Are you joking me? I know they’re banged up right now, but these guys are game-one starters on a 90-win team? 9:39 – Zambrano leads off the third with a first pitch double! Webb grooved one down the middle and Zambrano, one of the best hitting pitchers in baseball, laced it to opposite field. We’ve got to take advantage of this because Webb isn’t going to give us many chances to score. 9:45 – And in true Cubs fashion, Soriano, Jones and Lee all strike out. That may be the best chance we’ll have to score off Webb all night and we just effed it up. I have a feeling that we’ll lose by one and I’ll be cursing myself to sleep tonight. 9:51 – Zambrano catches Webb looking on one of the nastiest breaking pitches you’ll ever see. Webb seriously looked like he wanted to [expletive] himself. Zambrano follows that up by striking out Chris Young on four pitches. Z has his A+++ stuff tonight, he’s going to be tough to hit, especially when your 5-6-7-8 hitters are all god-awful. Good feeling returning. 9:55 – Aramis Ramirez blasts a first pitch from Webb deep into right center….for an out. Missed a homer by about ten feet. Would that have been a home run in Wrigley? I can’t tell, these domed stadiums always seem to be about 100 feet larger than normal parks to me. Every dome looks like the Polo Grounds for some reason. 9:59 – DeRosa just got beaned in the elbow. I don’t know about you, but it certainly looked intentional to me, should probably throw Webb out of the game. Hint hint hint hint hint. 10:04 – Steven Drew interrupts his busy schedule of being a freaking midget to blast what looks like a 430-foot homerun to dead center. Sure would have been nice to get Zambrano across the plate back in the third. 10:12 – Theriot grounds a one-hopper to third and my brother and I both simultaneously yell “THROW IT AWAY” and Reynolds does! Theriot advances to second base to lead off the inning. 10:13 – Zambrano belts another first pitch offering from Webb, but that midget Drew and his 44-inch vertical leaps up and makes the grab. Tying run is still on second with one out. God that would have been big. I really think that Drew is going to be the “Cub killer” in this series. 10:15 – Soriano lines out to Young and Jones grounds out to end the inning. Webb is giving us chances and we’re not taking advantage of them. I have a feeling that I’m really going to be unhappy at the end of the day. 10:28 – Derrek Lee leads off the sixth with a single, only the Cubs third hit of the night and their fifth base runner. One of these innings we’re going to make one count. Or we’re going to get shutout and I’m going to chuck my laptop out the window. 10:29 – Ramirez strikes out swinging but Lee advances to second as the ball skips away from Snyder. Third time tonight we’ve gotten a guy on second. At this point I’ll burn incense and sacrifice a goat if it meant that someone would single in a run here. 10:34 – DeRosa works a walk and Webb goes to a 3-0 count on GEOVANY SOTO (name capitalized because he deserves it). 10:36 – GEOVANY SOTO walks on four straight, bringing Arizona’s pitching coach out to the mound. Bases loaded for Ryan Theriot. 10:38 – Theriot bounces one over the third baseman’s head, driving in Lee and tying it up! Drew fielded it and I thought for sure that he would throw someone out, further cementing his status as this series’ Cub-killer, but everyone reached. Zambrano’s up now with a big chance to help himself and break this ish wide open. 10:39 – Webb takes this Zambrano at-bat seriously and strikes him out on three pitches. Oh well, game’s tied at one apiece 10:41 – I’m watching the game with my mom and she just asked me “On a scale of one-to-ten, does anyone want cookies?” I said yes, only pointing out afterwards that the question didn’t really make sense. The she said “Oh. On a scale of one-to-ten, how much money do you have?” I don’t think she understands questions. 10:44 – Zambrano wipes out Young with a series of just filthy, disgusting pitches. Outside of one bad pitch to Drew, this may be his best game of the year. As soon as I say that, Stephen F’ing Drew laces a single to left. My hatred for this guy is growing. 10:53 – Dick Stockton just said “this is a pitcher’s duel, Ron Darling, but it’s not an air-tight one.” And Darling replied “Yeah, both pitchers are giving up some runners.” Well, ignoring the fact that unless you throw a perfect game, every starter is going to give up some base runners, Zambrano has only given up five base runners in six innings and Webb has just given seven (eight if you count the time Theriot reached on an error). Good analysis guys. 10:59 – Piniella takes out Z and puts in Marmol, our best relief pitcher this year. On one hand, I like this move. Oh, wait, I actually hate it. Zambrano had only thrown 85 pitches, and this means we either A.) use Marmol for two innings or we B.) go Marmol, Howry and (gulp) Dempster. Z seemed to be cruising, why take him out? Especially in a game that looks like it has a good chance to go into extra’s. Maybe they’re trying to save his arm for a possibly game four? 11:01 – Are you crapping me? The very first batter, the same Mark Reynolds who I killed in the beginning of this diary, just bombed a home run to left field. Son of a bitch, 2-1 D’Backs. I want to throw up. 11:08 – And Augie Ojeda doubles Snyder over to third. In his entire Cub’s career, Augie Ojeda accomplished absolutely nothing, of course he would double against our best reliever. 11:09 – Conor Jackson hits a sac fly to CF, scoring Snyder from third. Shockingly, Jones actually didn’t 12-hop his throw to the plate. 3-1, DBacks. My life is over. 11:15 – In comes Brandon Lyon to pitch to Aramis Ramirez. Lyon has a .251 average against and he’s walked 40 batters in 70-some-odd innings, so it’s definitely possible to get on base against him. We better hurry it up, too, because we aren’t going to score off the rest of the Diamondback bullpen. 11:17 – Aramis flies out 650 feet to the warning track in right field for the second time tonight. Floyd follows it up by lining one 478 feet to the warning track in the right field corner. I hate this stadium and I hate the Diamondbacks. 11:28 – Howry comes in and shuts down Arizona 1-2-3, giving us a chance if we can scrape together more than one base runner this inning. 11:30 – I just showed my mom a series of pictures that compared the size of the Earth to the size of various gigantic stars. She said “Weird, and to think that we’re the greatest planet on Earth.” You sure about that, mom? 11:34 – Some guy wearing blue Under Armor and drinking a water just held up a blinking Cubs LED sign. The umps barked at him and he put it away, but upon closer inspection, he was sitting behind a computer monitor, which means he was apparently working at the game? I have no idea what was going on there and why he thought holding up that sign was a good idea. 11:35 – Valverde strikes out Theriot on some 97-mph heat, leaving game one in the very fat hands of Daryle Ward. 11:38 – Ward works a five-pitch walk. Is five-pitch walk a term? Anyway, this brings our hottest hitter, Soriano, to the plate with a chance to hit a game-tying home run. On a scale of one-to-ten, please hit a home run. 11:40 – Soriano grounds to shortstop and Arizona wins 3-1. We absolutely have to beat Doug Davis tomorrow, going to back to Chicago down 2-0 would be a killer. It sucks to blow Zambrano’s great start, but I didn’t plan on winning this game, anyway.

Miss the playoffs and get ARod. I think he would singlehandedly expand our playoff window a few years.

Are these finalized? Balsa finished 52nd. I can't remember my sign in name.

O-hee-duh

I would kill myself.