brinoch

I really hate when Ramirez swings with that extreme uppercut. That's twice tonight he's done it -- and twice he's popped up on it. C'mon Barrett!

Williams had Aurilia out on strike three, but the ump missed a picture perfect strike on the outside half of the plate. It really was pretty clearly a strike. Terrible call, and it cost the Cubs two runs.

We're way overpaying here. Remmy, Dubois, Mitre and Pinto for Mota and Gordon? That's too steep.

Moreover, I think the long grass at Wrigley would really hurt Pierre's OBP, such as it is. No thanks.

Great. I could care less about the strikeouts right now. The first step for him will be to start hitting the ball hard again. When he tried to shorten his swing this year, it didn't do much for his K/BB ratio, but it did have a big effect on his BA. He hit way too many weak ground balls and pop ups this year. Agreed. I actually think that the Cubs might be well served to let Von Joshua coach Corey for some time.

Glad to hear it. I played a soccer game here in the DC area -- 100% humidity, 95+ degrees and no wind. It was freaking awful. Sorry but as a meteorologist I am gonna have to call you on this one... 100% humidity with 95 degrees would mean a dewpoint of 95 degrees, and I can't recall a time when the dewpoint in the United States was ever above 85. It's hard to get a dewpoint above 75 in DC in the afternoon, especially with a temperature of 95+. http://www.erh.noaa.gov/data/obhistory/KDCA.html RH's were around 60-70% all afternoon, which is definitely bad for the DC area - but 95 degrees with 95 dewpoint would be the craziest weather observation I've ever seen. :D OK, please resume minor league baseball discussion... Given that I take a thermometer with me to the games, I can tell you that it was, indeed, 95 degrees on the sidelines, out of the direct sun. Now, why do I take a thermometer to my soccer games? Good question. I got dehydrated very badly once because I underestimated the amount I was sweating. The temperature also determines how much/how often we need to sub. It may not have been 100% humidity, but it felt like it. The grass remained wet and slick all game long -- despite the heat, it did not dry out at all. And the puddles near the goal mouths suffered no evaporation.

Glad to hear it. I played a soccer game here in the DC area -- 100% humidity, 95+ degrees and no wind. It was freaking awful.

This is this guy's third post (out of three total) exactly like this in two different threads. I really don't like advertisers. Am I within my rights to request that this fool be banned? I've deleted two of the three posts, warned him, and if it continues his tenure at NSBB will be mighty short.

Welcome to the forum! That being said, what does that site have to do with raw baseball data? :-k Nothing at all. Goldsjo, I'd PM this to you, but members do not receive PM's until after a certain number of posts. And your three on the same topic, advertising for the same website, and linking to Sammy shirts for sale don't cut it. I'm going to delete these out of place advertising posts. I hope I don't see any more of them.

I agree with the sentiment. I mean, when I played, I could switch-hit -- but I'm a natural righty, and my stroke was tremendously better from the right-side. So I only hit right-handed. I think you should only switch-hit if it actually helps the ballclub. Of course, I also think that the whole Righty-Lefty thing is way overblown. And the micro-managing for the "right" match-up is quite irritating.

No. And if Aram is breathing down Lee's neck for the RBI and HR lead, I don't think we'll be that far out of it. He'd be like a machine in order to catch up.

Talked again with Chris, and I have great news! We won the auction! The night in the booth went for $300 -- which is about what Chris expected, so there's a little left over. In addition, Chris also won the bid on the ceremonial first pitch, but he'll talk a little more about that. The Diamond Jaxx folks were very appreciative of our efforts on behalf of their charity auction, and it seems the interview with Dunn, and later with Joshua and Dickerson are very likely to occur. Moreover, Chris spoke with the Diamond Jaxx GM Jeff Parker, who said that not only will they be checking the site out, but that one of the ways we can help them out is placing a link to their site (we have their express permission) on the NSBB frontpage. He's also willing to do an interview. We can expect a lot of visitors and registrants from the DJaxx in the next 24 hours.

Talked with Chris a couple of minutes ago, and right now we're the top bidder for the night with Ron Potesta at $75. He thinks it'll go higher, but that we'll likely get it for significantly cheaper than we estimated. He's also placed a bid, which we are also winning, for the ceremonial first pitch at a ballgame -- the thought being to combine the night in the booth and the ceremonial first pitch into an event. He also relayed that he spoke with Jaye Dunn, the wife of pitching coach Alan Dunn, and she was very impressed with the site's participation, and they are arranging for a Q & A with Coach Dunn -- for 30 minutes! Also, Chris volunteered to Jaye that we'd be willing to make another donation to JDRF if she could help set-up similar interviews with Von Joshua and Bobby Dickerson -- and she thought that was a definite possibility. In addition, Chris signed all the bids as Northsidebaseball.com, and he said that he received a lot of feedback. Apparently, Ron's broadcasts are more listened to than perhaps Ron believes. Smile A lot of folks were very impressed that the site was reaching out to the Diamond Jaxx and helping out in such a fashion. Sounds to me like this is going to be a successful endeavor all around!

Ugh. That stunk.

Let's go Lee!

Yep. A nice sac fly, WP, basehit, etc.

That was a nice piece of luck for Cedeno. :D

Terrible pitch by Harville -- did you see Ausmus shake his head and give the sign? Not even close to where Ausmus wanted it.

I'd do that deal. Hairston can cover CF until Pie is ready. He's not tremendous on defense, but he's better than some of the guys we've sent out there.

I merged this thread with another one discussing the same thing in the transactions forum. While Cuban purchasing the Cubs is a theoretical transaction of a sort, it's not exactly topical for the transactions forum. It belongs more in the baseball discussions forum. Or perhaps in the wild fantasy forum -- alongside the Dunn trade discussions. ;)

I don't hold out much chance that Mutron will get any more of a shot than Dubois, or Cedeno received. From the Tribune. Except that we know from experience that Murton won't play against all left-handers, because we need to keep Hollandsworth fresh. Just like Neifi needed to be kept fresh. And whatever other veteran who was under pressure from a rookie. Unless Murton plays the majority of the time, this will likely be a terrible decision by Hendry.

Bringing Nomar back at a reasonable salary, with Cedeno to back him up for at least a year is a solid idea, and one that I think makes baseball and economic sense. Nomar's potential is so much greater than any possible FA and, frankly, probably Cedeno. Furthermore, Cedeno, like Dubois last year, has rotted on the bench and hasn't been given a trial run to see if he's a long-term answer. I like this idea -- even if it costs $6-8M -- much more so than Neifi and Ronny. I don't want another summer of Neifi's slap-crap.

I'm pretty sure that Alou's buyout was a part of last year's budget.

They are still watching his last home run.

This is a nice article on Branyan from his hometown paper, the Macon Telegraph. Interesting that his shoulder seems to have a real problem.