David

We should play a drinking game... go search through wrigley23's posts and take a shot for every post of his that doesn't somehow relate to Soriano and leading off. I don't think any of us'll get very drunk.

lol at Hester holding out when he was already in negotiations for a contract. He's only making 445k this year. At 15k a day, a ten day hold out would lose him over 1/3 of his football salary for this year. Ouch.

I jumped so high during that game (I was drunk and it was a lower ceiling) at one point that I hit my head on the ceiling. Same thing almost happened when Hester ran the opening kickoff back two weeks later.

Who are you and what the hell have you done with Soul?

By trading for a bad, old pitcher?

I'm not sure. But I think Kevin Jones is on it too.

Devin Hester is officially holding out and has been placed on the reserve/did not report list (that being the case, they haven't had to cut anyone in light of the Williams signing). Kruetz is on the PUP list to start camp with an achilles injury (ugh). Tillman is excused with family issues. Dusty D. on the NFI list with a calf injury of some kind. Tried to catch all of it but I think I missed some other tidbits.

Seriously, what is the big deal about the coin toss? They did the same thing in minicamp and nobody seemed to care then. It's just a way to decide who practices which day. They're still going to switch off every other day with the 1's and get the same amount of reps. It means nothing, and it's a waste of time to even discuss it.

So we can assume Hester is holding out then? That's the theory.

Per ESPN1000: Hester not in camp as the first practice begins. Tillman and Kruetz not on the practice field.

All that's missing is the pics of them riding around on bikes.

And we have the annual pictures of players arriving and carrying TV's and stuff. Breaking news - They're finally bringing flat panels instead of lugging huge tubes around. http://www.chicagotribune.com/media/photo/2008-07/41169029.jpg http://www.chicagotribune.com/media/photo/2008-07/41169051.jpg http://www.chicagotribune.com/media/photo/2008-07/41169149.jpg http://www.chicagotribune.com/media/photo/2008-07/41165501.jpg http://www.chicagotribune.com/media/photo/2008-07/41165500.jpg http://www.chicagotribune.com/media/photo/2008-07/41165496.jpg http://www.chicagotribune.com/media/photo/2008-07/41165494.jpg http://www.chicagotribune.com/media/photo/2008-07/41165493.jpg http://www.chicagotribune.com/media/photo/2008-07/41165492.jpg http://www.chicagotribune.com/media/photo/2008-07/41165469.jpg http://www.chicagotribune.com/media/photo/2008-07/41165470.jpg http://www.chicagotribune.com/media/photo/2008-07/41165484.jpg http://www.chicagotribune.com/media/photo/2008-07/41163513.jpg Mike Brown :beg: http://www.chicagotribune.com/media/photo/2008-07/41163490.jpg http://www.chicagotribune.com/media/photo/2008-07/41163488.jpg http://www.chicagotribune.com/media/photo/2008-07/41163481.jpg http://www.chicagotribune.com/media/photo/2008-07/41163480.jpg Rookie Bus http://www.chicagotribune.com/media/photo/2008-07/41163529.jpg Kevin Jones http://www.chicagotribune.com/media/photo/2008-07/41163527.jpg Dusty D http://www.chicagotribune.com/media/photo/2008-07/41163524.jpg http://www.chicagotribune.com/media/photo/2008-07/41163523.jpg http://www.chicagotribune.com/media/photo/2008-07/41163515.jpg Craig Stetz http://www.chicagotribune.com/media/photo/2008-07/41163514.jpg Kevin Jones

If you're able to embrace sabermetrics and all the new types of analysis of baseball, you should also be able to accept that flukish things like stretches where teams don't happen to get hits with runners in scoring position are going to happen. You should be able to accept that when a hitter hits a ball hard and makes an out, he has done his job just as well as if the ball falls in. Hitters can't go out there and control where their hard hit balls land. You should also be able to accept that there will be games, sometimes stretches of games, where good teams look bad. It's the nature of baseball. These short term freakouts are ridiculous. What matters is what the team does over the long haul. The big picture. That big picture = they are one of the best teams in baseball.

you're right no way any of this gets back to the players he's sending a message to the players to pick it up and refocus on hitting Yes, lack of focus is what kept those balls from landing on the ground instead of in gloves. That's the ticket!

I'm pretty sure Lee and Ramirez were among the ones who crushed balls today. Lee is OPSing like .950 in July. I'm not worried about him (or Ramirez, really, for that matter).

What's there to do? There were balls flying (hard) all over off the Cubs bats today, they just landed in gloves. This "eruption" for the media means nothing.

He was probably bordering on suicidal during Game 7 of the 98 ECF.

How many teams are as good up and down the lineup as the Cubs?

You should post what you posted early in today's game thread to get people off the ledge.

Hitting the ball hard is the goal. You can't help it if they wind up where fielders are. That said, it would've been nice if one or two of those 10,000 deep flies would've just left the park.

This has just been an unlucky game. Harden pitches a gem, the offense destroys the ball all game but ridiculously has absolutely nothing to show for it.

GameDay has his fastball anywhere between 88 and 93. He's shown he can switch up his velocity very easily. I'm not expecting him to hit 95 every time. I've just seen him in the upper 80's a bunch of times, breaking 90 once or twice. Even when he dialed it up a couple times it only showed it at like 91. Has to be the gun, I guess.

It has Johnson in the mid-80's, correct? Upper 80's, from what I've seen. But Johnson is old and bad.

Seriously nobody else is concerned about Harden's velo compared to his first start? Or is everyone else watching a different broadcast with a better gun?

wtf is with Harden's velocity? This gun has got to be slow.