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He'll get one tomorrow. Has Quade batted Aramis #3 at all this year? No, and he's not going to. He said Aramis at #4 is the only spot in the batting order that is set in stone.

Why is it that everyone here can predict how yesterday's start was going to go by noon, yet the Cubs seem confident right up to the 4th inning and yet another homer given up by Russell, before finally pulling the plug? Seriously, who didn't see another bad start coming? I understand that no team expects to lose 40% of their rotation on the same day but continuing to throw Russell out there is inexcusable. So [expletive] sick of yet another [expletive] team. It wasn't that they were expecting Russell to turn it around but more of the fact that they didn't feel anybody else was ready yet. After the last Russell start, they had articles that pretty much said that they were looking around desperately to try to find anybody who could pitch last night. Once they didn't find anybody, they went back to Russell.

Was that Noah trying to literally take Deng out with an elbow to head? Or being called for 2 flagrant fouls in game 3? I think that was your teamate Mr. Granger you know - Jeff Foster. McRoberts, Boozer, Noah, Foster, and Thomas all threw notable elbows in this series (and I easily could be missing someone-did Hibbert throw one at any point?). It was not confined to one side-not at all. And it definitely looks like Noah got McRoberts with a pretty nasty elbow right before he tried to swing at him (which is also what McRoberts said happened). McRoberts was really dumb to go after him though-at least Noah's was slightly in the flow of play. I hope you're not counting the elbow to Hansbrough's head in game one as Thomas throwing an elbow. There's no way that was intentional. None. If there was another instance, I can't think of it. Boozer, I don't remember seeing but I didn't see most of game 4. I know he was guarding with his off hand when going up for baskets, but I don't remember any flagrant fouls. Noah last night took position under the basket, raised his arm to hold his position, and McRoberts tried to run through him. Noah obviously extended his arm as McRoberts made contact, but I wouldn't say that's dirty as much as it's self defense. Take another look. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1Id0BM9JBM To try and imply the dirty play was on both sides is delusional. Sorry. Thomas's play wasn't dirty, but from 10 years of watching Jeff Foster I don't believe his plays were dirty either. Boozer threw an elbow in game 2? towards Hansbrough. Noah himself said that he wasn't playing "dirtier than anybody else was" and that he "wasn't trying to hurt anybody" He even thought something had been called on him on the McRoberts play which isn't the act of somebody who knows they did nothing wrong. McRoberts was the worst in the series because his was outside of the flow of play but there were plenty of reckless elbows in this series.

Soriano homered last night, right? Yup. Guess even Bruce had tuned out by then. Though it's much more likely WSR somehow screwed that up. That came from the 4th inning last night. The Rockies ended up hitting another home run and Soriano hit his later in the game.

Apparently it doesn't work that often because Hansbrough shot less than 4 free throws a game despite going hard to the rim all series.

Was that Noah trying to literally take Deng out with an elbow to head? Or being called for 2 flagrant fouls in game 3? I think that was your teamate Mr. Granger you know - Jeff Foster. McRoberts, Boozer, Noah, Foster, and Thomas all threw notable elbows in this series (and I easily could be missing someone-did Hibbert throw one at any point?). It was not confined to one side-not at all. And it definitely looks like Noah got McRoberts with a pretty nasty elbow right before he tried to swing at him (which is also what McRoberts said happened). McRoberts was really dumb to go after him though-at least Noah's was slightly in the flow of play.

Good luck to the Bulls in the next series. This was certainly an interesting series. I wish McRoberts and Boozer had decided to play basketball instead of deciding to try to start fights all series. I look forward to many more interesting games in the years ahead although I don't know how or when the Pacers can conceivably be better than the Bulls anytime soon. These teams both play hard and that's really fun to watch.

The Pacers haven't been that amazing at it. They have had 2 really good games from 3 and in the other 3 they shot 6-17, 1-10, and 5-16. The Bulls played really, really well tonight. The Pacers had to have players like Rose and Bogans miss 3's and that didn't happen tonight.

Horrible play by McRoberts. It doesn't matter if Noah started it you just can't respond like that.

I agree (which is part of the reason that the Granger comments at the beginning of the series are ringing true). The Pacers have 2 defenders that can do a decent job on Rose 1 on 1 (although they didn't figure that out and have George and Jones be the primary defenders until game 2 or 3) and have long and active arms inside. That's not a combination that most teams have. The Bulls haven't been able to take advantage of the Pacers big defensive weakness (the size of the point guards) because Bogans is not that type of player. And on the other side of the ball, the Pacers emphasize interior passing which is a better way to break down the Bulls then trying to drive and kick all day long. Plus the Pacers have played more consistently in this series than they have all season. If the Pacers could have played like this for most of the season they would have been at least the 6 seed and not the 8 seed and the Bulls struggling against them wouldn't look nearly as bad. The Bulls will be fine in the next series.

