sethuel1

I don't get the Bradley thing. Feilhaber seems ahead of him as far as tactical ability. That said, neither one of them really wows me. They both seem to have a Reyna-esque quality about them, and I hate me some Claudio Reyna. That leads me to an observation. I know it's just CONCACAF jokers we've been playing lately, but doesn't it seem that the US attack just seems much more dangerous than it did a year ago? We've generating chances even against packed in defenses, switching fields, playing nice combinations to send guys free...it's just the finishing that seems to not be there. Is it Bradley letting these guys play a more free flowing attacking style, the fact that Reyna isn't there slowing everything down, or the opposition? Or is it a bit of both? +1 on Jozy Altidore, and an additional shout out to Gabriel Ferrari. Very much looking forward to those two. i'm very glad he's decided to play for the u.s. Yeah. Big difference living here until age 17 or 18 and leaving at age 12 or 13 like Rossi, though.

I thought it was great that the one piece of skill that Hejduk showed, where he drew some defenders at the 18 and then slipped in a good entry pass, went directly to Taylor Twellman who, of course, missed horribly on a simple chance. I'll also say that I'm really pissed at Gooch's yellow card, where he didn't even foul the guy, but then again he deserved it for some of his later antics so it all evens out. The ref was so clueless. it was very amusing, however, to see all the US player condescendingly patting him on the back throughout the game. Bradley continues to show me very little in midfield. As much at it feels strange to say it, I missed Feilhaber a bit today. The Jozy Altidore show cannot start soon enough.

psssst, hey. you got your month wrong.

I hate Bob. But he gets my vote.

I'd like to see what Heath pearce can do. Doesn't Bob Bradley have some sort of irrational hatred for Pearce? Hopefully he'll play in Copa America and impress, because a good team would absolutely abuse Bornstein. yep. Pearce said he's "the best left back the US has," which is kinda big-headed, but Bradley apparently really didn't like it, because he thought it was a direct slight at Bornstein. When/where did he say that? Just out of curiosity. I think it's from this article, but i'm not sure

I have not been real pleased with the way the US has played so far, but Mexico has been worse. I would love to see Costa Rica knock them out now. As much as I hate to say it, I want Mexico to win. We need to meet them and kick their ass in the final. Yep, I'm still going to the game. Section 152, row 10 for the finals. I'm also in section 122 row 3 for the semis

I'd like to see what Heath pearce can do. Doesn't Bob Bradley have some sort of irrational hatred for Pearce? Hopefully he'll play in Copa America and impress, because a good team would absolutely abuse Bornstein. yep. Pearce said he's "the best left back the US has," which is kinda big-headed, but Bradley apparently really didn't like it, because he thought it was a direct slight at Bornstein.

I'd like to see what Heath pearce can do. As would I. Although I might be a bit biased because I played with him as a kid. The couple games I've seen him in with the U.S. he's played decently well. Nothing spectacular but no mistakes either. Considering the fact that it looks like Bornstein's entire game revolves around overcommitting himself and then running like hell to make up for it, that would be an improvement.

I'd like to see what Heath pearce can do.

