CubColtPacer

Lol..well, that video clip won't be on there, but it wouldn't completely be a bad thing if he was on the clips at all-that catch with the Cubs where he was running in hard from center and then slid and hit the ball up in the air and then reached back with his bare hand while he was sliding and caught it stretching all the way back was an awesome catch.

Do the games back count if it is the middle of the day? Right now-6 oclock 08/19/06, we are 9 games out exactly-of course, Cincy hasn't played yet. :D

Eckstein is almost certainly out today..Izturis sounds like he might be unavailable as well-so that makes Bennett the only player left on the Cards bench, and the Cubs have Barrett and Pagan left.

Pierre leaped up into the IVy in dead center to grap the 3rd out with the bases loaded I would also add that you should check out the replay on SportsCenter, but then again they'll be too busy showing REd Sox/Yankee highlights and skip the rest of MLB. Without seeing it, it reminds me of Orlando Palmeiro? jumping up into the ivy in left with the bases loaded in the 9th to rob a Cub in 03-it was the game during the 5 game series, the 1st game of that doubleheader where Sosa ended up winning it in the 15th-was it like that?

It is Wuertz coming in to face Pujols here.

Can somebody tell me who the right handed pitcher is in the bullpen? Obviously Ohman will just be in for Duncan-who is going to face Pujols?

He didn't. Dempster started by walking Edmonds.

With Theriot pinch running, it appears they will pinch-hit Nevin for Howry. One has to wonder if Izturis is even available to pinch-hit today-if he's not that would just leave us only 2 other pinch-hitters today.

Z's done today.

There you go Murton! That makes up for the first 2 times when you couldn't get the guy in-way to go!

It was more of that Abreu wasn't interested in the Cubs than anything-the Yankees got a special deal because Abreu wanted to play for them, and so was willing to waive his no-trade clause without restriction. The Cubs might have still been able to get him, but it would have cost a lot more, and it still wouldn't have been completely guaranteed that he would waive it.

By the way, I don't know if Fox has been diligent enough to report this, but the reason Izturis is out is to rest his hamstring pull according to Pat and Ron.

It's up against the Cubs/Cardinals and the West Coast game. Yankees and Red Sox is the closest game unfortunately, and also the biggest national interest game (same with me-I'm in TN right now). I don't like it, but it is the correct decision for them.

If you're in a spot where you can have the sound of the radio playing, you really should listen to the radio over the Internet. If you need to know where to find it, I can get you the link. It is so much more enjoyable, at least to me. I thought all radio internet feeds were blacked out permanently so you would be forced to buy mlb audio. Typically, the main feed for the team (for this one, the one out of Chicago) is blacked out, but the stations that don't necessarily play every game are not usually blacked out.

If you're in a spot where you can have the sound of the radio playing, you really should listen to the radio over the Internet. If you need to know where to find it, I can get you the link. It is so much more enjoyable, at least to me.

Hopefully Mabry and Cedeno can keep producing like they have against Suppan-Mabry is 6 for 9 with 3 doubles against him, and Cedeno is 2 for 4 with a double and a triple. Jones has also killed him, 11-33 with 4 Home runs. BTW, this is one of those pitchers that Neifi hits well against-he's 5 of 15 with a BB against him.

Who is the catcher then in your scenario? Let's say you can have either D. Lee/Aramis/Barrett/Soriano/Murton to fill 1B, 3B, C, 2B, and LF-as I am suggesting, or you can have D. Lee/Barrett/Blanco?/Soriano/Carlos Lee as you are suggesting. You'd have to find a catcher that had more offense than Murton to make the offense better, and any catcher with even that much offense is going to cost a pretty penny and is probably not available.

