TruffleShuffle

interesting thought. i guess it depends on whether hendry prefers patience with prospects, or whether he's willing to throw in the towel on them when they struggle for five games, as seems to be the case with lou. my guess is that hendry would prefer that pie be playing most days, but he isn't about to tell piniella how to manage his ballclub.

if the red sox operated their team in this manner, dustin pedroia would've spent most of 2007 in pawtucket instead of winning a rookie of the year trophy and a world series ring.

I am as big a believer in "horseshoe up the cards' collective butt" as anyone, but here are some reasons not to worry about the cards: 1. A lot of overachieving hitters. Ryan Ludwick, it can be said with a high level of confidence, will not OPS above 1.000 this season. Skip Schumaker, unless he's made a great leap of improvement in his late 20s, is not going to keep getting on base 37.6% of the time. Adam Kennedy will not have a .391 OBP. In general, the Cards are really overachieving in the OBP department. There simply aren't enough dangerous hitters in this lineup for opposing pitchers to keep walking their players at the rate they've been walking. Teams are going to start attacking their hitters not named Pujols. 2. Their schedule. This has already been discussed. 3. Starting pitchers. Wainwright is coming into his own and is a solid #2, but the rest? Kyle Lohse is Kyle Lohse. He gave up 22 HR but has given up ONE this season. That won't last. Opposing players are slugging only .364 against him, but they've been around .450 in previous years. The power numbers will improve against him, the low BABIP will come up, and he'll be back to being Kyle Lohse. Braden Looper - 22 HR allowed last year, 2 this year. Same thing with him, the low power numbers and low BABIP are anomalies and will even out. Todd Wellemeyer - again, low BABIP, and his walk rate will end up hurting him. He's a decent back of the rotation option, not a solid #3. 4. Bullpen - Filled with mediocre players. Ron Villone is 38 years old and not good. Randy Flores - again, not good. Ryan Franklin is average unless he's really lucky like he was last year. 5. Health - granted, two starting pitchers have been shelved since the beginning of the year. But the guys who make up this team have been very healthy, including players like Troy Glaus and Joel Pineiro, who are about as likely to make it through the season healthy as Angel Guzman. The Cards aren't a bad team, but they aren't a good one either. As long as the Cubs as well as they should be expected to play, they'll beat the Cardinals this season.

guess who's tied for 8th in baseball in VORP?

pena is a great fielder, but holy crap is he a bad hitter. i don't care if he's ozzie smith with the glove, his offense is just unacceptable. and he's 27 now, so it's not like he's likely to improve either.

yes if there's anything the cubs need, it's to rush injured players back into the starting lineup in early may.

i wish that reporters would ask lou the tough questions. "lou, why did you and larry tinker with rich hill's mechanics earlier this year?" "lou, why did you say that you'd get cedeno in the lineup, and then not play him for several games in a row?" "lou, what happened to the commitment to felix pie as the starting center fielder of this club? he started a few games and then has been getting starts very sparingly. Also, reed johnson hasn't hit much against right handed pitching over the past year-plus, what do you really lose by starting pie?" i'm glad that reporters are telling us that pie might be headed to the minors soon, but i'd like to have someone call lou on these questionable decisions.

if this happens, it's even further evidence of lou's mismanagement. the cubs have had a very good offense despite not much contribution from pie; when ARam comes back there are five potential .900 OPS bats in the lineup, which is more than enough to make up for a CF who is adjusting to major league pitching.

last year i could've seen that happening, but with geo raking and no viable alternative at catcher, hendry trading soto is the very low on my list of cub-related worries.

unless harang decides to start throwing with his left hand, pie had better be in the starting lineup.

hahaha. soto is easily the #1 fantasy catcher to this point in the season too. if there was any doubt that last year was a fluke, i think that has to be gone by now. no, he's probably not going to put up pujols numbers all year, but the LD%, patience and XBH power are all signs that he will be one of the better offensive catchers in the game.

