jersey cubs fan

You know I thought so as well, but it seemed like Lou made up his mind to put the squeeze on before Fontenot's AB. If that was the case, you want to bring a good bunter to the plate, hence Fontenot instead of Fox. Sure, he could have used Blanco but that would have just been too obvious he was going for the squeeze. Fontenot had a perfect pitch to bunt and he just missed it. He deserves more of the blame than Lou. Why? It's always easier to call for something like that than execute it. If it succeeds I guarantee Lou gets most of the credit for being brilliant. It was still bases loaded with a guy who isn't a huge bunter (0 sac bunts this year, just 4 in his major league career) and a pitcher who was throwing the ball all over the place.

Elaborate why? Are pitchers adjusting to him? Is he wearing down? He can't hit lefties at all, and he's just not that good. His minor league numbers suggested he might be a good role player, as did his first exposure to the big leagues. He peaked at just about the ideal peak age, 28, with an ideal role. He wasn't part of a platoon at 2nd base that saw him facing every righty, he still got significantly less than half a season's worth of PA. And by most accounts he was put out there in favorable matchups. He's already surpassed last year's total PA. It's probably safe to say his numbers last year were a fluke, and it might be safe to say this year's are lower than you would expect, except that all previous evidence of him in the majors was as a role player. He's always been prone to the strikeout and his "sneaky power" is more of a doubles thing than significant HR power. He had some good AAA numbers, but that wasn't until he was repeating the level and in his mid 20's. His total major league numbers are just slightly below his total minor league numbers (and that's with 4 seperate seasons in AAA to inflate them).

Actually, it was really smart... just badly executed. Bases loaded. The guy doesn't have much control, they aren't exactly having trouble getting base runners, a lefty is at the plate, and considering the fact that he couldn't square around early and put it where he wanted, the chances of either missing it entirely or hitting it right to somebody were greater. It was unnecessarily risky. Managers love the praise that comes with calling a "brilliant play" and the vast majority of the blame when it fails goes on the players for failing to execute.

Que? So far he's had 3 starts. They go as follows: 5 innings pitched - 1 ER - Credited with a LOSS 5 innings pitched - 2 ER - Credited with a WIN 6 innings pitched - 1 ER - Credited with a WIN Granted - as others have alluded to he has walked quite a few guys (11 over the 3 games, which isn't bad, except he had five in each of the first two games). However, he hasn't allowed a home run yet as a starter and he's been able to pitch out of most of the jams he's gotten himself into. Like I said before, he hasn't been stellar - but to say he's been terrible is quite an overstatement, IMO. Why are you only looking at IP/ER (ERA) and not the stats that actually show how effective he's been? 5 IP- 9 baserunners, 5 BB, 3 K 5 IP- 10 baserunners, 5 BB, 1 K 6 IP- His good start Like I said, he's had one good start. In his other 2 starts he was terrible, he just didn't give up many runs because a ton of guys were left on base. That's luck. As a reliever, he was even worse. On the season he has a 1.52 WHIP On the season he has 16 BB and only 9 K's (wow) Outside of that one start, he has been terrible. Edit: BTW, in what world is 11 walks in 16 innings "not bad"? That was my question. 11 walks in 3 games isn't bad if you are talking about 7-8 inning starts each game, not 16 total innings.

I pretty much said the same thing when I saw that series of events.

That's because some of these team's obsession with left handedness is ridiculous. If you saw Jim Hendry dump DeRosa, and add Miles in an effort to get more left handed, and heard Lou Piniella freaking out about the need to keep Sean Marshall in the bullpen, you'd probably try and get as much as possible for your run-of-the-mill lefty.

I don't either. But I don't get all the hand wringing and apocolyptic forecasts for his defense. Teams regularly have to play guys out of position for a game or two. It happens. Koyie's actually at the 17 consecutive game mark, including 1 DH and the ASB. The heat is starting to play a factor, and I would think just for the sake of keeping him alive for the next week+ until Soto comes back, they would want to give him a day off. also, koyie hill can't hit. 550 OPS in July, what's wrong with that? It's like Bradley and Soriano levels.

