vance_the_cubs_fan

That was a disappointing end to the inning.

Theriot walks. Come on, Lee!

Fukudome K's.

I do what I can, bhogg. Unless, I mess up and post a pic of cat poop again. Then you'd be out of luck until I come back. I thought that was human poop. I've never seen a cat drop a growler of that quality or girth. I found it using a GIS of cat , so I assumed it was cat poop...but whatever.

Dbacks tie the Brewers at 2. Cardinals beat the Mets.

I do what I can, bhogg. Unless, I mess up and post a pic of cat poop again. Then you'd be out of luck until I come back. I like you as well Vance, so don't go around swearing either I'll give it my best effort.

And everyone's favorite name in the system is the NWL offensive player of the week: My favorite name has to be Jericho Jones. :D

I do what I can, bhogg. Unless, I mess up and post a pic of cat poop again. Then you'd be out of luck until I come back.

I won't be upset unless it's the Cardinals or Brewers who add the frontline starter instead of us. If Sabathia or Harden or Burnett isn't traded or go somewhere like the Yankees, I'll just shrug my shoulders and wish it had been us. If one of those players goes to the Brewers or Cardinals, then damn, I'm going to be ticked if we don't get one for ourselves.

Correction. We will have traded Gallagher and Marshall and Marquis in the deals to get Sabathia, Harden and Lincecum, so we have to pick up some waiver wire guys to fill in. Rotation on September 1st Lilly Dempster Chacon Woody Williams Les Walrond

1929 or 1930, something around there I believe. Probably didn't add as many homeruns as we'd think given the ridiculously large dimensions of those parks. you see a lot of balls bounce into the stand in RF at Fenway It was bigger in the the old days. I don't think the right field line was 302 or whatever it is now, until the 40's. i would check ballparks.com, but for some reason that site always crashes Firefox And for some reason when I go to rotoworld it crashes my firefox and that's starting to piss me off.

As much as Murton's stock has fallen, I still wouldn't want to trade Murton for Maddux. Seriously? I'd do that in a heartbeat if it bumped Marquis from the rotation. As much as I hate Marquis, I'm just not certain that Maddux outside of PETCO is that much better. He's an improvement, I'm just not sure how much of one.

It's not as good as you think. He's pitching stellar at home in a ballpark that fits his strengths, but he's not pitching so well on the road. At home: 9 G, 55 IP, 2.45 ERA, 45 H, 10 BB. On the Road: 8 G, 47.1 IP, 4.75 ERA, 61 H, 8 BB. I'm just not sold that he's that much better than what we have in the fourth and fifth spots. True, but he had one terrible start where he gave up 9 runs that really skews the road numbers. Take that out and his road ERA drops all the way to 3.15. And just because I know someone's thinking it, if you take out his best road start (since you're taking out his worst start) his ERA sits around 3.55. I'm still concerned that he's more a product of PETCO right now. We saw in his last year in Chicago he had a 4.63 ERA before going to the Dodgers. In that year, he was 5-0 to start the season and had a sparkling 1.35 ERA in April. As the weather warmed up, he had 5.94 ERA in May, 6.25 ERA in June and a 5.21 in July before we shipped him to the Dodgers. Last year, he was consistent in April and May with ERAs at 3.86 and 3.96 respectively. In June he had a 3.41 ERA before it ballooned to 5.57 in July. In 2005 he finished the year with a 4.24 ERA, 2006 it was 4.20 and 2007 it was 4.04 in PETCO (3.59 at home, 4.65 away). I think he's a pitcher that's going to give you an ERA in the mid four's. PETCO has helped hide his deficiencies. I like Maddux. He's probably one of my favorite all-time players, but I don't think he's much of an upgrade to the back-end of our rotation.

As much as Murton's stock has fallen, I still wouldn't want to trade Murton for Maddux.

It's not as good as you think. He's pitching stellar at home in a ballpark that fits his strengths, but he's not pitching so well on the road. At home: 9 G, 55 IP, 2.45 ERA, 45 H, 10 BB. On the Road: 8 G, 47.1 IP, 4.75 ERA, 61 H, 8 BB. I'm just not sold that he's that much better than what we have in the fourth and fifth spots.

I think the Cubs are trying to shift focus to Eastern Rim and Australia as we appear to have made a number of signings there.

Maybe Soto being married has kept him from the lures of big city life that might have gotten Pie in trouble...and is rumored to have seduced Ronny as well.

Absolutely, I've been saying this for a while now. I guarantee you'd only have to give up 1 or 2 lower level prospects to get Maddux, so why would not do it? He'd be a better 5th starter than Marquis and that's all we really need if we trade for someone like CC/Harden/Burnett. That's a pretty good rotation. It would have to be a very low level prospect for me to have any interest in Maddux. But if they'd take Ryan Harvey and Matt Avery for him, consider it done.

I cant see how the astros would have to pay him after reading this. i also dont see how more teams dont get out of more contracts with this clause. on the "first-class physical condition" thing, do you think LA could get out of Andruw Jones' contract if that was a clause in it? dude's fat No, because he was fat when they signed him.

Soriano has been cleared to do strengthening work on his hand without a splint. Link.

This article discusses the pitchers that could be available in a trade. A lot of it has been rehashed in other threads, but I thought there was some interesting commentary as well. 1. Sabathia- 2. Greg Maddux- God, I hope we stay away from Maddux! 3. Burnett- And now for the shocker... 4. Ben Sheets- I can't envision Sheets getting traded, but truthfully, he's the exact kind of pitcher we could use. 5. Erik Bedard- 6. Carlos Silva- 7. Paul Byrd- 8. Arroyo. 1, 3, or 4 plz. And the article made no mention of Rich Harden.

One last time...the women in my sig: Julianne Hough, Marissa Miller, Danica Patrick, Kelly Pickler, Shania Twain.

I'm not worried....yet. We've hit our rough patch, yet still lead the division with one of the best records in baseball. Furthermore, this rough stretch has happened while we've missed our best starting pitcher, one of our best hitters, our RH CF platoon player and our other CF is battling a sore foot and can hardly run and our SS is battling a sore hand. I believe if we get back to full streak, we'll be fine.

Maybe we can trade Matt Karchner to get him.... :-"

And I hope Hendry jumps in hard and fast!! I have no doubt Hendry will make a play. Whether it will be enough, I don't know. I am convinced that Jim will do what he can.