Little Slide Rooter

game over, thanks for playing.

I figure they'll give some of these guys through the home stand before they start handing out fun filled, all expenses paid Iowa vacations.

On the bright side, if the Cubs do a lot of that in Wrigley, they'll put some runs on the board.

Let the fun begin. Yay.

Josh Vitters with another home run for peoria. Why is he not in Tenesee at least? Id say Daytona, but I have my doubts that they'll ever play another game.

J Jax final line, 6 IP 3 hits, 3 walks, 1 ER 8Ks. Very nice.

Yeah but Reed Johnson is gonna ground out three times and pop up to center once in the three hole So yeah I do blame him Yup. Sounds like the rest of em.

When Lou rests a player, he likes to insert his replacement in the lineup slot the regular would be in. Hes not necessarily giving Reed that vote of confiedence, he just doesnt want to re arange the lineup for him. I dont blame him.

Will he really be any worse than anyone else? I know its an idiotic move, but who really cares at this point.

I say if he posts his anime and we get a win, let the anime flow like wine.

The Marlins prefer gutting farm systems over going after a guy they'll have to pay in a few years. Wed be better off dealing directly for Cantu, but knowing the Marlins, theyd want Jay Jackson, Andrew Cashner and then some. At this point, the Giants would probably also just assume go directly through the Marlins and trade for Cantu or Uggla than Lee.

I definitely hate the Cards a lot more, but I dont want the Brewers to win anythying simply because I like them right here in Baseball Hell with us. Granted, they're not in the same level, with only the Indians and Giants the only ones anywhere near us, but the Brewers are right in that '60s expansion team level with the Padres, Rangers, Astros, Marniers, and of course that dreadfull Montreal/Washington franchise. The more company we have, the better I feel about our futility. For that reason, and that alone, if I were forced to chose between the Cards and Brewers to take it all, Id reluctantly chose the Cards. After all, while our franchise may be the frustrated, the average fan for each of these other teams is just as startved as we are.

Didnt see the game huh? Than I guess you dont want to hear abput the 9th inning 1st and 3rd no outs fake rally that was immediately irradicated by a Hoffpauir tailor made double play and a Geovany Soto strikeout, so I guess I wont tell you about it.

Absolutely. as I recall in '06, the Cubs did OK the first few games aftr losing Lee before hitting that massive black hole. This team has much more going for them than 2006 nut they still have to be carefull that they dont go spiraling into obvlivion. I really think we should see what Texas wants for Blalock. its already been stated that theyd deal him for relief help. The question is how much. Obviosuly, they're not going to aquire a top of the line guy from anyone. Id try and offer up Heilman as well as 1 or even 2 of Hart, Stevens and Reinhard and throw in Jake Fox. I know that seems like a lot for a guy at the end of his contract who will probably only get 2 months of regular usage, but remember, theres no guarantee that Aramis is back in July or August or even September, and deperate times call for desperate measures. Also, PetCo is the worst possible place for a team in a collective mega slump, be the pitcher Peavy or Greer or Gaudin or whoever. When your slumping this bad, its almost instinct to try to swing for the fences on every pitch to break out of it, and in PetCo, that aint gonna happen all that often.

If you think about it, without Ramirez are offense is far from spectacular, but its not garbage. -The best overall hitter on the team is locked at leadoff, and cant perfrom anywhere else in the lineup. However, when hes on his game, he knows how to get things started like no other. -Theriot at 2 pretty much sums up what a number 2 guy does. Slaps a lot of singles and doubles and can take a walk or lay down a bunt. -we pretty much have a slightly above average 3-5 that will be keys to contention, but isnt going to help us run away with the division. -6-7 are guys who are doing next to nothing and getting by on the reputations they earned last year. There success wil also be very important to us -we have a jumble of number 8 guys, none of which are worth a damn, but then again, look around the NL, and you see a lot of that. While this looks discouraging, what it is is you're basic type of lineup for an NL team. In 2008, we were spoiled because we had a hell of a lineup with no easy outs 1-8. Well guess what, if you looks around the NL, there are very few lineups like that. What we do have is a starting pitching staff that trumps our competition. This team isnt going to run away with the division, however, it will contend, and even if we cant take the division, we'll be locked in a dogfight for the WC between whoever doesnt win the East betwen the Mets and Phils as well as the Cards or Brewers depending on whose in 1st, if its not us.

We should be so lucky to have Dunn and Zimmerman.

Now Teddys the guy I trust to end a skid, as long as he knows hes going to have the pitch a shut out and hit a home run.

If Lou was going to erupt, hed have done it by now. Hes in the same catatonic state as his offense, partially brought on by utter disbelief.

Just curious as to where everyone stands. Not interested in how many wins, how we get there, or what we do if/when we get there.

I think back to early in the season when Len or Bob mentioned nobody on the team starting the season on the DL. next thing you know, our best players started dropping like flies. Why cant Aaron Miles seperate a shoulder or Neil Cotts strain a hammy?

Looks like Skis in line for the next game thread, so we can look forward to some creepy anime porn. Then again, he can wait a day and let the game thread pimp attempt to work his magic.

Yeah thats kinda what I said about. I really wonder what about last year has caused so many fans to feel this way (you aren't the only person I've heard that from...I've read that on this board quite a bit this year and a lot of my friends offline have felt the same feeling). Is it because we realized that living and dying for 162 games just to be swept in a span of 4 days is just not worth it? Or is it because that year just really killed our spirit forever? I think it's because we've tasted regular season success and it doesn't mean much at this point. We want to win in the playoffs now. We've kind of become spoiled. If the team sucks this year and misses the playoffs I'm sure I'll be living and dying with every pitch again next year. In a perfect world, Id be able to emotionally detach myself until about august and see what position were in then. Believe me, Ive tried and the most Ive made it is 3 innings.

Why is it that every thread, no matter the original topic seems to end up the same way lately?

Nobodys in love with Lou, but hes not to blame here, and neither is Perry. He has what he has to work with, and theyre not producing. Theres not much he can do about that except for A. Wait for them to wake up or B. Arrange a little visit from the PED fairy. Right now, were 4 games out with a lot of baseball to play. I know it feels like were a <.400 team down by 10 games, but a slump will do that. 6 game losing streeks happen, and if you're losing a bunch of 7-5 games or 3-1 games, its the same result. Our offense took a huge hit with Aram, but they're still good enough to crank out enough runs to back up the great pitching weve been seeing.

Well they're not, so get that thought out of you're head.