Ballgame64

The lack of offense when Garza pitches lately is really maddening. Now Jonny [expletive] Gomes goes yard. It must be real fun pitching when you have to be damn near perfect to get a no decision.

A couple of more runs would be nice.

Another walk to an 8 hitter cost the Cubs again.

Castro - SS Campana - CF Ramirez - 3B Pena - 1B DeWitt - 2B Soriano - LF Colvin - RF Hill - C Dempster - P I really don't know what to say about this line-up. I know it was a long road trip and they played last night but Campana, DeWitt, Colvin and Hill all in the line-up at the start of the game???

1...2...3 ninth for Marmol. Nice win by the Cubs against a team that has given them trouble the last couple of years. They go for their 2nd three game winning streak tomorrow.

Insurance run :yahoo: Huge two out rbi double by Reed Johnson.

Castro with a 3 hit night. Big Z needs to throw strikes.

Six pitch first inning for the Cubs offense and Geo sees 7 pitches in drawing a walk to leadoff the 2nd inning.

Paul Sullivan tweeted that Cashner threw from the mound again today and was feeling good. Cashner says 3 weeks, Cubs are thinking September. I am sure it would be good for Cashner to pitch again this year for his mental well-being, but does it make sense in a lost season? I guess it would be easier to give him innings when the outcome of the game is meaningless from the Cubs standpoint.

FWIW...According to Bob Nightengale who was on 670AM's Hit and Run Sunday morning (7/31/2011), someone who knows Gillick said that Gillick only wants to go to a team that has a chance to win quickly and he doesn't want anything to do with trying to clean up a mess like the Cubs. I'd like to think a lot of these guys have big egos and would love to be the guy running the Cubs when they win the World Series.

"He has only 5 home runs and only 16 RBIs because he got hit in the face earlier this year and missed a large part of the season. That's the problem with counting stats - they don't take into account getting hit in the face. Marlon is a high .700s/low .800s OPS guy (.775-.842 since 2007) and will probably be worth 3+ wins again this year (worth 4.3 last year) despite getting plunked in the face. He's a valuable piece to the offense and a guy we need to keep around if we plan on contending next year (which we should)." So you tell me there is a problem with counting stats because he got hit in the face. What was he doing before he got hit in the face? And if he has been cleared to play, can't we expect some production? And what stats can we use? How about hitting with runners in scoring position? Is that valuable? Because his OPS then is .614 in 2011. Are we supposed to assume he will get back to his career numbers by the end of the year? What will he do next year when he is 34? Like everyone else, I have an opinion and mine is not as high as other people when it comes to Marlon Byrd. Also, does anyone entertain the possibility that Hendry was offered a decent prospect but the prospect wasn't Hendry's type of player but might be someone people on this board who follow the minors closely would have thought Hendry was crazy for turning down? We'll never know.

Losing Marlon Byrd would create a big hole in the line-up??? Is it the 5 whole home runs or 16 RBIs or is it swinging at the first pitch after two walks and popping up on the infield that the Cubs will miss. It is not Marlon's fault, he is who he is which is a 7 hitter on a good team but the Cubs have forced him to be a 3-4-5 hitter. And Baker's name keeps coming up because fans are frustrated by an organization that thinks Baker is some big contributor. It is not necessarily Baker, it is the thought process of the organization that values a guy that can't beat out a guy like Darwin Barney - a guy that a lot of fans see as Ryan Theriot part II. They are 23 games under .500 with these guys, what makes anyone think they will somehow be better next year with the same guys?

Down four runs with runners on 2nd and 3rd and they just can't get one more hit.

I am the same way. Good thing NFL training camps are opening.

Man, if he's starting anywhere in the OF opening day for the Cubs next year I just may cry. Now that is something we agree on :D

K-Rod and Axford at the end of the game should make the Brewers the favorite to win the division shouldn't they? Losing Weeks for an extended period will hurt their offense but they should still be able to score enough.

