Chase Field Is Still The Cubs' House Of Pain: Cubs 2, Diamondbacks 7

but if I was a Cardinals fan (shudder) I’d count Carpenter out. He looks to be made from the same mold as The Employee and I doubt he ever pitches a fulltime starting rotation schedule again.

…but neither the Pirates or Reds’ lineups scare me.

I think they’ll both fade after the All Star break.

I understand what you mean about Z. I just don’t have the same confidence in him anymore. Harden has surprised me, aside from that one start he has been awesome, and hasn’t gotten hurt yet. Ted is Ted and will finish the season with 15-19 wins and 2-3 catchers plowed over.
Dempster is the problem for me, he doesn’t have control like he did last year and we are locked into him for the next 4 years.
Marshall is and will be fine. As the fifth starter a 6-7 IP 2-3 run effort is stellar.

Bullpen/Lack of ability to hit will doom this team.

too much. I remember seeing a stat the other day (don’t remember it exactly), but our starting rotation has put together a relatively high percentage of “quality starts”. What this leads me to believe is that our offense is not producing.

What I know is that we have a few guys on our team right now that have a track record of producing that are not producing, Lee, Soto and Bradley to be specific. These guys are likely to get back on track, and when they do, we will start winning a lot of ball games because our rotation is producing those quality starts.

Care to give some examples of these awful performances? Because, by and large, I’ve seen a starting staff that’s been pretty consistent (in a good way) throughout the season thus far.

went six in St. Louis, and against the Reds at home. He won’t go eight, but he’s doing fine.

for Heathcliff. Maybe Dan Duquette’s best move as Red Sox GM.

Hanley Ramirez was a BoSox.

totally forgot Tek was a Mariner, but was only looking at last 5 years in my what have you done for me lately.

Cubs produce Marmol (very good), Guzman (tbd), Marshall (just getting a chance), Theriot (very good leaving 2b vs SS out of it), Soto (very good) & Hoffpauir (TBD).

Of the 5 Cub outfielders, 1st Base, 3rd Base & #2, #3, #4 starters or Closer, not one came from the system or was with the organization below the majors, other than rehab.

Even more surprising, I can’t think of a single star player to come up recently with another team who was included in an acquisition of talent after the Pierre deal. Given the nature of the interwebz, this is the opportunity for 100 responses showing me the one I forgot.

My examples may not be perfect, but there is not much talent to get excited about within the system and unless a team has a Yankee budget, teams win with low cost emerging superstars.

He did exactly what he should do, especially against a lineup without its 3-4-5 hitters.

Looking at the Cubs lineup last night, you had a feeling it was going to be a low-scoring game, and if the Cubs could scrape across a few runs they had a shot. Unfortunately they didn’t, and Lilly looked shaky.

Hopefully, Ramirez and Bradley return tonight, lend some balance to the offense, and the Cubs score some runs.

he was still working counts and getting on base via walks, so that helps. Just think back to the Houston series – you could see his impact, despite a lack of hitting.

And just the way pitchers have to pitch to Lee and Bradley makes a big difference. Pitchers aren’t afraid of Reed Johnson hitting cleanup.

I’m only at 10K . .. but I’ll get 11 in the next week or so.

It’s ok to call that pathetic . . . I won’t be offended.

And, welcome.

I passed me easily.

Just haven’t posted much. Nice to hear from you.

:P

i am just talking in general

one thing to keep in mind is that BCB has, by far, the largest number of members on SBN. our numbers for everything are increased.

Im not familar with many others. I would be curious to read what others put and see if that is something that would fit with Al’s policies.

… everyone try to be nice to each other, avoid the personal attacks, keep the profanity level to near zero, and if the Cubs have a crappy game, talk about it without ledge-jumping.

That shouldn’t be that difficult.

Believe me, I’ve seen far, far worse than what goes on here.

and there are mature ways to debate differences

The best way to deal with trolling is to ignore it. Responding prolongs it. Ignoring it works every time.

to refer to fellow Cub fans as contaminants along with an exaggeration.

Man, he looks good hitting those.

We have had pitchers with a lot of talent, but hey tended to be injury prone (Wood, Prior, Guzman to name a few).

At the same time though, we have Zambrano, Marshall, Marmol who have all gotten better as the years have gone by. Granted with marmol it may be a little early and he is freakishly talented.

months ago. He was a better pitcher than people give credit, and it is not his fault Hendry pver paid for a #5.

I thought your point was that Duncan was takin Cubs castoffs and making them all-stars.

But I would say Zambrano has done pretty well for himself.

What reclamation projects has Larry R made successes out of? Or which veteransor underachievers has he improved?

Duncan’s list seems endless. Look at last year’s and this year’s current rotation as examples.

Larry R… I’ll give him credit for Dempster. Great job there. And, he got just about the same out of Marquis that Duncan got. He developed Marmol into a dominant arm. Excellent job.

I thought Marquis was the best No. 5 pitcher in baseball last season. Of course, someone should have pointed out your statistic to the idiots who kept chanting “Marquis sucks!” when the Rockies were at Wrigley earlier this month.