Little Slide Rooter

Flu? I bet its that shoulder flu thats going around.

Actually, I read somewhere that Hendry refered to him as a possible front end starter or a closer, so maybe.

Lets just hope Kyung-min Na isnt Korean for Joey Gathright or Freddy Bynum.

Lets face it, I really dont see much happening in the upcoming offseason, however, after this year, we should have some payroll freed up, and theres a very, very nice free agent class in 2011. The top dog is Albert Pujols, but I really dont see leaving St. Louis, unless the Yankees or Red Sox offer him something disgusting, so as far as the moe realistic options, who would you chose? I think Id have to chose Mauer due to his ability to play catcher and possible 1B.

I will accept nothing less than a sweep of the Indianapolis Indians.

Hak Ju Lee 2-2 so far with a HR a 2B and 3 RBI

Not sure if that was directed at me, but I can say that I understand some of the disgust over the doom & gloom that is pronounced here almost every day. Speaking for myself, I DO get "down" within gamethreads, but mostly it's me being sarcastic/tongue-in-cheek. Sometimes I do a poor job of relating that in my posts. I seriously haven't given up on the season. I DO give up on certain games, because this team has been so frustrating this year. But as far as the season goes, I think any rational poster here would agree that a fully healthy team could still make a serious run at the post-season. And if we can sneak in, anything is possible... Not really directed at you, more in general to those that seemingly bemoan the being a Cubs fan more often than not. Any real fans arent going to give up. Very true, which is why the "why am I a Cubs fan?!?" crying over and over again is such a pet peeve. It either means they're a short term bandwagoner or they're just being annoyingly hysterical and and melodramatic ad nauseum. It gets to a point where it's baffling why some people here claim to be Cubs fans since seemingly all they do is complain about being one. Im not going to lie, there are times that I wish I could just make it go away, or at least block out the next month and see how were doing in mid september, but I just cant. Its like family. No matter how much they screw me over or dissapoint, I keep coming back.

how much violence and / or nudity is allowed in a game thread? The interwebs may not have enough to get the Cubs out of this funk. . . . . . . If I were to do a game thread, tomorrow's is all I could do. . . I'm heading out of town and couldn't be relied on for the remainder of the weekend. I had a 9-game win streak last year.... perhaps I could try to reclaim some of the magic? No disrespect to you, and definitely none to the GTP, but I dont think we really need any mojo to take care of the Pirates.

congrats on narrowly avoiding a sweep at the hands of the Padres.

Not sure if that was directed at me, but I can say that I understand some of the disgust over the doom & gloom that is pronounced here almost every day. Speaking for myself, I DO get "down" within gamethreads, but mostly it's me being sarcastic/tongue-in-cheek. Sometimes I do a poor job of relating that in my posts. I seriously haven't given up on the season. I DO give up on certain games, because this team has been so frustrating this year. But as far as the season goes, I think any rational poster here would agree that a fully healthy team could still make a serious run at the post-season. And if we can sneak in, anything is possible... Not really directed at you, more in general to those that seemingly bemoan the being a Cubs fan more often than not. Any real fans arent going to give up. After all of these years, I dont think one mediocre season is going to make or break that. Most of the 2003 bandwagoners bailed between 2005-2006. The 2008 bandwagoners are probably jumping ship though.

Manny Parra is not good.

Hopefully we have 25 pissed off guys on this team who will take it out on the Pirates and Padres the next 6 games, but I guess time will tell.

At least Justin Berg had a nice debut. Better than anything Samardjiza did all season anyway.

I honestly dont know what to think of him anymore. He was great in 2007 ans 2008, but I dont know if we was worthy of that contract. This year, aside from his hot start and the recent short hot streak, hes been absolutely horrible.

A great team? They're a decent team in a medicore to bad divison with one of the easiest schedules in baseball. They made a couple of very good moves this year but calling them a "great team" is pretty generous. They're not the "murderers row" some have refered them as, but anytime you have Pujols/Holliday/Ludwick to get through in the heart of the lineup, thats pretty damn good. Carpenter/Wainwright is a great front end to any rotation, although I still ahve my doubts about the rest of their pitching staff

As opposed to Jim Henry and Lou Piniella deciding that having another .500 season while missing the playoffs in heartbreaking fashion would be just dandy? I never said Jim and Lou dont want to win. I am saying that Jockety saw a weak division with no obvious favorite and knew if he made the right moves, they can take it and run, and thats exactly what they seem to have done. Cubs didnt have the money to fight back, Brewers didnt want to part with the prospects. This is no longer the lucky pixie dust Cardinals, they have a great team on their hands. Hopefully, in the end, they get knocked out first round and next year are left with what they started the year with. Walt did do this, the Rolen move made that obvious. my bad, whatever the new Cards GMs name is.

If he keeps it up, maybe he can redeem the family name on the North side.

As opposed to Jim Henry and Lou Piniella deciding that having another .500 season while missing the playoffs in heartbreaking fashion would be just dandy? I never said Jim and Lou dont want to win. I am saying that Jockety saw a weak division with no obvious favorite and knew if he made the right moves, they can take it and run, and thats exactly what they seem to have done. Cubs didnt have the money to fight back, Brewers didnt want to part with the prospects. This is no longer the lucky pixie dust Cardinals, they have a great team on their hands. Hopefully, in the end, they get knocked out first round and next year are left with what they started the year with.

I very much want to see Cashner have a dominant game after Saturday. It could be the one ray of sunshine in an otherwise dreadful week of Cubs baseball.

Enjoy running away with the division and never looking back Red Birds. You have a manager and a GM who wanted to win and they made it happen.

Looks like we can chalk this one up as a sweep. 2 struggling teams came together, and one rose up in a big way, and one fell even harder.

He expects to be back tomorrow.

??? --------------------------------------------------------- oh, and I don't mind that lineup either Oh. quite.

I wonder how long Jeff Baker can keep his little hot streak going. Thanks to the last few games, his line in 26 games as a Cub is .309/.356/.491/.847. If he keeps it up, I say just DFA Miles and call up Blanco as a backup SS. Hell, even if he doesnt keep it up.

Nobody can deny that when that white trash father and son attacked the Royals 1st base coach, Cubs fans didnt use it as a stereotype for Sox fans.