mjued926

I can understand why he has to fill in for Santo, like today he had to get his "20,000 mile check-up" on his prosthesis. But why does Masur fill in for Hughes for a half inning every game. Is it because Hughes needs a breather from Santo??

Does anyone know what DLee did in the month of July??? His average has dropped almost 40 points since the west coast trip where we went 6-1. I know when you are batting almost .400 to drop .40 points probably means he is hitting like .300, but just wondering?

Rafeal Palmeiro has just been suspended for 10 games for steroids. http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2121659

The problem with that is nobody is going to want Wood that bad this offseason until he proves he can do something without injuring himself. And he has a fairly sizeable contract as well. And why would Boston want Maddux at his age? They will have Schilling coming back at full strength and would not have a need for Maddux really. To get Manny we would have to give them a lot more than an injured wood. It would take something more like Hill, Dopirak, Wood and maybe even more, they aren't just going to give away someone who is still putting up some of the best offensive numbers in baseball. On the downside Manny's defensive and hustle makes ARam's hustle on the basepaths look incredible. Manny dog's every everything and he is largely aided by the green monster with his defense. Seeing as though it is a short porch and gives pretty consistent bounces unlike Wrigley I would do whatever we could to get Manny without totally giving up on all our prospects. You think they would take Neifi or Macias off our hands? Maybe Nomar sign and trade back to Boston?

What roster move are the Cubs making to allow Hill to pitch if it isn't Wood on the DL? Mitre down? Cedeno down? Murton? Greenberg?

I really think we need to shut woody down for the year and if Hill looks good tonight, give him the opportunity to win the 5th starter spot next year with a good showing for the rest of the year. Wood is only going to be doing damage to his arm and with the way his health has gone the last couple years there is no need to press the issue.

Like you said Walker could handle leadoff without any difficulties unless someone believes speed is a requirement to hit leadoff, I sure don't. The Cubs have will have holes in their OF (possibly all 3) and SS. There's plenty of opportunity to not overspend for Damon's services and still get a 1/2 type of hitter. I agree w/JC that spending 4 years at 10 mil per is spending too much for one player under the Cubs' budget as well as every other team except the Red Sox or Yankees. The Cubs are going to have money to spend this offseason and lots of it. Why not sign him to a 4 year deal, the guy is producing better than he has ever done the last 2 years. He may not steal bases like he used to, but Baker's teams don't steal bases anyway. And if in a few years his defense is a liability in CF we always have PIe to move into the spot and shift Damon over to LF or RF.

The reds did it just for fun. I just heard on the radio that st. louis agreed to send Carpenter and Pujols to the Cubs for Macias, but when they found out we don't have Enrique Wilson anymore that killed the deal. Iknew Enrique was gonna be good for something later on...

Exactly. Although I'm okay cutting Neifi yesterday, today, and tomorrow. Neifi should have been gone weeks ago! I would rather see anybody over there than Neifi. Why Cedeno hasn't seen the light of day recently is mind boggling! Cedeno should be playing everyday right now until Garciaparra gets back and then when he does Nomar will only be able to play a few days a week. Seems like the perfect scenario to give the kid a shot, but Dusty lives in his own fantasy land thinking all his old Giants players will come to the Cubs and play everyday.

I have two questions unrelated to this topic, but I don't know where else to ask them and since I am new I thought maybe someone could help me out here... 1) What does IMO mean? People seem to use it a lot and I keep trying to figure it out but it is used in so many contexts I am lost. 2) When a thread is "sticky" what does that mean?

Agreed, neither time has he come out after an inning because of the soreness, he usually complains about it after a few innings. So he has three options the way I see it: 1) Tough it out if it isn't doing structual damage 2) Go into the bullpen and limit him to 2 innings max 3) Shut him down

How could Abreu not be ahead of Huff, Abreu is having an enormous season only overshadowed by DLee. 1) Abreu 2) Wagner (God could we use a reliable lefty) 3) Griffey (If Cincy eats 90% of his contract) 4) BJ Ryan 5) Huff

Why would you want to send Novoa down, he has been our only consistent arm of late besides Dempster. I agree that Remmy needs to be DFA'd, ecspecially now that it is the cool thing to do this year is DFA players. But Bartosh is not a quality arm, there is a good reason the Indians let him go, he couldn't get the job done for them and he showed why before the break. He shows the ball too early in his wind up allowing hitters to track it more easily.

I couldn't agree more! For some reason or another this guy keeps breaking down, whether it is mechanics (which were supposedly fixed), bad genetics, or what have you I think it is fair to say now that he has been injured in almost every single major league season that he is not someone the Cubs can rely on for 30-35 starts a year. What they need to do is find out where his highest value for the Cubs is for the rest of the year, if he can even pitch, whether it be making a start every 6th turn or going into the bullpen. I am concerned about putting him into the bullpen as many of you are too, but if Schilling can do it (albeit not that effectively yet) why couldn't Wood? It is a lot harder to go from bullpen to starter than than starter to bullpen.

I agree that I would much rather have him be a starter because when he is on he is one of the best in the game. But the last thing I want to see happen to him is another serious injury. I am just worried that he might be doing damage to his labrum (tendon in the shoulder) and that is almost if not as bad as having to have Tommy Johns surgery. And you are right there is no telling what he will do if he becomes a closer, he could be erratic like he often is. I think it is definitely worth a long look see by Dusty and Rothschild this winter to see if that is what is best for him and the team. Because sooner or later we are going to have bring along some of the pitching prospects that we have and if Hill is ready there is no sense throwing him into the bullpen, he is a starter and should be in the bigs.