CubbieBum

Plus the dumb play by Feliz that led to at least Theriot scoring, and quite likely the full 3-run homer that Lee had (assuming Theriot is out and Fukudome still flies out). Pretty sure Bob and all color guys says something similar after a game is only talking about their team.

Yes, because he also had to warm up. Agreed but that is also the reason why sitting Grabow after being fully warm would have been a bad idea.

I'm beginning to think the Cubs have learned Marmol is best when he pitches every two days. He has pitched every two days without fail so far and has been lights out.

1. The guy who took the original statements that I said earlier were heavily biased has been forced to resign. Turns out he was hanging out with Boozin Ben at the very bar the ordeal took place at a few hours before it all happened. 2. Absolutely love the Ginn trade even though I'm not a fan of Ginn. It gives us the returner we need. That alone makes it worth giving up a 5th round pick. He should also at the worst be a decent slot receiver for us. Running cross patterns and posts with VD will be hell for an opposing defense due to the ridiculous speed of both players. He also gives us the thing that was lacking most in our receiving core. The ability to stretch the defense. He not great at actually getting receptions deep but due to his speed he forces a defense to account for him deep which opens up VD and Crabs underneath. On a side note I love being able to call our two best receiving targets VD and Crabs.

My problem right now is it seems no one has turned their attention to the off duty police officers. They played a role in this. Even if the girl consented in the bathroom, not allowing the friends to go back is something police officers should be allowed to do even when off duty. To put it simply they are not the type of people that should be police officers. I also have a problem with the report written by the officer when the girl first came in. He writes in a way that comes off like he is trying to protect the off duty officers and Big Ben. He writes that she was asked for sex but never writes that she said no or anything along those lines. Why would the girl be at the station if she had wanted to have sex and why would her statement written at the same time as the first report state alleged sexual assault? The initial report mentions nothing about what was accused of Big Ben. All it says is that it is unclear because the girl's memory is foggy. Why not write what she was saying and add that her memory was foggy. Not writing what she thought happened and just saying her memory was foggy and thus it is unclear what happened undermines the entire case. Add this that they had 5 full days to get the security tape but somehow never did and allowed it to be taped over and you got a great case against the police department. Unfortunately it appears the girl wants it all to just go away and likely won't go after the police department. One wonders why the D.A. didn't think there was enough evidence to prosecute Ben with this in mind. I think the video footage that was taped over might have been a key element in the D.A.'s choice. How stupid of the police was it to let that out of their sight. It's a mistake that in no way should ever be made. In a case like this cops, media and regular people know that the security tape is the only real way to get a conviction. There is a strong history in cases where the accuser is drunk or on something that their testimony is untrustworthy in a juries eyes. DNA evidence won't do much because the accussed can say it was mutual and because the accuser was drunk there is no way to know for sure. Obviously if the accuser is beat up it makes the case much easier even in cases with heavy drinking involved but the police knew from the start it wasn't that way. All this means the security tape should have been priority #1.

oooo I got an idea let's derail another thread by bringing up arguments from a different thread that have nothing to do with this thread

My problem right now is it seems no one has turned their attention to the off duty police officers. They played a role in this. Even if the girl consented in the bathroom, not allowing the friends to go back is something police officers should be allowed to do even when off duty. To put it simply they are not the type of people that should be police officers. I also have a problem with the report written by the officer when the girl first came in. He writes in a way that comes off like he is trying to protect the off duty officers and Big Ben. He writes that she was asked for sex but never writes that she said no or anything along those lines. Why would the girl be at the station if she had wanted to have sex and why would her statement written at the same time as the first report state alleged sexual assault? The initial report mentions nothing about what was accused of Big Ben. All it says is that it is unclear because the girl's memory is foggy. Why not write what she was saying and add that her memory was foggy. Not writing what she thought happened and just saying her memory was foggy and thus it is unclear what happened undermines the entire case. Add this that they had 5 full days to get the security tape but somehow never did and allowed it to be taped over and you got a great case against the police department. Unfortunately it appears the girl wants it all to just go away and likely won't go after the police department.

