Blown.
W - Villanueva (1-0), Poorly designed stadiums
L - Gregg (0-1), the three and a half hours I could have spent grading, that now need to be repaid.
Things to Take from This Game
1. Harden is just fine, thank you.
Harden hit 96 a couple times, sat at around 92, and gave up three hits, two walks (one intentional) and one earned run on a Hart solo homer through six innings. He also struck out ten with a nasty changeup and a well placed fastball. It's pretty cool to see that sort of line and think "yeah, that's about what we expect from our fourth starter." The other run against Harden was an unearned run in the first. (A slightly high Theriot throw pulled Lee off the bag, and eventually Braun drove in a run on a single.)
2. Likely and Unlikely HRs.
Bradley got off the O-fer with a huge solo homer, and Hill hit a go-ahead two-run homer that put Harden in line for a win.
3. But...
Lou hard to burn through his bullpen in the seventh and eighth, using Heilman, Cotts, Marmol, Marshall, Vizcaino and Gregg to preserve the lead going into the ninth. He also pinch hit with Miles with a chance to drive in an insurance run from third with one out in the eighth, when Hoffpauir also was available, and Miles gave us an inning-killing GIDP.
4. So...
A walk, a ground out, a Weeks game-tying double, and another walk into the ninth, and Gregg finds runners on first and third with one out in the ninth. Braun hits a medium-to-slow roller three steps to Theriot's right. Theriot chooses to try for the out at home instead of the double play, and Weeks just does get his hand on home in front of the tag. Brewers win the game.
The second-guessing begins, below.
In addition to those you mention, I'm sure the Cubs will aggressively market Soriano and Marmol including salary relief. Clearly they will not command the prospects of those you mentioned, although Soriano might if he heats up again. Marmol can hopefully be disposed of for insert fringe prospect here.
Great update Phil. It is appreciated. Great to see the hitting over the last ten games. Looks like some of these guys are coming around.
I see Feldman and DeJesus as the most tradeable assets, with Shierholtz somewhere behind them, and the asking price for Garza being more than teams want to give up by a pretty good margin. Garza would still be likely to bring back the best haul, though. I mean, even in a good year, what are you really willing to give up for a Feldman or DeJesus?
It appears that Albert Almora is on his way to Kane County.
r.vogelsong (SF) broke the hell out of his pitching hand getting HBP on a swing tonight. the trainer threw a towel over his hand as soon as he saw it...already scheduled for surgery tomorrow...expected to miss 6 weeks.
True.
just when you think the Cubs are starting to look like a major league team, they go and lose 2 of 3 at home to the Mets.
Scott Feldman though looking good as trade bait.
RIP St Rita alum and great musician
http://www.tmz.com/2013/05/20/ray-manzarek-dead-th...
grant balfour + live TV...what the hell was the MLB Network thinking?
he only let 1 swear fly (not bleeped)...that's about 3-4 times less than i expected.
as an aside...the worst SS i've ever seen in my life is/was bj upton.
words cannot describe how awful he was...it blows my mind he actually made it to AAA playing the position...and that he wasn't moved earlier in his minor league or AAA career. even when he wasn't making plays that would count as errors he was playing really bad SS.
they gave him an enormous amount of leeway trying to get him to stick at the position.
True, but if he's at least decent defensively, and could put up a .270/.350/.390
he'd be worth at least a utility spot.
Come on Soler, Almora and Baez!!!
That is kind of damming with faint praise. :)
That may be true. But is he any less of a prospect than Darwin Barney was?
Barney: .288/.337/.378 in the minors, 35/45 steals 1724 PA's
Watkins:.281/.372/.389, 88/124 steals, 2205 PA's
http://espn.go.com/blog/chicago/cubs/post/_/id/170...
It seems unlikely to me that Watkins will be able to keep up his walk totals in the majors, which kind of makes him a non-prospect.
Per the Baseball Cube (http://www.thebaseballcube.com/players/profile.asp...), Derek played the part of two seasons in A ball. He had 56 erros in 128 games in 1993, and 9 errors in 11 games in 1992.
I remember a conversation at TCR years ago with reference to Starlin's propensity for errors, and it was brought up that Jeter once committed 59 in A ball. It was a mini-point of discussion because different sources were reporting the number as either 59 or 159, but it was determined to be 59. Edit: I guess it was 56, funny we both thought of the same thing.