Bruiser Chong

I know that...now. Of course, the Cards could've sealed the deal today, but instead, somehow avoided getting the sweep against the D-Backs. Not having Rolen in there has really made the Cards look a lot less amazing the last week or so.

Why is Yahoo Sports proclaiming the Cardinals the NL Central champs? I know it's a given, but the magic number's one. All of the articles are talking about how they're officially the champs after their win coupled with the Cubs' losing last night. And as if anyone cared, the horrible outings by Maddux and Schmidt along with the recent collapse of guys like Furcal, Loretta and Sheffield have more or less sealed my fate in the addiction known as fantasy baseball.

And the Cubs wind up blowing a three-run lead and losing the game 6-5. The real frustrating part of it is they had five hits in the last two innings, but bad breaks like outfield assists and double-plays saw to it that only one run came from it all. One thing few will look back to is early in the game in the inning where Alou homered. Lee followed it with a single and advanced to third on a big wild pitch. Sosa proceeded to strike out, Grudzielanek popped out and Paul Bako is Paul Bako, which meant that Lee didn't score. That wound up being the difference tonight.

He's right, though. A Marlins loss and a Cubs win tonight would put them five out, so it'd take quite a bit from the Marlins to still clinch if they fall tonight.

I, for one, was glad to see Beckett get shelled. Not just because it's the Marlins or because he's an arrogant prick, but because my opposition in fantasy baseball this week had him going tonight and I needed some help after Jason Schmidt's lousy outing.

I didn't even realize until just now that the Red Sox aren't just being shut out, they're being no-hit. Can't understand why he'd pull half the starters when the top of the lineup was due in the 7th.

Looks like this one's over. Francona just took out half the starting lineup.

You know, I'm "watching" the game via MLB's Gameday and looking at his profile pic, I thought the exact same thing and was even considering posting about it here.

I'd say the bottom has fallen out for the Sox in this one. Looks like everything that could possibly go wrong has gone wrong. Errors, wild pitches, lots of runs given up, no offense and walks in full force for the Sox today.

He wouldn't be so fucked up if his parents hadn't left forgotten him at home all those times.

Since college football has filled up about 14 of the sports channels, looks like I'll need to find something else to watch today. I figured the Yanks/Sox game would be on, but no go here. Yanks are already laying it on, as they lead 5-0 already in the first. Sox will surely make it interesting before it's said and done, though.

We've got about three weeks left of games and he's 25 hits shy of the elusive record. Many are figuring he's got the record hands down, but he's been slumping a lot lately. I think he'll do it, but not until the last week of the season. Just for reference, he's 0-1 tonight with 3 walks. I believe that doubles his season total in that department.

Derrek Lee continues to earn my respect, driving in five of the six Cubs runs tonight, as Zambrano is shuting out the Reds. I know it's just the Reds' pitching, but it is fun to watch the Cubs hit in situations like this. As maddening as it is to watch them score next to no runs some days, it's good to see them live up to their potential other days. EDIT: Zambrano just helped himself by hitting a solo shot to straightaway center.

He can't be around, but he said if he does seal the deal with her, he'll call me on the cell phone his parents bought for him so I can let you all know.

What he said. I come from a Catholic family, but my mom hasn't pressed it on me once I turned 16 years ago. That seemed to be the magical age where she decided I didn't have to go to church anymore unless I wanted to. Needless to say, I've been there maybe three times that wasn't Christmas or Easter since then; twice was because my girlfriend forced me to go. I'd like to believe in a higher power and to some extent, I do. I'm just at the point where too many good questions are answered with BS answers from the religious folk (i.e. the one Lushus mentioned). I think way too many people take the Bible and religion too seriously. To each their own, but I don't think anyone has the right to force religious beliefs on anyone. Ever. I've often found that some of the craziest people I've ever met in my life have been extremely religious. I don't think that's a coincidence. To those extremely religious people--stop telling everyone how they're going to burn in hell for their sins. Nobody dwells on how you're a nut for living your life to the dictation of something that may or may not truly exist.

The thing about the Cards is lately, they've had some fairly costly injuries pile up. Everyone wondered what they'd be like if they experienced any key injuries. They'll be fine in the regular season, but it's interesting to see how they've played without Rolen.

When did Burroughs get hurt? I just saw him playing last night.

Might as well halt play in the NL, the Padres have just made a major move that will secure them the Wild Card spot. That's right, Alex Gonzalez has been traded from the Spos to the Padres in a blockbuster deal that also involved CASH CONSIDERATIONS. Wow. In all seriousness, they basically have their back against the wall, after losing Greene for the season, so a move probably had to be made. At least Gonzo will feel better about moving back to a winning team.

Oh, but you must. I didn't invest 11 minutes into this thread for a copout ending like that.

I guess we'll never know.

I'm just upset that Pavano got the loss, but not about them dropping both games.

The Cubs are such bums sometimes. Perez loses all semblence of the strike zone, walking the bags full with one out and proceeds to get out of the inning untouched thanks to Barrett and Mark Grudzielanek refusing to take a single pitch.

Czech's prediction was frighteningly on target. The wind blowing out hasn't helped much, although I'd say it's affected Perez more than Prior. And 2GOLD, I see what you're getting at, but I tend to look at it another way. Look at what Dusty had to work with last season in comparison to year's past. In 2002, the Cubs basically had Sosa and nothing else. They made some key additions in 2003, got a healthy Moises Alou and had Prior and Zambrano for a full season. Look how bad the team was before the deal with the Pirates. These additions clearly put the Cubs on another level. It wasn't necessarily what Dusty was doing. It was just what he had to work with and that was a lot in comparison to the Cubs team of 2002. This season should be proof that he's not a great manager. Injuries or not, the Cubs haven't lived up to their potentional and some of that blame has to go to the guy leading the ship. Take a look at someone like Bobby Cox who's putting it all together yet again, despite having considerably less to work with than last year. Baker's got a lot of great tools, but he doesn't know how to fully utilize them. It's seasons like this that prove he's not so much of a great manager as he's just a guy who's been lucky with the talent he's had at his disposle all these years.

Lame.

Subliminal messaging giving the universally superior gold to FS? I think not. But I do agree that in this case, the silver looks better.