I'm assuming Marmol is 1 of your 2 remaining. Just curious who your 2nd guy is? marshall So what has Russell done to not be included? I dont really mind Russell, or even Berg or Caridad for that matter, but in a 1 run or tie game, I wouldnt go with them. Then who the [expletive] do you go with when you starter throws 120 pitches in 5 innings? You have 4 innings to eat. Lou used Marshall first. I think if Marshall had done well he probably would have been left in but Marshall clearly didn't have it today. You can't throw your closer for three innings so who else gets the ball? Russell is the only other one to have done well so far this season. I personally would have stuck with Marshall in hopes he could be better in the next inning even though that meant he had to hit. I then have Russell warming. He either takes the 8th or comes in earlier if Marshall struggles. That leaves Marmol for the 9th, unless we are out of it and then you can throw Berg.

i read somewhere that his wrist is banged up, and all he can do is play outfield right now (can't hit) How is that different from the norm? sorry couldn't resist

I'm assuming Marmol is 1 of your 2 remaining. Just curious who your 2nd guy is? marshall So what has Russell done to not be included?

How is it possible for every team in the league to play a majority of their games against the other conference against playoff teams? Maybe it is possible but I can't think of how, especially when schedules are made before the season starts and thus you don't know who will make playoffs and who won't. LOL. Numbers are hard. Never knew you played every team from the other conference twice. I thought every season was different.

Who is talking about potential? I'm talking about what his career points to which is 60-70 games. You are acting like he won';t play at all. 1 game with Yao is better than 0 games. Even if he can only play half the games that is still much better than what we had this year. Maybe, what if he throws off the chemistry of the team? He might not be able to play the same tempo that the rest of the Rockets want to play. At this point if I was a Rockets fan I wouldn't be expecting anything out of him and then just be suprised if he did anything. Guys over 7 feet that have leg problems generally don't give you much, think Ewing at the end of his career when he looked like he was running on ice. Ewing got old and broke down. Yao is still under 30. Definitely a chance he will never be what he was but for a guy as young as him who had an ankle injury that has been proven to be fully fixable means he will likely still be good. I thought that big Z was a decent player after he got hurt and a nice role model for Yao. Not the franchise guy he was going to be though. Big Z had the surgery in 2001. He came back and had a very good stretch of years. He averaged 11.1 pts and 5.4 rebs the first year in just 21 minutes a game and then went on to have a 4 year stretch where he roughly averaged 16 pts and 8 rebs. I don't think Big Z was ever as good as Yao was/is so it seems feasible Yao can come back and have some good years with 18 pts 9 rebs which is close to what he averaged before.

I find it pretty funny how the older stars are getting p.o.ed that he's getting star treatment. Guys, he's a superstar. The Lakers are the last team that should be complaining about superstar treatment. They've gotten it for 30-40 years straight. That's because they have always had superstars. That's also why it behooves you to have one rather than an entire lineup of above average players. That's why I prefer the college game as it seems you have to be more balanced. I realize they have always had superstars. Just more the reason they should be complaining. Kobe hit Artest twice in the face and elbowed Battier in the neck when he was on the ground last year and got nothing.

Who is talking about potential? I'm talking about what his career points to which is 60-70 games. You are acting like he won';t play at all. 1 game with Yao is better than 0 games. Even if he can only play half the games that is still much better than what we had this year. Maybe, what if he throws off the chemistry of the team? He might not be able to play the same tempo that the rest of the Rockets want to play. At this point if I was a Rockets fan I wouldn't be expecting anything out of him and then just be suprised if he did anything. Guys over 7 feet that have leg problems generally don't give you much, think Ewing at the end of his career when he looked like he was running on ice. Ewing got old and broke down. Yao is still under 30. Definitely a chance he will never be what he was but for a guy as young as him who had an ankle injury that has been proven to be fully fixable means he will likely still be good.

Name one center who hasn't been just as good if not better after having surgery on their feet. Hell It practically turned Bill Walton's career around. Zydrunas Ilgauskas. Oh and their surgeries are very similiar. One last thing, using guys who got injured decades ago as evidence is about the smartest thing I have ever seen. Modern medicine hasn't better whatsoever in 30 years.

