David

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.

I thought Ronny had it....

Is this gun slow? I thought Johnson was working in the low 90s this year, and Harden hasn't broken the 90's that much yet...

Seemed like he missed his spot pretty good on that last pitch. Looked like Geo was set up for the high fastball.

I like it. It's perfect. Pinstripes at home and no ugly grey road jerseys.

Nice. Harden is a blue jerseys on the road guy. Perfect.

The Cubs have outscored their opponents by 111 runs, the widest margin, by far, in MLB. The Cardinals and Brewers have outscored opponents by 33 and 27 runs, nice, but good for 8th and 12th in baseball. The Cubs are pretty clearly the most talented team, by a significant margin. They have the highest Runs scored in the NL and highest OPS, with the 2nd best ERA and best BAA. Neither Brewers nor the Cardinals are capable of matching up in both the pitching and hitting categories. :banghead: Things like run differential (and other far more complicated statistics) can be used to tell you how much better at baseball one team is than another beyond what simple W-L totals can tell you. The desired end result is more wins. But actually evaluating these things beyond that shallow surface is what can tell you what is most likely to happen before it happens. If two teams are .500, say, two months into the season, but one of these teams is outscoring opponents by several runs while the other has a fairly even or negative run differential, which of those teams do you think is likely more talented and therefore more likely to win more games going forward? If what, exactly, is the case? Nothing I said could logically lead anyone to the conclusion that division titles should be handed to the teams with the best run differentials at the all star break. What a dumb post.

The Cubs have outscored their opponents by 111 runs, the widest margin, by far, in MLB. The Cardinals and Brewers have outscored opponents by 33 and 27 runs, nice, but good for 8th and 12th in baseball. The Cubs are pretty clearly the most talented team, by a significant margin. They have the highest Runs scored in the NL and highest OPS, with the 2nd best ERA and best BAA. Neither Brewers nor the Cardinals are capable of matching up in both the pitching and hitting categories. :banghead: Things like run differential (and other far more complicated statistics) can be used to tell you how much better at baseball one team is than another beyond what simple W-L totals can tell you. The desired end result is more wins. But actually evaluating these things beyond that shallow surface is what can tell you what is most likely to happen before it happens. If two teams are .500, say, two months into the season, but one of these teams is outscoring opponents by several runs while the other has a fairly even or negative run differential, which of those teams do you think is likely more talented and therefore more likely to win more games going forward?