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Florida Marlins at Chicago Cubs, 8 PM ET (Game 2)

No statistics to look at in this preview - I'll be back with a look at the offenses of these clubs in the preview for Game 3

Brad Penny is a finesse pitcher in comparison to most of the other starters we'll see in this series. He is a righthander, which gives him a chance to shut down the Cubs. He'll need to do that to keep his team in the game because opposing him will be the best young pitcher in baseball.

Perhaps it is the memories of his club being blown away by the Yankees oh so many years ago that has propelled one of the great players of our time to another level. There is fire in Ivan Rodriguez' eyes: he's had a huge impact on 3 consecutive playoff games, all of which his team won by 1 run. Can it continue tonight?

National League Championship Series: Wednesday, October 8th, 2003 | 14 comments | Create New Account
The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.
Coach - Wednesday, October 08 2003 @ 08:47 PM EDT (#88772) #
Penny is a very large man, but his fastball tops out in the low 90's, and he's not blessed with great control. The Cubs won't need more than three runs tonight, if that. Prior should perform as usual (10-1, 1.52 since the all-star break and awesome in his first playoff start) so I'll be shocked if this series isn't even.

That still means Florida has gained home-field advantage in a best-of-five, so they could win the series, if they can beat Kerry Wood once.
Coach - Wednesday, October 08 2003 @ 09:07 PM EDT (#88773) #
Al Leiter sounds more confident and more animated tonight, making Steve Lyons completely unneccessary. It doesn't look like it's going to be much of a game, though. There's the third run, and Penny, who threw 28 pitches in the first, isn't looking much better in the second.
Coach - Wednesday, October 08 2003 @ 09:36 PM EDT (#88774) #
No contest. Sosa hit a mammoth blast straightaway to make it 5-0, then Ramirez also went deep and Penny got a very early shower. It's 7-0 and counting; even Dusty shouldn't ask Prior to go more than six or seven innings.
_A - Wednesday, October 08 2003 @ 09:40 PM EDT (#88775) #
I wish Justice had the skills Leiter has. He's a brutal analyst. We had to listen to about 60 seconds worth of banter over whether or not flipping your bat on a HR on fist clenching after a strike out was against baseball etiquette in the 21st century.
_Donkit R.K. - Wednesday, October 08 2003 @ 09:50 PM EDT (#88776) #
That Sosa home run was a serious hammer job... Estimated at 495 feet and , to the knowledge of the announcers, only the second home run hit past the camera shack in center field.
robertdudek - Wednesday, October 08 2003 @ 10:01 PM EDT (#88777) #
That's Brett Boone in the booth with McCarver and Buck (Justice did some games for ESPN during the first round).

The key question for the Cubs is how long do you leave Prior in. I say 7 innings or 110 pitches, whichever comes first.
_A - Wednesday, October 08 2003 @ 10:04 PM EDT (#88778) #
Thanks for the correction, but he's equally inept.
Coach - Wednesday, October 08 2003 @ 10:32 PM EDT (#88779) #
I'm not even watching this any more, but I notice Prior has given up back-to-back jacks -- is it possible he just got bored with an 11-0 lead?
_A - Wednesday, October 08 2003 @ 10:52 PM EDT (#88780) #
Why is he still in the game with an 11-0 lead? It's not exactly warm, there's always a chance of injury and he's pitching in 4 days.
_Geoff North - Wednesday, October 08 2003 @ 11:19 PM EDT (#88781) #
I don't understand why Dusty sends Prior out there in the eigth, lets him face two batters, run his pitch count up, and then when they get on base, yanks him for Veres. Why? Prior has thrown a ton of pitches his last few starts. Wouldn't it be a good idea to let him have a relatively low pitch count start, with the game apparently well in hand?
Gitz - Thursday, October 09 2003 @ 01:28 AM EDT (#88782) #
What's the over/under on Mark Prior's Tommy John surgery next year? OK, not the actual surgery, but the game in which he blows his arm out.

I begin the bidding at June 5.
_S.K. - Thursday, October 09 2003 @ 02:23 AM EDT (#88783) #
The answer to all questions on Dusty's usage of Mark Prior is: Dusty doesn't care. Dusty does what Dusty thinks is right, and if Mark Prior's arm blows out, it'll be Mark Prior's damn fault for not being a cyborg.
_Shrike - Thursday, October 09 2003 @ 02:46 AM EDT (#88784) #
I'm starting to believe that Mark Prior *is* a cyborg. Seriously. I'm willing to go out on a limb (pardon the terrible pun) and wager .02 cents that Prior can handle his workload. He's that consistent and clean with his mechanics.

Of course, if I were Hendry or Prior's agent, there is no way in the world I'd let him rack up such high pitch counts.
_A - Thursday, October 09 2003 @ 03:15 AM EDT (#88785) #
It's interesting that this is happening because on a late night ESPN radio interview after Gm1 of the Giants-Marlins series they had Jason Schmidt on the show. One of the only meaningful questions asked was "what's the difference between Alou and Baker?" Schmidt commented that Alou is much more willing to give his starter some slack and let him go deeper into the game, whereas Dusty Baker is more apt to pull a pitcher earlier to get the matchup he wants. I haven't watched a whole helluva lot of Giants/Cubs baseball so I'm not terribly knowledgeable about the coach's tendancies/style but I wonder if Schmidt was thinking of the same Dusty Baker that managed the game last night.
National League Championship Series: Wednesday, October 8th, 2003 | 14 comments | Create New Account
The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.