Banedon

$20 says Fontenot plays 2b and Derosa plays OF in game 2.

Outfielders don't break stride when they dive for a ball. Manny disagrees. Touche!

Outfielders don't break stride when they dive for a ball.

not a chance. Theriot with an f-bomb after striking out. You can hear every conversation in the stadium right now - unfortunately that includes the horrible Atlanta announcers. Just judging from reading lips, it seems like Theriot drops a lot of F-bombs. I blame all of the Lil' Wayne he listens to. Rap corrupts impressionable minds.

not a chance. Theriot with an f-bomb after striking out. You can hear every conversation in the stadium right now - unfortunately that includes the horrible Atlanta announcers. Just judging from reading lips, it seems like Theriot drops a lot of F-bombs.

Scary...Gaetti and Edmonds with the same OPS+ with the Cubs in the year they were traded. Both had played for the Cards the year before.

Was Soto's fly too shallow to score Derosa?

I agree. You....AGREE with me? Stop the presses. But seriously: I was also thinking about runners. The reason they push their chests out is because in a race, you need to break a plane (one that happens to be about equal to the height of your chest), not reach down and touch something. They are trying to go as fast as possible, by running through the finish line, while at the same time putting the part of their body that needs to be furthest out, furthest out. When a baserunner is heading toward first base, they should also run through the base, putting the part of their body that needs to be furthest out, furthest out. In a race, it's your chest, but in baseball, it's your foot. The reason they push their chests out is because they want to get the body ahead of the feet. Any part of your body crossing the plane wins the race. In baseball, it doesn't matter whether it's your foot, hand, or pinky finger, so long as something touches the base. Friction is less relevant at first, because ideally the way you would dive is so that at the instant you hit the ground, your hand touches the bag. The friction should all occur as you slide past the bag. I'm not advocating that a 6ft player dive 9ft before the bag and let momentum get him the rest of the way. I'm advocating that with your arm outstretched, above your head, if you're 7ft from foot to fingertips, that you dive as close to precisely that distance as possible. When you run out of the batters box, if you stay on your feet the whole way, your feet have to run 90ft. I presume no argument there. If you dive at first base, your feet only had to travel 83 ft (presuming the 7ft foot to fingertip measurement). The rest of that distance is covered by the height of the person and outstretched arms. This distance can actually be a little greater if your dive allows you travel a foot or two before touching the ground. Running 83ft is going to be faster than running 90ft. I really wish Mythbusters had done this experiment right.

I respect that your aversion to it is more about injury, and I feel ya there. But players diving for moving objects all the time in the outfield...and their hand gets to that spot far faster than their feet would have gotten to that spot. And that object is moving...in theory it should be easier to dive for a stationary object. Please no Bandon. Let's not go through this again. Keep your beliefs but know they are wrong. You can't catch a ball with your foot. You can't get to some spot ahead of you faster by stopping running. Catching it is irrelevant. Think of a diving catch. The ball lands at spot X and the player catches the ball just a hair from touching the ground. You really think that you could have gotten your foot to spot x faster than you could get your hand there so that the ball lands on your foot, or you can kick it? Sorry buddy...it's not wrong. It's common sense.

I respect that your aversion to it is more about injury, and I feel ya there. But players diving for moving objects all the time in the outfield...and their hand gets to that spot far faster than their feet would have gotten to that spot. And that object is moving...in theory it should be easier to dive for a stationary object.

It's the same concept though. Getting the front of your body ahead of your feet allows a part of your body to cross the "finish line" faster. The same concept can apply in baseball. With a correct slide, minimizing the distance that you actually slide...you can get to first faster than running through it. However, whenever your feet are not on the ground pushing forward, your body is decelerating. If there were a way to lean foward and touch the base without losing your running power in the process, I'd agree completely. The only time I would ever advocate sliding into first would be to avoid a tag. In any other situation it's just not worth it, both from the injuries that can result and from the necessary deceleration to position your body to dive at the base. Sure, theoretically, it may be possible to not purposely decelerate to dive, but in practice that doesn't happen. Agree about injury. Agree about avoiding the tag. If you're diving through the bag at first though and not trying to dive and stop at it, I still think the deceleration is less significant that the distance you gain by laying out. A 6 foot tall person with their hand outstretched will have their hand reach the base 7ft (total guess) ahead of where their feet are. That's 7ft your feet didn't have to travel.

Problem with that. I'm extremely lazy.

It's the same concept though. Getting the front of your body ahead of your feet allows a part of your body to cross the "finish line" faster. The same concept can apply in baseball. With a correct slide, minimizing the distance that you actually slide...you can get to first faster than running through it.

People that don't like batters sliding into first base, because they think the batter doesn't get there faster. They do. Otherwise track runners wouldn't lean into the tape at the finish line. The reason for not sliding into first is all about injury. As an addition to this, announcers saying that if it was faster, track runners would dive at the finish line. The reason they don't dive at the finish line is because a rubber track to the face isn't so pleasant.

MyCokeRewards.com has a "bonus game" when you put in a sprite cap, where you select on of the olympic events, and if the USA wins gold, then you are entered into a drawing for $100. All of the events that Michael Phelps is competing in are not listed as options.

I'm looking for the weekly Marquis argument thread... Is this the place? *looks around* It has potential.

http://blogs.suntimes.com/bears/2008/08/camp_notes_hester_to_quarterba.html

I love me some Soto, but is he a ROY lock? And surely his main competition is not Fukudome....

I guess he hates catching TDs in the Super Bowl. moose was a punk, he always had some excuse as to why he wasn't performing, and he was never at fault. If Moose was making every catch, I wouldn't have a problem with what he's saying here. The Bears have QB issues...not exactly top secret. But he had a whole lot of drops that were on him and nobody else. Which makes this quote pretty tacky.

Do the Cubs and Cards have something else to do this afternoon? Cuz they are both swinging at EVERYTHING.

Doesn't that say more about pitching?

A D-Lee homer here is required.

That's 2 outs today at the plate. Sexy.

I'm not giving Tony full credit either. I'm not sure why everyone can't have some credit here...but whatever. Tony has his strengths...Tony has his flaws...but overall I'd say he's a pretty damn good manager. Some credit would be fine, he doesn't just get some credit. Really? Dave Duncan and Walt Jocketty (when he was there) sure got a lot of credit. Pujols sure gets a lot of love. I think there's plenty of "credit" to go around...and Tony gets his share.

I'm not giving Tony full credit either. I'm not sure why everyone can't have some credit here...but whatever. Tony has his strengths...Tony has his flaws...but overall I'd say he's a pretty damn good manager.