Jon

Suarez was doing well through 2 (1 hit, 1 walk, 4 Ks) before falling apart. He did finish with 6 Ks, though.

Iowa fell to Memphis 7-6 Tennessee beat Chattanooga 10-4 Daytona lost to Palm Beach 9-2 Peoria was shutout by Clinton 4-0 Boise lost to Spokane 3-0 Mesa beat the AZL Athletics 8-2 DSL Cubs and DSL Twins were rained out Starters Iowa: Juan Mateo Tennessee: Jeff Samardzija Daytona: Joel Santo Peoria: Robert Hernandez Boise: Dustin Sasser Mesa: Marcus Hatley

Raisin won't be back until late Sunday night, but I'd imagine he'll read this eventually and post about it. Grant Johnson brought his ERA back down to 2.00 with a 2 inning, 5 K save.

Well, I may have gone from commie to capitalist. I checked Ticketmaster about 30 minutes ago after checking at various points throughout the day and pulled up a pair of 1st row tickets in 152 (the same row I was in for the Gold Cup final but on the other side of the row). Wow. I'll have to see what I might be able to get for them, though. I doubt I can find anyone to go with because of the Bears game, still very much want to see the Bears game, and am already going to the NU game the day before, so it would be a long weekend. And unfortunately I can't record the US/Brazil match because my apartment building only allows one cable from the dish on the roof so my 2-tuner DVR is effectively only 1. But I just don't know how I can pass up watching the Bears game since I know I won't be able to watch it afterwards unspoiled. We'll see. It looks like the south endzone is sold out, which would indicate a large Sam's Army section. They said they were going to have a spillover from the original section. Of course, they may just be holding back some tickets on that side for Sam's Army and may end up releasing them.

Haha yeah it's going to be fun. One of my best friends transferred from Northeastern (absolutely HATED it) and has been waiting for the day to come. Between them, Nevada, and Duke, I like our pre-conference chances. If the offensive line can stay together, our offense will be in the top third of the conference. The receiving corp is going to be very good, especially if Thompson stays healthy. The defense has the talent, but I fear that they're another year away from being consistently solid. But we'll see. The defensive line really needs to step up to help out the linebackers. And I just hope Demos can be productive. I know he was hurt a bit most of the last year, but he did not look good at all warming up before games, during halftime, and during the spring. And with NCAA moving kickoffs back to the 30, he'll be even more important. I should be getting my season tickets in the mail any day now...

Looks like they really held back on tickets for the presales. There will be better seats released, including cheap ones, for the general onsale tomorrow. I'm still 50/50 on whether or not to buy tickets, but I'm probably 90% sure I'm going to stay home and watch the Bears.

The US Soccer presale password for tomorrow at 10 AM is CHAMPIONS Here's the cost breakdown: Prices: $250 - On-Field Seats (supply limited; ticket holder gets to take seat home); $130 - Club 200 Level Midfield; $130 - 100 Level Front Row (supply limited); $95 - Club 200 Level Sidelines/Corners; $95 - Club 300 Level; $85 - Midfield; $65 - Sidelines; $50 - Corners; $40 - Endlines. Field Seats US $250.00 100 Level Front Row US $130.00 Club 200 Level US $95.00 - US $130.00 Club 300 Level US $95.00 200 Level US $40.00 - US $85.00 100 Level US $40.00 - US $85.00 400 Level US $50.00 - US $65.00 300 Level US $40.00 - US $65.00

Looks like another correction:

Revised info: Internet Presale Info Bears Presale: Start:Wed, 08/15/07 12:00 PM CDT End:Fri, 08/17/07 11:59 PM CDT U.S. Soccer Presale: Start:Thu, 08/16/07 10:00 AM CDT End:Thu, 08/16/07 10:00 PM CDT Visa Card Presale: Start:Fri, 08/17/07 10:00 AM CDT End:Fri, 08/17/07 10:00 PM CDT Internet Onsale Info Onsale to General Public: Sat, 08/18/07 10:00 AM CDT

Upcoming televised games: 8/20 6 AM CT - U-17 vs. Tajikistan - ESPNU 8/22 1:30 PM CT - USMNT vs. Sweden - FSC and Galavision 8/23 3 AM CT - U-17 vs. Tunisia - ESPN2 8/26 2 AM CT - U-17 vs. TBD - TBD

Internet Presale Info Bears Presale: Start:Wed, 08/15/07 12:00 PM CDT End:Sun, 08/19/07 11:59 PM CDT U.S. Soccer Presale: Start:Thu, 08/16/07 12:00 PM CDT End:Fri, 08/17/07 12:00 PM CDT Visa Card Presale: Start:Sat, 08/18/07 09:00 AM CDT End:Sat, 08/18/07 11:59 PM CDT The regular on-sale is 8/20 at 10 AM. Tickets range from $40 to $250. I might end up getting tickets, but I doubt I can pass up the Bears game.

