1 run loss, 12 innings

heart ripped out, heart rebuilt, heart ripped out not a good day. for a multitude of reasons. (those reasons do not include “upper case being broke”. shift doesn’t feel worth the effort.)

heart ripped out, heart rebuilt, heart ripped out

not a good day. for a multitude of reasons.

(those reasons do not include “upper case being broke”. shift doesn’t feel worth the effort.)

four

HOU — 3 50.32 OFF SFG 0.5 4 23.68 Williams @ SDP Eaton CHC 0.5 4 27.30 Prior v CIN Harang SDP 2.5 4 00.43 Eaton v SFG Williams So bizarre. Feels like they should be about ten games back by now. And yet, if the Cubs win out, they’re at least playing on Monday. … Continue reading “four”

HOU --- 3 50.32 OFF
SFG 0.5 4 23.68 Williams @ SDP Eaton
CHC 0.5 4 27.30 Prior v CIN Harang
SDP 2.5 4 00.43 Eaton v SFG Williams

So bizarre. Feels like they should be about ten games back by now. And yet, if the Cubs win out, they’re at least playing on Monday. What the heck ever.

Thought I heard Steve Phillips says “Adam Eaton has no heart” this morning on ESPN Radio. Won’t need won to beat a guy coming back from injury and to secure the ERA Title.

To finish a thought from last night:

FOUR WAY DANCE

Ignoring the miracle needed for this to happen, seeding would be completely random. Which makes no sense to me, but then they’re using coin tosses instead of head to head records.

– Cubs will send the best pitching 4 of their starting 5 to try and take this.

THU: Mark Prior (6-4, 4.27) vs CIN Aaron Harrang (10-9, 5.03)
FRI: Kerry Wood (8-8, 3.58) vs ATL Mike Hampton (12-9, 4.38)
SAT: Carlos Zambrano (16-6, 2.60) vs ATL John Thomson (14-8, 3.73)
SUN: Greg Maddux (15-11, 3.88) vs TBA

Gotta assume the TBA is going to be a September callup, and the Brave starters will be on a short pitch/inning count.

And now the rest of the world has ticked me off and wasted my time, so everything else gets scrapped.

ties

If there’s a three way tie:

If it’s LAD/SFG/CHC, then because of coin tosses and the NL West being involved, it’ll be the Dodgers @ the Giants in the first game. If the Giants lose, they stay at home, and the Cubs travel there to meet them. If the Dodgers lose – well, they actually didn’t do the coin toss there yet. Hmmm.

If it’s HOU/SFG/CHC for just the Wild Card, there are no coin tosses involved; it’s just a ranked two game elimination battle.

G1: Team A @ Team B
G2: Team C @ Winner

Who gets which spot is decided by the records against the rest of the group:

Giants   8-4    .667
Cubs     12-13  .480
Astros   11-14  .440

(figuring out this chart is why I did this)

Top record gets first pick, so the Giants have clinched first choice. The sane thing would be to take the Team C slot, because you’d only need one win to move on. Cubs would logically choose to be Team B, and hope to win two straight home games.

On any two way tie, the Cubs lost the coin toss and will be visitor in a 163 game.

bad free verse hour

I can not go to sleep. I’m very tired. I’ve been lacking sleep all week. My mantra has been to not get too far up or too far down on one day. Until the last meaningful day of the season, everything can change. Like the last week hasn’t proven that. And whatever happens in this … Continue reading “bad free verse hour”

I can not go to sleep.

I’m very tired. I’ve been lacking sleep all week.

My mantra has been to not get too far up or too far down on one day. Until the last meaningful day of the season, everything can change. Like the last week hasn’t proven that.

And whatever happens in this Giants game means nothing if the Cubs don’t win tommorow. No amount of intense viewing will change that. I might as well go to bed and find out what happened int he morning.

I can not go to sleep.

I think I’ve got some leftover pizza. Stupid Phil Nevin.

RAW extended

(I can’t talk about it. Don’t make me.) Am I the only person in the world who thinks Flair took out Orton to get into the vote himself? Because it seems that way. IF THEY ARE DOING IT THAT WAY, I would’ve changed how the RAW ending was presented; if the big swerve is “Flair … Continue reading “RAW extended”

(I can’t talk about it. Don’t make me.)

Am I the only person in the world who thinks Flair took out Orton to get into the vote himself? Because it seems that way.

