jersey cubs fan

Lots of ugly numbers by these guys.

Lee and Soto took a seat early last time, how about Ramirez today?

Why is it wrong to yell at an obscenely insubordinate employee? In front of everyone to the point where that person physically assaults you? There was nothing wrong with confronting him...but Wade crossed a line here too. There are disciplinary measures that can be taken for insubordination. What did he think yelling would accomplish? This sounds like something you'd say to a 4th grader. The guy is a well compensated employee who refused to follow instructions from his bosses. He didn't accidentally put the wrong paper in the copy machine.

I think Lou wants him gone, but he can't think of a legit replacement right now. Damn you Rich Hill.

I fail to see the issue.

I think Lou has done more than consider it. On the plus side, the ERA is starting to more accurately show the quality of his pitching.

Why is it wrong to yell at an obscenely insubordinate employee?

Backup catchers play quite a bit, and it would be nice to have a cheap one instead of spending millions on a guy that does very little. Plus, catchers aren't the most durable players.

So it's a big game of whack a mole? I think someone else would notice guys' heads popping up and down depending on the pitch. Actually, it's not impossible. The dugout is angled so it's really hard to look at the game and the scoreboard at the same time (and you can't see the catcher's signs in the first place). So unless the manager/pitching coach are feeding signs to the catcher (which seems rare these days), they're not going to know what pitch is coming. All the members of the other team except the catcher are facing home plate. The catcher has to watch for the ball coming from the pitcher (ditto the ump). The crowd is focused on 1) the infield diamond and 2) talking to each other. If they are looking at the outfield scoreboard it'd be the ball/strike count. If you want to go even more "crackpot" conspiracy theory, since the Cubs own WGN and CSN, they could tip off the production crew not to film the scoreboard during the at-bats. Well there's a half dozen or so guys in the bullpen and another dozen or so in the dugout. It would be incredibly easy for them to track a guy moving in the scoreboard on every pitch. You take 2 guys in the dugout, 1 of them notes what the operators are doing, the other tracks the pitch. If they are standing still during consecutive fastballs then moving when it goes fastball, offspeed, breaking pitch, you can start theorizing. Plus, doesn't the opposing teams production staff have access to whatever camera angles they want?

of course they dont. ](*,) not really bang your head against a wall-worthy.

Especially after this That game was the reason WHY they did it. I couldn't care less about this because the alternating years method that they employed before this was just about as dumb. How would you decide home field? I personally don't have a problem with the alternating years method. The way it's done now with the ASG is flat out dumb. I don't think it's fair to allow the team with the better record to do it because the two WS teams played only a couple of the same opponents during the year. At least with home-field within the NL, the two teams still played a majority of games against the same teams. And if you use interleague record, I don't think that's fair either because you're allowing teams who don't even make the playoffs to help decide which league gets home field. name me a professional sport where every team plays the exact same schedule haha, pretty much every professional soccer league in Europe. They might play extra games that don't count towards the league championship, but everyone plays the exact same schedule for the league. Fairly significant difference. All those leagues constitute the sport when combined. They end up playing each other in a champions league, right? Well, not every league is in the Champions league, and there's other championship tournaments that are played for besides the Champions League. I know there's more to it than that, but my point was there are a very different comparisons for something like the EPL and MLB or NFL.

But there was a need for 5-6 threads to follow the MLB draft? ;)

looks fun but pointless

Especially after this That game was the reason WHY they did it. I couldn't care less about this because the alternating years method that they employed before this was just about as dumb. How would you decide home field? I personally don't have a problem with the alternating years method. The way it's done now with the ASG is flat out dumb. I don't think it's fair to allow the team with the better record to do it because the two WS teams played only a couple of the same opponents during the year. At least with home-field within the NL, the two teams still played a majority of games against the same teams. And if you use interleague record, I don't think that's fair either because you're allowing teams who don't even make the playoffs to help decide which league gets home field. name me a professional sport where every team plays the exact same schedule haha, pretty much every professional soccer league in Europe. They might play extra games that don't count towards the league championship, but everyone plays the exact same schedule for the league. Fairly significant difference. All those leagues constitute the sport when combined. They end up playing each other in a champions league, right?

