...got lucky. He came within about 4 feet of the game being over on the ball Ankiel crushed.

Those RISP stats are hard to swallow. That’s killing us. It seemed like Fontenot was at bat every time they were threatening and he made an out. Why is that guy still on the team? Soriano is a butcher in left. I was pissed when he hit that homerun because it should have been a game winner if he hadn’t played like garbage in the field.

Hill has to go. Get him out of the rotation. There, i’m done. I feel better.

but it seems like Hill has mental problems too. He strikes out the first batter on three pitches (three good pitches mind you) and then once he starts losing the strike zone, it all goes to hell. It just doesn’t seem like he is able or capable of bearing down and focusing on the task at hand.

I am with you Al, it doesn;t make any sense to keep Hill up here in a bullpen that is already having problems and has already thrown too many innings as it is. Hill needs to be sent down to Iowa to figure out whatever he needs to figure out. He better figure it out quickly too b/c at his age (he’s 28 or 29, right?) he isn’t going to get too many more chances.

Soriono, what else can be said that hasn’t already been said. It doesn’t look like he cares at times. I know it is important to go out there and have fun when they are playing this game, but at times that all it seems like Soriano is doing. He looks lost at the plate (the homerun aside). Why throw him a fastball, you don’t have to, he will swing at the curveballs that land in front of the plate for you. Soriano looks lost in left field. At time it just doesn’t look like he feels like playing the game right, he just feels like playing the game. That kind of attitude is not going to win him many fans in a city where we appreciate players like Dome and Johnson and Lee who play the game right, fundamentals and all.

All right, I am done too . . . for now. Thanks for listening :).

Dempster is probably the biggest surprise of the rotation this year, but Hill has to be the biggest disappointment. I know Lilly has been struggling a bit as well, but I truly expected Hill to take that “next step” and become a dominant pitcher.

Although I would love to have Lieber starting, he is just too valuable in that long-relief role. Slotting Marshall into Hill’s spot for a while makes sense.

...will be televised live here in Japan on SkyPerfecTV… but the program will be started at 4:40AM….
Hopely I can wake up by then and join the thread, but I don’t know I can get over Sunday morning laziness….

Good night…

With Hill being yanked after 0.2 innings, the pen had to come up huge and it did. All you can ask for is a chance and the Cubs had chances all night. How can a big league ballplayer misplay the ball that bad? Len and Bob was asking why wasn’t he sent down to Iowa for a couple of games to get the timing back along with game experience. I agree with them. Soriano looked lost.

...much calmer now…The problem with Lou’s comments is that they put the star before the team. Moreover, you could easily explain removing him for defense as protecting his leg. The manager has to manage egos and that’s a very tough job, but as a fan of a team so rich in losing, the feelings of a guy making $18 million per year mean nothing. Seriously, they don’t mean anything.

I can also say that fans would totally respect Soriano as a TEAM player and they’d allow for his injury if he were taken out for defense and batted down. By the way, batting him down where belongs removes Lou’s lame excuse about not double switching for him because of the pitcher.

As I watch Lou manage more like Dusty it’s very frustrating. The Cubs have a good team, we’ve had 2 very tough losses with total melt downs from Wood, Hill, and Soriano on D, but it’s a long season, too. But I don’t care about the egos of alleged “stars”. If you are a gimp on D then you better bring like a star much more often at the plate and don’t look to me for sympathy….Seriously, who in the world is Lou trying to appease with his comment about not switching out a “superstar”? No one but Soriano.

Hass to do better than 1-5….2-5 and no extras…...

Cubs got off to a fast start for a number of reasons; team-wise runs scored, DLee, Fukudome, DeRosa, Theriot, Johnson, Soto, Cedeno hitting alot. Blanco has returned healthy, Fontenot is actually hitting the consistently, Marmol has been almost unhittable, Woody has not been consistent, sometimes dominant but not K dominant, the bats are finding his ball. Z has started well as has Dempster, Marquis is Marquis, but Lilly & Hill are not right. Pie is struggling to hang on.

The worst has been Soriano, he did get a redemption HR last night, a real team redemption for the moment but I think Lou and those fundamental players on the team might be coming to the end of this selfish act.

Fukudome and DLee are the soul of the team, Wood is somewhat the locker room leader where he possesses that personality that when he fails he admits it, but the approach by Lee and Fukudome have rubbed off. It must be how Dome approaches each day in a highly disciplined and focused manner, very professional. Soriano on the other hand might be sloppy, dependent on his extraordinary talent and what that talent will reap for him, thus the inability or unwillingness to hit other than leadoff. I am projecting here but hitting lead off and hitting that first inning HR is a big stage identity thing. (see below, he doesn’t think about situational hitting, merely hacking…). what is worse is his failings in making those catches near the wall, he has ‘alligator arms’, something is missing.

