Little Slide Rooter

Obligatory pixie dust 30-1 record with a 1.56 ERA/0.58 WHIP with the Cardinals post

Not only that, but Valverde may be the biggest ass in the league. Rooting for him would be painful. Seriously. Seeing that lunatic doing his freakshow act in a Cubs uni would be embarrasing. Ill root for anyone who can help us win, blind, crippled, or crazy, but if Marmol can prove that he can do the job over the next month, theres really no reason to overpay for Valvere.

There arent nearly enough camoflauge uniforms in baseball today http://i.tsn.com/i/photos/20080818/94792.jpg

I had no idea that Cliff Lee, Jason Bay, Brandon Phillips, and Grady Sizemore were all once proud members of the Natspos organization.

There is nothing more badass then what you've done here. Congrats. And he would have gotten away with it too if it werent for those meddling kids and their pesky dog.

When the Cubs have their regular lineup healthy (which hasn't been often in the past year), you can't tell me that Aram, DLee, Soriano, Bradley, and Soto (circa 2008) can't support a .290 singles hitter in the lineup. Sure when they have a bunch of guys in their 30's with various degrees of reoccuring/lingering injury issues plus a catcher with one good year under his belt all at their best, they can hide Theriot. I don't know why you'd assume all those guys would be healthy and at their best next season though. That of course just emphasizes the point that the guy needs to be hidden because he's not good, he's also aging, and if this team wants to get better they should look long and hard at replacing him. a .290 hitter doesnt need to be hidden. A guy like Theriot should be your number 2 hitter behind a solid leadoff guy. Guys like Aaron Miles and Bobby Scales need to be hidden when in a lineup. Guys like Theriot should be setting the table for the big boys.

Optismism would be if we were 5 games back in a 2 team race. Irrationality is when were 8 games back with 3 teams ahead of us.

When the Cubs have their regular lineup healthy (which hasn't been often in the past year), you can't tell me that Aram, DLee, Soriano, Bradley, and Soto (circa 2008) can't support a .290 singles hitter in the lineup. I agree with the above. Some feel that every guy in the lineup has to be a OPSing in the mid .800s, but having those singles hitters is good to set the tables. Theriot is right on par with the avg. offensive numbers for MLB shortstops, and take out a few guys like Han Ram and Jimmy Rollins from that mix, and Theriot may be above the average

So here's this: I can see 'em winning 8 of the next 10 and getting that confidence back...sweeping teams and taking 2 of 3 from others. I hate to be a broken record, but Soriano not playing is the greatest addition by subtraction ever. His worthless ass being off the field HAS to pump up the guys that are producing. And don't think for a second that he has an ailment. Hendry can't make the 100 million dollar man seem like a FO mistake. He just shudda did it a month ago. (sit him) Stop it. You're going to make people think you actually believe this hogwash. Is it possible the cubs can go on a nice little winning streak here? Sure. Their remaining schedule is by no means impossible, but we're still EIGHT games back with only 24 left to play. We literally have less than a ONE percent chance of making the playoffs at this point. http://www.baseballprospectus.com/statistics/ps_odds.php LOL....now you got me doubting my own unrealistic hopes. You are probably right. If we don't catch Fla by tuesday, I will STFU. Are you sure your not a Cards fan trying to mess with us?

Did I say we were a shoe-in? We may lose the next 6 games in a row....but the odds are better that we WIN the next 6. We are in a goddam tough spot but the Phils and Cards are the only teams that feel safe...all the teams behind them are nervous. What do we have to be nervous about? We are in the sh*t house already! Look at the teams we play the next week....you tell me we can't beat them? E.J....don't we have 22 games left? (I think) I count 23 left . . . but I'm an idiot The Cubs are 71-67, meaning they have played 138 games. A season consists of 162 games (barring cancellations), so technically, the Cubs have 24 games left. Let's consider the odds of catching Colorado: Since June 3, the Rockies have gone 60-28 (no, really!) for a .682 winning percentage. Before that, they were 20-32 for a .385 percentage. Say they play that bad for their remaining games, all of a sudden. That puts them at 9-13 to close out the year. Then, all the Cubs would have to do to catch them is go 18-6 (.750 winning percentage) to close out the year. So, all the Cubs need to do to get the wild card is play better than they have all year, and have the white-hot Rockies cool off to pre-June levels at the same time. That is correct. They got hot "all of a sudden", but they can't get cold the same way? I know it's a long shot, like that Philly winning the Kentucky Derby, or Buster beating Tyson or the Pirates beating the Yanks in '60. What's wrong with you guys? If in a week from now we are still 6 games back of the WC I will be less optomistic, but the fact is we COULD be 5 back in 3 days, with 20 games to go. How can you not have hope? Anything can happen, but it usually doesnt.

I especially like how they have Ted Lilly as the projected ace of a Dodgers staff including Billingsley, Kershaw, and Edwin Jackson

I saw that a little while back. We would be pretty bad, but better than the White Sox, according to these rankings. Im not sure why they have the Brewers so low though. Nice lineup, and a better rotation than they have now.

So whats the point in not calling up Gaub at this point? theres 2-3 open 40 man spots, and its not like we have anything else to fill them with. I hope they plan on protecting him from the Rule 5, so he'll end up on the 40 man sooner or later, so why not just call him up and have a look at him? we all know Lou loves him some loogies.

The thing about Z being Z is that if he were living up to his potential and being the ace that hes paid to be, then maybe it would be OK for him to be a bit of a sideshow, but hes basically pitching like a back end of the rotation guy for teh majority of this season, making his act get a lot more tired than it already has to be. Give us 18-20 wins and then you can do your thing.

Might as well kick the tires on Pujols or Hanley Ramirez while we're at it since we're talking about middle infielders, let's get utley for soto and wells. Maybe the Yankees would be interested in a trade back of A Rod for Soriano+PTBNL.

Remember, we still play a lot of games vs. teams other than the Pirates.

The best part about this is that its clearly been well planned out for quite some time, probably since Princes last walk off HR. Sure, it may result in a plunking next time these 2 teams meet, and sure, that will likely result in a bench clearing brawl, but still.

I really do like the Fukudome/Bradley 1-2 followed by Lee/Ramirez 3/4. Ideally, Soriano comes back to life and would be a perfect 5 with Baker, Soto, and Theriot rounding out the lineup. Fukudome Bradley Lee Ramirez Soriano Baker Soto Theriot is a very solid lineup, although very right handed and if they can all stay healthy, we have a contender on our hands once again.

Does anyone out there have Marmols stat line since he was offically made closer? It seems hes been very good ever since he got the job.

Side bet, anyone think we will gain a game on the Cardinals again this year? I'd like to think the Cardinals are prime example of good team playing over their heads for a month and due for a big time let down in October. But, that kind of [expletive] only happens to the Cubs. I think that the Cardinals and Phillies will be pretty evenly matched in October. Both have very solid lineups, both have 2 great starters and the rest of the rotation and the bullpens on both sides is questionable.

wow, we have 4 games left with them? It seems like we've played them 30 times already. I sincerely believe that if the remaining schedule were magically altered so that the Cubs played the rest of their games vs. the Pirates and the Cardinals played the rest of their games on the road vs. the Yankees and Red Sox that we could work our way back into this thing.

whats with the injury delay?

Am I alone in thinking that these past few weeks have felt like spring training?

God bless and keep the Pirates in the NL Central for many years to come.

I concur. If you want to send out a forfeit lineup to see how guys do, do it right Fuld CF Blanco SS Fox 1B Hoffpauir RF Baker 2B Scales LF Fontenot 3B Hill C Samardzjia P