Clem Fandango

I agree. The completely wild Hill that we had at the start of the season still wasn't that bad. You can point to his walks all you want, but his control was not causing a huge damper on his ERA. It wasn't helping it, but it wasn't giving him a huge 5.00+ ERA. Look at Fausto Carmona's walks per start this year up to his injury: Apr 2nd: 4 BB Apr 7th: 5 BB Apr 12th: 8 BB Apr 17th: 1 BB Apr 24th: 4 BB Apr 29th: 4 BB May 6th: 5 BB May 12th: 4 BB May 17th: 0 BB May 23rd: 3 BB 38 walks in 10 starts and 58 IP. Yet he still had a 3.10 ERA and had a 4-2 record, but also a 1.58 WHIP. The guy's control was comparable, if not worse, than Hill's was/is, but instead of sending down their young promising starter to the minors to work out the kinks, they kept him up to let him work through it, and you know what, he never really did... and they still won because he had stuff good enough to keep his team in the ballgame. Hill has/had that stuff. Now, granted, back in the minors Rich Hill has been just as bad with his control now as he was then, so it's kind of a moot point. But regardless of all that, I'd still would've taken a wild Rich Hill who will walk 3-5 and only give up 2-4 runs a game (which is exactly what he was doing), with smatterings of greatness, over Jason Marquis who is a good bet for a range between mediocre and crap each and every game. Unfortunately, Rich Hill has gotten worse, and that makes me a sad panda.

I DRIVE A DODGE STRATUS!!!

Maybe he is. Try wrapping your head around that one. [/mindblow]

I thought he's always had the potential to be a .300+ 20+ HR hitter, he just couldn't ever stay healthy enough to do it. Playing in Texas as their DH will only magnify his output. I think he's for real, it's just that he's made of glass so his career lines don't look that impressive

How the hell could they catch the signal and relay it to the hitter in time for him to know what it is before the pitch comes across the plate. They can't put a panel up on the board in time to give it away, and even if they did, it'd change ALL THE TIME, at the same moments in every pitch. It'd be ridiculously obvious

It'd be awesome if Eyre took part of his next paycheck and put it towards a bunch of free beer vouchers for 21 and up fans to be handed out at the gate.

Great vid. As much as I hate Matchbox 20, that song works well for the video. Also, Putfile is annoying with their pop-up ads in the middle of the video. Thanks for the Youtube link

Kind of hard to score runs when you have had offensive forces like Jacque Jones, Cesar Izturis, Cliff Floyd, Jeromy Burnitz, and Todd Hollandsworth hitting behind you

but... but... he hit for the cycle is that the only thing you know?yep. i actually have no idea how good of a player Gomez is. inform me. Think of a RH version of Felix Pie. Got good ML talent, but like Pie he is still extremely raw. That's the impression I get from Gomez. are the twins at least letting him play everyday? is he showing improvement? I just dropped him from a fantasy team, if that says anything (it doesn't). He's got like 16 stolen bases. Pretty much that's his greatest offensive threat is his speed, and that has tailed off big time. 11 stolen bases in the first month... 7 in the last two. He's only stolen one base all month long, so his speed has kinda disappeared lately on the basepaths. Overall, he's an average contact hitter it seems. .270-.290 range

You know what, I'm not gonna lie... up until about 2-3 years ago, I had no idea who Jack Brickhouse was. I grew up with Harry and Steve, and didn't follow Cubs baseball as if it were the gospel until about 2002, so I never really knew who Jack Brickhouse was because no one would ever really mention him. It was always about Harry Caray

I'm not sabremetrically inclined enough yet to read that without my mind wandering off and thinking about something else, but from the gist of it it seems like a good, interesting sabremetrics read.

Perhaps he's trying to live the broadcaster lifestyle equivalent of one David Eckstein

Despite giving up a boatload of runs his last appearance, it appears Francisco Liriano has gotten his command back on track in the minors, if he can harness it in the majors when he's called back up in a couple weeks, they may be a formidable underdog team. They will instantly get a top tier #1 starter, assuming he's got his stuff back. It's a big "if", but it's possible. Mauer, Morneau, Cuddyer, Young, Gomez and Casilla would be a strong offensive force if Cuddyer, Young, and Gomez could get their heads out their donkey's. If they start playing like they could, and Liriano comes back like the Liriano we saw a couple years ago, there's no reason they couldn't at least content for the wild card, IMO. Would be a tough feat to accomplish though as they really don't seem to have any indication that they could keep this up

It's been touched upon, but never pointed out... How many third basemen in the majors have had an OPS of .900 or higher each year since 2004? One: Aramis Ramirez. I know there was the debate about how OPS in inaccurate to conclude who is more valuable, but that stat still makes me smile

If he's good enough to make it to the majors and contribute productively the same year he's drafted, then rock and roll. That'd be a huge boost to the team. Like everyone else I was all "WTF" but I really dig the guy's skillset. All the scouting reports seem really positive, it'd be great if he could make it to the majors this year.

That is a worse idea than "You can put it on the boooooooooooooooooooooard!! YES!!!" I actually wish Len had said that during the 9-run outburst at some point, just to be a pompous ass

Old timey folk shouldn't get mad at the youngsters just because we had the privilege of school buses and public transportation during the winter time

In the end though, we can all hope for a Yankee injury in the all-star game so Hank Steinbrenner has another thing to rant about

All these fresh quotes and stupid moves by Baker seriously make me 100% sympathetic to the Reds. I should probably dislike the Reds since they're in the division and all, but it's hard to dislike them when their fans are suffering at the hands of the village idiot

The sad part is that a team filled with mostly the best players in the NL, probably still won't be able to beat a team made up of 80% Yankees and Red Sox. And yesm I know that's a little embellished, but still.

Didn't he stop taking them because MLB deemed Adderall a PED? I seem to recall he was kicking tail a year or two ago and then fell off the deep end and I read something about how he had to stop taking his ADD medication because it had a banned substance in it or something. Adderall is a fantastic drug if you have ADD or troubles focusing and paying attention.

That's a classic one. I remember when i first started watching Cubs games in 1987/1988 when I was 4 or 5 years old they were still playing that commercial. It's so damn corny it's great. I miss 80's commercials, rife with

Time to send Jay Bruce down to the minors!

That's awesome. I wish Barrett never closed his eyes at that moment, it looks like he's trying to punch him and kiss him at the same time. That whole "80% work thing"... Illogical. It was friggin' Saturday. And a large fraction of the crowd here was likely White Sox fans so...... what does that say about them?