Hairyducked Idiot

First and second, one out in the seventh for the Pirates. Fake rally at its finest.

Is it freaking game time yet? Stupid time zones. Californey should get their sunrise at 3 a.m. and like it.

"Zambrano, ph-3b" Interesting strategic choice, I applaud Piniella's desire to think outside the box.

Philadelphia kept the Reds down, a team that has been making people around here nervous. The consistently mediocre Brewers are losing 2-1 in the sixth. Atlanta leading 5-4 over Florida in the eighth. A Florida loss gives us a chance to move to five games clear of a playoff spot. Cardinals, of course, are winning.

3-0 Cardinals over Pirates.

They've played exactly 0 games against Arizona, Atlanta, Florida, New York, and Philadelphia, plus they have 12 games left with us. Wellemeyer is about to surpass his high IP since he was a Daytona Cub in 2002, and Lohse, Piniero, and Looper were all awful in May. They have only 3 hitters OPSing over .800, Pujols, the super overachieving Ludwick, and Ankiel(another person who fell off in May). I think there's plenty of room for them to fall off. That makes so much sense. I badly want it to be true.

I'll settle for breaking even or even a game or two below.

2-0 Cards.

I've resigned myself to them probably not fading. Should they be this good, based on career stats of their players? No. But a +23 run differential over 58 games is a decent sample for making the case they don't suck, and I don't think there enough really good teams in the NL to beat them down any.

Alex Rodriguez is an easier out than Ryan Theriot.

Weird thing I noticed about Hamels: Almost no platoon split. RH vs. Hamels: .234 .289 .404 LF vs. Hamels: .234 .290 .415 He's good, but I don't know if he's "shakes up a series" kind of good. I'll take our lineup vs. him against their lineup vs. Zambrano. I guess there's no good way to base your entire season on a five- or seven-game series 1-0 Cardinals, Pujols just missed a two-run homer. I've given up hope that this team will fade.

Wow, the Marlins' starters suck. I hadn't even really looked that closely. And Luis Gonzalez. That Luis Gonzalez. Well, if we faced the Marlins, the key would be to take a 3-2 lead back to Wrigley. There's no way we lose a Prior and a Wood start back to back.

I would love to face them in the NLCS again I'd love to face anyone in the NLCS again :) Goodness that would bring back some bad memories. The masochist in me wants to face the Cardinals. The stathead in me wants the Phillies (lefty starters, low-K pitching staff).

At some point we have to accept the fact that the Cardinals' coaching staff is very, very good.

Atlanta 2, Florida 0 early. The Marlins are my current "root against" team because they are the top non-playoff team in the NL. We are four games clear of a playoff spot. I'd love to see it hit double-digits by the end of July.

I whiffed on a net sarcasm post. Happens to all of us at some point in our lives. Why be personally insulting?

[x] weak attempt at insult [x] pointless attempt at insult [x] rude attempt at insult [ ] actual rebuttal of the arguments presented in my post [x] Attempt at sarcasm [ ] Sarcasm detector at 100%

I'd guess he has around 16-22 RBIWGs (Runs batted in with glove). I'm making this a new stat While it may get you style points to bat in a run with your glove, if you get jammed on the inside even a little, your fingers are gonna freaking sting for like an hour.

[x] weak attempt at insult [x] pointless attempt at insult [x] rude attempt at insult [ ] actual rebuttal of the arguments presented in my post

I think "many" is an overstatement. I projected them to mid-80s when their pythagorean record is 27-30, which shows I expect some improvement. But to get to 90 wins from where they are now, they'd have to play at a .581 winning percentage. Their Pyth% this season is .473, and over the past two seasons is .502. To get to .581 from that, they'd have to take a quantum leap forward. And that's just to get to 90 wins, which right now is on the very bottom end of the Cubs' likely projection. They have two young bats that make people drool, and a couple more that are above average for their position. And they have an ace pitcher who can't stay healthy. Is that enough to lead a team to 90 wins? They don't really have anything else. Their bullpen is bad. Their defense is really bad. They have a few pitching prospects, but big whoop, so does every other team in the majors. Brewers fans I read right now are basing their hopes on two things: The Cubs' turnaround last season and the fact that they lost their No. 2 pitcher and they believe we haven't lost anything. And their high point last season, June 23rd, here was the two teams' run differentials: Brewers: +29, Cubs: +22. The two teams had been almost identical, but a combination of good and bad luck had put them 8.5 games ahead of the Cubs. Luck caught up and the Cubs pulled ahead. This season, the run differentials are Cubs +92, Brewers -14.

Out of all the teams in the division, the Reds certainly scare me most long-term. But, as I remind my fellow Blackhawks fans constantly, there are still a lot of intermediate steps to me reached. Young talent + time = wins is not a guaranteed equation.

With a full season and a half sample size, I think we have a very good idea of their talent-level. And it's mediocre. They've got some wowee young bats. They used to have starting pitching depth, but injuries have obliterated it. They still have no bullpen and a bad defense. They're a mediocre team capable of putting up mid-80s wins. If that beats the Cubs, then these aren't the Cubs we think they are.

Brewers. Meh. I think he means that team with a 120-119 Pythagorean record over the last two seasons, including 27-30 this season.

Tonight's game is really big, it'd hurt to lose. Marquis is our starter the second game, and Maddux starts for them at the third game. He's been awesome at home. So games 2 and 3 make me nervous. If we win this series, it has to include game 1 I think.

That's not the point, LLF. The point is that it takes a great team to have your run differential distribution range from +14 to -2 every game.