squally1313

Their problems scoring go WELL beyond Soriano at this point. He is the number one culprit. You have a leadoff hitter who NEVER and I mean NEVER ignites a rally to start a game. What about the leadoff hitter for the other 8 innings tonight that "NEVER" ignited a rally?

It's not enough that this team sucks. They find ways to get me worked up and actually care about them again before doing something like that. That's what...$40 million worth of total ineptitude?

I think it's fair to complain about being a Cubs fan, because when it comes down it I believe most of us are baseball fans first, Cubs fans second. And everyone here are clearly big baseball fans. At times I hate the Cubs, hate being a fan of the Cubs, but I'm 21 years old and have followed them my entire life. And I'm certainly not going to stop following the entire sport just because one team is playing like crap. So my only other option there is to switch teams. But everyone knows what that looks like: 'fairweather'...'bandwagon'...etc. So you stick with the team you grew up with, for better or for worse. This might be a bad analogy, but the only thing I can really think of is joining a frat in college. You really know very little about it when you first rush (much like going to Wrigley as a kid or listening to Harry on WGN), but you're pretty much stuck with that group of people, and find out along the way who they are. Sorry for long...rambling....somewhat misdirected, but just my two cents.

The thing about Kendrick is you have to decide what kind of BABIP is sustainable for him as he enters his prime years. Obviously since he's never shown much ability to take a walk, his OBP is going to be largely dependent on batting average. Coming into this year he had averages of .285, .322, and .306 the last three years, with corresponding BABIPs of .324, .381, and .357. This year his average is down to .231, with a BABIP of .269, far below his career average. To be fair, his LD% has fallen a lot, from 19% and 17% the last two years to 13% now. If he can get that back up to where it's been the past couple years, you can definitely expect his average to rise a little bit. Combine that with above average defense at second base, and it's more a matter of much it would take to get him, because he would definitely be an upgrade over Miles. And even though he hits lefties and righties about the same (740ish OPS, which obviously isn't great, but again...would be an upgrade), his numbers against lefties are significantly better than Fontenot's so we'd be upgrading the platoon at second when Ramirez comes back. Again, not saying this is the difference maker, but we've already pretty much established that we're more or less stuck with our offense as is, and minor improvements like this are the types of moves we should be focusing on.

Following it on Gamecast...Marshall warming up? Unavailable? Quit?

Hahaha, so in other words, 19

Sorry man I just get so pissed nowadays when it comes to the Cubs. No offense bud, but if you're this upset now, in the middle of June watching a clearly mediocre baseball team, I don't even want to know how you were in October the last two years. After 07/08, it's really hard for me to get worked up over this team, especially at this point in the season. As I think is the same for a lot of people people here now. Bottom line, our pitching's going to keep us competitive, and our division isn't very good. We're going to stay near the top of the Central for most of the season. One game doesn't really do much for me anymore. I can get pissed by Lou's consistent mismanaging, or Soriano's consistent refusal to lay off the low and outside slider, but one at bat isn't going to bother me

Wait...doesn't Soto have to come in anyways? How can any reasonable baseball mind think Reed is a better option against a righty than Geo? Anyone?

Oh my god....Reed?

I love how Lou would have kept Zambrano in last night to hit in a tie game, but not let him pitch the 9th, yet lets Miles hit here over him/Scales. Better yet, with double play candidate Soriano on-deck, why not use Soto here?

Can anyone explain the reasoning of putting Marmol up 2nd this inning? As bad as Riot's been today, he's so much better than Miles it's not even funny. We finally get good Marmol, and he can only throw 9 pitches. Solid knee jerk reaction on pulling Theriot there, Lou. Also, word's can't express how much I hate this team. Edit: I'm an idiot. Ignore me.

Un effing real

Now walk him

Am I reading this right? 95% of the time during that time span, a lead off single lead to a run? No...the numbers are the average number of runs scored in that inning following that scenario, not the probability of a run scoring in general. Hench, the bases loaded, no out scenario leading to an average of 2.4 runs or whatever it is...

