soapy

yeah, i'm curious to see how Sean does after the long outing (after long rest). i'm sure he'll be on a short leash. having said that, the Giants are a team he can have some success against. here's hoping the offense can step it up (again). nice to have ramirez back for this one.

maybe. what do you mean by "as talked about"? generally speaking, this is one of the few times i would be more inclined to say yes, i'd do it (depending on what you're talking about). the Cubs have a closing window and are quite possibly a front-line starter away from being head and shoulders above everyone else.

i wouldn't do anything drastically different at this point. he hasn't been used nearly as much lately, which is probably good for the long term. i can see using him in some lower-leverage situations, maybe, for a while but i wouldn't panic with him yet.

hahahaha....holy spin, batman!

Umm....not really. We will see. Since when are the Cubs (or any other team for that matter) entitled to a division crown? They still have to play the games and prove they are significantly better than the Cardinals and Brewers. They are currently 1-2 in their efforts to beat this team composed of "luck" players and "scrubs". I really don't understand where you get this "scrub" attitude anyway. Just because a player was not a highly-touted prospect doesn't mean he can't be good. Ankiel is obviously a gifted athlete so his success, while surprising, is not impossible. Ludwick was a very higly rated college star who had injuries early in his career which devalued him. The Cards picked him up and allowed him to develop and he has begun to reach his potential. Skip Schumaker and Brian Barton are relatively young talents, since when are player not allowed to develop and begin a career well. Even your Derek Lee had to start somewhere. The fact is that the Cardinals have a fantastic coaching staff from the minors through the majors. Our young players don't get over-exposed wince we have a very strong bench with Miles, Kennedy, Ryan, Barton and Duncan. This team has "hung around" for over 1/2 the season now and can be in position to overcome the Cubs this weekend. I am still pleasantly surprised with their performance, but to claim it is luck and a fluke is just hubris. This will be a fun weekend with great baseball. I hope Edmonds hits 6 home runs in 3 Cubs losses. welcome to the forum.

I'll try. Rich has been viewed by the organization as a mentally fragile for quite some time. Their solution to dealing with a mentally fragile pitcher is to mess with his mechanics at the first sign of wildness in spring training. Thus getting a guy who's already thinking too much to think even more every time he takes the mound. After their tinkering didn't work, Lou decided to berate him and embarrass him by pulling him at the first sign of trouble, and never let him work out of any trouble he got into. i thought they were tweeking his mechanics to make him quicker to home plate. regardless, whatever role lou and rothschild played, i find it hard to ultimately blame them for the most part.

Surprisingly enough, that's not quite true. The Reds cannot hit right-handed pitching so far this year. They have a .706 OPS against right-handers and a .766 against left-handers. I'm still worried about Marquis against the Reds because I can't shake the thought that they are so heavy with left-handed power, but the stats haven't supported that so far this year. interesting. i didn't look it up (obviously) and just assumed.

i like it too. if theriot does keep getting on base, then you have someone on in front of soriano, which is also obviously a plus.

I guess I'm torn. I definitely prefer Marshall over Marquis vs. the Cardinals, but Marshall definitely matches up better against the Reds than Marquis. Lou's reasoning is weird, but I guess I prefer the better pitcher (Marshall) going against the biggest competition for the division (as of now).

They've also been without the guy they counted on being their number 2 starter most of the season. I just mentioned this in the rotation thread, but I'm still clinging to a shred of hope that Hill will bounce back in the 2nd half. That would be huge.

Zambrano Burnett Hill Dempster Lilly Yeah, that's right, if Hill goes down I'm going down with the ship. Until then, I will remain blindly optimistic.

probably because that's what will likely lead to a big payday. besides, he didn't say he values it more, just that he knows that particular stat [nitpick].

Brewers, but I'm not writing off the Cardinals anymore.

No, Edmonds strong showing recently is the reason. He's provided the LH power behind Ramirez. true, but the protection idea for Ramirez seemed silly anyway. Ramirez hasn't needed protection before this season, and I don't think he needs it now. hopefully Edmonds has turned a corner and can maintain something close to this level though.

i'm considering writing a personal note of apology to Ryan Dempster. hope he can keep it up.

i wonder if Ramirez strong showing this weekend without Kosuke hitting behind him helped Lou realize that it wasn't really necessary. that seemed to be part of Lou's rationale, that Ramirez needed Fukudome protecting him.

the game thread pimp means business. excellent. Lee looks like he might be heating up. here's hoping he has a big series. good lilly today, please.

Marshall dealing through four tonight. I definitely prefer Pie over Patterson unless they think Pie still has some work to do and when they do call him up they want to do it for good. Just grasping at straws.

cherry picking? people are just pointing out that he's struggling lately and has been getting worse. how is that cherry picking? like i said, hopefully its just a slump.

It would be great if Hill could get back to being Hill right about........now. (or, say, about five hours from now)

last ten game have been rough for the riot. hopefully it's just a slump. .233/.267/.279 ETA: unfortunately, cedeno has come back down to earth as well.

i would definitely think he's available but he'd be limited on pitch-count for the first few starts.

it might be Hoffpauir in LF against the RHP. trammel said in pre-game the other day that he thought Ramirez would DH today. who knows if that will change with the injuries though. we might see Cedeno or Derosa at 3B. Maybe: Fukudome CF Theriot SS Lee 1B Ramirez DH Soto C Derosa 3B Murton RF/LF Hoffpauir LF/RF Fontenot 2B Or they could use the outfield you mentioned and put Cedeno at 3B.

huh...that's weird that he wasn't listed as of yesterday. i was assuming the worst.

quite the contrary this is the most I've looked forward to watching IU basketball in a long time, maybe ever we get it. :evil: yeah, not looking forward to this season, but i'm going to try to look at it as a season (or two) of basically exhibition games and not get too upset until Crean has a chance to bring in the players he wants.