Soul

Didn't take me long to learn that most of what Lou says is complete BS. How so? He was the everyday centerfielder. Then he started to suck terribly. You'd rather Lou play Dusty and keep underperformers in the lineup everyday just because he made some statement weeks ago? Everything is contingent on performance, period. You suck, you sit. Lou's been more consistent on this than just about any manager I've ever seen on the North Side. Eyre, Jones, Pie, Izzy.....all have grabbed bench and hard because they weren't cutting it. I'm so tired of this argument. Lou's been around long enough that he should know that all players, regardless of quality, go through bad stretches. You can't bench every player if he hits a slump. That's stupid. Pie's not in a slump, he's just not good enough yet. There's a difference, in his case. And I couldn't care less how 'tired' you get of an argument. Well, I'm glad your expert evaluation has able to determine how good Pie is at this stage in his career. It's invaluable to be able to discern the difference between a guy that's not ready and a guy that's going through the adjustment that nearly every guy does when he first hits the majors. With that type of talent, you should consider joining a ML team. As for the statement - why come out and say a player is going to be an everyday CF (or whatever) when you know you're going to yank them if they're not good right away. Has Lou never managed a rookie? Does he really think every good player to ever play was great from day 1 and never looked back? Not to mention that the general practice of moving guys in/out of the lineup trying to chase the hot streak is a stupid way to manage. It doesn't take rocket science to see he needs more development. Why do you care how Lou chooses to move along that development? You are basically calling him an idiot because he's not developing Pie the way you want him to. Just because he doesn't play him every day, right here & right now, doesn't mean squat as to whether or not he'll be a failure. Maybe he just needs more off the field instruction, which is what is happening. Who are you to say that's the death knell for the kid? As for his statement, as I said it was true at the time. I'm not sure why you keep trying to suggest it was a lie or hypocrisy just because he didn't enslave himself to it for the entire season. No, I'm not blasting Lou for not doing it my way. I'm blasting Lou b/c he's playing Pie like he plays everyone he doesn't consider a stud (Soriano, ARam, Lee) - chase the hot streak. Pie struggled over those first 2 weeks and he quickly hit the bench regularly. Replaced by Pagan and Jones. "Enslave himself to it for the entire season?" Talk about disingenuous. Pie was the everyday CF for about 3 weeks. When you bring your #1 prospect up and tell the media he's going to be your everyday CF, and 3 weeks later sharing time w/ 2 other guys - your statement is BS. I don't see why. Why does it necessarily mean he can't pull him and work with him for awhile? I just don't see the BS here.....at all. Pie's still at the prospect level, he's not an established vet.

Didn't take me long to learn that most of what Lou says is complete BS. How so? He was the everyday centerfielder. Then he started to suck terribly. You'd rather Lou play Dusty and keep underperformers in the lineup everyday just because he made some statement weeks ago? Everything is contingent on performance, period. You suck, you sit. Lou's been more consistent on this than just about any manager I've ever seen on the North Side. Eyre, Jones, Pie, Izzy.....all have grabbed bench and hard because they weren't cutting it. I'm so tired of this argument. Lou's been around long enough that he should know that all players, regardless of quality, go through bad stretches. You can't bench every player if he hits a slump. That's stupid. Pie's not in a slump, he's just not good enough yet. There's a difference, in his case. And I couldn't care less how 'tired' you get of an argument. Well, I'm glad your expert evaluation has able to determine how good Pie is at this stage in his career. It's invaluable to be able to discern the difference between a guy that's not ready and a guy that's going through the adjustment that nearly every guy does when he first hits the majors. With that type of talent, you should consider joining a ML team. As for the statement - why come out and say a player is going to be an everyday CF (or whatever) when you know you're going to yank them if they're not good right away. Has Lou never managed a rookie? Does he really think every good player to ever play was great from day 1 and never looked back? Not to mention that the general practice of moving guys in/out of the lineup trying to chase the hot streak is a stupid way to manage. It doesn't take rocket science to see he needs more development. Why do you care how Lou chooses to move along that development? You are basically calling him an idiot because he's not developing Pie the way you want him to. Just because he doesn't play him every day, right here & right now, doesn't mean squat as to whether or not he'll be a failure. Maybe he just needs more off the field instruction, which is what is happening. Who are you to say that's the death knell for the kid? As for his statement, as I said it was true at the time. I'm not sure why you keep trying to suggest it was a lie or hypocrisy just because he didn't enslave himself to it for the entire season.

Must be more serious than they originally reported. This does suck.

Didn't take me long to learn that most of what Lou says is complete BS. How so? He was the everyday centerfielder. Then he started to suck terribly. You'd rather Lou play Dusty and keep underperformers in the lineup everyday just because he made some statement weeks ago? Everything is contingent on performance, period. You suck, you sit. Lou's been more consistent on this than just about any manager I've ever seen on the North Side. Eyre, Jones, Pie, Izzy.....all have grabbed bench and hard because they weren't cutting it. I'm so tired of this argument. Lou's been around long enough that he should know that all players, regardless of quality, go through bad stretches. You can't bench every player if he hits a slump. That's stupid. Pie's not in a slump, he's just not good enough yet. There's a difference, in his case. And I couldn't care less how 'tired' you get of an argument.

That's hogwash. The fact that it all took place at his friggin HOUSE and neighbors have testified they saw him there doesn't count as evidence now? Talk about special treatment.

I'd be shocked. How many times have we been down that road with those guys? They aren't getting all our good players for him, so unless they are willing to get realistic....

