UMFan83

He can still be the team mascot and not pitch in the 8th inning of tied ballgames.

Is there a downpour heading our way that I'm not aware of? Yes. It's called the back end of the Braves bullpen. Rumor had it it's pretty awesome. Was it awesome last night when we tacked on 4 insurance runs?

Poor Dempster...how can someone have a 1.02 ERA in 6 starts and be 0-1 during the span?

Is there a downpour heading our way that I'm not aware of?

I kinda wish Kerry Wood and Carlos Marmol weren't our worst 2 bullpen arms at the moment

Soriano gets it done

If you had asked me to name the 8 playoff teams that I would least expect to win the Cup before the playoffs started, 4 of the 5 teams that are still alive (assuming Devils don't blow a 3-1 lead with 10 mins left) would have been on that list.

Apprently they just said on ESPN1000 Noah is out of his aircast and is a game time decision tonight.

I dont think many notice it. I dont think Carlos was yelling at the crowd, I think he was just yelling in excitement that he got out of it and looked good doing it.

Senator Pilosi certainly agrees

So none of the people who called Sveum an idiot for I'm guessing putting Marmol out there want to defend their opinion?

What philosophy is that? The one where apparently you don't give the guy your paying $10 million a year to any chances to get himself together.

Squeezing a guy with no control? Great! As Len and Bob said, the umpire is influenced by the fact he's wild. A borderline pitch is probably going to be called a ball because the ump knowing how bad his control is. The umps don't give him credit for being able to hit the corners. I dont know if that makes any sense. It sounded better coming from Len.

I wouldnt trust him to mop up my games.

Speaking of going RIck Ankiel....

Giving up on the team two weeks into the season is kind of lame so I say [expletive] them. No more like giving up on them sometime in May or June last year due to apathy. I had a similar stretch but never completely took my eye off the team...I'm a sucker like that.

Should I tell my friends that gave up on watching the Cubs that they are somewhat enjoyable to watch this year, or should I just enjoy this for myself?

On a related topic, KC Johnson had an interesting discussion on the Score today. He said that the organization is shocked and very disappointed with how the Bulls have responded since the Rose injury. The higher ups all thought the Bulls would at least make it to the 2nd round, and likely the ECF. Whether this means they will make changes, I don't think anyone knows. But the fact that Rose and Deng might will likely both be out until January, makes it less likely that they will make any drastic moves to change the team. Certainly going into the luxury tax is basically out of the question. He said there's 0% chance the Bulls amnesty Boozer for 2 reasons, 1) with Rose's extension kicking it, amnestying him doesnt open up any cap space and as bad as he is trying to replace Boozer with the MLE is a gamble and 2) The Bulls title odds are quite low next year, so they might as well get something out of the money they are paying. Also he said that the Bulls will almost certainly match any offer for Asik next year, which sort of surprised me. I'm not sure I believe that. The most another team can offer him is the MLE but do you really want to pay that much for a guy who plays like 12 minutes a game and has an extremely limited offensive game? Finally, and this is just speculation, but KC says he guesses that the Bulls will bring back AT MOST 1 of the following 3 players: Korver, Watson, and Brewer, and says the most likely one if they bring one of them back is Watson because he's a PG with Rose out. And the Bulls will probably try to replace them with minimum salary guys, and/or in house options (like Butler). I know its been common knowledge for awhile that those 3 guys are not locks to come back, but I guess I never considered that the Bulls would decline to bring back all 3. Definitely going to be an interesting but likely depressing offseason as the black cloud continues to hover over the Bulls organization.

I don't agree that they've mailed it in, but their confidence is clearly affecting their play. I think its a testament to the team that they are even close in games like yesterday with almost no scoring, but at the end of the day, they don't have anyone that can score when needed late, so they fall short at the end. The same thing happened last year against Miami when Rose was kept in check. The Sixers do suck, but the Bulls have still done an excellent job as a whole defensively in the series (besides game 2), but when you are a poor offense (without Rose and to a lesser extent Noah) and you are going up against the 3rd best defense in the NBA this year, its a tough matchup. You can't play that well defensively and be considered to be mailing it in.

The Caps have been my playoff team since the Hawks were eliminated. I'm rooting for them because for several years they finished at the top of the standings and then flopped in the playoffs and now they come in as the 7 seed and seem to be making a run. Im still not a big fan of Ovechkin for taking out Brian Campbell a couple of years ago though.

I dont think anyone's forgetting that.

Wait do you think that "everyone is expendable except rose, Noah, Rip, Taj" is a particularly novel thought? Well maybe because I much rather keep Deng than Rip. Deng is quite valuable when the ligaments in his wrist are intact. But as far as the other 3, pretty much everyone understands as has accepted for awhile that a majority of the team is expendable and now here for the long term.

Good point, I stand corrected

This team is frisky. I think they are 7-5 in their last 12 games...for many teams that's mediocre, but for the Cubs thats pretty good. The offense still sucks, but the starting pitching is keeping us in most games...I will take that. This next series against the Braves will be a pretty good test to see if our pitching is as legit as we hope. This is exactly what I wanted from the Cubs for 3 years now (other than getting to the playoffs). The last 2 years were boring as hell with the same guys underperforming. This team has a lot of question marks, but that's a good thing. It gives you something to get excited about every day. I look forward to a Shark start, a Castro AB with RISP, a LaHair AB when we need a homer, etc. It's much better than watching Z pitching below expectations with a outburst or two along the way, or ARam doing his thing for a floundering team. With the Bulls season taking a nosedive, it's good to know I might have something to get me through the summer.

Who would have picked Kings vs Coyotes and Rangers/Capitals vs Devils as what's looking like the conference finals matchups at the moment. Assuming Phoenix and NJ get the 4th win, one of those 5 teams will lift the cup. I have no idea who to root for. Probably the Kings or Capitals.