So the blame should go to Larry Rothschild for Rich Hill's suckiness? Yes, he's the one who screwed with Hill's mechanics at the beginning of the year when there was no need to. yeah pretty much.

think how maddening it will be when marmol is still pitching too much and we have 7 other guys in the bullpen.

man, where did that ball land tonight? i know it wasn't as massive as adam dunn's bomb, but geo really destroyed that pitch from cueto. 1.115 OPS now, by the way. and his career ops is above 1.000 :D

Pie needs patience. Usually when he puts the bat on the ball, he does OK for himself. Someone needs to show him a video of Corey Pattersons time with the Cubs and title it What Not to Do. yeah and when he watches a ball go by for strike three, everyone freaks out and says he is lost. corey's P/PA as a big leaguer is 3.34. pie's is 3.67. yes, felix has an approach that will lead him to strike out some, but he also shows the potential to walk more than corey, and to do a better job of picking pitches that he can drive.

from today's game thread: note that later in the game he hit a ball to the fence in left, singled and walked. YES, the guy took a pitch for strike three, but i'd rather see a young guy do that than hacking at garbage the whole AB. and i'm pretty sure that we've all seen kosuke and derrek lee take good pitches for third strikes. that's part of being a patient hitter; sometimes you're going to get fooled on a pitch and not pull the trigger. bottom line, pie has been performing relatively well at the plate over the past couple of weeks, and nobody will say that he doesn't offer a pretty big edge over reed johnson in the field. people (lou especially) need to get over this idea that he is completely lost at the plate, and accept that he's a 23 year old player who is still adjusting to big league pitching.

i'm gonna go out on a limb and say that reed johnson doesn't make that catch on griffey either.

the cubs have been getting more people on base than their opponents. the reds basically did nothing on offense all night except for a couple of innings when they were helped by cubs' errors. the cubs have been leaving a lot of guys on base lately. plus one of the best hitters on the team has been out of the lineup. the cubs will be fine. it's just a rough patch with poor luck, similar to the rough start to the year last year, but the cubs have more of a cushion after winning a lot in april. I'm not going to lose it yet, but we're going to be down 8.5 if this keeps up. You know STL is going to win tonight's game. they will? did i miss the part where the cardinals were a great team and not an average one?

One week ago, what was Fontenot hitting then as compared to Cedeno? Believe me, I'm not trying to keep Cedeno from getting at bats. But you asked why Fontenot is in there tonight, and the answer is he's white hot at the plate. Thing is, between Theriot getting thrown out every time he's on the bases, Johnson being awful against RHP, Ramirez being hurt, and DeRosa slumping hard, there's plenty of room for both to be in the lineup right now. yeah, it looks like derosa could use a night off. his numbers went down in the second half last year, especially in the power department. with the surplus of middle infielders on this team, it'd be wise to give him a day off each week and try to keep him fresh for the stretch run.

ok, see ya later They are playing the Cardinals right now, he doesn't mean he's switching teams. oh okay. i thought he was the guy who became a red sox fan last year, so i figured he was selling out the cubs again. my mistake.

he has an .844 OPS and this was his first error of the season. i'm pretty sure a player like that has some usefulness to a team. thank God you're not the cubsGM, that's all i can say.

ok, see ya later

so pretty much like may of last year, and sure enough the cubs didn't win a damn thing in 2007.

the cubs have been getting more people on base than their opponents. the reds basically did nothing on offense all night except for a couple of innings when they were helped by cubs' errors. the cubs have been leaving a lot of guys on base lately. plus one of the best hitters on the team has been out of the lineup. the cubs will be fine. it's just a rough patch with poor luck, similar to the rough start to the year last year, but the cubs have more of a cushion after winning a lot in april.

lou is going with pie against cueto but went with johnson against lohse and welly. maybe he's playing the white-on-white and latin american-on-latin american matchups.