XZero771679666304

Gameday really needs some Rich Harden video.

I'm pretty sure it was gone last inning.

yeah at least a couple of cub fans in this thread haven't learned the lesson about cautious optimism. last time i checked we don't have the greatest track record, so people probably shouldn't be crowing like we have the division locked up. milwaukee is a very good team, and their chances of advancing in the playoffs probably aren't much worse than ours. Whenever someone sees my Cubs gear and asks me if this is the year, I say "Maybe, but like most Cubs fans I'm hoping for the best, but just waiting for the wheels to fall off. That's what we do." If the Cubs are 10 games up with 10 to go, I'm still not feeling safe. To be honest though, I can take flack from Cards fans better than Crew fans. My initial reaction to Milwaukee fans giving me crap about the Cubs is a "who the hell are you to say anything?" sort of deal. I mean the team is irrelevant for 25 years, and they get a bit of talent and all of a sudden a lot of their fans think they're the '27 Yankees. I just think it's been so long since they were any good that much of the fan base has gotten a bit carried away. Believing the hype, so to speak. But I am not about to dismiss their chances. While a lot of people have been crowing about St. Louis, my concern has been with Milwaukee the entire year. They've got a great squad, and are fully capable of catching the Cubs should they falter much at all. But at the same time, they have their issues. I think most would agree that the Cubs have a more complete team. The next 3 months should be interesting.

Yeah it was pretty cool. Hart laughed about it. You would wish his daughter (who is a cutie pie unlike her dad) was not part of it but no harm done. If my daughter was doused with beer, I wouldn't be happy.

Paging Jeff Gilooly. Mr. Jeff Gilooly, please report to Wrigley Field. /kidding. Funny, I was going to post something Gilooly-related in response to the same post a couple hours ago, but decided it would be in poor taste. Thanks for speaking my mind!

G2 is absolutely delicious, too. Of course you get the artificial sweeteners with G2 (and diet pop), which may be more detrimental to your long term health than being fat. Water and exercise. But I drink way too much Pepsi.

:shock: :shock: :shock: The Cubs better light Cain up, because it's not going to be a low scoring affair.

It's not like I come over here to talk junk or anything, I just come over here because I enjoy talking baseball. I think they're referring to your little buddies that have been posting in this thread. (To them, not to you) After just splitting a series with the Rockies at home, with Sheets and Sabathia both pitching...that's probably not the best time to get all cocky. Yeah. Most Brewers fans are cool, but there are a few who obviously don't have any perspective. Even the prospect of success goes to their heads. It is completely conceivable that the Crew misses the postseason this year, Sheets and CC leave, and all of this talent never equates to a postseason appearance. Take it from Cubs fans (those who have been fans for more than five minutes), cautious optimism > arrogance. There's nothing quite like the taste of your foot.

Matt Eddy comes to the same conclusion that most of us have on this trade: More than mitigated, I think. For the remainder of 2008, Gaudin =/> Gallagher, IMO. Beyond that it may become an issue.

Also, WTH do the Brewers need Marte for? Shouse and Stetter should be fine. It's Gagne/Mota that are the problem.

Also, I feel a little better knowing that this deal might have been done weeks ago (when Harden was at his best) if Hendry had agreed to include Gallagher then. I was a tad (more) concerned that something physically had gone wrong with him just prior to the trade.

Maybe we should just go ahead and DL him now and wait until then, no? If someone promised me that if the Cubs did, he would be at 100% from there until the end, I seriously consider it. Z/Harden at the top of a playoff rotation would make it very, very tough to beat the Cubs in October.

I think they need to save some of their chips to trade for a front end starter. If they don't add another 1-2 pitcher after this year, they're not going to sniff the playoffs in 2009 (assuming Sheets leaves, which is probable).

Yeah, and I don't agree with him at all when he says the Cubs are taking a bigger risk than the Brewers. For one thing, We'll still have Z and Harden next year. Sheets and Sabathia are both goners (CC for sure, probably Sheets), and they gave up LaPorta, who was the likely replacement for Fielder when Prince leaves (though they still have Gamel, but I like LaPorta more). Gallagher is good, but none of the other players the Cubs gave up have any future on the team, nor were they elite prospects. Put it this way: if the worst were to happen and the Cubs implode down the stretch, we're still in fine shape going into 2009. If the same happens to the Brewers, they will have suffered a net loss (LaPorta and the PTBNL). Though if the Brewers did nothing they likely enter 2009 with Gallardo as their ace, but they still would have had their top ML ready prospect. Even if Harden were to suffer a catastrophic injury tomorrow, the Cubs wouldn't be out that much. I think he's talking about this year only. Harden has a lengthy injury history and the Cubs dealt their quality pitching depth to acquire him. So I think he's just pointing out that CC doesn't have the injury history and the Brewers didn't have to trade any current MLB players to get him. And the Cubs didn't trade anyone (other than Gallagher) who was of any real importance to the team. And as far as Sean goes, I think Gaudin would be as good or better than he would be for the remainder this year (he has been so far, as a starter, and a move to the NL won't hurt any). If you only look at this year, I don't think either team took any real risk here. IMO, the only risk the Cubs took was future risk.

