UK1679666180

Actually, scoring more runs than your opponent does. Oddly, scoring runs factors into that. I completely agree... but our starting pitching did the job more or less... our offense and defense killed us. Regardless, this team was built to win it all... Soriano is wrong. The starting pitching was awful. 15.1IP 15H 10ER 12BB 13K That's the combined line of the 3 starters. Take out Dempster's start and Harden/Zambrano did fine... but again... it still doesn't make a difference, who thought Dempster was going to bad? I had nothing but confidence in him... The argument at hand is that Soriano said we weren't built for a short series, and that is false. WE WERE BUILT FOR IT... just didn't execute. So now it's down to Z and Harden doing well... 11.2IP 11H 6ER 5BB 11K That's an era of 4.6, that ain't going to get it done either. Offensively, they're built for beating up on bad to medicore pitching staffs. Pitching, they're close to where they need to be for short-series but like most teams they lack a true ace, if Harden could stay healthy, it would be him. Look at LA. Combined over the course of the year, I would take Lowe, Billingsley and Kuroda over the Cubs 3. Although several factors loom over next year (Lowe's age, Z's workload, and Harden's health, Dempster's regression).

Let me guess, they knew that Dempster would pitch as well as he did this year in ST? Zambrano proved after last year that he isn't a legit #1 starter. He certainly isn't as good as he was 4 years ago.

Actually, scoring more runs than your opponent does. Oddly, scoring runs factors into that. I completely agree... but our starting pitching did the job more or less... our offense and defense killed us. Regardless, this team was built to win it all... Soriano is wrong. The starting pitching was awful. 15.1IP 15H 10ER 12BB 13K That's the combined line of the 3 starters.

Who cares if he's right? He shouldn't be saying it. Especially after consecutive bad postseasons. I'm not bothered it, I'm glad he brought it to the table instead of cliches. Of course, I'd rather see him address his own obvious weaknesses.

How are they not set up for a short series? Best 1-2-3 punch in baseball as far as starting pitching (pitching wins championships, folks). And the best offense in the NL with arguable the best depth... how are they not set up for a short series? They didn't have the best 1-2-3 punch in baseball as far as starting pitching going into the post-season. Z wasn't heathly going into October nor was he effective coming back from injury and neither was Harden as far as health. The Cubs don't have a 7th inning reliever yet, Howry was Howry, Samardzija can't counted on in that role. Offensively, you seen what can happen against RH'ers who can control the outer 3rd of the plate with 4 seam FBs. This offensive was too streaky all year and facing the RH'ed power pitchers of LA exploited that.

Why? Soriano is exactly right.

It's not the matchup itself that's the difference it's how each team would use their RH'ers that made the difference. STL would challenge them inside and would pay for it, LA stayed away and the Cubs wet their pants trying to pull HRs into LF. Then would being less right-handed by having Ibanez or another left-handed outfielder have made much of a difference? And then is the correction for what LA pitching did to us not be more left-handed but to have Perry work with existing right-handers (maybe something as simple as working on taking the outside pitch to the opposite field)? It would not have made a difference in this series b/c didn't the Cubs didn't pitch well or play good defense either, but unless there is an overhaul, for next year having a LH'ed stud in the order as well as someone to bring what Fukudome should've brought would be an important difference. To me, they still a #1 starter as well. They're set-up to be a good regular season team and not a good post-season team. Harden would be that #1 starter, but you can't count of 30+ starts. Dempster despite this year is prob. a #2 starter and Z has been a #1 starter, but he wasn't this year. They can pound mediocre teams like STL and the bad ones like Pitt. because they can win enough battles with their best hitters and not have to worry in a 3 or 4 game series about facing 3 good starters in a row who can spot the outer 3rd consistently. The thing about working with Perry is hitters that are consistenly pitched away are all veteran hitters and if AZ them shut down in '07 and LA shut them down in '08, Perry, Lou, and everyone else in that dugout knows that this is the case.

Edit: I made my trade which allowed to make an additional move that I needed for now.

It's not the matchup itself that's the difference it's how each team would use their RH'ers that made the difference. STL would challenge them inside and would pay for it, LA stayed away and the Cubs wet their pants trying to pull HRs into LF.

Infamy has already occured, no one should care about the new record. It doesn't make this ending any better.

