soccer10k

Blue Moon is quite tasty.

Last year, they were flat out MISERABLE against the NL East. As far as this series goes, I'm going with unadulterated enthusiasm. Go COBS. We just gotta take it one game at a time, and not look at the big picture. C'mon Cubs just keep winning series until Lee and Prior come back.... I think we still have a shot why not! The central is going to be a dog fight the whole year no one is going to run away and hide. I just hope there isn't a let down for this series. I really don't think the Cards will collapse without Pujols, they can easily move Edmonds to first and put Taguchi or whoever in center. They still have a formiddable pitching staff, something the Cubs didn't have(and still don't), to weather the storm of Pujols being out. And would you like to explain to me how they will replace Pujols's production offensively? They may not replace him offensively, but they have the pitching to holdup and not have a major collapse like the Cubs have while Lee has been out. Which is the basis for which people think the Cards will fall back to the pack. Even without Pujols they most likely will play at or a little above .500 ball. At least that is my opinion. Guys like Rolen, Edmonds can pick up some of the slack. How do you know that Rolen and Edmonds pick up the slack and won't slip? It hurts a team's offense when they lose their best offensive weapons. The past few years when the Giants play without Barry Bonds, they are at best a .500 team, but with him they are a playoff contender. Just look at last year when Bonds led them to a winning streak when he came back at the end of the year. I don't have the splits but I've listened to numerous Giants games the past few years where the announcers have said the Giants's record is horrible without him. So don't underestimate the effect one player can have on a team.

I don't think we would get much for Maddux in a trade. The combination of an aging pitcher that will be a free agent next year and is throwing batting practice right now isn't really enticing to many teams.

Last year, they were flat out MISERABLE against the NL East. As far as this series goes, I'm going with unadulterated enthusiasm. Go COBS. We just gotta take it one game at a time, and not look at the big picture. C'mon Cubs just keep winning series until Lee and Prior come back.... I think we still have a shot why not! The central is going to be a dog fight the whole year no one is going to run away and hide. I just hope there isn't a let down for this series. I really don't think the Cards will collapse without Pujols, they can easily move Edmonds to first and put Taguchi or whoever in center. They still have a formiddable pitching staff, something the Cubs didn't have(and still don't), to weather the storm of Pujols being out. And would you like to explain to me how they will replace Pujols's production offensively?

That is hilarious.

A very realistic approach. If they did in fact keep up such a pace, they'd alos find themselves in the WC race, which is much more realistic, IMO. Great point about the WC. I hate admitting to watching the WC race until the divsion is out of reach, but with Pujols out ya' never know. Lets not forget Lindsey Jacobellis, she's the USA's snowboarder that just had to keep upright and the gold was hers. Well she got cute and tried to do a snowbaording trick and landed on her..aa...brains and lost the gold. Point is keep in the race and keep racing. Ya never know when the leader might fall. I think Pujols is the key. If he is out for an extended period of time then the Cards will be hurt and opens up the division for anybody that gets hot. The Cubs were playing well before Lee got hurt and Jacque is actually hitting now. If ARam can pick it up when Lee gets back, we'll have a decent lineup. We just need to play well up until Lee gets back.

And, to boot, this might be their swan song. The team isn't getting any younger, and its always hard to keep players together, satisfied and happy. Wallace might leave...and you can only keep playing a certain brand of basketball before someone figures you out. We're going to see how much the players really like Flip Saunders now.

Didn't we sign Dempster to the same type of deal though?

I beg to differ. In sports standings, if you're tied, then your tied for that place in the standings. You have to count the total number of teams/players in front of you. So in this contest, three players are tied for 4th so you skip spots 5 and 6 so Jazz is in seventh place. The way you are figuring out the rankings, hawkcub would be ranked 35th out of 57 even though he's in last place. I am tied for ninth rather than seventh and you are in 24th rather than 13th after yesterdays homeruns. That's the problem right there. I didn't say there were 57 "places", I said "entries". Now you're just getting into semantics. You know I'm right.

