ZoomSlowik

He looked pretty good, not great, but good enough. He was throwing strikes with the fastball, which he doesn't always do. He's got a great arm, so when he does, he's tough. Yeah, we helped him out by swinging at a few high ones and taking a couple of changeups(or whatever his breaking ball is) down the middle, but when a guy throws a fastball anywhere from 94-98 with movement while getting strikes, he's tough.

Man, that was a pretty good slider to Maggs. I've seen worse. Harden was pitching pretty well. That one inning was ugly, but it isn't the end of the world.

I kind of like the fact that the next three pitchers we face are lefties, that should guarantee that Rowand is in the lineup. I know one of them is Mulder, but Zito and Redman don't scare me a whole lot.

Man, we're wasting a win from KC! Those are getting pretty rare!

I'll admit it, I deserve that.

Not with academic issues. I'm trying to get the feel of the new one before I use my usual Northwestern Wildcats. They actually have some decent player ratings this year. Obviously the home field advantage needs some work.

Not acceptable! I got NCAA waiting on me too, but I'm not giving it up yet. By the way, who do you use? I just got started with OU. The discipline is BS, I finish a first game blowout and White gets suspended for 2 games for academic trouble.

It warmed my heart to see Prior get hurt again. I'm probably going to take some s***, but I gotta find something to cheer me up with the current game status. :fthecubs

Who the hell decided to throw that fastball to Crosby? He gets fooled on 3 straight breaking balls and then decides to throw a high fastball. You throw the breaking ball it's probably a double play or a K, but someone decided to throw a fastball when he hasn't spotted it worth a damn. Different inning with a breaking ball there IMHO. Would've gotten out with only two runs anyways if Timo wasn't a dumbass. Harden looks good, throwing straight gas in some good spots. He's got a great arm, and stuff like this is going to happen if he is throwing strikes.

Young would be sweet, that guy can hit, and he's a switch hitter. I'm not sure he's available though, and he's making almost $8 mil this year(not sure what his future contract value is). He would be a better addition than Olerud, but would also cost more.

Such a great hitter that we can get him for nothing. Maybe a few years ago he was a great hitter, not anymore. He's an okay lefty, that might make a decent replacement IF Frank is out for the year and IF we can get him for the league minimum. Otherwise, the deal would be a dud.

Tough choices... I had to go with Sammy "steroid boy" Sosa. He seems to eptiomize the Cubs for me. He's a guy that hits the occasional solo homer when they are already down 4 or up 4 and acts like he is a god. You'd think more people would realize that if you don't leave him something down the middle he doesn't do much damage. I have a real problem with overrated one dimensional players, and Sammy is #1 on that list. It was tough not to vote for Chip, he is so annoying and has no business being on the air. He probably wouldn't have a job if his last name wasn't Carey. I hate Kotex boy because he does nothing but make moronic statements without a whole lot of backing. I can't say I really hate any individual Twin/Indian, but as a whole the Twins make me want to break something. They haven't had a whole lot of talent recently, but they seem to eek out close wins no matter who they are playing. I'm glad the Sox have been smoking them this year.

They don't have any real motivation to trade Beltran. First off, they are not that far out in the wildcard. Second, they don't save a whole lot of money by dealing him. He's making $9 mil this year, so they would save a little less than half that, even less as it gets closer to the break. That's about enough to sign a ultility infielder nowadays. Because of this, they wouldn't gain a whole lot by trading him unless they get some solid prospects in return. I doubt they will get any considering anyone trading for him knows he is gone at the end of the year. Plus, they would really look stupid if they traded him for less than they gave up. However, if they continue to tumble and they get a decent offer from a desperate contender, he may go. I'm just not sure how likely that is. I highly doubt Clemens would go anywhere. He barely came back to pitch this year, and he made an exception to pitch in his hometown on the same team as his buddy Pettite. He doesn't make road trips with the team unless he is going to pitch, and the Astros average about 3,000 more fans when he starts. He has no reason to go anywhere, and the Astros wouldn't get a whole lot for a guy who is most likely going to retire at the end of the year.

So now you want to trade good players for Nomar, and then let him AND Jose walk at the end of the year? You want to start a guy that couldn't hit in Coors and has sucked for the last month or two at short? If I were to give up players for someone I was going to get rid of at the end of the year, Beltran and Johnson would be much better options.

There's a lot more to life than batting average. He's been considered one of the best shortstops in the league, which just isn't really true. That's the definition of being overrated. He's below average defensively. His errors are on par with Jose, with a lower zone rating. He gets hurt pretty much every two years. Plus, his batting stats are inflated because of the lineup(one of if not the best last year) he plays in and the park he plays in. He was hitting before Manny, which will help you out a bit. Also, Fenway is a major benefit for a player's average. In the last 3 years, he is batting .343 at home and .266 on the road. For those saying the Cell would help, it might add a few homers, but it won't help batting average. As a side note, his batting average for the last 3 years at U.S. Cellular is .176. He's a decent shortstop, but I would happily take A-Rod, Jeter, Tejada and several more over him. I certainly wouldn't give up a good package of prospects or give them RJ for him, or pay him about $5.5 mil for the rest of the year. He's gonna give us the same headache Maggs is when it comes to his contract, and he's not as good.

