SoxFan562004

QUOTE (fathom @ Jun 18, 2009 -> 04:46 PM) Oh believe me, I hope they stay in the race and at least make the Cubs play good baseball to get past them into 3rd place. That's all I'm trying to point out. I discounted the Pirates before, but they actually are playing slightly better than last year, which again, isn't saying much, but the Cubs aren't going to roll the teams like they did last year IMO.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jun 18, 2009 -> 04:40 PM) The Reds are awful! Their lineup is pathetic, and don't look for Volquez to return soon. The team that can hang with the Cubs is the Cardinals, but they need an upgrade at either SS or 3B. Why I put those two "ifs" in there, Votto makes them MUCH better, he is a hell of a hitter and Volquez is about 2-3 weeks away. Also, Harang is better than he was last year and Cueto can be up and down, but he's a tough guy to face. Again, I'm not trying to say anyone in that division is the '27 Yankees, I'm just trying to point out that the teams are slightly improved and are going to give the Cubs tougher games than last year

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Jun 18, 2009 -> 04:39 PM) There are always going to be mistakes made. To be honest, I was actually looking for Poreda in the 8th specifically to keep the ball in the park. The Sox starters are a great matchup against the Cubs and the bullpen doesn't matchup well against them. Sox got burned in a bad loss. If Getz/BA/or Beckham continue to hit well and have good ABs, I think Ozzie should slot one of them to 2nd position and drop Alexei to 7th. Looks like he is getting hotter, but would like a better quality AB in the 2nd then his power potential lower

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Jun 18, 2009 -> 04:35 PM) The Brewers would need a serious Ace for me to think they would stay in it for the long haul. I would if I expected the Cubs to dominate for a long stretch and win 95+, I just don't see that this year from them and the Brewers can mash enough to stick around. Again, Cubs to win it, but they won't run away. If Votto and Volquez come back the Reds will stick around too. Basically outside of the Pirates the division is a little tougher this year

QUOTE (fathom @ Jun 18, 2009 -> 04:32 PM) Yep, their starting 5 is just so much better than Milwaukee's. When the wind starts blowing out, these guys will remember how to hit again. I fully expect them to win it and they do have a solid rotation, but some of the conditions have factored in to why their SP has been dominating and their hitting has struggled, it will even out a little. Also, as far as A-Ramirez goes, he will obviously be a shot in the arm, but the toughest pitch to handle with a shoulder injury (and will probably still be a factor because he's going to have to have surgery in the offseason) is the pitch away from you, which is his bread and butter. He struggles with inside below his hands, so he will contribute because he's that talented, but I don't think he'll be 100%.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Jun 18, 2009 -> 04:31 PM) I fully expect the Cubs to still win their division, its just that terrible and their talent level is so much higher than every other team. I said it before the season started in a thread or two, if anyone in the division made a significant move I would pick them, but they didn't so I picked the Cubs and will stick with it. Now, that's subject to change if the Cards add a big bat or the Brewers add a good SP. Their payroll is over 130m and they are now .500, congratulations.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Jun 18, 2009 -> 04:26 PM) Because this team is going to lose 80 games a year on average and every single one elicits an extreme reaction out of folks on here blaming whichever person they feel is at fault in their own minds. Games like this happen many times a year, and the Cubs win a TON of these at home. It happens, we played well, got a split at Wrigley, move on. My feeling too. I'm not overly optomistic about this years team, but they're in a crappy division so they'll stick around this year, which is fine because they are losing payroll and the young guys are hitting and Danks and Floyd are pitching MUCH better lately. I'm not taking any moral victories from this game, but they lost it when they were in a dominant position to win, it sucks, but they have 2/3 of a season left and outside of the pen they are playing much better lately. Again, if the Cubs when the division it won't be beacuse of this game, it will be because they actually play at a better level then they have been, they've had a few of these games already this year and it wasn't a magical turnaround yet.

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ Jun 18, 2009 -> 04:16 PM) I think we need to consider shutting Dye down for a week. Send Wise down for Kroeger, and see what happens. I think they need to grit their teeth for these next 3 games and see if he can gut it out one more series in a NL park

QUOTE (fathom @ Jun 18, 2009 -> 04:16 PM) The funny thing is if you told me before series we'd split, I would have been "perfect, don't tell me any more info, I'm happy". Just disappointing how close we were to winning. kind of my feeling too, especially with Dempster, who's been OK this year and Zambrano coming off 2 or 3 excellent starts. It was a bad loss, no denying it, but they split a two game on the road. And if the Cubs get hot it won't be because of this game, it will be because some of their hitters are actually hitting more towards their potential.

QUOTE (soxfan3530 @ Jun 18, 2009 -> 04:08 PM) Beckham was 2-for-2 today with a run, a walk and an RBI.... just saying. Yup and BA had some good ABs and Getz hit well...