To be honest, if Harden did nothing but sit on the DL until mid-September but could pitch at 100% for the next month and a half, I'd be fine with it.

Yeah, and I don't agree with him at all when he says the Cubs are taking a bigger risk than the Brewers. For one thing, We'll still have Z and Harden next year. Sheets and Sabathia are both goners (CC for sure, probably Sheets), and they gave up LaPorta, who was the likely replacement for Fielder when Prince leaves (though they still have Gamel, but I like LaPorta more). Gallagher is good, but none of the other players the Cubs gave up have any future on the team, nor were they elite prospects. Put it this way: if the worst were to happen and the Cubs implode down the stretch, we're still in fine shape going into 2009. If the same happens to the Brewers, they will have suffered a net loss (LaPorta and the PTBNL). Though if the Brewers did nothing they likely enter 2009 with Gallardo as their ace, but they still would have had their top ML ready prospect. Even if Harden were to suffer a catastrophic injury tomorrow, the Cubs wouldn't be out that much.

Meh. I remember not being too upset about the Cubs loss to the Phillies when we got Nomar. In fact, I was about as happy as I've ever been as a Cubs fan. Of course, the Brewers and fans have known about this since last night, so it's a little different. Watching the Milwaukee broadcast you'd think have thought they had just traded for Jesus Christ. I guess when your team never makes big name moves you get a bit silly when one actually happens.

weeks' EqA was 16 points higher than derosa's last year. of course derosa looks like the far better offensive player when he's having a career year and weeks is having his worst year in the majors. At this point, Weeks is a total enigma. He's just as likely to be abysmal or great from day to day. One day he looks great, and the next he looks like he has no business being on a ML roster. The only thing that you can say with any certainty is that he can take a walk. This has been going on for longer than just this year. And he is consistently inconsistent - there is no one month or half in which he has been better than others. At this point, you have to consider DeRosa the better player, if only because of his relative consistency. DeRo's aggregate numbers from 2006 on are better than Weeks'. If not for Rickie's power surge at the end of last year, it's not even a contest.

they had a writer from toronto on the score today talking about this, he said it was a long shot and would require a good package but isn't completely out of the question I'd kill for Halladay, but I just don't see the Cubs having the ammunition to pull that kind of a deal off. i think he's a 10/5 player now, so halladay would have to want to be a cub in first place for this to happen. Toronto is a nice city, but I don't think you'd have to twist Roy's arm. Either way, it's a pipe dream, IMO.

](*,) dave kingman: 608 BB, 1816 K in 7429 PAs. (8.1% walk rate, 24.4% strikeout rate). career OBP: .302 prince fielder: 190 BB, 327 K in 1759 PAs (10.8% walk rate, 18.5% strikeout rate). career OBP: .366 Yeah, that's not what I was trying to say (Cecil had a decent career OBP). What I was driving at was having a great season relatively early in his career, then having a series of seasons that are never quite as good.

Who cares about last year? We're talking about this year. And Lee has clearly been better, offensively and defensively. ok well if we're evaluating teams like that, then ryan ludwick and aubrey huff are better than mark teixeira and miguel cabrera. I don't think Fielder's 2007 is necessarily indicative of what he will produce on a consistent basis. He's a fairly one dimensional hitter who could end up a lot like his father. I guess we can, but as Xzero pointed out, Fielder is like his Dad, or a Dave Kingman like hitter. He's all or nothing. If you are going player for player, Lee is a far better player then Fielder. I'm not sure Prince = Kingman, but I think there is a decent chance 2007 will end up being Prince's best season.

Who cares about last year? We're talking about this year. And Lee has clearly been better, offensively and defensively. ok well if we're evaluating teams like that, then ryan ludwick and aubrey huff are better than mark teixeira and miguel cabrera. I don't think Fielder's 2007 is necessarily indicative of what he will produce on a consistent basis. He's a fairly one dimensional hitter who could end up a lot like his father.

Lee has better numbers then Fielder pretty much across the board. And that's with Lee having perhaps his worst stretch as a Cub mixed in.

Lee has the edge in OPS and OPS+ this year.

Check both teams offensive numbers and get back to me. The two team have scored a similar number of runs, but Milwaukee has the edge in OPS. Other than that there's really not much to choose from.