soccer10k

That series was lost in Game 6 and only Game 6. Not the Lowell Game 1 home run because you don't walk the leadoff hitter in an extra inning tie game unless he's an MVP player (re: Bonds circa 2001ish or David Ortiz now), which Lowell isn't. By doing so you are just asking to lose the game. Look at the way that inning went: M Lowell homered to center. J Pierre grounded out to second. A Alfonseca relieved M Guthrie. L Castillo reached on infield single to shortstop. L Castillo stole second. I Rodriguez intentionally walked. D Lee walked, L Castillo to third, I Rodriguez to second. M Cabrera lined into double play, shortstop to second, I Rodriguez doubled off second. Ok. So say they walk Lowell. Pierre likely bunts him over to second. Castillo would still reach on a single to the shortstop which puts 1st and 2nd with 1 out. Then you have to pitch to Pudge. How do you know he doesn't come through like he did the whole postseason? You don't. The Cubs didn't lose the series with this game. The Cubs didn't lose the series with Prior throwing 116 pitches in Game 2. Why would that one game have any effect on him in Game 6 especially considering he had 5 DAYS OFF between Games 2 and 6. That's one more day off than he was used to having. Wouldn't you think the 113 pitches per start Prior averaged over the course of the whole season have the bigger effect on his arm? He only threw 3 more pitches than his season average. Now if Prior had averaged 90 pitches per start during the year and threw 120 in Game 2, then you might have an argument. I'm not saying that Dusty was right in leaving him in, and I think he definately should have taken him out considering the circumstances. But to say that Game 2 killed Prior's arm is ludicrous. Beckett shut down the Cubs in Game 5 and they didn't have a chance to win that game. He pitched unbelievably well at home in Florida so the Cubs didn't lose that game, the Marlins won it. Game 6 was what lost the Cubs the series. They had numerous opportunities to make things right. Whether that means Gonzalez fielding that ball cleanly or Baker having a reliever ready it doesn't matter. The Cubs lost the 2003 NLCS in Game 6. The Cubs didn't have a chance in Game 7. Sure Kerry Wood hit the homer that electrified Wrigley and tied the game. Alou homered to give the Cubs the lead. But the Game 7 loss was inevitable. Sure, theoretically the Cubs could have pulled the series out and managed a stunning comeback the day after an unbelievable loss. But that doesn't happen. The bottom line is that the Cubs lost the 2003 NLCS in Game 6 and the Marlins won the NLCS in Game 7.

I believe he is referring to Shawn Estes in that quote. Yep. And by Baseball Prospectus's VORP stat, Shawn Estes really was the worst pitcher in all of baseball in 2003, so Sheehan's statement isn't just hyperbole. Estes sucked, and Baker sent him to the mound time after time. The #7 worst pitcher in 2003 by VORP (out of 676 players who pitched that year): Glendon Rusch. It's good to see Hendry has improved the pitching staff during his tenure. :wink: If I remember correctly Estes threw a shotout that last week of the season on the same day Oswalt was pitching for the Astros and everyone was giving the day to them. For some reason the Stros lost and Cubs won. Not saying Shawn is a good pitcher, I just remember everyone partying when that matchup flipped. Needle, meet haystack.

Sort of an odd thing to hear about from Maddux and sort of an odd thing to see reported by the coaching staff. Maddux does have a sense of humor. He was joking with Pole. That's my type of humor. I would make a joke like that as well. I highly doubt that Maddux was being serious about this.

Marmol definately looks like a solid #2 starter (at least) but Marshall could be as well though. Both need to improve their WHIP. Marshall also seems to be on and off with his performances - he'll be good one time out and bad another time out. Both need more time in the bigs and I will be disappointed if either is sent down to AAA this year.

My goodness.

I'm a fan of the old time way of solving beanings. Pitcher from Team A beans player from Team B. If Team B deems it intentional, pitcher from Team B beans player from Team A. That ends it. No brawl. No suspensions. No return beanings by Team A. A HBP for a HBP.

If I get up early enough I'll watch part of this on MLB.TV but I'm going to see Clerks II at 12:30 (Pacific Time) tomorrow.

Is Mark Prior ever going to be half the pitcher he was in 2003?

