t's the 25th hour and my league needs several teams.  Buy in is $100 and you can win $800.  Draft is tomorrow night at 8:30PM Chicago time.  Please post here and then I can have an invite sent to you if you are interested.  Great league!  Hope you can join. Hate to do this but 75 word minimum so join our fantasy league...join our fantasy league...join our fantasy league!  word word word word word word word word word.

This is your opportunity to share your opinions of Alfonso Soriano...if you so desire.  I must say I have always maintained a fairly neutral stance on him yet after last nights game, I realized I am sick and tired of his lazy assed ways.  Watching this guy fireld his position is painful.  It isn't just the routes he takes to balls it is his weak excuse of an effort to make plays that in turn, cost this team runs. 

Several plays this series already and even in Atlanta, I have watched him lolligag his way around LF and just plain suck as a LF.  Yes he can also be a pain at the plate but this dude seems like he couldn't give 2 ______s about playing quality baseball when on defense.  I know that the guy can hit when he is streaking but balance in a player is key and has this, he does not.  Someone recently asked if he was the leader this team is looking for and to that I say...ABSOLUTELY NOT.

Dude puts in little effort.  I say spend less time hopping around like a fool in LF and start learning to field your position.

So I am sure I am not the first person to see this but what the HELL are they thinking?  Apparently the Pirates, as desperate and lame as ever, decided to sign two young arms from India!  India is not what is so shocking though.

These two guys were contestants on a reality TV show called "The Million Dollar Arm".  The requirements:  throw strikes at 85 mph and up. No experience necessary, just bring the heat.  Oddly enough, neither of them WON the competition...the Pirates just liked what they saw...I think.

Can you see the job listing now?  Hey, maybe that is next...classifieds  I don't know, seems horribly desperate to me.  All I can say is I would be so pissed if I were a Pirates fan.  Then again, I would probably be used to it by now. 

This being the last game of the series, having attended yesterday's loss, I can now say with confidence, that this crew is easily the worst I have seen all year and perhaps within the last decade. 

There is no complaining about the calls actually losing the game for either team, they have simply been the most inconsistent crew I can remember seeing.  The only consistent factor in their game calling has been their HORRID strike zone.  From called strikes at the ankles, to benders called strikes above the letters, these umpires look like they have never called a major league game before this series.

To top off their utter BS strike zone and inconsistent calls, they are the most liberal umps with this Phillie team meeting on the GD mound after every single pitch.  What the hell happened to the new rules that were supposed to speed up this game?  If I am the ump, I head out to the mound the second the catcher does and tell them to get moving.  Despite the first two wins...this series has absolutely sucked to watch.  These umps need to be canned IMO.

Not sure what to say about this except I liked Bernie Mac a lot.  He was a funny and well liked individual and he will be sorely missed.  I am shocked as he was hospitalized for pneumonia and I am sure no one saw this coming.

My thoughts go out to his family.  Not sure what else to add to this I figured most saw this already but figured I'd post anyway.  I need more words for this which seems to take a bit away from the post but I will say one more time that I am shocked and hope his family is able to move through this tragedy with help from friends.

So the purpose of this fanpost is really for one thing only, as you can see.  To prove I am not a ledge jumper though, I will start with the positive.  Our 3 and 4 hitter are finally making contact and helping this team win.  Our other All Stars are starting to make contact as well....heck let's be frank....the entire lineup is showing more patience, making contact, and producing runs (whether they are helped out by fans or not!).

Our pitching has been pretty damn good with a few exceptions here and there.  Three 10 win pitchers (I believe the only in the majors?) in our rotation, and relief has been fairly effective....EXCEPT,

BOB HOWRY.  This guy IMO, is absolutely done.  He needs to go.  He is worthless to this team.  When he comes into the game we are sure to give up runs.  When he was warming up last night, not only did I say "WTF LOU?", but I thought "we are gonna need runs now"...and we did.  Reed Johnson saved this team from Howry (barely) and for that I am grateful.

As far as Howry is concerned, he is a liability and he has nothing left.  What good is a 92MPH fastball if you put it over the heart of the plate?  Even when this guy isn't giving up hits or HRs, he is getting squared up and then the D is saving his arse.  DLee illustrated this on Tony Clark's lineout last night.  Mark Reynold just HAPPENED to miss the 10th or so fast ball on his AB and Howry, IMO, got lucky.

Am I alone in thinking this guy needs to be elsewhere?  I hope not.  I hope Lou/Hendry sees this sooner than later.

I hope I added enough positive to remove me from the pessimism category. :)

I know they are found in the rumor mill but apparently Billy Beane is remaining in Oakland since the trade deadline is quickly approaching.  Rumor has it Huston Street may be available.  I realize we may not have what it takes and then again, maybe we do.  We have minor league pitching that looks promising, we also have position players to trade in our system.  After the Harden trade, it appears that Beane and Hendry work well together and this of course, comes on the heels of yet another Bob Howry blow up.

I know he is a closer by trade but hey, an arm like his would be a nice addition to a sometimes shoddy bullpen.

Not sure what your take is...I'm curious.

Okay so I had to post this as I thought a while about it yesterday after I told my wife I still owed Chad (aka Les Lancaster) money for shipping the BCB shirts.

I believe I phrased it, "I still have to get the money to that guy from Al's website for shipping those shirts".  So I got to thinking about how many others here have family or friends that know who "Al" is because of how much of our lives this website consumes. 

Now my father already knew Al from many years in the bleachers, however I came to know Al here at BCB.  Often times, rather than refer to BleeCubbieBlue as just that, I call it "Al's website". 

So who knows Al among my family and friends?  Here's my list:

Mother: assisted with the shirt ordering

Father: bleacher regular

Wife: endures my many hours online typing to you wonderful people

Friend#1: Used to be here more often, not as much now

Probably everyone at work: observing all the time I spend in here as well

How bout you all?

So we're watching the Cubs play great ball against the Jays.  We're watching Marquis and Lilly pitch like staff aces.  We're watching young players produce and help this club maintain the best record in baseball.  Finally...we're watching, IMHO, Lou unnecessarily utilize one of the best RH relievers in the game, only part of the way through an important season. 

Please explain to me why Marmol was even warmed up with a 6 run lead in the 7th today, let alone come in to face one in the 7th and then pitch some of the 8th!  PLEASE.

Leiber, Wuertz, Cotts, heck, even Howry again would have been fine.  Why does Lou insist upon using Marmol every day????  I am at a complete loss.  Does anyone have the balls to approach Lou and say, "Let the kid rest a couple days"?

I know it is a bit less than fanpost worthy but I commented earlier and it was buried in my last post.

According to MLBTR, he may become available. I liked what I saw of him in the recent series and think he would be a solid addition to our rotation.  I know many here think that we are fine with our current rotation but I beg to differ.

 What say you on Aaron Cook?  Can Hendry offer enough?  Is he worth it?