Jon

Wow. Definitely onsides.

Nice little burst of speed by Raul to get to that one and put it in.

The suspension is a joke, but how big of an idiot is Hendry? Barrett couldn't start last Friday because the appeal hearing ran so long, but on top of that, he's been battling back problems which prevented him from even playing on Friday (and Saturday and Sunday). When a guy needs a day or two off at least, you drop the appeal and just start serving the suspension. They obviously didn't have a huge problem with letting Nevin be the backup, so what the heck were they waiting for? Only the Cubs can turn a ten game suspension into thirteen games.

Carroll is really starting to lose it when it comes to Prior. Everyone knew his pitching wasn't at 100% yet, but were his rehab starts discouraging? He put up this line in his last one: AAA: 6.2 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 BB, 10 Ks, 90 pitches In other words, pretty good. He looked pretty solid after the first with West Tenn and with Peoria in his last start there. He started his rehab assignment with a fastball sitting at mostly 86-88 and now he's hitting 90-91 consistently. I don't know how anyone can say he won't improve when he very clearly has been throughout the month (and yesterday with his velocity). It's quite a statement to make at this stage by Carroll and, in my opinion, not really justified. I think the man knows what he is talking about in this case. That's a nice AAA stat line but even Rich Hill went seemlessly from dominating AAA to getting killed in the big leagues to dominating in AAA again. I think there is a massive difference between a AAA lineup and a good big league one. Yes, and Prior isn't 100% yet. Carroll implied that Prior wasn't going to continue improving and that his rehab starts were discouraging, which they really weren't. He's ignoring the upward trend on his velocity and really has very little to base such a statement on. And since he didn't even know that Prior always does the towel drill while before warming up (something that you'd know if you ever watched him in person), I can't say he's the most credible analyst on the matter to me.

Carroll is really starting to lose it when it comes to Prior. Everyone knew his pitching wasn't at 100% yet, but were his rehab starts discouraging? He put up this line in his last one: AAA: 6.2 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 BB, 10 Ks, 90 pitches In other words, pretty good. He looked pretty solid after the first with West Tenn and with Peoria in his last start there. He started his rehab assignment with a fastball sitting at mostly 86-88 and now he's hitting 90-91 consistently. I don't know how anyone can say he won't improve when he very clearly has been throughout the month (and yesterday with his velocity). It's quite a statement to make at this stage by Carroll and, in my opinion, not really justified.

An average of 113+ pitches per start in your first full season in the majors is pretty absurd. Really just amazing. As a follow up, even Zambrano hasn't thrown as many pitches per games started in any season as Prior did in 2003. Zambrano: 2003 - 106.7 pitches per start, 32 starts 2004 - 111.9 pitches per start, 31 starts 2005 - 107.9 pitches per start, 33 starts 2006 - 112.3 pitches per start, 15 starts Prior: 2003 - 113.4 pitches per start, 30 starts

Could you imagine if Dirk had decided to play soccer? :shock: He could mess up Crouch.

An average of 113+ pitches per start in your first full season in the majors is pretty absurd. Really just amazing.

Getting his velocity back is a big IF. I don't think so. It's nearly half-way there from where he starter a few weeks ago. Are you saying he was throwing 85-87 in last start? No.

Getting his velocity back is a big IF. I don't think so. It's nearly half-way there from where he starter a few weeks ago.

He does the towel drill before every start or side-session. Since I don't care about the result of the game and wanted another rehab start anyways, I'll just think of this as another rehab start. Really the last thing I was looking for was his velocity, and it continued to progress. I'm relatively satisfied with the outing.

Wow. Zidane gets a bogus yellow and is out for the next game.

Wow. France should be up 2-1, though.

Back to back missed offsides. And great job clearing by Donovan...

Ugh. That was a waste.

What the hell!?!?

Oh you've got to be kidding me!!!

Pope needs to step it up.

Come on. You can't do that.

Oh my goodness that was brutal. What a vicious elbow. And that will be my sig.

A red! Wow! Talk about a turn of events.

OWN GOAL! YES!

Crap...

This is a completely different team, partly because of Dempsey.

Man. What a chance that was.