Cactus League: 3/14 Angels (Santana) @ CUBS (Dempster) 3:05

[Ryno is God 23]

6 pitches, nice.

[Bruce Miles]

Bottom 1

Patterson walks

Soriano doubles to LF corner, scoring Patterson

Lee doubles, Soriano to third as it looked like RF would catch ball

Ramirez singles to left, scoring Soriano and sending Lee to third

Fukudome grounds 4-6, scoring Lee

DeRosa flies to right

Cintron flies to left

3-0 Cubs

[Ryno is God 23]

Lee with a hit!

[ToupeeOnFire]

Dempster is getting bombed.

[big_shooter17]

this was bound to happen. dempster had been pitching too good for it to be true.

[ToupeeOnFire]

Can't believe he just walked Ervin Santana.

 

And now Kendrick hits the Angels' second triple of the inning.

 

6-3 and counting.

[CubColtPacer]

I wonder if this changes anything. Marquis and Lieber have both pitched very well in the spring games, so I don't know how much leash Dempster has before his spot is in jeopardy.

[TruffleShuffle]

http://www.ssqq.com/stories/images/dumpster.jpg

[Ryno is God 23]

I wonder if this changes anything. Marquis and Lieber have both pitched very well in the spring games, so I don't know how much leash Dempster has before his spot is in jeopardy.

 

I don't think he has to worry unless he gets bombed in his next outing.

[big_shooter17]

lou seems so set on dempster that it might even take more than 2 bad outings to sour him.

[WrigleyinEngland]

I don't see how this changes anything, we knew dempster will suck the cubs come out with some crap that it will be ok. It wont be ok and we'll have to watch dempster go back to the pen whilst we search for someone who can get people out.

[Bruce Miles]

What a mess:

Kotchman reached first on Dempster's throwing error of a dribbler up the 1B line

Napoli tripled to LF

Brown doubled to left

Wood homered to left

Haynes doubled

Santana bunted, Haynes tagged out at third

Izturis walked

Kendrick tripled

Guerrero struck out

Kotchman walked

Dempster out, Wuertz in

Napoli struck out

Dempster: 41 pitches, 21 strikes

Total: 47/26

[TruffleShuffle]

What a mess:

Kotchman reached first on Dempster's throwing error of a dribbler up the 1B line

Napoli tripled to LF

Brown doubled to left

Wood homered to left

Haynes doubled

Santana bunted, Haynes tagged out at third

Izturis walked

Kendrick tripled

Guerrero struck out

Kotchman walked

Dempster out, Wuertz in

Napoli struck out

Dempster: 41 pitches, 21 strikes

Total: 47/26

 

a lot of base clogging going on there

[Bruce Miles]

And you see what base-clogging leads to.

[Guest]

Wow, solid outing for Wuertz.

[Bruce Miles]

Wuertz struck out four and gave up 1 hit in 1 1-3 innings

Wood went 1-2-3 in the fourth:

Izturis grounds 5-3 on nice stop by Ramirez

Kendrick strikes out swinging

Guerrero flies center

Wood: 6 pitches, 6 strikes

Edited March 14, 2008 by Bruce Miles

[Bruce Miles]

Lieber a quick 1-2-3

Kotchman flies to left

Napolis grounds 6-3

Brown broken bat grounder 4-3

 

Lieber could be your No. 3 starter if this keeps up. No walks yet this spring.

[big_shooter17]

do you think that there is much of a chance that lieber isn't in the rotation at all at this point?

[moorecg]

Lieber a quick 1-2-3

Kotchman flies to left

Napolis grounds 6-3

Brown broken bat grounder 4-3

 

Lieber could be your No. 3 starter if this keeps up. No walks yet this spring.

 

Zambrano, Lilly, Lieber, Hill, (Dempster/Marquis/Marshall/Gallagher)

 

Frankly....I can live with that....

[TruffleShuffle]

Lieber a quick 1-2-3

Kotchman flies to left

Napolis grounds 6-3

Brown broken bat grounder 4-3

 

Lieber could be your No. 3 starter if this keeps up. No walks yet this spring.

 

he's never going to be unhittable, but if he can get his walk rate back down to around 1.5 or 2 BB/9 IP like it was during his good years (and really up until last year), he could prove to be a very good signing. of course, health is probably the biggest issue with him, given the way things have gone since his TJ surgery.

[Bruce Miles]

do you think that there is much of a chance that lieber isn't in the rotation at all at this point?

 

He's in. He hasn't walked anybody this spring, and Lou loves that. They didnt' sign him to be a reliever. If he's healthy and doesn't implode late, he's a lock. And even if he does have a bad outing or two, I still think he's in.

[big_shooter17]

I don't want to write Dempster off quite yet even though i am pretty frustrated with what i have been listening to today on the radio. I hope that Marquis can be given a fair look after all that happened between he and lou earlier this spring.

[JGalt73]

Cintron hit in the face on deck by a foul ball - walks off field, no word on injury.

[jersey cubs fan]

do you think that there is much of a chance that lieber isn't in the rotation at all at this point?

 

He's in. He hasn't walked anybody this spring, and Lou loves that. They didnt' sign him to be a reliever. If he's healthy and doesn't implode late, he's a lock. And even if he does have a bad outing or two, I still think he's in.

 

If he's third, he probably won't pitch in Philly April 11-13. I was looking forward to hearing half hearted Lieber bashing. I'm fairly certain Philly fans don't even know he was on the team.

[YearofDaCubs]

I don't want to write Dempster off quite yet even though i am pretty frustrated with what i have been listening to today on the radio. I hope that Marquis can be given a fair look after all that happened between he and lou earlier this spring.

This is typical of Dempster. He's a walking machine. I never understood why they wanted him to start any way, back when they tried it (I think in 2005) he was terrible at it. Good thing we have depth there though.