abuck1220

too bad for rich that the big league club is in the heat of a pennant race and they can't afford to give him an extended look.

In the last year of their existence (1952), there were 8 teams in a league. (I don't know what year you're talking about, so that's what I used) Last I checked, we're only in a 6 team division. And the Braves were further behind when they turned it around than we are (and won the league by 10 games). in the time that has passed since the braves apparently did this, do you realize how many teams have been this far behind and not come back to win the division? like a billion.

without looking at his numbers, i would guess that alex gonzalez would make a better argument for the existence of clutch hitting. he was a terrible hitter who (seemingly...again, i haven't looked at the numbers) hit a bunch of late homeruns. ortiz is a great hitter who is still great in the 9th inning. didn't stop the guys on weei from laughing at people who don't believe in clutch hitting when ortiz hit the walkoff on saturday.

We have the third worst record in all of baseball. We stink. While it is possible for the Cubs to play better, it's ridiculous to assume that the other teams in the league will play bad enough for the Cubs to pass them. I have never said it was going to happen. I'm just saying it is possible teams have done it before. I assume the Cubs will continue to stink, but that is only an assumption, sometimes they can be wrong. Hence the reason they are not called facts. for example?

I guess BP doesn't actually watch games. i love that line. nevin's out there tonight, neifi's at 2nd. tough to blame the kids if they lose tonight.

trade murton, please.

I pretty much agree. I am not going to work myself into a lather over this anymore. It was a good sign that Prior that was in low 90s all night, and topped out at 96 (I think), only b/c it increases his trade value. That's really all I care about at this point....and what the Bulls do on Wed. night. Trading Prior would be downright silly. As much as I love Prior, where would we be right now if we had pulled the trigger on the Miguek Tejada trade? We'd be a better team at this point, simply because Prior hasn't contributed much at all to this season. On the other hand, I'm not sure we'd be over 500. Had Hendry traded Prior for Tejada, he likely would have moved Cedeno to second and dumped Walker for peanuts. So, Tejada's production would be in the place of Walker rather than Cedeno. the cubs wouldn't be anywhere near .500 if you simply subbed tejada for walker. not even close.

nothing like a blown save to kick off the week. first homer papelbon has given up in nearly 40 innings. :shock:

exactly. if the team was fighting to keep its head above water during those injuries, it would be one thing. but they've tanked. a healthy wood, prior, and lee would probably not make this team a .500 club. and even if they did, a .500 club w/ those three healthy is terrible. i also find it amusing that wood and prior's injuries are often given as reason not to fire baker, when, in fact, their injuries should be a reason for firing baker, given how he's handled them.

oh, and they all have to be healthy. a 100% healthy team of great players...that's all he asks. then he can really work his magic.

exactly. there will be no development of young players as long as baker's still on the hot seat. funny thing is, the young guys could get more of a chance to play if dusty got extended. you can tell by his ridiculous quotes/excuses in the press that baker is in full on panic mode right now.

We need to get Bynum and Rusch back as well before we can judge him. let's just agree that EVERYONE needs to be 100% healthy ALL THE TIME in order to fairly judge dusty. after all, the cubs are the only team in the majors to have injuries. the DL would be completely empty if it weren't for all the cubs on it.

exactly. all he asks is that you give him a bunch of really good players that are 100% healthy for the entire season. if that happens, he'll win games. that's why he makes the big bucks, people.

still at it... and then he takes his typical nonsense to another level altogether... is he telling us he's superman with that last one? i'm confused.

oh, what the heck? one more dlee excuse, just for old time's sake! couldn't resist!

now that lee's back, and he can't fall back on that one anymore, baker is back to playing the "we have too many rookies" card. doesn't really explain the worst offense in baseball, however.

wuertz is getting screwed pretty bad right now. and i'm not even big on wuertz.

buying or selling...i'll trade with you!

No doubt, with the way they use minor league arms. I think they're reactive overall. A player gets booed -- send him out of town. Pick something the last world series team did and base your strategy around that for the year. And so on. It is very irritating that the philosophy seems to change based on whatever happened last. the worst part about the "lets copy what the most recent WS champ did" strategy is that they don't do what those teams actually did do to win (ie take walks, jack homers, have healthy starting pitching) but what, say, john kruk may have said they did. for example, he would say that the red sox won b/c of team chemistry and the white sox b/c of sac bunts and speed.

