Desipio Message Board

Quote from: ChuckDickens on July 28, 2007, 02:12:52 PM
A smart man would sell limited-run editions of other shirts which would be applicable in other scenarios. For instance:

Maybe it might possibly happen.
It may or may not happen this year, but it may or may not happen next year.

Sorry, I already got those two copyrighted. It really fits in with my circumnavigating of sports issues.

Quote from: thehawk on July 29, 2007, 04:51:44 PM
And BC-  the Redbirds do not scare me, as they have no starting pitching, and none is available.  

Hasn't stopped them this weekend (Down 6-0 and 5-0 in two different games) and hasn't stopped them in the past. Their offense waking up scares me a ton. If Rolen is getting hot, and it appears he is, not many teams are going to be able to shut down a healthy Pujols-Duncan-Rolen for a whole game. And their bullpen is good enough to where they can hold a team even if the starter gives up five or six runs. Everybody here seems to want to discount the Cardinals, but that shouldn't be done. They have a good bullpen, a solid middle of the order if Rolen is coming back to form, and they just won it all last year. Plus you can't discount luck, if it comes down to that factor for the Cubs, well we know what happens when luck plays a role in Cubs baseball...

I wouldn't be celebrating this, in fact I think what has happened in St. Louis this weekend was the second worst-case scenario for the Cubs behind only a four-game Brew Crew sweep... What this does is give the Cardinals confidence they can come back (Only 5.5 behind the Cubs and 5 back in the loss column) while convince the Brewers they need to make another move or two to try to stay in contention. The Cardinals had been talking about selling some parts of their bullpen (Which had been the one bright spot on a struggling team), but now with their team not as struggling they won't be selling. If they have two hot weeks and the Brewers and Cubs have two cold weeks, they're in first. In fact, I have seen several times in the past where the Cardinals win just one game like they did this weekend and then go on an unbelievable hot streak which if you had seen them a game before they started the streak you would never think they could put together such a winning stretch. With the three teams' schedules for the next two weeks, it isn't impossible for that scenario to play out and then they are facing the Brewers and Cubs with a chance to build a four or five-game lead of their own in the division. And, frankly, the Cubs have played MUCH better when they are the ones doing the chasing instead of early in the season when most of the media thought they would win the division just through their offseason spending.

If the Cardinals are in first place in a couple weeks, don't say I didn't warn you about taking them lightly. I am hoping that the road trip they have to take in mid-August to Milwaukee and Chicago will be their final straw. But, they also could be first in two weeks. They have @PIT, @WSH, vSD, vLA. The Padres and Dodgers would have been tough two weeks ago, but the Padres aren't looking real good right now (And have lost Young), while the Dodgers have been a little better but not a ton so (And might be losing Penny, haven't heard anything officially on that). While they are doing that, the Brewers and Cubs are playing the Mets and Phils at home (Not easy) and then going on the road to Houston and Colorado (Those parks will be fun on the pitchers).

You guys don't get to see them nearly as much as I do living in Central Illinois. There was a game in '04 where they looked awful against the A's for eight innings but thanks to an error on a relatively easy play by Oakland they were able to score three in the ninth and won. They then went something like 26-10 after that game... The lesson is to never count those bastards out. I would rather take the short-term hit and have the Brewers win the game tonight and tomorrow just because I have seen the Cardinals get one lucky bounce or one lucky play and turn it into a huge winning streak...

Brewers just blew a 6-0 lead in the first game of a doubleheader against the Cardinals and lost 7-6. Normally, a team ahead of the Cubs losing like this would be a huge positive, but I don't think this really is. I have seen too many times when the Cardinals win a game on a fluke and then go on a winning tear...

Quote from: butthead on July 26, 2007, 09:55:49 PM
I can't get too upset about Marquis. He's just a guy. Not good. Not horrible. He's there because Z can't pitch everyday. You can't get too excited about Z or too upset with the 5th guy. The key is the three lefties. Everybody hates their 5th starter.

I just hope it doesn't come down to the last few days and Marquis goes to the mound in a game that the Cubs absolutely must win. There's a reason Atlanta let him go and there's a reason the Cardinals didn't even have him on the postseason roster last year.

