6/11 Braves (Bennett) @ Cubs (Dempster) 7:05 ESPN & WGN 720

[TMan92]

What is it with the GD Braves and doing this to our players? I guarantee Pujols will be back in less than three weeks and Soriano will be out ten.

[VanceJergins]

I have a bad feeling we're going to be seeing a whole lot of Fontenot in the near future.

Hoff is eligible to come back Friday right? and Thursday is an off day, right? I have a feeling there will be a roster move and Fontenot's playing time will only see a marginal increase.

 

I hope so. We'll see, I guess.

 

Lou did mention bringing up a couple of "kids" from Iowa to Erin Andrews after the game.

 

I really hope those kids are Hoff and Murton with the intent on platooning them. I think that is easily the best solution without a trade.

 

I really hope the Cubs go after Bradley sometime this season, but with Texas only 5 GB in the wildcard, I doubt they'd be willing to trade him yet.

[Mizzou]

Another great performance by Demp tonight. He's easily been one of the top starters in baseball this year.

[inari]

Bradley is as big a certainty to miss significant time due to injury as there is in baseball.

[AlwaysaCub]

Anyone think we can put together a package for Ichiro?

[TysonCBulls423]

6 weeks isn't the rest of the season guys...I say go with DeRo in left and Cedeno at 2nd against lefties and Hoffpauir in left against righties. Move Theriot to leadoff and put Kosuke in the 2 spot.

 

Theriot

Fukudome

Lee

Ramirez

Edmonds (while he's still hitting)

Soto

Hoffpauir

DeRosa

 

Theriot

Fukudome

Lee

Ramirez

Soto

DeRosa

Hoffpauir

Johnson

[CubsGM]

JOSH HAMILTON!

[gflore34]

Is it me or is ESPN almost giddy that Soriano got hurt tonight? What's with Sutcliffe and all that devastating nonsense? Sure the Braves losing Smoltz for the season is a devastating blow but, I don't think Soriano being out 6-8 weeks is comparable.

[TruffleShuffle]

Another great performance by Demp tonight. He's easily been one of the top starters in baseball this year.

 

and his peripherals have been improving too. he's struck out better than a hitter per inning over the past month and a half, and he's been cutting down on the walk rate as well. i was concerned over the first month that his good numbers were just a mirage supported by a high LOB rate and low BABIP, but he's been legitimately very good. plus he continues to show good ground ball tendencies.

 

i am eating a full plate of crow on this one.

[TysonCBulls423]

I was at the Glavine game last year when Soriano got hurt. Everyone thought he was gone for the season but he came back in 3 weeks and started his monster home run smash. 5/6 weeks and he'll do it again!

[Outshined_One]

Anyone think we can put together a package for Ichiro?

 

It would cost a fortune.

[Ski]

If the Cubs break down after this, I think it'll be more mental than physical.

 

With that said, I hope Lou gives the team a good pep talk.

[Illini Iceman]

With Lou's rotation adjustments to keep Z on 4 days rest between starts it looks to me like Dempster won't pitch again until next Wednesday against Tampa Bay. Extending him to 119 pitches tonight shouldn't cause any problems since he will have those 6 days off until the next start. Edited June 12, 2008 by Illini Iceman

[BigSlick]

meh whatever... lou does a pretty good job of controlling pitch counts, and all pitchers want to get the CG if it's within reach. 119 is not a huge number of pitches.

 

color me stunned by dempster's performance so far.

mmmm I don't know if I like taxing a pitcher who just transferred from the bullpen to the rotation with 100+ pitches every other start

 

I don't like it, and we were expecting him to falter a bit down teh stretch any way, this will just exacerbate it

[TruffleShuffle]

meh whatever... lou does a pretty good job of controlling pitch counts, and all pitchers want to get the CG if it's within reach. 119 is not a huge number of pitches.

 

color me stunned by dempster's performance so far.

mmmm I don't know if I like taxing a pitcher who just transferred from the bullpen to the rotation with 100+ pitches every other start

 

I don't like it, and we were expecting him to falter a bit down teh stretch any way, this will just exacerbate it

 

i've never thought that you can just look at a pitch count without taking the situation into account. this wasn't one of those 125 pitch, 6 inning affairs. he threw 119 pitches, but his longest inning was just 21 pitches. he was pitching with a comfortable lead from the third inning on, so there was a lot of low-stress, low-leverage pitching, and he was still throwing strikes and keeping his mechanics intact during the late innings. there are two sides to the coin - no, you don't want dempster to wear down late in the year, but you also know that he's going to have games in september and october when he needs to go deep into ballgames. if you're working on building up his arm strength, tonight was a perfect night to do it, and you're also giving the guy a shot at his first complete game in five years.

[chuckywang]

He's at least got to go on the 15 day DL. The Cubs played well with Soriano out last time, but I doubt they will repeat that play. Bring Haufauir up, move DeRosa to left and play Fontenot at 2B, or let Edmonds and Johnson play full time.

 

Let Edmonds and Johnson play full time.

 

That is perhaps the worst possible solution.

 

I threw up a little bit in my mouth when I read that.

[chuckywang]

What's wrong with DeRosa in LF and Cedeno at 2B? Is that worse than a Murton/Hoffpauir platoon?

[RedFlash]

What is it with the GD Braves and doing this to our players? I guarantee Pujols will be back in less than three weeks and Soriano will be out ten.

 

The difference is...the Cubs have the depth to cover for Soriano, whereas the lack of talent for the Cubs will eventually show up. I expect the Cubs to pick up at least 4 games while Pujols is on the DL.

[gflore34]

What is it with the GD Braves and doing this to our players? I guarantee Pujols will be back in less than three weeks and Soriano will be out ten.

 

The difference is...the Cubs have the depth to cover for Soriano, whereas the lack of talent for the Cards will eventually show up. I expect the Cubs to pick up at least 4 games while Pujols is on the DL.

 

Fixed

[soapy]

Paging Rob for today's game thread...

 

 

hope you're not too sick (that was you, right?).

[Derwood]

Paging Rob for today's game thread...

 

 

hope you're not too sick (that was you, right?).

 

 

he's at the haberdasher, getting gussied up for 1948 day

[Andy]

Seriously, when Pujols went down, I knew something bad would happen, and of course it's an injury that'll keep our guy out twice as long.

 

I think the Cubs can continue to play well without Soriano, but I don't know if we can continue to play the way we have. We may need the Cardinals to fade away more than we did before.