cubfan1955

The Padres are really comfortable at the plate today and everyone of them are swinging from the heels. There must have been a warning today but Bob said they never heard that there was.

Hit someone Rich...you won't be in there long anyway.

How did the umps in Atlanta KNOW Lilly was going to hit someone and NOT KNOW yesterday the Padres were going to hit someone. I've never subscribed to the conspiracy theories against the Cubs by MLB and the umps but I'm starting to wonder. Also, I don't care if Soriano gets on his belly and crawls around the bases....that is no reason for throwing at players head. There is just no justification for throwing at someones head. NONE!!! Lee could have been killed had the pitch but just a few more inches inside. But you know what? MLB will not even take that into consideration. Lee will be penalized the most because he swung first and Young, being a pitcher, will only get an extra day of rest between starts.

Given that Lee might have been justified it's going to hurt the Cubs a lot more than the Padres as the Cubs will lose their best hitter for probably 4-7 games. The Padres, at the most, will just have to give Young an extra day or two of rest. The system is not fair the way it is setup. If the hitter has to miss 4 games than a starting pitcher should miss 4 starts.

It's MLB and the Cubs. Lee will get suspended for the rest of the year and will have to sit in the clubhouse during games listening to tapes of Bud Selig's "Theories of Baseball Management" while Young will get a stern talking to by Bob Watson.

Nope...it's par for the course.

Those same pitches will be strikes in the bottom of the 9th. I'll guarantee that.

Z struck him out twice before the homer. Thanks ump.

Now a perfect day would be a Z homerun.

Yeah. By the other team. Not that either. I believe the Cubs have the longest or one of the longest streaks of not being no-hit. The Cubs haven't been no hit since Sandy Koufax's perfect game in Sept. 1965.

Nice DP....would be nice to get a run soon.

Damn. DP if Z hadn't touched it!

I think Black just came out to argue to try to screw up Z's rhythm.

I personally don't think it's clutch of Cabrera or Manny. I think they are just great hitters and great hitters hit more...some of which comes in high pressure situations. If you want to define clutch you should find a player that is pretty mediocre most of the time but excels in high pressure situations. Now as far as Soriano...he's led off a game 521 times. That's 521 AB's that he had no possible shot of coming to the plate with runners on base. That's definitely going to skew his batting with no one on base numbers more than a guy hitting 3 through 5...because that guy has a chance of having runners on in every AB. Plus the 3 through 5 hitters has better hitters hitting in front of him than a leadoff guy does (after his first AB). Naturally his numbers are going to look better with none on. It gives no indication what he will do if he's moved down in the order. I still contend Soriano would get his hits batting either 1st or 5th. If he would get them batting 5th he's going to have a lot more guys on base to drive in...leading to more runs...and more wins. Unfortunately, we'll never know for sure. Barry Bonds hit primarily leadoff for about his first 4 seasons but when a person of that kind of talent matures it's time to move them into the middle of the order. Sammy Sosa took a while to become a good middle of the order hitter too. I think Soriano has the talent to be in the same class. But not if he continues to hit in the leadoff spot. He's being wasted.

Believe any foolishness you want. A hitter will hit given the opportunities.

Hey Hill...Barrett could have done that. :cry:

The Fox broadcasters on a Saturday game a few weeks ago made mention of his wide open stance this year, sort of the way Bagwell hit so I do think he changed his stance. I don't remember his stance being that open last year. I wonder if that isn't some of the cause of his power outage this year.

WOW! The Grand Master of baseball knowledge has spoken. If you took the time to read everything posted in this thread you'll see where that myth was debunked. So stop showing your ignorance and hoping to see more of JJ batting with runners on base.

I like this one the best...though with Murton leading off and Soriano batting 5th. I'm also getting sick to death of Michael Barrett. I wish we had a catcher that could play defense and hit just a little bit. He costs us way too many games defensively and stumbling around the bases like a drunken sailor. At this point I'd just as soon Hll catch everyday. Z seems to like him. A catcher who could play his position well would be nice, but playing the AAA catcher over a guy who has consistently been a very strong hitting catcher over the last three years is ridiculous. Even at defensive positions like catcher, offense is more important than defense, and Barrett's bat is finally starting to pick up again. And just how many more games can we let Barrett cost us? His mistakes are far outweighing his bat. No, they are not. To quote Fred from another thread.. I agree the Cubs will suffer offensively but his defensive and baserunning gaffes are just not tolerable. We can't keep putting a guy back there that can't catch, throw, or block pitches in the dirt. He always makes the wrong decisions defensively. And offensively if he does hit safely and it isn't a homer you can almost bet he'll do something stupid on the basepaths to cost us an out. Now if he was hitting like previous years and playing his normal medicore defense I'm all for letting him play all the time but this year his bat and his defense are down from previous years. And defensively I can't think of a catcher in my lifetime that has been worse than him this year. It's mind boggling how bad he has been defensively.

Look, everyone is going to miss his bat but my God, he needs some time time to clear his head. He can't catch, throw, run the bases, execute a rundown, or block a pitch in the dirt. I don't know what is going on with him. He's never been great defensively but he's never been this bad before either. He needs to get it together soon.

No...I don't believe it is.

I can't sort it by the number of outs, but here is a quick summary of how the team has performed with the bases loaded. Theriot has had the most opportunities-14. He is 1 for 14 with 1 BB and 4 RBI's. DeRosa has had 12 chances. He is 4 for 12 with 1 HR, 3 BB's, and 13 RBI's. Jones has had 12 chances. He is 3 for 12 with 1 3B, and 6 RBI's Lee is 2 for 9 with 1 HR, 1 2B, and 7 RBI's. Ramirez is 1 for 9 with 1 HR and 5 RBI's. Izturis is 1 for 7 with 1 RBI Nobody else has any more than 3 AB's with the bases loaded, and nobody else has a hit or a walk in that situation. The Cubs team has a .203/.284/.407 line with the bases loaded (59 AB's). Thanks, I never thought Lee and Ramirez' combined 3-18 would bring down Jones', et al, 9-41. Nevertheless, 56% of the bases loaded at bats have been taken by Jones, Izturis and Theriot - this had played a large part in the Cubs inability to break open a game with the bases loaded. That's why most teams try to avoid having automatic outs in the lineup. You can't hide them. I wish the Cubs would suscribe to this philosophy. Meanwhile I don't see Soriano on the list. :shock:

Let me fix that for ya... The Cubs...with the bases loaded and 0 outs, chances that: 0 runs score: 99.9% 1 run scores: 00.1% 2 runs score: 00.0% 3 runs score: 00.0% 4 runs score: 00.0% 5+ runs score: 00.0%

I like this one the best...though with Murton leading off and Soriano batting 5th. I'm also getting sick to death of Michael Barrett. I wish we had a catcher that could play defense and hit just a little bit. He costs us way too many games defensively and stumbling around the bases like a drunken sailor. At this point I'd just as soon Hll catch everyday. Z seems to like him. A catcher who could play his position well would be nice, but playing the AAA catcher over a guy who has consistently been a very strong hitting catcher over the last three years is ridiculous. Even at defensive positions like catcher, offense is more important than defense, and Barrett's bat is finally starting to pick up again. And just how many more games can we let Barrett cost us? His mistakes are far outweighing his bat.

I see rotoworld conveniently left out the RBI's Izturis drives in with his glove. :shock: