Jake

Guthrie doesn't have a great track record, but let's not act like it's Bruce Chen out there. He was regularly hitting 95 with his heater today and has a nice breaking ball too.

Middle of our lineup got absolutely murdered today. Guthrie did pitch well though, maybe deserved to give up 2 or 3, so it isn't like these games won't happen.

Great inning Gavin

QUOTE (Chilihead90 @ Apr 4, 2013 -> 02:39 PM) You know, since he came in to the league in 2004, the only person to strike out less frequently than Jeff Keppinger was Juan Pierre. Kepp has a 6.4% K-rate. He walks more often than he strikes out. He struck out only twice in spring training. HE HAS STRUCK OUT IN TWO STRAIGHT GAMES NOW. BURN IT DOWN.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Apr 4, 2013 -> 02:25 PM) What did De Aza do? Played a single into a double -- runner on second MIGHT not have scored if he made the stop as well. Played the ball on the in between hop landing in front of him and it whizzed right by.

Defense has f***ed Gavin here.

I blame this on Ozzie

And another bad element for Alejandro's poor start

That is one soft ass run

QUOTE (La Marr Hoyt HOF @ Apr 4, 2013 -> 02:11 PM) God does Dunn SUCK. That ball was not even close........................ That's a slider -- the trick is that it looks like it is close and then becomes not close. That is the same reason Paulie (who has yet to contribute) SUCKed just as badly on the same pitch.

Damn Alejandro, you look like pure s*** right now

The problem with realpolitik is it assumes rational action on all parts -- I don't think the NK regime has credibility as a rational actor.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Apr 4, 2013 -> 12:19 PM) I dont think it matters today. second game after a day off, i dont think a sunday lineup is really necessary Agreed. It's not like Guthrie is a "tough righty" anyway

QUOTE (Joxer_Daly @ Apr 4, 2013 -> 11:36 AM) And the useless c*** is the DH?? Haha, yes. Whoever is so f***ing talentless that he can't be the best 1B on his team DHs. I will say that I suspect our better defensive 1B (not including the reserves) is our starting DH, but yeah. If you have two 1Bs, one will be a DH. Also, you'll get guys that through age or injury like Sox great Frank Thomas that are better served as a DH only -- sometimes this is more of a team protecting its asset than anything else, though.

The harder the position defensively, the fewer players that can play it. If 1 out 10 professional players can hit at the big league level (I'm pulling that number out of thin air) -- everyone can play 1B, so 1 out of 10 batters can be a 1B. Let's say 1 out of 10 players can play SS, so that means hitters that play SS will be 10x as scarce. That is the simplest way to put it. There are body type and athleticism considerations at play, but the assumption is a SS could drop into any other position other than catcher if needed while a 1B would not normally have the defensive talent to play ANY other position.

As long as you're okay with a complete loss of competitive balance, worse than it is now

The Bulls wouldn't hold him out to collect insurance when they went into the tax this year. That would ultimately cost them more money when they become repeat offenders.

It will be interesting to see if Connor takes at bats from Keppinger or Gordon. They love Gordon's D so much that they may not want to bench him against tough righties and have Kep fill in there. Like others have said though, I don't expect changes today.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Apr 4, 2013 -> 08:38 AM) All I know is Derrick Rose makes a f***ton of money in salary and endorsements because he plays basketball. We're almost a full year into his new monster deal, and the doctors cleared him to play forever ago. The Bulls f***ed this situation up by letting him determine when he plays. I'm sure they just never expected Reggie to project his fears onto Rose and for Rose, competitor that he always seemed, to not want to be on the court ASAP. Unfortunately, the Bulls HAD to let him decide. Who would want to play here if the word around the league is that we made the franchise's second best player ever (get off me, Scottie lovers ) come back too soon from injury?

I'm sure one of these days there will be a fun book written about this. People like to hate on the Bulls, but Derrick is crazy if he is going to intentionally avoid playing for a team with this much talent. I'm sure he'd love for the Bulls to have Kevin Love or James Harden or whomever else he is wishing for, but the team he has has a pretty damn good supporting cast. If he doesn't want to play for them this year, they are likely to only get weaker or at best stay the same in talent in the next year or two. He's just wasting his odds with this group. I like to think of it this way. Maybe this group with a healthy Derrick would beat the Heat in 25% of series matchups. This means in 4 years, we ought to get a title (because who would beat the Heat and then lose in the Finals?). Derrick's injury lost them a chance to roll the dice again last year, and it looks like he's willing to forsake another roll of the dice. It is likely and possible we can bring the same core back next year and surely Derrick will be playing by then. Unfortunately, though, we'll be going strong in the playoffs (presumably) for the second time in four seasons at that point. Next year will definitely be the last year with that core. You'll be dropping Deng and Boozer after next season, if they make it that long. Say what you will about Deng and Boozer, but the team is worse when they are gone unless we pull another star out of our butt. Derrick seems to be betting that we will somehow be getting more championship ready in the next year or two and that's asking too much. We put together at least a second-best team here and he's wasting it. You know what raises a team like the Bulls from loser to the Heat to beating the Heat? How about a superstar performance? His solution seems to be to wait around for another superstar to appear when the team is built for HIM to be THE guy. We know its flaws, but seriously, if there is strategy in his staying out then it is seriously misguided.

Gordon, Moustakas, and Hosmer will decide this game. Gavin has never been good against lefties, but he really struggled against them last year -- even for him. If he can avoid giving up a bunch of bombs to lefties, he'll be fine.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Apr 3, 2013 -> 09:37 PM) Ekey is a hard worker, he plays very tough inside and outside. I think a Griffey comparison is wrong Rejoice!

QUOTE (IlliniKrush @ Apr 3, 2013 -> 09:15 PM) ISU guys... Jon Ekey might be coming to Illinois. Scouting report? I'm not an "ISU guy" but a quick glance at his numbers makes him look like a poor man's Tyler Griffey

haha Tigers I love when parts of the game that are supposed to be not that hard to be good at in the MLB really cost the Tigers (defense, bullpen)

The crux of my argument is that you don't always know what you want -- when you have easy access to things you didn't think or know you wanted, you are more likely to happen upon them and realize they are in fact good for you. Obviously, you are more likely to get stuck with crap as well but crap doesn't hurt you. Lack of good choices hurts you. This isn't perfectly applicable, but it is unfathomable how much good content I've been exposed to solely because I saw it on Netflix and knew the only price to watch was my time. If Netflix had asked me if I only wanted to pay for a particular type of movie or $1/movie or whatever else you can think of, I wouldn't have tried for this stuff. If someone told me I had to pay more for AMC a year ago, I would have told them to f*** off. I watched some Mad Men in a class and suddenly had this desire to have access to AMC. Not everyone studies media and will happen upon good television in compulsory screenings for class. Even so, I wouldn't have spent money to see more Mad Men until I was able to watch more on a "free" basis (I was paying for a subscription, but not to see AMC) IMO, all set-ups will benefit the biggest companies. I think the little guy gets f***ed in most incarnations of the pay-per-content model that I've heard speculated upon to this point. This isn't to say that "the little guy" has it made now, but they can team up with other little guys and mutually help each other by being packaged together. If you abolish the channel format, who is to say that shows like The Walking Dead and Breaking Bad are able to succeed without riding the coattails of Mad Men?