sunnydoo

Here are your choices, also note that 6 of these guys are starters. Your GM is looking for a Closer, but so are half a dozen other teams and its April, so no one wants to really deal big pieces yet. Do you pick Myers and hope for Dempster/Eckersley or do you go with the 6 finger wonderkin and run or demote a starter to long relief. If you do which starter sits? 57 Alfonseca, Antonio 52 Castro, Fabio 55 Condrey, Clay 23 Eaton, Adam 34 García, Freddy 56 Geary, Geoff 35 Hamels, Cole 44 Hernández, Yoel 21 Lieber, Jon 50 Moyer, Jamie 39 Myers, Brett 54 Rosario, Francisco

fixed.

been busy, but in case you missed it, ESPN confirmed that Manuel knew all along about what was going on with Gordon. When he moved Myers to the pen, he was in effect getting ready to tab him as closer because he felt that he was the best option on the team to close. here is that article, also details some other funny biz going on. http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/columns/story?columnist=crasnick_jerry&id=2864344

My Cesarometer must be broken b/c it now reads: .247

Another favorite crucifixion victim of this board got promoted yesterday: Washington Nationals granted hitting coach Mitchell Page a leave of absence; named Lenny Harris interim hitting coach. Nice to see Lenny doing well after the rough stretch he had. Hopefully he has a career akin to Manny Mota.

In the Julio Lugo category, Rick Dempsey looked to have dirtbag of the week sewed up tight. However, Alberto Callapso of the Dbacks got popped last nite for domestic abuse, criminal damage, and assault. Following the earlier Julio Mateo and Dempsey incident this year and Lugo's several years back among others, when is baseball going to wise up and realize they have a problem in this area? Is it going to take someone getting seriously hurt or killed for a Goodell type intervention to take place? Seriously- sending them to the minor leagues really doesnt address the problem (in wonderful logic Mateo was actually suspended 10 games for missing the game, not the actual incident). Baseball needs to realize they have a problem and get these guys some serious type counseling and suspend them indefinitely until it happens. And whatever happened to our society? Why is it OK for men to hit women now? I know, i know- rap music glorifies it and dehumanizes women. just totally ridiculous and uncool imo.

Where is the outrage people? If Dusty would have said something like this last season, you guys would have burned him in effigy outside the stadium. You can find that quote with the daily Carrie "literary scribe" at cubs.com.

Sanchez, on the Sauce > CPatt > Sanchez, off the Sauce :wink:

A- Corey isnt worth that much. His lifetime OBP is lower than Neifi Perez's now. The guy is just a bum. B- We thankfully dont need more OFs. C- I would become a Cardinal fan. (ok, i wouldnt...but i would be very very angry.) On a happy note, Jon Leicester was one of the guys brought up to replace some of the Orioles DL cats. Nice to see him reappear after some serious type surgery. Hopefully he will do well.

Guzman can probably go, if Rothschild didnt have him throw before the game. he is in the 2 day slot.

Pythag says we should be 18-11, hopefully this is an anomaly that will be worked out. What i am concerned about is the #16 RPI we have and 9th in the NL at .499. Colorado is ahead of us, probably because of Strength of Schedule (theirs is a murderous .530), but going 15-14 v. a .492 aint good. 29 games played, so we are on the cusp of a statistical sample size. LA is actually #1 at the moment, which kind of shocked me b/c i thought Milky was it for sure. Milky is #2, followed by Atlanta, Cleveland, and the RedSux.

What was the song that was playing during the celebration? Sounded like Fleetwood Mac.... We need a new theme song anyways.

9th: Floyd (PH for Izturis) walked, Marquis PR. Ward (PH for Howry) singled. Soriano k. Theriot singled- RBI. Lee IBB. ARam FC. JJ 3 unassisted. 10th: Ward to LF, Soriano to 2b, JJ to CF, Theriot to SS. Murton doubled. Barrett out on 1hop to 3b...the right side of the infield is the other direction. Blanco (PH for Dempster) singled to right, Murton to 3b. Ward singled to LF- RBI. Cubs Win.

Great win by the Cubbies today with a lot of people involved. Kind of thing that can get a freight train rolling. 2 reasons for the bizarreness: 1- Lou starting DeRosa in RF. 2- 12 man staff with the all-heralded Loogy. Need to go back to the 11 as i am getting old and cant take many more of these wins w/o serious heart complications. wow did everyone contribute though.

well, its not the greatest, but it passes the time to use JJ later on for trade bait if we need to by creating another space in the OF. Lou has to do something to get ARam some protection. I really think Floyd is the only alternative for that. Barrett has been horrific and now has a sub 7 OPS, which clearly isnt getting it done. Theriot has been great and i would love for him to have a spot in the starting lineup, but i am not sold on him for a regular everyday SS. He lacks arm and range. Could move him to 2b until DeRosa gets it figured out, but doesnt help the OF situation at all. Really if Izturis isnt the option at SS right now, the logical alternative on the team is Cedeno, ie if we dont go target a SS outside the system. Would like to see him get another chance at the everyday job. I think he just had a bad year last season with the glove. Murton could start, especially against lefties, a couple of times a week by subbing for the OFs. DeRosa could spell ARam and Soriano when needed. Problem is only 1 lefty bat off the bench with this scenario. But like i said, just a stop gap until we find out if it is a SS, SP, or C that we need to go out and get to make the team better.

