fathom

9 runners have reached, 9 batters retired. Contreras is so finished. No one is going to want him.

It's astonishing how easy Contreras used to make pitching look, and now hard it seems for him to get more than two guys out in a row. He's consistently down 3 mph whenever he faces righties.

It all started in the offseason for the Cubs, where they bought themselves a lot of talent. They couldn't possibly keep losing as many one run games in crazy fashion as they were for the first 3 months of the season.

Preach on SSI....he should be embarassed by that mammoth homer he just allowed.

The Brewers just aren't that good anymore. They're something like 6 games under .500 since they started off the year hot. Their offense has been real mediocre lately, so I guess overpaying for Linebrink makes sense. J.J. Hardy's power has absolutely vanished.

It's too bad we can't just pull Contreras now. I'll never understand why we don't play the 3rd baseman more down the line when Contreras throws so many low, inside sinkers.

Holy cow, that ball was destroyed. Kudos to Dye for not letting his frustrations lately impact his performance. I hope Dye gets a huge standing ovation during his last at-bat this weekend.

Fields fouls off an insane amount of pitches. As someone so brilliantly mentioned earlier, he doesn't K too often on pitches in the dirt/sliders. Rather, he swings through a lot of high fastballs, and that's something I'm confident he'll improve upon.

So, this is the first I'll say it this year, but we really have to improve our lineup against lefties next year. Hopefully Iguchi will be gone, as people don't realize how dreadful he is against LHP. Having Fields in there everyday will help.

Is DLS ok?

He has a lot of nerve talking about teams having issues with steroids/HGH.

QUOTE(Gregory Pratt @ Jul 25, 2007 -> 07:15 PM) It has increased over the last three years. But it's a false impression and it'll go back down soon. You aren't disputing that Williams was once a laughingstock, are you? I never said he's still a laughingstock. I said I can see why he once was and why, IMO, he soon will be again. He'll be fired well before he can become the laughingstock again. It was interesting seeing him say a few days ago in the press that the bullpen is eventually going to cause him to lose his job.

BTW, I don't think Williams is the laughingstock of baseball at all. If anything, his rep as a GM has greatly increased over the last three years. Yes, everyone in baseball was shocked that he didn't get more for Garcia, but it's obvious that KW was just trying to ship off some damaged goods. It's the same thing he's doing with Contreras right now. (I don't mean damaged goods in the Majewski way)

QUOTE(CWSGuy406 @ Jul 25, 2007 -> 07:08 PM) Laughingstock? Are we talking about fathom's scouts who seemingly laugh their ass off at every move Kenny makes? I remember lots of 'quotes' from them immediately after the Freddy Garcia trade. I'd like to see what those same scouts are saying now... You mean the same ones that thought that Masset wasn't even close to being a major league caliber pitcher, and that Gavin Floyd was washed up, or that Aardsma was a bad acquisition?

QUOTE(infohawk @ Jul 25, 2007 -> 04:17 PM) A few thoughts on Floyd. His past outings have frustrated me in that he seems like he wants to pick at the corners and subsequently falls behind the hitters and issues walks -- not good. I didn't get to see the game last night, but was somewhat suprised when I saw that he had struck out five without issuing any walks. The problems were a high pitch count early in the game and the alarming number of hits he gave up. Also, only five of the runs were earned, still high, but it's not too far removed from what you might expect from a bottom of the rotation guy. That said, the pitch count was definitely a problem. I'm less concerned about the 11 hits because most of them were singles if the gamecast analysis (viewed after the game) can be trusted. Sometimes hits are just a function of bad luck for the pitcher -- balls finding holes and whatnot. Doubles and triples -- balls hit into gaps or smoked -- are another matter. Like I said, though, I didn't actually see the game. They were hitting absolute rockets off of Floyd last night. His fastball looked like a pitching machine on the mound. Floyd could have easily given up 10 runs last night. He got a better feel for his hook at the game went on, but he lost his velocity very quickly. I don't see him as anything more than a righty bullpen guy.

QUOTE(daa84 @ Jul 25, 2007 -> 03:45 PM) i was actually impressed with the fact that floyd seemed to be able to add and subtract on his fastball....the problem is he basically became a one pitch pitcher after he plunked sheff with the curve...he was tentative to throw it ....but later on in the 4th he started gaining control of it and threw a beauty to strike sheff out and to back door one of their lefties, can't recall who... that said he threw a few hangers too that got hit very hard...he also needs to find some rhythm on the mound...stuff wise i actually thought he is very similar to vazquez, with a lesser changeup, similar slider, and slightly better curve when he can command it....one thing i would be worried about is that his delivery looks so awkward and unnatural that it seems like its something that is not easily repeatable, leaving him susceptible to frequent problems with mechanics I don't think he meant to add and subtract. He just is so inconsistent with his pitches, and everything is up in the zone. His changeup is absolutely putrid.

Fields is the anti-Carlos Lee when it comes to home runs. You can never tell if he got enough, as he looks so goofy busting his ass out of the box.

The Trib reports the Angels inquired about Konerko. I can't see the Sox trading him though. KW/Ozzie say we won't be going into a rebuilding mode this offseason. It would be a pleasant surprise if we can find a competitive team next year.

I don't see how he'll ever get lefties out.

QUOTE(greg775 @ Jul 25, 2007 -> 03:15 AM) Crede's next contract should be interesting. Nobody is going to pay him squat because of the back woes. Just like how no one would pay Randy Wolf.

Our bullpen, I'm sure, will make it so we don't just have to get one run to tie the rest of this game.

The timing on that homer was comical by Thome.

0-6

What a f***ing shock....the opposition plays terrible defense, and then they give Aramis pitches to hit in clutch spots.

You know what makes me so pissed off....seeing Cubs players contribute once they're called up from the minors.