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Jun 18, 2009 -> 04:08 PM) Frankly ANY fastball pitcher we were going to put out there may have been a wrong choice. I wouldnt have minded Poreda's sinker in that situation. As we can see by Thornton's results, the Cubs just react well to hard stuff, and they were bound to get some hits at home with the wind blowing out. We dominated them on their home turf for 17 innings, I like it alot. I think we start to heat up a bit here, especially with the bottom of the order looking so sexy. I think it might have been a good chance to get him in there in the beginning of the 8th but had Dotel or Thorton ready. He needs to pitch or go down to AAA. Good point about Thorton, he fit what the Cubs like to do well, but after the Lee HR, he should have pitched to Soto.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jun 18, 2009 -> 04:04 PM) I'm the biggest Cubs hater on this site, and even I am shocked at some of the comments after this loss. My only fear is that this goes on to spark the Cubs and they never look back. Soriano still looks bad (yes he got the gw hit, but it has to be more consistent), and he's had some singles, but it's not a good sign that Bradley whiffed against terrible Linebrink. Lee's been hot. They face Cliff Lee tomorrow who's pitched well lately, that will be a good test to see how the turnaround is going

QUOTE (chw42 @ Jun 18, 2009 -> 04:03 PM) Two wrongs and one right doesn't make him excused. I'll go one wrong, that was an Alexei error, and it was a bad play in the 8th, but Linebrink was throwing BP

QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ Jun 18, 2009 -> 04:01 PM) If you haven't noticed, so is the rest of this division, even your precious Tigers. We HAVE to win games like this today. Absolutely have to. No excuses. yeah, outside of the Sox 5 game series, they haven't looked very good lately

QUOTE (watchtower41 @ Jun 18, 2009 -> 03:56 PM) Fixed for you, but what would a series win in Cincy do? Get our hopes up before we get swept by the Dodgers at home and look like a bunch of clowndicks against the Cubs again?? We managed to end our season and give re-birth to the Cubs all in one inning. I hope Linebrink never pitches for us ever again. He hasn't done s*** for us anyways. f*** HIM. My thoughts are exactly what I wanted to be, I don't need your help. This is a rebuilding or a "transition" year as KW likes to put it. They're sticking around in a bad division and now it looks like some of the young guys, BA, Getz and Beckham are swinging well. Quite frankly Gavin should probably have given up more than one run, he wasn't overly sharp today, but he battled. Linebrink blew the game. Like all Cubs fans do they'll overreact to tiny things. Obviously a horrible loss, but there's a tomorrow

QUOTE (watchtower41 @ Jun 18, 2009 -> 03:56 PM) Fixed for you, but what would a series win in Cincy do? Get our hopes up before we get swept by the Dodgers at home and look like a bunch of clowndicks against the Cubs again?? We managed to end our season and give re-birth to the Cubs all in one inning. I hope Linebrink never pitches for us ever again. He hasn't done s*** for us anyways. f*** HIM. Did yesterday not happen?

QUOTE (fathom @ Jun 18, 2009 -> 03:53 PM) Well said...if the Cubs turn this thing around, I wonder if Ozzie/Linebrink will get playoff shares? they had a game or two like this already and it wasn't a magical turnaround yet. Linebrink threw them BP and they hit it. Floyd battled today, but he didn't pitch as well as his line showed. Games like this happen. How they bounce back will be more telling then how they lost it

QUOTE (GoSox05 @ Jun 18, 2009 -> 03:53 PM) Maybe Linebrink shouldn't pitch in close games at Wrigley anymore. with how he's throwing he shouldn't pitch in any close games, but 4 runs isn't close, Ozzie should have pulled him earlier. If Poreda is going to be up here, he has to have a chance at the Linebrink role

QUOTE (watchtower41 @ Jun 18, 2009 -> 03:51 PM) Season over. are you kidding? Because it's really not, worse case scenario is they're 4 out after tonight. They lost a bad game, it happens

bad loss on Ozzie, but have to shake it off and win the series at Cin

Hawk needs to get off the one pitch stuff. The team had a 4 run lead, the error and the two meatballs had more to do with it then that one pitch.

Ozzie has to realize that Thorton is a better pitcher than Linebrink and forget the LH/LHP matchups Well, hold them here come back and get it

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ Jun 16, 2009 -> 11:26 PM) Anything with creepy Tom Cruise just kills me. Yup, but what won't be funny is when Cruise tries to jump on and appears on the show in the same outfit as the wax figure

QUOTE (MurcieOne @ Jun 17, 2009 -> 04:51 PM) It really really really pains me to say that I agree 100%. Howard just doesn't care enough anymore to make the show great, he had an amazing opportunity to really change the medium when he got TWO channels on SIRI/XM and he just didn't have enough gas left in the tank to follow through. I blame Beth Ono. yeah, I'm not thrilled that that is my opinion either, but unless it changes in the next few months that's how I feel. The Beth thing definitely is the highlight of how the show has changed for the worse. It was unlistenable a few weeks ago when she was in the stuido but they were pretending she wasn't there, but referencing her every 5 seconds, I turned it off, which is rare for me. Also stuff like the Rosie O'Donell stuff. Look, people change, I don't have a problem with that, my problem is he asked his audience for years to rally against her and all the stuff she does, then he just has her on and is shocked that his listeners were pissed. He should have come on before and explained how his opinion changed of her. Also, she's a 9/11 conspiracy person, the old Howard would have had a debunker on the phone or in the studio with her once he found that out. Again, he has had an amazing and underated career. It's not written nearly enough how millions of listerns vanished from traditional radio and how CBS lost a ridiculous amount of revenue when he went away. IMO he helped influence the whole generation of "dirty" comedies at the movies. He still has great moments, like Gilbert in the studio a few weeks ago, but over the last 6 months, it's taken an unfortunate turn

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Jun 17, 2009 -> 06:15 PM) interesting to note that Soriano will STILL be patrolling LF and hitting leadoff for the cubs in 2014 making 18 million dollars a year. Yes, but 2011 will be fun too when they're paying him and Bradley still