jersey cubs fan

Lee's power remains a concern. He's now on pace for 12 HR. I'm guessing he'll end up with much more than that, but he'd have to really turn it on to even flirt with 30 this season. He hasn't hit much since the first game against the Nationals, May 4. His OPS has dropped 132 points since that date. He's had a 4/5 day against Philly and the big homerun against the White Sox, but other than that, he hasn't done much. The Cubs are 7-10 during this time. Obviously that's not all the offense's fault, and Lee's struggles are partially due to the neck thing, but they began before that, and they really need him to turn it back on. I think the early BABIP success was unsustainable, as was the AVG. He is still hitting .373, but he probably won't end the season anywhere near that mark. They need his power to at least get back to pre 2005 levels.

Marshall was a little wild, but looked good overall. Murton and DeRosa were the only hitters to show up to the game. Pagan was brutal, Lee and Ramirez went up hacking. The game turned in the 7th. Barrett and Murton walked. DeRosa popped a single into the bermuda triangle, which forced Barrett to hold before going to third. Bases loaded, 1 out. Wells had been missing spots by 1-2 feet. It's a 3-1 count and he grounds into a 4-6-3 DP, ending the inning. Marshall had been up next, but I think would have been pinch hit for if it got to his spot. He was at about 95 pitches, which is where Lou has been pulling many guys this year. The fact that Marshall's pitch count has been somewhat limited in his rehab made me believe he should have been pulled. 4 of his last 6 outs had been via the air. He struck out Greene, then gave up a single/hr, ballgame over.

One thing Lou has surpassed Baker in is that gut. I don't know if it was the jacket or not, but when I saw him go get Wuertz, he looked as fat as I've ever seen a baseball manager. That thing was a good 3 feet in front of his face. My lord. Is the old man's body wearing down under the stress?

I must have missed the part where Lou didn't actually make any of the mistakes I listed on the first page. How sophomoric of me. They aren't mistakes, they are nitpicks using the benefit of hind-sight. This thread doesn't exist if Izturis or Jones gets a hit. Expecting Lou to pinch-hit for Izturis is wrong. How many current managers would have pinch-hit in that situation? Any? Izturis isn't a good hitter, but that situation is just fine for him. All you want is the ball in play to score a run, even just a ground ball, and Izturis does that fairly well. Marshall was under 100 pitches and in control of the game. I don't understand why he should have been taken out because someone reached base. People would then cry that Lou doesn't have faith in his younger players and isn't giving them a shot. And why would Ward be a better choice than Jones in the 9th? Both are lefties and Jones had better numbers than Ward against the pitcher (albeit in such a small sample). This "mistake" is just fan disapproval for Jones showing up. Lou has pinch hit for Izturis before. Lots of managers have, and would. A ground ball causes a DP so that's exactly what you don't want? That makes no sense. Marshall is coming off rehab and hasn't gone very deep into games.

Not only that, but I specifically called the DP on the 3-1 pitch and lamented the fact that Marshall would be going out there for another inning when I felt he was tiring. Had Izturis just struck out, a pinch hitter takes Marshall's place and he's not out there the next inning. Izturis swing 3-1 when Wells was missing his spots by a matter of feet was the turning point in the game.

I interpreted that to mean when Dusty screwed something up, it stayed screwed up. he just made one mistake over and over and over and over Showing up?

A football GM job is difficult. Baseball is not. Hendry chooses to make it difficult by handicapping himself with complete incompetence. How do you support this opinion beyond the basic conclusion? Baseball is a very simple sport. It's very easy to tell who is going to contribute what to a team. Football is complicated, and there is something to getting the right pieces to work together. There's very little in the way of objective analysis in football, at least compared to baseball, where track records tell you a hell of a lot of what guys are going to do in the future. Add in the fact that football has a salary cap while baseball does not, and Hendry has been given a top payroll every year, and the difference is even larger. Hendry targets people that everybody knows are the wrong guys. Hendry has a 1960 mentality while being lapped by GM's who know it's 2007. His failings have been completely predictable. His job has been simple and he sabotaged it. A baseball GM who has to operate at a lower payroll has a more difficult job, but a high payroll baseball GM has tremendous advantages over just about any other sports GM out there. There is no excuse for a top 5 type payroll baseball team to fail to win 90+ games every year. The hardest part about the job of baseball GM is climbing the old boys club ladder and getting the job. The job itself is not particularly hard, for a high pressure management type business.

