hawkeyecub

Good Lord Font that's a DP ball. Now Klesko is going to end it.

Dang, Kendall got rid of the ball quickly and made a perfect throw. Thankfully Carmol got the K.

I love Kendall leading off an inning. Jacque needs to bunt here.

Hall doubles with 1 out in the 9th.

With 2 outs and a man on 2nd, Brandon Webb just walked Jeff Suppan to bring Gross to the plate.

Well I know I didn't want him up there against Lincecum and definitely not against Zito. Nice leather by Ramirez that inning.

I know I love when he gets like that. He's a goof and can be annoying at times, but he's in his element when this type of craziness occurs. I'll have to check out Baseball Tonight.

All started with a bad 0-2 pitch to Winn with 2 outs. Damn.

If Lou is using the rational of starting weaker players who will get 4 ab's to save your better players for possibly 1 ab, and possibly no ab's, then he should be fired immediately. There really isn't as big of a discrepency between Floyd and Murton as you make it sound. I wouldn't classify Floyd as a "weaker" player and Murton as one of our "better" players. He's not starting Fontenot over Ramirez. They've both been non-productive. Honestly the hyperbole over this is just weird. Theres not a big discrepency? August OPS for Murton over .800 Floyds under .700 for the 2nd consecutive month, thats a big discrepency. That's the only number you point to and when you're using such a small sample, it doesn't mean a lot. If Floyd hits 2 HR this week he'll likely have a better OPS for the month than Murton. Will you then say that Floyd should be in the lineup more? Probably not because one or two AB's shouldn't change your idea of who is in the lineup. In '04 Neifi probably had a better OPS down the stretch than Nomar. Should he have been getting all the starts at SS? You called Floyd one of our weaker players and Murton one of our better players. That's just dumb. Murton isn't one of our better players. They're about equal. The way people get so worked up over arguing about two mediocre players is just weird. Neither have been good and we won't see a big difference in production regardless of who is in the lineup.

This is just absurd. People already do that with Cliff everytime he makes an out like that, just like they do with Murton. It's just annoying. Neither of them have been productive. Just leave it at that and watch the game. I honestly think it's gotten to the point where people hope either Floyd/Murton make an out so they can say "I told you so" and make these stupid posts.

If Lou is using the rational of starting weaker players who will get 4 ab's to save your better players for possibly 1 ab, and possibly no ab's, then he should be fired immediately. There really isn't as big of a discrepency between Floyd and Murton as you make it sound. I wouldn't classify Floyd as a "weaker" player and Murton as one of our "better" players. He's not starting Fontenot over Ramirez. They've both been non-productive. Honestly the hyperbole over this is just weird.

I know I'm late to the discussion but I'm not all that surprised that Murton is on the bench while Fox is in. Lou, like many managers, hates having only options from one side of the plate off the bench. We have Ward, Fontenot and Pie (even though he won't get an AB) from the left side. If Murton is in the lineup then Floyd is also on the bench and he doesn't have a single RH bat to go to off the bench. Not saying it's right or wrong, but that's his rationale.

I know I'm late to the discussion but I'm not all that surprised that Murton is on the bench while Fox is in. Lou, like many managers, hates having only options from one side of the plate off the bench. We have Ward, Fontenot and Pie (even though he won't get an AB) from the left side. If Murton is in the lineup then Floyd is also on the bench and he doesn't have a single RH bat to go to off the bench. Not saying it's right or wrong, but that's his rationale.

I think that's way too harsh. It's obviously a big concern and it has to be improved at some point, but it doesn't completely negate everything else.

How about Murton right here?

See, I said we would get to him if he kept pumping straight fastballs in the zone.... Seriously though as dominant as his fastball was tonight, I thought he was going to it too often and catching too much of the plate. Thank God we finally put some good swings on it.

Good work Marquis. Alright this is the inning we need to jump on him. Middle of the order facing him for the third time.

Upton and Montero bail out Bush and leave the bases loaded.

Drew doubles to tie it at 2. Runners at 2nd and 3rd with 1 out.

Wow, Benitez completely imploded after Hanley's error that would have ended the inning. 5-2 Cards now.

And the Cards just tied the Marlins 2-2 in the 8th with a man on 3rd and 2 outs. Hanley made a two-out error to keep the inning alive. Apparently Benitez did something to him that Buck is freaking out about.

We'll see. I think he's getting too predictable and if he misses his location at all we can jump on him. This lineup can hit a righthanded fastball in the zone, even a good one like Tim's. But he's not keeping our hitters off balance or getting them to chase much.

If Marquis can consistently find that sinker he had that inning (particularly against Lincecum) he'll have a good night.

I don't blame them for any impatience. Up until the Fontenot AB, Lincecum was just pumping laser-beam straight fastballs in the strike zone pitch after pitch. I don't think they swung at any bad pitches and if he's throwing nothing but strikes and consistently starting you off with fastballs thigh-high catching a fat part of the plate, swing at them. I think we'll start getting him the 2nd time through the order unless he starts mixing in more offspeed stuff to get us off balance.

The Cardinals would then have zero off days from August 28-September 31st. 35 games in 34 days. Obviously September call-ups can ease that stress a little bit, but that's still pretty tough. We would then have 24 games in 23 days, but have September 20th and 24th off.