Soul

No, but you can throw more than one inning at a time. He was even out to start the inning, but Lou brought in Eyre after the LH PH had been announced. Lefties have a 1273 OPS against Eyre this year (before today), worse than his line against righties. I understand that Hendry made a mistake, that doesn't mean Lou needs to use Eyre at all. Especially when we still have a lead in a 1-0 ball game. That wasn't as bad, but it's still not a good move. And Howry has been nowhere close to alright lately. He's allowed 10 ER in his last 6.1 IP if my counting is right. Control issue is probably an understatement. Last year in 77 innings with the Cubs, he allowed 6.9 BB/9. He was brought in to walk the bases loaded so he absolutely could not make a mistake. Dempster was still available in the bullpen. Actually no, you can't use Dempster on the road because he would need to close. This idea that Lou should just not pitch bullpen guys because they suck. It's simply incorrect. I suppose in August when Wuertz's arm is blown out we'll be clamoring for a trade and, of course, to "fire Lou" because there are no bullpen options left. I certainly wish Wuertz & Guzman had cast iron arms. Unfortunately they don't.

They're funny in that insane-gunman-with-a-machine-gun-blowing-away-hundreds-of-innocent-people kind of way.

#1 - not sure why he did this. Sounds like a bad idea to me #2 - not a 'mistake,' you can't simply lean on Wuertz for tons of innings because he's one of the few talented arms we have. He'll burn out before the all-star break #3 - See #2. You can't do this. If Eyre can't pitch out of the bullpen, he needs to leave. If he can only pitch in blowout games, same deal. Either he is capable, or he needs to be gone. That's not a Lou mistake, it's a Hendry failure. #4 - Howry's been alright lately, and he's being counted on to be one of the major bullpen arms in the pen. This is not a mistake. #5 - Guzman had control issues too. Wuertz has had control issues, Dempster too. Lou could have called on me to pitch, but I don't think the umps would allow it. This bullpen sucks, period. Maybe Lou should do a voodoo dance before he visits the mound, hell I don't know. #6 - This one was silly. I'll give you that. Seems to be 2 mistakes, and the other 4 are just basically the bullpen is junk and Lou can't perform miracles that turn turds into gold.

I refuse to allow myself to believe in this possibility.

So because the bullpen sucks, Lou must walk on eggshells and bring in the exact perfect person or he's an idiot? The perfect person of course being Howry or Ohman, every single time. Never mind that a strategy like that will send those 2 to the DL by July. This makes no sense. Eyre sucks, he's on the team. Either get him off the team, or Lou will have to use him. Period, end of story. Well, he doesn't have to use him. Lou chose to bring him in in the eight today but he didn't have to. Maybe it's Lou's way of letting Hendry know he need to get rid of Eyre. He can't have a guy taking a roster spot, particularly in the pen and not use him. Just can't, it will hurt as much as sending the guy out there over time. If Lous way of letting Hendry know to get rid of Eyre is to put his team in a bad situation, then he should be fired now. They have things like email, text messages, phones, and even these things called cell phones that can be used to convey to Hendry he wants Eyre off the team. Given, I doubt that he is trying to send a message by putting him in in that situation. However, Eyre riding the pine for a week I think was message enough. Ultimately what is he going to do? He has to bring in a lefty. Why? Wuertz is capable of getting lefties out, and was rolling. And even if he "had' to bring in a lefty, why not Ohman? Why bring in somebody who has sucked all year, and continually hurt his team? There is no logical reasoning in bringing Eyre into this game. You can't just bring in these 2 guys all the time and burn their arms out. That's why. It's takes an entire bullpen, not just the only 2 guys you have who aren't crappy. If Eyre's not an option because he sucks, then it's up to Hendry to get an option that doesn't suck. And that's pretty much the end of the story.