A July promotion is hardly rushing him. What? What does the month have to do with anything? I'm talking about his age and experience level. He wasn't dominating low A, and was promoted after one hot weekend following a month of struggling. And he's struggled for a good month in Daytona (when they haven't been rained out). I didn't get the timing then, and I don't get it now. Oh, and he was promoted in June, no?

I don't either. But I don't get all the hand wringing and apocolyptic forecasts for his defense. Teams regularly have to play guys out of position for a game or two. It happens. Koyie's actually at the 17 consecutive game mark, including 1 DH and the ASB. The heat is starting to play a factor, and I would think just for the sake of keeping him alive for the next week+ until Soto comes back, they would want to give him a day off.

that was pretty funny. that was the first time i've ever seen a catcher have to throw to first on a called strike three. hahaha Wasn't that actually called a swing by the home plate ump? maybe. i didn't think it was but then Len or Bob asked if it was and didn't seem sure. It looked very clear to me that the guy tried to stop his swing on a crazy breaking ball and the ump rung him up. The batter looked at the ump in hopes of not being rung up, then ran.

I missed the last innings last night. Was he that bad? Yes. He dropped multiple balls and generally seems very awkward back there and we already know guys can almost run at will on him. That's not the kind of player you want in such a vital position for 9 innings. Especially not against Houston who has already attempted over 100 stolen bases this year. I wouldn't be averse to giving Fox a start to rest Hill against a team who is a little more cautious on the bases. That might be against Florida..where if you can keep Bonifacio off the bases (.296 OBP this year) you mostly just have Hanley to worry about. Against the Astros, Bourn, Matsui, and Pence would all run pretty well against Fox (Pence has a terrible ratio so far this year but runs a good amount anyway). That's too many potential basestealers to let Fox play most of a game there. Yes, because last night Houston showed they could and would run at will against the guy when he played multiple innings. Come on, give me a break. Teams don't win by stealing. If it gets out of hand, then replace the guy. But Koyie is playing like his 20th game in a row and he really stinks with the bat. There's absolutely no good reason why Fox can't give it a go for one game. All the crying about his defense this year has been absurd.

that was pretty funny. that was the first time i've ever seen a catcher have to throw to first on a called strike three. hahaha Wasn't that actually called a swing by the home plate ump?

Vitters still struggling in FSL. I still don't get the need to rush him to the higher level when he wasn't even dominating low A.

It's not a [expletive] hit and run and I can't figure out why people keep calling it that. He's just starting the runner, the batter isn't getting any sign. The batter's approach on pitches outside the zone shouldn't change. It's still putting a runner (who can't run) in motion with a huge strikeout candidate at the plate. Man, Lou was an idiot last night.

shameless ploy to miss training camp. All the better though as this team probably needs to be ready to get rid of Tillman by next season anyway.

The way our legal system is set up certainly seems to imply that. I'm clearly not going to argue that what Vick did wasn't premeditated and intentional. However, the man served his time and paid his debt to society; emotionally, physically and fiscally. Where as Stallworth, while he didn't get in the car that morning intending to kill someone, was drunk (.12 BAC) and speeding (50mph in a 40mph zone) so he put himself in a position where something could happen. It seems obvious to me he was able to throw some money around in this situation to the victims family/whoever need it and get off with a month in jail. Whereas Vick didn't have anyone he could appease outside of court to get his sentence reduced and thus served 20 months who whatever it came to be. Something there just does not add up to me. Other than this point, you focus on the poorer example I gave regretfully considering Stallworth is indefinitely suspended right now. Do you believe that Vick deserves to still be suspended for what he did? So you seriously don't see where intent comes into play here? Planning, funding and carrying out the torture and killing of dogs over a period of years, compared to making a stupid reckless mistake one night that ended in a collision that was partially the fault of the guy who died. Guys like Leonard Little don't really matter to this discussion since the NFL has obviously changed the way it deal with off the field issues since Little killed that woman. I was thinking a 4 game suspension to start this season was fair. Making it 5 games potentially and still having it be conditional is a little more than that, but well within the reasonable range. Vick missed time because he was in jail. It's not the NFL's fault he was unavailable to not be available to play games due to suspension.

