jersey cubs fan

I don't know if that's true. I think if Jones starts playing well and Pie tanks, they will view it that way. But I feel Hendry has been itching to get Pie to the bigs for a long time, and apparantly has been looking to deal Jones for a long time. If he could, I think he'd deal him.

I think there is room for worrying about more than one player. Soriano, Lee, Barrett, they've all come up short of expectations. Has Lee really come up short of expectations? #1 in MLB in batting, #9 in OPS, .429/.510/.714 with runners in scoring posisiton. Nike needs to start running the chicks dig the long ball commercials again. In a different manner than other people, yes. I think Lee's AVG is completely unsustainable. He had a great run there with the doubles, but there was always a concern about the lack of HR, and nothing that has happened since that concern was raised has changed that. His numbers are falling fast. I think most people expected something other than the 2005 career year version of Lee. I don't think anybody expected a guy on pace to hit 12 HR for the season. He's hitting in the exact same weather conditions as Ramirez, who is on pace for a career best 42. It appears that concerns about his power returning with the wrist issue have been validated. If Lee is not going to be hitting HR, you can be pretty certain that AVG/OBP/SLG are going to keep dropping. If he doesn't significantly increase his HR pace, the numbers simply won't be there in the end. You can make fun of the "chicks dig the long ball" mentality all you want, but HRs truly are vital to a player like Lee's production. I just don't see the point in ignoring Lee's struggles just because we have other players to worry about as well.

Jones + Floyd = 546 in the past 7 days. Jones in May has essentially been Ronny Cedeno - .194/.239/.323 Jacque has really built himself a heck of a hole to climb out of, at .243/.295/.333, well off his pace of 2006, when he was already up to .278/.317/.474 by this time, relatively close to where he finished the season.

Jones + Floyd = 546 in the past 7 days.

Just noticed the awful Cardinals are a game and a half behind the Cubs.

Who on earth said that? The same guys who said Brownlie threw a 97 MPH curve? Here's one: I've seen others like that, so I'm not just going by the word of that source alone, but that's an example. http://www.baseball-fever.com/archive/index.php/t-39433.html It's one thing to have your fastball touch 95, it's a completely different thing to have some sink action to it. I am dubious he's throwing any type of sinker anywhere close to 95.

I would be a bit surprised if the Yankees looked at any middling NL starters to fill their rotation. They've been burned repeatedly with guys coming from the NL and not fulfilling their expectations with the Yanks, notably, Pavano, Johnson and Wright.

I don't believe this team is as feast or famine as it used to be, but still, it carries over some of the many characteristics. Going back to comparisons with the Mets, the Cubs have scored 0 or 1 run 8 times this year, the Mets have been held that low just 4. Likewise, the Cubs have been held to 4 or less 23 times this year, the Mets have done so 18. That's just 27.2% of the way into the season. If trends hold those spreads will widen substantially. Maybe some people think it's unfair to compare the Cubs to the best offense in the league, but personally, I'm only interested in seeing this team be the best. The Cubs are 7th in OBP, 7th in SLG and 7th in runs scored right now (although 5th in R/G). They are scoring and pitching well enough to be a little over .500 overall, but those 0 and 1 run outings, where they are predictably 1-7, really hurts. There are all sorts of weird categories where the team is substantially below .500 though, so it's not like this is the primary issue. It's just symptomatic of the fact that many issues are hovering over this team, and they aren't just a rejiggered bullpen away from running away with the title. As for luck in 1 run games, or blaming the bullpen, of the Cubs 10 1-run losses, in only two of them did they score an above average 5 runs. It's hard to blame pitchers or luck when you are scoring 0, 1, 2, 3 or 4 runs and losing by 1. When you score that little (below average) you are supposed to lose. And of course, you can't erase all the early season losses, so the Cubs bad start now means they have to play .591 ball if they hope to get to 90 wins, a real stretch when you see even their pythagorean record doesn't bring them to that type of pace.

Not really much of an analysis, with a bunch of "seems" "mights" and "ifs". It's not entirely off the mark though. The issue I have is more about how they got here, and the motivation behind some of the moves. It's a lot of reshuffling without a lot of substance, trying to be passed off as big developments.

I don't want to roast him myself. I'm annoyed with some of his tendencies, but I can live with him as manager. The key remains Hendry and the roster.

So you don't have a problem with the team being under .500 during his tenure? The bottom line is Hendry has done a terrible job putting together a ballclub.

