jersey cubs fan

He did say they'll all get a chance to play. Theriot, Ward, Cedeno and Blanco are still on the bench. I'm not that concerned. Although I do think he tends to burn through his bench early and often.

Really? I don't know for a fact, but I thought Pie was much faster than pretty much anyone else except Soriano. I don't know that 1/100 of a second is going to make a difference in scoring, esp. with an unproven rookie. Pie is much faster, and a much better defender. It's a perfectly justifiable move.

:-k :scratch: He ain't?

You want to bench our 3rd best hitter so far? I'm showing he's now hitting .268! He's a droppin' With an OPS well over 800, including an acceptable OBP. That average is meaningless.

It's hard to complain about DeRosa too much so far. He's been fine.

I hope they don't score too much here, they need to learn how to win 1-run games.

So did I. Well this sucks :x Isn't it at least on WGN radio?!?!?!? What's going on? I couldn't get it on mlb audio so I tried directly with WGN radio on line - no idea what it is but it definitely isn't baseball! Yes, it's on both local radio and Gameday Audio. Interesting - I am listening to some weird stuff about riding a cab and being safe on wgn radio on line. WGN radio online won't be carrying the game.

He wasn't sharp but he wasn't as bad as the line would indicate. The first inning was built on bunts for hits and Izturis's error. He really wasn't bad.

For this to be true (winner taking the league with a win total in the low 80's), the Brewers would have to play much worse from here on out. They are 17-9, .654 w%, on pace for 106 wins. Obviously that is not sustainable. However, in order to finish with a win total in the low 80s, let's say 83, they'd have to finish 66-70, playing .485 ball. Their hot start, whether influenced by luck or not, has provided a cushion for them to coast to an 85 win season (by going .500 the rest of the way). All they have to do is play to their current "expected" pace, of .537 ball, to get to 90 wins. That would be 73-63. I would say they have more than a good chance to finish the season with more than a win total in the low 80s.

Yeah, if those numbers mean anything it's that we can hope for the Cubs to get to .500 by season's end. And with the Brewers already 8 games over .500, it would take a record well below their current actual and pythag records to return to .500. Bottom line is the Cubs will have to play a lot better than they have so far to make up for their bad start and give themselves a shot at a good record.

I doubt the Cubs would even consider it, but there's no reason he couldn't pitch an inning. There's a very good reason why he shouldn't. If it was routine for him to pitch in game action on his throw day, then I'd be fine with it. But throw days are not the same as game days. There's little to no benefit to screwing with his schedule.

Yes! Now I can custom-order my Trumaine McBride jersey. You know, at first, I thought those numbers were some sort of ranking of the players' ability. I wasn't even thinking about jersey numbers. I was thinking, man, the scouts really hated Wolfe.

You know, it's amazing. The Bears went to the Super Bowl last year, and rather than having very few picks to work with (which is often the case with successful teams, having traded picks for veteran players), Angelo picked up 9 new players to bring into the mix. I'm sorry, but that's very nicely done. Tops in the NFC and still harvesting a bumper crop of new talent. Now----surely not all of them will work out, but having the picks to bring them in increases the odds. If he hits on, say, 1/3 of those 2nd day picks people will praise him for finding yet another good player in the late rounds. And plus.....there's something to be said for having young, fresh legs on special teams to get down the field quickly. I don't think it's all that amazing for a SB team to have 9 picks. He went in with 7, and made a trade to get 2. Indy got 9 new bodies as well, 6 in the first 4 rounds. New England brought in 9 as well, while New Orleans had 7. Washington was a team with few picks. Most successful teams don't trade picks for veterans. It's really not that big of a deal.

I think that's hyperbole, but I don't disagree that he should be playing more. It's hyperbole to say Murton has the potential to be really good, and that he's had a great approach in the past? It can't be argued that he hasn't had a great approach in the past. As for very good potential, I guess that depends on what you think very good is. But it seems pretty clear that he's got the potential to be a 850-900 OPS kind of hitter. I'd call that very good. Not great, for certain. And not somebody you would want to end up giving an extremely huge contract to down the road. But that's still very good.

Hopefully the message gets across to all teams though. Remember, the Cubs had their own DUI issue last year with Speier. I think he took a leave of abscence following his arrest, so it's a little unclear how exactly the Cubs handled the situation. Did they brush it under the rug by pushing a disposable coach aside. How would they handle that with a manager, or player? This reflects very poorly on the Cards, especially with the LaRussa situation coming first. But it's definitely an issue for every team.

Interesting choice for a first post. Welcome aboard. They do indeed have a lot of Yankees sucks chants at Mets games. Similarly, NYRangers games included numerous Potvin Sucks! chants, referring to the former NY Islander, when they aren't even playing the Isles. Some might say NYers like to focus on the negative. But Shea definitely has a lot of negatives.

