CubbieBum

Actually I'm pretty sure he would be happy to get out of the negative situation in NY to join the team with the best record in baseball even if he doesn't get an extension.

this is a blog on blogspot. Yeah.

They can say what they want but the Rays comes from Devil Rays. They just got some backlash for having devil in their name so they cut it out and changed what they were named after. Fact is they wouldn't be the Rays if they hadn't been the devil first.

Wang got hurt by a fluke circumstance. He has just as much a chance getting hurt on the mound. Pitchers are babied enough as it is. Plus watching someone like Bartolo Colon have to bat like he did tonight is the best comedy on tv. For those who didn't see Colon's second at-bat on ESPN. He struck out swinging at pitches about a foot outside and almost on the ground and on his second swing he dropped to one knee and his helmet came off. Cole Hamels was seen smirking afterwards walking to the dugout.

Hello my name is Trevor Hoffman. Now the single season record is held by Thigpen a guy who had a career ERA of 3.43 and that's with his last three years having a well over 6 ERA. Plus the year he set the record his ERA was 1.83 with a 210 ERA+ so yeah I think it's fine Bobby Thigpen, yes BOBBY THIGPEN, holds the single season record. Do you discredit the single season home run record because Maris, who only had 275 career home runs and career BA is .260, held it for 37 years???

we just need to put our back into it

This is would look like a pitchers duel which means both teams will score 10+ runs. I agree though I don't like our matchup with Kazmir. For one pitchers tend to have the upperhand in first meetings and maybe only a few Cubs have seen him (Reed?). Plus he's just damn good.

How is it dumb? It's obvious some pitchers are great unless in the save situation and then they can't handle it (LaTroy anyone). If you think the save is dumb then you have to think the win is dumb for starters (or loss). Why does it matter if they win or lose. All that matters is how many innings they pitch and what ERA they have. Same can be said about home runs. Who cares if he hits it over the wall all that matters is how many runs and rbis he gets throughout the season. Most of the stats in any sport can be argued pointless because they don't actually show how good the player is. Fact of the matter is some pitchers can perform great in a save situation some can't just as some can hit it over the wall to get rbis and some can hit it in the gap for rbis. Stats are a way of measuring who is best at what. K-Rod is on pace to turn in arguably the best season anyone has every had saving games.

Marmol is on pace for 85 appearances. Not that many when you consider the following ... Howry had 84 in 2006 for us and 79 the year before Wuertz of all people had 75 in 2005 for us In fact we've had at least one pitcher have 75 appearances in every season 2003. And if you are thinking of saying the person changed constantly because the guys arm got worn out I give you Salomon Torres. Here is what he did the first three years he was a full time relief pitcher. Pitched in at least 78 games every year including 94 in 2006. Overall he averaged just over 85 games a year or the pace Marmol is currently on. Each year he pitched more than 90 innings averaging just over 93 a year. Every year his ERA was 3.28 or lower. So far this year he has pitched a grand total of 2.2 innings less than Marmol with an ERA under 2.5. Can every pitcher handle a heavy workload? Of course not but some can especially the ones that used to be starters. Marmol so far has seemed like one of the ones who can handle more. I'm sick of the continuing trend of babying pitchers. I'm not saying throw every pitcher a lot but the ones that handle it should get the extra work if they are really good. It especially bothers me with starters. Everyone made a big stink about Sabathia getting 241 innings last year and how it would hurt him for years to come. Maddux pitched more than that 7 times including three straight seasons with 263+ and led the league in innings 5 straight times. During the 90's Cox had three or four of starters pitching 220+. In 97 Maddux pitched 233 innings and was only 8th in the league in innings pitched. Again not every pitcher can handle heavy workloads but most of the great ones can and I don't think anyone hear will say Marmol isn't great ... rant complete.

Francisco Rodriguez has 28 saves already. That's 28 saves in 70 games and he has saved 28 of the Angels' 42 wins. He's got six more than the next closest guy. He is on pace for 65 or 10 more than anyone else this decade (Smoltz 2002 Gagne 2003 had 55). Both Smoltz and Gagne own the NL record with those 55 and the AL record is 57 (Thigpen for Sox in 90). This should be one of the main stories of this season and I've heard nothing about it. I only know this because last nigth they recapped the Angels game and said he closed the door getting his 28th save. That was all no one said how ridiculous that is or anything and I actually thought they meant it to be 18 (I just looked it up to confirm he has 28 hence the thread). He's also only blown 1 save.

Yeah that's pretty crazy.

Maddux wont be comming. He has said he wants to stay in So Cal nad last go round with us he started to get beat up in Wrigley. It's one that the media like to throw in just because it is exciting. Wolf isn't great but he has been dominating the last month or so.

That's not even the issue. A ball off the top of the wall is NOT a home run either way. The issue was whether or not it hit the ivy behind the wall and then bounced off the top of the wall. umm the announcer said that at this park if the ball hits all yellow its a homerun thus if it hits the top of the wall it IS a homerun. If it if hits the ivy behind the wall wouldn't that be a homerun since it went behind (or over) the wall.

