sfaJack

Gotta agree with Rant. Seems like a bad idea at this point in time.

Yep. I'll be sure to wave to any of you watching on TV. Should be a fantastic game.

I don't think it's entirely Jimy's fault the Astros are only 4 over .500. They are a flawed team. Sure, some of the day-to-day lineups Jimy runs out there are a little screwy in regards to who plays and who sits, but in his defense (and I can't believe I'm gonna try and defend Jimy): - Pettitte has been hurt for half of the year and he's had to run Brandon fucking Duckworth out there. - Oswalt's oblique muscle strain (or whatever it is in his side) IS affecting him, regardless of whatever Roy says. Witness yesterday's fifth inning against the Brewers. Roy cruised through the first 3+ innings...trainer comes out to check Roy in the fourth, and then in the fifth, the Brewers pound out 5 runs against him. Oswalt's never had an inning that poor, ever. - Wade Miller has been a very average pitcher this year. They need more from him. Hard to blame Jimy for that. - Bagwell can barely lift his arm (much less throw) due to his shoulder injury, which is only going to get worse. It's affecting his play. Check out the dip in his batting average over the last few weeks. - Richard Hidalgo hasn't homered since April 13, and Morgan Ensberg hasn't homered at all. It's not Jimy's fault those guys aren't producing squat. - His bullpen hasn't been spectacular. Lidge and Dotel have been ok, though shaky at times and Miceli's been better than I think most thought he would be. But getting the ball to those guys has been a problem. One thing that seems obvious to me that Jimy ought to do is bump Berkman up to third in the lineup and drop Bagwell at least to the 5 hole. Berkman's their best hitter, and he'd probably get 20-30 more AB's just by doing that. I think it might jumpstart the offense a bit. Oh, and quit sac bunting Everett EVERY FREAKING TIME Biggio gets on to lead off an inning. This would be even more crucial with Berkman hitting third, since it could lead to more big innings, which the Astros usually need to score. They are not a good "small ball" team. I think the problem for the Astros might be that they'll end up stuck with this team, for the most part. They're in contention, so you can't just trade 5 or 6 players "just because," and their farm system is somewhat depleted so it might be hard to acquire someone else. Their biggest piece of trade bait is/was Hidalgo, but with him having a poor year and an insane contract, I'd be shocked if anyone took him. Another question is what happens if/when Clemens hits the wall? Without him doing as well as he has, they'd be dead already.

Oh, well, alright then. Fair enough. I know what you mean about managers that do that crap. Makes me glad I'm not a Cardinal fan; all Tony LaRussa's micromanaging bullshit would probably drive me completely insane.

What's so amazing about it? Bunting with a guy on second and nobody out IS a dumb play, and has been for years. The only time you might possibly bunt in such a situation is if the pitcher is batting, but even then, depending on the game situation, a pinch hitter is probably the order of the day.

The ad wizard who created all those "I just saved money by switching to Geico" commercials should be decapitated. ASAP.

Just ONCE I'd love to see Craig Biggio not be awarded first for leaning into pitches. Just once. Please. I think a rule banning body armor for hitters would go a long, long way in curbing some of that bullshit. There might actually be some incentive to get out of the way then.

Goddamn: 6 pitches, 3 outs. What a relief Prior should be for the Cubs. God knows they've earned it.

Relax, man. Cubs were 5 1/2 back in August last year before roaring back. Besides, help is on the way today!!

Actually, if you compare Patterson's numbers to last year, he's been pretty similar this year. His batting average is down (.298 to .262), his slugging is down (.511 to .422), and his RBI rate is down, but his OBP is about the same and he still isn't walking enough while still striking out way too much.

What, you mean the one where Lee's foot came off the bag? One replay we got here showed that it wasn't by much, but Lee did come off the bag. The fact that the Cubs didn't really protest too much gives it away as well. More of the blame has to go on Farnsworth though, for two reasons. One, the pitch that Ausmus tapped to reach base was hittable, and it shouldn't have been. He'd been blowing him away with the high heat...why not stick with it? Ausmus was way behind it. Two, he served up a fat one to Lamb. You just cannot leave that juicy of a pitch out there and expect major league hitters to miss it very often. Farnsworth has great stuff, but he just makes too many mistakes. Anyway, my sentiments are similar to Bruiser's. The Cubs did deserve to lose tonight. Maybe the boos that rained down will serve to wake them up a bit and be just a little bit smarter at the plate in such crucial situations.

There's like 5 fantasy baseball threads elsewhere. Go talk about that stupid shit there.

"IT'S FUCKING LUCK!" Not tonight it ain't. When you have the bases loaded and no outs TWICE and get ZERO runs on the board, it's not luck of any kind. It's bad baseball. Period. If you'd seen the 0-1 fastball Derrek Lee let go idly by, you'd be pissed off too. That baby had extra bases written all over it.