^^^^^^^^^^^ Watch the language. This should be edited soon.

Decent pick up for the Giants.

Any deal involving ARod is going to be a blockbuster but just seeing "Phils for Abreu, Burrell" made me say wow.

That trade would make a lot of sense for the Cubs but do you really think the Yankees would make that trade just because Yankee fans currently aren't enamored with ARod? Arod is still one of the best players in baseball. Why would they want garbage like Rusch and Williams? Walker is a defensive liability and the Yankees already have Giambi at DH. Why would they want an underachieving no-hustle guy like Aram? He would get booed must worse than Arod does in New York, at least ARod hustles. Any deal with the Yankees for ARod will likely involve Jacque Jones because the Yankees need an outfielder. You might be right. They'd want Howry, Zambrano, Pie and Jones. No thanks. Replace Zambrano with ARam and you've likely got a package the Yankees might consider. I still don't think they will trade ARod though. I don't care how bad his defense is. A guy putting up those kind of numbers can't be traded.

Hilarious.

That is absolutely ludicrous. So if Zambrano said he was going to drill Edmonds, went through with it, and injured Edmonds, would you be in favor of MLB suspending DLee for the rest of the year? And, just to make it more realistic, assume the Cubs are actually in contention because this year it wouldn't matter if Lee was suspended.

I'd trust Cubs.com over ESPN. Cubs.com listed Prior as the today's starter a couple days ago.

I have an idea. Let's pick up Izturis, J.J. Hardy and Willy Taveras. Then we can start them all along with Juan Pierre and try to set a record for least runs scored in a season. BRILLIANT!! We don't need any of those guys. They will not help the team.

That trade would make a lot of sense for the Cubs but do you really think the Yankees would make that trade just because Yankee fans currently aren't enamored with ARod? Arod is still one of the best players in baseball. Why would they want garbage like Rusch and Williams? Walker is a defensive liability and the Yankees already have Giambi at DH. Why would they want an underachieving no-hustle guy like Aram? He would get booed must worse than Arod does in New York, at least ARod hustles. Any deal with the Yankees for ARod will likely involve Jacque Jones because the Yankees need an outfielder.

Absolutely AC/DC. Great band. Random story but AC/DC wrote recorded some of Back in Black in the Bahamas. They had the music of 'Hells Bells' already but couldn't come up with the lyrics. There was a hurricane coming towards the Bahamas and that inspired the band.

Carlos Zambrano wants them to walk. He walks people when he chooses to and there is no such thing as a batter working a walk when Z is on the mound.

Agreed. As I stated above, I think many people's opinion of Koufax would be drastically different if he had pitched a few more years (even until 34 or 35). Koufax won the Cy Young award in three of his last four years and won pitching's Triple Crown each of those three years. How many other pitchers have won pitching's Triple Crown three times in their career? Zero. Roger Clemens only won 3 of his 7 Cy Youngs before the age of 30. Koufax's short career has a huge affect on his status as one of the best pitchers of all time. Note: I'm not trying to say that one should try to estimate what Koufax would have done in his career had he played longer. I'm just saying that IMO, Koufax's career would be considered MUCH more impressive had he played a few more years. Obviously one cannot judge a player's place among the all time greats based on what he could have done had something happened differently.

I accept that people feel this way, but I'd like to see someone provide better empirical evidence that Sammy is better than people like Billy Williams or Santo. Just to clarify my post a little better, I would replace Jenkins with Sosa and would consider replacing either Williams or Santo with Anson. I would not exclude Santo (keeping the other four listed) and replace him with Sosa. I didn't mean to start the debate about who was better between Sosa and Santo but it appears that I inadvertantly did.

Clemens has only given up 9 ER in 6 starts and has a 2.43 ERA so it's not like he pitches way better against the Cubs than against other teams.

He gets in a shot at the Cubs and a couple shots at Dempster in this caption.

I felt this quote was very interesting. Immediately following the incident, I don't recall Ozzie saying anything about Barrett being in the wrong. Most of Ozzie's comments were in regards to Rich Hill. Please, correct me if I'm wrong though.

I found it on ESPN.com Yep, ESPN forced you to start the thread here.