Bob B. after the sceond homer, "You need oven mitts to high five Soriano right now...he's the hottest hitter on the planet."

Good shtick BB.

Hating Soriano while loving Reed Johnson is classic meatball. Soriano has hit more homeruns in the last 6 games than Reed Johnson will hit in the next 2 years.

Edmonds is on his way to the glue factory but if it keeps Lou from starting Johnson against righties, I'll take it.

Cubs are currently 2 games behind their Pythag.

(edit: I agree with the sentiment, I had just never heard it put that way before)

No one said anything about loving Reed Johnson....I think he's a good 8th hitter that plays a solid D. I just personally think he has played well enough to play most of the time. But I suppose platooning with Edmonds is fair.

Comparing Soriano and Reed Johnson is absurd.

Me liking Johnson and disliking Soriano has nothing to do with comparison.

Apparently some people don't care to understand the concept of role players.

Then why should he be questioning what it takes to earn respect?

W

This just never seems to get old

Great game tonight.

ESPN baseball is just about unwatchable.

Could they please remove their lips from the backside of Lance Berkman now?

For the hottest hitter in baseball, he look clueless today. Marmol threw 6 balls clearly out of the strike zone and got a K, Berkman's third of the night. What is great about this team right now is that Lee and Ramirez pulled an 0-fer in the Pirate series and the Cubs won two out of three. They both had multi hit games today and Soto is the best catcher in the NL.

Well...Hendry did go out and get Edmonds. As I said before, I thought he's been playing well enough to hit 8th most of the time (I would say everyday, but only a handful a mlb ballplayers do that anymore........only cub being Derrick Lee I think) so I guess Hendry doesn't give Reed Johnson the respect of being an every day player. That's o.k. though, I think the cubbies are doing pretty well offensively when there biggest problem is deciding to play Edmonds or Johnson in the 7 or 8 hole!!

Was Edmonds catch good or did he simply misplay it and then recover?

http://youtube.com/watch?v=zpCfyb1Gy84

Yes.


And Joe West should spend less time on his singing country and more time improving his eyesight. He badly blew two calls last night - the HR by Soto (CF is 2b umps call, IIRC) and the Kaz's steal in the 8th, where he was out by 2 feet.

Agreed. Orel must have talked about how to throw every pitch known to man while the game was going on.

Although, I do like Joe Morgan. He's like a foundtain of baseball knowledge.

Either way it was a great catch.

If the White Sox can play decently into the Summer, it will be a great year of baseball in Chicago.

wait, what? you probably need to be told again that hes in the hall of fame...

Agreed.

Joe is just about the worst announcer to ever step in the booth.

He lost my resect years ago, when he didn't think Ryan Sandberg was good enough for the hall...........what a friggen tool.

FJM

Man this team is playing lights out!

I've always liked the guy. I'd rather listen to Joe talk about the game than Len and Bob talk about their blog.

Good call on the blog thing, they need to cut that back a little.

I think Morgan is a hack, but then again I think they all pale when compared to Steve Stone.

Anyone think Stoney will come back?

He's doing radio for the White Sox, and some weekend stuff for ESPN and Fox

I think he likes what he's doing. Not a lot of pressure for a good amount of cash.

Sandberg was borderline Hall of Fame and was very fortunate to get in. I am not saying he was not a great player - but his stats were marginal per HoF standards.

However, back in the day when the choices were the Braves on WTBS or the Cubs on WGN, he was fun to watch along with Dernier, Jody Davis, Leon Durham, Ron Cey, etc.

I forgot how much of an OCD wackjob toolbox Jose valverde is.

Cubbies and Strohs each had a double and a HR in the same inning. The difference? The two walks in between.

Walks kill.

The Cub hitters seem to be learning that this year (finally) - hopefully the Cub pitchers will remember from time to time.

Borderline?

Come on

Sandberg- marginal stats? Boderline? Hmmmmmmm...

go to baseball-reference.com

Pull up Ryne Sandberg.

Look up his HoF monitor score, his black ink and grey ink hitting numbers, etc.