The Cubs' lack of clutch hitting is starting to really piss me off tonight. TWICE they've had the bases loaded with NO OUTS. The results: 0-5, 4 K's, and a 1-2-3 double play. Even more pathetic than their perfomances in some of the playoff games last year. Corey Patterson better get his free swinging ass under control. That boy is KILLING them.

Oh Jordan is one of the worst examples of referee bias ever. I loved watching Jordan play, but I'm not naive enough to think that every play he made was "clean." I think I'm just blown away by the fact that an ex-NBA official flat-out said that the bias exists, and that not only does it exist but it is strongly taken into account when refs are calling a game. The admission of something that has been assumed (known) for years hurts the integrity of the game, imo, and it's really going to be hard to put that in the back of my mind from now on and just enjoy the game. How can I be sure I will be watching a truly fair game?

Hmmmmm....... Anybody hear about Eddie Rush walking over the scorer's table and asking how many fouls Shaq had right after he got #5 called on him? Shouldn't he, as a referee, KNOW how many fouls Shaq has? Or shouldn't he ask his fellow officials or check the scoreboard for that if he's unsure? Why go to the scorer's table? And, to further that, ex-ref Hugh Hollins was on Dan Patrick's radio show and basically admitted that the stars like Shaq are given preferential treatment in regards to fouls (shocking, I know). If you didn't hear it, Patrick asked him why Rush would have done that and Hollins said something along the lines of "Well, we don't want to foul out a guy like Shaq or Kobe on a "ticky-tack" foul. All of the officials are made aware of those guys having five fouls, and we really need to make the sixth foul call an obvious one that everyone sees." (What is a "good" foul? Breaking someone's jaw?) In regards to why a guy like Oliver Miller is treated differently than Shaq, Hollins said, "The officials know why Oliver Miller is in the game. He's in there to foul. We know that." If that's the case (and it is), why is there a presumption of guilt as soon as Oliver Miller steps on the floor? As if Shaq or Kobe are incapable of committing six fouls? I don't get it. It's fucking bias, and I'd love to see somebody defend it. Come on, Laker fans. Seriously...if this "guilty before proven innocent" routine is as entrenched as it appears to be, how can you take the NBA seriously as a legitimate sport? Oh, who am I kidding? This is the same league that let Karl Malone, the dirty asshole who doesn't deserve a ring, off the hook for knocking the shit out of Darrick Martin and Peeler is instantly suspended for two games for punking Garnett.

What are you waiting for? Make that shit happen.

How the hell do you pay for all that? Rob a bank or something? My god.

Not quite. Cubs @ Astros -- Aug. 20-22 Astros @ Cubs -- Aug. 26-29 But then that's it. Kinda retarded not to have them play at least two games in September. That isn't asking too much, is it? Better yet, 6 different three-game series, and have one during each month of the season. But an equivalent travesty is that Cubs/Cardinals are finished July 20. How stupid is that? Getting rid of the unbalanced schedule (which I kind of like) and/or interleague play (which needs to die) would help a lot.

Good win for the Cubs today. A much needed one for sure, and Maddux looked pretty good (did they ever say why he had to leave the game?). Maybe they can make it two in a row over the Stros now. The opportunity is certainly there since Brandon Duckworth is pitching for Houston tomorrow.

Mark Prior is apparently going to start Friday at Wrigley against the Pirates. I sure he hope he's fully healthy. The worst thing they could do is bring him back too soon. At least maybe he'll be able to get Mackowiak out.

Fucking right. One of them little bastards slammed into the back of my head one day while I was out mowing. I still don't know why he attacked me. I wasn't anywhere near a tree when he smacked into me. Otherwise on this topic, I despise mosquitos and fire ants (a huge problem down here). There is no purpose for their existence.

Cardinal catcher Cody McKay had 5 career hits coming into today's game. He's gone 4-5 today. Just one of those peculiar "That's baseball!" moments.

Astros/Cards is the national FOX game here. You might try that Bruiser though I doubt it's the same in Michigan. This 8th inning at Minute Maid is perhaps one of the most bizarre innings I've ever seen. A ball hits the rafters of the roof (which had been open earlier) and then boom, Cards score 4 runs. I love it. At least maybe the Cubs won't lose any ground today on the Astros.

Oh I say it's time for a change. With the money they're paying Hawkins, he can just shut his mouth and close out some games. The problem with that, of course, is that it opens up a hole in the 8th inning of games (then again..what's the point of bridging the gap till the ninth if you're just going to lose it then?). I suppose they have to hope that Mercker comes back strong and hope Remlinger doesn't get hurt again. But please Hendry, do SOMETHING. Borowski's run out of chances.