Illini Iceman

I figured this was coming but assumed it would be Fox instead of Moore.

Not that I really care about Bonds -- he's spit to me -- but I find it interesting that his final act as an All-Star in this league is to crap on the fans who got him in. Bonds won't be doing the HR derby, not even in his house, not even for the only fans on the planet who care about him, not even in a season where he has nothing else to play for other than a record which he will break regardless of whether he competes or not. He remains the biggest ass in sports history -- a characteristic I will always associate with him, and not the home run record. The fact that Selig has allowed this All Star Game to become a tribute to a cheater and a malcontent is a disgrace to the history of MLB. Victor Conte should throw out the first pitch. And all Selig is worried about is banning ESPN since they had the nerve to broadcast publicly available information and promote his sport. What a complete moron.

I agree with most of that. Mine was "loaded", obvious hyperbole. I think it's silly to say that a guy can't hit if he's only playing half-time, that he needs to play full time. I think it's silly to blame the GM and the manager and everybody else but the player if he's playing half-time and he can't produce. Either blame nobody (these things happen, it can happen to anybody), or else blame the player. But I think all the Murton-victim-blame-it-all-on-management is kind of silly and unrealistic. Murton had the total opportunity in first half April, he stumbled it away. he had the total opportunity in second-half April, he stumbled it away. he had the total opportunity in first half May, he stumbled it away. he had the opportunity 2nd half May, he stumbled it away. it's too bad, for him and for us fans. My basic argument is againt the idea that he was mistreated and that management obviously is to blame and bungled it all. Opportunity knocked for two months, and he couldn't answer. He's a younger guy with options, Jones has a guaranteed contract, that's the way the business works. O well, go down and play and get your stroke fixed, Matt. Opportunity will knock again if you can fix it. It just won't be as wide a window of opportunity next time. Given the narrower window, if posters want to argue that half-time isn't enough AB for him to produce, then he's not likely to come back with a better window than he had the first time. If management made the window too small for success in April and May, I doubt that window will be any wider when he comes back, unless he pushes it wider by producing when he gets the chance to play. If nobody is arguing that he can't hit with half-time opportunity, then don't fix all the blame on management that he didn't hit for the two months of half-time opportunity that he got. If others are arguing that he never hits till July, then it's smart to send him down till such time when he will produce. Maybe we should do that every year as long as he's got options left? (I don't think that's true, but if that's the argument...) Is management smart? No. But I'm not sure the Murton case is the prover. Finally, as to loaded statements: I said that his half-time play was a fair-bit of opportunity. You reason that my statement is extreme, loaded. But then you say that he was "barely playing at all"! Half-time action is barely playing at all? That is loaded and extreme. And I assume is an intentional exaggeration. So we appear to be using the same kind of hyperbole in our argumentation, no? Murton's numbers at the plate were weak and he also looked bad. To make things worse he was making defensive lapses. Seems to me that Hendry was a big Murton supporter. However, fact of the matter is he did not perform at a time when the team desperately needed offensive help. Floyd stepped in and did a good job. If they give Murton another chance he better get in there an mash the lefties. If he can't even do that (like he didn't earlier this year) then why in the world should they bench a productive Floyd against righties in his favor?

Soto and Cedeno are both playing tonight, so it looks like it may just be Sean. BTW I hope he is getting called up and not traded. They should just let him get his starts and innings in AAA instead of bringing him up and down. Assuming Hendry finally found an acceptable deal for Jones and he is taking that spot he would still most likely go back down right after the all star break when Dempster is re-activated. Petrick looks like a keeper and is more suited for a long term role as a reliever.

Hill is not even a fine back up. He is worse than Bako. Just minor league filler that lucked into a roster spot due to Blanco being hurt at the same time Soto had a minor injury. All I can figure is that the Cubs are hoping that Blanco will get back soon and since the team is going good now they figure they don't need to make a move until then. Seems to me that eventually either Blanco will get back and take over a majority of the catching duties or they will find out that Blanco's injury is not going to allow him to return in the near future and at that point bring Soto up and make a commitment to give him consistent playing time.

Nicely managed 9th by Lou

Those are two ugly mugs (Ohman and Fick) on GameDay

I never thought I would look forward to the return of Henry Blanco to improve the offensive production from the catcher position.

Only in Mark Grace's wildest dreams was he a left handed Derrek Lee. yeah, gracie had marginally better power. If by power you mean ability to smoke, drink and pick-up fat chicks better then yes, you are correct.

Hill is out of options. This is why I don't understand getting Bowen for Barett. I wasn't completely against trading Barett, but I would have rather gotten some kind of serviceable arm or a decent prospect for him. Hill is a fine backup cather, but this platoon thing with him and bowen hasn't been pretty. Of course if Soto were to come up and struggle we're in the same boat. Soto deserves a shot, I say package Hill along with one of the other 3 crappy players that need to be traded. Wow, that's going to be quite an attractive package.

Only in Mark Grace's wildest dreams was he a left handed Derrek Lee.

Nats relievers with some really high pitch counts in this game.