I'm a big fan of small ball & sacrifices in general, but it generally is a better idea when your team is a high contact team, especially with RISP, that actually more often than not cashes in on a man on second with one out. Statistics show that you have a better chance of scoring with a man on first and 0 outs than a man on 2nd with 1 out. Really? I'm interested to see those statistics. http://www.tangotiger.net/RE9902.html A little dated, but still works...

I feel like I did when the Blackhawks went into OT with the Wings in game 5. Not if we were going to lose...just when, how, and how frustrating it was going to be.

50000-1: Allow zero runs, somehow win game.

Honestly, that 2-0 pitch was a strike and I'm almost glad it was called a ball. just freaking walk him.

Then you know they'd end up walking the third guy to walk in a run. At least I'd find comic relief in something like that. Well, either that or Gooz throwing one of these intentional pitches over Soto's head...

Walk the next two.

The fact that Patton isn't in this game, yet is still on this roster, is getting to be absolutely ridiculous by now.

Jackson's final line: 5.2 innings, 2 hits, 1 ER, 1/3 K/BB, 7/9 GO/FO (although a quick glance through the play-by-play saw a few infield pop-ups). Just going through the box score....would I be correct in assuming a 26 year old Blake Lalli is little more than minor league filler? I know how old that is for only being in AA, and saw that he was undrafted, but a 912 OPS for someone who can play catcher could at least have a little value, even if it is probably helped by a pretty good BABIP (2 home runs, only 7 walks to go with 110 at bats)

Take it for what it's worth, but I have a buddy who enters the information in the computer for MLB.com's gameday, so he was up in the box with the scorers and the announcers and what not. I texted him around the 8th inning in utter disbelief about Fukudome not coming into the game, and he texted back and said that Kosuke caught the same flu bug that Lee had, and couldn't play tonight. Suppose that could have been sarcastic, but I'm going to believe that was the case. So basically Lou was working with a 22 man roster tonight, which definitely makes it tougher, but I still can't believe he really thought Z was a better option than Fontenot at the plate....

It's times like this when I wish it was a video game and you were always able to get rid of a player/his contract for at least a few decent prospects... 1. Trade Lee for whatever you can get for him. Start Hoff every day...if he starts to struggle bring up Fox to platoon with him. 2. Trade for Blalock to fill in at 3B for A-Ram 3. When A-Ram comes back healthy, move Blalock to first (played 30something games there last year with 1 error, which isn't the best measure, but still) Unfortunately Lee is pretty much unmovable at this point, both for his contract vs. production and his fan-favorite status. Also, his NTC, which I just remembered now after typing all this. Whatever...it made me happy to consider the possibility for a few minutes... As for second base, mark me down as one person not all that worried about Fontenot at this point. His strike out and walk rates remain nearly identical to last year, and he had 477 at bats his first two years with the Cubs with BABIP of over .330. It's at .212 right now, good for 4th worst in baseball. And yes, while .330 seems high, he had over 570 at bats in AAA with a BABIP over .340. It's not unreasonable to think he can't settle in at around .300 in that category for the rest of the year. His biggest problem has been the quality of his batted balls. His line drive percentage has plummeted from 24.1% to 12.1%. It almost makes that extremely low BABIP seem reasonable, using the googled formula of LD%+.120. It's concerning, but if he was striking out at a much higher rate it would raise a lot more red flags to me. His problem is a matter of fractions of inches in lining up the ball, something more easily correctable than simply making contact in the first place. Finally, this might be faulty logic, but I'm much more worried about getting good production from my corner infielders than from my second baseman. Getting a third baseman who can put up 85-90% of A-Ram's production while he's gone seems a lot better to me than upgrading marginally from Fontenot to Durham/Grudz/whoever, and then downgrading significantly from A-Ram to Fontenot. I know some of the names thrown around for third seem unreasonable considering it's really just a rental player, but that's one of a big market team's biggest advantages is that they are able to make these moves. Would Beltre (to throw out a name) be pleased with being relegated to a pinch hitting spot come August? Probably not. But ultimately, he A. doesn't have much choice, and B. would be playing for a contender with a great chance of making the playoffs, or at least a better chance than Seattle. If someone like that can fit in the budget, I say that's the move we have to make.