I think we should stay with the 11 man staff and get rid of Ohman. Move Soriano to 2b and go with something like this. Pie Soriano Lee ARam Floyd Barrett JJ Izturis Pitcher Bench- Ward, DeRosa, Murton, Cedeno, Blanco, Theriot

With the SP doing as badly as it is in Iowa, cant be long now until Holliman gets called up. Would like to see the kid pitch for myself, but havent had the opportunity. I wonder if he has anything and where he is topping out speed wise with his 3 pitches.

Have you met our bullpen? Cotts was fine up until he started picking (which ticks Lou off). Wuertz was fine up until he gave up the rocket double (which ticks Lou off). Ohman is just terrible and had no business coming into the game. Howry came in and saved the day. I was proud of Lou and the way he handled that. Although i would have like to see Wuertz close out the deal, i completely understand Lou's decision process. As for Theriot not starting, i can see it. He just doesnt have the range or arm to be an everyday SS in the major leagues. In other news, Barretts OPS has now dropped sub 7. We need to find someone that can protect ARam.

Never been a fan of Manual, but it appears he knew what he was doing when he moved Myers to the pen. Flash has rotator cuff problems and Myers has been moved to the closer role. Think this may be the last rodeo for Flash, b/c at 39 if he has serious RC problems, he might be done. http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2860328

Any word on whether he can speak English still? J/k

Does anyone have a capable bullpen in the NL Central? Astros and Reds both vote no after tonight. Suppose Milky is pretty good. Cards too, but there offense is god awful this season.

Aflac trivia question of the night for FSO: Name the 4 players in MLB history from Texas with a .510+ slugging %. Adam Dunn Lance Berkman Frank Robinson Rogers Hornsby Ernie Banks was just shy at .500.

Crash Davis: I told him that a player on a streak has to respect the streak. Annie Savoy: Oh fine. Crash Davis: You know why? Because they don't - -they don't happen very often. Annie Savoy: Right. Crash Davis: If you believe you're playing well because you're getting laid, or because you're not getting laid, or because you wear women's underwear, then you ARE! And you should know that! No way. You are insane. You never mess with a streak, and make no mistake, DLee is on a tear right now. 2nd reason is that Barrett could not protect him. Part of the reason he is doing so well is that you have to pitch to either DLee or ARam. If you move DLee back, then he will get the crappy pitching. Lee is a far superior hitter to ARam, so you want him swinging at the good stuff. If i was going to tinker with the lineup to make it more effective, I would do this: Pie Soriano DLee ARam JJ or Floyd, depending if JJ or MM get traded DeRosa Barrett Theriot Pitcher Switching Theriot and Pie depending on opposing pitcher.

There are a bunch of reasons for it, and a bunch of people to blame: China- is single handedly driving up crude oil costs with a huge jump in demand over the last decade. Terrorism- crude oil costs are higher because of more security needed and with the threat of interuption. Nigeria- along the lines of terrorism, Nigeria is just a disaster right now. One of the largest oil producing states in Africa, capacity has been greatly reduced by terrorism and infrastructure collapse. Boy Blunder hasnt realized yet that the War on Terrorism isnt confined to the Middle East and that we are losing on the most important front right now, Africa. Islamic fundamentalists are pressuring just about every single country in Central and Northern Africa at the moment. Venezuela- Hugo Chavez is seriously starting to freak out some people you dont want to freak out. But on the flip side, the oil produced in Venezuela is usually a different type found than the other places in the world. It is a higher grade and is usually used for other petroleum purposes. Republicans- Will not help out with legislation on gas companies or auto manufacturers. Democrats- Will not help out on getting more refineries built in the US. (Now some folks who scream about the Wildlife Refuge dont realize that the type of oil produced in Alaska is largely incompatible with the refinery system we have in the US set up for gasoline. Its very different than say the stuff we get out of the Gulf Coast on average. I am always amazed at the "oil guy", who is always screaming about this. He should know better than anyone. Just more of his same schtik of taking advantage of anyone that is silly enough to believe him. Did we really elect this boob?) All that said, my money is on the oil companies themselves. Although it upsets me about them not building refineries (keeping the supply artificially lower than the market, hence raising the price) and purposely lying to ignorant folk that know nothing about balance sheet pricing (they build the profits by hiding the costs in processing, ie they get the oil and then process it themselves building in a nice profit hiding it in affiliates.), what upsets me is that we subsidize these bozos for development and they are quick to respond when crude oil goes up, but somewhat slower when it goes down- taking an extra % for themselves, no doubt. That and the oil companies went to the wall with FASB a few years ago and really really made out like bandits. That mess helped cause all the mess that happened around 2k with the funny accounting going on. Hopefully SOX will straighten that out, although i am sure the oil companies have already figured out the new system and how to beat it.

Will never happen. New revenue plan is working. Everyone is making some money, or has the option too. Baseball is really, really cashing in at the moment. Player Union would never allow it either under current agreement. They would lose too many jobs.