SouthSideRyan

Lowell's not really doing that poorly. I think it'll become a 3 headed rotation of Lowell/Ortiz/LaRoche with Youkilis playing 3B when Lowell sits. Jack Wilson probably woulda been a better idea.

Why the [expletive] did Johnson start last night when he was going to get a lefty the next day.

I don't think we'd have to give up too much for Sanchez. My gut feeling is Pittsburgh just wants to dump that 8M for 2010. I don't know if we can afford to committ that much to next season though.

Yeah, well I'm stupid.

No. Maybe if they pick up Shea Hillenbrand.

I guarantee Milton Bradley leaves town as one of the most hated Cubs ever. The recent espn article mentions how he has really poisioned the Cubs clubhouse. I'd do whatever it took to get rid of this guy. Seriously, what a horrible decision to bring him here. Just another example of how inept the Cubs front office is. Yes, bringing in a mentally unstable player to play under the pressure of wrigley and the Cub's fan was a terrible move. I was hoping initially that Hendry was on to something, but its obvious more than half way through the season the move is not paying off. I just never saw it from him. He put up great numbers last year playing in a bandbox with 12 people in the stands. Nobody was there to watch him anyway, it was all about Hamilton and his great story. Plus, they had the luxury of playing him at DH. Some players can handle the fishbowl of playing for the Cubs. I never thought bradley was one of those guys and, unfortunately, I think we're stuck with him. Milton Bradley is OPSing 900+ in front of those crazy Wrigley fans that he can't handle.

The Nats hadn't been swept at home in 2 months, with serieses against the Braves, Red Sox, Blue Jays, Reds, Mets, Giants, and Orioles in that span. Good teams get good records by beating the crap out of the awful ones. Winning 1 out of 3 at Philadelphia is what should have been expected. Philly is one of the top teams in the NL, if you're winning serieses on the road against the best teams in your league then you are the best team in the league. Tonight [expletive] blew, but to say oh look the Cubs are awful cause they can only beat [expletive] teams...I wasn't aware Philly's been steamrolling the Dodgers every night. Idiots make these arguments every [expletive] year, "oh yeah we can beat up on the Pirates, come back to me when we sweep an 11 game series in Yankee Stadium!!" The fact is, with a team like the Phillies, even if you lose, you can still score. There pitching is not good. Not by any means. Losing 9-6 or 7-5 is one thing, but weve only scored 2 runs in 22 innings vs. these guys. Besides, whichever NL Central team manages to backdoor their way into October will likely face the Phillies or Giants, at which point winning 1 game wont do. Winning 1 game on the road would do, which is what I was talking about. The Phillies pitchers these 1st 2 games was pretty asstastic, but their hitting is easily the best in the NL and we held them to 2 runs in 13 innings tonight. For whatever reason people get more down on a team for losing by 1 run in 13 innings then 26 runs in 9.

I heard Milton Bradley put cyanide in the Gatorade cooler. This lunacy would be worth it if I get to spend another couple months with Jimmy.

The Nats hadn't been swept at home in 2 months, with serieses against the Braves, Red Sox, Blue Jays, Reds, Mets, Giants, and Orioles in that span. Good teams get good records by beating the crap out of the awful ones. Winning 1 out of 3 at Philadelphia is what should have been expected. Philly is one of the top teams in the NL, if you're winning serieses on the road against the best teams in your league then you are the best team in the league. Tonight [expletive] blew, but to say oh look the Cubs are awful cause they can only beat shitty teams...I wasn't aware Philly's been steamrolling the Dodgers every night. Idiots make these arguments every [expletive] year, "oh yeah we can beat up on the Pirates, come back to me when we sweep an 11 game series in Yankee Stadium!!"

Bill Burr on Philadelphia. Definitely NSFW

I'm personally stunned that Reed Johnson isn't crushing Joe Blanton.

Reed Johnson should never play against righties ever.

Hey guys, just a guess, but I say Dick Allen makes a comeback with the Phillies.

I like Adam Dunn like most red-blooded Americans, but Bradley's defensive/baserunning advantage over him is rather large. I'm not going to tell you Bradley's been better than Dunn this year, but assuming 120 healthy games from Bradley at a reasonable regression, I think I'd take Bradley. ETA: Talking about the '08-'09 offseason

Oh, and why do the Braves want FA-to-be Blalock for their best pitcher?

I think this is the most certain thing that will happen at the deadline. But my guesses: 1: Erik Bedard to the Dodgers for a couple of prospects. (Halladay is highly unlikely to be moved) 2: The Cards trade Ankiel, Wallace and a prospect to the A's for Matt Holliday. 3. Braves trade Javier Vazquez to the Rangers for Hank Blalock. I don't think Holliday will bring that kind of return at this point. His numbers haven't been bad, but they haven't been nearly what they were in Colorado. What return? A guy without a position with mediocre power and a guy who sucks?

Yeah but Chris Duncan can only get worse.

The Braves could also opt to put Kelly Johnson into their pathetic OF.

The Dodgers would be getting bent over in that deal.

I really wish I could say the same. I'm fearful of some asinine extension in Theriot's last arb year.

No package with Wells or Rios as earlier reported? There's got to be more to that deal, I can't believe the muts turned that down straight up. As much as people hate Hendry here, I am very glad we don't have Omar Minaya. On a similar tangent, Steve Phillips was on Baseball Tonight Sunday night talking about the Mets trading for Halladay. He mentioned that the Mets have been risk-averse to trading high-end talent for pitching because of the Kazmir/Zambrano debacle. However, he made no allusion to the fact that he was the guy who made that deal. Dolt. Jim Duquette was GM at the time. And it's pretty widely-believed that the trade was pushed through by ownership.

Because we're down by 86 runs and Theriot plays every inning of every game.

It's also weird to consider the Pirates, Astros, or Reds having an actual chance at winning the division.

So, at some point, you are going to produce a different pre-season projection from Guzman that proves how ridiculous mine is? I've already shown a popular one that agreed with me. You missed my point entirely. The point is projections such as ZiPS don't accurately judge players like Guzman because they're all about plugging in the #s and comparing them across the board. Dan isn't putting in tweaks that so and so was injured while putting up these ghastly #s. Add in that there is such little recent data to work with for Gooz, and you wind up with a 5.00 ERA projection (as a starter) because a guy had been hurt. And my point is that the historical results for 27-year-olds with good arms but constant injuries is more than a little ghastly. If you're including guys who never get healthy then yes, it's horrific. If you're limiting it to guys who didn't have nagging arm injuries the rest of their careers, then I'm willing to bet it's less than ghastly.

So, at some point, you are going to produce a different pre-season projection from Guzman that proves how ridiculous mine is? I've already shown a popular one that agreed with me. You missed my point entirely. The point is projections such as ZiPS don't accurately judge players like Guzman because they're all about plugging in the #s and comparing them across the board. Dan isn't putting in tweaks that so and so was injured while putting up these ghastly #s. Add in that there is such little recent data to work with for Gooz, and you wind up with a 5.00 ERA projection (as a starter) because a guy had been hurt.