UMFan83

Thanks WGN for letting me know that Ryan Theriot has hit "Safley" in 14 of his last 16 starts.

FWIW, the people on Orioles Hangout seem to be fed up with his mental errors and seem to completely ignore his improvement.

I hope he does well. It was pretty clear that the Cubs would never be able to give him the opportunity to work through his issues at the major league level. They couldn't afford to just hand him an everyday job and wait to figure it out. If they weren't going to do it last year when every other position on the field was producing, and they could afford to have one position solely for defense, they were never gonna do it. It's part of the sacrifice of the "win now" strategy. Of course we could argue all day about how Hendry traded him when his value was about as low as could be.

Yeah but Jones was also a much more frustrating player, with his constant throws into the dirt, soriano-esque at-bats, and baserunning blunders. He seemed like a likeable guy, but not a likeable players. Burnitz kind of just sucked and was there. plus, most of his boos came in 2007, when he was really crappy and well below expectations. He was booed loudly in his third home game with the Cubs in 2006. A reason for a lack of boos in 2006 was general apathy due to the pathetic season. I don't know, I usually hate people who say crap like this but I think there's enough evidence out there that we can't outright dismiss the race issue. Note, I didn't say there is a race issue, but that it cannot be eliminated. BTW, for a good white player booing example, one can always fall back on Todd Hundley

Last one was 11 days ago.

Like IMB said, these comments suggest that Bradley is trying to talk his way out of town. Not even a nutjob like Bradley would continually make crazy comments like that if he wanted to spend the remainder of his contract as a Cub. He definitely wants out and is trying to force the Cubs hand.

Everyone knew Jacque Jones would be bad when we signed him but we booed the living hell out of him. Burnitz got some boos, but nowhere near as bad as Jones. It's funny, the exact fear I had about Bradley is true. Like I said in the original post, do your damn homework before you sign somewhere. If you don't like fans getting on you, and you are thinking of signing for a team who hasn't won the championship in 100 years and whose fans are very anxious and whose ballpark makes it so the fans are right on top of the outfielders, you probably shouldn't have signed here. Funny thing is, if Bradley does his homework and decides to sign elsewhere, we probably end up with Dunn or Abreu, probably at a very cheap price. OK, maybe not, we probably throw money at Burrell, or if its Dunn or Abreu, Mr. Impatient Hendry would bid against himself until they signed instead of waiting it out. Anyways, switch Bradley with Dunn and maybe this year goes differently (I know big maybe). I'd sure have loved his bad when Ramirez was out and Bradley was hitting in the .220's

This is fun to watch. Too little too late though.

So it looks like Bradley is going to play well enough during garbage time to make his final numbers look decent.

See we aren't the only ones complaining about types of magic aiding the Cardinals. From Cransik's article:

Well maybe you should start hitting like you are supposed to. It's a simple relationship, you hit and play hard, we cheer. You don't hit and have temper tantrums all the time, we boo. Get over it, you shouldn't have signed here if you can't deal with it. I am almost positive that 5 minutes of research and you would have found out this exact same thing. http://blogs.chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sports_hardball/2009/08/bradley-i-face-hatred-on-a-daily-basis.html Oh and...if you want to be liked, don't constantly bitch about the fans that come to see you play. It's not a good way to be liked. Just deal with it and shut up.

It will be like Game 3 of the 2007 NLDS all over again. I still cannot believe we only managed 1 run off of Livan Hernandez in a playoff game (actually I can easily believe it of course). That was probably the most humiliating game of our 6 playoff losses.

I remember some of the players talking about how to keep focused during a long season that will inevitably lead to the playoffs. I remember fans on this board saying how after the playoffs last year, they won't give a damn about the regular season and start caring when the playoffs started.

Looks like 8.5 out of the wild card and 9 out of the division Here is how every day has affected the race in terms of games won or lost since the Colorado series started (and the Cubs were in first) 8/7: Lost game in division, lost game in wild card 8/8: Held ground in division, gained game in wild card 8/9: Lost game in division, lost game in wild card 8/10: Lost game in division, lost game in wild card 8/11: Held ground in division, held ground in wild card 8/12: Lost game in division, lost game in wild card 8/13: Lost 0.5 games in division, lost game in wild card 8/14: Held ground in division, gained game in wild card 8/15: Held ground in division, gained 0.5 games in wild card 8/16: Lost 0.5 games in division, held ground in wild card 8/17: Lost game in division, lost 0.5 games in wild card 8/18: Held ground in division, lost game in wild card 8/19: Held ground in division, held ground in wild card 8/20: Lost game in division, lost game in wild card 8/21: Held ground in division, held ground in wild card 8/22: Lost game in division, lost game in wild card 8/23: Held ground in division, held ground in wild card 8/24: Held ground in division, lost 0.5 games in wild card 8/25: Lost game in division, lost game in wild card (assuming COL holds lead today) So in a 19 day span.... Division Lost Ground: 10 days (8 days lost a game, 2 days lost 0.5 games) Held Ground: 9 days Gained Ground: 0 days Wild Card Lost Ground: 11 days (9 days lost a game, 2 days lost 0.5 games) Held Ground: 5 days Gained Ground: 3 days (2 days gained a game, 1 day lost 0.5 games) So in 38 different chances to change the standings, 55% of the time we lost ground, 37% of the time we held ground, just 8% of the time we gained ground. Wow

If you don't include today's game, and the 7-1 win over San Diego, the Cubs scored 14 runs in their last 7 games (since the game after the 17 run outburst).

Jake Fox was on one of the radio stations today and said he felt confident that the Cubs would be back in the division race soon haha.

I'm too lazy, can someone go back and tell me how many of Milton's HRs have some in blowouts (either way)

Man what happened to Smarshall? Not including tonight he has had a 12.15 ERA in his last 4 appearances. Will go up even more tonight.

The first pitch is always the best, eh Fonten-O (for 4)

8 ERs for our ace tonight? Nice contract that guy has.

Isn't Mock the pitcher we scored 8 runs against in one inning back in Washington?

Hit and run call with Ramirez running and Fukucopter up?

It could happen.

Sounds interesting. I wouldn't just make a change at GM just to make a change, and it doesn't look like its the case here. Hendry has his faults, and I'd rather have an improvement, but he's also made some good moves during his time. I'd rather not get someone who could potentially be worse than him.

Getting back to the topic of talking about baseball... Has Felix Pie figured it out? He homered again today and after an awful start this is how he has done over the last 30 games: .338/.377/.477/.854 Of course a lot of that has been part time (only 70 PA in that sample of 30 games...also doesn't include today where he went 1-3 with a homer). So lets look at the last 9 games (again not counting today too lazy to add it to the stats) where he has started a bit more frequently: .409/.458/.682/1.140 His line for the year is now .259/.316/.401/.718 after a miserable start. Obviously there are sample size issues all over, but its good to see him seeing a bit of success.