Game 129 Thread / Nationals @ Cubs (2 of 3)

Well, if we get into any trouble today, we can just put Gallagher...wait, what? Any pesky red-head sightings?

EIGHT stranded on bases,3 innings.Ramirez wants to win,3run hr.4th inning!Wheres Edmonds? We need more!

I suggested it the other day. Something's gotta give.
Lee is just not right. His swings have been increasingly awkward. Now he's
hurt himself after double-twisting himself up with a particularly bad one.

Unfortunately, Daryl Wide is Lee's replacement at first base, not Micah Hoffpauir.

Cubs underperformers since the All-Star break

Lee .242 .310 .359 .669
Fukudome .217 .298 .311 .609
Wide .136 .231 .409 .640

Dude! Your wife's birthday was yesterday? It was my birthday yesterday!

My wife and I also went out and are sick and hungover today.

soriano has 9 of his 28 walks this month...with a week left.

heh...

Ryan Dempster shows again the accuracy of that New York Times piece that kept calling him the ace of the staff. Way to go, Ryan.

Lou's postgame comments suggested Fuku's due for a benching tomorrow - probably a little past due for that action. Lou also mentioned that he's not hitting either curves or fastballs and that "in this league, you have to at least be able to do one of those." Amen.

dirk hayhurst, 27 year old 8th round pick from 2003...writer of baseball america's "non-prospect blog" thing last year...he's getting his callup to SD after a nice AAA season.

ha.

http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/prospects/07p...

Random stat:
Since the All-star break
Cubs 22-12
Brewers 22-12
Cardinals 19-15

All 3 teams beating the teams they should be beating on a regular basis.

Carrie Muskat quotes Oneri Fleita regarding Felix Pie's progress in her column today:

Fleita said he also was encouraged by outfielder Felix Pie, who was batting .284 at Iowa with nine homers and 47 RBIs.

"It looks like he's more patient," Fleita said. "The numbers are more consistent."

I dunno, this doesn't look consistent to me. May was truly abysmal. June was mediocre. And after a red-hot July, he's really fallen off. And patient? There's no indication of that at all.

May .169 .239 .338 .577
June .282 .316 .451 .767
July .373 .413 .588 1.001
August .255 .286 .340 .626

Felix's LH vs RH splits are still extreme.

LHP .235 .267 .346 .613
RHP .304 .352 .500 .852

But before you start thinking he could fit into
the CF platoon against right handed pitching
look at his AAA batting splits, starters vs. relievers.

Pie vs starting pitching .213 .269 .348 .617
Pie vs relief pitching .402 .429 .636 1.065

He's feasting on the mop up men. Again not really
what anyone would call consistent hitting, and more
what you might expect from someone plateauing below
expectations. AAAA.

I mentioned in chat that you can get the mlb.com audio and video feeds to play in any player you like. This is the latest thread, so I'll post it here.

I use this at work where I have a laptop with Linux installed, a Firefox browser, and I use the VLC audio player that comes with the installation. I don't use the video feed with this player, because I'm at work, and because VLC doesn't seem to be able to handle the video quality. I'll demonstrate using these items, but you should be able to use other tools that can do the same things. You might be using a Mac with a different player, for example.

The key thing to remember is that the mlb audio/video uses a URL to get your stream, and it contains the location of the stream plus your encrypted authentication info. As long as you can get this URL, you can then swipe it in your chosen audio/video player. The URL is only good for a short time, about a minute I think, so you have to be fast once you get the URL for the stream.

Here's how to do it:

Open a Firefox browser, and install the Firebug plugin. You can get it here. Firebug prints out all of your browser activity, including what URLs you go to. Install the plugin and restart Firefox.

Enable Firebug by choosing Tools -> Firebug and making sure the "Disable Firebug" item is unchecked.

Navigate to the mlb site and select the audio/video item you want to listen to (e.g., "WGN" under the radio selections).

A new window opens with a login form for you to log into your account to listen to the stream.

Right click the frame that contains the login form and select "Inspect Element". You'll get the Firebug window in the lower half of the browser window. Select the "Console" tab.

Log into your account.

In the console, you'll get a line like: mURL:http://web.servicebureau.net/conf/meta?averylongstringofcharacters

The URL you want begins after "mURL:". The rest is the URL you need to obtain your audio/video stream (i.e. http://web.servicebureau.net etc.). Swipe that into your player. In VLC, it's done by selecting File -> Open Network Stream...

It may take you a few attempts at first to get it to work right because you might spend some time trying to find that URL in the console, figure out how to copy it, the URL might run off the end of the console because the font's too big, and so on. If you don't login successfully with that URL, you'll have to close your browser and try again, because mlb.com issues cookies that are good for as long as your browser is open, and the URL contains your authentication info. By closing and reopening your browser, you'll end up with a new valid stream URL when you log in.

I hope this is useful information.

Pie needs to work on his strikeout to BB ratio, which has never been good his entire career. Without dramatic improvements in those area's he will be a career minor leaguer or "gasp" a career track like Corey Patterson.

And the main reason he has those poor ratio's is he still can't hit breaking pitches.