jersey cubs fan

I've definitely seen some things that in retrospect were just so stupid. And not just by 16 year olds either. The amount of shifting, stearing, packing and lighting that are done concurrently is actually quite impressive when you don't think about it.

Not a bad idea to get him a start against the Nats. Winnable game to get back on track. That was my original thought, but his AAA starts really muddied the waters.

Lou must have really wanted to break up those lefties.

Felix has 12 ABs in the last 7 days, Murton has 9. This is highly detrimental to both of these players. Murton had 81 ABs by this time last year, now he has 46.

Get Felix out here ASAP. Same with Murton. You can't have both these guys sitting on the bench every game.

Camera angle from 3rd base dugout. Floyd is at the plate, the parrot is in the background, apparantly walking up the aisle with his back to the action, ignoring the game. At the crack of the bat he turns toward his right until he's facing the direction of the HR, the same direction all the fans are facing. It's comes across as a, "Oh crap" kind of expression.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2860122 I'm amazed these people don't just call a cab? I'm Ron Burgundy?

Samardzija: 25.2 IP, 11 K/10 BB Sure hope that doesn't keep happening.

$5m is decent if he produces at last year's clip. It sucks if you get what you got in his worst years. "This market" has been pitching heavy anyway. Mediocre hitters are not nearly as overpaid as mediocre pitchers.

It was a rental car, it couldn't have been in there too long. Unless Enterprise is offering new services. That would an interesting feature. "We'll pick you up."

Handsfree?

It's not like he was either motionless or going full speed. Is there not a light or two between the bar and the highway? Either way, there's a number of methods of smoking, and I have personally seen people use some of the more complicated methods, while driving.

I wonder if he's having issues adjusting to a new routine. Pitching every 5th day, and how he works between outings is completely new to him.

Given the situation, he probably wasn't high at the time. Simply b/c of the timeframe of leaving the stadium, heading out to Shannon's, and then going to a diff. spot, he would've had to light up in the car. They'll prob. find pot in his system just not from that night. People light up in cars all the time, as well as in the parking lot before pulling out. I don't know many people who keep weed on them who don't take every chance to smoke it. It was in his rental car, that he had just gotten a couple days before. In my experience, the people who have weed with them in a car, will not hesitate to smoke, especially once they're already buzzed. I would be surprised if he hadn't smoke some. That would be the only way, he couldn't light it while driving. Sure he could have. It isn't a difficult procedure. In fact, it would make a lot of sense to explain the crash. It's definitely not out of the realm of possibility that he smoked while driving.

My guess is most people remember seeing he had a 600 OPS earlier in the year, and they figure he's just hitting the occasional HR and nothing else, and haven't seen the numbers recently.

Given the situation, he probably wasn't high at the time. Simply b/c of the timeframe of leaving the stadium, heading out to Shannon's, and then going to a diff. spot, he would've had to light up in the car. They'll prob. find pot in his system just not from that night. People light up in cars all the time, as well as in the parking lot before pulling out. I don't know many people who keep weed on them who don't take every chance to smoke it. It was in his rental car, that he had just gotten a couple days before. In my experience, the people who have weed with them in a car, will not hesitate to smoke, especially once they're already buzzed. I would be surprised if he hadn't smoke some.

Minor league free agent signing during the winter. Yeah, he's going to turn 25 this year and he's back in AA after 2.5 years of doing nothing in AAA (actually, his first exposure to AAA was good, but it's been all downhill since). He did well in AA, at 22 in 2004, but his overall minor league numbers are bad.

Wow this was an incredibly stupid post. If what Sammy is doing is looking bad, I'd love to see some Cubs outfielders do that. Agreed. Watching the Rangers this year seeing Sammy come up is always a delight. Just went to MLB.com and looked at some of Sammy's highlights including opposite field doubles as well as HRs. If that's looking terrible... He did indeed start out looking terrible. But he's been very hot for quite a while now and his overall numbers are more than acceptable.

Claimed off waivers from Arizona Diamondbacks, 1/6/06 by Phillies, not sure how he got to the Cubs.

The thing about a 4.50, at this point, is that he'd probably have to pitch to nearly a 5.00 ERA the rest of the way to get up that high, assuming he throws 200 innings this year. That means he'd pretty much suck from here on out. I don't think I would have been "happy" with a 4.50 ERA, going into the season. Although if you offered me that I may have taken it. I think I would have been happy with a 4.10-4.20 ERA though. And to get to that he'd have to spend the rest of the year around 4.70.

Or perhaps you should consider yourself lucky by not exposing the kids to the potential pain of being both a Cubs and Royals fan.

If not, they are very easy to find. But the Cubs have Soriano for 8 years. They have Pie and Murton. They have Floyd this year, and possibly next. They've got Colvin in the minors as well. The best thing for this current team is probably keeping Jones in center, with Floyd and Murton splitting time in right (and Pie in the minors). But I won't complain if they make a decent trade of Jones and keep Pie in center. In your mind, what would be a decent trade? Ideally he's packaged with other things for a better player. But that's unlikely. I guess, in general terms I would say a decent prospect. Not necessarily somebody with a ton of upside, but a guy who could contribute in the next couple years, sort of like what Matt Murton was when the Cubs got him.

If not, they are very easy to find. But the Cubs have Soriano for 8 years. They have Pie and Murton. They have Floyd this year, and possibly next. They've got Colvin in the minors as well. The best thing for this current team is probably keeping Jones in center, with Floyd and Murton splitting time in right (and Pie in the minors). But I won't complain if they make a decent trade of Jones and keep Pie in center.

Re: Wild Card situation, it's compounding the problem by giving the 6th best team that shot at the world series. I fail to see a problem. Most sports allow more than 6 teams per league. People forgot that baseball has doubled in size the past half century. It makes no sense to continue to limit the number of teams that have a chance at the world series. Teams have to have a shot in order to thrive. The kicker with my plan, however, is that it would actually improve the chances that the best teams end up winning. There's 4 division winners, 2 in each league. Then 4 more WC teams for a total of 8 teams. That's 25% of the league qualifying for the playoffs, compared to 53% in basketball and hockey, and 37.5% in the NFL. So it's still quite an exclusive club. But you emphasize, and reward, winning your division by forcing the 2 best WC teams to host the 2 lesser wild card teams, in a one game playoff. The winner of that series then has to go on the road to play a 3-1-1 series against the division winner. This forces WC teams to win an extra playoff game to advance, and forces them to win on the road. The division winners get to rest an extra day, and play at home for the first 3 games. That increases their chances of winning, with the added bonus of increasing the team's revenues. The WC winner today is only guaranteed 1 home game. In this system they are still guaranteed 1 home game. The "extra" wild card teams today have no guarantee of hosting a game, but in this situation they can if they win at least 2 road games first. Bottom line is the fight for the regular season division crown will be much more important, as the "consolation" prize of winning the wild card will be no picnic. But this also opens up a shot at the playoffs for more teams. And if the the 5th or 6th seed does advance to the world series, it will have done so after being forced to win that one playoff game on the road, and then overcoming the odds of playing the division winner three straight on the road, and coming out victorious in at least 3 road games out of 6 total games. Yes, anything can happen in a short series. But if you have to play that playoff game, you've got to burn a starting pitcher, which puts you at an immediate disadvantage. Plus you have to travel to the WC host, and then to the division winner while they rest.

Yankees followers have been clamoring for their pitching staff to start hitting guys, don't think for a second this was an accident.