UMFan83

Ronny Cedeno's first 32 ABs this year (37 PA): .375 .444 .563 1.007 Since: .252 .312 .323 .635

This board wouldn't exist if we all blindly trusted Lou, Jim and the Cubs management. Wouldn't that be fun?

OK now the inverse question. How much worse would the Patriots offense be Rex Grossman at QB vs. Tom Brady?

50-20 with him, 26-28 without him. Jut saying. That doesn't really address the point I was making. Are the Cubs better with Alfonso Soriano in the lineup? Of course. Yours is not a black and white argument that can be universally defended with one statistic though.

So that 16-18 stretch has nothing to do with the fact that besides Soriano being out, Zambrano missed 2 starts, Wood was on the DL for 3 weeks, Reed Johnson was on the DL for 2 weeks, Edmonds was off and on banged up, Marmol completely lost effectiveness, and all this occurred during a stretch where we played 26 road games and only 15 home games? Feel free to compare that to a stretch where we were relatively healthy except Soriano with a much more favorable schedule in April where we went 9-5 without him.

Fred Bird died at Cardinal Hill. Makes sense..

Anyone want to take a guess at how good/bad the offense would be with Tom Brady at QB as opposed to Kyle Orton? Would it even matter that much?

That's true. As you know, I work in the Northwest suburbs, at the Daily Herald. I live out here too. There are a lot of Sox fans. As far as CSN goes, knowing the people there, I don't see any intentional bias. It's funny, because for years, the Sox and Sox fans have been the ones who complained about bias. Bill Veeck measured column inches with a ruler one time. Eddie Einhorn commented about it earlier in his ownership group's tenure. At WhiteSoxInteractive.com, there used to be a poster (pre-2005) who actually counted the number of articles in the Trib and Sun Times (not the Herald, sorry Bruce) about both the Cubs and Sox throughout the year. The Cubs actually had decidedly more articles printed than the Sox in both papers, so who knows. Edit: BTW, nice interview during the rain delay on Sunday Bruce.

I miss TWalk

What Kosuke must think of what the American players do for fun on the offdays... Wrestling is pretty big in Japan too.

People who think Rex resigned because he thought he was going to be a starter here, please tell me which NFL team was going to give him a better shot to start than the Bears.

I'll have those same seats for Sunday...Although they 6 rows up. :triplemiddlefinger: Haha you have to watch the Nationals!

I don't know if the Bears will cut Grossman after just signing a deal that included a guaranteed signing bonus. I think it will just be Orton, Grossman and Haine as the 3 QBs.

I think this is more indicative of the fact that Lovie realizes the offense won't have any room for error and thus needs a quarterback that can limit mistakes. Their performances in the preseason were pretty much even in terms of their abilities. Grossman showed a better touch for the big play, and Orton was more conservative.

What I am saying is he isn't going to He'd better at some point in his career. I don't want to resign a 5 inning ace to a long term deal. What the heck do you want him to do? Throw more hittable pitches? That's going to make him worse. He's had one bad game, as far as walks are concerned, as a Cub. He throws unhittable stuff. That's how he has success. He averages a half an inning less per game than Dempster or Zambrano. Considering those guys don't have the limitations that Harden has, I don't see where the issue is. He's on the same pace as Lilly as far as pitches and innings per start - 97 and 5.9. I want to see if his stuff can translate into a pitcher that pitches to contact sometimes as opposed to missing bats. That is what would make him more efficient. One example is of course Zambrano. I am not a true expert of the game, so I don't know if this is feasible. I know Zambrano uses his sinker a lot to pitch to contact which is not something that Harden can do so I don't know, maybe its not possible. Also a half inning per game over a season is a big difference. That's around 18 innings a season, which is 18 less innings for the bullpen to throw. I have nothing against Harden. I am still really excited to have him, and think hes a great asset to the team. It's just when I see a pitcher with his stuff, but with injury limitations and the inability to pitch deep into games, I want to find out if there is a way to get him to pitch more efficiently so that he doesn't have to come out after 5-6 innings.

BTW Cecil Cooper predicted that the Astros would sweep the Brewers in this series LOL. Make it happen!

How is that disturbing? We know he's awesome but an extreme health risk. So, they can't extend him. 5 fantastic innings at a time shouldn't be the least bit disturbing to anybody. Well they could extend him to 7 innings if he didn't throw 90-100 pitches in 5 innings. I completely agree the Cubs are doing the right things with his pitch counts, its just that hes not a very efficient pitcher. Come October when we aren't scoring 8 runs against the likes of the Giants or Braves, its going to be tough to get from Harden's 5 innings to Marmol and Wood in the 8th and 9th. That's pretty much the kind of pitcher he has been though. Strikes out a ton of guys in minimal work. Extending him to 7 is pointless at this time in the season, but come October I could see it being an option. So what your saying is that you don't want Harden to pitch more efficiently? What I am saying is he isn't going to He'd better at some point in his career. I don't want to resign a 5 inning ace to a long term deal.

