Cubswin11

Silver Lining: The Cardinals bullpen might actually be as bad as the Cubs, this game isn't over yet

Man Soriano was just a little out in front of that one or it would have ended up on Waveland, can't fault Bradley there he saw 6 balls the 3-0 and 3-2 pitches were both balls. Even if he swings at 3-0, 3-1, 3-2 he isn't going to do anything with those pitches the only thing he would have done was roll one over and GIDP, there is no way he gets any of those deep enough into the OF for a sac fly.

Soto looks dreadful at the plate right now, I'll attribute it to the injury/missing time, but he worries me some.

Who the worst LF? Duncan, Braun or Soriano? I'd say Duncan by a landslide. Why would you leave Dunn out of that conversation? What are you talking about Ryan Braun has never committed an error in LF, therefore he is a gold glove caliber OF. Or at least that's the reasoning the Brewers announcers will use to tell people he is good defensively...

Don't know/see if it was brought up yet but is Milton able to pinch hit today? I really don't want to see Aaron Miles get anywhere close to the plate with a bat today in a close game.

Grace was 3rd-4th in line until Dawson/Maddux left. Then he was behind Sandberg til he retired. Then he had maybe 2 years of being the most popular Cub before Sosa took over. Mark Grace does not represent the Cubs in any way. Exactly. Grace was only a top Cub because the Cubs sucked. The 90's Cubs were horrible. The fact that Grace sticks out the most from that time doesn't make him worthy of honor. It was a sad miserable time to be a Cubs fan, in part because their best player was nothing special. Yeah the Cubs were bad in the 90's, but Grace did lead the 90's in hits. I don't think he should have his number retired, but I think there is a argument to be made that it should. Also Marmol could have a chance assuming he becomes the fulltime closer within the next year and he stays with the Cubs for all if not most of his career. Marmol could be the closer for the next 10ish years and he could rack up a pretty good amount of saves (overrated stat but valued in mainstream baseball) and post some good WHIP, K, and ERA numbers as well. I agree with what you are saying about Marmol. But my question is, how many numbers aroudn baseball are retired for relief pitchers who spent their entire careers as relief pitchers? Does Lee Smith have his number retired? Hoffman will in San Diego, but other than that, no one is coming to mind right now that spent their entire career in the pen. There aren't many, but the save/relief pitcher is a relatively new stat/role and the guys that really started and finished their careers as just closers are now just starting to retire/finish off their careers. Hoffman and Rivera will both get their numbers retired and with the Save/Closer role now adopted full time by every team I have to think the number of closers and relief pitchers getting their numbers retired and entering the HOF will increase pretty dramatically in the years to come.

Welcome to the forum. That's a good question. I haven't heard anything about it one way or the other. I am pretty sure they are over here, I think they moved over in sometime in May/June last year. His wife was pregnant and due to give birth sometime in the first month of the season so she stayed in Japan until the baby was born. I think I remember Kosuke missing a game or two (maybe the series) last year in San Diego to go back to Japan for the birth.

Grace was 3rd-4th in line until Dawson/Maddux left. Then he was behind Sandberg til he retired. Then he had maybe 2 years of being the most popular Cub before Sosa took over. Mark Grace does not represent the Cubs in any way. Exactly. Grace was only a top Cub because the Cubs sucked. The 90's Cubs were horrible. The fact that Grace sticks out the most from that time doesn't make him worthy of honor. It was a sad miserable time to be a Cubs fan, in part because their best player was nothing special. Yeah the Cubs were bad in the 90's, but Grace did lead the 90's in hits. I don't think he should have his number retired, but I think there is a argument to be made that it should. Also Marmol could have a chance assuming he becomes the fulltime closer within the next year and he stays with the Cubs for all if not most of his career. Marmol could be the closer for the next 10ish years and he could rack up a pretty good amount of saves (overrated stat but valued in mainstream baseball) and post some good WHIP, K, and ERA numbers as well.

6 BB used to be almost a half a seasons worth for him

I am generally strictly a NCAA basketball guy, but I usually pay more attention to NBA playoffs than the regular season. There is as best a chance this year to see a lot of upsets in the 1st round than there has been in a long time IMO. Unless a 1st round game is going down to the final minutes or is in game 7 I doubt I will follow that closely, but I will pick up interest in the later rounds. NBA needs to go back to best of 5 in the first round.

