our bullpen got hot these past few weeks as you see today they are reverting back to their old sucking ways. if we had better pitching we'd actually be legit contenders for the wild card.
That statement applies to about 90% of teams that aren't good enough to be contenders for the wild card.
OK...granted. So what pitching would you have gotten in the offseason that would have been appreciably better then what we have? Two caveats: 1. Don't say Santana. We didn't have the trade pieces to get it done. 2. Don't say Lohse. Everybody thought he was damaged goods.
Completely sucks that Brocail blew the lead cause my friend and I for about 15 minutes there were were having the time of our life.......at Wrigley Field!! We were wearing our Astros jerseys in the RF bleachers and for the most part had been pretty subdued with the Cubs building the 6-1 lead. We were getting more vocal with every run to get us back in the game, but after Carlos's bomb, were going nuts. Cubs fans around us were really down and you can feel that the momentum had switched. A few started talking smack to us after the Carlos bomb, but most were pissed off. BUT right after the Soriano bomb, it was payback time. They were giving it to us bigtime----not in a crass, or malicious way (well some were), but they definitely let us know that we were on their turf and not to mess with their team. Unbelievable experience.....highly recommended for any baseball fan to go at least once cause Wrigley is sweet.
geary's hurt and gramps is tired. (this is why they dealt for hawkins.) yesterday, had geary been available, he likely would have pitched the 7th but he pulled his groin playing in that slop monday night. the pen has actually been a bright spot lately but none of the starters seem capable of pitching beyond 5 innings, brocail is 93, and now geary is hurt. as a result, the pen gets gassed.
Lohse wasn't believed to be damaged goods. He was a Boras client, and Boras was being Boras, demanding a 5 year contract.
This might be the worst 1/2 inning of pitching I've ever seen. The Cubs are just taking batting practice.
Man, if you guys only knew me personally. I hate Brandon Backe like some people here hate T-Mac. Only worse. I have never liked this guy. I hate to see the Astros get pounded like this, but at least I take comfort knowing that I am one step closer to seeing Brandon Backe cut. man, Sidney Ponson isn't even this bad. There has to be a AAA pitcher that is better than Backe......they need to cut this guy and do it quick.
I've been a big Backe supporter. You can't discount what he did for us in 2004 & 2005. However, it's time to cut the cord. I thought what he did last Sept. what a sign of things to come. It would be different if he was the #5. Unfortunately, he's on a team where he's expected to be the #3.
What are you going to replace him with? If you take a #5 quality starter, declare him your #3, and then he still pitches like a #5, is that his fault or yours? He is what he always has been. I was still calling him a back of the rotation starter all offseason when everybody has expected him to be a #2. If you enter with more realistic expectations, maybe you won't get your hopes so high and have them so totally crushed. Personally, he has produced about what I've expected from him. He's a back of the rotation pitcher who has pitched like one. I said all summer, if you are counting on a guy who missed most of the last two years with arm trouble and never pitched more than 150 innings and who has pitched more than 90 innings twice in 7 major and minor league seasons to anchor your rotation, you are in big trouble. Yet, somehow people were expecting him to give the team 30+ quality starts.
