No extra innings while I am in Chicago watching the Cubs but nice line score. His 2nd RBI IN TWO GAMES after going nearly two years without one ? He got actual run support thought the Padres
bullpen did their best to blow it up in the 9th. Apparently he can win on the road and in Coors too.
353 and counting.

are the best last place team in baseball. After watching them a bit lately, it’s amazing they don’t win. The collapse of JJ Putz hasn’t helped. That line up isn’t terrible. Bad starting pitching has done them in, but they shouldn’t be so many games under .500.

A lesson—never, ever pay big bucks for a closer. Keep developing them, let somebody else pay for them, when they want to move on.

...I’d take any team in the majors over the Mariners. They have such a mix of bad contracts, untouchables who are on the decline and no prospects.

...they are horrid. As long as I have lived here, I’m seen some bad Padres squads. This one is the botttom 5 worst. (You can’t get any worse unless you are starting Archi Cianfroccio at 3rd every night. This squad can’t do anything right , they are entirely inept in all phases of the game—every outfielder except for the singles-hitting Giles is a 5th outfielder.

Mental mistakes abound. Their OPB is miserable. No speed at all. Gonzalez can be pitched around. Any team who pitches to him with a base open and runners on is stupid.

Peavy has to throw a shut-out to win. And, when they try to deal Maddux away, he’s of no help. It’s L-A or nothing. He could help many contenders, but he’s forced the Pads into a corner.

This team is horribly constructed. With no farm system (there is talent in the low minors) it won’t win for at least 2 more years. No money will be spent on free agents, unless they are second-tier. The current divorce battle between John and Becky Moores is now spilling over into what the team will do. Now, it’s unclear who will own the team. At least we know the Cubs are going through a sales process, so there will be an orderly transition.

I almost feel sorry for the fans. They were told Petco Park will make them competitive every year – they may not win every year, but there would be resources. As of now, everything is in (another) transition. The only hope is that - if there is off-season renovation to make Petco more hitter friendly, perhaps they can attract a bat or two - if indeed, they have ANY money.

With equivocation, the Padres are the dregs of baseball, and they have nobody to blame but themselves.

They’re primed for the Tampa Bay plan of “keep drafting in the top five until you have enough good players” plan, and you could pick a worse group to build around than Zimmerman, Milledge and Dukes. Their farm system is a barren wasteland right now, their pitching is an advertisement for the concept of replacement level and Bowden’s not a guy whose skillset seems to match up well with the task at hand.

Let’s not kid ourselves – they have some long odds ahead of them. But you have to like their odds better than, say, the Astros, who have hitched themselves to a string of bad contracts ready to enter their decline phase.

considering I traded for him last monday on my fantasy team.

:) I wish no ill will on Lee—I think he’s a great player and a pretty good guy. But I’ll take this break, no pun intended.

... is on September 14.

That’s five weeks from today. I don’t think we’ll see Carlos again this year.

And as above, I don’t wish injury on anyone. But I’m very happy we won’t have to face him till 2009.

What do you do with a tired ballplayer? Stick him on a plane for 14 hours and just when he’s adjusted to the jet lag, stick him on a plane for 14 hours again. Then he’ll be all refreshed and ready for the stretch run.

The mind boggles.

...he was a Marlins ace going back to early this decade and performed a conditioning program in the offseason.

Dempster has ALWAYS been a talented pitcher, if injured.

...and I’ve never understood the reputation he has a pitching coach…

XTRA-AM’s transmitter was in Tijuana, and every morning at 3am they’d play the Mexican National Anthem. Man that’s a long song!

:-)
Well, we all do, thanks to Gameday. But I dug in a little, and, well, some more eyeballs will maybe see something I’m not – but his arm angle (based both on release points on “spin movement” (which is essentially a combination of arm plane, grip and release point/pressure/etc) looks fine.

http://www.cubsfx.com/2008/08/carlos-zambranos-worst-start-ever.html

Allow me to suggest it is a little dicey to suggest a guy has an injury when there’s no actual evidence to suggest it. Same thing happened earlier this year, when an Arizona paper ran an piece on their site about Webb having dead arm, based on PITCHf/x data. I closer look at those numbers showed no reason for concern.

has good speed and good plate discipline. they are gonna keep pitching him outside. He’s a slap hitter. what i would like fo rhim to do is start laying a few down that 3rd baseline. A few of those and they will stop staying on that outside corner.

Although I’m not sure how you legally can enforce such a mandate.

Interestingly enough, I took to policing myself when I’d go to Cub games on the road. Once it occurred to me how obnoxious it is to have the fans of other teams sitting in your home team’s park whooping and hollering with all their gear on, I’d just wear plain T-shirts and shorts to Dodger Stadium and Petco Park and quietly applaud the Cubs. Made me less of a target for mustard-covered hot dogs and peanut missiles that way.

1) Return to a 154-game schedule and make the Division Series a best of seven format, the cries of poverty from the owners be damned.

2) As a fan, reset what you define as the “goal” of your team so that it’s being the best in the league over the course of a season. Having the best W-L record over the course of six months is quite a feat in of itself, and perhaps a truer measure of success than a potentially flukey handful of games in October. Probably that’s why the Cincinnati Reds made it a point to create a “best overall record” flag for themselves in 1981 (hmm, wonder if the Expos did that for 1994?).