E.J.

Can't say I like Edmonds in there against a lefty, but it's either him or Fukudome in the lineup, so I guess I'll take Edmonds.

ok. i'm done.

He wouldn't be a terrible option since he only has a 1-year contract. I don't know if I could handle all the grittiness at one position though.

The Cubs have outscored their opponents by 111 runs, the widest margin, by far, in MLB. The Cardinals and Brewers have outscored opponents by 33 and 27 runs, nice, but good for 8th and 12th in baseball. The Cubs are pretty clearly the most talented team, by a significant margin. They have the highest Runs scored in the NL and highest OPS, with the 2nd best ERA and best BAA. Neither Brewers nor the Cardinals are capable of matching up in both the pitching and hitting categories. :banghead: Things like run differential (and other far more complicated statistics) can be used to tell you how much better at baseball one team is than another beyond what simple W-L totals can tell you. The desired end result is more wins. But actually evaluating these things beyond that shallow surface is what can tell you what is most likely to happen before it happens. If two teams are .500, say, two months into the season, but one of these teams is outscoring opponents by several runs while the other has a fairly even or negative run differential, which of those teams do you think is likely more talented and therefore more likely to win more games going forward? You might want to check out the run differentials for all the top teams in the Major Leagues. You'll find that they are at the top of their respective divisions in most cases. You can't just come here and say "show me a ring" and expect that you mean anything. We're showing you why the Cubs are the better team and you are not giving us any facts to refute that.

Phillips is talking about the Cardinals starting pitcher win % as a reason why they might not need another pitcher in the rotation come the trading deadline. Pretty obvious why this guy isn't a GM anymore. :banghead:

The Cubs have outscored their opponents by 111 runs, the widest margin, by far, in MLB. The Cardinals and Brewers have outscored opponents by 33 and 27 runs, nice, but good for 8th and 12th in baseball. The Cubs are pretty clearly the most talented team, by a significant margin. They have the highest Runs scored in the NL and highest OPS, with the 2nd best ERA and best BAA. Neither Brewers nor the Cardinals are capable of matching up in both the pitching and hitting categories. Run differential doesn't win championships, but it definitely affects a team's win/loss record. Not going to win many games if you can't score more runs than your opponents.

They're trying to compare Weeks and Durham to chess pieces. I'm going to kill myself.

It's extremely difficult listening to Steve Phillips.

haha. that pitch was awesome. :lol:

It's like watching a couple high-school kids pitch. Neither one has any right being a starter for a ML baseball team.

2-run double for Glaus. McClung is bad at pitching.

Brewers get a double from JJ Hardy in the first, but fail to score.

I agree with a lot that you say RedVerbs, but I also think that adding Harden to the rotation helps immensely. The Cardinals rotation can't be said to be good whatsoever. You might add Carpenter, but I don't see him being the same Carp after coming back from major surgery, at least this year. The Cubs also lead the National League in runs scored and have one of the best rotations which is made even better with the addition of Harden. The Cubs are the best team in a crappy National League this year, but it's been shown that the playoffs are a crapshoot (see Cardinals a couple years ago), so as long as the Cubs make it to the playoffs, they have a chance to win it all. I think the Cardinals offense will come back to earth and the rotation is going to crumble. If I were a Cardinal fan, I'd hope for a nice addition in the rotation and the bullpen before the trading deadline passes.

4-day timeout for you.

I'm going to start abusing my powers and ban people who make Harden and Wood jokes. They're not funny. Stop doing it!

Is it really a good idea? Remember what happened last time he was rushed back. Didnt start off so well. Too bad were not playing the Giants or the Badres. If we were, that could have been considered his rehab assignment. It's not a good idea at all, but I'm guessing it happens anyway.

I'm guessing we might see Soriano tonight since he didn't play the whole game for Mesa.

Soriano with a walk in his 3rd at-bat. :shock:

Soriano struck out in his 2nd at-bat.

wow. that's impressive.

Maybe they are just that good? Maybe the Cardinals didn't get more help during the offseason because they recognized the potential of their own players? Just a thought. that sounds like a Jim Hendry way of thinking, hoping that all your players have their career years at the same time.

I don't really see this as a big deal as long as it's just a blister and that he's back on Sunday. Probably a good thing to give his arm a rest anyway.

Has anyone figured out why Flaherty hasn't played lately?

Carpenter will not have an impact. Agreed. I wouldn't expect anything from a guy coming back from a major arm surgery. It's going to be at least a year before he's back to being the pitcher he was before.

They'll still beat Penn State. at least we have a QB Rich Rod is running the show now. We don't need a quarterback. :) Threet is actually supposed to be pretty good though. He was ranked the 2nd best quarterback right after Mallett coming out of high school a few years ago. We'll probably see a bit of a 2-quarterback system next year with Threet and Feagin.