How do you figure they save money by getting Nomar and letting Valentin go? Nomar is a free agent at the end of the year and is trying to get the same kind of money that Maggs is. He's making $11.5 mil this year, which is more than twice what we are paying Jose.

Nomar sucks. There is absolutely no reason to trade for him. Coming off of an injury, he is not an upgrade over Jose. Even healthy it isn't much(if any, depending on your opinion) of an upgrade. There is no way that he is worth whatever we would give up. He's trying to get $15 mil in the offseason. He's smoking some pretty strong s*** if he really thinks that he will get it. One of if not the most overrated player in the league. There are much cheaper and better alternatives if Frank is really out for the year(nothing I have read from any credible source says this). As many others have said, why would we give prospects to Arizona for RJ and then trade him to Boston? Randy wasn't even sure he was going to leave, then he is going to get traded effectively from two teams? Why would we help out someone we are competing with for the playoff spots? Makes absolutely no sense.

It's not like their offense is stacked with proven stars, it's a lot of guys having career or near career years. Rodriguez is good but won't hit that great all year, and Young is their only other hitter I ever remember worrying about. Plus their pitching is too awful for me to worry about them too much. They only have 2 pitchers(pen included) with an ERA under 4, and 3 of their 5 starters have an ERA over 5. I don't think we are going to kill them but I would be shocked if we lost the season series. I expect about 12 wins out of 19.

What happens with the no trade clause is that when a potential trade comes through, the player gets the last say on the deal. For instance, Cincinnati had a deal in which they would trade Griffey for Nevin, but Nevin nixed it. The player still has the call, the team can't just trade him anywhere because he says he wants to waive it. Also, forget about Beltran. Houston has already said Beltran and Clemens will not be traded unless they have absolutely no chance at making the playoffs, and as far out as they are in the division, they are somewhat close to the wildcard. They wouldn't save a whole lot of money either. His salary for the ENTIRE season is $9mil, if they traded him right now, they would save about half that, less as we get closer to the deadline. That's barely enough to sign a utility infielder these days. Unless they get some good prospects in return, it's not happening. By the way, whoever said the Astros should "throw in" Lidge needs to put down the crackpipe. I hope to God that was sarcasm.

From everything I have heard, Frank is not done for the year. Even if he had the surgery, it is supposedly only going to keep him out for 4-6 weeks. At this point it seems they are trying to rest him and see if it gets better before getting the surgery and knocking him out of the lineup for a while.

One of the key points is that Arizona would have to get something that would help out the team in order to deal Randy. Randy is by far their best starter and their best draw, it would be hard to find a package that would help. They would need to get either a young superstar(not happening), 2 solid young players in the majors(doubtful), or 3 stud prospects with two of them being pretty close to the majors. I doubt that will happen. I read in a few places that the only way Randy is moving is if he goes to the DBacks and demands a trade, which he hasn't done yet. Basically, Arizona has virtually no desire to trade him, their hand would have to be forced.

Let's worry about it when it happens. For all we know Loaiza will figure things out in the second half and be a monster, and our other 3 guys will pitch like they are capable of. If Loaiza can get back on track(by back on track I mean somewhere between ERA of 3.80 and 4.20, not last year's performance), I think our rotation would match up well with anyone in the AL but Oakland, and I like our O and bullpen quite a bit better than Oakland's. I don't really think moving Garland or Esteban to the pen would make a huge difference, niether of them have overpowering stuff. Garland usually seems to come out of the gate well in his starts, but it is totally different coming out of the pen. The Cubs( :fthecubs ) would be much better equipped for this: Zambrano or Clement would be downright nasty coming out of the pen. Adding RJ to the rotation, however, would make quite a difference almost regardless of the rotation you put him in(not sure it would really help the Cubs assuming everyone is healthy, or make a huge difference on Oakland if Zito gets back to Cy Young form).

This guy seems to have everything you want in a young pitcher. He looks really good. He's got a solid low 90's fastball, a wicked curve, and good control, all from a high school pitcher. How did we get a lefty like this in the sandwich picks? I'm really excited about this guys' potential, I just hope he doesn't get hurt.

I got nothing against those guys, I just think they make a little more than they're worth. One of the big stats the experts like to use is value over replacement player, and I can't imagine it's too high for most of these guys. You've got to be able to find a decent defensive catcher that can hit better than Davis for less than a mil. I find it hard to believe a decent 4th outfielder has to cost $850.000, or that a long relief/starter costs you almost $2 mil. We can probably put in low salary guys(like Rauch, Borchard or Anderson, and virtually any FA catcher) and not lose a whole lot, especially if we could add a stud starter or a good setup guy.

I hope to God we keep Maggs and lose Loaiza. Maggs really makes a huge difference in our lineup, and even in the field he's decent. I can't really say the same about Loaiza. It's certainly looking more and more like he was a fluke. My vote is lose Loaiza, Shoney, Timo, and Davis, which would save about $8 mil assuming everyone is at their current salary. Then we could get a solid starter or a stud reliever.