Buy the giant earmuff headphones. people will get the message. And if they don't, you probably won't hear them anyway. I wish I could get away with it. Unfortunatly, I have to deal with people all day long, so I can't pull off the earmuff thing. Best I can do is have an earbud in one ear. Just tell everybody that you talk to not to mention the World Cup around you on the days that you don't want to hear the results. My dad does this all the time. Most recently, he did it for the Champions League Final. Nobody said anything to him, he went with a complete media blackout all day, and was able to watch the match when he got home from work without knowing anything about the outcome. He started doing this because a couple years ago, my mom spoiled part of the game for him. I don't remember what game it was, but one of the teams scored a late goal to send the game into overtime and before the match my mom told my dad this little bit of information essentially spoiling the surprise of the goal because he knew it had to happen. My mom hasn't done that since.

I beg to differ. In sports standings, if you're tied, then your tied for that place in the standings. You have to count the total number of teams/players in front of you. So in this contest, three players are tied for 4th so you skip spots 5 and 6 so Jazz is in seventh place. The way you are figuring out the rankings, hawkcub would be ranked 35th out of 57 even though he's in last place. I am tied for ninth rather than seventh and you are in 24th rather than 13th after yesterdays homeruns.

Can we just play the Cardinals all the time. Actually, I would be content just playing the NL Central all the time seeing as the Cubs are 14-11 in the division so far this year.

Agreed. Also, even now a couple days later, I'm still finding new drunk posts by OMC that I haven't read yet.

Agreed. Anything for a World Series title at this point.

I think every team would love to have Wood in their starting rotation, but it's the problem of keeping him in the rotation and off the DL that's the problem.

agreed...if the cubs can just take every series on this roadtrip i would be so happy! but we'll see GO CUBS The thing is, the Cubs have put themselves in such a hole that they need to start sweeping some series. Sure, if we took every 3-game series 2/3 the rest of the year, we'd probably compete, but it's probably not going to happen. So when you win the first 2 games of a series in the Cubs' position, you need to finish it off. And they've lost the last 4 times they've taken the first two of a set. Two out of three the rest of the way would give the Cubs 93 wins. Like you said though, it's not likely to happen.

And this is why we don't start threads about sweeping a series before the sweep is completed.

I think that is dependent on Ramirez picking it up and hitting like he has the last couple years, something I think he'll do when DLee comes back and gives him some serious protection.

I figure St Louis will still win the division, but if they falter with Pujols out, it opens up the division for another team to get hot and make a serious push for the division. I think St Louis would have to drop to 90 wins on the year at the most for that to happen though. If they get more than 95 wins I don't think Cincinnati or Houston will get that many.

Hopefully he doesn't pitch Wednesday because if he does, we'll probably have to face him next Tuesday as well.

Soriano is helping me a ton also.

With Pujols out for a couple weeks at least, not to mention Carpenter being out, the Cards are going to be hurt so I'm wondering how many wins it will take to win the Central this year? This is not necessarily a Cubs optimism thread but feel free to discuss their chances to win the Central. Here are the current standings: Team W L St. Louis 35 21 Cincinnati 32 24 Houston 27 30 Milwaukee 26 31 Chicago 22 33 Pittsburgh 21 36 Assuming each team keeps up the same pace, here are the projected final standings. Team W L St. Louis 101 61 Cincinnati 93 69 Houston 77 85 Milwaukee 74 88 Chicago 65 97 Pittsburgh 60 102 But the main question is, with Houston already in a big slump, St. Louis likely to slip during Pujols's absence, and Cincinnati regressing as well, how many wins will it take to win the central?

Here is the NBA finals schedule. Thu 8 Miami at Dallas 5:00 PM Sun 11 Miami at Dallas 5:30 PM Tue 13 Dallas at Miami 5:30 PM Thu 15 Dallas at Miami 5:30 PM Sun 18 Dallas at Miami 5:30 PM Tue 20 Miami at Dallas 5:30 PM Thu 22 Miami at Dallas 5:30 PM All games are televised nationally on ABC and the times are on West Coast time because that's where I live and I'm tired of Eastern and Central times. Post 2700 as well.

Agreed. I don't see a point in bringing him up this year at only 21. Let's give him most of a year at AAA to see how he develops down there first.o

and I had both Pujols and DLee. Just my luck :x As did I. :help: