UMFan83

Yeah why do you care so much? I'm not saying its not cool to follow the team when its this bad, but getting upset over individual games in a lost season seems rather pointless in the grand scheme of things.

When the Grizzlies were trying to move from Vancouver, Chicago was one of the potential cities. Michael Heisley, the Grizzlies owner, is from Chicago and thought a second team in the south suburbs would be a great idea. They even had the Dixmoor mayor on board with plans to build an arena there. At the time, the Bulls were awful and there were no signs of them getting better anytime soon, but they still were in the top 5-10 in the league in attendance.

You are being so dramatic giving up on the season with 70+ games left!

Marmol doesn't seem very unhittable anymore. His numbers overall look ok but just doesn't have that presence he's had in the past. Sucks.

Radio or TV ? TV Bob Walk. Greg Brown is the play by play. Unless I'm confusing them. Which is possible - they're equally annoying. Root Sports is the new broadcaster, taking over from Fox sports, and all of the announcers seem to be more Rah Rah this season. (Same guys as last year) I was never a fan of walk and brown, and this year I like them even less. Why does he seem to hate the Cubs?

It's so weird to see the resurgence of the Pirates but at the same time their hitting has been a huge disappointment IMO Only 1 player with more than 40 ABs has an OPS higher than .776, only 2 players with more than 100 ABs has an OPS over .707. Of the 10 players who have had more than 100 ABs, only 2 have a SLG% over .386, and no one has a SLG more than .491.

Are the Yankees trying to rise up the fecal league standings? I guess I don't really see a point for the Yankees to acquire Soriano. If he was a lefty I guess I could see it. Speaking of Soriano..... .257/.321/.365/.686 and somehow a .337 BABIP (which would be the highest of his career over a season) since May 2nd (45 games).

I propose Jaleel White

I'm glad I made this my half ballgame to watch for the week.

lol if we had a good team this would be a really memorable game. Reminiscent of the comeback against the Rockies in 2008.

But we've only gotten outscored by 3 runs so far this series.

How long has Ramon Ortiz been on the Cubs? I'm serious, I had no idea that yokel is part of this [expletive] show.

Awesome job Kirk!

I dunno but its available on Comcast On Demand (for 6.99) I think I might watch it later today It's 104 minutes long and listed as a full fledged movie.

How do you hit into a GIDP on a hit and run

I honestly think it has a lot to do with SJ failing year after year in the playoffs and trying to shake things up by making lateral moves and hoping that the players they get will perform better in the postseason.

Interesting trade between the Sharks and Wild. Heatley for Havlat. Havlat is a solid player but has trouble staying healthy (except last year). Heatley is probably the better player but declined last year and hasnt performed in the playoffs as a Shark. Good for the Sharks for shaking things up, first with Burns and now Havlat.

ESPN named Panthers and Blackhawks the big winners of day 1 of FA. The Blackhawks in particular they are really high on:

I think this is true. We win the last 2 games we win the BP cup.

Why the hell is Tallon trying to bring every single non-core Hawk to his team? They are going to have more Stanley Cup Hawks than we will.

I think we're better and deeper for the most part. There are still names out there and the Hawks still have plenty of cap space as well. Brouwer, Campbell, Kopetsky, Hendry, Stalberg? for Olesz, Montador, Brunette, Mayers, O'Donell and Carcillo Brunette is an upgrade over Brouwer, although a short term one. Campbell is a big hit, but Montador is not a bad replacement (plus you'd expect improvement from Leddy in his 2nd year), and we acquired a lot of depth for the 3rd D-line and reserves. Campbell is better than any D we acquired, but the fact that we don't have to rely on someone like Hendry or Scott is big. Those lines were the ones that killed us last year. Olesz has the upside to be better than Kopetsky and is probably better than Stalberg (if he does leave). And we have something like 7 million left in cap space. Are we better than the Hawks of 2 years ago? Not even close. But we're definitely better than last year's team at this point and have a chance to improve ether this offseason or at the deadline.

True, but to be fair, he has had some terrible luck go his way too (Dunn, Peavy, Rios) Yeah, but Rios was great last year, and they knew what they were getting into with Peavy. He's still very good when healthy. Also, Aaron Poreda, who was the key to that deal has been horrible for the Padres minor league teams and cant throw strikes to save his life. The one deal that many think that the Sox will regret is trading Daniel Hudson for Edwin Jackson who was supposedly only aquired to flip to Washington for Dunn, which Williams denies. Rios had a .791 OPS last year and made $10.2 million. Not sure that is considered great production. The Sox aren't any "luckier" with prospects than any other MLB team

I wish we had a converted catcher on our pitching staff I know, we have 2. They both spent a few years in the minors after the conversion. Santos was a former top prospect for the Giants as a SS, gets scooped up by the White Sox for nothing having never pitched, pitches a year in the minors, and next thing you know hes one of the best relievers in the game. Williams has made some bad moves, but hes also made alot of lucky ones. Hell, nobody wanted Jermaine Dye or AJ Pierzynskie when the Sox signed them before 2005. I am not sure what you are saying? Williams is lucky because he took a converted catcher and turned him into an all star closer? What does it matter if he had 1 year or 3 years of minor league ball, its the same damn thing. The White Sox signed him last year with the exact purpose in mind of turning him into a pitcher, so its not like they just stumbled into his pitching prowess. It's just odd to hear someone complain about how lucky a team is to turn a catching prospect into a dominant closer when the Cubs did the same damn thing 4 years ago. Also not sure how Dye or Pierzynski are "lucky". It's not like they were scrubs that magically turned into stars. Dye was a solid player (hit 23+ HRs 5 of the last 6 years before signing with Sox) with the Royals and A's, but oft injured. The Sox made a low risk high reward signing and it worked out really well for them. Pierzynski was actually rather coveted before he came to the Sox. Two years before he came to the Sox he made the All Star team, the year before he came to Chicago he was traded for Joe Nathan and Francisco Liriano who were pretty good prospects. And since joining the White Sox, his OPS is actually lower than his career OPS so its not like he blew up with the Sox, he has actually done worse. So yeah, nothing you really said made sense to me.

If the Cubs are planning on contending in 2012, I can assure you their next manager won't be someone who needs to audition for the job.

C: Toews, Bolland, FA, Johnson? RW: Kane, Hossa, Frolik, Smith LW: Sharp, Brunette, Olesz, Bickell BN: Stalberg, Scott, Pasani Just typing this up quickly. I'm sure I am missing critical names. If we could get a decent center to lead a line with Frolik and Olesz it will at least be interesting. Better than Stalberg, Kopz, Brouwer splitting time on that line most likely.