Find a list of the 40 man roster from October 2008 and see if you don't think there were guys that could have been released instead. Obviously it is a hindsight is 20/20 situation because there was nothing to suggest he would be an everyday player at the Major League level. Again, I don't care that they released him, but when Ramriez goes down, the Cubs get very little from the clowns they use at 3rd base in his absence. As for Wells, like I said, figure out a way to make him better or find someone to replace him. Simply put, I'd like to see the manager have as much angst about Wells performance as he does about mistakes Castro makes.

Wells has sucked this year but everyone (fans, media and Hendry) would rather worry about Zambrano calling out the team, Zambrano being unhappy about being taken out the game last night, etc. There seems to be accountability for certain players but not all players. I bet you have argued with many posters about not choosing stats from certain months to make a point, but that is what you are doing. Bottom line is McGehee had a much better year in 2010 than you are giving him credit for. Does that mean I think he is great? No. But it is funny that the Cubs let him go for nothing and the Brewers got good production from a minimum salary guy while the Cubs had a cast of average to below average players fill in for Ramirez when he was on the DL. Well, it's pretty clear you have zero understanding as to how he ended up on the Brewers if you're going to look at as "they let him go for nothing." Please, explain to us your version of those events. And yes, he's been a very inconsistent player. And I'm absolutely baffled as to what you expect to be done about Wells. You want him raked over the coals? He's been bad, people recognize that he's bad. What else do you want? Wait, who did the Cubs get for McGehee? According to baseball-reference he was select off waivers by the Brewers. So I guess the Cubs did get nothing for him. Interesting. He ended up on the Brewers because Jim Hendry decided to make sure he had room on the 40 man roster. So Hendry placed him on waivers to try to send him back to AAA and the Brewers claimed him. What does it really matter though, I am not saying they should have never let him go but it is funny how he has been productive for the Brewers as Hendry has gone through Aaron Miles, Andres Blanco, Bobby Scales, Ryan Freel, etc. Aren't most baseball players inconsistent? Do you judge them only during their bad times or only during their good times? Do you judge teams only during certain months? What do I expect to be done about Wells? Figure out a way to make him better or find someone better than him.

Wells has sucked this year but everyone (fans, media and Hendry) would rather worry about Zambrano calling out the team, Zambrano being unhappy about being taken out the game last night, etc. There seems to be accountability for certain players but not all players. I bet you have argued with many posters about not choosing stats from certain months to make a point, but that is what you are doing. Bottom line is McGehee had a much better year in 2010 than you are giving him credit for. Does that mean I think he is great? No. But it is funny that the Cubs let him go for nothing and the Brewers got good production from a minimum salary guy while the Cubs had a cast of average to below average players fill in for Ramirez when he was on the DL.

Yep. He always says the right things after the game so his continued sucking gets overlooked. Explain. And please confirm that you apparently think McGehee is good. This is two games now where you've talked about him that way, going so far as to call him "Casey Ruth." Frustration that McGehee seems to get big hits against the Cubs every game regardless of the fact he is not having a good year. But to act like McGehee is horrible is ridiculous. He had a good 2009 and a very good 2010 for the Brewers. Wells always talks about how he has to get better or how he needs to concentrate more but then goes out and struggles in the first inning the next time out. In my opinion, he comes across as a guy who feels he is entitled to be in the rotation. But he talks to the media so they don't focus as much on his bad performances. I'd just like to see the same scrutiny for Wells from the Cubs brass as they seem to have for Zambrano.

Yep. He always says the right things after the game so his continued sucking gets overlooked.

Will Randy Wells ever have a 3 up/3 down first inning?

Lift off in 3....2.....1

From ESPN.com story - "We wanted to get Colvin up here and play," Hendry said. "Last year he played so well and he had such a solid year, 20 home runs in 358 at-bats. But he wasn't able to establish himself early in the year." While the homeruns were nice, Colvin's OBP was on .316 and I don't think anyone expects it to be much better. Does Ricketts not realize Hendry's assessment of a player's offensive value is killing the entire organization?

Actually, they haven't scored since Aramis hit the 2 run homer in the first inning. 17 innings of 0's.