Brewers

Ahhhhhhh, what a weekend series. Even if the Cubs were only able to take 2 out of 3, it should serve as some momentum as they head to the All Star Break.

Here's the Lineup:
Lee
Fontenot
DeRosa
Ramirez
Soriano
Bowen
Floyd
Pagan
Lilly

I know Soriano doesn't like to other places but if you flip flopped Lee and Soriano in the order, how many more RBIs would Soriano have? The analysis concludes that as well and likes DeRosa again in that 3 hole. Easy week schedule wise, but they should win 4 or 5 of them.

Great Weekend

Today's game sucked, but two come from behind wins, late in the game will hopefully shoot some momentum into the Cubs as they go out west.

The Lineup:
1. Lee
2. Pagan
3. Soriano
4. DeRosa
5. Ramirez
6. Hill
7. Floyd
8. Barrett
9. Theriot

As always from Baseball Musings. Pagan was used for a higher OPS than Jones for CF. Floyd was used over Murton in rightfield for the same reason. Overall, Pagan should be where he should be. DeRosa should be a little higher. Barrett's OBP has slipped under .300. And Baseball Prospectus says bye bye to: Rangers, Marlins, Reds and Rockies.

As for this stuff with Dempster going back to start, please no. If I've added correctly, he's 61-68 in years before he came to the Cubs starting. It's not like Lilly coming to the National league with a .500 record. Dempster needs to stay in the bullpen.

Week Updates

Here's the lineup:
1. Theriot
2. Lee
3. Soriano
4. Ramirez
5. DeRosa
6. Barrett
7. Floyd
8. Pie
9. Lilly

Not much has changed. Theriot has moved up. It looks like the Cubs could use one more on base guy in front of Soriano. Unfortunately, he will probably never move out of the lead-off spot. Floyd was used because he has the highest OPS. Lilly was used because he is pitching tommorrow.

The playoff predictor has now added the Cardinals to the list of teams most likely not getting to the playoffs. I would just like ot to be noted that the Cardinals bad fortune started when the St. Louis Dispatch had the "No Chance" article on the front page of their Sports Page. It basically poked fun at the Cubs' bad luck over the years. Don't mess with karma Cardianls.

Last question: Is it being racist if "white" Americans do not want Barry Bonds to break the home run record? Wouldn't he be passing another African-American? So again how is that racist?

Bill Simmons

This article. Ughhhhhhhhh. How does Bill Simmons know what crowd is better? Well, he just knows. He really can't cite anything. For instance what's the Celtics home playoff record in the 1980s versus other teams? What was the decibel level in those games in the "lunchbox" versus those in the United Center or Chicago Stadium versus the Bulls? Does he give examples of what other players said about those arenas? Nope. For instance, last summer ESPN.com ran a huge preview of each big power basketball conference. They listed the toughest home courts. In the Big East, they polled coaches and found Pittsburgh to be a tough place to play with UConn citing Marquette has a hard place to play. Back it up with some facts Bill.

Mike North

Ugh, I had to go into work early this morning so I was listening to the Score at 6:30 and heard a little tidbit from Mike North. He was talking about whether the Bulls were going to beat the Pistons and somehow got on the topic of Dwyane Wade. He said Kirk Heinrich was tougher than Dwayne Wade. That's debateable, simply because there is no real statistic to measure this. One of the reasons North gave was that Dwyane needed a wheelchair to leave the floor when he dislocated his shoulder. First Mr. North, you have never had your left humerus externally rotated so much that it pops out the front of your shoulder and tears your labrum. You have no idea what kind of pain that is. Second, Wade was in a ton of pain when that happened. However, I'm pretty sure he did not tell the trainers to get a wheelchair for him to be wheeled back to the locker room. I'm not sure how one can measure toughness of somebody based on decisions made by other people. It's kind of like measuring my driving ability on how many times I've been hit on their fault. Makes no sense.

Fun with Numbers

Baseball Musings has a fun little line-up analysis that you can put in 9 guys and it spits out the lineup that will score the most runs. It's based on the players on-base and slugging percentage. Here's what it spit out for the Cubs.

1. Lee
2. DeRosa
3. Soriano
4. Ramirez
5. Barrett
6. Floyd
7. Theriot
8. Pie
9. Pitcher (Hill)

I used Floyd because of he has the highest OPS of the three remaining outfielders. I used Hill as the pitcher because he is pitching tommorrow's game. Obviously Lee is not going to bat lead off, but it does show that DeRosa and Theriot might switch spots while DeRosa is still hitting hot.

Baseball Prospectus plays the rest of the season 1,000,000 times to determine who will and gives them playoff odds. I generally like to eliminate teams with less than 10% of chance, so goodbye to: Devil Rays, Royals, Nationals, Pirates, and Diamondbacks. The last one kind of confuses me, but I guess the computers have not been convinced. The Cubs are at 38% right now, which is still pretty good considering that they have a 1/4 chance of making it at the start of the season. Really it's less than that with 6 teams in their division.

Crowds

I had the chance last night to view some of the Mavericks Warriors game on ESPN. The crowd was awesome for the Warriors, chanting and coming through really loud on television. It reminded me of when the Tigers made the playoffs last year in baseball. I really like it when down teams suddenly make the playoffs. You really see only the true fans at the games. The fans are boisterous and only want their team to win.

Once a team becomes popular, things change within the game setting. Corporations are more interested in buying the tickets, making fans come for a different reason. Many more fans come for the entertainment or because it is cool or hip to do. I think Soldier Field will not be as loud next year for this reason. The Bears are cool again to the average fan in Chicago. They made the Super Bowl. All of the rich people that can afford the higher ticket prices will take up all of the seats. The Bulls are still running under the radar here in Chicago. They do not have a huge superstar that everybody identifies with the team, no Jordan or Sosa or Payton. The team quietly put a good season together during the Bears run and right before the popular baseball season in Chicago. Even now, I still think they are a little under the radar because of their seed and the Cubs and White Sox weird starts. That makes it nice for the Bulls, the United Center will be loud for whoever comes along next.