So because the bullpen sucks, Lou must walk on eggshells and bring in the exact perfect person or he's an idiot? The perfect person of course being Howry or Ohman, every single time. Never mind that a strategy like that will send those 2 to the DL by July. This makes no sense. Eyre sucks, he's on the team. Either get him off the team, or Lou will have to use him. Period, end of story. Well, he doesn't have to use him. Lou chose to bring him in in the eight today but he didn't have to. Maybe it's Lou's way of letting Hendry know he need to get rid of Eyre. He can't have a guy taking a roster spot, particularly in the pen and not use him. Just can't, it will hurt as much as sending the guy out there over time. If Lous way of letting Hendry know to get rid of Eyre is to put his team in a bad situation, then he should be fired now. They have things like email, text messages, phones, and even these things called cell phones that can be used to convey to Hendry he wants Eyre off the team. Lou? I'll bet he doggedly refuses to use computers and pda's. Doesn't seem like the type. Anyway, he's on our roster. If he can't be used, then he should be gone, period. Mr. Eyre, that is.

Seems like we've had more than one manager who was willing to argue for his team elsewhere, but arrives in Chicago and suddenly becomes a teddy bear.

That'll get laughed out of court. Good luck. I suppose it wasn't his choice to get drunk enough where he could no longer make good decisions? How about the several weeks leading up to his death, when he was clearly off the rails? Not his fault either? I guess nothing's his fault then. While we're at it, I would have preferred to wind up a multi-millionaire just for breathing. Wasn't my choice. Think I'll sue everyone for that one too. Has about as much merit as this stupid case, that's for damn sure. I wish there was a mechanism by which we could dismiss a case like this with prejudice (i.e. can't bring it again) before it even reaches the media, or a judge's eyes.

So because the bullpen sucks, Lou must walk on eggshells and bring in the exact perfect person or he's an idiot? The perfect person of course being Howry or Ohman, every single time. Never mind that a strategy like that will send those 2 to the DL by July. This makes no sense. Eyre sucks, he's on the team. Either get him off the team, or Lou will have to use him. Period, end of story.

What would that be scored? HBP.

Barrett's misplay of the baserunning blunder was huge. The lack of offense was also huge. This was a team loss. No, I don't think Barrett's misplay was all that big actually. Our pitchers couldn't hit the broad side of a barn. They were going to score anyway.

Insane.

Freaking Pierre, of all people, is going to beat us.

:roll: First he's an idiot for even having Marmol warm up. Now he's an idiot for not bringing him in sooner.

Took him about 25 pitches to start losing his good control. Yeah, eat your heart out Roger Clemens.

It's sudden death. Can't have nobody warming up if Gooz gets into trouble.

Never mind on the pfx question. I found some sort of answer: "The 'Pitch-f/x' value is currently defined as the measurement of the distance between the location of the actual pitch thrown over the plate, and the calculated location of a ball thrown by the pitcher in the same way, with no spin" Seems like a sort of bizarre stat to be tracking on Gameday.

It's bound to happen eventually. Why not today? Our offense has already taken the rest of the day off after the offensive explosion in the 8th. Plus, I'm watching and they lose every time I watch. Then you know what you have to do :wink:

Random question: anyone know on Gameday what pFX is for? Haven't seen that particular stat before.

I think we have 1 win in extras. Out of about 4 or 5. . Well, at least Gooz is going to get some work in.

Aren't we 0fer in extra inning games this year? This is not a comforting situation.

It's very good and says the Cubs should be leading the division. It's still quite winnable, and the Cubs could very well win it. Well, since the Stros & Crew haven't been keeping up their end of the bargain, we're still only 5 games back and in 2nd place, coming up on the end of a fairly tough May schedule-wise. I'll keep it in perspective: we're still alright, just need to start stringing a few wins together.

No point to bashing ARam, true. Also very little point lamenting the slow, inevitable switch to more night games.

Let's muddy the waters a bit. The Cardinals weren't for real all last year and still won it all :wink: Looking at the Crew lately, we might be able to be pretty stinky and still have meaningful games in September. Isn't that amazing? Two years in a row this division has been nothing short of brutal. What's in the water in the Midwest? I guess if there's one team that's really not coming through, it would have to be us. I mean, we are the one truly high capacity payroll franchise in the division.

Haha, Fred and his stats... someone mail this to Aramis please! Bruce? ;) Meh, it's probably more due to the fact that he hits better at home, and more of the day games are at home. Honestly, the more night games the Cubs can play, the better by me. I hate being the only club to play during the day on a Tuesday, and missing the game because I have to do silly things like put food on my table. Day baseball during the week sucks. Good for ARam. I hope all the Cubs keep complaining. Let's get out of the damn dark ages for change.