brings someone else in at that point? All that means is that Heilman would come into the game later. Sorry, but this loss is on Z and the lackluster effort from the Cubs. Except for Milton Bradley, who plays great in garbage time.

Pass it around.

Some people said that a sweep of the Nats shouldn’t be met with untempered enthusiasm for the Cubs’ prospects.

He is who he is. Accept it or…well…continue to be frustrated for no reason.

I love your recaps but you’re really reaching at this point. This team lacks heart and continues to play down to their competition (see Padres, San Diego). They really seem like they’ve mailed it in since the Cardinals got hot. A good team would have stepped up once their biggest rival was trying to stake their claim to the division.

Iraq war
Economic downturn
My dog peeing on the the chair.
Earwigs

Damn you Heilman!

Aside from Lee, everyone could shove off and I wouldn’t care one bit. For some reason, I’ve always liked Marshall, too, though I’ve heard him say maybe three sentences since he’s been here. I appreciate the way he just goes bout his business. There are no real magnetic personalities; no rock-solid character guys. Most of them seem to play because they HAVE to as opposed to wanting to. Shit – I can’t even say “as long as (insert player’s name here) keeps (hitting the cover off the ball / missing bats) like he does, I don’t care if he’s an asshole,” ‘cuz we don’t have anyone that is even close to deserving that kind of praise for their play. Except maybe Kosuke and Lee.

I dunno. I guess I’m just completely uninspired by this roster in every conceivable way. I know I’m not alone.

My money’s on the Yankees this year.

And it’s also not odd when you consider the entire “body of work” exhibited by the team this season.

though is that some of this could have been fixed at the trade deadline; maybe even a bit after. Even management seems happy to turn this into a lost season.

Wonder how happy they’ll be when the last month turn out 30,00 a game in attendance, with most leaving well before last call for beer.

they may not reach BLou’s 79-83 win prediction at all.

Hendry and Lou liked their starting pitching, thought Marmol was at least as good as Wood, and DeRosa was replaceable. None of these things were wild ideas. I might have been sorry to see one or two guys leave, as a fan, but understood the on the field.

They identified their need as a clutch power hitter who could hit left handed. They identified the guy who had the single best 2008 who fit that description and signed him for a number they thought was below market.

I’m confused with the moves not made. The bullpen was pretty bad from the start, needing a real supplement, and no move was made to shore up third base with an everyday worthy hitter when Ramirez went down. Fox’s first appearance at third was at the MLB level after the injury and Fontenot was exposed having to play third every day as opposed to 2/3rds at second.

The season has been pretty normal. Guys the team counted on slumped or were injured (Ramirez, Bradley, Soriano), others outperformed expectations (Wells, Lilly, Theriot, Fox, Lee).

I see the difference in managment being frozen with the initial plan. Whether Hendry had the hard budget number, but expected relief later, or Hendry’s budget leeway was taken away during the season.

Either way, this team was good enough, with moves, to overcome the injuries and slumps, but no moves were made.

..obviously they won’t go undefeated, but until they are mathematically eliminated from the playoffs, I’ll have some hope.

Is there any wonder why many players don’t want to play for the Cubs? As if he should be hated for taking the deal that he did? He’s done better with his money than Aaron Miles, but few in MLB could have stunk up the joint more than Aaron Miles has this season. Bradley’s not a bust. Is he overpaid for what he offers the team? Sure. I don’t see that as a reason to hate him. Fans had a high expectation this season and many of us, myself included at some points, have been really sore losers about it. Should we expect more with this payroll? Absolutely. Go have some conversations with Mets fans about money poorly spent.

"It’s hard to be comfortable when you don’t get a hit and get booed every time," he said. "When I go home and look in the mirror, I like what I see. My family is there I have people I can talk to who are very supportive, in spite of everything and all the adversity and the hatred you face on a daily basis. But I’ll be alright. I always have."

if he can weather the fans and the sucktitude around him and still perform, he’s a guy I want.

He’s got an elite batting eye and great on-base skills. He’s been healthy this season, he’s due for a better season offensively.

Unfortunately the Cubs fans have created this awful environment for Milton, and if he asks for a trade this offseason and gets it that would be too bad.

Milton Bradley’s treatment makes me embarrassed to be a Cubs fan.

“part of the racism and horrible comments that were directed at Jacque Jones.” You mean you witnessed the racism, rather than yelled it at Jacque, correct? Just wanted to make sure that’s known to those who haven’t been around here long.

How do we take back the fan base from the haters? How can we call them out? How can we marginalize them?

The Cards held off until they saw how things went in the first half. Pretty obvious which one worked better.

Sometimes these things pay off, and sometimes they don’t. But the wheels fell off for more reasons than that. A lot of career bad seasons for players, after a lot of career good seasons for players last year.

The athletes have to take the advice and execute. If Larry has found flaws in Z’s delivery or approach to hitters and Z agrees but doesn’t deliver, is it Larry’s fault? Ultimately, it’s all on the player.

Z is cocky and wants to succeed, but his bravado overshadows his skill sometimes. That’s what makes someone like Greg Maddux even more special. He was driven, but was always trying to improve, and not boasting about being a Cy Young winner. He worked hard, learned how to PITCH and actually HAS Cy Young awards. Z wants to be Babe Ruth, deep down.

Pitching is the least of this teams problems. What a truly ill-informed piece of commenting.

Scroll to the bottom.

….yet there are always 50 posts on this blog how he isn’t one. It boggles the mind.

That’s true that they were only a .5 game behind the Cards, but IMO the writing was on the wall. The Cubs haven’t played well except for a small stretch at the beginning of the season and the second half (which was a result of playing inferior teams like the Nats). The fact is the Cubs are never sellers, and that is a main concern/reason why they can’t build a winner with young talent. At some point, the organizational philosophy needs to change cause the mentality of signing overrated, overpaid veterans hasn’t worked. Why were the Cubs so close to the WS in ’03? The answer lies in the young, talented starting pitching that was developed from within.

BULLCRAP! Can’t we ever hold one of your beloved Cubs accountable for his pittiful performance? That’s what’s wrong with this team, the manager just tips his cap, the players say they’ll get em tomorrow, the kool-aid drinkers blame it on a “bad day”, “bad week”, or “bad year”. It’s time hold the players and manager accountable! If Lou can’t come up an excuse better than that, see ya later.

PARADOXES!!!!

Dave Duncan have probably mentioned the sinker/ground ball thing while Marquis was in St. Louis?

I’m guessing Marquis is having a good year. His best in his career, most likely. He’s not as good as he has been this year.