Who is talking about potential? I'm talking about what his career points to which is 60-70 games. You are acting like he won';t play at all. 1 game with Yao is better than 0 games. Even if he can only play half the games that is still much better than what we had this year. Oh and he is closer to 7'5" but listed at 7'6".

You are not going to have three guys score 20 a game? That's crazy. I guess I wasn't clear. I wasn't meaning those are the stats they will put up. Those are the stats they have put up and are the type of players they are generally considered to be. I expect Brooks to score less but have more assists with Yao back. I expect Yao and Martin to be around 20 pts per game with Yao likely being just under because his minutes will be limited to around 30-32 minutes a game. I would imagine that Brooks and Martin will both continue to be awful shooters, both around .430 or so thus nagating a lot of their points per game. I think that Ming will be a shell of what he was. He just missed a whole season with an injured wheel and isn't getting any younger. I think that with Ming back Socla will lose a lot of his offense, sense there are so many shots for a team and if you assume that the other two guard won't take a hit in their offense someone has to. I think you overachieved a lot this year and that some of the other teams in the West have the potential to gain on you more than you have to move up. I can see why someone has you stance but we played with the Lakers even after Yao went down in the playoffs so the 42-40 record is about what I expected. I can also see why someone would think Scola will drop back closer to the 12.7 he averaged with Yao. However if you dig into his splits he didn't get over 30 minutes a game for the first 2+ months of that season. His averaged almost 14 pts a game over the last four months of the season while playing about 31 minutes a game. This year he averaged 16.2 in 32 minutes a game. Not much of a difference and you got to figure he is a bit better now then he was with Yao because he was in his first year as a full-time starter back then. He should also get more minutes next season because Landry is gone and he was splitting pretty evenly with Landry before with some C time worked in as well. He averaged 37+ minutes a game over the last two months of the season this year which was when Landry was traded. He averaged just under 20 pts in those two months. With Yao back I expect him to play 34-35 minutes a game but his average be right around what he ended up average overall this season which was the 16.2.

Definitely big, fat donkey balls. He is just that bad.

You are not going to have three guys score 20 a game? That's crazy. I guess I wasn't clear. I wasn't meaning those are the stats they will put up. Those are the stats they have put up and are the type of players they are generally considered to be. I expect Brooks to score less but have more assists with Yao back. I expect Yao and Martin to be around 20 pts per game with Yao likely being just under because his minutes will be limited to around 30-32 minutes a game.

Uh no. I've already said Russell should be used more and I think everyone is in favor of Shark being sent anywhere but here. We used Marshall and he sucked. We used Shark and he sucked. We used Grabow and he sucked. There is nothing we could do today because even our good RP (Marshall) didn't do well. "Nothing that could be done?" What? Were Berg, Gray and Russell all locked out of the stadium before the game? In no way did Shark have to pitch 2 innings. And Marshall gave up 1 run to the heart of the lineup of a good-hitting team on a day with a very tight and inconsistent strike zone with the Cubs still having 12 outs to go. It's unrealistic to expect the bullpen to not give up ANY runs. They used Shark, and yes, he sucked. They got very lucky that he only gave up 2 runs given how badly he was pitching. Yeah, Grabow had his error, but the Brewers' run that inning was manufactured by bad defense beyond that and infield garbage. This loss wasn't any kind of "bullpen disaster," especially since the bullpen could have been managed so much better. This is nonsense. I'm trying to look at it realistically. Yeah, the bullpen has sucked early on, but a game where the bullpen has to throw 4 innings in a tight game with today's circumstances and it's unlikely that they wouldn't have given up any runs. You look at it closely and the key problem was inexplicably leaving Shark in there (or even just using him in the first place) as opposed to the bullpen as a whole just sucking. No bullpen pitcher did well so the key problem wasn't leaving Shark in. He gave up one run that second inning and we lost by two. Not sure how that computes for you but for me that doesn't equal the key problem. The key problem was after the starters left we had a 1-run lead but our bullpen gave up three more runs than the Brewers bullpen.

