Six games in seven days, against the team with the best record in the National League and then at home against the second place Brewers. Six games that will define a season.
Well, until the six that come after it.
So…uh…yeah, while the temptation is to think that the next seven days will tell us what’s going to happen the rest of the way, reality doesn’t work like that.
When the Brewers load up the cheese wagon on Thursday afternoon the Cubs will still have 30 games left. Four of those games (against the Dodgers) are against teams who are currently over .500. Given the way the Dodgers are playing, who knows, it might end up being zero.
So there’s a good chance that a week from now we’ll still be as clueless about the fate of the NL Central as we are right now. Should the Cubs go 6-0, or God forbid 0-6 then maybe, but otherwise, we all need to take a deep breath, hit ourselves with a hammer and remember that the Cubs’ fate rests more in how they handle shit teams like the Reds, Pirates and Astros from here to the end. So far, they haven’t done very well against any of those bums.
Typical.
How’d you like yesterday’s game? Carlos couldn’t find home plate with a GPS unit and when he did he gave up a game clinching two-run homer to the opposing pitcher who not only as hitting .063, but who also had just been nailed in the forearm by a Mark DeRosa line drive.
But the real star of the game might have been Daryle Ward, who managed to commit an error, get picked off second with two outs, strike out with runners in scoring position and fail to get a pretty much routine flyball that cost the Cubs two runs. Other than that, Daryle was pretty much aces. Nice job.
There has been a lot of hand wringing about the big trade the Cubs made. The Cubs traded a player to be named later to the Tigers for outfielder Craig Monroe. Those who are insistent that Craig is not good, are, for the most part, right. He has one proven skill and that’s an ability to hit lefty pitching. Even in a year when he’s hitting .222, he’s hit .302 against lefties. The Cubs are horseshit against lefties. The Tigers are paying two thirds of his remaining salary, he’s not under contract for next year, and in eight days the rosters expand to 40 so where’s the risk here? Besides, the rumors are that Neal Cotts might be the guy heading to Detroit. Even better! What, they wouldn’t take Will Ohman?
I’m pretty sure the timing of this move wasn’t coincidental. On Tuesday and Wednesday night, Lou sat Ginger Murton against lefty pitchers. On Wednesday, the great Jake Fox, who got both starts instead of Ginger, played a ball in right like he was trying to make grass angels in the outfield. On Thursday, the Cubs had a new righthanded hitting outfield stiff.
Tonight’s matchup is Sean Marshall against Micah Owings. Owings is the guy who in his last start beat the Braves, giving up three runs in seven innings and going 4-5 at the plate with two homers, a double and six RBI. Yikes. He’ll probably hit for the cycle off Marshall.
It’s true that the Snakes have the best record in the NL, but of late they’ve been pretty average or even below. They lost two of three to the Brewers who are about as effective on the road as Lindsay Lohan (yuk, yuk, wow, that was positively Kasbergian wasn’t it?), and check this out. In the last eight games they’ve played when anybody but Brandon Webb has started (because he went like four months without giving up a run and he won’t pitch this weekend) the Snakes are 3-5 and have given up an average of 7.25 runs per game.
Alfonso Soriano thinks he’s ready to play right now. The Cubs are playing it safe, but even Lou says there’s a chance Alfonso might be in the lineup Tuesday when the cheese oozes into town. I’m not a doctor, but a one centimeter tear in his quadriceps never sounded like all that much. I don’t know. What I do know is that despite his speed, Alfonso’s not exactly the most hustling guy you ever saw. If you thought E-ramis took full advantage of an excuse not to hustle last year, wait until you see the Soriano show from now until the end of the year.
But that’s not to say that the Cubs don’t need him. Ryan Theriot’s done a really good job in the leadoff spot in Soriano’s absence, but he’s pretty good hitting second, too. When Soriano’s back, let him lead off where he likes to, bat Theriot second and move Jock down in the order where his inevitable slide back to suck won’t hurt as much. Of course, it would make sense that if your leadoff guy isn’t going to run because he’s playing on one leg that he not lead off, but when has common sense been linked with the Cubs?
The Jockey says that Lou says that Lou thinks that the Cubs have one more trade in them before the end of the month and that they won’t bring up more than a half dozen prospects when rosters expand. A half-dozen? Do they even have that many? Well hey, I mean, I’m as excited as the next guy to have Clay Rapada pitching to Ken Griffey, Jr. on the final day of the season.