Soriano looked to go opposite field early in the game. He put a nice little charge into the ball, but then that was it until DeRosa.

I'm mad at this paragraph. Dusty only made mistakes once? Wrong. Dusty didn't sabotage the team late in the game? Wrong. Dusty routinely made mistakes over and over, and when it came to late in the game, his double switching often hurt the team, as was his "one step behind" timing of getting relievers warmed. His excuse for not having the best matchup was always that the reliever wasn't warmed up yet, because he couldn't think more than one at bat in advance. At least Lou doesn't suffer that problem.

His baserunning gaffes are really annoying. He's not doing anything guys like Alou, Soriano and Jones have done over and over, but it's still inexcusable. Going into that atbat I was hoping for a sac bunt by Izturis and strike out by Marshall to give Soriano a shot at 2nd/3rd with 2 outs. I assumed a double play would end the threat at some point, but I didn't think that would be how it happened.

A football GM job is difficult. Baseball is not. Hendry chooses to make it difficult by handicapping himself with complete incompetence.

That's not entirely true. That might have been your perception of how the events unfolded but none of it ever officially sat as that. They knew he'd be in the outfield and that they could put him in any of the three spots and that was enough. Of course right was discussed too--it would put his arm to best use and it's a better position to anchor. He'd need to make an adjustment anyway and his move to left was somewhat successful so in no way was right out of the question but it was always known right would be the most difficult of the three. That's all I continue to say. If right was the plan "all along" then why has he not played any right? Why when they moved him out of what you call Plan B (CF) did they not go back to Plan A (RF)? I truly don't understand how anyone could so vehemently disagree with these basic points. I never ruled out Soriano playing right and a few times now I've said it's where I'd wish him to be... but these are real reasons with real logic to it. Because Lou is trying to make Soriano as comfortable as possible, and with the gimpy hammy, they just decided to change course and have him go to the one position where he was most comfortable. Plus, at the time, Pie was the

The original plan for Soriano was RF all along. They didn't switch him to CF until he volunteered to play there once CF became a big question. They didn't start him there to protect him from the difficult of RF. Had they stuck with Murton/Floyd, Jones and Soriano from left to right at the outset, this mess would not be as big a problem.

They were planning on using him in rightfield all along until the CF experiment. I don't see why they couldn't move him there today and stick him there.

He pitches tonight. So Cotts is going to start? That's a very interesting development to this whole 5th starter saga. I did read in one of the articles about sending Cotts down (maybe it was the one on cubs.com) that he is going to start. Maybe that's just to give the Cubs a fallback option rather than definitely starting him when he comes back up. The trib article said he was going down to start.

was that a bank off the face?

he shoots and he scores

I don't have a problem with Anaheim winning, but I'm definitely pulling for Ottawa, Canada deserves a cup after the way Americans have screwed with their game.

Is this what you're looking for ? 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Total CUBS 30 15 15 22 25 33 29 24 13 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 207 Opponents 23 17 9 23 24 14 34 16 15 3 0 1 0 1 1 0 181 Interesting. 66-65 in innings 7-9.

Has anybody made the screw you Melon joke yet?

I still think Lou just overreacted to the loss in NY. He talked about big changes in the heat of the moment, then once things cooled and Hendry let it be known he wasn't releasing Eyre or making a trade this early, then had to make something up to not look like the boy who cried wolf. Dempster blew a game, Guzman, Cotts and Fontenot paid the price.

Quite. So I guess the Aardsma trade was a net win for the Sox? He's at least still around, and I don't hear a lot of negativity over him coming from the South Side. Just wait until Cotts is starting witht he big club. They'll have four lefties and Marqius by the end of the year. Sounds like the perfect plan for counteracting ineffective lefty relievers.

How is he continually taken out in the 4th? Well, if he cramps up around 60 pitches then I'm sure there would be multiple times where he wouldn't make it out of the 4th/5th inning. I'd rather not have a starter who cannot make it past the 60 pitch mark. So now he can't make it past 60 pitches? News to me.

How is he continually taken out in the 4th?

They just signed Floyd, there's no way they dump him as soon as possible. He was a longtime Hendry target, and Hendry has him. Jim doesn't dump his recent acquirees.