Transmogrified Tiger

Normally the gamecenter at cbs sportsline, or the gameday at cubs.com is where people get it I think. Neither had the lineups at last check.

Ponson has been dreadful for them this year.

no, ponson is owed more than nevin. By my count, Ponson makes 8.5 mil this year, and 9 mil next year. Nevin makes 9 mil this year, 10 mil next year, and is due 2 million of a signing bonus in early '07.

I'm not sure if Nevin is a 5/10 guy, since he played some partial seasons at the beginning of his career. His contract does give him a 8 team No Trade Clause for this year, but I don't know what the teams are.

I'm not seeing where Griffey can be bought out after '06.

I really dont like the idea of getting Kearns. I mean, He had a Great 2003. If we could get 2003 Keans, I'd do it in a heartbeat. But, he has underacheived ever since. He, to me, is a HUGE risk. Especially when someone better (DUNN) could be had. I'd rather just have Murton play every day, rather then kearns, personally. But, I guess if it comes down to it, I wouldnt mind him. Boy, you could have said almost EXACTLY the same thing about Aramis Ramirez circa 2003. Perhaps you can help me with a question. How is BABIP a fair statistic. Aren't hitters who square up the ball and hit rockets more likely to have a high BABIP than, say, Rey Ordonez? There's a way to measure what a player's BABIP should be, or expected BABIP. A crude way to do that is to take the player's Line Drive percentage and add a constant, .110. I don't have the Line Drive numbers for Kearns' good season, but last year he only had a 12.3 LD%, with a .299 BABIP. That means that for as disappointing as Kearns was last year, he was actually quite lucky. In order for Kearns not to be in the least lucky his good season, he would need more than a quarter of the balls he puts in play to be line drives, which is a very very high percentage. Could Kearns put up numbers closer to that? Possibly, but in all likelihood he won't. Add in the fact that his production has decreased while he hasn't lost any power or patience, it leads me to believe he is regressing back to his true level.

I was hoping to see Bruce lurking since maybe he would have caught something of it and told us, but I haven't seen anything yet. From the replay on my dvr, it looked as if Aram was ticked about where Hollandsworth threw the ball on Mabry's 3B. It seemed as if Aramis was gesturing to Todd that he should have thrown to the cutoff man or in any case a different direction. Holla tried to walk away and Aramis grabbed his arm (lightly, to be sure) and started back in on him. After that Perez whipped a bat and WGN cut to commercial. Maybe the heat got to them; maybe the emotions of blowing a game that was completely winnable did. But either way, it's something to watch for. Interesting. While I can understand Aramis' reaction to Todd, someone should remind Aramis that maybe a little more hustling wouldn't hurt either. The fact that Todd Hollandsworth is even playing on a regular basis is a joke. He may be one of the worst everyday LF in baseball. Although he doesn't have enough AB's to qualify, only Randy Winn and Scott Podsednik have a lower OPS among qualified LFers.

Was there much of a chance of that if we won?

High School science

I was hoping to see Bruce lurking since maybe he would have caught something of it and told us, but I haven't seen anything yet. From the replay on my dvr, it looked as if Aram was ticked about where Hollandsworth threw the ball on Mabry's 3B. It seemed as if Aramis was gesturing to Todd that he should have thrown to the cutoff man or in any case a different direction. Holla tried to walk away and Aramis grabbed his arm (lightly, to be sure) and started back in on him. After that Perez whipped a bat and WGN cut to commercial. Maybe the heat got to them; maybe the emotions of blowing a game that was completely winnable did. But either way, it's something to watch for. I didn't see where Perez was on the throw, it trickled in to Walker as Mabry got to 3rd. I hope that the C word is avoided in relation to this loss on the whole.

Did we ever find out why Aramis was upset with Hollandsworth? Was it for the triple?

Not bringing in your best reliever in an extra innings road game is inexcusable.

No, stay as far away from Pujols as possible.

Who else is available though? The pen is taxed. In an extra inning road game, you have to work from your best pitchers backwards. Rusch was okay against 3 of 4 LHers, but this is unacceptable. And now we're screwed.

Mitre coming into this game is a horrible, horrible idea.

What a fantastic game. Let Z hit, then replace him.

What a fantastic game. Let Z hit, then replace him.

HAHA, Z is pumped.

Bunt Neifi

He's due up 4th, that has a lot to do with it.

Are you kidding me blue? With Carpenter hitting too?

Yeah Mahoney, you're going to beat out a bunt. Neifi could field the bunt and outrun you to first.

Name one better in the NL. Lopez

Hmmm, if they get a run before Carp's spot, do they PH for him?

Ramirez goes deep here.