jersey cubs fan

Yep. Plus, if it takes a game like this to spark the anti-LSU idea in Lou's mind, all the better.

Probably depends on whether or not your top of the order consists of two bad baseball players.

He's still at just .244/.306/.449, with a 19/6 K/BB. Although that's a significant step up from where he was a week or so ago. I think he was in the 500s for awhile.

I'm ok with this. OK, just don't rush me on the Giants pick this afternoon, I've got stuff going on and haven't even gone through who is still available. The Pats have had about 3 hours now. Six hours to each of the two second round picks left then? Does that work for you? Don't need that much time. 4 hours would mean this pick is done by consensus within the hour, giving me until 4:30 eastern time this afternoon to make my last pick.

I can understand pulling Hill and maybe Wuertz. I would have left Marshall in longer rather than going to Lieber then. Perhaps Lou remembered Hill falling apart quickly in the 6th last year in Coors. I have no problem pulling him a little early there.

That's like saying Pitcher X is a fly ball pitcher - sure they were hit harder than you'd like and went over the fence and not in the outfielder's glove but he can't control that. Wuertz is getting crushed right now. Not really. Flyball pitcher = bad, groundball = good.

I'm ok with this. OK, just don't rush me on the Giants pick this afternoon, I've got stuff going on and haven't even gone through who is still available. The Pats have had about 3 hours now.

According to his profile, gocubsgo hasn't visited the site since last Friday. Are we going to maintain the 12-hour waiting period? If so, the pick will be made later tonight, while I won't be around, and my 12-hours will be up before I will be checking back tomorrow morning? If we cut the 12-hour limit short, I can come up with somebody for the Giants this afternoon, and we can start a 3rd round before Friday.

I don't have a problem pulling Hill after 5 in Denver and pushing back his next start a day or two. I'm not sure whether it's true or not, but Coors has a reputation for not just being tough on pitchers, but for carrying over into their next start. It's a little annoying that Hill seems to have the target as the one guy Lou can screw with. But as long as he stays in the rotation and isn't abused, I can live with these little things.

Answering my own question, if every team takes their full 10 minutes and the Bears keep their pick at 14, the Bears should be on the clock at between 5:10-5:20. Hopefully Miami doesn't take any time to announce their pick, and a couple others go early, so the Bears pick before 5:00 and I'll see them before getting on the road.

I was at his start last year. If I remember correctly, he was decent through about 5, then blew up in the 6th. I think you have to be willing to pull guys early in Colorado, and especially Hill.

That's cause Manny already has 2 WS rings, and Jeter 4. Are you saying the only players that can think about being in the WS are players who have already been in the World Series?

LAKE FOREST, Ill. – Five days after signing his tender offer with the Bears, wide receiver Rashied Davis on Wednesday inked a three-year contract that runs through the 2010 season.

Who is saying the Cubs are catching breaks?

They were a slightly above average run scoring teams with good batting average, bad OBP and great SLG. I'm not sure it would have been much different with another manager. They didn't have one single OBP type stud. Their best hitter was Ramirez, a big free swinger. Lee had not yet emerged as a star. They got Nomar who was another free swinger. Ramirez, Nomar and Alou were fairly similar in their approaches. They neither struck out nor walked a lot. Then you had Sammy near the end, when he lost the ability to take walks and get on base at great rates. They had multiple good hitters, but no great production, and a couple weak spots.

It's pretty ridiculous to just say you can't bench Theriot because he's been doing well. All kinds of mediocre players have stretches of good performance. The hot hand theory doesn't hold for a guy that has had to miss time due to health issues. Theriot doesn't have the talent that Cedeno has. Cedeno is playing well, and while he should have been given the job to start, he clearly deserves to play more now. Theriot has never been more than a utility player thrust into a role he's not suited for. Let him slide over to 2nd for a couple days while Soriano is still out. If, by that time he is still producing well over expectations, then you consider letting him keep playing. But Cedeno has to play right now and for the foreseeable future.

I understand why Lou wouldn't want his players inviting all the media attention that comes with talk of World Series at this time, but I don't understand why anybody else, including the media, could possibly have a problem with what Ronny said. It's much better than contending within the division.

So what's it going to be?

Oh Ronny

Every fan of every team in all of sports? But for the rest of them, the rollercoaster occasionally ends on a high. Not every team. Pirates, AZ Cardinals, Tampa Rays, LA Clippers. There's plenty of fan bases that haven't been on anything like a roller coaster. Then there's Boston fans who may have spent time there in the past, but have basically been on cruise control to the moon for 5 years.

I think I've read that the once the Cubs get Wood warm, they will definitely use him in a game. But I have to imagine that if they break through here in the 8th, it could be worthwhile not to use him here.

Anybody have a good idea about what time the Bears would be expected to draft? I'll probably be on my way to DC.

No kidding. Me too. I told Hendry today that he'll have the Baseball Prospectus writers on his speed dial pretty soon. This is culture shock. Does Jim even know walks are a good thing? after being so vehemently against hendry's lack of love for the base on balls, i've grown to believe that he is at least partially right in a sense: walks are generally a symptom of being a good hitter. you can't really teach a hitter to be patient if he isn't already. when someone's isod goes up with age, it generally means that more and more pitchers are growing to respect his bat. you can teach a young hitter some tricks regarding pitch recognition, but if his core processor isn't fast enough, there's no way that having him attempt to shrink his strike zone will net positive results. it will probably just end up ruining a perfectly serviceable baseball player. great hitters walk a lot because they get pitched around. Yeah that is true, I think the big thing that was working against Jim in many of our minds was the manager he hired hated walks. very true. And Jim shared that hatred. While he may be right that you can't teach overly aggressive hitters how to be patient, the fact remains he targetted overly aggressive hitters repeatedly and didn't give a rat's butt about their patience, pitch recognition, approach at the plate or anything else. Jim was 100% pro-aggressive long before Dusty arrived. And he took 5 years as GM before even beginning to address a glaring problem that novices saw from the start (not to mention all the time as asst GM, and as the minor league boss).

What's their to understand? If they come to an agreement they won't run the risk of running out of time. They aren't free agents, but Miami is free to take any one of them. The rest of the team are not.

He hasn't been on the site since Sunday and we're almost 24 hours since the last pick.