Woo-hoo!

Boy...those Mets fans sure were excited to beat our minor league team. woo-hoo. Are the Mets really that sad? Well, yeah. I guess so. Man just seeing some of those fan closeups during the series - those are some PO'ed people...like more po'ed than normal New Yorkers. I guess a crappy bullpen will do that to ya.

And speaking of which - our bullpen hasn't been all that wonderful of late. Gaudin, Samardzija, Howry. None of them are really blowing my skirt up these days.

The Hoff had a great day. Gotta love that. Great enough for a playoff spot? Eeeeeeehhhh...that's still TBD. But it sure was a good start.

Now all that needs to be done is b-slap the Boo-hoo crew once more so we get the "Lay-zin' Mets" in round 1, and we're golden. Not to mention, I'd sure like th eopportunity to beat that fat bee-otch one last time...

Funny thing...

I went to ch3eck the scores of the other games, then I realized - I don't give a crap...It's a nice feeling.

Z had a BAAAAAAAD inning tonight. In my book he just became the game 3 starter. I'm thinking Dempster in Game 1, then Lilly, then Harden then Dempster again. It really depends who they're playing, but you can tell Z it's because he's the only one reliable enough to take an away game. That outta fool him.

If he starts at home, he'll have to be game 1. His psyche couldn't hack being #2, even tho that's how he's pitching recently. And I'm not referring to his being a second starter. He's actually pitching like #2.

If memory serves, Z didn't do so well at the end of last season either, but came back strong in Arizona. We'll see...

Argh...

Looking to the future

My HTML is goofy - scroll down...

	Home		Away		Total
	W	L	W	L	W	L
Phillies	2	2	1	2	3	4
Mets	2	0	?	?	2?	0?
Brewers	4	5	4?	0?	8?	5?
Dodgers	3	0	2	2	5	2
Diamondsbacks	3	0	1	2	4	2
Marlins	2	2	2	1	4	3
Astros	4	5	4	4?	8	9?

So here's the realistic list of opponents in the NL Playoffs, and the cubs respective records against them home/away. Kinda surprising actually.

Astros and Brewers have owned the Cubs at home - losing records against both at home. Milwaukee is pretty much our beeotch in Miller, but that's based on one series. We only have an overall losing record to the Phillies, but I can live with 4 and 3. We can eliminate the Astros and Milwaukee for round 1 - same division. Let's look a bit deeper.

Phillies - Great power lineup, but not as deep as the Cubs. Pitching staff is very good 1,2,3, and if you're not winning in the 9th, you're not winning. I'll take Cubs pitching over Phil's, but that doesn't mean I want to face them.

Mets - Much like the Brewers, you could be down 10 runs in the 9th, and not be out of it. In fact, I heard a rumor that the Mets bullpen tried to pull a parakeet out of a toilet after a game, and didn't save that either. Santana scares me, but the rest of their staff is above average, but hittable.

Dodgers - Manny and Blake made this a good lineup, but the rest of the team is not scary at all. The pitching staff is dang good - lowest NL ERA, and yet the Cubs did seep them at home and split on the road. This all happened pre-Manny/Blake tho.

Diamondbacks - Their pitching rotation scaqres the livving crap out of me. They have just enough hitters to not suck, but this is why they're probably not in consideration. We don't have to worry aobut the West unless the Brewers sell their balls to the Devil, so I'm trying not to freak too much. Prolly a little 2007 left in me as well...

Marlins - Oh, I'm sorry...were we supposed to take them seriously?

If I had a choice, in order of preference or most to least, I'd like to face Mets, Dodgers, Diamondbacks, then Phillies.

We'll see how it turns out. Another minute in the future...

off day...

So the Cubs put the cap on a nice series yesterday. I just love it when the opposing team boots a ball and we turn it into 5 runs...And Chris Carpenter left the game on a medical...Hello Mark Mulder - where ya been? If that's not enough to drive the final nail into the coffin, I don't know what is...

So the Brewers won today - a-holes. The Diamondbacks picked up Adam "Dunn hit ball with little stick!!" (It sounds a lot funnier when I _say_ it, but anyway. Do they really think Dunn is the answer? Nothing against the guy, but boy oh boy, I hope the Dodgers don't have anything planned for October - they'll be busy. At least for 4 games while the Cubs wipe the floor with them. I'm factoring in one loss since we did split the series in LA this year.

Following that, if I had to pick the Phillies/Marlins/Mets vs Brewers, I'm going to have to go Brewers. History has proven though that we can beat them. It'll be an interesting series. I'm thinking Sheets v Zambrano, Sabathia v Harden, Parra v Dempster and with all the extra off days the networks throw in, prolly Sheets v Zambrano again. Or possbily Lilly v Busch? Not even sure where the Brewers rotation depth goes after Parra. We'll see...

I don't even know enough about the AL to make any predictions...

Going out on a limb here...

Ok, I admit it. I caved...

Magic Number: 51
Home Games Left: 28
Road Games Left: 26
Total games left: 54

There's math here, but also probabilities, but I won't make a mathematically based guess on when/if the Cubbies clinch. The rest of the schedule looks interesting. If the bats can stay alive on the road, and the pitching performs as it has been, life looks pretty rosy. But that's a LOT of ifs, especially with the last 13 games being played vs. STL, MIL, and NYM. Good game tonight. I am now happy. If they get blown out tomorrow, that'll bring me down a bit, but 3 of 4 is more than I realistically expected, so good times.

Keep those bats going and keep the patience at the plate going, and pray that the Ramirez deal goes through depriving Pittsburg of Jason Bay, along with Nady and Marte.

I'd still like to see Sherrill wearing Cubbie Blue.

Another minute in the books.