Bruiser Chong

I agree that the Stros are running a gamble, as they've traded away their former closer and the guy who was supposed to take over that role. Things weren't working out exactly as they'd planned, so I guess they figure there's no harm in letting Lidge go for the role. However, their pen is already weak with Dotel being one of the few guys who was usually reliable. Here's to hoping they've made a mistake in trading away Dotel and Beltran isn't the solution to their offense woes. As an aside, I think Dotel will look pretty damn goofy in those white shoes the A's wear; moreso than most of their players.

Of course I'm pissed that Beltran is heading towards the Astros. I'm fairly apathetic towards the rest. With this deal going through and Pettitte returning within the next week, is it safe to say that the Stros recent troubles are soon to be a thing of the past?

Don't look now, but the D-Rays have won nine straight, are only four games under .500 and are... 8 1/2 games behind the Sox. Oh well. No one expects them to even finish anywhere but last place, but they're really looking solid the last couple of weeks, after going the first part of the season without being able to grab back-to-back wins.

Bruiser, that's one of your best posts ever I was wondering if anyone would notice. And what's with Vasquez? Two wild pitches, a double and an error. One of the few times I need the Yanks to win and this goes down. Fantastic.

I was gonna add that at least Griffey will probably get another shot at 500, but Pujols ensured that that'll have to wait until tomorrow. I was pulling for the Reds, but I think it's safe to say that they're finally starting to play on their true level.

He may have kept the game going, but in his defense, it was Larkin's routine error that allowed the tying run to score. And Graves could've given up the winning run, which was on third, but didn't. He messed up putting the guys on, but had Larkin not bobbled the ball, he may have had a shot at getting the last out at first. And Ock, I agree completely about the MLB team pages. The people on those boards makes everyone here look like brilliant.

In their defense, they didn't get in until very late this morning, but neither did the A's. Not like the Cubs got blown out, but still, they've got a knack for starting series off on the wrong foot. As for Baker not pinch-hitting Alou in the 8th, I'd agree, but there was no one on ahead of Goodwin. I'm sure if we had seen Martinez get that double that he looked to have, Alou would've come on to pinch-hit.

This board fucking sucks. I typed up a long post, hit add reply and got a "this page cannot be displayed." Of course, my post was gone forever because anytime you go back when posting a message on Invision Board, the message is no longer there.

Jeff Weaver lost four World Series games? Now that's talent.

Even the free shipping is fast. I've bought from there four or five times and always used free shipping. I never waited more than a week for the package to arrive, so it's solid shipping and service.

Okay, was this "epic" storyline worth ruining the credibility of just about every heel on the RAW roster at the time? I know they wanted to go with the "OMG SWERVE!@!~!!" angle, but they did it at a the cost of most of the heels looking like wimps. Oh, puleaze. I vividly remember that awful main event segment. It went on for a good 20 minutes, the crowd was dead silent and just about everyone on the 'net hated the damn thing, with some even calling it one of the worst segments on WWE TV ever. I don't know if I'd go that far, but considering that came before things like the Katie Vick angle, maybe they weren't too far off. It was a terrible segment that didn't make me want to see what would happen next or made me want more; it just made me wonder why the hell they were going through with this crap.

So, what's everyone think the Arthur Rhodes' "personal reasons" for missing a couple games this week are? "He sucks" isn't a valid reason, me thinks.

Who is gratified after a loss? And when the Yanks finally have a hard fought loss, I'll say so. No one, but there are some games where the other team simply played better. Doesn't mean the losing team was trying to lose. Vent if you'd like, but why don't you ever look at the big picture? The Yankees still have a 5 1/2 game lead over the Sox, who just dropped two games to the Rockies. So it's not just the Yanks. Anyway, I found it funny that cash had to be thrown from the Sox to sweeten the trade.

Welp, I was going to ignore AS' pointless bitching about not being able to win every single game, but JHawk, just ignore it. He's a shining example of why people hate not only the Yankees, but their "fans," who aren't gratified unless the win all the time.

The error was huge, since they had Sanders, Pujols and Rolen up afterwards with a guy at third and no one out. Figures that the Cubs sweep the Stros, while the Reds and Cards sweep their respective series. At least they're hanging in there.

