jersey cubs fan

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.

because apparently soriano is one of those cats that needs "special" treatment. he is used to being told hours before the fact that he isn't going to play. i guaran-damn-tee that 90% of everyday players in major league baseball are told in advance when they are going to be getting a day off. you think derek jeter runs over to see the manager's posted lineup to see if he's going to be playing that day? If he sucked white hot ass for 3 months I bet he wouldn't be insulted if he found out day of that he wasn't starting.

In the grand scheme of things it is a non-issue, but I don't doubt for a second that Soriano thinks he should be told in advance whether or not he is playing the next day and shouldn't have to suffer the insult of being told day of that he's not playing. And I wouldn't be surprised if Lou did that entirely on purpose to piss Soriano off a little in hopes of waking him up or something.

I've thought for a while that he just needs some time off. He's gone through slumps before but never anything like this. I guess it's possible that he's falling off a cliff with his hitting, but I don't think that's likely. If he had dropped 50 points off his OPS, I'd be more likely to believe that he's just getting older, but 170 points just seems too extreme. With how he's hitting, it's not like he's helping the team all that much so I don't see the big deal with sending him to the 15-day DL, giving him two weeks off and bringing him back to see what he can do then. As far as I'm concerned, a DL stint can't result in anything bad. If he continues to suck, well, it's the same production that he's giving now. But if it helps him, then he might actually start to help the team offensively. Why isn't it possible for a guy like Soriano to fall off a cliff? I mean, I would think somebody like him, with a horrible approach at the plate, no discipline at all, reliant on god given ability almost exclusively, would be a prime candidate for cliff diving once his body starts to give out on him. He's approaching his mid 30's and getting injured frequently, and somewhat flukishly. That's what happens to dudes after 30. I think the injuries are much more of a symptom than a cause for struggles. They are the injuries of a tightly muscled dude who is no longer 28 years old.

If we're murdering someone, I would think that the $100 million owed to Soriano would be a better motive... Double murder suicide, involving Marmol's road beef?

And in the 4th?

That's what they said about David Kelton. If your coaches are capable of ruining a player, get better coaches.

So if the theory is that he was breaking up with her and that is why she flipped, why the heck was he sleeping there? You break up with a mistress, you leave. Don't hang out and take a nap, that's when the vast majority of penis cutting off assaults occur.

That is ghastly. That's going to be a closed casket. I've seen an open casket for one shot to the head, but both temples, wow. How messed up are you to keep firing?

Pics please? you don't want them. it would not be a good brothel Well, I do only have $20 in my wallet.

Pics please?

A rainout wouldn't be the worst thing for this team while the Cubs are stuck using a callup 5th starter and are missing a couple regulars.

He has the reputation of a silver spoon boarding school brat for some reason, even though that's not really accurate at all.

It was hardly a unique attitude at the time.

Exactly. Not sure why there's surprise. If ever there was a free swinger, Shawon was it. The Shawon-O-Meter didn't display his OBP.

Bong too heavy?

If there was ever anybody I'd completely expect to have this opinion, it's Shawon.

I think there are a couple of things worth noting about him... 1) Had he been fully healthy last season, he would have been in Peoria for much longer than he was. If you look at other HS draftees like Matt Dominguez, Mike Moustakas, and Jason Heyward, they all started the season in Low A and are now in High A. Vitters would have been at the same level as them had he been healthy, but instead he had to prove he was fully healed. 2) Vitters spent spring training with Daytona's squad. If you check back to some threads around the end of spring training, there was some amount of surprise that Vitters didn't skip Peoria. It's honestly not much of a surprise that the Cubs wouldn't keep him down in Peoria for very long. I don't think either of those things are worth noting. Who cares if he would have spent more time in Peoria had he been healthy? The fact is he wasn't, and in his time in Peoria he had not shown he had mastered the level. He's still young and it looks very clearly like they have begun the process of rushing him. Given the Cubs track record, I think it's perfectly fair and legitimate to question their decision making with these young guys. Everybody in the organization is in jeopardly of losing their jobs with new ownership coming on board. It's in their personal best interest to show as much progress as possible as soon as possible. It looks good to say their top draft pick got a promotion, but the problem is the timing of it made little sense.

I don't really know who she is, but I've seen her name all over the place. Wasn't she linked to Cutler a while ago?