squally1313

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.

Hope Ascanio is ready to make his debut in the 10th....

You have to admire the effort there by Pierce to get back down the court....amazing toughness to play through such a horrible injury

Some good analysis of the comments in this article: http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/the-bradley-comment Doesn't really support one side or the other, but gives some statistics to help clear it up a little bit....

Dunn will get more than 5m. That's just crazy talk. The issue, as has been pointed out, is Dunn's unwillingness to move to 1b. I can think of a host of teams that would love to have Dunn if he'd just move to 1b. Dunn, according to MLBTR and that article is looking for 4/56. With that and the agent's claim that he gets no more than $5 million a year, there's clearly a huge gap. But for the sake of conversation that's not about Peavy (for once), would you.... Give Dunn the same contract, money wise, that Lee has for the next four years? You'd be getting younger at first base with roughly equal production, adding a lefty bat, and adding whatever prospects Lee gets to the farm system while sacrificing first base defense. Salaries would balance out. Yeah, I know Dunn may not prefer first base, but in this hypothetical, $13/year would possibly be a much higher offer than anything he would get anywhere else.

One reason that Dunn is getting so few offers is that he wants to play the OF. Some teams had interest in him as either a first baseman or DH, but Dunn wasn't particularly interested in that. I don't think Dunn is really an upgrade over Lee, and he isn't going to take a 4 year deal that only pays him 7.5 mil a season. I originally didn't think he would take that kind of contract either, but that agent seems to think otherwise, and with money being equal I'm sure he'd rather play for the contending Cubs than the bottom dweller Nats (not factoring in outfield vs first base). In terms of Dunn vs Lee, Dunns OPS projections are at 913/846/871 while Lee's are at 868/870/825. Factor in defense, it's a wash, with Lee probably having a little advantage in terms of simply 2009 first base performance. There are other factors that I think make doing these 2 things very attractive. One, Dunn is 4 years younger, two, it would save salary (assuming Dunn would sign for something like $7-9 million a year, more than what the agent thinks, but admittedly less than the 4/56 he's looking for), and three, trading Lee for prospects would help restock our system.

Alright I know this is way off topic, but I couldn't find a specific one that worked, and since this one has pretty much morphed into general offseason discussion, I figured I'd throw it in here.... Even with the addition of Bradley, it's always good to look for ways to upgrade the offense, and in this offseason, cut down on salary. There's an article in the Washington Post today, and found by MLBTR, that has an agent saying he would be shocked if Adam Dunn got more than $5 million a year. He says Dunn has no big name suitors, and will almost certainly end up with the Nationals because of this. I couldn't find Derrek's 2009 salary, but I know he made $13.2 last year, and I think most people here believe Dunn would be an upgrade over Lee. We know Lee has a no-trade clause, and for a variety of reasons might be unwilling to waive it. But at the risk of sounding too harsh, upgrading from Lee to Dunn at first while paying significantly less (Maybe a 4 year, $30 million deal, plus the incentive of playing for a contender would be enough to get him) would help this team a lot. Additionally, trading Lee for prospects, possibly to the Giants, who could contend in the West and desperately need a first baseman, would go a long way to restocking a farm system that would be pretty bare if the Peavy trade happens. The defense would take a hit, but I think the benefits outweigh the negatives. Again, sorry for being off-topic...searched a while for a Dunn topic and couldn't find any recent one. http://voices.washingtonpost.com/nationalsjournal/2009/01/the_market_for_adam_dunn.html?wprss=nationalsjournal

I'm sure someone a lot more creative than me can think of a good Ace Ventura joke for that extra point there....

http://blogs.chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/fullcourtpress/2008/12/rose-injured.html Before you freak out about the name of the link...it's not that bad. Just...really stupid.

Check your PMs...not sure about the rules for posting links like that...

They're not. They are this game. They're not.

Good tackling.

We'll be feeling the negative effects of this little shooting streak by Hughes for weeks...

Eliminate the wildcard....best of 3 series for the 2 division champs with the worst record, in a 1-2 format. Winner plays the team with the best record in a 7 game set, normal NLCS rules apply. Then 9 game world series. Keep the drama in the division races, with the added drama of finishing with the best record in the league, and stretch out the World Series without going into November. Unfortunately, since the Red Sox and the Yankees play in the same division, it will never happen.

I got a pretty good one.... So I've lived in Chicago my whole life...the Cubs were 8-0 in the games I was at this year. I go to school in Ohio, but this semester I'm spending it over in Europe. Today (it's 9:23 am right now) we leave on a school sponsored field trip to Amsterdam for the rest of the week. Now usually here if it's a somewhat important/interesting game I just stay up late and make up for the sleep the next day. But now our first night tonight everyone is ready to "explore Amsterdam," and the game starts at about midnight local time. The hotel we stay at lets you pay for internet 24 hours a day. Now I know studying abroad is a once in a lifetime thing. And I know that I'll probably never get to be 20 years old and be in Amsterdam again. But I also feel like this is a once in a lifetime Cubs team, and I lived and died with them this summer. I know, I know....two pretty amazing choices. But I wasn't coming here to brag or anything. It's just going to suck having both of them in front of me all week and having to miss out on one.

Rich Harden

Oh my god....Lou....wow

Unexpected

Just to balance out all the optimism in this thread (which, believe me, I'm feeling too)....enjoy this now, because after three days in our personal hell, things could feel a lot differently But seriously...god this is awesome.