But as for the trade, who has cleared waivers that might be useful to the Cubs? What’s Candy Maldonado up to these days?
Fat Charlie says he’s picked a starting QB but he’s not telling anybody. But if you looked down, you’d have seen that the pile of Milky Way wrappers at his feet spelled out Demetrius Jones.
Teddy G. keeps us updated on the Comcast-Big Ten Network fight and as a DirecTV subscriber who will get the Big Ten Network when it debuts next Thursday, all I can say is…”You mean I get more tHom Brennaman! Sign me up!” Honestly, this is a battle for the cost to air the fourth through sixth most compelling Big Ten football games of the week. Yay?
The McMahon kid might want to mix in a salad once and a while.
Somewhere in this mess, Jayson Stark says it’ll be a surprise if the Cubs don’t non-tender Mark Prior this winter. What? Huh? So, they paid him $3.8 million to not pitch this year and next year, when supposedly he might actually sort of pitch they’re going to give him away? I don’t think so. I also think I don’t care anymore.
The Dodgers, with assistance from Greenpeace threw a net over David Wells, dragged him in off the beach and gave him a contract.
Mark Cuban says the Internet is dead and boring. But enough about Bleed Cubbie Blue.
America’s finest news source on the rise in pain killer use.
I got picked off second with nobody out. Even better.
The Cardinals will catch both the Brewers AND the Cubs within a week! Look out, here they come!!
I like this move. As you said, it’s not really a risk. He could end up being a great dark horse pickup; need I mention he got some great post-season experience last year also?
Prior won’t pitch before August, and the Cubs can’t pay him less than 80% of what he made this year. He’ll be a free agent the year after. So what’s the point of letting rehab on the team, unless he’ll sign away the first year of his free agency? Which, since I’m sure he hates Jim Hendry and the Cubs with the fire of one thousand suns, he won’t.
“I also think I don’t care anymore.”
Regarding Prior, this sums up my feelings exactly.
Racist.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2007/08/23/fool520.DTL
That second inning was a good time. A fat dude who isn’t going to score on a single anyway gets picked off second with no out, you add a walk and a double and come up empty. It takes effort to have two doubles in an inning and not score (or even have a play at the plate). That, indeed, is the balls.
Has anyone figured out which way to go with Monroe jokes? There is Ted Knights annoying neighbor played by the legendary Jm J Bulloch on the clasic sitcom Too Close for Comfort. Or there is Dr. Marvin Monroe from the Simpsons. Any other ideas?
It takes some doing to get fair-minded fans to side with me, but the Big Ten’s pure greed and completely ridiculous demands have done it.
I have no idea who’d want to watch the fourth-best game of the week from that completely overrated conference, but the rest of us shouldn’t be forced to subsidize those who do.
If you know what’s good for you, you *will* pay a $1.10 extra per month to have the great BTN as a part of your basic cable programming. And any Big Ten fans that don’t want to pay extra for what they once saw on basic cable? Tough titties!!!
And what about us, Jim? You only get to shake down your OWN fans, jackass, not the rest of us.
Why does everyone keep assuming the cable companies will pass me along to the consumer at cost? Try an extra $3 per month in your cable bill, minimum, whether you want to pay for Minnesota-Michigan State women’s softball or not.
#9, from what I’ve heard, you’ll get the 4th best football game during the weekend and all the women’s volleyball, softball, and track that you can handle.
I can’t believe that I’m going to write this, but it is a good thing that ABC/ESPN have a contract for the better football games in the conference for quite sometime.
What is the B10 + 1 network going to do for hockey? All teams with hockey programs in the Big 10 are in different conferences.
This is what all those other shitty channels cost you too. You know, Univision, Telemundo, Bravo, Lifetime, HGTV, WGN when the Cubs aren’t on (and sometimes when they are), Lifetime Movie Network, Oxygen, MSNBC, and basically every other channel that no one watches.
Doesn’t the Big Ten also play me?
“The Dodgers, with assistance from Greenpeace threw a net over David Wells, dragged him in off the beach and gave him a contract.”
Nice! That made me bust out laughing.
Outside this cable fiasco, strictly football speaking, I’m sick and fuckin tired of people calling me overrated.
