Sunday Night Chat
Submitted by Rob G. on Sun, 07/12/2009 - 6:05pm
Everyone's last chance to see some baseball for a few days, join the fun in Parachat.
| *Shumaker 2B | *Fuld CF |
| *Rasmus CF | Theriot SS |
| Pujols 1B | Lee 1B |
| Ludwick RF | Ramirez 3B |
| *Ankiel LF | Soriano LF |
| Molina C | # Bradley RF |
| *Thurston 3B | Baker 2B |
| Wainwright P | #Hill C |
| Ryan SS | Wells P |
A win, and the Cubs are tied for 2nd and 1.5 back of the Cardinals heading into the break. A loss and their 3.5 back from the Cardinals and in third place.
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#1 Re: Sunday Night Chat
I'm sure some will think this is ridiculous, but I think Jake Fox has just become Mark DeRosa. In fact, he's DeRosa+, becuase he's a better hitter, and he can catch. He's played 1B, 3B, LF, RF, and now C. And they've worked him out at 2B (which I don't get, don't we already have 20 guys on the 40-man roster who can play 2nd). He may not be a wizard at any of these positions, but he's got flexibility, and he hits. I love it.
#10 Re: Sunday Night Chat
DeRosa can play middle infield and take a walk. But Fox is definitely a guy who's interesting to have on the team.
#2 Marshall in LF
Lou is putting Marshall into LF for a batter with the bases loaded! Plan is to put him back at pitcher after this hitter and a new fielder in left. Defensive improvement in LF
#3 Re: Marshall in LF
holy shit
heilman K's the batter, marshall back to pitcher, reed to LF
Joe Morgan says Fox looks good behind the plate. My instincts tell me not to trust him, but he hasn't screwed anything up yet
edit
TLR pinch hits after Marshall sent back to P, now right hitter up. Lou keeps marshall in, but I think he only has to stay in for 1 pitch and a reliever could be called in. I would guess they'll leave him in
#4 Re: Marshall in LF
holy fuck
blooper tailing away from johnson in left, he dives too early, hits the ground and kind of dives again and catches it. A play Soriano would never have come close to even having a chance at making
#8 Re: Marshall in LF
He didn't dive too early, he stumbled. And actually, he didn't catch it, though they did call it an out.
#17 Re: Marshall in LF
On replay, I couldn't tell whether Johnson had his glove under the ball or whether the ball hit grass, but my reaction in real time was to laugh and think, "No, he didn't catch that ball!" But I couldn't tell without a doubt that it hit the ground and not the leather.
#48 Re: Marshall in LF
first replay I thought it was a trap, then it looked like it might have bounced in his glove...
an ump though if he saw the play would have probably just seen the bounce and called it a trap, which apparently they weren't watching much of the game last night, including the call that Wainwright was not trying to intentionally block the throw from Theriot on that double play. I mean, it's normal to throw your hands as high as possible right at the last minute.
Next Cardinal should get drilled in the face that tries to break up a double play...
#5 Re: Sunday Night Chat
well that inning was exiting, weird, and lucky.
with karma like that, we deserve to win this one.
#6 Re: Sunday Night Chat
fuck it
that 9th inning can lick my balls
#7 Re: Sunday Night Chat
3 straight called 3rd strikes in the bottom of the ninth?
Great way to go down fighting into the break.
What the fuck?!
#9 Re: Sunday Night Chat
Did you watch the game? The three straight called strikes were all balls.
#18 Re: Sunday Night Chat
Saw the replay -- tough calls, but all were close. The kind of pitch you can't take, say, with 2 strikes in the 9th when you are behind.
Of all of Bradley's faults so far, this is my least favorite -- he takes tons of close pitches with 2 strikes. The umps are not going to give him a break, so, even if they are slightly out of the zone, he needs to swing.
#24 Re: Sunday Night Chat
Those pitches may have been balls, but they were too close to take. The umpire was consistent throughout the game, so it shouldn't have been a surprise that he called them all strikes.
Soriano can drive me nuts at times when he swings at pitches that are a foot outside the strike zone, but it drives me even crazier when a batter goes up to the plate late in the game, down a couple of runs, and looks at a called third strike. Swing the bat, boys.
#26 Re: Sunday Night Chat
Soriano strikes out a lot. Mostly because he swings at pitches out of the strike zone.
