jersey cubs fan

How is that giant baseball signed by Jeter, Williams and Aaron a heck of a metaphor for what's coming to KC?

I really hope they give Harden the extra rest. They could really use an improved second half out of him, and extra rest is probably the only way that can happen.

If by FO you mean Front Office, I respectfully have to disagree. Yosh Kawano was a member of the Cubs organization for 65 years before retiring last season. In the article Cubs senior vice president, Michael Lufrano is quoted as saying, “He has a standing invitation to come to any game here…” The security guards apologized to him and told him “he is not supposed to be there when the team isn’t there.” It would seem it wasn’t their decision, but that they were just following orders. Moreover, again according to the article, Kawano has visited Wrigley Field frequently since his retirement last season. If anyone in the front office actually gave a damn, this incident would have never occurred. My guess is they aren't just being jerks, but are afraid of liability issues with a frail old man walking around Wrigley on his own. It's a very old building with lots of exposed pipes, potentially falling concrete, heavy equipment and other things. They probably feel comfortable with their insurance covering any fans that might get hurt on gamedays, but don't have coverage for non-employees getting hurt walking around during non-business hours.

I was just coming here to make fun of Pete Prisco on Sportsline for saying something similar... I really think that having the offense on the field more, and give the defense more time off (and not asking them to carry the team and do the bulk of the scoring) will help the defense...not to mention Lovie doing the play calling. I'm not saying expect shootouts though. I'm saying that those 4th quarter blown leads were disheartening, and it's going to be mostly the same people on the field. Hopefully the change in coaching will help, but I'm still worried about it. The blown leads were as much a result of an offense that couldn't get a big lead in the first place, or add to the lead throughout the game. Instead they'd give it right back. The defense would generally play well for their first 30 minutes on the field, but it was when the opposition started getting TOP past the 30 minute mark that they did much of their damage. This is not the elite defense that could nearly win games entirely on its own. But they are good enough to team with an above average offense to win the majority of their games.

That's a vague statement. What were the concerns? Was he standing underneath a piano? Were they doing work on the grounds that his floppy hat couldn't protect him from? Do they think he suffers from some sort of dementia and was just walking around aimlessly?

um...people are making jokes here. take this stuff elsewhere. i mean, derwood's even being half-way funny. Right, and the joke is that if you complain about Soriano you think he's committed every atrocity in the history of the world. I'm just trying to figure out the ground rules here.

UZR has been around since '00 or '01. It's not new. When the game of baseball has been around for over a hundred years a tool that's only been invented since 2000 is new. This is both irrelevant and nonsensical. Fixed. Actually, in that discussion, your claim that it is not new was the irrelevant portion. You did not address CubinNY's point at all.

So did we get an official ruling? It's not okay to hate a player who is owed nearly $100m over the next 5.5 years even if he has an OPS+ of 82 and a sub .300 OBP? I'd just like to clarify before the second half starts. Don't want to start on the wrong foot.

I'm guessing you don't have to listen to rival fans all day long like some of us. You can only tune out so much. Assuming he's in NYC, then he probably hears from Mets and Yankees fans quite frequently. Personally I run across STL, MIL and CWS fans, not to mention a ton of Philly fans, on a regualr basis. I still don't understand why it matters. It's a technical move. If they want to show off their ignorance, fine. But crap talking is for losers anyway, so why does it matter?

While they were waiting for an excuse, I wonder why it took them this long after the issue was resolved to fire him. "This long"? How long has it been, less than a week? No moves have been made in between the time it took to make that decision and now. It takes time to fire people, especially when contracts are involved.

How many rain outs has Daytona had since Vitters was called up?

I believe Chuck was in media or public relations or something like that. Not sure how Neyer is labeled as a prick. He calls out dopey baseball people for being dopey. I like that Hendry is talking about stats saying Bradley should be fine, but his scouts tell him who can play defense. Wouldn't his scouts have been able to tell him that Bradley was not playing defense, and then Hendry could surmise that perhaps they didn't know how well he could handle RF, or how well his hitting would hold up if they both took him out of Arlington and made him play the OF everyday?

I believe he was on an extra day or two of rest on Friday due to the offday. He had one extra day last time out, following a disasterous start, which told me he needed more time. They could/should have had him starting Sunday on 7 days rest. This year he has 8 starts on just 4 days rest, 4 on 5 days rest and 2 on 6 or more days. Last year he had only 9 starts on 4 days rest all season long, 8 on 5 days rest and 8 more on 6+ days of rest. It's absolutely ridiculous that they gave up on trying to give Harden more rest. I don't care that 4 is normal, everybody knew Harden couldn't handle a normal workload. It was said at the time that they were going to be extra cautious with him, but apparantly they decided to forget that plan in 2009. Why? Sure it sucks that a guy can't go every 5th day, giving you 34 starts and 220 innings. But we know Harden can't, so why are they trying to push him?

