Looking to the future

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	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...

umm, yeah..

Eh end of the day Marquis was ok. Not fantastic, but just ok. The story here was run production - lack thereof. The "Hart" experiment needs to be shelved for a few months, if not for the rest of the season.

Marquis gave up 3 in 6IP. Can't really complain about that.

Ward hit a meaningless home run. Whoopee. Maybe he can get his swing back and, what's the word I'm looking for? Oh yeah, Produce.

Well have to see what tomorrow brings as Lilly makes his triumphant return...Sigh....

At least some of the commercials were funny...

There's a minute.

Ladies and Gentlemen...Our sluggers...

Ramirez isn't allowed to play on the road any more...I'm not serious about that, but 0-fer Astros, 0-fer Diamondbacks.

Marquis is pitching tomorrow...Great...Lovely...Marvelous...

The bats fell asleep on the plane again. Maybe we should put these guys in buses so they dont' sleep so well at night. The Cubs do have this winning at home thing down, but 2 hits against Randy Johnson. 7 years ago, I'd be celebrating that. Tonight it just pisses me off...

Note to Cubs: A 360 foot out is still an OUT.

Harden's stuff was weird. Balls were either up, or in the dirt. His strikes were STRIKES. Missed a lot of bats. Except one of course...

Seems appropriate that the winning run tonight was #$%head's first career HR. Sucks that it came off Harden, but right now he's gotta be thinking "What the hell do I have to DO???"

That's a minute, which is about how long this game lasted...Goes quick when you get 2 hits doesn't it?

Hey how about that.

Looks like we can actually win on the road....How about that...whoda thunk it?

Good to see Demp get a win on the road...only took 3 1/2 months, but hey. can't argue with 11-4. Here's a funny little anecdote...

MLB.com's gameday (my primary source of baseball when confined to my desk) has a new feature this year - Video clip highlights! Very cool. Apparently the game today was so unremarkable for the Astros, their ONE video clip was Geoff Blum (remember him Sox fans?) make a routine play at third. This 18 second clip was sandwiched between an RBI double for Lee and a Fontenot's shot to right. LOL. Here's your clip Astros fans! Enjoy it.

One last note - Dempster loads the bases nobody out. K - K - 5. Gotta love it.

On to Arizona where we can bi^&* slap those snakes at home...hopefully we'll still remember how to hit after the plane ride...

There's a minute for you...