Well Marmol's ERA is over 4 in his last eight appearances and what exactly are you guys complaining about? Everyone has been harping about Marmol being overused and now you're going to complain when Lou says he wants to get Marmol's pitch count down.

People sure seem to love their Soto up in here. You all gonna make me lose my cool over it. You all gonna make me lose my mind too.

Oh and to the trade talk. I had always thought A-ram broke out when he came to us. He actually had a .300 30+ 100 RBI season prior to the trade. I do however remember him having something like 27 combined errors the year we got him.

yet he's also on pace to have his highest VORP and highest EqA in a cub uniform, which is a lesson on how overrated OPS is as a statistic. you do realize it could go the other way too ... I hate all the throwing around of stats. No one stat can sum it up. Just look at the body of work and you know rather than OPS or VORP or any other singular statistic. A-Ram's power is down and his slugging and thus OPS is down. What slugging doesn't take into account his whether he improves or not in hitting with runners on. He has this year (or at least I assume) which is why he has a lot more RBIs and runs than normal with less HR's.

Otherwise known as Martin.Martin is less deserving than Geo. Not as good defensively, and OPSing about 70 points less. If Doumit had 50 starts or so, he'd have to be your first pick. He's OPSing over 1.000 right now. Yeah the guy is raking. If he didn't miss a couple weeks and played as much as Soto he would have stats like these .346 15 HR's 36 rbis 47 runs on the crappy offensive team of Pittsburgh.

The comparison to Francouer is invalid on its face because Frenchie is white and Fukudome is Asian. Fukudome can only be compared to other Asian players. ok fine then he's like Isuro Tanaka

I'm trying to figure out how that's possible. Most small, non-daily newspapers actually work this way. Obviously there are others in the newsroom, but I am indeed it when it comes to sports (save for one stringer who sends me stuff off and on). Summer's the toughest part of the year when there are very few organized sports going on. Football, basketball and baseball seasons are much easier. Do you end up writing about the local softball leagues or something to fill space? Yep, exactly. My publisher loves seeing the little league baseball coverage in the paper, so I'll spend the first month or two of summer filling nearly my first page with shots of little kids. It's very tedious not actually covering competitive sports, but it sells papers, I guess. I didn't realize you weren't a daily. Summers suck, we've had to come up with all kinds of creative s to fill space since baseball ended. Man, I can only imagine how difficult my job would be if we were a daily. There's no way I could do it all myself. As for summers, they are pretty much terrible. After little league games end after this month, I'm down to writing only features and praying I get some photos sent in from camps and what not. Counting the days til football season now, that's for sure. This might just be me but when are you not doing that. It starts the day after the Superbowl for me.

slightly watered down of Bobby Abreu's prime???? You do realize how good he was. He was a 25-30 HR guy who could hit .330 and draw 100 walks. Oh yeah and he stole 30 bases pretty regularly back in the day. So even a heavy water down would mean Fukudome is .300 15 HR with 20 SB's. Right now he's not on pace for any of those and pretty far off on some of the other stats. What I compare him to is Francoeur with much less power but much more plate discipline i.e. walks. Both hit around .290 and play very good defense in RF with cannon's for arms.

I don't know but his ERA over his last six starts is 3.08 :shock: He did start of last year dominant. Maybe he can have a couple more good starts and the Cubs will be smart enough to sell high (like in a Burnett or Harden deal)

sweet, although he's sucking this year and has a career high 12 wins. I would rather go after Harden since they both have severe injury problems but Harden is a much better pitcher when healthy. Don't ever judge a pitcher by win totals. Burnett isn't nearly as injury prone as Harden. Oh I don't it (just had a big argument with a friend who thinks win % is the best way to judge a pitcher) just points out how he has never pitched a full season. And no he isn't as injury prone but both do get injured a lot so if I'm trading for a pitcher who is injured a lot I'll take the one who can be a legit ace.

I would have said the same thing about his average but he's actually been extremely consistent (maybe the most past Theriot) in batting average. Here are by month numbers for average and OBP. April - .305 .416 May - .293 .388 June - .250 .391 Now keep in mind for June that he has gone 6-14 in the last four games (hence it's not going down anymore). So his OBP is pretty conistent and by the end of this month judging from is recent rebound his average will be consistent too. He's a consistent .290 .390 player. like I said before not bad but not great either. I'm not complaining for the record I am content with what he is doing. BTW his March has to be the best in history ... ;)

Yankee fans weren't this bad. They were cocky but didn't throw it in your face 24/7. The Red Sox fans act as if they are the best thing since slice bread and constantly bring up their world series'. Plus with Yankee fans you can't argue much they have won so many times with Red Sox its like ummm congrats you've won twice in almost 90 years. They should be cocky because they are defending champs but they are way over the line. And yes Coco started both the fight and the whole situation and Papelbon is a complete idiot. When I hear someone who is in the wrong in the first place talk like that I begin wishing for injuries.