squally1313

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.

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.