Danks is tough and Garza couldn't keep them off-balance enough and struggled with his FB command.

doh...i did Disney up my post...sorry if it was over the line... just a tad bit fired up is all Relax, you're not on the short list of people who need to watch themselves. :wave: lol...are you on the short list? To be determined...

doh...i did Disney up my post...sorry if it was over the line... just a tad bit fired up is all Relax, you're not on the short list of people who need to watch themselves. :wave:

Possibly watching them lose at home is better than watching them lose in person.

Just start the damn game already, this Phils/Brewers game is awful to watch. The west coast blows.

UK is a good defensive team and it's unfort. they couldn't do the simple things in the end to give themselves a chance to tie the game as far as falling on the fumble or kicking the onside kick right. UK is prob. one of the more underrated teams in the country, IMO.

Kuroda is going to be a bitch for the Cubs, he does everything well that shuts down this Cubs offense as far as throwing strikes to stay ahead not getting into hitter's counts, good command of his FB. He uses his 4 seamer to get ahead in the count and then the sinker with two strikes to get the LH'ed hitter to swing weakly at a pitch falling out of the zone to ground out weakly and use the slider against RH'ers. His slider is good enough to get Soriano to chase on any count as well the other Cubs hitters occasionally on two strikes, espec. when they're pressing like they have. Against the lefties, he'll use his splitter and FB mainly, his splitter isn't an outpitch like Samardzija's when its on, it's more like a change-up as he throws for it for stikes on the lower 3rd of the plate. Cubs are going to need to be aggressive early in the count and the opposite field (broken record), they can't high pitch count him out of the game, he'll throw strikes and hopefully his FB command is off to where his FB tails out over the plate and that he'll hang some splitters ala Dempster to Loney.

Keepers: Zach Greinke-SP 504.5 Jhonny Peralta-SS 461.5 Troy Glaus-3B 473 Ryan Ludwick-OF 557.5 Total:1996.5 Exempt players: Russell Martin-C Matt Kemp-OF Glen Perkins-SP Andy Sonnanstine-SP Josh Johnson-SP Minors: Mike Bowden-SP Greg Golson-OF Matt Antonetti-2B Troy Patton-SP Anthony Swarzak-SP

I'll throw this here too...

This is why I wanted the see the Sox vs. TB, it's just a better matchup for TB. It was good to see Kazmir close up his front side arm after the 1st few innings and settle in, still wasn't his best outing but TB is real good in close ballgames. It'll be the same thing with Garza and his FB command as his secondary pitches aren't real good, occasionally the breaking ball will have some snap, but when his FB is one, he can throw it 95% of the time and shut them down, espec. the White Sox who aren't a great FB hitting team.

No FB command from Kazmir and no break on the slider spells trouble for TB. Might get to see Price by the 5th.

The way he was rubbing his shoulder and that before he went on the DL it was obvious that his shoulder was in bad shape, I don't think he was close to 100% in his last outing.

Right now, I have around 650 points avail. if you have a player that fits that mold that isn't a C, SS, or RP, I'm all ears.

I'll listen to all offers.

I hope they don't think that this will enable the Rays to sign high priced free agents. Merchandise sales of MLB licensed stuff is shared with all 30 teams. This means when all those Yankee and Red Sox fans buy up all that Yankee and Red Sox gear, they're helping out everyone in MLB. They don't have to, they have to lock up their current roster (BJ, CC, Kazmir) and a 97 win team, the youngest team in the playoffs, with the best farm system in the game will only get better. Actually, their farm system is very good because of all the high draft picks they've had during the crap years. This is how the Tigers got to the World Series in 2006. With this good season behind them, the Rays will have a low pick next year. A little known fact about the MLB draft is that, unlike the NFL and NBA, teams cannot trade their pick positions. This means the Rays cannot offer, say, Carl Crawford and Rocco Baldelli to the team with the first pick next year for that pick. The farm is good b/c of players of like Davis, McGee, Jennings, Hellickson, Brignac (all players that could've been selected by other teams) just as much as players like Price, Beckham, and Longoria. When the Sox are drafting Lance Broadway, the Rays were drafting well after that 1st rd. pick and getting players still likely to be successful major leaguers. This 25 man roster has 2 of those picks make an impact on the season, Upton/Longoria. Who did the Tigers have? Verlander, that's it.