Yeah cause he's always missed a full season. He's played in a majority of games in every season and played 77 games before missing this entire season. Will he ever be as healthy as he was in his first three seasons, probably not but it's moronic to say that his missing the season didn't play a role in the Rockets only winning 42 games this season. Oh and the 42 wins I consider a huge victory. Brooks proved to be the real deal, Martin is a good player that got Ariza to realize he isn't ever going to be more than a defensive stopper who can shoot 3-pters, Scola stepped up huge at the end of the season, Budinger proved to be a very undervalued player in last year's draft and Hill has good potential to be a good rebounder off the bench. All this sets us up to be very good next season (assuming we re-sign Scola) when we add Yao, a lottery pick and likely some 2nd round steal that we get every year with Morey. This lottery doesn't seem to be super deep, if you want to improve a ton you probably need to move up in it throught some luck. I don't expect to get a great player who will be a starter. The Rockets already have a great starting lineup assuming we re-sign Scola who has said he really wants to stay and Morey absolutely loves. No rookie is going to start over Brooks, Martin, Battier/Ariza, Scola and Yao. I do expect to get a good bench player though who along with Lowry, Budinger, Ariza/Battier and Hill will give us one of the deepest teams. How do you have a great starting lineup? Utah is probably better at most if not all of the postitions and they are usually a 5 seed in the West? We won 53 games last year. Brooks is better than Rafer Alston, Kevin Martin is better than or equal to the Artest, T-Mac combo we had, Scola is quite a bit better than he was that year. Yao will likely be a little worse than he was that year and Battier/Ariza will be a little worse than Battier/Artest. Next year we will have a 20 pts 5 assists (probably will go up with Yao) PG, a 20 pt SG, a great defender who can shoot 3-pters well at SF, a PF who averaged 16-9 and was amongst the top 5 in defensive rebounding rate this season and a 20-10 C. That is a pretty damn good starting lineup.

I find it pretty funny how the older stars are getting p.o.ed that he's getting star treatment. Guys, he's a superstar. The Lakers are the last team that should be complaining about superstar treatment. They've gotten it for 30-40 years straight.

I'm quite happy the Rockets didn't make the playoffs. I've had two years in a row with our best player/s not healthy for the playoffs and thus no real shot at a championship. I'm not so desperate for the playoffs that I would root for the 8th seed just so I can say my team made the playoffs at the cost of the lottery. Oh and 42-40 in the Western Conference >>>>>>>>>> 41-41 in the Leastern Conference. Can you not talk about your team in the Playoff thread, I don't wanna get confused. Don't we have a non playoff team thread? Wasn't the one that brought it up but feel free to keep being a prick. Why are you always trying to tell everyone else what to do? And seriously I just didn't want to get confused, I thought we were talking about playoff teams in this thread. Not the Houston Rockets. I didn't tell you what to do. I just said you are free to keep bring a prick.

Yeah cause he's always missed a full season. He's played in a majority of games in every season and played 77 games before missing this entire season. Will he ever be as healthy as he was in his first three seasons, probably not but it's moronic to say that his missing the season didn't play a role in the Rockets only winning 42 games this season. Oh and the 42 wins I consider a huge victory. Brooks proved to be the real deal, Martin is a good player that got Ariza to realize he isn't ever going to be more than a defensive stopper who can shoot 3-pters, Scola stepped up huge at the end of the season, Budinger proved to be a very undervalued player in last year's draft and Hill has good potential to be a good rebounder off the bench. All this sets us up to be very good next season (assuming we re-sign Scola) when we add Yao, a lottery pick and likely some 2nd round steal that we get every year with Morey. This lottery doesn't seem to be super deep, if you want to improve a ton you probably need to move up in it throught some luck. I don't expect to get a great player who will be a starter. The Rockets already have a great starting lineup assuming we re-sign Scola who has said he really wants to stay and Morey absolutely loves. No rookie is going to start over Brooks, Martin, Battier/Ariza, Scola and Yao. I do expect to get a good bench player though who along with Lowry, Budinger, Ariza/Battier and Hill will give us one of the deepest teams.

Uh no. I've already said Russell should be used more and I think everyone is in favor of Shark being sent anywhere but here. We used Marshall and he sucked. We used Shark and he sucked. We used Grabow and he sucked. There is nothing we could do today because even our good RP (Marshall) didn't do well. Your post is making a point that is your own selfish crap. You want to put down all the other Cubs fans so you can feel as if you are above everyone else. Stop trying to be an elitist.