As far as the playoff race goes, looks like every team that is either near the Cubs or the Cubs are chasing lost today/tonight. I'm sure the Cubs could find many excruciating ways to not make the playoffs, but the one thing that would absolutely piss me off would be if the Cubs lost the Wild Card by one game to the Braves. Not only because I just hate the Braves (Other than the Cardinals, White Sox and Yankees I hate them the most) but that M-Fer of an umpire that ejected Lilly on the freaking third pitch of the game or whatever it was against the Braves would have essentially cost the Cubs a chance at the playoffs.

I went to a night game there last year when the Cardinals were playing the Royals... The gametime temperature was about 85 and the wind was out of the west at about 10 MPH, but the balls were FLYING out to right center. I think two homers went out that direction that night and there were a few flyballs that I thought would be moderate depth that ended up going warning depth distance. I think the reason for it is that there is a hole in the stadium from the first level up to the upper deck on the third base side and it probably tunnels the wind out in that direction when the wind is out of the west.

So, tonight, Soriano hits a ball very well (Sounded the best of any hit ball tonight anyway IMO) but it gets caught as it went to left center. While Pujols and Duncan can hit under their respective home run pitches and still get them out of the park because they hit the balls to right center. Lee also hit it that way, his was a little more of a line drive but it was probably wind-assisted as well.

Quote from: Taylor on July 23, 2007, 08:49:04 AM
First Fat Albert was pissy at the Genius for not letting him bat in the ASG now the Genius is in a huff about Rolen. I hope they are in full meltdown mode for this week's series.

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/sports/stories.nsf/cardinals/story/3975EAA8E0C7BBE3862573210014EF1B?OpenDocument

QuoteATLANTA â€" Cardinals third baseman Scott Rolen returned to the starting lineup Sunday night, four days after undergoing a series of tests and accepting a cortisone injection to his problematic left shoulder.

The matter didn't end there for manager Tony La Russa.

Irritated by media descriptions of the club's treatment of injured players, La Russa insisted he had no knowledge of Rolen's struggles with the shoulder until approached by the player following Tuesday's loss to the Florida Marlins.

Rolen confirmed that he had told no one of his problem before Tuesday, a fact that did not improve La Russa's disposition.

"Players can't have it both ways. You can't say that you're good to play, then later on say that your play is affected. It's one or the other," La Russa said.

Have to wonder if LaRussa is playing the "Get them mad at you so they'll go out and prove you wrong" card... The sad thing about all of this is that the Cardinals could be tied for first in the loss column by the time this week is over if everything breaks right for them. They would need to sweep the three-game series against the Cubs and the four-game series against the Brewers with the Brew Crew also losing their games this week before playing the Cards and have the Cubs lose at least one game at Cincy. Not likely, but knowing the Cubs' luck, the chances of it happening jump by at least 10 percent...

It would be nice to sweep the Cardinals, but I would like to see the Cubs just not let them get back into the race like they did in '04 with Houston. Just win two of these three games and then let the Brewers deal with that team.

2.5

Shock of all shocks that Cowherd was playing fast and loose with the facts! He's quickly catapaulted into my top 10 of most hated media personalities, thanks to his laissez faire attitude toward accuracy and the fact he MAY have broken telecommunications laws a while back by asking his listeners to essentially spam a website called thebiglead.com (Which of course was espousing a view that he disagreed with and also occasionally criticized ESPN) and drove that website's server out of commission for more than 48 hours.

"We shut it down in 90 seconds," Cowherd boasted on air. "We don't even know thebiglead." After a bit more gloating, he said "We apologize -- but just don't screw with us." Then he asked his listeners to "knock it out again, just for fun."

-----

As far as positive goes, I still have very serious doubts about what this team can do, but I actually at least like the position the Cubs are in. Being within reach, but not the one being chased, means that the attention and the pressure should be at a minimum. I know the 2003 comparision has been criticized earlier today on this site... But that team also wasn't that great at the start of the season and middled around .500 until the trade deadline. After the Lofton-Ramirez deal, things improved. Could Hendry have something up his sleeve this year that causes a similiar jump up the standings? In particular, the pitching staffs are eerily similiar in terms of how most of the roles were filled/are being filled after you get past the fact there is no equivalent to Prior and what was Zambrano in this year's rotation...