I'm picking the Giants to take a step back this year. They skated through the start of last offseason and then stumbled hard down the stretch. I don't think Eli has shown that he's a consistent pro bowl caliber type QB that would seem to eliminate worries about letdown seasons, but they are still riding the wave of the 18-1 upset and I don't see a sense of urgency to be elite. One of Baltimore/Tennessee is going to decline. Relying on defense as heavily as they both do, with minimal offense, I'm going to guess the team that has a 37 year old alcohol QB and who just lost their best defensive player is going to stumble. I think the Colts are a great candidate to falter, with a whole new staff and Peyton showing signs of aging, but because of that I'm going to guess they don't. So back to Baltimore for my 3rd pick, and the 4th is Atlanta.

opening day payrolls are not a great way to measure how efficiently a GM uses the resources available to him. If he trades a guy away but eats the salary, or if he cuts a guy, that doesn't count toward opening day payroll, but it certainly counts in the money wasted department. The Cubs have eaten a significant amount of money in two of those seasons. 2005 and 2009. The other 4 seasons they released no more than a couple million worth of players at most. I'm not sure about the Cardinals and their money management during that time. It also doesn't take into account contracts taken on via trade during the season. Regardless, anybody trying to argue that Hendry has not had a huge financial advantage over his rivals just is not paying attention, or they are blatantly lying.

I don't mind some primetime at the beginning. But I really don't like spreading it out over three days and how they spread it out.

opening day payrolls are not a great way to measure how efficiently a GM uses the resources available to him. If he trades a guy away but eats the salary, or if he cuts a guy, that doesn't count toward opening day payroll, but it certainly counts in the money wasted department.

Yes, but they actually get elite type players.

Why are people so willing to shrug off 2005/2006? The highest payroll in the division finishing well below .500, that's unacceptable. They have had one 90-win season in his tenure, meaning he absolutely is not coming close to putting the best team he can on the field every year. This should have been a 92-95 win team nearly every year of his tenure, given the resources available to him when he took over and how much those resources have grown while others have stayed relatively stagnant or even declined in certain cirumstances.

A lot of flexibility or a lot of needs? They won't have that much flexibility. They will have to spend a lot just to keep the team on the status quo, which will eat up that flexibility in a hurry. To actually improve this team they will have to be very creative, and get lucky.

How have the Cubs and Cards payrolls been anything but far apart? The Cubs have spent more and more every year that Hendry has been at the helm. STL has actually had to reduce costs in some seasons. The Cubs opening day payroll doesn't even reflect how much more they pay since they have to constantly eat the contracts of overpaid players that don't even contributed to the team.

I was following this one on my phone, but wasn't it still a save situation when the bottom of the 8th started? Therefore Gregg was likely up anyway. And then they went to Samardzija once they extended the lead, correct? I don't get not having a problem with them using him once they already warmed him up. Actually using him is added stress. Having him warm up but not using him isn't ideal rest, but it's more restful than actually bringing him into the game to pitch, again. He was already up warming in the bottom of the eighth, I forgot. I would have preferred if he had not been used, but at the same time with Shark not pitching well I can understand the desire to bring him in and try to stomp out the rally before it got any further. Yeah, I can understand the desire as well. The point is over a 162 game season you need to bypass using your best relief options on occasion when the opportunity arises. So you overcome that short-term desire by thinking about the longterm ramifications.