Strange, because the TBS game was rain delayed so I'm confused whether there was a clause in the rights agreement that took that into account and whether ESPN really knew what they could & couldn't do in that situation? The article doesn't mention if there was an agreed-on length for the embargo. Seems a little heavy-handed, since ESPN did wait until TBS broadcast the results first, correct? Maybe I'm just stupid, but it's confusing to me anyhow.

Didn't take me long to learn that most of what Lou says is complete BS. How so? He was the everyday centerfielder. Then he started to suck terribly. You'd rather Lou play Dusty and keep underperformers in the lineup everyday just because he made some statement weeks ago? Everything is contingent on performance, period. You suck, you sit. Lou's been more consistent on this than just about any manager I've ever seen on the North Side. Eyre, Jones, Pie, Izzy.....all have grabbed bench and hard because they weren't cutting it.

Steroids aren't stimulants. And stimulants aren't steroids. yeah - it's greenies, not roids. http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2927670 Damn. Read between the lines on this quote: Haha. Tigers can't get rid of Neifi soon enough.

OPS+ of 29, on roids. AAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. *hiccup* HAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHhhh.

I can't say you're wrong, I just don't remember it. I still have perspective on Hill, he could still improve and be effective. But these last few starts -- wow. I'm trying to figure how it's the same pitcher I watched completely dominate the Brewers at the beginning of the year.

Yogi, is that you? :D Channeling Yogi on a Friday morning 8-)

I can't decide if I dislike the Cards more for being the Cards, or SF more because they sold their soul to ye olde grande cheater for $15 million to have him commit a travesty against baseball in their park.

Ding, you win I think it's in a little better shape than you are making it out to be. No...it's not. It's pathetic. Agreed. Seems terrible to me, position-player wise. All we have to show for ourselves at the moment are a couple of admittedly eager college prospects with pretty low ceilings and another "toolsy" CF who is, not suprisingly, floudering at the plate. Others we have recently tried out, such as Cedeno & Murton, seem to be close to tanking. And it's been this way for 20 years. I don't see how it could be classified as anything else other than bad. I look across the Illinois/Wisconsin border, and I see a farm system up there that makes us look like idiots. While I won't argue the Cubs have been better at developing players than the Brewers have (because I don't believe they have) looking at position players only obscures your point. In pitchers, the Cubs have a key advantage. Z, Hill and Marshall in the rotation plus Wuertz, Marmol, Ohman, and Gallagher/Petrick in the bullpen compared to Sheets and Gallardo for Milwaukee. That still doesn't make up for the Brewers advantage in position prospects, but it makes up ground (and a large part of the remaining difference has been problems with injuries for the Cubs-Patterson, Wood, Prior, and Guzman having major injuries really hurt the farm system record of success) I'd sacrifice a few of our arms for positional talent, becuase arms tend to have a much shorter shelf life even if they prove out at the majors, due to increased possibility for injury. A little balance would be nice rather than simply developing pitchers and being absolutely horrid at everything else. Also, you're painting a pretty rosy picture here. CPatt didn't pan out because of injury? You can't be serious. He didn't pan out because he's clueless at the plate and has one of the worst swings I've ever seen (developed by the Cubs). He would have failed regardless of his injury in '03 because his plate talents are far too low to succeed for more than a short stretch. Also let's not just talk about right now. Let's talk about the last 20 years or more. Since Grace, not 1 bona-fide talented hitter developed by the Cubs. Even Grace is arguable -- he probably benefitted from being a maverick and knowing when to ignore bad coaching than anything else. If we don't stop at Grace, then we're looking at a black-hole abyss of minor league development that probably goes all the way back to Santo.

It's a tired refrain at this point. He's not back until he's back, and even then is he really back?

Thats why I've been so conflicted about them beating the D-backs lately.... I'd sure love to see them 7-10 games back and selling at the trade deadline. One good thing is...their bullpen is overworked (3rd most relief innings this year in the NL) Factoring that, with the consideration that 1/2 of their starting staff is converted relievers and you have to expect that they'll have a lot of tired arms in the 2nd half (and they've also played a much easier schedule than us so far(far fewer games against teams with winning records)...so by the numbers, they should have a tougher 2nd half....I just keep remembering that they are the cards...and I won't feel good till they are dead. It would be just like the Cards to continue playing better for the rest of the season in spite of the obvious problems they have. St. Louis, the city of magic pixie dust.

It isn't really that strange. There are lots of streaks in baseball, many of hich are entirely meaningless. See Neifi's streaks with the Cubs vs. his overall numbers. Fred had a great list on this earlier. By all means keep Pie around if we want to, but as for the likely cause of our winning streak? I'd sooner put my money on finding the right formula in the BP, the emergence of Soriano's hot bat in June, and much improved defense and baserunning than some sort of magical Pie action from the bench.

This is fun to watch right now. I'm not going to open myself up for disappointment yet though. I agree the Cards look like they will get stronger with the return of a couple players. They've not been all that bad lately even without them. I was listening to the radio on the 4th and a couple of fill in yahoos were dismissing the Cubs wild card chances. I was screaming at the radio. How stupid. All the teams in front of us will be beating up on each other in the 2nd half, while we enjoy a much easier schedule. Of course it's possible we can win the wild card.

Young = Wells & Peavy's lap dog. And a liar. He'll always be spit to me, I don't care how well he pitches.

yeah, insane. ward picked up the slack nicely

and the Crew just blew their ace today in the loss. Go getum Nats!!

CUBS WIN!

Come on Bob, 1 strike away this is the guy.

Come on Bob, enough of this crap tonight.

There's definitely a running joke with Teddy Roosevelt in DC. Commercials even make fun of him.