Tracking Garza, his FIP is now 1.25 and an xFIP of 1.93. His K rate is 12.04 (previous 3 seasons 6.24, 8.38, 6.60). His walk rate is 2.64 (previous 3 seasons 2.88, 3.50, 2.77). He hasn't allowed a home run yet in his first 30+ innings despite being a relatively high HR guy in the past (0.93, 1.11, 1.23 last 3 years). His GB/FB percentage is up to 2.33 (previous 3 years 1.04, .93, .80). His LD percentage allowed is falling fast and is now down to 27.7% with a BABIP of .414. I think it's becoming increasingly clear that this is not only a strange start but some sort of adjustment by Garza. That is especially true in the ground ball department-I'd be shocked if he ended up having more fly balls than ground balls at the end of the season. If he can keep that K rate around 9 or 10 while getting a lot of ground balls he could have a great season. BTW, fangraphs already has him as having a 1.6 WAR season through less than a month! He only had a 1.8 WAR all of last year.

Interesting to see that both starting point guards have sprained ankles. Hopefully they'll both be able to go at near their full strength tonight.

When did Garza become a strikeout/groundout type of pitcher? I'm really excited seeing what he's doing but I have no idea who he is out there. I expect his HR rate to somewhat normalize as the weather warms up but the K's and GB/FB rate I have no idea about.

No, he shouldn't "be sat" for a game. That is just asinine. Everyone needs a game off here and there. The guys 21 years old, and I dont believe hes had a game off so far this season. But the reason he is botching plays is either because of 1) just not enough repetitions yet or 2) thinking too much on the routine plays. Benching him for making those mistakes just exacerbates the situation.

Not for Vitters. He's been pretty consisently a really low BABIP guy, just like Brett Jackson has consistently been a really high BABIP guy. In Vitters case, probably the combo of being slow, slow out of the box, and hitting a lot of weakish grounders probably contributes. Agreed, but I was more referencing the fact that his BABIP is 28 points below his BA as the unusual part. He has had 2 extended stops where he had a very low BABIP (Daytona 2009 and Tennessee 2010) but both of those his BABIP ended up 15-20 points above his BA not 28 points lower.

Same number of home runs, walks, and strikeouts now on the season. Very strange. BA of .273 with a BABIP of .245 so far. That's also unusual.

Baseball can be a tough game for fringe bullpen pitchers.

Marlon Byrd batting 3rd is a joke. At this point Soriano would be a better option. And Baker ahead of both Soriano and Soto? jeebus Which player is which? 3 year splits against left-handers: Player A: .285/.361/.544 Player B: .306/.411/.524 Player C: .316/.361/.545 They're virtually the same player against left-handers. Wow, looking at the batter-pitcher numbers, nobody has very many at-bats against Lilly, but Soriano, Byrd, Baker, and Johnson have 32 combined at-bats and they are 14 for 32 with 7 singles, 5 doubles, a triple, a home run, 7 walks, and 7 strikeouts.

whats the point of even giving him flagrants? It's a slap on the wrist. You can get suspended in the playoffs if you earn too many flagrant foul points.

Foster got two flagrant 1's and will not be suspended for game four.

Should I be impressed that Vitters is striking out at such a tiny percentage or worried that he only has decent numbers even what that's true? It's clear he has that elite plate coverage tool that you can't teach but I'm concerned that he's just putting a lot of bad pitches into play. Edit: Didn't see Truffle's post that basically said the same thing until I posted mine.

Assuming his velocity is back after last night's performance, I hope he gets the callup for Tuesday night. We need some serious help in the 4/5 spot right now and he may give us the best chance to bridge the gap until Wells/Cashner come back. i don't. he still might be a pretty good prospect (was adequate last year at age 22 in a hitter's league) and is still overcoming a tired arm or something along those lines. you don't need him coming up with the risk of getting knocked around and losing confidence. just bite the bullet, start coleman and hope the other team hits the ball at our fielders. It isn't Coleman's spot they're speculating on. He's safe for a while I suspect. It's Russell's. But I would agree that Jackson definitely needs more time before subjecting him to the major leagues for the first time. Let him build up some more arm strength first. If Wells/Cashner still aren't back after 2/3 more starts then I'd at least start to consider it.

It's Jeff Stevens... Ugh...I don't care. A manager is supposed to help protect the health of his players. He shouldn't take gross negligence with somebody's arm just because they're unimportant to the team. 89 pitches for a pitcher coming off 1 day rest from a 2 inning outing who is also not stretched out is cruel. There's nothing the player can do at that point besides go out and do his job and its not right.

Yeah, and not only will his arm be gone but he'll probably get a ticket to the minor leagues as his reward for taking one for the team.

This is the downside to Casey Coleman. When he doesn't have control of his pitches, he doesn't have the stuff to overcome that. Reminds me somewhat of Jason Marquis in that way actually. It's the reason that while he's an ok bet to be a 5th stater in the league he can never be more than that and he's better as a 6th/spot starter.