As much as people here have been drooling over Marshall, his numbers have not been all that good this season. He's handled himself well, all things considered, but I don't think he's proven much more than any other pitching prospect in this system. I mean, for heaven's sake, his ERA is 4.92 with an away ERA of 6.53! That's just dreadful. I don't think drooling is the word. No one projected him as a number one starter. He made a huge jump from the low Minors and he's held his own. hill made a bigger jump last year, struggled a little, and has been written off by many. The circumstances were different last year. This season, look at Marshall's first 4 starts compared to Hill's. Marshall gave up 4/4/2/0 ERs while Hill surrendered 5/5/3/7 ERs. It's no wonder he was sent down. Like I said before, I think Hill will get another chance but he certainly didn't take advantage of his opportunities. Marshall has been inconsistent but that's to be expected. Unlike Hill, he's shown some dominance on this level; In 8 of his 15 starts he's given up 2 or fewer runs. that's not true. marshall gave up as many runs in his first start as hill did in his first three extended outings combined. hill followed up 4 1/3 hitless innings of relief with two starts of two runs allowed each. i'm certainly not arguing that hill's been better than marshall, but hill has shown flashes of success. his overall numbers in '05 were hurt by two horrible outings. Let's just wait for Hill to win a major league game before we start to hype him up.. and on that note, i'm done w/ this discussion. I figured that would be the back breaker.. :lol: i'm ending because a) i'm not "hyping" hill and b) judging a pitcher based on wins is idiotic. it's not because you "won" or something, so don't get too excited.

As much as people here have been drooling over Marshall, his numbers have not been all that good this season. He's handled himself well, all things considered, but I don't think he's proven much more than any other pitching prospect in this system. I mean, for heaven's sake, his ERA is 4.92 with an away ERA of 6.53! That's just dreadful. I don't think drooling is the word. No one projected him as a number one starter. He made a huge jump from the low Minors and he's held his own. hill made a bigger jump last year, struggled a little, and has been written off by many. The circumstances were different last year. This season, look at Marshall's first 4 starts compared to Hill's. Marshall gave up 4/4/2/0 ERs while Hill surrendered 5/5/3/7 ERs. It's no wonder he was sent down. Like I said before, I think Hill will get another chance but he certainly didn't take advantage of his opportunities. Marshall has been inconsistent but that's to be expected. Unlike Hill, he's shown some dominance on this level; In 8 of his 15 starts he's given up 2 or fewer runs. that's not true. marshall gave up as many runs in his first start as hill did in his first three extended outings combined. hill followed up 4 1/3 hitless innings of relief with two starts of two runs allowed each. i'm certainly not arguing that hill's been better than marshall, but hill has shown flashes of success. his overall numbers in '05 were hurt by two horrible outings. Let's just wait for Hill to win a major league game before we start to hype him up.. and on that note, i'm done w/ this discussion.

eyre and howry are getting a lot of $ to pitch mop up innings.

As much as people here have been drooling over Marshall, his numbers have not been all that good this season. He's handled himself well, all things considered, but I don't think he's proven much more than any other pitching prospect in this system. I mean, for heaven's sake, his ERA is 4.92 with an away ERA of 6.53! That's just dreadful. I don't think drooling is the word. No one projected him as a number one starter. He made a huge jump from the low Minors and he's held his own. hill made a bigger jump last year, struggled a little, and has been written off by many. The circumstances were different last year. This season, look at Marshall's first 4 starts compared to Hill's. Marshall gave up 4/4/2/0 ERs while Hill surrendered 5/5/3/7 ERs. It's no wonder he was sent down. Like I said before, I think Hill will get another chance but he certainly didn't take advantage of his opportunities. Marshall has been inconsistent but that's to be expected. Unlike Hill, he's shown some dominance on this level; In 8 of his 15 starts he's given up 2 or fewer runs. that's not true. marshall gave up as many runs in his first start as hill did in his first three extended outings combined. hill followed up 4 1/3 hitless innings of relief with two starts of two runs allowed each. i'm certainly not arguing that hill's been better than marshall, but hill has shown flashes of success. his overall numbers in '05 were hurt by two horrible outings.

really? stunning.

If Hill was struggling a "Little" he'd still be pitching in the Bigs. i'm not going to have the hill argument for the 1000th time. he pitched 20 innings in '05 and 20 in '06. he had two terrible outings in '05, but he also had three good to great outings of more than four innings. i've never said he's cy young, all i'm saying is he deserves a better chance than the ones he's received.