When you are down, especially by more than one run, you need base runners. I will ALWAYS take a walk over a strikeout. And its simple - a player should not swing at pitches out of the zone.
Were the pitches close? Sure... but they (at least the first two called thirds) were definitely not strikes.
#38 Re: Sunday Night Chat
Big L -- I agree in principle, but not in practice. True, you should not swing at pitches out of the strike zone. Also true, when you're down late in the game you need base runners. However, the ump was calling those close pitches as strikes, even though K-Zone showed they were slightly out of the strike zone. Even so, what the ump says is what matters, not what K-Zone says. And considering that the ump had been calling those pitches as strikes all night, the hitters need to adjust. In the end, the pitches were just too close to take, even if they were "technically" balls.
The Cubs hitters (at least two of them) can claim that they were right and that the pitches were in fact balls, but it doesn't mean anything now. The pitches were called strikes, the batters struck out, and the game is over with the Cubs losing. A "moral victory" isn't the same as a "victory."
#39 Re: Sunday Night Chat
Kind of a silly nit pick I think it is better to think of those pitches as actual balls but "technically" strikes because the ump said so.
IMO the solution is to find a better way to call balls and strikes. Works in tennis.
#41 Re: Sunday Night Chat
"K zone" showed all three to be balls. And the home plate ump wasn't calling them all game, just in the 9th inning. The hitters all did the correct thing. The umpire, for whatever reason, wanted the game to be over and made it so. My best guess is that the Cards slipped him some Ex-Lax around the 7th inning and it was starting to take it's desired effect.
I wasn't happy that the Cubs made out, but to say "the Cubs hitters, who know they need at least one baserunner to have a chance should anticipate that the strike zone is going to be 4 inches wider on the outside part of the plate in the bottom of the 9th and adjust accordingly." Well, it just doesn't make sense.
My friend, the Cardinals fan who ribbed me over the Friday loss and declared the Saturday win 'luck', acknowledged that it was horseshit umpiring, and the Cubs got screwed.
#43 Re: Sunday Night Chat
thought the last one, K-zone showed to paint the corner....
the one to Bradley was terrible though....
also think the ump had a pretty generous strike zone all night, at least I made that comment about 4 times during parachat...maybe it was just me.
but just cause the ump is blind, don't make it right.
#45 Re: Sunday Night Chat
"thought the last one, K-zone showed to paint the corner...."
Correct.
#46 Re: Sunday Night Chat
The screen I was watching must have fucked up then, it showed white.
#49 Re: Sunday Night Chat
2 Strikes. Pitch is close. Swing the bat. We learned that in Little League.
#11 Re: Sunday Night Chat
Cubs won and lost today, so not sure if I am suppose to be posting or not, but oh well.
Going into this series, I would have taken a split and run into the break. We got a split are back to .500 and tied for 3rd. It could be much worse and much better. Not sure what tot expect from this team in the 2nd half. Can't say I got lots of confidence they will do much better, but hopefully the division continues to be mediocre and they can get hot at the right time and sneak in to teh playoffs, but I won't be booking any airfare to CHicago in October yet, that is for sure.
Go Cubs!
#12 Re: Sunday Night Chat
Wow no fontenot sighting in ninth i thought he would hit for baker either hurt or in doghouse.
Baker sucked at plate ,i hate his batting stance,and he is slow at second, i guess i just dont see an improvement from what we have,if fontenot cant start ,PLAY BLANCO.
#13 Re: Sunday Night Chat
He could be in the doghouse because he's terrible.
#14 Re: Sunday Night Chat
And no I don't believe Baker is any kind of upgrade. You wouldn't see people like Fontenot or Baker anywhere near a team like the Dodgers. The Los Angeles Dodgers prefer good players.
#16 Re: Sunday Night Chat
Well they do have Manny, who defensively isn't much different than Soriano, neither has any range nor care to play defense.
#23 Re: Sunday Night Chat
But Manny can mash and is totally clutch. Soriano is streaky and not even on the same stratosphere offensively as Manny offensively. Let's please limit any Soriano/Manny comparisons good or bad.
#25 Re: Sunday Night Chat
On the other hand, Sori has never been suspended for PEDs.
#28 Re: Sunday Night Chat
Another strike against, Sori!!!!
If you ain't cheatin, you ain't tryin!!
:-)
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