Ummm Does it HAVE to be the same day as the Bears/Chargers game!? Of course, that's a lot of wear on the field leading up to the home opener with NIU/Iowa the week before and the Chicago Football Classic the day before the US/Brazil match.

Why bother calling it a closer-by-committee situation? Just say you're going to use the bullpen as how you see fit. I still don't get the fascination over the "closer" role.

It looks like HRs are down about 11% this year while the Cubs are on pace for about 24% fewer HRs than they hit in 2006.

Yeah. It's impossible to quantify how much it helped, but it's pretty interesting nonetheless.

Is it on youtube? You can YouTube the clip of them doing it to Blanco. He took the corner while still wrapped in some of them. So it's good to throw stuff at players in futbol? streamers. It's funny. I don't know if it's on YouTube, but LD was getting pissed. He was absolutely covered in them, and the first corner he took while being bombarded he shanked. Hilarious. So those of you scoring at home: Streamers=Funny Bags of Urine=Bad They did the same to Blanco for a good 45 seconds. Blanco just patiently kept trying to clear them away. Eventually he just gave up and kicked it anyways.

Let the publisher know you've got plenty of pre-orders. I'm glad that Pie isn't the one being called up to sit. Obviously I'd rather have EPatt playing at Iowa than sitting on the bench in the majors, but this might be the lesser of two evils.

But is that the result of them playing better or a result of luck? Certainly the pitching staff, or 12 of the 25 players on the team, didn't do anything special in June. And heck, even though they did much better at the plate than they did in April, and the runs per game average from those two months are pretty close. The Cubs were probably as fortunate to win like they did in June as they were unfortunate to lose as many as they did early on. I just said there was a correlation between wins and the tirade. They have won much more frequently since that date. But as Derwood mentioned, corelation doesn't equal causation. Right, but my point is that I don't even see any correlation between the tirade and their actual production. It's not even an issue of causation.

Sure he's been just horrible the last 5 weeks, but they do need him to be productive the rest of the way.

But is that the result of them playing better or a result of luck? Certainly the pitching staff, or 12 of the 25 players on the team, didn't do anything special in June. And heck, even though they did much better at the plate than they did in April, and the runs per game average from those two months are pretty close. The Cubs were probably as fortunate to win like they did in June as they were unfortunate to lose as many as they did early on.

Much has been made of the so-called events of early June by the media. Supposedly it was a big factor in getting this team jump started. Month BA OBP SLG OPS R/Game April .270 .326 .413 .739 4.667 May .261 .325 .407 .732 4.407 June .277 .336 .440 .776 4.750 July .267 .326 .374 .700 4.846 While the Cubs offense did well in June, they had their worst month at the plate in July in terms of BA/OBP/SLG. And yet, they managed to have their best month in terms of scoring. I couldn't find team numbers with RISP by month, but this is the result of luck. They likely had bad luck with RISP the first two months and had much better luck in July despite individually putting up worse numbers. Month ERA K/9 BB/9 WHIP HR/9 RA/Game April 3.60 7.20 3.31 1.232 1.064 3.792 May 4.54 7.49 3.58 1.344 1.107 4.777 June 3.83 8.06 3.12 1.253 1.146 4.321 July 3.26 6.83 3.85 1.307 0.824 3.346 The pitching was plain bad in May, making their improved performance in June look that much better. July was by far the pitching staff's best month, though, well after Lou's tirade. They were unlucky in April and bad in May. They followed that up with a good June and a very lucky July offensively. The pitching in June was worse than it was in April, when Zambrano was really struggling. I just don't see the correlation, let alone any evidence that the tirade actually motivated the team.

Holy crap does Blanco love to dive.

I don't know about that trade. I don't have much faith in Manning right now and we could definitely have used the depth there.

And they pick the worst possible time. There's no way I'm taking my eyes off the Bears/Chargers game. Time to move out of amish country ;-) http://www.tivo.com/i/1.0/1.0.main.041806.jpg I have DirecTV, though, and even though I also have a two-tuner DVR, the apartment building won't let them run two cables from the satellite dish. So I'm screwed. I'll just have to download it, I guess.

And they pick the worst possible time. There's no way I'm taking my eyes off the Bears/Chargers game.