Soul

The movement on Sean's pitches looks better to me than it did in the first couple innings.

Has Zell actually watched his TV station so he can see how horrible it is? It's like a high school senior project or something. Seriously.

Hahahah. He hit the homer exactly as I pressed the submit button on my last post. Classic

See? We had Sanchez looking like crap early but couldn't cash in. Now he's pulling it together. THE CUBS WON'T LISTEN TO ME AND GET RUNS WHEN I SAY :hello:

Good job blanco. suck it ramirez, have a seat.

We really need to cash in on this.

Ward thought it was ball 4 :lol:

Ugh, Marshall not looking nearly as sharp as I can had hoped. Soriano with the double.

That's true. But you can rest Lee -- not because you have a better option, but because you are hoping to get a net performance gain from Lee due to the extra time off.

I don't think I'd call it "docking" his play time. Yeah, that's the way to work with your players, LOL. Lee needs more frequent rest than he used to. He's an older ballplayer now. I don't think there's a reason why it can't be understood that he should get a little more time off. One of the best games I've seen him play recently was the one coming off a day's rest.

I just want to give a huge HOOOOOOORAAAAY! because for once, the Cubs' Saturday game should escape Fox and their insane national broadcast blackouts.

He had a terrible April but has been dominant since. He has a 2.51 ERA over his last 20 starts. It was definitely my imgination then. I thought he was good early.

That helps. But Billingsley doesn't look all that great to me. I thought he was better earlier in the year. Maybe it was my imagination.

What an adrenaline-pumping way to exorcise a demon! After breaking the hearts of the Marlins broadcast team -- who incidentally were also the only Marlins fans in attendance -- in the series opener, the Cubs look to make Dolphin stadium their home away from home by taking the series on Saturday. The job belongs to Sean Marshall: http://i198.photobucket.com/albums/aa250/soulschizm/Sean_Marshall.jpg Sean's given this ballclub quality spot-starts many times in his career. His big-curve lefty style should be the perfect counterpoint to Z's power/slider combo from the night before. 3.55/127/1.132 shows he's pretty efficient when he's good. Sean's always out to show the Cubs he should get more starts, so expect a solid performance from the lefty Saturday night. The Marlins bring a young, former phenom to bear on the Cubs offense: http://www.cbc.ca/sports/indepth/gfx/anibal-sanchez_392.jpg Anibal Sanchez was solid when the Marlins brought him to the majors in 2006, posting a no hitter in September of that year. But that was a long time ago. Since then he's struggled, had shoulder surgery and rehab, and is just now returning from the DL to pitch again. His '08 stats aren't worth mentioning for lack of sample size, but he's been reasonable since coming back. We just saw what can happen when Cub hitting goes against Marlins relief pitching: http://chicago.cubs.mlb.com/images/2008/08/15/YAL7sWHw.jpg ....so be patient, make Sanchez's surgically repaired shoulder work, and methodically pick the fish apart. ROLL ON

And those that ARE broadcast in HD but not available to people outside the Chicago area because stupid DirecTV doesn't have WGN-HD. Tough to know who to blame about it. Is DirecTV unwilling to show it? Is WGN difficult to negotiate with? There are a few other channels that DirecTV doesn't have in HD yet (Travel Channel, etc.) but you never hear why. I don't know. They keep it close to the vest. Sometimes DirecTV doesn't even announce a channel and it simply pops up in the guide one day. There are some sites that try to follow what's happening, but I've always found the info to be a little sketchy.

I agree, it's all about putting playoff-caliber teams on the field year in and year out. Sure you can get lucky one year and win it, but the chances are smaller.

Rosenbloom basically sides with the Braves in his blog today :roll: Will Lilly really get suspended when he didn't even get tossed from the game?

When you're already losing 12-3 in the 8th seems pretty safe. He'll kill our run differential!

I'm not counting on the Brewers going away any time soon. They'll be around.

Yeah, if it would have just been me then I would have chalked it up to my lack of gymnastics knowledge. But it's a pretty big step for the commentators to be so openly questioning the judging like that. There was no hesitation whatsoever. The US girls won, so obviously the fix wasn't in or anything like that. I really don't know what was happening, but it was embarrassing to watch. And all the phone conversations, too -- especially while some gymnast is waiting to perform. That seems a little too bush-league for something like the Olympics.

How cool is it that the Cubs are turning their road record around just in time for September? Please continue. By all means -- CONTINUE!

Yeah, Francoer's comments are one of the better examples of selective memory I've seen recently.

In my admittedly layman's view, it wasn't. She even had the same length step on the landing, but her dismount wasn't nearly as complicated as far as I could tell. Yet, higher score.

Yeah, same here. And apparently, the NBC expert judges far differently than the judges who's opinion actually counts. Opinion-based sports suck. It's not as if Olympic judges haven't been caught fixing scores before, too.

Yeah, I think I can fully conclude now that I have no idea what they are judging. Sean's routine looked just fine. over a full point deduction? Where?