I hope!

I can see Gaudin being our 8th inning guy until Marmol figures himself out.

Howry – 7th
Gaudin – 8th
Wood – 9th

He looked real solid.

nest dream did i think realistically we would be where we are at the ASB. best 1st half of the season of my life and god did I enjoy. half a nice lil vacation cubs and lets do it again this weekend. maybe getting ourselves homefield advantage will help.

Sometimes you have to say “good game” to the other guys and move forward.

Certainly didn’t think the three best records would be in the NL Central at the beginning of this season.

Keep pushing forward, and remember that the wild card will likely come out of this division or the East.

Al, the called third strike wasn’t even close to “right down the middle” as you state in your recap. It was several inches off the outside corner. I wasn’t able to follow the game too closely today, so I don’t know if the ump had been calling that a strike all day or not. But it most definitely was not over the plate.

he’s a lot of fun to watch, although I’d much prefer to watch him against any team other than the Cubs. It looks like our boys are a mite on the tired side—and after a first half like this one it’s quite understandable. The ASB couldn’t come at a better time.

Can’t wait to see what the second half brings! What a season this is.

a frustrating game, but Lincecum is their ace for a reason.

Anyone see the sign? I’m about go ff through my TIVO…

DWard hasnt been “good” pinch hitting this year, he’s only 3-25 in that role(11-26 when he starts). Granted, he has 8 walks as well, but I think he’s been a major dissapointment so far this year. Let’s hope he’s fully recovered from the injury and picks it up in the 2nd half.

And, yeah, Lincecum’s a stud. No doubt about it.

I think a LOT of teams need this ASB, Cubbies included. Good that we have that off day on Thursday as well.

Today was a tough one as I had Lincecum on my fantasy team, but I gotta say, I dont think there is another pitcher in the league I enjoy watching as much as him….hes unreal, that wind up/lean/long stride is amazing…..its too bad for the Giants sake they dont have too many legit hitting prospects, Cain, Sanchez and Lincecum could be in for some lean years.

No point to this post I guess, other than to express my admiration for Lincecum…so while enduring a Cubs loss, I had fun watching Lincecum pitch

But hey 19 games over .500 at the ASB, never wouldve imagined that

I was in the same place on the plate as ball 2, just a bit lower. Game day shows this very clearly. While I understand the tracking system may be calibrated incorrectly, it wouldn’t be different from one pitch to the next. Pitches 4 and 5 could have both gone either way. With 2 strikes I’d have liked to see Ward at least try to foul those off.

But I really want to hear peoples thoughts on the first half of the season, you wont see me do this again, this is the last time, but I posted at a bad time where it all got drowned out last night, check it out here I just want to see what the overall consensus is.

Now as far as todays game, well Lincecum beat us fair and square, derosa coulda made that play or played it safe but were ok, happy allstar break!

perhaps technically speaking, Marmol getting added to the all-star roster makes eight Cubs, but seeing as how he’s replacing a Cub (Kerry Wood), is it really eight?

This has the makings of a Escher-like logic puzzle. If a non-Cub pitcher was hurt, and Marmol added – sure, that makes eight. And just because Wood is hurt, that doesn’t mean he should lose his designation as an all-star, so he still counts. But somehow a Cub replacing a Cub doesn’t seem like a +1 situation here. Can someone weigh in here and convince me one way or the other?

and had to wait 3 1/2 hours for the post game spread of bacon sandwiches, That had to hurt

doesn’t look all that great. But when you look at the pitchers we faced it looks a little better: Lincecum(twice), Cueto, Harang, Arroyo, Cain, Correia.

1. Dempster pitched a “pretty good” game, but made a few mistakes (Vizquel’s hit, Durham’s hit—both on fat pitches). Probably good enough to win against an ordinary pitcher.
2. For all of the time that Fontenot and Theriot have played together, they don’t seem to have the mental coordination down. Several times (not just today) they have been confused on who is covering on a steal, not had a “cut-off” man on a potential 1st-and-3rd double steal (remember the steal of home?), both gone out on a pop-up leaving the bag uncovered, etc. This is my final plea to Lou: You cannot keep playing musical chairs in the middle infield. DeRo is the leader out there; Riot relies on him. It shows when everyone moves around.
3. DeRo looks exhausted, both physically and mentally. He is missing good pitches, the sign of a tired bat; and he is making more mistakes defensively, the sign of a tired mind. The ASB will do him a world of good, but Lou can’t keep moving him around and expect him to have a great second half.
4. Dome looks exhausted, and he’s definitely pressing. A drop in the batting order (and more off days) would probably help him. Lou has such tunnel vision on having a LHB at the top of the order that he is hurting Dome.
5. Edmonds was much better the last two days after getting a day off. RJ needs to spell him more often in the second half, even against RHP.
6. I’m extremely concerned about the amount of games Soto has played. Better-rested catchers have been known to have bad second halves.
7. Although I believe that Marmol deserves the AS berth, he desparately needs more rest in the second half.
8. Is Ronny Cedeno still on the team?

In short, I think that Lou was so determined to get off to a good start that he went to the whip on April 2nd. It shows with the way he has ridden Marmol, Soto, Edmonds while RJ was out, and DeRo. He also tried tweaking the rotation to get Z and Demp extra starts that weren’t really needed—the extra rest would have been a greater benefit. Hopefully, Lou will back off just a bit after the ASB and just let the guys get into a good rhythm.

Enjoy the break everybody!

DeRosa was Ok the days before. I think playing RF today took all he got and he suffered at the plate.

Fukodome is tired and started to rest today. However, he is having trouble hitting lefties and that is something that goes beyond his tired condition at present. He is stepping away while swinging at breaking balls that cut the outside corner when thrown by lefties. He needs to stay with those pitches by stepping forward when he swings (like Ichiro, or better yet, he should stand still). He should move to his right after he swings, not while doing it. The pitchers found Fukudome’s weakness and he needs to adjust.

Whoever is narrating the Top Plays said “Miguel Cabrera covers a lot of ground, makes the catch.” This team is not the Tigers. It’s the Astros. Their shortstop is named Miguel Tejada.

I know it was mentioned that he was in the bleachers the other day. He wrote:

July 11, Chicago: Don’t tell my boss, but on the way back from Scappoose, I stopped for the afternoon in Chicago, lathered on the 55 SPF sunscreen, and sat in the seventh row of the left-field bleachers at Wrigley Field for Cubs 3, Giants 1. The guy a few seats away asked me, “What’s your favorite ballpark?’’ And I told him the story of taking my late mother to Wrigley for the first time, maybe eight or 10 years ago, and how she’d been used to Fenway Park and didn’t think any place could every be better, and in the seventh-inning stretch, she leaned over to me and said, “Peter, I think this is better than Fenway.’’

I love the sun beating down on the bleachers, and the 20-somethings sitting with the 60-somethings, and the organ playing, and the balls flying all around you in batting practice. There’s not a lot of places purer in sports. Now, the $110 price tag for the general admission bleacher seat is another matter. But once every five years, I’ll pay it happily. What a great afternoon.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/writers/peter_king/07/13/mmqb/2.html

I just can’t believe that it is already the All-Star break, felt like we were just counting downt he days until ST.

Only thought, I wish Marmol had this week to get away from baseball.

Onto the second half!

How much is an official Wrigley Field hot dog?

Thanks in advance!

Dave

is as successful as the first half. May Rich Harden start a new trend of staying healthy the rest of the season and Carlos Marmol get his “White Castle”pitching style back.