jersey cubs fan

You'd think it'd be better that it's the Right toe rather than the left toe (his push off foot). Where the hell did this come from anyways? Wouldn't his right foot be his push off foot? Maybe I'm using "push off foot" incorrectly as I'm referring to his lead foot but I guess there is strain put upon the foot that toes the rubber as well. A righty pushes off with his right foot and lands on his left. I'm not too concerned about performance tonight with Z on short rest, but I am worried about longterm implications.

How can you possibly suggest I'm refusing to consider the details of the situation?

You have serious issues. I don't understand why you would get so worked up over this move. The point is there was a little benefit of using a PH there and a little benefit of letting them think Wells was pitching that inning. They more or less cancel each other out. Lou decided to go with the latter option. Personally I'd have probably PH for him there. The point is this wasn't simply a Dusty thing where he clearly just didn't think 2 steps ahead and therefore wasted an opportunity. In all the crappy decisions that the decision makers for this organization have made, this just doesn't register.

As much as I'd love to have Yunel Escobar, he's not expensive contract-wise so I can't imagine they'd give him up for just prospects. We'll have to come up with some kind of a legit ML bat to give them and we're not exactly overflowing with them. Why are the Braves even considering trading Escobar? He has decent #s including hitting over .400 w/risp this year. No idea. I wouldn't trade him if I were them. A post in another thread (which I can't find now) said something about Cox being either frustrated or fed up with him. His line is .297/.360/.436/.796 and he has 43 rbi, 17 dbls and 7 hrs to go w/22 walks and only 30Ks in 273 abs. Does he have off field trouble? Do the Braves have another ss prospect ready to take over?? I vaguely remember hearing something about them thinking he plays SS lazily.

There may be some here talking about the "lead off" position as it applies to batting first...however, there are many others who understand that the higher you are in the line-up, the more at-bats you get. A player who is in a dreadful slump, should get less at-bats in a game. Thank you. The more PA you get, plus the more opportunity you get to have guys on base for guys who are actually hitting.

You don't have to be all that smart to be considered a genius amongst a group of professional baseball players.

Over 100 points of OPS difference (Franco v LHP - Blanco v RHP). And Blanco has 1 career HR, so the chance of him getting lucky and parking one was pretty low. A solo HR wouldn't have exactly killed the Cubs there. Neither would Gregor Blanco. No, but that's not the point. They were bringing in Marshall. If they wanted to keep Blanco, fine, if they wanted to use both guys, fine. Either way, they benefitted from waiting to pull Wells, and probably would not have benefitted from using a PH.

Over 100 points of OPS difference (Franco v LHP - Blanco v RHP). And Blanco has 1 career HR, so the chance of him getting lucky and parking one was pretty low. A solo HR wouldn't have exactly killed the Cubs there.

I'm not ignoring anything. I believe the point of the move was getting the Braves to burn through their bench quicker moreso than saving the Cubs bench. Had Wells hit for himself, but never went out to the mound, yes, that's pretty stupid. But that isn't what happened. I take issues with much of what these guys do, but I don't see the point here.

You don't need a bidding war to beat $3 million per year for a second-pairing defenseman, let alone one with youth and potential. You would for a restricted free agent. There's a huge difference between a RFA and a UFA.

It's getting very old.

I'm going by what the beat writers are suggesting: Interestingly, his cap hit was $2.4 million last year because of bonuses he didn't reach. The minimum qualifying offer was about $1.1 million, but there was no way he was taking that. The going rate for young defensemen as good as he is is a lot more than that. As a RFA he didn't have a lot of choice. Somebody actually had to offer more for him to get it. As a soon to be UFA due to incompotent management, that road block cleared. Teams weren't throwing money around like mad, and there were no indications there was a bidding war for him.

stop saying cargo

Why? When was the last time he put together back to back very good seasons? He's an inconsistent soon-to-be 33 year old pitcher who can get hit hard quite frequently. The only thing inconsistent I'm seeing from Vazquez is his ERA. He's had very good K:BB ratios, more than 200 Ks, low HR/9, and high K/9 over the past few seasons. And he's very hittable, plus he's 33 already. He's been a nice pitcher, but trading Fielder anywhere close to straight up for him would be a horrible idea. The prospects would have to be very significant to even up that deal of a pre-prime hitter for an aging pitcher, both of them signed through next year, with Vazquez making $1m more.

I'm going by what the beat writers are suggesting:

We know how they handled it, the NHLPA filed a grievance. An arbitrator will decide. The fact that they paid Barker more than he should have gotten if he was still really just a RFA leads me to believe the Blackhawks think Versteeg has a great case and will likely become an UFA. As an UFA, I don't think the Blackhawks would be due any compensation if Versteeg signed elsewhere. That would be a huge loss. I'm pretty sure Barker would have gotten that much, at minimum, as an RFA. Even though it didn't look like anybody was prepared to go after him?

Why? When was the last time he put together back to back very good seasons? He's an inconsistent soon-to-be 33 year old pitcher who can get hit hard quite frequently.