OH please, give me a break. What an absurd post. Who is acting like that? Seriously, ridiculous. I'm acting like a dumbass irresponsible idiot endangered many lives and killed himself, and a father wants to try and blame others and make some money at the same time. That's what's happening right here.

I see a guy trying to profit off his son's death. Probably doing the same things he did when his son was alive, by blaming others for his kids' failings. so the bar shouldn't be held accountable for their negligence? I don't really see negligence on their part. He chose to drive. I'm sick of people blaming others for their own ignorance.

That's only because we keep bringing in the same type of players.

I see a guy trying to profit off his son's death. Probably doing the same things he did when his son was alive, by blaming others for his kids' failings.

I still have a problem with Goodell's ex-post facto enforcement of the new zero tolerance policy, regardless of how the Tank issue ends up. It's a sign of a leader a little too drunk on power, and I'm not sure how well that bodes for his future. At some point he could force the union into breaking with the league on these issues and think about a work stoppage.

I honestly don't think it's that bad, but it could get that way if they don't turn things around here quickly. Just as the offense seemed to be stabilizing with some relatively decent consistent run totals, they go back to back with 1 run outputs. There is always going to be a danger of slipping back into that feast or famine thing if they don't start getting regular production out of their most important hitters. I really don't think they can afford to get much further under .500 between now and the all star break. They really need to stop losing series (4 of the last 5) and have to put a stop to the 3 games losing streaks.

Ummm, I bet they don't do that and there are plenty of people who filed frivolous lawsuits who aren't involved with the Cardinals organization.

That inning was the proverbial "pitcher fighting himself" inning. Wells would throw a first pitch curve to the perfect spot on the outside corner. Or he'd let one fly that ends up looking like a pitch out. He wasn't just nibbling when he walked two guys, he was missing by a wide margin, which is pretty much the only way you can walk the always jumpy Michael Barrett late in a close game. Very high and outside, very low and inside. He was all over the place. I actually got excited thinking there was a good chance he'd throw such a bad pitch that even Izturis couldn't try and swing. To be fair, the DP pitch was probably a strike, but I still think you have to make him throw 2 in that situation.

But wasn't he at about 95 and wasn't that about the limit during his rehab? 4 of the previous 6 outs were in the air, and a couple balls went pretty deep. It wasn't inevitable, but I know I wasn't expecting much more out of him. He had thrown 92 pitches in his previous start, but that was a strong 8 innings of a blowout game. The start before that, he threw 97 pitches. By my count, he was at 87 pitches through 6 and had retired 10 Padres in a row. I don't see any reason why he couldn't be trusted to go another inning. My bad, I was subtracting the pitches leading up to the HR away from his 100+ total, forgetting that he stayed in the game after that. I wasn't keeping track during the game, but I thought it was time to pull him. Regardless, I'm still pissed Izturis swung on 3-1. A K and Marshall is out of the game. A walk and the Cubs are up 2-0. I really wish somebody hit for him there. If anything you need a deep fly there, and Izturis is not good at those.

But wasn't he at about 95 and wasn't that about the limit during his rehab? 4 of the previous 6 outs were in the air, and a couple balls went pretty deep. It wasn't inevitable, but I know I wasn't expecting much more out of him.

I think there is room for worrying about more than one player. Soriano, Lee, Barrett, they've all come up short of expectations.

I believe it centers around the organization "be aggressive" philosophy. The Cubs stress agressiveness over intelligence. The intelligent thing to do is accept a walk when the pitcher isn't giving you hittable strikes. The Cubs tell their guys that "it's called hitting". That wasn't just a Dusty thing, Hendry has stressed it since he was the minor league coordinator. The Cubs want to "be aggressive", "make things happen" and "put pressure on the defense." To me that pretty much equates to making pitchers' jobs easier and running into outs.

Obviously the Cubs just need more LH threats.

He's making $650,000. I would have liked to have seen the Cubs sign Cruz and Floyd, FWIW. IMO we already have Jose Cruz in Angel Pagan. they are very similar, accept Cruz is much better at playing baseball. I got you all beat in the Cruz/Floyd 'I told you so' sweepstakes. when Maddux's trade to the Dodgers became inevitable, I lobbied for him to be the player the Cubs acquired, for the exact reasons stated above. He really would have been a nice piece to the OF puzzle. He is in no way comparable to Pagan, or I should say, Pagan is not comparable to him. If the outfield was Soriano, Cruz/Jones, Floyd/Murton, I think this offense would look significantly better. He's always hit LH pitching well and is raking this year.