NL Central Chat 2008

[BaldBil]

Originally Posted by ssigman

whoa...don't sleep on dallas green

Your kidding?

[ssigman]

haha of course i am

[AndyC0803]

So the Cards get swept at home by the "mighty" Royals but then take 2 out of 3 in Boston? Sheesh! No wonder I get so frustrated by this team.

[HUSKERSnCUBS]

I know Andy i was very thankful for the Royals doing that but the Cubs are Cards just really must have liked that 3.5 lead until the final game of the series yesterday, the Cubs swept the white sox while the red sox took the game from the Cards in extras.

And Yuck the Brewers are playing good now I really hope they fall flat on their face again sometime soon here.

Cubs 48-28 Best Record in majors
Cards 44-33 4.5 back Not far behind at the 5th best
Brew 41-34 6.5 back
Pirates36-40 12 back
Astros 35-41 13 back
Reds 35-42 13.5 back

[AndyC0803]

In case you haven't noticed, the Cubs have started their "June Swoon" a little late this year but still they have lost 4 in a row. The Cards won 2 of 3 over the weekend and are now only 2.5 games back. This weekend the Cards and Cubs hook up in STL and it looks like Carlos Zambrano will pitch on Friday. Maybe I have a bad memory but I cannot remember a Cub that I hate more than Zambrano. His antics are so irritating and annoying. I despise that fucker. Every time I hear that he may be injured the first thought that pops in my head is "good, I hope he has to retire."

Anyway, before the Cards and Cubs hook up the Cubs play 4 in San Francisco while the Cards host the Mets for 4 games. Hopefully the Cubs will come to STL road weary and the Cards can bash their brains in.

[HUSKERSnCUBS]

Originally Posted by AndyC0803

In case you haven't noticed, the Cubs have started their "June Swoon" a little late this year but still they have lost 4 in a row. The Cards won 2 of 3 over the weekend and are now only 2.5 games back. This weekend the Cards and Cubs hook up in STL and it looks like Carlos Zambrano will pitch on Friday. Maybe I have a bad memory but I cannot remember a Cub that I hate more than Zambrano. His antics are so irritating and annoying. I despise that fucker. Every time I hear that he may be injured the first thought that pops in my head is "good, I hope he has to retire."

Anyway, before the Cards and Cubs hook up the Cubs play 4 in San Francisco while the Cards host the Mets for 4 games. Hopefully the Cubs will come to STL road weary and the Cards can bash their brains in.

Although Zambrano does have some ridiculous antics you can't deny that he has cooled down a little more on the field than what he used to be in his first few years. The series this weekend is going to be big especially if The cubs win the same amount against the Giants as the Cards do against the mets.

If the Cubs pitching doesn't come to play against the Cardinals it could get ugly and we may not only be looking at 2nd place but we may be looking at the Brewers only being 1 or 2 games back of us. The Brewers are starting to play well somehow a 7.5 ERA Dave Bush is winning games but what can you do.

I knew the Cubs were never going to stay as hot as they had been playing but we'll see what happens.

We had to pitch Sean Marshall in Zambrano's spot 2 times. And are without Soriano and Reed Johnson.

Although you may say wtf does Reed Johnson matter to the Cubs but just to inform everyone Reed Johnson has had the best batting average with RISP for the Cubs. He doesn't have the best batting Avg but when runners are in scoring position he has been clutch this year and that has hurt us the past week and half or so. I think since Johnson, Zambrano, and Soriano went down we are 4-9 or something along that line.

We'll see how it goes and of course I hope for the Cubs to take 3 of 4 from SF and 2 of 3 from St Louis, I know you don't like to hear that andy

[HUSKERSnCUBS]

But just so that you realize I'm not trying to make excuses, I realize injuries happen, as they have to the cardinals. I know you can agree with me if you are logical though andy that some of the Cardinals are playing much better than their averages. But like I said no excuses, good teams don't let injuries affect them, and I think you are very lucky to have Larussa as your manager Andy because he really gets teams to gel that don't look like they should be doing squat in the majors. I think you even said you didn't figure a better than 4th place finish in the NL Central, I may be wrong but I know you said you never would have thought they would be playing as good as they are right now.

[AndyC0803]

Are you kidding? I'm SHOCKED that the Cards aren't in last place! They are playing way better than anyone thought they would. In fact, this may be LaRussa's best year ever. Most of the team is playing at a much higher level then they ever have before. I sure hope they can keep it up.

Anyway, a couple of points:

1. If the Cubs win 3 of 4 in SF and 2 of 3 in STL this weekend it will be huge because the Cubs have not played particularly well on the road this year. In fact, after last night they are still 17-23 on the road and 33-10 at home. The Cards, on the other hand, are 24-17 at home and 24-19 on the road. I like having that kind of balance.

2. I've thought that one thing we needed was a strong lefty out of the bullpen. Enter Mark Mulder. I really don't know what to think about this development. It could be awesome, it could be the last gasp of a once effective pitcher. Last night sure was awesome though.

[HUSKERSnCUBS]

Originally Posted by AndyC0803

Are you kidding? I'm SHOCKED that the Cards aren't in last place! They are playing way better than anyone thought they would. In fact, this may be LaRussa's best year ever. Most of the team is playing at a much higher level then they ever have before. I sure hope they can keep it up.

Anyway, a couple of points:

1. If the Cubs win 3 of 4 in SF and 2 of 3 in STL this weekend it will be huge because the Cubs have not played particularly well on the road this year. In fact, after last night they are still 17-23 on the road and 33-10 at home. The Cards, on the other hand, are 24-17 at home and 24-19 on the road. I like having that kind of balance.

2. I've thought that one thing we needed was a strong lefty out of the bullpen. Enter Mark Mulder. I really don't know what to think about this development. It could be awesome, it could be the last gasp of a once effective pitcher. Last night sure was awesome though.

Point #1 Oh I know how terrible the Cubs are on the road, but if you can't take 3 of 4 from SF it isn't good. We got game 1 in dominating fashion, we couldn't touch Zito last year for some reason while everone else lit him up. We finally followed suit. I don't see us taking 2 of 3 from the Cardinals.

I see the Cards splitting with the Mets, or I should I say hope the mets take 2. Putting the Cubs 3.5 ahead of the Cards going into the weekend.

The cards than take 2 of 3 from the Cubs to cut the lead back to 2.5.

Point #2, If Mulder can do well and last 3 innings a game for bullpen that would be a huge boost for the Cardinals, but if he can't, I don't know why he wouldn't have the stamina. What was his injury by the way? But if Issringhausen can't be the closer (is he hurt right now)? You could do a test like the Cubs and move Mulder to closer possibly? He has very good stuff and is a lefty on top of that. But it should be a fun race if the Cubs can just play .500 ball on the road and even not quite as good as they have at home in the first half of the season.

Oh and I agree this could very well be Larussa's best year ever, its strange that he can get teams that nobody has faith in to win as many games as they have so far. I don't know if it is Larussa that gets this team to win or if it is just the fact that they go out play and have fun because they know nobody wants to take the lineup of

Schumaker
Miles
Pujols
Ankiel
Glaus
Duncan
Molina
Pitcher
Ryan

I mean after watching them whenever Ankiel comes up in a big situation the only thing I can think is oh great here comes a go ahead home run. If teams keep pitching to Pujols with 1st base open and 2 outs that is only going to help them, why teams do that I have no idea. But the Cardinals are definitely exceeding expectations this year, I don't care if they do as long as the Cubs finish first.

[AndyC0803]

Is Pujols the most dangerous hitter in the game? If he isn't, then who is?