brinoch

Good call.

Let's just get into the playoffs. Once there, I think we can make some noise.

You must a lot of hate, then. I'm used to it, I was raised catholic No, that's guilt.

You have to love the humiliation of losing a slap fight to a television.

Take away his Twinkies.

Why leave Howry in for two innings? How about Eyre or Leiber.

I like PHing Zambrano there. First, Big Z wants to hit -- and that's good. Second, you aren't showing up the other team by PHing with a real hitter. Third, if the team does run into trouble, you preserve the rest of the PHers for later action. Also, I'm very glad Lou took Sean out. It was the absolute right time.

I wouldn't. he's already at 91 pitches after (for some dumb reason) spending a couple of weeks in the bullpen Yep. No reason to send him out again. He's earned the chance to watch the rest of this win from the bench.

Ask and you shall recieve A batter later than I would have liked, but it'll do. Nice job by Sean, all in all. 6 innings of work, only 1 run.

A DP would be very nice.

Probably at work. That's where I'm at. It doesn't stop me. Priorities people. Agreed.

Nothing to complain about, evidently, so it's quiet.

Gallagher's starting to struggle. Anyone up in the 'pen?

I wish he would miss more bats though. Oh man Bay just ticked off Soto. What'd he do? Do we need to internet thrash Jake for Bay's behavior?

Okay, I'll look later.

You must a lot of hate, then.

Griffey had a $1,500 debt to Josh Fogg which he paid in pennies. That's just plain old awesome.

I'm not sure about that. Fielder's not going to stay with the Brewers. I'd look for them to move him before Gamel or LaPorta. One of them (or Braun) could easily move to 1B.

It would be interesting to think about what Soto could get us on the open market however ... The haul would be huge. True. It's interesting to think about. However, the truth is that scarcity of production at the catching position is such that it would be extremely difficult to make up for the loss in production from Soto to Catcher X. Consequently, any deal is tough to imagine. Any deal for Soto would have to improve another position beyond the loss associated with the expected downgrade at C. For the Cubs, the only position of need (at current) is arguably CF and SP (I think SS should be upgraded as well, but there's an in-house option with Cedeno). So, you'd be looking to trade Soto for a CF who would upgrade the team, Or perhaps an excellent starting pitcher. Soto is (for the moment) at 1.018 OPS while all Cub CF production is at .655 OPS. The only CF in MLB anywhere near Soto is Nate McLouth and his 1.010 OPS. Even assuming that both McLouth and Soto will maintain their levels of production for the moment, I wouldn't trade them straight up -- that's just a lateral move (the salaries, too, are basically a wash). Soto's OPS is 8th in MLB. McLouth is 9th. You'd need to find a catcher that will do well enough to ensure that the deal upgrades the Cubs. Likewise, with SP, you'd need to find someone who pitches well enough every five days that he'll offset the loss of Soto in the lineup four out of every five days. Using VORP for a brief comparison is revealing -- Soto has a VORP of 17.4 (tops on the Cubs). Jake Peavy? Brandon Webb? 17.2 and 18.0, respectively. At the moment, given Soto's position, production and salary, I'd think long and hard about trading Soto for any deal that doesn't absolutely knock my socks off.

This has gotten surreal. Please, let's demonstrate some respect for each other. Disagreement is fine, but let's acknowledge that everyone is entitled to their opinion.

As of today, the Cubs lead MLB in OBP (.373) and Runs (234). Gee, Jim, there's no connection between scoring runs and getting on-base. How many years did we suffer because of flawed analysis like:

weren't we 20-13 in marq's starts last year? I don't know. Frankly, I don't care. Marquis cannot control his teammates' offensive output when he pitches. He does have an impact on how many runs he gives up. Ignoring your team's offensive variability for the moment, while you certainly might win a bunch of games with crappy pitchers, logic intuits that you'll win more games with better pitchers. So if you don't want to put your team in the best position to win, that's your call. I'm going with the best team I can.

No.

Fixed. Why not both? At the same time? In his first game as a Cub?

Is Acta the best because he hits Cristian Guzman and his lifetime .302 OBP in the 2 hole? And hits Felipe Lopez and his .328 OBP in the leadoff spot? Hard to argue with Acta when he has this team: 1B- Nick Johnson (.415 OBP) 2B- Felipe Lopez (.331 OBP) 3B- Ryan Zimmerman (.274 OBP) SS- Cristian Guzman (.320 OBP) LF- Wily Mo Pena (.284 OBP) CF- Lastings Milledge (.317 OBP) RF- Austin Kearns (.311 OBP) C - Jesus Flores/Wil Nieves (.458/.378 OBP)** (**Extreme sample size alert... LoDuca and Estrada are on DL)