It's tough to say. I think he was being sarcastic, but not entirely. His defense, just calling it a stupid mistake, makes me believe that like many, he doesn't think DUIs are all that serious. I think DUI is far beyond a stupid mistake. It's reckless, negligent, completely selfish, criminal behavior. A stupid mistake insinuates that it's not really his fault.

Really? Sure is weird how we punish people for doing something there's no way we could expect them to do. I think you absolutely should expect all people of all ages to have the modicum of responsibility requisite to not drive home when drunk and threaten the lives of others. Yeah Abe, that's a pretty ridiculous stance. You can't expect guys between 21-40 to call a cab after drinking? I'm between 21-40 and when necessary, I've done that quite often. This is a pretty weak cop-out.

Why? Just look at OBP, the higher the OBP, the more batters a team will have per inning.

Murton needs to play regularly to get comfortable, rather than being jerked around with pinch hits and spot starts. and how long do you put a guy in and watch him flail away? You're not serious are you? yeah, I am. Murton wasn't great last year and he's been bad this year. My bigger problem with him is not that he's hitting poorly, but that his approach sucks. I don't care that he's not hitting great, but he's just going up and hacking at everything. The problem is that Pie and Floyd are doing the same crap. I'd be playing Murton regularly, but I'd tell everybody that if they don't start seeing more pitches and getting on base more, then I'll find somebody else who will. Murton can be a nice player, but he's not talented enough to hack away at everything and still be productive. That's fine and all, but it's hard to draw conclusions about the approach of a guy who had a nice approach last year when playing very often, who is now a 5th outfielder that rarely plays. He's got the 10th most at bats on the team, and will be passed soon by Pie, who is playing far more frequently. I'd have to throw him out there for a month before I decided his approach was unacceptable.

This is ridiculous, although par for the course. Just like Cubs not taking walks and losing games.

How do you figure they should be top 6? 10th in OBP outweighs the 6th SLG and 6th OPS. At best, such a stat line should give you something like the 7th or 8th best teams. But this early in the season, it's hard to correlate what those stats say should be their record, and their record. One 12-run game throws everything off. The Cubs might be 6th in runs, but I know at one point they were 4th. The Cubs are 9th in runs scored right now, but one game could vault them to 6th or drop them to 12th. It's just not useful right now. The Cubs are 13th in walks taken this year, a trend that has gone on for far too long, and is likely to continue. And they have just 3 guys who aren't hitting poorly. Three guys, Lee, Ramirez and DeRosa, are propping up this lineup. It's not hard to understand why they fail so often "when it matters" because more often than not, the hitter at the plate "when it matters" isn't any good. One guy is getting on base frequently (Lee), one guy is getting on at a good pace (Ramirez). DeRosa and Theroit have gotten on at an okay rate, but for Theriot at least, that was all yesterday's doing. Everybody else has a terrible OBP. If you are counting on 2 guys to carry your team, then it's not hard for teams to avoid losing the game to them. THE CUBS ARE MAKING OUTS FAR TOO FREQUENTLY. That shouldn't surprise anybody, since that is the single category that has consistently dogged this team for years.

Probably the same reason they haven't hit well in any situation for years. They are dumb. They have a dumb approach to hitting, and keep finding more guys with dumb approaches. They are a swing first and ask questions later organization. Occasionally they jump all over a starting pitcher with that approach, but if a guy is good enough to make it through one, he can usually get through them all. Alsonso Soriano is the epitome of the stupid but talented hitter. He gets himself out all the time because he swings at everything. That's the type of guy Hendry holds on a pedestal. They've got Lee with a good approach and Ramirez whose production masks a mediocre approach, but just about everybody else that plays frequently has a terrible approach. Theriot was a little different, but he just doesn't have enough talent to be all that productive.

Legislating morality and policing personal lives is firing you for going to a strip club or being gay. A highly public entertainment company that relies heavily on public good will has the right to punish their extremely high paid employees for conduct that reflects poorly on the organization. Not all jobs are the same, and not all employee/employer relationships are equal.

I can't stand this, "if you guys knew how good we had it, you'd stop all the bellyaching and learn to be accepting of whatever the Cubs do" concept. You're getting on people for complaining about the OF problems because they aren't the same OF problems they used to have? We're supposed to satisfied with the fact that the Cubs are still under .500 during Hendry's regime and he's seriously put the future in jeopardy with his freewheeling spending spree on what everybody is hoping will be an above average team? Frankly I don't see how any Cubs fan could be happy with anything less than a team that looks like it's pretty much a lock for 95 wins and a deep playoff run. I didn't get the giddiness over back to back .500 seasons and I don't get the satisfaction with the OF depth problem being "solved".