That's what I am hoping for-let's get over half their bullpen in the game tonight, and then they won't have as many available when Redding pitches tomorrow. That was just 37 pitches by Traber in the last inning-he can't last much longer if at all. I'm also hoping for a complete game from Lilly. That would give everyone in our pen except Marmol two days of rest. Lilly has thrown 60+ pitches today in 3.2 innings. He'll need to be much more efficient in order to go deep into the seventh inning, much less throw a complete game. If the Cubs can keep scoring maybe they can get a big enough lead that Lou can trust Eyre to go the last two innings. Maybe that is a philosophical question - is any lead big enough to feel safe enough to let Eyre close it out?

I'd rather Z skip it and use the time for rest. Let him play the second half with a chip on his shoulder. I also don't like the idea of Lou trying to juggle the rotation so he can pitch.

Apparently the officials from the $tealer$/Seahawks Super Bowl were in charge of tabulating the results. Selig is such a gutless wonder. If anything MLB should have manipulated the voting to make sure Bonds WASN'T invited. What a great idea, use the All Star Game as a vehicle to promote a cheating lowlife that is a disgrace to the game. Maybe Selig can get George Mitchell to give him a big wet kiss before he runs out to take the field on his degenerative knees that have been overtrained as a result of his steroid abuse. Victor Conte can be waiting in the outfield and Bonds can sign a ball for him then have him rub the cream on his shoulder and put a few drops of the clear under his tongue. The whole think makes me want to puke. No way I even watch 1 minute of all star festivities or game if Bonds is involved.

So where in that tidbit does the writer's sources info end, and the writer's massive speculation begin? C'mon, if you can't trust the NY Daily News then who can you trust?

Hahaha. Nice one. My advice? Marquis should wear body armor under his uni today. Meh. The Brewers offense isn't as good as it has looked the last couple games, and if Marquis is wearing body armor Bush should also invest. He has been as bad ALL season as Marquis has been recently. They are 7th in the majors in runs. They're not going to put up 10+ every game out obviously. We're 18th. Sox are 30th 8-) OK - but they are averaging 4.99 runs per game and the Cubs 4.61 so it is not exactly a monumental difference. Also, RH starting pitchers for both teams today and the Cubs are ranked 12th in the majors against RHP and the Brewers only 19th. Brewers are ranked first against LHP which might help explain the struggles of Hill and Marshall the last two games.

Hahaha. Nice one. My advice? Marquis should wear body armor under his uni today. Meh. The Brewers offense isn't as good as it has looked the last couple games, and if Marquis is wearing body armor Bush should also invest. He has been as bad ALL season as Marquis has been recently.

yeah, with pie struggling and ss being a question mark, the cubs are likely in trouble offensively. For now, I like Fontenot at SS. Catcher is more important. (plus cf, but hopefully pie can break out of the slump.) Why haven't we brought soto up? Has he been struggling? Probably because we are on a 7 game winning streak yunno? :wink: Hey as long as we are winning keep that core chemistry going!! OK - streak is over - time to give Soto a shot. It is not like I think the catcher needs to be an offensive force on this team, but it seems unlikely to me that the Cubs can sustain any long term success with the truly awful numbers Bowen and Hill are putting up. I can't believe that if the Cubs removed Hill from the 40 man roster and tried to put him through waivers to option him back to Iowa any team would claim him. If they did, it would be no big loss. He is a dime a dozen Paul Bako type player.

It's adding salary in the sense that they'd be paying both him and his roster replacement. They'd be paying two players for one roster position. And the replacement would be leage minimum which is what the Marlins were picking up. Not necessarily. It could be - and considering he's the 24th or 25th man right now, it's probably likely - but it might not be. But I agree with you. Considering that's likely to be the case, this was stupid not to deal him. I would think management would look at this deal and see that it stinks. Jones was a productive player last year so to throw away all that money because he had an awful two months and his value is at an all time low would be foolish. He can stay on the team and possibly increase his value so the Cubs can get more players / pay out less cash. Worst case he is an expensive bench player but probably as good or better than whoever his replacement is. From a risk / reward standpoint the deal would have made no sense because there was very little potential upside.

How can they call him back so quick? I think there is an exception to the 10 day rule in case of injury.

I never heard about it. I think they probably just mixed up their facs on that one. http://chicago.cubs.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20070627&content_id=2052202&vkey=news_chc&fext=.jsp&c_id=chc

And in transactions they have Miller moving to the 60 day DL

or who didn't suddenly perform. Wellemeyer three hitting the Mets through 7. Other than this good start he has been nothing special.

I disagree. Jones has pretty much given up. I'd much rather have a guy out there willing to give 100% than someone giving half effort. If the Marlins think enough of Jones that they were willing to make him their regular CF then they should either eat the salary or give up something of value in return. It is rather subjective as to whether Jones has "given up" or not, most likely his is just struggling and that makes it seem like he is not trying. I am sure even he knows that if he wants to a) get more playing time here or b) get traded to another team where he will be a starter that he will need to pick-up his production. Bottom line is that this deal was barely better than a DFA so I don't see any reason for Hendry to jump on it now when he can wait and maybe circumstances will change with either Jones improving or another team getting desperate and the Cubs can get more return.