As if the Cubs didn't have enough to worry about, possibly heading into a hurricane tomorrow in Houston, they'll very possibly have to dodge raindrops tonight in St. Louis:This Afternoon: A 50 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 81. Light east wind.
Tonight: Showers and thunderstorms likely. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 69. Light southeast wind. Chance of precipitation is 70%.
We've been over this in several other threads, but I wanted to repeat my position: asking the Cubs to fly into Houston, either tonight, tomorrow or Saturday, in the face of evacuations, storm damage and power failures, is completely ridiculous. Friday's game has now been officially postponed, with no rescheduling yet announced.
I am well aware that the Astros stand to lose quite a bit of money if they don't play the games in Houston this weekend. It seems to me that MLB could make up the money to them somehow, and playing the games on a neutral site makes the most sense -- Atlanta, St. Louis, Milwaukee, anywhere but Houston. If they haven't made this decision by gametime tonight, let's hope they do the right thing before the Cubs leave St. Louis.
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Rich Harden will be fine -- just fine. Yes, he hasn't thrown in 12 days -- but that's missing one start, even though Ted Lilly has started three times since then, due to having two off days in between. We knew he'd have to rest from time to time -- he's been handled the right way. He hasn't faced the Cardinals since 2004, and Adam Kennedy, who faced him quite a bit in the AL (7-for-22) is the only current Cardinal with more than four AB against him.
Todd Wellemeyer is 2-1 vs. the Cubs this year -- who knew he could ever be an effective starter in the majors, after washing out as a Cubs reliever? That includes this blowout Cub loss at Wrigley Field on August 9, the only game St. Louis won in that series. No current Cub has more than 10 AB against Wellemeyer (Reed Johnson, 4-for-10). Mark DeRosa is 3-for-7 with a HR.
Today's game is on CSN again -- good news if you think the broadcast channel has anything to do with the record. My EI listings show both home & road telecasts listed, so if you have EI you should get Len & Bob. Also see the MLB.com Mediacenter.
Baseball-reference.com game preview
Once again, a reminder that you can find the overflow comment threads, including the first pitch thread, on the right sidebar of both the front page and any interior page in the box headed "RECENT STORIES IN GAME THREADS". Today's first pitch thread posts at 7 pm CT, and the overflow comment threads will post at 8 pm, 9 pm and 9:45 pm CT.
And as suggested, today's post will also have a gratuitous picture of Geovany Soto:
via www.mlb.com
Discuss amongst yourselves.