About damn time.

so which one of you guys was sitting a few rows behind the visiting dugout this afternoon?

Good work, Bob....I guess.

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so which one of you guys was sitting a few rows behind the visiting dugout this afternoon?

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TWO GAME WINNING STREAK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

DARWIN BARNEY!!!!!

I'm beginning think Bob's picture had enough power to get things started.

Some idiots hiked from Ho Ho Kam to Wrigley with a baby goat. They arrived the day of the first win, I believe.

FWIW the google image search results for "slumpbuster" are not ALL bad...

Fake rally here in the 9th or will they at least tie it up?

Questionable call by Sveum to let Reed hit against the righty with DeJesus on the bench. And then he brings in DeJesus to face a lefty to end the game.

Swept in Frisco after being shut out by Barry ****ing Zito.

Starlin's catching some heat for another boneheaded play today. He thought there were two outs on a play and ate a toss at second from Barney that he could've turned to end the inning...instead,the tying run scored. This after getting thrown out on an attempted steal when he gave up after he thought Mather (the batter) fouled the ball off.

Sveum's saying another play like that and he's benched.

I wonder what the record is for consecutive series sweeps that a team is involved in? in the Cubs' case going 6 in a row now L-L-L-L-W-L...

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Swept in Frisco after being shut out by Barry ****ing Zito.

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My bad. The sweep was finished off today. Didn't realize it was a 4-game series.

Saw on the ticker the cubs tied their club record at 11 straight road losses.

Up 5-0 in Milwaukee heading to the 7th. Dempster was perfect through 5 before giving up a lead off hit in the 6th. Sori had a 3-run bomb in the first and LaHair added a solo shot a few innings later. I hope we don't blow this.

LaHair

Corpas

You think LaHair will be traded by season's end? It's good to see Fonzi picking it up, particularly now that he's getting to "play" as a DH. Maybe that'll make some of those AL teams a little more interested.

Raley pitched a CG shutout (7-innings) today.

I expect to see LaHair and Dempster traded. I hope we can trade Soriano and Soto.

i'll be anxiously checking the beat writer twitter feeds pretty much hourly over the next 2 months expecting anything from Soler signing to a big Garza or Demp trade to the Soriano salary dump. and i'll be curious to know what somebody like LaHair would bring back in a trade. it's shaping up to be an epic seller's market, so we'll see how Theo blows this thing up.

Cubs win!

What's the heavy on Soler? I'm not really keen on paying high for the international guys. It seems to me like it's rarely successful and much less worse the money spent on them.

Not a lot of info out there on him. Supposedly a younger Cespedes with a higher upside. Seems Baseball Jesus and his staff are quite high on him. We should know pretty soon if he's ours.

I dont think LaHair really has much trade value. He is an unproven rookie who has shown the ability to be very off and on.

Current stuff:

-Cubs are "aggressive" on Soler

-Pirates are looking at LaHair. I think he does have trade value, based on what a team would think they could get out of him this season only. The Cubs don't seem interested in finding a way to put him and Jackson on the field at the same time.

-Soriano is mentioned as a trade potential, but based on his contract, it would be hard for people to find something beneficial to both teams. He admits his career is "winding down" and he wants to go to a contender.

http://www.suntimes.com/sports/baseball/cubs/12955722-573/alfonso-soriano-open-to-being-traded-to-contender.html

-The Cubs claim every once in a while they plan on signing Garza, but mlbtraderumors seems to believe it will come down to an AL East bidding war for his services before the deadline.

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The Cubs don't seem interested in finding a way to put him and Rizzo on the field at the same time.

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fify

We got Soler:

http://www.bleachernation.com/2012/06/11/squeal-jorge-soler-to-the-chicago-cubs/

Baseball Jesus delivered!

Yeah, Rizzo, got my AAA Cubs confused.

About Soler from junk's article:

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Keith Law has written that the deal indeed includes opt outs that would allow Soler, if he’s blown up after his first few years in the bigs, to opt out of whatever payments he’s due, and instead go through the normal arbitration process with the Cubs. If it plays out that way, he’ll make a whole lot more money – but, then again, the Cubs won’t be complaining, because they’ll have landed a star.

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they fired Jaramillo today...

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/baseball/mlb/06/12/cubs.jaramillo.ap/index.html?sct=mlb_t2_a7

obviously the team stats don't lie, but i'm still kinda shocked by this one due to his reputation and players' respect combined with the widely acknowledged weak roster. yeah a few guys are way under-performing on an individual level, but he's got Soriano showing signs of his old self. this kinda reminds me of the Oscar Acosta situation a little bit with players speaking out in support of him in the past week. but they ended up replacing Acosta with Rothschild, and it ended up being an upgrade so we'll see...

Not sure why that move was made now. Supposedly it's a philosophical difference between Rudy and Hoyerstein (Sveum too?).

In more positive news, supposedly the Cubs will be awarded the All-Star game once they officially have their renovation money from Mayor Rahm.

I'm not too shocked honestly. I can't say I've ever been impressed with the Cubs' hitting approach since he's joined the team. As for Soriano, the dude ha a history of being streaky during his time with the Cubs. Perhaps Rudy got him kick-started but this is normal Soriano. I just hope we can trade him before he gets cold.

Wasn't it on this thread where one of you guys speculated after a game that Rudy and Sveum were not on the same page? Doesn't surprise me either with Sveum being a former hitting coach

I do wish Rudy well. It's never fun to see someone get canned

PS. Apparently, a couple of weeks ago Rudy was told to get the batters to change their approach at the plate. Not sure if it was expected of them to be more patient and take more pitches or what.

[This message has been edited by bluestainedivy (edited 6/12/2012 8:04p).]

Wow, Cubbies benefit fom two questionable calls to win it. Detroit's Peralta throws off the mark but in both cases the player catching the throw maintains contact with the bag. Yeah, a good throw avoids any question but what're the chances it happens twice in that inning?

Cubs increased their scoring, by league rank, in 2010 over 2009 and 2011 over 2010.

Obviously that wasn't continuing this season. I'm still a little surprised. Can't complain about what LaHair has done, Soriano's hit well, Castro and DeJesus are doing what they've always done, Barney's still seems to be on a decent developmental track, Stewart's not exactly coming off a fantastic year in Colorado.

I don't know, its not like the Angels where guys were obviously falling off a cliff at every glance, I guess the sum of the parts (runs) just isn't there. Too many strikeouts and not enough walks?