Soul

No Z. Don't give it back. NO.

3 run jack by young Matty Murton!! OMG that just made my day! :D

I'm gonna try and stay optimistic about Jones.. Maybe they'll give him enough days off against lefties that his numbers will be solid. Hey, Jones has a 1.250 OPS against Harang (in 4 AB's) So what's his story again? 2 years ago, he was hitting great. That's not all that long ago. Injuries?

He looked pretty good today, but some good wood on the ball and made some real nice plays in left. Almost made that great catch, but was just on the wrong foot. Hitting behind sizemore and ahead of peralta and v-mart should help him a lot. Big big year for Michaels. I also thought he looked pretty good. Overall it was a pretty bad night for Cleveland, though. I know it's only one game, but they didn't look real good.

Must.......win.......opener. 8)

Interesting study. However, please note the White Sox are very close to us and they won it all. There is more than one way to the promised land. Give me 5 pitchers who make all their starts and perform at a high level, and I'll trump your OBP rookies any day.

That's like saying a thief must be credited for all those times he decided not to steal. A manager at the major league level is expected to make good moves---even the *right* move, if you will---all the time. We can credit Dusty for his good moves if we want, but the bottom line is, he isn't making enough of them. Not for this level of baseball. This thread started out as a comparison between Dusty and Tony, so I will fall back once again on that comparison. Tony makes a higher percentage of good moves than Dusty does. Boy, Tony makes some inane moves himself though. He's not much better at handling a pitching staff, that's for sure. Plus some of his late inning moves in close games leave questions to be answered. In big games, too. No question he has had his bad days.

The whole team? And I didn't know Pavano's nickname was 8-ball. :-k Pavano must have taken the train to work. I wonder if this means the Yankees will be bringing up the rear. I wonder if Pavano was getting humped from behind...and that's what made his butt hurt...dang...I got nothing. :lol:

Did you see how out of shape he was? :shock: Wow. And I thought our pitchers needed to follow better offseason conditioning programs.

Remember the Ides of Womack....

Any news on what it was? I do not know. But it didn't take long for the Tribe to come back. 3-3. strained ab. there is a thread in rivalries. Thanks stitch. I haven't been to that forum so I didn't know it was there.

Any news on what it was? I do not know. But it didn't take long for the Tribe to come back. 3-3.

I think the 75+ IP he had last year at the major league level with a .219 BAA and 10.6 K/9 matters more than the 8+ IP he has in spring training this year. Spoken like Dusty Baker himself, haha. 8) Just kidding man. Seriously though---I don't view Wuertz as established enough to survive on reputation. To me he's a borderline major leaguer. I'd like to go with the hot hand when it comes to those guys. At the end of the day, I hope Wuertz tears it up and proves me totally wrong.

On 2nd thought, maybe picking Detroit over Cleveland isn't so outrageous. Sabathia just went down with injury. Not sure how serious yet, but it looked like some kind of strain.

Maybe this should be in another thread, but CC Sabathia just left the game in the 3rd inning with injury. Bad, bad news for Cleveland.

I read them all from time to time. However, I must say I have been disappointed with the Sun Times lately, because they have been caught putting headlines on their stories that distort what the articles actually say. I'm sure this happens at other newspapers, too. But as of late, it has come to my attention regarding the Sun Times. I still intend to read the paper.

The whole team? And I didn't know Pavano's nickname was 8-ball. :-k Pavano must have taken the train to work. I wonder if this means the Yankees will be bringing up the rear.

I might be able to keep up with it on Gamecenter, but no Mondays are always hell at work there's no way I can skip out. :cry:

You just gave the definition of homerism. Look, I hope things work out better this year as much as the next Cub fan. But lambasting this guy because he thinks we will struggle without Prior & Wood is silly. Clearly, we will indeed struggle unless we get those two back. As for the rest of his rankings. He's taking a few chances, no question. I'd rather see that though than just another talking head spitting out the lastest conventional wisdom like a puppet. And people would have lambasted him for that, too.

I agree. I have never been impressed by him, and I would swap him out for Aardsma in half a heartbeat. It may just be my perception, but Wuertz seems to either dominate or flat out stink, especially when he pitches in a couple games in a row. When Wuertz gets even a little tired, it's BP. I agree that it makes me nervous that he's not doing well, but I have been impressed with him in the past. He can be pretty sick when he's not misused, so it mostly just makes me sad that he's getting roughed up so badly. I agree with MPrior. Wuertz has a nasty slider when its on. For some reason, its just not on right now. Maybe he's tipping his pitches and the scouts caught on late last season or while looking at tape over the winter. Maybe its something else entirely. As I watched him today, I was reminded of Borowski's collapse a while back. He didn't have the same life on his fastball, and it was downplayed as normal spring training stuff and no big deal. But then later we learned that he was injured. Wuertz's velocity on his fastball was easily 91-93 and the slider was 84-86 all season last year, but he didn't come close to that today. I'm wondering if there isn't something structurally wrong with Wuertz's arm? I wouldn't be surprised if he comes up injured in the coming weeks. Maybe. Lots of guys have a good pitch though. That doesn't mean they should be on a big league roster. Wuertz is getting batted around like a rag doll. That should have earned him a trip to the minors, IMO. Hopefully I'm off-base.

That's like saying a thief must be credited for all those times he decided not to steal. A manager at the major league level is expected to make good moves---even the *right* move, if you will---all the time. We can credit Dusty for his good moves if we want, but the bottom line is, he isn't making enough of them. Not for this level of baseball. This thread started out as a comparison between Dusty and Tony, so I will fall back once again on that comparison. Tony makes a higher percentage of good moves than Dusty does.

I'll second that. Maddux and his sustainable 220 IP+ per season vs Pedro's minor injury-plagued seasons though is a different debate. However, you KNOW Maddux never juiced up. There's just no way. Pedro? Eh? Ya never know. 8) Rocket is probably the best, most long-lasting, pitcher of our generation. Questions remain about the juice. Therefore, Maddux is the best pitcher of our generation who absolutely, positively, no way no how, nada-----did not juice. :D

I know. Let's give up a whole bunch of points in the last 23 seconds of the half. What a wonderful idea! :evil:

I agree. I have never been impressed by him, and I would swap him out for Aardsma in half a heartbeat. It may just be my perception, but Wuertz seems to either dominate or flat out stink, especially when he pitches in a couple games in a row. When Wuertz gets even a little tired, it's BP. I agree that it makes me nervous that he's not doing well, but I have been impressed with him in the past. He can be pretty sick when he's not misused, so it mostly just makes me sad that he's getting roughed up so badly. It seems as though Wuertz was very good for awhile when he first joined the major league club. And since it has been more or less a slow burn downwards. Now he's just getting slaughtered. I think he needs time away to regroup. Is he out of options or something? Because I can see teams really beating the snot out of him this year.

Without Prior and Wood all year though? I could definitely see ranking us #22 in that case. Not sure we would lose 100 games, but we would definitely have a very shaky season barring some kind of miracle. We need those two, and it doesn't shock me in the least to see dire predictions in the wake of both being on the DL.