We aren't arguing minutiae. The GM is the boss's boss. He's got a problem employee who is under contract and refusing to act accordingly. Getting on him for "redassing" a player while eating in front of others is ridiculous.

Eh, it had me fooled. A decent performance by Bautista last year coupled with previous good years from Washburn and Silva. Admittedly, though, I only moved here this year, so I wasn't that familiar with those pitchers outside of general name recognition. In any case, it should have been a decent enough back end behind a strong top of the rotation. A case of a third eye blind if I've ever heard one. Bedard sounds like a heck of a guy as well. ESPN The Magazine had a page dedicated to him in their "the athletes are the editors" edition, and he came across as a guy that didn't like baseball, his teammates or anything involving the game. I never knew anything about him before, but after hearing the stories about him recently, it makes you wonder where his head is.

That's the point, he refused to attend a meeting. He's an employee under contract. The team is obligated to pay him, he is obligated to do his part for the team. The fact that his agent requested a team does not void his obligation as an employee. Simply releasing him doesn't help the team. The fact that he quit is more than enough reason to be confrontational with an employee. His version of quitting still gets him paid. It's not like he walked out the door and refused any further paychecks. He wanted all the benefits of being under contract without performing the duties of being under contract, and you don't see the reasoning for a manager to confront the employee for such behavior?

I don't think there's anything in the rulebook, but I always saw it as that gray area between trying to get an advantage and being classless. Kind of like when A-Rod yelled "I got it!" while approaching 3rd base against Toronto (I think) last season. It also brings up the age-old debate over playing the game "the right way". That being said, a large part of Spygate was over stealing signs as well. They were videotaped in advance and it's a completely different sport, but it's interesting how it can be so clean-cut in football and not in baseball. I guess I understand this. I guess I just think that the signs are used to disguise and if you aren't diguising well enough you should have to pay by having the other team know what your going to do. The only clear-cut thing about in football was the rule against using recording equipment to film the signs. There's no clear-cut rule against stealing signs though.

Ichiro and Bedard?

I'm afraid I have to agree. I don't understand people's inability to separate the team from the individuals. I love the Cubs. So I have to love every player? Do I have to love the manager? Bench coach? [gasp] GM? If you can't separate supporting a team from unconditional love of every player and any other individual associated with the team, then something is wrong with you. I agree with this, but trust me there's no such thing as unconditional love when it comes to ballplayers. A guy goes into a 2-month slump, I don't care who he is -- that "love" is suddenly no where to be found. The problem I have with really "liking" Edmonds is that I know damn well he could leave in November and say the same sorts of things about us that he said about the Cards when he left them. He doesn't really pull his punches. I definitely root for his play on the field though. But I consider that to be a separate thing. I don't care what he says when he leaves, if he performs.

But rotoworld adds this to it... Bizarre! Taking Chacon at his word (which is probably a mistake), I guess Wade's not only one of the worst GMs in baseball, but an unprofessional hothead as well. Redassing a player in front of the team while they're sitting down eating? What kind of behavior is that for an exec? He should have just quietly ended the conversation after Chacon refused to meet with him, walked into his office, and drew up the walking papers. But it sounds like he was yelling at the guy for refusing to meet with the manager and GM about his demotion to the bullpen which he also refused. There are tens of thousands of execs who would "redass" an employee for that kind of behavior, regardless of whether they were in front of fellow employees (or perhaps especially if they were in front of fellow employees) and eating. He's a bad GM, but I don't see anything wrong with that.

No, he was "only" 1 for 2, with a home run, 2 RBI, 2 runs scored, and 3 walks.Cut the baseclogger already! Well, he did fail to advance on Fontenot's deep fly.

oh that's just top notch, kudos My wife didn't understand when I said it last night. But she knows all about the magical powers of Wood. thatswhatshesaid

Forget about acceptance, I'm going to embrace the SOB. And make sweet sweet lo......, oh nevermind.

He's God Shamgod.