Rotation:

Fireballer with sometimes more than occasional bouts of wildness, but also takes no prisoners... 2003: Wood 2007: Zambrano
Right-handed veteran pitcher who pitches well on the whole but you just don't trust... 2003: Clement 2007: Marquis

Can't find a match for Estes/Hill and Marshall. Hill and Marshall have struggled recently, but still haven't been as bad as Estes was save for that one awesome night game in Cincy...

Bullpen:

Closer who scares the living daylights out of you but somehow gets the job done... 2003: Borowski 2007: Dempster
Youngster with great fastball and acts bada**... 2003: Farnsworth 2007: Marmol
Veteran right-hander who shouldn't get in any significant game but always is anyhow... 2003: Alfonseca 2007: Howry
Lefty that can do one thing well, but don't ask them for anything more... 2003: Remlinger 2007: Ohman
Lefty who is utterly worthless... 2003: Guthrie 2007: Eyre

I know someone's probably going to bring up Guthrie's stats to say that he wasn't horrible, but before anyone does just consider that with his WHIP and batter's average against in 2003, to get the stats he ended up with may have been the luckiest coincidences a relief pitcher got in 2003.
Also, Veres and Wuertz don't match up well, Wuertz is much better this year than Veres was in '03.

Quote from: thehawk on July 01, 2007, 04:36:52 PM
Miracle win on Friday, Spit the bit on Saturday, and a good solid beating today (who replaced Theriot with Fontenot?).  The hole is deep, but they are enjoyable to watch, which you have not been able to say about this team since about August of 2004.  Now to get 3-4 over .500 by the break (positive baby steps).

Well, as Lou said, the objective right now has to be winning each series. If the Cubs can win the next two series, that's a 5-2 road trip. That would put the Cubs three games over .500 and hopefully help the Cubs gain at least another game on the Brewers by the All-Star Break.

I know I get a rep as a downer, but I've been listening to all three of those calls for about 20 minutes now and it's just great. Each one of the three calls is fun for me... Len just goes crazy and breaks out an "unbelievable", which is both a crutch and a great line when said correctly... Pat's great voice inflection when the ball is hit, he's one of the few announcers that gets how just a subtle change in your voice can display something important to the listener. Of course, Ron is screaming and laughing and that is awesome to hear coming from him in my opinion... Uecker isn't happy happy at the start of the call, but you can sense the optimism in his voice and then the disappointment when the ball is hit (For some reason you can't hear it on that call but you can hear the crowd very well) and all he can spit out is "Ramirez just won the game for the Cubs... Gone...". It is as if in one moment he realizes the game has been lost and that also the Cubs have become a threat, and his inflection and his call signify that understanding to everyone that is listening but yet it isn't overbearing. Some announcers (i.e., the coat-tailers Chip and Joe) would have to use two-hundred words to say what Uecker said in nine.

Lincecum has had three pretty good starts. He also has had two terrible starts (Both at home, which I don't get). I picked him up for my fantasy team when Ortiz got put on the DL...

Quote from: Taylor on June 14, 2007, 09:38:31 PM

QuoteBrewers put Capuano on disabled list, call up Gallardo
June 14, 2007

DETROIT (AP) -- The Milwaukee Brewers placed right-handed pitcher Chris Capuano on the 15-day disabled list because of a strained groin Thursday and purchased right-hander Yovani Gallardo's contract from Triple-A Nashville.

Capuano was injured while warming up for his scheduled start Wednesday and his move to the disabled list is retroactive to Saturday. The 21-year-old Gallardo was 8-2 with a 2.98 ERA and 98 strikeouts in 71 2-3 innings for Nashville.

Dear Lord. Are we really supposed to be happy Capuano's hurt if the guy the Brewers are calling up to replace him has almost one and a third strikeouts every inning???