Fat Lady Clears Throat; Cubs Lose To Brewers 9-5

Yikes. Times getting REALLY short now boys & girls…

I so confused

I do know it was a very, very bad choice to put them in the game THAT early when there was a chance to come back. Glad Lou was awake to pull double switches etc but not putting in Marshall or Gorzo for Harden killed the Cubs chances of coming back .

Where is Guzman. Is he hurt? Saving him for 2010? Or is the doghouse door closed and locked.
 Harden last night hardly if ever hit 90MPH on the gun. Patton in that spot, I just didn’t have any confidence he could keep the Brewers in check.
 It is a shame Fuld is hurt, he could spell both Dome and Bradley for a game or two.
 IMO Bradley does look uninterested. When you are a so called “OBP machine” and don’t take a walk in 13 games this month it is odd to say the least. It is almost like, “screw it, they want me to drive in runs from the 5 hole, fine I am hacking away” And of course last night first AB never swings the bat, takes 4 pitches then back to the dugout. Dome and Bradley are the two concerns that I have for next year. Cubs can not continue to get that poor of production from those two. Milton’s game is just frustrating.

Must have missed that on my long commute to the game. That was a surprise.

Too inconsistent and fragile. Yes, he might put it together someday but I’d bet against it. Unless he would be really cheap, I say NO.

7 for 55 in Sept. Keep trotting him out there Lou!!

we’ll be talking about maybe catching St. Louis instead of Colorado. They both seem equally difficult to do right now. Obviously, to have any chance in hell at that we’d have to sweep them… (Smoltz, Carpenter, Wainwright… tall order).

Is Patton really an affect of a ham-strung payroll?

Really now, would he even have been kept in the organization if Hendry were able to go out and spend even a little more money? Not talking a $5M a year reliever but at least something more than a rule 5 guy. Gees.

I’m not necessarily advocating opening of the proverbial bank vault either. But this years team is a clear indication that even though they spent like drunken sailors the previous 2 off seasons, they couldn’t this time around and it cost them, figuratively and literally.

I did expect a decent effort out of Harden. On the plus side, he’s reducing his value if it gets to arbitration.

Conversely, I was really hoping for draft picks and each start he sucks reduces the chances he’ll pull a deal as big as he and his agent probably want that gets the Cubs the picks.

After the Soriano saga, it’s the question you have to ask. Harden’s performance is way down. Bradley’s performance is down. Soto’s performance was down.

And who’s making these decisions? Is Lou telling the guys to gut it out? Is the training staff incompetent? Is Hendry forcing the players out there?

Sure, this is a case based on speculation, but the questions have to be asked. When healthy Rich Harden is a dominating pitcher and Milton Bradley is a dominating hitter. How many Cubs are playing that shouldn’t be?

My husband ran down to the bathroom in the 5th. Judd was doing his best Howdy Dowdy laughing impression and saying some mumbo jumbo about not knowing why Bradley was taken out of the game yet. He said all the guys in there bust out laughing with some shouting “because he’s hitting 250 you moron.” He said it was pretty funny and that he never heard quite an uproar like it in the men’s room before.

I was on a flight with DeRosa last night. He was heading home to Atlanta to spend an off day with his pregnant wife. He was kind and patient enough to let me pepper him with questions for about 20 minutes as we waited for our plane. He could not have been nicer or more down to earth. Really great guy.

Said he loved his experience in Chicago and was sad to leave. His best friends on the team were Demp and Lilly. He did not seem to care much (at all) for Z. Lazy and stubborn, he said. A great talent, but no work ethic. His tone seemed to suggest that Z was somewhat of a clubhouse cancer.

He shook his head and actually started laughing when I suggested the Cubs could still catch the Cards.

Really wish he were still a Cub. Think we’d be in a different place.

…what the hell was wrong with Richard Dreyfuss?! Seriously, is there something wrong with that guy? Was he drunk?

Prior to the season I was in the camp of picking up his option and then dealing him. At this point I think they have to let him walk. Offer him arbitration… someone will offer him a long term deal. I think that the major step that the Cubs took in 2007 and 2008 revolved around having starting pitchers who went to the mound every fifth day and threw with some degree of consistency. One of the things that I had hoped that we had learned from the Wood and Prior era was that when these guys aren’t going to the mound or are starting but lasting 3 or 4 innings that it has a major trickle-down on the rest of the team. Harden is out of that book and we say this in a year where he remained relatively healthy.

How could another team watch him pitch and want him on their team? He can’t pitch effectively more than 20 starts a season- and that is pushing it- and forces you to move around rotation guys so he can get more rest.

I’ll bet he accepts arbitration if offered.

Harden shut down for remainder of season