I think they are significantly different. Yes, injuries play a part in both, but Harden isn't missing seasons left and right. Harden is a little guy who probably has no chance of being a 200 IP pitcher on any consistent basis. Prior was destroyed by Dusty Baker in about a season and a half and is done. But Harden is still pitching, year after year, even if he misses significant time each season.

no that's true. michael jackson was both black and then white in the same lifetime. mlk never did that. props mj for bringing 2 races together (in your own body) Madonna did that much more often.

It didn't work out in the end. We haven't even seen the end. The mistake cost money, and cap space. It's the kind of thing you would expect from a guy who might have good scouting sense but doesn't appear to any managerial skills. They resigned the RFA, but they overpaid for the two big ones. The Blackhawks have multiple overpaid players, like Huet, Campbell, Byfuglien and now the RFAs and they have none of their three biggest stars signed past this season. Tallon may have done a good job bringing together this team, but it was only possible because prior teams were so bad, and draft picks were so high. And Tallon was a part of putting those teams together too. He's been in important personel positions in this organization for over a decade, and the vast majority of the time this team has sucked during that decade. I do not have a problem with this move. It was inevitable. I think it may have happened midseason if not for the situation with his father's funeral that drew so much positive media attention to the team. I think the other asst GM who left to take a similar position in Atlanta knew this was going to happen and didn't want to work under Bowman. The only issue I would have with this is if somebody sabotaged Tallon by allowing the offer sheet issue to happen. The easy part was amassing loads of talent after a decade and a half of high draft picks and ownership opening up the wallets for free agents the past few years. The hard part is going to be picking the right guys to keep around and dealing away whatever spare parts they think they have.

The guy is supposedly a "football scientist" but then he starts comparing the records as starting QB...ugh. Yeah, I read that and the first thought I had was "why is Joyner such a tool?" Comparing Gorssman to Cutler, especially based on records, is an exercise in futility. Comparing them because they tend to turn the ball over is not an awful idea, however, they are still different in that regard. Cutler will take chances that result in turnovers. Grossman will close his eyes and throw the ball straight up in the air while falling backward. Grossman wasn't so much taking risks as he was throwing it away.

Lou said Geo could be out for as long as a month. And then the guy we acquire will be an improvement over Koyie or we could keep three catchers (if the new guy is good enough) and use one as a pinch hitter. The latter might limit our options too much, though. So they can survive without their best hitter for 2 months and no legit backup, but they can't survive without Soto for a month without going out and acquiring a "real backup" catcher?

2004 says "hi" So far this seems to be shaping up to be signifcantly worse than 2004.

So Bradley is out today, and with a DH Sunday he will almost definitely miss one of those games. This is just all sorts of fun.

Feel free to substitute a prediction system of your choice. They will all tell you that there is a significant collapse rate for guys in their age 33 season with Soriano's skill set. I don't think those similar players necessarily have similar skill sets. Scott Rolen and Soriano are not like each other.

At that point, you are talking about using it to help you get on base more consistently, and we were discussing the benefits *outside of OBP*. I don't know what "outside of OBP" is supposed to mean. But it can help your SLG as well. Trying to pull a lot of outside stuff will result in weak ground balls to the left side, while taking it the other way can result in doubles and even HR for some guys. Plus, it can force a pitcher to come inside more often if he's more frustrated, giving you a chance to pull stuff with authority. Hitting opposite field is absolutely not "only useful for hit and runs and productive outs", but even so, just because a guy leads off the game it doesn't mean he can't do those things the rest of the game.

Probably not being a dead pull hitter. A hitter who sprays the ball probably is a hitter who tries to hit some to the opposite field and pull some. Basically Ryan Theriot, I think. I'm not certain on that, though. But hitting to the opposite field is only useful for things like hit-and-runs and productive outs, which don't concern the leadoff man. That's wrong.

Well that's your problem right there, you aren't going to be concerned with properly circling the bases and scoring if you are literally on fire.

Agreed. With the All-Star break coming up they wouldn't need Hart for another start before then anyway. The extra bullpen arm could come in handy with Harden starting tomorrow and the double-header on Sunday. Gets them the 7th reliever while maintaining a 11 man staff.