There's not a single player out there this winter that's better than Ramirez. I'd take a combo of D-Lee/C-Lee/Soriano/Barrett most games of the year over D-Lee/Aramis/Barrett (on a catcher's schedule). Aramis is better in every way than either of those 2 players. Why not just sign one of them and keep Aramis? Regardless, you can't trade Aramis now anyway. The latter: I know, this is all hypothetical. The former: I think the 2 combined would be better, more productive and more consistent than Aramis. I also think they'd be able to hold up if another big hitter goes down for an extended period of time. Sadly, I don't think the Cubs can hope for any significant improvement unless they sign both players, or 2 players along their lines. Hendry has created a sucking black hole of offense between 2nd base and SS and the OF has so little power between the corner spots it's not even funny. I think RF could be salvaged next year with a Murton/Jones platoon, but LF needs to the big boost desperately. Murton is not the answer there at this point. I'd sign a big bat for LF longterm, let Murt platoon in RF with Jacque, and then he takes over RF fulltime when Jacque is gone. Hopefully his power has developed enough at that point. By then you'd have Big Bat TBNL in left, Pie in CF and Murton in RF. The problem with picking up 2 players along these lines is it doesn't leave much money to fix up the starting rotation. Hence why I'd be willing to have traded Aramis. Ok, let me go point by point here. Here are the last 3 years for Carlos Lee, Soriano, and Aramis Lee: (age 30 now) 04-.305/.366/.525 05-.265/.324/.487 06-.295/.350/.536 Soriano (age 30 now) 04-.280/.324/.484 05-.268/.309/.512 06-.294/.366/.602 Aramis (age 28 now) 04-.318/.373/.578 05-.302/.358/.568 06-.279/.341/.544 Aramis is 2 years younger then either of these two-his worst year is the same as Carlos Lee's 2 best years of the 3, and his worst year is also much better than 2 of the 3 years of Soriano. Why are these other 2 players going to stay more productive than Aramis? Second-yes, the offense in the middle infield is bad right now. However, the power specifically is not terrible at all in RF. Jones is 4th in HR, and 5th in SLG percentage among right fielders in the major leagues. I do agree that a Murton and Jones platoon would be excellent, but if you're already signing Soriano to provide power at 2nd, Murton would be fine in LF without the power (you have 2 positions now providing power that are not supposed to, C and 2b, and only 1 position that is not providing power that is traditionally supposed to, LF). Sign another platoon partner for Jacque, and you have 30-40 HR's out of RF, while increasing the OBP of RF also significantly (Jones's OBP against right handers makes him a dangerous weapon when combined with his SLG-.309/.350/542 against right handers this season-slightly better than Carlos Lee-just have to find a player who can kill left handers to combine him with) Then, you only have to pick up 1 full-time player and 1 platoon player, and that still leaves you with money to fix the starting rotation and having an extremely productive offense.

I said it before, and I'll say it again. Those same champion Red Sox were a few innings from getting swept in the ALCS. The previous year's Red Sox were a bad Little decision and an Aaron Boone homer away from going to the WS. If you tell me the difference between those situations was Orlando freaking Cabrera, I cannot in any way take you seriously. Exactly. The Red Sox losing the offense of Nomar to pick up the defense of Cabrera might not have hurt their title chances, but it wasn't the championship move that propelled them over the top either. I always wonder about some fans who say they have to rebuild their team after a loss like that (the Red Sox losing to the Yankees in the ALCS, for example). A bounce here or a bounce there puts them into the WS-you just have to put out a team that is capable of winning it, and sometimes hope that certain playoff situations go your way instead of the opponents in order to win.

Looking through the batter-pitcher matchups (which are the best indication for who Dusty starts) I would be extremely surprised if Barrett, Jones, Cedeno, or Mabry was not in the lineup. We know Pierre will be, and we pretty much know that Ramirez will be as well. Izturis and Neifi have similar numbers against Suppan, so expect Izturis if he's healthy and Neifi if Izturis's hamstring is bothering him. As far as the matchup you wanted to know about-it's hard to tell. Pagan has never faced him, and Murton is 0-4 with a BB against him. Murton usually plays about 2 of every 3 games, but even with those limited numbers Dusty might play Pagan today (I'm not saying if he should or not in this post, this is about what predicting what he will do). I would still predict Murton plays, but am only about 65-70 percent sure about it-even if he does not, he probably will come in on a double switch late.

you just provided the most compelling reason I've heard for his promotion. I'm still waiting for him to call Theriot "The Riot" Actually, I believe he has. I recall him saying "The Riot" twice within a minute the last time Theriot was up. Yup-the other day when Theriot was in the starting lineup he called him The Riot when they were announcing the starting lineups.

There is the old Cardinal effect..join the Cardinals and within an hour you become a much better hitter.

Was the total there for the defense 3 outs that should have been-(Marquis ground ball to start, Eckstein at the plate, Pujols in the rundown) and an extra base given up just in that inning? That's a whole series worth of defensive mistakes in one inning.

What's with all the pop outs today? That's 5 pop outs for the Cardinals and 2 for the Cubs through an inning and a half-in addition to the 1 fly out.

It looks like Murton is sitting about once every 3 days. It is bad for his development, but probably will actually inflate his numbers this year-he has tended not to start when he has any bad indicators against the opposing pitcher. It is not as big of an effect as other days (he's 0 for 5 against Marquis with a BB), but it is still following the trend.