IF THEY ARE DOING IT THAT WAY, I would’ve changed how the RAW ending was presented; if the big swerve is “Flair really is gunning” on his own, then they shouldn’t diminish with the lesser swerve of “Flair turns on Orton.” Instead of building it up like Flair was absolutely going to turn, JR should’ve been hoping against hope Flair would turn, and then treated it like a “we’ve seen this before, I can’t believe Evolution did it again” type of deal, setting it up to not be what we’ve seen before in these situations

I think I like that idea better just because it brings the continuity of the announcers knowing the history between these people beyond the last PPV cycle; usually it takes people chanting names for the announcers to be clued in about their dumbest people in the room status.

(If they aren’t doing it this week, it was really nice of Flair to fake tension with Batista for something we’re supposed to pretend only Batista and Flair were aware of happening. That dedication to fooling the cameraman for no particular reason is apperciated.)

Reliever usage

last used SERGIO 11 Clement 7 Leicester 4 Remlinger 4 Wuertz 2 Dempster 3 Hawkins 3 Mercker 1 Kyle 1 Wellemeyer 1 Someone tell Dusty: Wuertz hasn’t given up a ML run since May 29th. It’d be more impressive over more than 14 innings, but I’ll take it. (This is how you get an ERA … Continue reading “Reliever usage”

last used
SERGIO       11
Clement      7
Leicester    4
Remlinger    4
Wuertz       2
Dempster     3
Hawkins      3
Mercker      1
Kyle         1
Wellemeyer   1

Someone tell Dusty: Wuertz hasn’t given up a ML run since May 29th. It’d be more impressive over more than 14 innings, but I’ll take it. (This is how you get an ERA down from 10.03 to 4.56)

Trying to remember: is Mitre hurt? I know they’re kinda desperate to rehab Farnsworth before the post season, but you’d think they’d give Mercker a day off and let Mitre pitch if he could. Maybe it’ll all work out like last season, and Mitre will get to start the last game. Hope so.

Sometime things work out okay: Matt’s left the time to be there for the birth of his child. He probably would’ve missed the start Rusch is taking his place for anyway.

six

CHC 88 68 — 6 79.35 Maddux v CIN Hancock SFG 87 69 1.0 6 12.96 Backe v STL Haren HOU 87 70 1.5 5 9.22 Schmidt @ SDP Lawrence SDP 85 71 3.0 6 1.28 Lawrence v SFG Schmidt Remember how it looked like 90 was going to win this? Not so much any … Continue reading “six”

CHC 88 68 — 6 79.35 Maddux v CIN Hancock
SFG 87 69 1.0 6 12.96 Backe v STL Haren
HOU 87 70 1.5 5 9.22 Schmidt @ SDP Lawrence
SDP 85 71 3.0 6 1.28 Lawrence v SFG Schmidt

Remember how it looked like 90 was going to win this? Not so much any more. Funny how, without any big swings of on swing action, the Cubs have suddenly pulled away in this measure.

– The Padres are eliminated from the NL West with a loss and LA win. They really have to sweep the Giants to have a shot, and if the Cubs sweep even that won’t save them.
– I wish MLB would explain why the standings say Anaheim isn’t eliminated from the AL Wild Card while the MLB.com news says Boston’s clinched. (Oh, wait – here is is – if the Red Sox lose out and the Angels win out, the Angels would win the AL West instead, and the A’s would be worse than the Red Sox)
Cubs NLDS tickets will be put on sale Monday, assuming they’re still usable after Sunday. 4 to a person. Whoever buys them has to show up with an ID and the credit card they used, so keep it it mind when you have eight people trying to get you tickets.

In the “weird stats with fake importance”, Maddux is going for his 16 win in 8 straight seasons.

While LA (+3) plays the Rockies this week, do you root for or against the Dodgers?

For: Seem like a flakier team than the Braves and a slightly easier first round opponent, so it’d be good if they pass them. Would like them to be playing well going into their series against the Giants. Avoid them backdooring the NL Wild Card somehow if they just win the NL West.

Against: If they win, they could end the NL West race quicker and mail in the last couple of games, helping out the Giants. A tight NL West race means they play hard the whole way, and the Cubs can pull away from the loser. Probably not going to pass up the Braves, and if they did, a team that hot wouldn’t be good to play

of mice and relivers

You know Dusty, maybe Todd wouldn’t suck if you used him more often than once every ten days. Kyle is the rug. I fear when it’s going to be pulled out from underneath us all. It can’t help but happen.

You know Dusty, maybe Todd wouldn’t suck if you used him more often than once every ten days.

Kyle is the rug. I fear when it’s going to be pulled out from underneath us all. It can’t help but happen.