jersey cubs fan

Maybe they could, but I'd like to at least have a third solid arm. Harden is probably going to be a 6 inning pitcher. There is likely to be at least one extra inning contest.

I'm not so sure. Just making the playoffs may not cut it. They made the playoffs earlier this decade and it didn't do anything for the longterm health of the organization. They can't just sneak in as some 7th seed and get shellacked. People are going to be watching this year, and if they aren't good, people will be disappointed. Well, they didn't have the young talent in 2001-02 that they have now. And, obviously, the organization was still stuck in its backward ways. What I mean is that just making the playoffs and getting the young guys some playoff experience may be viewed as enough of a step forward to keep the fans excited. But you're right, there will be a lot more people watching... I can't wait for the season to get going and for the first game on CI with Pat behind the mic. Yes, it's definitely different from back then, but the goals should still be higher. If this team's focus is just on getting to the playoffs, I'm not sure that will be enough to show they are heading in the right direction. Look at last year, 40-34-8, with 239 GS and 235 GA. That wasn't much different than the 7 seed Calgary, which went 42-30-10, with 229/227. If that's good enough to make the playoffs, and that's what the Blackhawks do, I'm not sure I'd say they truly took a step forward. Obviously it would be better than missing the playoffs, but this team probably needs to be a bit more like last year's Dallas team if they truly want to keep the momentum going.

I'm not so sure. Just making the playoffs may not cut it. They made the playoffs earlier this decade and it didn't do anything for the longterm health of the organization. They can't just sneak in as some 7th seed and get shellacked. People are going to be watching this year, and if they aren't good, people will be disappointed.

I'm pretty sure they were $1.5M over and Lang was set to make $4M. So that doesn't leave a lot of room. That's why I say the most likely scenario is a trade involving Khabi. $2.5m is a fair amount of space, but I think he was referring to next year, when they will clear Khabi and Havlat as well. I don't think there are any better centers currently available to sign.

I would say it's not a carbon copy Reds team, but there are plenty of similarities to raise doubts about their future. They've got a couple good young players, but they are hardly poised for great things.

The only one I'd worry about is Zambrano. They aren't scheduled to face Dempster. So, that's not a problem. Zambrano is on tap to pitch the last game of that series on Wednesday. Which means the Mets would see him that day and if they end up with the wildcard, again on Tues/Wed the next week in Game 1. The problem is you either throw Z against the Mets Wed or possibly not at all after this weekend. I'm not sure how the Tue/Wed thing works, but if you push Z on Friday, he can't go on Tuesday because that will be on short rest. I wouldn't worry about Harden, because he most likely won't pitch til game 3 or 4, if what we read is accurate. I still think Harden in Game 1 is a good idea, allowing him to pitch game 5 if need be on 5 days rest, or be ready to go in Game 1 of the NLCS. I don't really understand why all the beat writers are just projecting the rotation from now until the end of the season and carrying that over to the postseason. Lou changes rotations and lineups all the time, why does everybody think he's going to keep this constant for a month?

Are you implying that his mixed emotions could have had some sort of negative effect on the team?

Off topic, but it's funny how the people that have this said about them are almost universally morons. I guess morons are fun to drink with, huh? You can make them do almost anything. Morons make bad wingmen though.

If you give guys multiple days in a row off, maybe there will be some rust. But letting Soto sit a couple times, and rotating off days for some of the others isn't going to hurt them. As for the relievers, there probably isn't any reason to pitch any of them on back to back days at this point. But I don't want to see too many of them going 5 days without work either. Edmonds has been a platoon player since arriving, he should keep getting to rest. Ramirez isn't going to turn into a pumpkin if he sits out 2-3 of the next 13-14 games.

Obviously the Cubs are going to win the division no matter what, but this is the same mentality that I heard before Game 5 of the NLCS in 2003. People debated the Cubs losing Game 5 so they could win at home. Sorry that you might not be able to see them clinch in person, but you should be cheering for the Cubs to win every game until it doesn't matter anymore. In 03, I was driving to Atlanta while Game 4 was being played. I honestly was totally torn about what to root for in that game. I wasn't crushed when they lost, but I did want them to win. At least in the NLCS we were coming home and only had to win one. How could you be torn at all considering we hadn't won a series since what 45? And we had to go on the road against the team with the best record in the NL to win the series. Because I had tickets to game 5 and I was driving there to see the game? I guess I could've made that more clear. Thought it was obvious. I drove down the night of game 3, spent game 4 at a bar in Athens, then moved onto Atlanta for game 5.

It's Ricketts. the guy met his wife in the bleachers, makes for good copy.

I wouldn't think Theriot needs time off. He just took yesterday off, and has played once in 4 days. Hopefully that is enough to get him back on track though, because he's really struggled for the past month: .261/.330/.318 past 28 days. I think Lou can rest Soto here and there starting today. But I don't think he should do anything but give an occasional day to one guy at a time until they actually clinch. The day after they clinch they will go all scrubs, then they can rotate guys back in to regain some consistency and hopefully clinch home field advantage. Harden, Dempster and Zambrano should be monitored though, and at this point, there's no reason to be throwing Wood and Marmol too much. Isn't that pretty much what you were expecting out of Theriot going into the season? I would not say that he has struggled all that much, and he should be the least of the Cubs concerns. Leave him in the 2 hole and let him move runners over by hitting the ball to right field. Yes, it is about what I expected, but he outperformed that level for half the season and has struggled recent to partially drag down his numbers. If he stays at that level, I would not want to keep him in the 2 hole. Moving runners over is no accomplishment.

