abuck1220

i'm glad i'm not involved in all these nail-biters. that last spot is certainly up in the air. i hope the team that takes it doesn't play the role of 'wild card team that hits the postseason running'.... 8-[

if hendry didn't 'agree with baker' then he shouldn't have hired him. people are acting like hendry and baker have drastically different philosophies. dusty's philosophy/strategy/reputation was well-established when hendry hired him. if hendry is now unhappy with how dusty has run the team, then it's hendry's fault for not knowing what he was getting himself into and i don't know how much credit i want to give hendry for not trading walker. he didn't trade lee for humberto cota either, but i'm not about to throw him a parade for that. keeping walker was a no-brainer.

they owe it to the fans to win games. like they did yesterday when rusch pitched. and the three previous times when rusch started. the best part is, he'll sit in the bullpen unused for two weeks and then get a start at houston or against the cardinals. then he'll pitch poorly and dusty can say 'i told you so'. wow, this season was fun.

hell, let's get him back out there for a few more relief appearances in september. maybe have him play winter ball. or go on one of those babe ruth style travelling baseball exhibitions in the off season.

looks like hill will be in the pen for some reason. gotta get a few more starts for rusch, i guess...reward him or something like that.

hill k's two in an odd one inning of relief. wonder what the deal is w/ hill coming out of the pen... does this mean sergio's starting in rusch's spot? if so, wouldn't they want to stretch him out more? maybe mitre got hurt and hill was available in the pen because they know he's coming up tomorrow. what a mysterious situation...wish i would have listened to the game. :x

I guess that's why we have numbers to measure them then. Walker's been slightly below average at 2B this year, a 97 rate(100 is average). I can recall a few times when there were routine balls hit to him, he doesn't make the play and they call it a hit when it should be an error. And as I said before, bad range. well, what you can 'recall a few times' certainly is more reliable than statistics. i'm with you...walker sucks.

baker seems to be the last person to realize that this current group of stiffs isn't winning, hasn't won and will continue to not win. since when does playing your worst players = trying to win?

Lol @ your obsession. Perhaps it would have been idiotic to let Hill get shelled a third time in a row??? I'm glad he got on his feet @ Iowa. Let him start the rest of the way and move Rusch to the pen. what's funny is that when hill was pitching poorly, and rusch was pitching well the fact that you were starting a thread per day about it was just fine. but now that you've been proven WRONG (and have been noticeably silent on the matter), i'm 'obsessed' with it. of course when you were saying the two needed to be flipped it was after hill had pitched poorly, and when i said that sending hill down for rusch was stupid it was before rusch pitched poorly. but i guess it's easier to be 'right' when you say stuff after the fact. Just cause Hill got guys out @ Iowa doesn't mean he'll get guys out in the big's. Wellemeyer can get outs @ Iowa too. The guy didn't need to get thrown to the sharks a third time, and when you're a big market team in a pennant race, and you have a guy w/ 3.32 ERA in 10 starts in the pen you start him instead of the kid who can't get anyone out. With that said, I hope Hill does great when he returns. big market teams like the yankees, cardinals, mets, phils, astros, white sox and anaheim are all using rookies. other non-big market teams that are in contention like florida, atlanta, and oakland also have a ton of rookies contributing. i don't think it's any worse for a big market team to depend on a rookie than it is for a big market team to depend on a crappy journey man lefty two years removed from a 6.00+ era/1-12 season and with a career era approaching 5. but hey, why are we arguing...it worked out great. rusch pitched fantastic and the cubs are in the driver's seat for the wild card spot.

Grand slam in a pinch hit appearance, I assume it's his first major league at bat. doesn't count. cardinals don't have a book on him yet. in addition, prince fielder's walk off two run homer today didn't count either.

The Cubs owe more to me than sending Rusch and Perez out there every 5th day and every day for Perez. i got home from school in time to see the end of the game on wgn. it must have been in about the 8th inning and the crowd was dead silent. all the sudden you hear some guy scream 'you call this progress??!!' at the top of his lungs. could be my new sig.

Lol @ your obsession. Perhaps it would have been idiotic to let Hill get shelled a third time in a row??? I'm glad he got on his feet @ Iowa. Let him start the rest of the way and move Rusch to the pen. what's funny is that when hill was pitching poorly, and rusch was pitching well the fact that you were starting a thread per day about it was just fine. but now that you've been proven WRONG (and have been noticeably silent on the matter), i'm 'obsessed' with it. of course when you were saying the two needed to be flipped it was after hill had pitched poorly, and when i said that sending hill down for rusch was stupid it was before rusch pitched poorly. but i guess it's easier to be 'right' when you say stuff after the fact.

When you're trying to win, you're trying to win. Rusch has been there all year and the Cubs owe it to him and their fans to keep him out there despite the results. that's my favorite line...that the cubs owe it to the fans to try and win. and to do so they're going to trot out the same stiffs that have gotten them into a fifth place deadlock. makes sense to me.

let's hear it for the cubs and their decision to swap hill with rusch! hill's three starts since being sent down... 3-0, 20 1/3 ip, 17 h, 4 er, 3 bb, 28 k's rusch since having a rotation spot dropped in his lap... 0-4, 16 1/3 ip, 32 h, 18 er, 6 bb's, 15 k's in a season full of idiotic decisions, it'd be hard to say this was the cubs' worst one, but it's pretty darn stupid. good job, idiots. anyone still want to argue that the cubs made the right call????

lee out of the game. how mad would you be if you bought tickets to this game?

yes can i please hear from the posters that were arguing that rusch should be starting instead of hill because he was pitching better....i believe this will put him over a 10.00 era for his last 6 appearances. obviously it's harder to tell if veterens aren't ready for the majors Honestly I was thinking he would turn it around. I think he needs 4 or 5 more strats to work the kinks out. slot him in there for the rotation next year just to be on the safe side. hill is 3-0 with 27 k's in his three starts since being sent down. i love the cubs.

You got that right and chemistry galores. plus, they got rid of all the bad attitudes. and the announcers. problems solved!

good thing the kids didn't play today...the cubs owe it to their fans to win as many games as possible.

i can't wait to update my rusch v. hill stats after this pathetic outing. the excuse machine will be in full force after this one.

thanks for not walking the pitcher to force in a run, rusch. you've earned a spot in the 2006 rotation.

if you took obp points away for hitting into dp's, neifi's obp may be below his batting average.

neifi's hot start put his title of 'worst hitter of his generation' in jeopardy. he's gotta secure his stronghold on that baby.

that's what i don't get. he keeps saying things like you have to reward the guys who got you here (which is tied for fifth w/ cincy) and that you have to play vets because you owe it to the fans to try and win games (even though those vets have NOT won you games). i'm actually gonna say that i hope the cubs lose today.

thank goodness rusch is getting another start. he's been fantastic lately. boy, did that 'send down hill, give rusch a spot in the rotation' move pay off BIG TIME.