rawaction

Thanks Bruce. I figured Lee would DH, forgot about it in my 1st post. Hoffpauir is ok in the 2-hole. Would rather see Kosuke there, but I expect Micah to have a pretty good series.

Then they aren't the future. They are flotsam and jetsam. Trading young players who need help via an act of God to be all-star caliber players is easy. Pedro Martinez comes back healthy after the All-Star break, and throws two consecutive seven inning, one-run games. On July 30, the Mets say you can have him in exchange for Gallagher, Hill, Marshall, Hart -- none of whom are a key to the season so far. Deal or no deal? 100% no deal. Don't even think about it.

Assuming you don't trade the only big contributors under 27 (Soto, Marmol), there is nobody who's future is so bright in this organization that they can't be traded to improve the team this year. I wouldn't go out trading Pie for a middle reliever, but that doesn't give the team a better shot anyway, IMO. Heck, I'd probably even give up Marmol for Sabathia depending on what else was in the deal.

Burnett has some strange numbers this year. He has an ERA of 9 at home, and under 3 on the road. And it's not like he's facing a bunch of patsy lineups on the road either. His road starts have come against the Yankees, Boston, Cleveland, Philly, Oakland, Texas, and the Angels. He hasn't faced a lineup nearly as good as the Cubs one (even without Soriano) in any of his home games. I'd expect Lou to get a lot of LH bats in for this series. Burnett is a guy Hoffpauir could have success against. In fact, Lou would be wise to get Hoff in the lineup all 3 games, because all 3 Jays pitchers have had trouble with LH hitters at times. On the other side, Gallagher has had a lot of trouble with LHs too, to the tune of .100 BA points, and nearly .250 OPS points higher. Luckily for him, the LHs for the Jays are pretty bad. Probably see Stairs, Inglett, Wilkerson and Overbay all in the lineup, but the highest OPS among these lefties is Inglett's .785 in 71 ABs. His SLG is the highest also of that group, at .423 and he has a grand total of 0 HRs. All pieces should be in place for Sean to have a successful outing, unless he walks people...and the Jays are pretty patient. I'd expect to see Reed Johnson in there tonight vs. his former team, and because of his LF defense is a decent sized park. Hoffpauir should be in the lineup, as well as Edmonds. Be the perfect night to move Fukudome up in the order. SS- Theriot RF- Fukudome 1B- Lee 3B- Ramirez C- Soto CF- Edmonds 2B- Derosa DH- Hoffpauir LF- Johnson

I think the GM(s), scouts, and minor league instructors should get a lot more credit than the manager. Bobby Cox probably isn't in baseball if the Braves didn't have the best run organization in sports the last 20 years.

While, I agree with you that the starting pitching could use improvement....the Cubs' ERA is only .04 away from having the NLs best rotation. They are tied for 5th in innings pitches.

He didn't. Didn't really need to come out in the 8th. I will say though, if he had gotten that call on Corky Miller and gotten the K instead of the HR, I wouldn't have minded him going for the CG shutout. That also would have saved him several pitches.

Is this guy a good manager? Every Braves fan I've ever known has hated the guy. A guy I work with is a Braves fan and he says Cox has cost the Braves at least 7 or 8 games this year with his boneheaded moves. I don't follow ATL that much, but from what I've seen, he does make some odd choices. Then you have the whole ejection thing, which I get the feel that most Braves fans are sick of his whiny little tantrums. Does the 14 division titles show that he is a good manager or does the 1 title in those 14 chances show he's not anything special? He has had a lot of talent with 3 HoF starters atop his rotation for most of those 14 years, not to mention the offense of guys like Chipper, Andruw, McGriff, Sheffield, Lopez, Klesko, etc. Obviously, I think a HUGE percentage of the Braves success has to be attributed to the front office. But how good is Cox as a manager?

And this coming while he has a stretch of giving up 2 ERs in 16 2/3 innings in 17 outings. Admittedly, he didn't look that good when he was being thrown out there. His last 8 appearances, he gave up 7 hits and 6 BBs over 5 1/3, good for a WHIP over 2.4.

Oddly enough, also a 3-2 game in extras, and also tied in the bottom of the ninth on a HR. Dibble actually intentionally walked Doug Dascenzo with runners on 1st and 3rd with one out... I never realized Dawson and Sosa played on the same team. 92 was the only year for that. That was an interesting year for Cubs, past and present. Had a lot of players on the team still from the 89 playoff team. On that team were a lot of legendary names for our generation's Cubs....Walton, Dunston, Sosa, Dawson, Grace, Sandberg, Maddux, Girardi, Villanueva.

According to ESPN, Rob Dibble hit Rey Sanchez 16 years ago for the last time the Cubs won on a walk-off HBP. And, here it is. http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CHN/CHN199207080.shtml

I'm unable to get him registered. I will check w/ 1908

Broussard picked the Cubs over the Orioles.

Holy crap that was an awesome call! I got the game on DVR, but haven't had the chance to watch it yet, I will throughly enjoy.

why would you ever take out Marmol for Cotts?

did Zambrano hit for himself last inning. I'm just on gamecast, but that can't be right.

Relax. Chill them ****** out! I'm sending the Wolf to help you out. You sendin' the Wolf? **** Negro! That's all you had to say!

He'll be back by the Florida series in late July,.

I don't like scenarios that give a tinkerer more chances to tinker. Chasing the hot hand is a pretty risky strategy. It's not risky in the short-term, though. If the Cubs were trying to finish the season this way, that would be different. But this will keep the bench guys fresh and give a chance for guys like Derosa and Fukudome to move around in the lineup.

Looks like a timetable of anywhere from AS break to trade deadline. Not really worried about the offense with Soriano out. The pitchers are only giving up 3.66 ERs per game. And the Cubs still have enough offense to beat teams. Lee and Soto are starting to look a lot better at the plate and hopefully can make up for the lack of Soriano's bat in the lineup. I think this is a great opportunity for a guy that likes to tinker (Piniella) to do a lot of daily tinkering. I think you will see several scenarios in the next 4-6 weeks. Lou will be able to mix and match combos of Derosa, Fontenot, Johnson, Hoffpauir, Murton, Patterson, and Cedeno at LF and 2B. The 6 AL games coming up will allow him to possibly get 3 of those guys in the lineup at the same time and be able to determine pretty quickly who is going to be the hot hand.

There's only 1 Boomer and he was a left-handed QB for the Cincinnati Bengals and New York Jets.

Ugh, mods please lock and delete his name. We're all going to blame him when we don't win the WS. I thought it meant the Cubs were going to die this year. Of course, they weren't born in 1908, though.

Welcome. If these predictions are come true, you must make predictions every single game.

Ceda is best suited as a reliever. I'd like him to continue to get starter's innings, but he could be ready in the not too distant future as a RP.

Battle of 2 guys pitching way over their heads and coming back to Earth a little. Jurjjens and Dempster were both top 5 in ERA thru the first 6 weeks of the season. Jurjjens has given up 15 ERs in his last 16 innings, over 3 starts. Dempster has had back-to-back non-efficient 5 IP, 3 ER starts. Cubs facing a guy they haven't seen before. Dempster may have the benefit of facing a Chipper-less lineup. Key will be limiting the free passes by both pitchers.