Soul

That radar sure looks like it would have to be called.

I forgot to mention that - thanks. LaRussa gets such a bad rap from opposing and even home team fans that it is nice to see him defended occasionally. The reason LaRussa gets such a bad rap is his paranoid/genius act. He always thinks everyone in the press has a hidden agenda they're trying to pursue and it just comes of as arrogant and smart-assed to hit your pitcher 8th. I think a lot of his attitude/personality comes fromthe fact that he's a lawyer and has a massive ego that needs to be stroked. Now with all that said, he's definitely one of the better managers MLB has ever seen. He has had good teams, but he does seem to get as much out of them as is possible. I actually don't mind LaRussa much. But he does seem to say some strange things. "It's one pitch" is certainly one of them, if he is the one who originated it. The other that I can remember is the time he came out in the press and attacked the Cubs for playing our callups in September against a team the Cards were in a race with. It was a truly......eh? moment. First of all, our starters were horrid that year, the scrubs were probably better. But most importantly, this is what happens every year, why should the Cubs make an exception and play crappy starters in September, sacrificing our developing youngsters, just to give StL an imaginary leg up? It was a ridiculous comment. But like I said, I'm a Cub fan who doesn't really hate LaRussa.

Yeah, this is such an advantage for StL it isn't even funny.

Wow, friggin' monsoon.

Just a slightly annoying little glitch I've noticed since I bought my new comp that has Vista and IE 7. Sometimes when I click on a post or load a new page on NSBB, the screen will freeze for a few minutes before I get control back. It can become an annoyance because the delay happens often enough and there's nothing loading. I found a workaround that is quite strange: if I mouse-over the top of the page, it releases and gives me back control! I don't know why, web controls are not my specialty unfortunately. It's not that bad now that I know how to get around it, but I just wanted to report it in case anyone else is seeing it.

Who knows, if Theriot continues to be good and Murton finally gets the chance to be a consistent producer, we could be looking at a couple halfway decent positional players from our system for the first time in forever. Does Murton really count since he came from the Red Sox system in the Nomar deal? Shouldn't we get at least some credit for his development since he did spend a bit of time in our minors?

White Sox losing again 2-10, they are now in last place, yes that's right below the Royals.

Yost: "I wanted Linebrink to face Valentin from the left side." Whoops, guess that one didn't work out 8-) "I thought he threw the ball better today [Capuano]" Says he hasn't made his mind up whether Cappy will remain in the rotation. "If there was a way to figure this out we would have already done it." Ouch!

There is a quite a bit of difference between the two situation. Fielder had already been thrown out and was in the umps face yelling at him. Pujols was not thrown out yet and wasnt even thrown out after, which makes me think even the ump didnt think Pujold did anything wrong. If Pujols does get suspened I wouldnt have a huge problem with it cause you should not put your hands on an ump, but the two cases are different. Sounds like the two cases are different, but I'm pretty sure I've seen that sort of "friendly touching" result in a suspension before, although I admit I can't pinpoint when it was. I think it depends on how the ump takes it.

Nah, he didn't luck into those. He gets credit for them though, IMO. It just hasn't been enough. I think the real problem has been, and continues to be, lack of real good positional talent from the minors to fill the holes adequately. That and the BP moves haven't turned out real well for Jim in many cases. Who knows, if Theriot continues to be good and Murton finally gets the chance to be a consistent producer, we could be looking at a couple halfway decent positional players from our system for the first time in forever. That might really allow us to turn a corner as an organization, because I just don't like playing F.A. games with the entire roster, regardless of how much we have to spend.

You mean we didn't lose 2/3 just like the Blowers are about to do? No, I mean it didn't look like the Reds were giving up 5 early runs to us and their BP looking this bad @ Wrigley.

Wow. Unbelievable. I'll take it.

And now Weathers is a sissy.

LOL, Weathers hits Hart and it brings up Fielder. OK, so which Reds team did we just face? Cuz it sure as hell wasn't this one.

And it's Hart, the Cub heart-ripper-outer.

Man, Weathers looks like he's running on fumes at this point in his career. How does he get any saves at all?

Wise is warming up, actually. Yost is such a bad manager. Look how long he waited How is Cappy still pitching? I'm not sure he has much faith in his bullpen either. He knows the Reds BP is total crap too.

Wise is warming up, actually. Like he said, no one is warming up

Tie game.

2 WP in a row, Dunn on 3rd.

Not only did Pujols touch Barrett, he appeared to kind of yank him by the right shoulder when he first ran up to the ump. Camera angles can be deceiving though, but that's how it appeared, especially because the ump didn't turn to face Pujols until his shoulder was yanked in his direction. I didn't see it, but any touching of the ump should be 3 games, doesn't matter if it was intentional or not.

Well, we will need to win again tonight simple as that.

Can't we tip our hat to the guy and move on? No, we can't. This is the Cards, remember? When they lose it's a million excuses why it was just unlucky. Of course when they win it's a celebration of how awesome they are :roll:

Saying that the game was lost on one bad pitch to Ward is "excuse-making?" Sure Reyes probably wasn't perfect other than that. The fact remains that the Cubs have scored a bunch of runs on very few hits in the series. Why so overly sensitive about the way the Cards media is scrutinizing Reyes' start? Who cares? Yeah, it is excuse making. The fact is, if you pitch the bases loaded and then give up a dinger, you just got beat. And that's the end of it. Crying about it being only one pitch is excuse making. Period.

Honest questions: Is the top GM rated by his team's record? How do you personally calculate GM worth? I don't think there's any one way to do it. But 5 years of near the top payroll producing a record as mediocre as 383-385 is more than enough evidence to indict, try and convict Jim Hendry for being a bad GM. Yeah I think this is the best as i can put it. The teams record may not be the best way in the world to calculate a GM's worth but when you have a top 5 payroll in baseball and are struggling to make .500 there's a problem. I like to think of it in terms of just the reality of Jim's situation. Sure, an argument can be made that he's been unlucky, or injuries got him, or whatever. But like goony & you say -- if the money's flowing out and the wins aren't rolling in.........the job's in trouble.