Laura

good day for Theriot Hope he savors it.

c'mon, mateo!

There were some pretty good pitches in that sequence.

Mateo taking fielding lessons from Big Z. Makes me sad to hear Kerry talk about the rehab process; I'd love to see him back pitching successfully again.

BOOOOOOOOOOO! :getyou:

...nice...

Thanks, TexasCub! Nice first inning for Mateo.

It's no set time, as far as I know it's about 30 minutes after game 1 ended.

Congrats to Theriot on his first MLB RBI. Too bad he couldn't have played more lately, especially since he has a glove and all.

Are Pagan & Neifi still in the game? Maybe Dusty just didn't have anyone to doubleswitch in. :biglaff:

Of course. That's always the ideal plan. Obviously you want to pace someone at the exactly correct pace for their development. But I'm not at all surprised that the organization may have somewhat different reads on who is ready for what than we do, and I suspect that Mateo won't be the only surprising debut this season. I also suspect there's more to the Guz story, even if it involves a huge lack of communication between the big league club and Iowa. I wish I had more confidence in LR working with him, since Marmol does seem to my untrained eye to change his delivery from pitch to pitch sometimes.

Juan Pierre on a contract drive.

Kid was rushed, he has control problems (not a shocker since he converted from catcher in 2003). Now they're rushing Mateo. Wasn't the point of opening up the rotation slot to pitch the rooks? Or was it just to pitch Guzman? Williams to replace Marmol?

That's great! The transactions forum will start heating up before long with more budget posts. I made a few comments below and just highlighted them in blue font. Lineup RF- Jones 5m CF- LF- 3B-Aramis 11m This may change due to renegotiation 2B- SS-Izturis 4.5m 1B-Lee 13m C-Barrett 4m May be $4.5M? Not really significant Bench Murton 330k Perez 2.5m Blanco 1.5 m Not under contract in '07 Pagan 327k Theriot 300k Starting Pitchers Z 7.5m Likely higher - Cy Zambrano - & hopefully multi-year Prior 4m Marshall 300k Marmol 300k Guz/Hill/etc 300k Relievers Wuertz 355k Eyre 3.5m Howry 4m Dempster 5m Wood 2m Ohman 610k Rusch 2m This comes to a total of 72.5m with holes at CF, LF, and 2B still left to fill. As you point out below, that wouldn't cover a FA starting pitcher (which is near & dear to some hearts). Dusty would weep over the lack of bench veterans (but at least Neifi will still be here). Not much power unless Murton steps up his power game (and gets enough playing time to do so). I don't have time to try to speculate on what any of those guys will wind up with tpday. I do think that's cutting the envelope pretty close and does include (as you note) a minor increase in payroll. It will be great if the Trib raises payroll a notch, given the poor results they've received over the past couple years ... but if the revenues are there, it can be justified. I also wasn't saying that no positive upgrades were possible due to the Izturis trade. I was pointing that committing that money over 2 years to Izturis has a real impact on how much money you can spend to fill other needs. Given his likely offensive production (whether you think his production will stay flat, match '04 or improve), you also have to figure out how to get the most offensive bang for the buck at the other positions.

Yeah he was playing on the track. it hasn't been just today...i think len and bob have commented on it before. i'm just mad that he's played enough for anyone to even notice it. I'm more irritated that even Buck & McCarver noticed it but no one on the Cubs apparently has.

Yeah, but it took awhile. I think it was right before the triple (but not positive).

With the BB, Barrett moves into a second-place tie with Murton for most BBs on the team. Aramis - 33 Barrett - 28 Murton - 28 Pierre - 24 DLee :( - 23

Unfortunately, long relief duty in blowout doubleheader games is one use that Rusch is uniquely qualified for.

Yep. With short series with non-divisional teams and with games later in the season, rainouts become problematic for the team to reschedule and for ticketholders. That's without considering the various restrictions the Cubs operate under in terms of scheduling games.

Is that true? I thought he had been on the DL in Atlanta. He only started 25 games in '94... I believe the stat is he's never been on the DL for an arm injury, but he was on for a toe or something. He went on the 15-day DL in '02 for an inflamed foot tendon, IIRC.

Then eliminate CF from the list of cheap options and factor that into who you want playing LF and pitching next year. Pierre made $5.75M this year and he's unlikely to take a pay cut.

I thought it has been confirmed before that buyouts are actually budgeted in for the previous year and don't count against that years budget. So its not like we have to worry about it being a 5mil contract, it would be 2mil (or whatever you work out) I was going to say the same thing. I think that's what they said during some recent buyout. maybe Alou? But even regardless of the $3M buyout and when it applies, there are a lot of holes on the team for next year. If you plug Wood into one of them, you have to be prepared for the Trib to subtract that money from another position.

He'll have to make up a lot of OBP to be worth the $4M. The Cubs are committed to spending $6.65M on Cesar + Neifi next year. The Cubs need to figure out what to do with LF, CF and at least one starting pitching slot, and that's at a minimum unless they plan to start from scratch (which they won't). Aramis will opt out and (hopefully) renegotiate his contract and get a raise; Z is due to have his contract bought out. If you want to balance the budget -- and believe me, I'm all for the Trib blowing a budget and going all out, but I don't realistically expect that to happen -- it seems really likely that the choice between Cesar and Cedeno is kind of a false choice. You have to have a cheap option at SS, 2B or CF to make any budget work, and, depending on who you want to sign, perhaps more than one cheap option. Cesar eliminates SS from the cheap option list. When Hendry bought into Cesar, he pretty much bought into cheap production at 2B, maybe CF and definitely in at least 2 starting pitching slots. eta: there needs to be number-crunching laid out and assumptions. I would be astonished -- but happy -- if the Trib raised payroll going into next season. The [url-http://www.thechicagonationalleagueballclub.com/]Chicago National League Ball Club[/url] blog has been doing initial cuts of next year's budget. A lot is unknown at this time.

On the other hand, the cookie-cutter teams at whatif use Petco for park effects since it depresses hitting stats and the best defense-OBP players to roll to championships.

But how much "D" are they giving up? Who has been playing 3B for them consistently? When I've checked, it's mainly been Bellhorn. I have a lot of love for Bellhorn, but unless a lot has changed, 3B is not his ideal D-position. I'm curious, I really don't know who has been playing 3B for the Padres.