SouthSideRyan

Phillips, Dunn, Conine

Griffey, Valentin, and Hatteberg are all on the bench. We'll see at least one of them before the game's over, hopefully Valentin hits for Jorgenson too.

Yost showing no faith in his bullpen by hitting Linebrink.

@#OPU%JODSIJFOI

Um, that's not copying. Everyone does the 7th inning stretch. Hardy, Pinch Hitter, Weeks due up for Milwaukee.

Pete, you're my boy and all being from Br. Rice. But why the hell is Adam Dunn batting 5th and Jeff Keppinger batting 3rd?

F U Keppinger.

I can't believe Capuano is still out there.

Capuano comes back from 3-0 to get Harang. 1 out.

--From the Star Ledger Maybe they just want him to get exposure to the major league environment. He's already on the 40-man roster and the option clock has already started, so there's nothing to lose by bringing him up when rosters expand. In fact, he's the only player currently on the 40-man who has not yet appeared in the majors. Nitpick; Coats, Mateo, Novoa(though he's been hurt all year) I think he means ever, not just 2007, hence the option clock reference. Reading is fun. Re: Samardzija, seems like a non-issue as long as every other pitcher on the 40 man is coming up. Samardzija as the 15th guy out of the pen isn't going to bother me. But there's no reason to have him up over any of the others.

Can't we tip our hat to the guy and move on? No, we can't. This is the Cards, remember? When they lose it's a million excuses why it was just unlucky. Of course when they win it's a celebration of how awesome they are :roll: Oh come on. I was in the game thread the other day and every time Ludwick made a play in the OF I read about how only the Cards get so lucky as to find OFs who make decent plays in the OF. Yes - I can definitely tip my hat to Ward and move on. Just like I did Jacque Jones ( who apparently is now an allstar ) after his performance Friday. Can we stop with the "cards are so lucky" theme? They aren't. Not in Wrigley. 1985, 1987, 2000, 2002, 2004 - all prime examples of poor luck. Yes 2006 was luck but hell if you make it to the postseason a number of years in a row you are bound to get lucky once. I've personally never seen somebody complain about '87, '00, or '02. And judging a fanbases's opinions on their kneejerk responses in a game thread isn't going to tell you much of anything. I can't stop saying Cliff Floyd sucks whenever he's playing, but it doesn't mean I want him off the team. Dempster and Howry can't come into a game without 10 people going on rants about how horrible they are. People were saying they'd rather see Pignatiello in a game than Wood yesterday. Loony stuff happens in a game thread. That is true - game threads and online fans in general do not represent the fanbase well. '87 - Coleman injury '00 - Matheny injury / Ankiel collapse '02 - Rolen injury, ran into by A Cintron. Oh, I thought you were talking about Cubs fans complaining about the Cubs' poor luck. '85 - the whole staff going on the DL. '04 - the whole team choking.

Saying that the game was lost on one bad pitch to Ward is "excuse-making?" Sure Reyes probably wasn't perfect other than that. The fact remains that the Cubs have scored a bunch of runs on very few hits in the series. Why so overly sensitive about the way the Cards media is scrutinizing Reyes' start? Who cares? I think this illustrates the difference between being a player/fan of the Cardinals and being a player/fan of the Cubs. had the roles been reversed, the Cubs media would be absolutely trashing the Cubs for that loss (and the national media would give no mention of the bad call whatsoever). but I think what you are also missing is it is not only the media making those comments, it's LaRussa. as for how many runs have been scored vs. how many hits, that's fricken baseball, and that's sports in general. should we get into how many of the Cardinals hits yesterday were weakly hit but found holes and how many Cubs outs were hard hit atem' balls? I usually read through the Cub game threads at work because I enjoy seeing good baseball fans discussing a day game - but recently it's been kinda deep in there, IMO. Not used to seeing that on this board. Cause we haven't been in a "pennant race" for 3 years. When emotion and fandom comes into play, you get a lot less intelligent talk and a lot more Ron Santo.(And there's nothing wrong with that, it's a lot more fun to have that much interest in a game rather than counting down til Dusty gets fired, and asking just how he can play Macias that much.) Adding the Cardinals into the mix only multiplies things. Agreed on all counts. I'm sure you guys don't want it - but if the Cards fall out of the race again (as they should) I will be rooting for you guys to get some playoff success. It is certainly overdue. There is nothing better than meaningful baseball in September / October. Just be careful of Marquis - he can bite you in the rear awfully fast. I'm really hoping he'd become the long man should there be the oppurtunity. Though you never know what veteran clutchness can mean to a manager.