I think saving your bench guys for better situations than 2 out nobody on and forcing Cox to burn 2 of his bench guys is at least arguably as good as just going ahead and pinch hitting there. Agreed. If Gregg would have blown that game, we would have had a full complement of bench guys to pinch hit, pinch run, double switch, and whatnot. If we were only up by 1 run, then, ya, a solo HR would have made a big difference, but with a 2 run lead, I think Lou actually made a decent non-move. We'd rather give up an out in a 2-run game on the off chance that we blow the lead and also need 6 bench guys in the remainder of the game, then try to add to the lead when you're taking the pitcher out right away anyway? As I said, if Lou had left Wells in because Wells on 87 pitches v. Blanco is better than Marshall v. Francoeur, fine. That makes some sense to me. But giving up an out to save all 6 bench guys with a 2-run lead is pretty dumb. We weren't starting the getaway day lineup. All the regulars started. So other than Fontenot (and maybe Fukudome) against a LHP, you're not taking any of the starters out for a PH. So you're worried about having to use Baker for Fontenot and the lineup coming around to the pitcher 4/5 more times from the 7th inning on? I don't like to hold my bench of the off chance we blow a 2-run lead in 3 innings and end up in a 20-inning marathon. Scoring after a 2 out nobody on situation using a pinch hitter might be as much of an "off chance" as blowing a 2-run lead. And it forced the other team to use 2 pinch hitters. Had their been a man on and the same thing occured, I'd be upset with the decision. But from what I recall they appeared ready to use a PH if somebody got on base.

I was basically going to say the same thing. Soriano may be lazy, and he may be a show-boater, but he's always said he'll do whatever it takes for the team to win. Maybe Lou for constantly saying that's where Soriano is most comfortable, and for experimenting with changing then going right back to putting him at leadoff because he's uncomfortable elsewhere. And it doesn't help that he balked at moving to LF while with Washington and actually refused to take the field. He had the reputation of a guy who would fight a manager's decision to move him around.

Will the Brewers want/be able to keep Fielder long term? He's making around $10 million right now, that price is going to go up quite a bit the next time he signs a new deal (which will be 2011). Gamel will be cheap for much longer. If the prospects are good enough, then the trade gives the Brewers a very good starter this year and next and two good, young, cheap prospects for the future - plus it gives Gamel a place to play where his defense won't hurt. Well, if they are top notch prospects, sure but the way you presented the deal it seemed more like those would be throw ins than impactful. They could have Fielder for this year and next or Vasquez. Worry about losing Fielder in 2011, trading for Vasquez now doesn't solve the problem.

Actually that wasn't a terrible move. Keeping Wells in forced Cox to play his hand with the pinch hitter, essentially burning Gregor Blanco without him batting. Lou then put in Marshall with a run of lefties coming up and Marshall go the job done. If you're going to complain about that move, complain because of Lou's love of using Marshall as a LOOGY rather than him pulling Wells. Why? Marshall, for his career, isn't so bad against RH hitters that he can't get a righty out. I'd much rather let a good hitter hit for Wells than worry about who Marshall was going to face to start the 7th. Wells came up with two outs and nobody on. It wasn't exactly a great run-scoring situation. At that point with the lead, making them both burn an extra pinch-hitter and saving the pinch-hitters for your team is more helpful than sending a pinch-hitter to the plate to try to start a 2 out rally. It at least is a close decision. Wait, I'm confused. Is having Gregor Blanco "burned" a good thing for the Cubs or a bad thing? I'd rather have Gregor Blanco hit against anyone than Francoeur hit against a LHP. In addition, the Cubs have at least 2 guys on the bench that can put a run on the board with one swing pretty easily. It's not going to happen frequently, but I like the chances of Fox or Hoff getting a hit, or maybe even a double and getting driven in by Fukudome or Theriot more than letting Wells hit and get pulled to start the next inning. Even if Lou had left Wells in just to face Blanco that would have made more sense to me. But there were only 2, 3 if necessary, more innings the Cubs were going to come to the plate, we have 6 hitters on the bench, and who else were we really going to PH for in the lineup: Fukudome, if they bring in a LHP (hello, Reed Johnson), Fontenot if we got to the 8th spot? There just wasn't a need to save the 6 bench guys and give up an out that late in a 2-run game. I think saving your bench guys for better situations than 2 out nobody on and forcing Cox to burn 2 of his bench guys is at least arguably as good as just going ahead and pinch hitting there.

All the other NFL players that are so faithful to their wives are really going to look down on him now. If you are a pro athlete in your late 30's and sleeping around, why not go for a 20 year old? Just go after one that actually hot. Yeah, well that's important too.

and strikeouts are fascist

All the other NFL players that are so faithful to their wives are really going to look down on him now. If you are a pro athlete in your late 30's and sleeping around, why not go for a 20 year old?

A prospect or two doesn't really make up the difference between a 25 year old stud hitter and a 33 year old non-stud pitcher.