I am going to say this, I don’t think the Cubs and Soriano are going to last, possibly much sooner than later meaning this year. Here is a thought; the Mariners have started out very bad where even Ichiro with his $17M contract through 2012 is not hitting. They traded away the OF future of the franchise to Baltimore for Bedard and they got nothing but a 34 year old who is not hitting. Here is a thought; trade Soriano’s $17M for Ichiro’s $17M and possibly an exchange of prospects like Pie for Truinfel. (Mariners have a young SS and Cubs have the OF now covered with Colvin coming up to possibly play LF), heck it could be Soriano and Hill also!

Ichiro and Dome could team up as the Japan Connection in the OF, and Cubs could play Johnson in LF. Soriano could play RF in Seattle’s dome which would be a more natural position. Either way Piniella is not happy and that is plain to see.

Soriano just doesn’t fit, I didn’t think it would take less than a year but that is the effect of Dome. Other thoughts are how impatient Piniella is getting with Hill, I see him going too. Lou’s contention is that he is now a 3rd year pro who has the tools and should be able to throw the ball for strikes. Sending Hart down to start is a sign the Cubs are looking to make changes.

My DVR skipped somehow and it came back right after the Sorianos homer. I was very excited because I saw the score line first. THEN, they showed the replay and I went from happy to pissed. Soriano, after an absolutely terrible game has the nerve to admire that homerun and smack his helmet like a punk.

Run the goddarn bases….who the hell do you think you are? Selfish. Just the reason why all the security gaurds otuside of wrigley told me that Sori was “the biggest prick” unless the cameras are on.

Rick Ankiel can rake. Obviously he can no longer be juiced, so it must be talent that is getting the job done. Two worries about that team….Troy Glaus rounding into shape and the return of Mark Mulder to what already is a remarkably good starting rotation.

I had a definite Derrek Lee-moment when he got hit. he’ll miss some time but at least it’s not broken-we can’t aford to have him out of the line-up for any length of time.
As for Soriano-I’m not going to rehash all of his flaws-what really gets me is that Hendry signed him without, seemingly, doing any homework on what this guy was. It seems so obvious now how one dimensional and rock headed he is-you’d think before he throw 136 million at him, Hendry would’ve sat down with some people-scouts, etc. and talked about this stuff. Geez, just reading some old Nationals-Rangers-yankees fan post might’ve done the trick!
But now we’re stuck with him and, as much as this sucks, all we can do is grin and bear it.
last week somebody posted about possibly trading him to the Giants for Zito. At the time I thought that was pretty insane but I’m starting to warm up to it. I mean, at least Zito could only hurt us every five games.

I was incommunicado for much of last night – by the time I got home and turned on the TV, the bottom of the 9th had just started. I saw Wood’s first pitch and figured I was a jinx. Thankfully, Ankiel’s drive fell short. Then as the game went into extra innings, they showed highlights, and I got to see Soriano’s misplayed fly ball, as well as his game-tying home run. So I’m thinking, man, the game thread must have really lit up on those two plays…

But the real chuckle came when Soriano came up in the 11th. I think it was Len who said something like ”...and here’s the man responsible for sending the game into extra innings.” I just started laughing because I’m sure Len meant his game-tying homerun, but all I could think about (and I know a thousand other BCBers were thinking the same thing) was the easily catchable fly ball that Soriano misplayed.

If you are a veteran he will give you every chance int he world and will let you be. But if you are not an established player he won’t coddle you up or cover for your mistakes. The first part of this statement is Dusty-like; the second part isn’t.

Lou’s publicly stated approach to this situation is not right. Taking a player out for defensive purposes should not embarrass that player and if it does, it’s the player’s problem. it doesn’t mean it’s the wrong move.

However, sometimes I feel that Lou says one thing to the press though he believes something else. It’s part of his job to take the pressure away from his players. Somehow, I feel this is one of those situations.

Anyone think the Cubs will try to acquire Turnbow?

Moving on from yesterday. Lily was the stopper last year ending several losing streaks. We need to see that Lily here today now!

Another inside information on a trade from the same old sources that have never been right. At the moment Hill is going nowhere but to the minors to work on his control. And Lou is doing what he has to do to make the team work. Those who think that managing a team is all about what goes on in the game no nothing about management. Sometimes you have to work with someone during a bad time to get the best out of them when they start producing. Even the best players will have issues, we don’t know what is going on in their lives and they are not cards in a board game. Give Soriano some slack and he will produce, treat him like a POS and you’ll have season long problems.

Oh and Ichiro is going nowhere. The M’s aren’t trading him, lest of all for Soriano. Bavazi, who should have been fired before he was hired, would find his time with Howard Lincoln a living hell if he did such a thing. Not to mention that the fans would hang him high if he even hinted that he would trade Ichiro.

Sometimes I think that Lee Elia was right about Chicago fans. The press in Chicago these days would make Carmichael want to give them a close shave in the Barber Shop.