Saying that the game was lost on one bad pitch to Ward is "excuse-making?" Sure Reyes probably wasn't perfect other than that. The fact remains that the Cubs have scored a bunch of runs on very few hits in the series. Why so overly sensitive about the way the Cards media is scrutinizing Reyes' start? Who cares? I think this illustrates the difference between being a player/fan of the Cardinals and being a player/fan of the Cubs. had the roles been reversed, the Cubs media would be absolutely trashing the Cubs for that loss (and the national media would give no mention of the bad call whatsoever). but I think what you are also missing is it is not only the media making those comments, it's LaRussa. as for how many runs have been scored vs. how many hits, that's fricken baseball, and that's sports in general. should we get into how many of the Cardinals hits yesterday were weakly hit but found holes and how many Cubs outs were hard hit atem' balls? I usually read through the Cub game threads at work because I enjoy seeing good baseball fans discussing a day game - but recently it's been kinda deep in there, IMO. Not used to seeing that on this board. Cause we haven't been in a "pennant race" for 3 years. When emotion and fandom comes into play, you get a lot less intelligent talk and a lot more Ron Santo.(And there's nothing wrong with that, it's a lot more fun to have that much interest in a game rather than counting down til Dusty gets fired, and asking just how he can play Macias that much.) Adding the Cardinals into the mix only multiplies things.

There was no malice at all, it was more a run over to talk to. The only way discipline should come would be if it was in the rulebook about touching an ump, UK said yesterday it's ump's discretion. Non-issue.

Have to say though, respek to LaRussa for blowing off the question about the missed call at home. Said it was one run, so big deal if they called him safe we still lose 5-4.

Can't we tip our hat to the guy and move on? No, we can't. This is the Cards, remember? When they lose it's a million excuses why it was just unlucky. Of course when they win it's a celebration of how awesome they are :roll: Oh come on. I was in the game thread the other day and every time Ludwick made a play in the OF I read about how only the Cards get so lucky as to find OFs who make decent plays in the OF. Yes - I can definitely tip my hat to Ward and move on. Just like I did Jacque Jones ( who apparently is now an allstar ) after his performance Friday. Can we stop with the "cards are so lucky" theme? They aren't. Not in Wrigley. 1985, 1987, 2000, 2002, 2004 - all prime examples of poor luck. Yes 2006 was luck but hell if you make it to the postseason a number of years in a row you are bound to get lucky once. I've personally never seen somebody complain about '87, '00, or '02. And judging a fanbases's opinions on their kneejerk responses in a game thread isn't going to tell you much of anything. I can't stop saying Cliff Floyd sucks whenever he's playing, but it doesn't mean I want him off the team. Dempster and Howry can't come into a game without 10 people going on rants about how horrible they are. People were saying they'd rather see Pignatiello in a game than Wood yesterday. Loony stuff happens in a game thread.

Meche was an Ivan Rodriguez/Maggs signing where the team clearly had to outspend everyone else in order to attract them to a terrible team. I know there's this axiom about not spending big money when you're in the down part of a success cycle, but there's also value in not throwing out prospects that aren't ready yet to the wolves and in actually showing your fanbase that you're trying to get better.

C-Lee is a better hitter, that cant be debated Over the span of their contracts, I'd definitely debate.

Update for Josh Hancock plz.

I don't ever recall getting the sense that people here believed Jones was 'done'. They just thought he wasn't worth the money. One major difference between the two is that our GM didn't trade one of our best hitters for a below-average leadoff hitter and trumpet it as a smart move. Well, argue about chemistry all you want, but the year after that trade the White Sox won the World Series. If Jim Hendry could make a trade like that, even if for a worse player, would you really argue? It freed up money to get Contreras and OHernandez. Those 2 guys had career years as did Podsednik. What Sox fans are doing in their revisionist history is saying that Podsednik gave them a better chance to win than CLee without bringing up the money savings. Which is just plain stupid. Of course most Sox fans think Erstad is a good player when healthy. This. The trade was a salary dump. Though it was Iguchi, not Contreras they cleared money for. Contreras was acquired at the deadline of '04.

If Blanco comes back before 9/1 costing us tomfoolery ability with a possible playoff roster I'm gonna be pissed.

--From the Star Ledger Maybe they just want him to get exposure to the major league environment. He's already on the 40-man roster and the option clock has already started, so there's nothing to lose by bringing him up when rosters expand. In fact, he's the only player currently on the 40-man who has not yet appeared in the majors. Nitpick; Coats, Mateo, Novoa(though he's been hurt all year)

Dempster perfect again.

Pie in CF/Jones in RF please.

why is that weird? Cause it was a lazy grounder to the 1st baseman that was clearly going to be an out. Pujols walked to the base and beat him.