I don't know. He's a weird bird. The guy is as schizo as it gets. He can look abysmal against teams like Washington, Florida, Colorado, and the Giants, then dominate Philly and the Yankees. I don't know how his inconstency ranks with other pitchers, but you never know what you are going to get with him.

I didn't understand either move, but had put my faith in Lovie to know what was what with those guys.

I wouldn't think Theriot needs time off. He just took yesterday off, and has played once in 4 days. Hopefully that is enough to get him back on track though, because he's really struggled for the past month: .261/.330/.318 past 28 days. I think Lou can rest Soto here and there starting today. But I don't think he should do anything but give an occasional day to one guy at a time until they actually clinch. The day after they clinch they will go all scrubs, then they can rotate guys back in to regain some consistency and hopefully clinch home field advantage. Harden, Dempster and Zambrano should be monitored though, and at this point, there's no reason to be throwing Wood and Marmol too much.

Rozner wrote something different: Rozner doesn't like the non-english speakers.

It's really stupid. The Cubs have a huge national fanbase - larger than almost any other team - and yet, they show Z's no-hitter each time on Chicago-only television. If they had shown the original game on WGN America and the replay on Chicago-only, that'd make much more sense. This is completely illogical, though. Especially with the utter crap they play on WGN America otherwise. Of course, it has no effect on me. I'll be covering high school games at the time anyway. ESPN wouldn't allow them to show it on WGN America Sunday night. I would think they could show the replay on the Superstation though. Anytime they show a replay of a game, it's blacked out on my directv service, and I get the sports pack + extra innings. I don't think it's a WGN or Cubs decision, it has to do with MLB's blackout rules.

You didn't want Mark Cuban?

there's no wrong time to fire a manager as bad as ned yost. except for too late

Completely disagree. Road game against a team that went into SD last week and won. That's tough. Carolina sucked last year, but they are decent at least. And there's no such thing as an easy win on the road at a decent NFL team, not to mention with 100 degree temps.

I'll take atmosphere over the mall anyday. Screw parking. Take public transportation. The last thing we need is more reason to drive places, idling in traffic for hours. Mallparks suck. Who is talking about a mallpark? All that land at where Cabrini Green will eventually not be, surrounded by a really cool upcoming neighborhood, closer to downtown with the skyline right behind the outfield. A) That would be nearly impossible. B) How would that be at all different from Wrigleyville? You think they are just going to magically create "cool" bars and restaurants that beat the ones near Wrigley? C) How is this going to solve the parking issue?

I'll take atmosphere over the mall anyday. Screw parking. Take public transportation. The last thing we need is more reason to drive places, idling in traffic for hours. Mallparks suck.

Me neither. I'm not sure I'll feel comfortable about any game they play this year. I think we just played a rusty Peyton Manning and banged up Colts team and lucked out in the first game. I don't know. We were actually playing good against the Panthers. They weren't really dominating us in any aspect of the game until they got their running game going in the 2nd half. I still think we played the better game on the whole. We just pissed it away. Mistakes like those should be correctable. Certainly the timing of week 1 helped, but they still beat the crap out of Indy in Indy. I don't think that's luck. Minnesota wasn't good enough to take advantage of nearly a similar situation, only at home. And as Soul noted, the Bears were in control of nearly that entire game. The weather didn't help, and Olsen fumble it away. Had the play calling been different in the 4th, who knows what happens. The only thing I know about the 2008 Bears is they aren't as bad as I expected them to be.

I don't really know, but I heard chucky is unhappy with Garcia right now so I'm guessing it's Griese. there was a report out yesterday (ESPN bottom line) that TB tried to trade garcia to SF, but SF said no. I think Gruden is done with JG Why? He's been pretty good for them, no?

There is a feature right in the middle of the page. There is, but I can't help but agree with Mizzou here. Why the hell isn't it the main story? I know football is more popular in this country than baseball, but wtf is a run of the mill football story in September doing as the main story over a Cubs no-hitter in September? Man, people sure do like to whine. The lead story on ESPN.com changes all the time. I would bet Z's no hitter was right there at one point. It's got it's own little feature with multiple story links right in the middle at the top of the front page. Quit bitching and enjoy the moment. It wasn't. At least not last night and not since this morning (in fact, it was pretty much the same last night as it is now). Maybe sometime overnight it was, but I highly doubt that. And I'm not bitching. Just agreeing with Mizzou. I hadn't even said a word about it till now. If you are agreeing with somebody who is complaining about how aggravating it is that this is not the big front page story on ESPN.com, then yes, you are bitching. This isn't May, when baseball is about the only thing going on. There's a ton of sports activities playing out right now, meaning lots of competition for storylines. It is one of the two scrolling features on CNNSI right now. There's plenty of attention being paid to it, and there was last night as well.