Speaking of playoff rotations...I hope I am not getting too far ahead of myself, but how would you set up the Cubs? I would consider going Zambrano-Dempster-Harden-Lilly-Zambrano. I would go with this for 3 reasons. One, the schedule is probably Game-Game-Off-Game-Game-Game, meaning that the bullpen would get a day off for Harden's start. Two, setting it up this way gives you the possibility of bringing both Zambrano and Dempster back for games 4 and 5, whereas there is no way Harden can go on short rest. Three, should the above scenario occur, Harden would be well rested to pitch game 1 of the NLCS, and would matchup well against the other team's ace. OK, I am getting really ahead of myself, we will probably tank and not make the playoffs now. Actually, I think the worst it would be is game-game-off-game-game-off-game to allow for travel back to the home park for game 5. I think last year there was also the scenario where the team with the best record got to choose if they wanted to play in the series with the extra off day as an added advantage to them for having the best record. So, you could conceivably see them go game-off-game-off-game-game-off-game. You are right. And it alternates between leagues every year, and the AL chose last year. But if we are facing Arizona, do you really want to make it possible for the DBacks to go Webb-Haren-Johnson-Webb-Haren? Edit: Nevermind, I looked it up and apparently it only applies to the AL, so the NL never gets to have that option for some reason. Anyone know why that is? Why does the AL have that inherent advantage and the NL doesnt? To the best of my knowledge, the NL has always used a Game-Game-Off-Game-Game-Game schedule with no off day between games 4 and 5.

He pitched out of the pen twice in the 2003 ALDS giving up 2 runs in 1.1 IP He started Game 3 of the 2006 ALCS pitching 5.2 IP 3 ER 5 H 5 BB 4 K and took the loss

How is that disturbing? We know he's awesome but an extreme health risk. So, they can't extend him. 5 fantastic innings at a time shouldn't be the least bit disturbing to anybody. Well they could extend him to 7 innings if he didn't throw 90-100 pitches in 5 innings. I completely agree the Cubs are doing the right things with his pitch counts, its just that hes not a very efficient pitcher. Come October when we aren't scoring 8 runs against the likes of the Giants or Braves, its going to be tough to get from Harden's 5 innings to Marmol and Wood in the 8th and 9th. That's pretty much the kind of pitcher he has been though. Strikes out a ton of guys in minimal work. Extending him to 7 is pointless at this time in the season, but come October I could see it being an option. So what your saying is that you don't want Harden to pitch more efficiently?

The Cubs sell out every game, they don't really need to advertise the team. The Bears sell out every game and they are putting out commercials. Advertising does more than help ticket sales. The Cubs mostly run radio ads, although they do run TV commercials during Cubs games (advertising Batters Eye Suites) This is the first big marketing campaign by the Bears in years though, according to the articles about these commercials. This means that they realize there are other marketing opportunities to be had with commercials besides selling tickets.

Speaking of playoff rotations...I hope I am not getting too far ahead of myself, but how would you set up the Cubs? I would consider going Zambrano-Dempster-Harden-Lilly-Zambrano. I would go with this for 3 reasons. One, the schedule is probably Game-Game-Off-Game-Game-Game, meaning that the bullpen would get a day off for Harden's start. Two, setting it up this way gives you the possibility of bringing both Zambrano and Dempster back for games 4 and 5, whereas there is no way Harden can go on short rest. Three, should the above scenario occur, Harden would be well rested to pitch game 1 of the NLCS, and would matchup well against the other team's ace. OK, I am getting really ahead of myself, we will probably tank and not make the playoffs now.

Oliver Perez is shaky, but he can shut down anybody on any given day. I wouldn't look forwad to facing him and Santana in a 5-game series. I agree, but he's not their number 2 starter (only 1 start in the series), and he's a lefty. John Maine is probably their number 2, and I like the odds vs. him, we hit him well.

The Cubs sell out every game, they don't really need to advertise the team. The Bears sell out every game and they are putting out commercials. Advertising does more than help ticket sales. The Cubs mostly run radio ads, although they do run TV commercials during Cubs games (advertising Batters Eye Suites)

How is that disturbing? We know he's awesome but an extreme health risk. So, they can't extend him. 5 fantastic innings at a time shouldn't be the least bit disturbing to anybody. Well they could extend him to 7 innings if he didn't throw 90-100 pitches in 5 innings. I completely agree the Cubs are doing the right things with his pitch counts, its just that hes not a very efficient pitcher. Come October when we aren't scoring 8 runs against the likes of the Giants or Braves, its going to be tough to get from Harden's 5 innings to Marmol and Wood in the 8th and 9th.