The Indians don't do stupid things like call up their best pitching prospect before he's big league ready for stupid reasons like "need more control in middle relief", or "we can just extend him later". I agree, they didn't have Carmona up last year getting shelled in the pen... Carmona was pitching better than Gallagher is at a higher level when he was called up. It was also his second season at AAA after 2 seasons at AA. Not even remotely comparable. just noticed this. not sure how you can have it both ways between your defense of the way they broke in Colon, and the way they broke in this guy. Carmona was not pitching very well before being called up. nice peripherals, but a 5.53 ERA in six starts. how that's all that much better than Gallaghers start at AA this year, I don't know. You said it yourself, peripherals. Better walk rate with a similar K rate and WHIP, and again, at a higher level after he spent a full year in AAA, and large parts of 2 years in AA. looking at it a little closer, so other than his work the previous year, which was nice, but not overwhelming, I'm not sure how he was 'pitching better than Gallagher before being called up' because he debuted in mid April. not a great sample from which to declare he was pitching better, compared to Gallagher's 11 starts this year. he was allowed to start. the Indians moved him out of the rotation after his May 20 outting when the Indians were 7.5 out of first, sitting in third place. on May 23, they were 9 out of first. did the Indians send him back down to start? was that stupid? then he was made the closer. then he went back to AAA and went back to starting. then they brought him back up in September and kept him in the rotation. on Sept. 9, after being brought back, he had a 65 pitch outting, followed by a 91 pitch outting. I heard Meph and Raisen and Roto saying how Guz's injury is probably from being bounced around in his role, so that was a stupid move? considering all of this, did Cleveland do something stupid with bouncing him around, or are Meph and Raisen and Roto wrong and there isn't anything wrong with bouncing a young pitcher around in his role? so long as we all know how right you are, the rest doesn't matter

this is the most valid argument i have ever seen.

to get him to 100 career caps

Christian Poulsen is absolute trash. Always has been. One of the least sportsmanlike professional footballers I've ever seen. As soon as I heard one of the Danes had hit someone in the balls, I was sure of who it was. Same guy Totti spit on a couple of years ago after Poulsen spent the game jabbing at him when he was sure nobody was looking. Not that this excuses the fan in any way.

anyone watching this one? I'm hitting up the globe pub.

i was at that game!

Well I haven't seen that fight, so I can't really comment on it. ladies and gentlemen, Joe Morgan. nothing against you WF22, i just had to.

The dumbest thing I've read on this messageboard.... is the post you just wrote ? Hmmm....nope, sorry...I don't think so. You're a moron if you think the selling Lee is gonna make the Cubs any better. Eventually, it will. And that's the goal, because this season, and possibly next, are in the john with the crap we have floating around. Blow it all up and stockpile for '09, morons. The fact that you don't think trading Lee will make the Cubs better is obscenely shortsighted.

No, he doesn't. Not even close, really. Are we really arguing with oldcubsfan again? fixed

Agreed. Imagine how much more we would've gotten if this had been blown up last year like it should have been.

The dumbest thing I've read on this messageboard.... is the post you just wrote

That may be true, but last time that I checked, there were 3 LH RP in the Cubs BP. If the SP goes out early, that creates a problem. You can't use a guy like Ohman to pitch to just one LH batter each game. That is a waste of a roster spot. And is also the reason why LOOGYs do not exist. Even the word LOOGY does not exist.

I haven't read any of this thread or anything, but please tell me the consensus of this one is that Lou mismanaged the bullpen into another loss.

I was never a big fan of Abreu, but I wanted Drew pretty bad. And Drew's power is nowhere to be found, but his OBP is still 100 points higher than his AVG (and that .350 OBP would be an improvement for our OF); Abreu's OBP is not good, but it's also 80 or so points higher than his AVG - these guys haven't lost their plate discipline, which is something our team sorely lacks. But Abreu and Drew also went from the NL to the ALE, which is a huge difference in terms of talent. Abreu got the short end of the stick b/c some of the worst pitchers in the ALE are on his team. But they're facing much better talent than Jones is. So to think Drew or Abreu wouldn't be much better facing the Cards, Pirates, Reds, etc than pitchers in the AL isn't really fair. They might be just as bad on the Cubs as they are in the ALE, but the difference in talent in the leagues is fairly widely accepted, so I think that's a variable you're overlooking. I'd love to trade for Drew (Abreu's a year and a half older, so I'm less interested in him). If he could play CF at all, that .391 career OBP would be a thing of beauty on this team. another conflation of the argument. if you are going to compare the pitching talent one faces, you must remain consistent. neither player was in the NL central, yet those are the teams you use to excuse these players poor performances. Abreu got a break, then what explains Drew? Abreu got a break, but the pitching in the NL East last year was a helluva lot better than the AL East pitching this year. and btw, 13-15M a year for a slightly better than league average OBP (if that) and little more is a terrible idea, which gets back to my original point, we'd be more screwed had the Cubs acquired some of the love children that were pined for on this board. I like how you trash everyone's arguments by throwing around words like "conflation", then use absolutely terrible logic to support your on arguments (pitching in the NL East is worse this year than last year...please), and then wrap it all up with a completely unsupportable statement that we'd be "more screwed", whatever the hell that is. All while calling a mod "disingenuous" for no particular reason. You win the 1st Annual Dingleberry Award for Alienating Everyone and Pissing Them Off. the other poster posited that the 2007 AL East is harder to hit in than the 2006 NL East. I argued it's not. it was an accurate statement. I believe having a $13-15M/year player would be a larger strain on the Cubs organization than a $5M, slightly less productive player . how that is unsupportable...no wait, completely unsupportable...is beyond me. what award do you win for your failure to read, failure to comprehend, ignorance of what logic is, and blatant attack topped off with sucking up to a mod? dunno. I'd have to wait a whole year to win a Dingleberry Award.

