Outshined_One

Cardinals/Yankees would be my World Series from hell.

I hate Miami.

Offer him an incentive-laden deal that could end up going 2-3 years based on health, innings pitched, or something else. If he walks, someone else will be happy to roll the dice with him. Hello? Come on. You're a mod for crying out loud! :) http://www.northsidebaseball.com/bridge/index.php?f=2&t=55785&rb_v=viewtopic This thread was posted first. =;

Offer him an incentive-laden deal that could end up going 2-3 years based on health, innings pitched, or something else. If he walks, someone else will be happy to roll the dice with him.

Looks like the Royals are going to sign Crow in the near future. Link

Box Score Tennessee wins 5-4 in the bottom of the 9th and lives to play another day Box Score (Tennessee trails 2-1 in a best of five series) SS S. Castro 2/5, RBI, K CF J. Adduci 0/4, R LF T. Wright 2/4, 2 R, K 1B B. Lalli 1/1, 3 BB, RBI RF T. Colvin 1/4, R, RBI, 2B (2), K 3B M. Smith 1/4, RBI, 2 K 2B J. Mota 0/4, E (1, fielding) PH T. Thomas 0/1 PH B. Guyer 1/1, R, SB (1) SP C. Coleman 4 IP, 5 H, 4 ER, 4/3 K/BB, HR, 4-4 GO-FO RP D. Cales 2 scoreless, 1 H, 2/1 K/BB, WP, 3-1 GO-FO RP M. Mateo 3 scoreless, 2 H, 3/1 K/BB, 1-5 GO-FO

My favorite line of the day. Link

It is full of eels.

Box Score Tennessee lost 2-1 Box Score (Tennessee trails 2-0 in a best of five series) CF B. Guyer 1/3, K LF J. Adduci 0/4 3B M. Smith 1/3, BB, 2B (4) 1B B. Lalli 0/4, 2 K RF T. Colvin 0/4, R, K SS S. Castro 2/4, K C R. Chirinos 1/3 2B T. Thomas 0/3 PH R. Canzler 1/1 SP J. Papelbon 5.1 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 7/1 K/BB, 4-6 GO-FO RP A. Maestri 1.2 scoreless, 0 H, 2/1 K/BB, 1-2 GO-FO RP J. Ruhlman .1 scoreless, 1 H, 0/1 K/BB, 1-0 GO-FO RP M. Carrillo .2 scoreless, 0 H, 1/0 K/BB, 0-1 GO-FO

Unless Harden comes back, I'm guessing one of Gorzelanny and Marshall will be the #5 starter. Without Grabow, that would leave Lou with just one LHP in the bullpen (unless one of the AAA/AA arms comes through). I'm guessing this is being done with that possibility in mind. Plus, if Harden does re-sign in the offseason, the Cubs will be free to include one of those two lefties in a trade package without worrying about the LHP situation. I'm not saying the Cubs need more than one LHP in the pen, but I can see why they'd be discussing an extension with Grabow.

What's an ace caliber starting pitcher? He's only 28 and he's got a better career ERA+ than CC Sabathia, Chris Carpenter, Ted Lilly, Danny Haren, Jake Peavey, Cliff Lee, John Lackey, Josh Beckett, Zach Greinke, and just under Roy Halladay (Doc 132, Z 127). His WHIP is better than or just over all of them too. Z's problem is that he gets demonstrably upset while in public, not that he's not a great pitcher. As per usual, the Cubs are going to trade him for cents on the dollar mostly because they don't like his antics. On top of that they're tipping their hand publicly, which more than likely lowers whatever value he would have had if it were not the case. There's a reason why they haven't won a world series in over 100 years. Edit: I forgot to mention that he hits pretty well for a pitcher too. Cobs! Rather than over his career, I'd prefer to focus on the past three years, where most of those guys have been better than Zambrano, by a wide margin in some instances. His hitting adds to his value, but the fact remains that Zambrano has not been a top-flight pitcher over the past three years. You can make a good argument that Ted Lilly has been more productive than Zambrano over that stretch.