#9: You know of a better conference, you stupid cuntdick?
Have I always been this terrible?
I’m a way better conference than you number 18. You can shut the **** up with your Big Ten bullshit.
cubs sure like me today!
I really suck now.
Pac 10 can eat the soup right out of my shitting ass.
Honestly, Pac 10? Really? Seriously? I’d have expected SEC as a serious answer. Pac 10, though? Fuck them. Have fun touting the excellence of football programs such as Washington and Arizona.
what you’ve just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having read it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.
good bye cruel world
Alex,
Did you know your name sounds similar to long-time Jeopardy! host, Alex Trebek?
Wow, I’m really exciting stuff to read about. I heart toothless asshole college football fans.
I’m sort of a lot more boring than the NFL. Who cares really?
D. Lee is like Jermaine O’Neal. I am the shit for a sub 500 team, but suck for a contender. Lou needs to bat him in the two hole when Soriano comes back.
Theriot SS
Lee 1B
Soriano LF
A-Ram 3B
Floyd RF
Monroe CF (Jones vs. righties)
De Rosa 2B
Kendall C
Pitcher
Top of the 7th was a perfect example of my comment on 27.
D.Lee on deck (with knees shaking)…thanks Jock….I thought it was going to be up to me. i am still in the clear????? (hopefully).
DLee is teh suck on contending teams. Good thing he didn’t have any big hits for a contender in 2003.
Fork, I agree he had big hits for Florida, but it was against the Cubs. Look at his .188 and .208 averages in the LCS and WS. He also batted 6th hiding behind some 19 year old. He sucks in the clutch.
#23, well, considering the PAC-10 and SEC are two leagues that continually kick the snot out of the Big Ten in head-to-head competition, I’m not surprised at your jealousy. Hell, even the Big 12 ate the Big Ten’s lunch last year. And really, a conference that contains Illinois, Indiana and Northwestern shouldn’t be calling out anyone else’s weak links. Two of those teams lost to 1-AA squads last year!
(Oh, by the way, you’re completely overrated in hoops, too. If not for Oden getting Dwayne Wade fellatio from the officials against Xavier, the entire Big Ten would have been sent packing before the first weekend of the tourney was over…)
#15, nice try spreading the Big Ten-approved talking points, but actually most of the networks you mentioned are in the 30-to-40 cents range per month, and they all certainly have higher average viewership than the BTN ever will. BTN’s asking price is laughable for a start-up network with mostly second-tier content. I’m glad I won’t have to pay for it.
Hey can someone give me a ride back to my crib?….
I assume everyone enjoyed me swinging at ball four in the ninth yesterday, yes? I know you’ve come to expect boneheaded plays from your catcher, and hey, I deliver!
You, sir, have not watched one single bowl game this entire decade.
No conference has haters with such viritolic agendas quite like the Big Ten. And you call us jealous? Hating on a conference for absolutely no logical reason is the textbook definition of jealousy. Give me a fucking break.
For every Illinois and Northwestern, there’s an Ole Miss/Miss State/Vanderbilt. How about the strength of that Arizona program, what, with their players staging a MUTINY against their own head coach?
Moran.
Hey, we’re not the ones still pounding our chests in the wake of epic ass-kickings our conference’s teams received on the football field last bowl season (along with another of our teams blowing one of the largest leads in college football history), we’re not the ones whose *commissioner* sent out a letter floating an “academic standards” excuse in the aftermath of said ass-kickings (insulting another conference), we’re not the ones who have bitched since time immemorial about ND’s independent status and how they need to be join OUR conference (calling for them to be excluded from the BCS if they refuse to assimilate into the Big Ten borg), we’re not the ones who whined to high heaven about our conference’s second place team being shut out of the title game (even though they barely escaped a 5-7 team with a true freshman QB *at home* three weeks earlier), and we’re certainly not the ones currently demanding that EVERY cable customer in the greater Midwest shell out upwards of $25-$35 per year to subsidize our conference’s soon-to-fail media venture, regardless if they are Big Ten fans or not.
And yet you have the gall to claim that *we’re* the ones with “vitriolic agendas”??!! I don’t think that phrase means what you think it does.
It’s a great big college football world out there. You’d be well advised to go sample some of it.
Don’t compare us to Illinois or Northwestern. At least we sell out all our games, jack.
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