I don't see how the Celtics lose this series it's just a matter of in how many games. If KG isn't effective/healthy it could go 6 if KG is healthy and performing close to his full potential it could be over in 4. On a side note the NBA playoffs should go back to best of 5 in the first round.

With Edwards looking like he is going to get traded and now Boldin on the block the Bears could get lucky here and maybe a WR or two that would have gone 1st round drops to them in the 2nd.

Are Ramirez or Bradley able to pinch it today?

I don't see how Paulus can make it in the NFL as a QB, he's like what 5'10''? Maybe the Packers need a cheerleader because that's all he's good for.

I don't know his contract situation but I can't see anyone wanting to stay in Seattle so it probably ain't a big deal if he has one. It's not that I would doubt he would accept a trade to the Cubs, it was more about what kind of competition we could face trading for him. If he has full/limited NTC it will be easier to get him as less teams will be able to get in on him. If he doesn't have a NTC we don't have a great chance of getting him as every team needing pitching will probably be interested and the Cubs clearly don't have the best prospects to offer in a package. Kind of like Peavy if it wasn't for the NTC we wouldn't have any sort of chance of getting him, but because he will only go to 2-3 teams (in which the Cubs are his favorite) we have a legit chance of trading for him.

What kind, if any, of NTC does Bedard have? Limited? Full? None?

Hardy with a long fly ball to LF and Cameron and Hall with back-to-back hard hit singles. The Brewers announcers are even ripping Dusty on this one. There words were something like "Dusty has a Rhodes out there with no action in his bullpen and not LH in sight for the Brewers" and then they mention how Hall bats like .100 points higher against LH pitchers.

Yeah that's my thinking/hoping, but I could see him not starting on Thursday maybe try to get him a pinch hit ab on Thur. though. I would think that by Saturday we should have everyone healthy and our normal lineup out there.

A signature Dusty move in the Brewers game, he brings in lefthanded specialist Arthur Rhodes to start a inning when 3 straight righties are due up.

Looks like tomorrow could be rained out so we could get a break if it isn't that bad and he could be back Tuesday. Even if we get the game in tomorrow with rainy/wet conditions it is likely Bradley wouldn't play anyways even if he was healthy just to not risk anything.

The Brewers rumors started at the end of ST and Melvin (Brewers GM) came out and said they would not pursue a trade for him now or at the deadline. He said they talked to the Padres when Peavy was made available but Peavy wasn't interested in going to the Brewers/the Brewers didn't want to give up 2-3 of their prospects (Gamel/Jeffres/Escobar/Saloman/Lowrie/etc.)

On BBTN this morning, it was hard to tell if he was joking, Gammons said that Cubs scouts were in the stands last night scouting Peavy.

This had to be a gentleman's agreement between Hendry/Towers in a prelude to a Peavy trade.

I really like Gonzalez he is one of the top 5 1B IMO. He can potentially be a FA after next year and with Lee's contract up next year I hope we can make a run at him. Gonzalez won't be a free agent til after 2011. According to http://mlbcontracts.blogspot.com/2005/01/san-diego-padres.html he has a club option for 2011 @$5.5 Mil. I am assuming they will pick that up as that is a bargain for the production, but it's always possible the Padres try to save some money and let him go. If they're trying to save money they are not going to let go a really good first basemen for 5.5 mil. That is the definition of saving money. Well they do have Kyle Blanks coming up, and he really can't play anywhere but 1B in the NL and they could have him making close to league minimum so they would be saving money if they had Blanks at 1B and let Adrian go. But I think they will pay the $5.5 mil. to keep him for a year.

Like it was said Harden throws a Fastball/Changeup, but he can make his changeup break 2-3 different ways. He can make it move like a change/split/slurve-type pitch. Most relief pitchers just throw 2 pitches since they are in for just 1 inning mostly. So it's not odd that Marmol only throws 2 pitches and he is so effective because his slider is nasty he could tell hitters that it's coming before he throws it and they still wouldn't do much to it.