Frankly, I don't think anyone is untradeable. Even for the right price, the Cardinals would trade Albert Pujols (and holy wow would that price be steep). The problem with trading Zambrano is that there would be no replacement for him. People are correct to point out that he is not an ace caliber starting pitcher. However, he is a good #2 starting pitcher with a history of being a workhorse and an inning eater. Assuming the Cubs kept Harden and Z were traded for a bat or prospects, the Cubs' rotation would look something like Harden-Lilly-Dempster-Wells-5th starter (Gorzelanny/Marshall/Heilman etc). That's an okay rotation, don't get me wrong, but this team would have trouble competing with that rotation. It'd look even worse if Harden were gone. So, either the Cubs find a team willing to give up major league quality pitching for Zambrano (or trade prospects for a pitcher after trading Z) or try their luck in the free agent market, where the top names that will likely be floating around include Erik Bedard and Jason Marquis. The first option seems unlikely, since guys like Matt Cain, Felix Hernandez, and Chad Billingsley are enormously valuable to their respective teams and are cheap. Even if the Cubs were to pick up part of his salary, I have trouble seeing a trade like that happen. Trading prospects for a pitcher is a possibility, but frankly, I don't think the Cubs have the ammunition in their farm system to swing a trade for a good starting pitcher. I don't blame the Cubs for testing the trade waters with Z, but I have trouble envisioning a scenario where the Cubs trade Zambrano and become a better team as a result of that trade.

That was a fun ending.

There's gonna be a stabbing or ten in Oakland tonight.

He was bombarded with gamma radiation.

Did we ever find out what exactly happened to Sung-Ming Jung?

Shut up, CubsGM.

Kyle Orton doesn't lose. It's not that he wins. Big difference!

Box Score Tennessee lost Game 1 of the Southern League Championship 6-5 in the 10th Box Score SS S. Castro 1/5, K, PO (1B) CF/LF J. Adduci 1/4, BB, R, SB (2) LF T. Wright 1/4, 2B (1), K, HBP 1B B. Lalli 1/4, BB, R, 2B (1), 2 K, E (1, fielding) RF T. Colvin 2/5, R, RBI, 2B (1), K 3B M. Smith 3/5, 2 R, RBI, 2B (3), K C W. Castillo 1/3, 2 RBI, 2B (2), K, E (1, throw) 2B J. Mota 1/3, BB, RBI PH T. Thomas 1/1 PH R. Canzler 0/1 SP C. Carpenter 4.1 IP, 4 H, 3 ER, 5/4 K/BB, 5-3 GO-FO RP D. Sasser 1.2 scoreless, 0 H, 1/1 K/BB, 1-3 GO-FO RP D. Cales 1.2 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 2/1 K/BB, 1-2 GO-FO, E (1, throw) RP J. Ruhlman .1 scoreless, 0 H, 0/1 K/BB, 1-0 GO-FO RP M. Mateo 1 scoreless, 0 H, 1/0 K/BB, 1-1 GO-FO RP B. Schlitter .2 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 2/0 K/BB, HR

Jacksonville won their game 12-2 and will be advancing to the Southern League Championship to face Tennessee. Also, it looks like their series will commence on September 15th.

For those of you wondering, Rodgers did indeed do a shoryuken. http://cdn.ksk.uproxx.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/rodgersken.gif

I still can't help but be more optimistic going forward than other years. But maybe that's the delusional Chicago sports fan in me. Eh, after going 9-7 last year with much of the same thing, I think this team could pull that off again. Then again, this could be another one of those years where everyone goes down with some sort of an injury.

Bad coaching, questionable QB play, and some really weird play calls. Feels like every other year for the Bears.

This team doesn't need to rebuild. The Cubs have one of the largest salaries in MLB, which means they should not be standing by idly in free agency. They should be fielding a competitive team every year. Moreover, their current roster is constructed to be competitive, regardless of the results they had this season. The rotation, bullpen, and offense were good enough coming into this year to be the hands on favorite to win the division. Blowing it up just for the sake of blowing it up is just foolish. If you want to bolster the farm system, call for more spending in the draft, better scouting, better coaching, and so on. That can be done without forfeiting the next few seasons.

That was an awesome sequence of events.