Heh. Hopefully this doesn't end like the one last week that wasn't supposed to be released. Regardless, cash is too tight to be spending anything, so this sale does nothing for me, unfortunately.

Keep Rusch in for middle relief. As well as he's pitching right now, his career numbers don't justify it, so something's going to give sooner than later. I'm thrilled he's been this effective in Wood's absence, but we need to keep in mind why he's had such trouble staying with one team for too long.

This just in: Billy Koch has been traded to the Marlins for Wilson Valdez. I believe some cash went Florida's way, as well. White Sox fans will be happy and all six Marlins fans will weep.

My god they can't ever make it easy. I felt confident going into the 9th, even though the heart of their order was up. When they didn't catch the pop-up from Berkman, I thought to myself "Here we go." When he doubled, things looked like they may be going south, but Hawkins then got two straight outs. With two strikes on Lane, I figured this thing was over. That golf shot homer made my heart sink, but Hawkins was finally able to nail things down. But doesn't seem to matter who's closing, there's always some drama in these Cubs wins. Glad to see them sweep a struggling Houston team. This road trip and their last one is like night and day.

Getting into a wrestling discussion in these parts is like begging for a headache, but I can't ignore iggmcfly's statement about the HBK / HHH storyline that set up their SS '02 match being great. I found the match itself to be too plodding and without purpose throughout, but I had no interest going into the match because of the storyline. It's been two years, but perhaps you need to think harder about the storyline and some of the negative ramifications it had in the company. First, it brought Shawn back to the main event scene. I was always an HBK fan (his original heel stint, anyway), but when he retired in 1998, he should've stayed that way. Instead, his "amazing" comeback in 2002 put him in the main event picture without doing much in the way of actually earning it. Let's not forget how rusty he was or the fact that he looked like a 160-pound girl. Looking at him during that time, it was laughable to think of him as a main event sort of guy. Then you had the aforementioned storyline that built the match. Most people figured HHH was the guy who beatdown Shawn in the parking lot weeks prior to the event, but we still had to go through that ordeal during an entire episode of RAW where HHH more or less punked out the entire heel portion of the RAW roster while he was playing the concerned friend of Shawn's. If this wasn't bad enough, a lot of the heels were together at the time of the confrontation, which basically made HHH look better than three or four heels at a time. Instead of a group like the Un-Americans, who he confronted, stepping up or beating him down, they acted like a bunch of schmucks, apparently because HHH was just that damn frightful. Big deal, you may say, but it didn't exactly make the rest of the heels look to intimidating after they backed down from just one guy. And maybe it's just because I can't stand either guy anymore, but a lot of you are really generous with your snowflakes for their matches. SS was a dull spotfest, Armageddon was complete and utter trash, not to mention no other match got quite the build that one did. Their RAW match was probably the best of the crop, but it was overshadowed by the abortion of a main event they put on at the Royal Rumble. No bias one way or the other with that one; it was just a terrible match with a lot of blood trying to cover that fact that they lied around the ring 60 percent of the time.

Yeah, I know they've been trying to trade him, but I was surprised how quickly it was done once trade talks surfaced this season, since those talks have gone nowhere for almost three years.

I'm surprised they made the move this quickly. I figured he'd be traded, but they were only talking about Hidalgo as recently as last night and where he could be heading to. I do think it's a good move for both teams, since the Mets need some more offense and the Stros need some bullpen help, as Al said.

Not like Frigid made it himself. I've seen it on just about any messageboard that even has an NBA Finals thread.

I heard him saying he wouldn't mind a trade if they were out of contention, too. Wouldn't be a bad pick-up for the Cubs, but obviously, it wouldn't be a long-term thing. I say they go for him and keep Hawkins in the setup role, since that's clearly where he's more comfortable.

I missed the Cubs game completely because I was watching the Pistons game. Saw during halftime that they were down 2-1 in the 9th and figured that Zambrano was going to get a tough loss. Didn't turn out that way, as Dotel blew it. Glad the Cubs won, but sucks they couldn't come back against someone other than Dotel, who's also on my fantasy team. I figured that I'd avoid a loss because of Zambrano getting a no decision, but then realized that I'd still be getting it because of Dotel. Oh well, reality > fantasy.