I was never a big fan of Abreu, but I wanted Drew pretty bad. And Drew's power is nowhere to be found, but his OBP is still 100 points higher than his AVG (and that .350 OBP would be an improvement for our OF); Abreu's OBP is not good, but it's also 80 or so points higher than his AVG - these guys haven't lost their plate discipline, which is something our team sorely lacks. But Abreu and Drew also went from the NL to the ALE, which is a huge difference in terms of talent. Abreu got the short end of the stick b/c some of the worst pitchers in the ALE are on his team. But they're facing much better talent than Jones is. So to think Drew or Abreu wouldn't be much better facing the Cards, Pirates, Reds, etc than pitchers in the AL isn't really fair. They might be just as bad on the Cubs as they are in the ALE, but the difference in talent in the leagues is fairly widely accepted, so I think that's a variable you're overlooking. I'd love to trade for Drew (Abreu's a year and a half older, so I'm less interested in him). If he could play CF at all, that .391 career OBP would be a thing of beauty on this team. another conflation of the argument. if you are going to compare the pitching talent one faces, you must remain consistent. neither player was in the NL central, yet those are the teams you use to excuse these players poor performances. Abreu got a break, then what explains Drew? Abreu got a break, but the pitching in the NL East last year was a helluva lot better than the AL East pitching this year. and btw, 13-15M a year for a slightly better than league average OBP (if that) and little more is a terrible idea, which gets back to my original point, we'd be more screwed had the Cubs acquired some of the love children that were pined for on this board. I like how you trash everyone's arguments by throwing around words like "conflation", then use absolutely terrible logic to support your on arguments (pitching in the NL East is worse this year than last year...please), and then wrap it all up with a completely unsupportable statement that we'd be "more screwed", whatever the hell that is. All while calling a mod "disingenuous" for no particular reason. You win the 1st Annual Dingleberry Award for Alienating Everyone and Pissing Them Off.

Lets see here Piniella has won 1511 games (18th All Time) and has twice been named Manager of the Year. He also won a World Series. One season he won 116 games with one team and he won 200 games for an awful organization in Florida in 3 years. Dusty has won 1162 games as a manager (38th All Time) and been named Manager of the Year 3 times in 14 seasons. He is one of only 4 NL Managers to have 8 consecutive winning seasons EVER. He also won 1100 ballgames faster than such board icons as Jim Leyland and Mike Hargrove. Um, lets see 18+ years service in an industry and being recognized for excellence in that industry. Gee what employer wouldnt want that. Do you realize how stupid this remark is? Also plays to the fact that the players realize these arent a couple of guys they pulled off a turnip truck somewhere and that they should immediately respect them. They have been around the block a time or two and have been involved in the game for at least 3 decades. Only thing ridiculous here is your assessment that Piniella and Baker are bad managers. They simply arent. I know tons of people in tons of different lines of work that are recognized as outstanding performers and are actually giant sacks of crap. These two are good baseball examples.