Seriously...he is a very good 2B - but not the immediate lock HoF 2B you guys seem to think he was.

Again, I loved watching him play and he is one of the better 2B I saw play....but he's no Joe Morgan or Rogers Hornsby.

If hitting numbers were the only reason players made it into the hall, many players never would have made it

Ozzy Smith comes to mind.

Ryno was won of the best fielding second baseman of all time.....period.

9 straight gold gloves, a record for second baseman! 1 short of Roberto Alomar for the all-time lead.

yeah but JOE MORGAN!

OK let's look at Sandberg's numbers. He has a higher career batting average, higher career slugging percentage, and more career HR than Morgan. He also has more RBI per season and more essentially the same number of runs per season. Morgan does have the edge in OBP and SB. Obviously they played in different eras and had different roles on their teams, but Sandberg's offensive numbers are comparable with Morgan's in many ways. Sandberg, however, didn't have the benefit of playing in some of the greatest line-ups of all time like Morgan did.

Since you mentioned them, take a look at the black in/grey ink hitting: Morgan - 15/131 Sandberg - 14/134 Yeah, Sandberg is no Joe Morgan.

You also ignore the defensive half of the game, in which Sandberg was far superior to Morgan.


When he retired, Sandberg was the all-time leader among 2nd basemen in HR and the all-time leader in fielding percentage. He had an MVP. He had won a home run crown. He had the longest error-less streak ever among 2nd basemen. He had 9 straight gold gloves (longest streak ever), 7 silver sluggers, and 10 straight All-star games. If he isn't a lock for the HOF I don't know who is.

As a follow up, where did Morgan bat in the Reds order? (serious question - I wasn't a Reds fan) Ryno batted 2nd most of his career - interesting corollary to the RBI discussion.

sandberg haters must be jealous of all the World Series titles he won.

You forget to take into account that Morgan had the cooler batting stance. He owned that flapping chicken wing thing.

Back on track to the 2008 Cubs...



Soriano needs to go on the DL, and Edmonds needs to show some offense pretty quick or else just bring Pie back up. If they both hit .200, at least Pie is faster and has more range in CF.

BTW, Reed Johnson is starting to look like Hendry's nearly-annual "Wow, that was a great signing!"

How good are the Cubs, that they have won 6 of their last 9 with D. Lee hitting .225 and ####udome hitting .233 with 1 lone RBI in that span? As a matter of fact the Cubs are 21-14 since April 15 - in that span D.Lee's batting average has dropped almost 100 points.

ETA: The language filter is fla\/\/ed.

How many of those wins are against the Buccos............... . I'm just saying...........

First, off, 7 of the 35. Second, if you took off the 10 games they played against the Cubs this season, the Pirates would be 21-17.

This is a valid point.

Tommy Herr has more rings than Sandberg.

Welcome to the HALL, right this way Mr Herr.

I look back at those teams and realize full well how they got their arses handed to them in 85 and 87.

Reed Johnson

weird having a moment of silence after soriano walks to begin the bottom of the 6th

Not sure what's so funny about the Cubs' leading hitter with RISP.

Great win tonight.

For a while it looked like they tried to do everything they could to keep from winning (2 failed sac bunts, etc.) - but they came through when needed.

Nice late inning victory tonight. Big Z was nails again.
It's time to get the bats going again. Only eight runs in the three game series.
However, they had outstanding pitching in the three game sweep.

that was a good at bat for Soriano on the winner. As much as he's always criticized for being a long swinger and all that, he fought off many pitches and took what the pitcher gave him on the hit, didn't try to overswing and do too much. They needed only a base hit and he came through.

Great W.

Hitting the game tonight.

Nice Job Wrigley.
33-21

Even though he looked clueless vs. Broxton on Wednesday, I like what I've seen thus far from Micah Hoffpauir. I think the coaching staff should consider keeping him up as a left-handed ph. D.Ward has some competition if he doesn't respond well from his DL stint with a bulging disk in his back. Either Way.......

The Cubs are good