He's not on the 40-man roster, so somebody would need to be dropped to make room for him. Fine, I am willing to see Fast Freddie Bynum go. 8) Or Rusch. Better still, both.
Here's some simple math, Dusty; see if you can grasp this. If a player hits a home run with the bases completely clogged, that's 4 runs. If a player hits a home run with the bases completely unclogged, that's 1 run. 4 is greater than 1. Got it?
The Southern League web page actually shows them 5.5 games out. :( I think their best shot now is if Chattanooga wins both halves (they're now 2.5 games out), then the Jaxx would get in as a result of having the next best record over the entire season.
Bad news and good news for me today. Bad news: Hamels got mercilessly pounded, so bad he already has negative points even before the deductions for total bases allowed. Good news: At least it was the Cubs that inflicted the damage. :D
I doubt he'd be leaving for an Olympic team. This isn't an Olympic year, and baseball is no longer an Olympic sport anyway. Perhaps it's for some other tournament.
I don't think he needs another one (he seemed ready in his last one), but if he is given one more that means the rosters will have expanded by the time he returns so nobody would need to be sent down.
I agree. With all the injury problems they've had, especially if Prior isn't productive next year, they may need the whole bunch to keep a decent rotation going next year.
We all nominated other players because we were sure you'd nominate him yourself :D I do agree with you that he's had a very impressive year. The people who chose to nominate somebody simply thought that someone else had a slightly more impressive year. It's all a matter of personal opinion, and debating issues such as this is part of the fun of posting on this board. I think he (and you) should be proud of the year he's had, even if nobody nominated him for this award.
Ryu may have just been called up to provide some bullpen depth until O'Malley's next scheduled start. Marshall probably wouldn't be activated until the day he actually pitches; no need for him to be added to the roster before then when he wouldn't be available.
Regardless of how he does the rest of this year, I might give him a chance next year if the Cubs hire a new manager and hitting coach that teach a different approach to hitting. However, I'd want to be sure that they have someone else capable of starting as a Plan B in case he can't improve significantly even with a different approach.
He was also the guest conductor for the Cubs-Rangers game in 2002 that I went to where Alex Gonzalez won it with one of his patented walk-off home runs. Ditka must have a magic touch. :D