NCCubFan

Why more than Thigpen and not Francisco? thigpen has the record for saves duh Not any more. K-Rod broke the record last year with 62 saves.

I still remember the disbelief many of us (inclucing myself) had when he was added to the roster. I think some of us thought Hendry had lost his mind. Of course, some of us still feel that way.

2-1 seems to be a popular score today.

Close match with Tampa Bay. I lead by 12 and we both have 4 starts remaining. This is an absolutely must win for me, and I still need help beyond winning out. So far I haven't made any real bad pitching decisions. Washburn (whom I sat) did slightly better than Jackson (whom I started) but it wasn't much of a difference. And it looks like signing Wakefield was a good move.

The last time I remember two players with the same name playing the same position at the same time was when the other Ricky Williams was playing for the Colts. Before that, in the late 60s/early 70s there were two wide receivers named Gene Washington playing at the same time. These things can cause confusion if one doesn't pay careful attention.

I already submitted Aa-ron Miles for Edelweiss. For some reason when you mentioned Aa-ron Miles I didn't make the connection with Edelweiss. Another possibility would be Ain't It Wise, which I visualize as Hendry trying to defend his offseason moves: Ain't it wise, Ain't it wise, To get more left-handed hitters (etc.) Since the song is included twice in The Sound of Music each variation could be used once in our "remake." Another song from the movie I forgot about is Something Good. That was the song Maria sang after returning to the Von Trapp residence when she tried to escape back to the abbey. Our version could be Something Bad. It would be a Cub fan's lament that they must have done something bad in order to deserve a team that's gone more than a century without a championship.

Lonely Goat Curse (Lonely Goat Herd) I'm coming up empty thinking of equivalents for Climb Every Mountain and Edelweiss. Kevin Greggs solo: Blow Every Ballgame Better as a duet with Aaron Heilman.

So far it looks like you're right. He's really struggled since being traded to Detroit.

I just hope to be within reasonable striking distance after tonight. I fully expected to fall behind with both Greinke and Rodriguez pitching, but I have a one start advantage the rest of the week. I hope I made the right decision by sitting Washburn tonight. Knowing my recent luck this is the game where he rights himself and returns to his form when he was with Seattle.

From a selfish perspective I wouldn't mind the Cubs training in Florida. Living in North Carolina, it would be possible for me to make it to Florida for a few days to watch some games whereas Arizona would involve too much travel for the amount of time I'd be there.

He really didn't want the option picked up, because he wants to close and get to 400 saves. I don't think the money was the question. I wasn't thinking of money. I was thinking that he might have asked for both the guarantee of not picking up the option and the guarantee of not being offered arbitration because it gave him some negotiating room. He could agree to drop his demand of not being offered arbitration as long as he got his wish of not having the option exercised.

Also an article about this on cubs.com. Former Cub player and current Marlins coach Bo Porter will manage the Solar Sox.

Never blamed Kenney for being cheap. I just stated that I thought that his only goal was to make as much profit off of the Cubs for Sam Zell. Which he did say in that radio interview I mentioned earlier. Although you can't blame him. Zell wouldn't have kept him around if he didn't at least portray that attitude. I didn't realize that he was here before Zell, which does change my opinion of him somewhat. While my facts were incorrect (Zell hiring Kenney). My conclusion based on the incorrect "facts" is one I think most of the posters would have come to. 1. Zell hired Kenney to squeeze as much money out of the Cubs as possible. 2. Zell is finally done with the Cubs. 3. Ricketts is keeping the man who was brought here for intentions that didn't include a WS winner. 4. Ricketts made a bad decision in keeping Kenney. Just because Ricketts is retaining Kenney doesn't mean that Ricketts doesn't consider winning a championship to be a high priority. I think it's possible that Ricketts is keeping Kenney for money-making purposes, but with the intention of using that money to increase payroll, spend more on player development, etc. It's possible that he's planning to have both Kenney and Alderson at comparable organizational levels, with Kenney having full control of the business end and Alderson with full control on the baseball end. Alderson wouldn't necessarily be reporting to Kenney or vice versa; they might both report directly to Ricketts.

We can't.

I think you're right. Baseball Reference doesn't show any playing career, majors or minors, for either Boles or Trembley. And over the past couple of years they've started providing minor league statistics even for players who never reached the majors.

It's a Chicago baseball thing. Threaten to move to Florida in order to get what you want to stay where you are.

According to this article the Padres saved about 75% of Walker's salary by releasing him, so the Cubs would probably save about the same with Gregg. Until the situation with Walker I didn't even realize you could do that. I just always assumed that salaries awarded by an arbitrator were guaranteed since most major league salaries are.

He may have been asking for both with the idea of leaving some wiggle room to get what he really wanted.

http://chicago.cubs.mlb.com/news/press_releases/press_release.jsp?ymd=20090825&content_id=6610580&vkey=pr_chc&fext=.jsp&c_id=chc

The bankruptcy court hearing to approve the sale will be held Monday, Aug. 31.

Glad the Happ/Marquis deal is working for both of us. In hindsight it was a bad trade for me, since Happ remained in the Phillies' rotation and he still has his exemptions. But at the time there was talk that he'd be odd man out when Martinez was activated. I've since picked up Norris and Richmond, both of whom have exemptions, so that eases the sting a bit.

Marquis and Cabrera have me off to a good start. Icould use all the help I can get from my starting pitchers since Todd has two starts each from Greinke and Rodriguez.

Lonely Goat Curse (Lonely Goat Herd) I'm coming up empty thinking of equivalents for Climb Every Mountain and Edelweiss.

I don't think so, but with an 8 year contract there should have been.

Thinking about possible changes under Ricketts makes the disappointment that is the 2009 Cubs almost seem close to bearable.