Drew Doughty

it better be. why gooz wasn't in to start the inning is baffling. why dempster wasn't warmed up to come in for howry is baffling. why ohman was brought in -- or better yet not taken out after the PH was announced -- is all a mystery to me. he's worse than dusty at managing the pen. it's insane.

lmao, are you kidding me? we scored 7 runs to come back from a 4 run deficit late in the game and we're unclutch? we're just not a particularly well constructed team and we have a manager that has no clue on managing a bullpen.

wow.

I think a lot of people saw Carp getting injured as being a strong possibility, as well as Edmonds and Wells sucking. Their rotation was under heavy scrutiny well before the season started, even from homers like Dayn Perry. Rolen is getting older and his injuries are starting to catch up with him, Reyes has never been this bad, but he has always had durability issues. Really the only thing no one could have foreseen was Looper being this good. This past offseason Jocketty looked a lot like Hendry did last offseason, it's the same sort of crap we roast Jimbo for. I'm looking at 4 projections right now (ZiPS, CHONE, Bill James, and Marcel). Here is the worst line officially projected before the year for the players I mentioned: Jim Edmonds: 253/365/480 Scott Rolen: 278/362/477 Albert Pujols: 331/424/635 Adam Kennedy: 266/335/372 Adam Wainwright: 4.05 ERA/1.35 WHIP Anthony Reyes: 4.59 ERA/1.35 WHIP (the other 3 projections have him boasting a sub-4 ERA) Chris Carpenter: lowest IP projection = 195, I don't remember a lot of concerns about his durability directly before the season. Kip Wells: eh, most thought he would be bad or injured. Still, 3/4 projected him to have a sub-5 ERA.

Dodger Stadium is not that hard to hit home runs in. It actually inflates them. but the cubs will still probably try to hit his sinker out of the park and will fail miserably (except Soriano, I think he hits a home run in this game).

he really should, but he probably never will because the media doesn't really like him.

he tried to improve the team. i remember before the year a lot of people were lauding his ability to stay out of the market to some extent. i don't think anyone expected the combo of Wainwright/Wells/Reyes to be this bad. No one saw Pujols/Rolen/Edmonds being this horrible. No one foresaw Carpenter getting injuried. he did sign Kennedy and Wells to try and improve the team, but the moves backfired.

Marquis led the NL last year with 35 gopher balls in 194 innings. Ortiz and Arroyo tied for 2nd with 31. Jorge Sosa was 4th with 30. great. i don't care. it's pretty clear that he's doing something differently this year at this point. he's getting more groundballs, fewer line drives, and more pop ups this year over last year. he'll regress, but i doubt it will be because he plays at wrigley.

Huh? Marquis has the second best GB% on the staff. I'd be far more worried about Rich Hill or Ted Lilly (in relation to home runs/fly balls at least) than Marquis. Then again, I'm more worried about Marquis because he most likely isn't going to have as good of a season as either of the other two guys mentioned.

you're going to wait that long? i'm already on the "lou sucks" bandwagon.

Is it really bad luck to give up long balls? Usually you hear of luck being involved when you're talking about balls in play. But HR, BB and K are the things a pitcher controls. to some extent yes, but both of the home runs to right field just cleared the fence (and I maintain that the pitch to Kouzmanoff wasn't a bad pitch). If those two had stayed in the yard, I doubt anyone would be that worried about Hill. Though, the pitches to Cameron were awful, and his location was generally shoddy.

Hill made about 4 mistakes all night after the first inning. The Padres jumped on them. Really the pitch to Kouzmanoff wasn't horrible, but meh. I love the Padres announcers. Nice shot at Hawk Harrellson during the game.

GO SENS GO! GO SENS GO!

yay lee boo izturis

You definitely don't pay a reliever as much as you paid Eyre when he's been mediocre every year except for one. Howry, at least, has been a good pitcher for most of his career, and was excellent for two straight years before the Cubs signed him. He was still very good last year. I think he's had bad luck with a high BABIP against this year, and I still think he'll have a pretty good season unless last year's unnecessary workload damaged his arm. Well, there is no doubt his velocity is a bit down from last year so who knows. i don't think his velocity is down. how hard do you think he throws? he's never been a flamethrower, and i haven't noticed and marked difference this year. Actually, Howry used to be a flamethrower before he had arm injuries. He was throwing 93-94 last year, that isn't the case this year. I don't think that's right. I'm pretty sure he was throwing in the upper 80's/low 90's last year, which he's still doing this year. He was definitely not in the upper 80's. Howry wasn't a 99 MPH reliever, but he was regularly low to middle 90's. really? meh, maybe i'm thinking of someone else then.

You definitely don't pay a reliever as much as you paid Eyre when he's been mediocre every year except for one. Howry, at least, has been a good pitcher for most of his career, and was excellent for two straight years before the Cubs signed him. He was still very good last year. I think he's had bad luck with a high BABIP against this year, and I still think he'll have a pretty good season unless last year's unnecessary workload damaged his arm. Well, there is no doubt his velocity is a bit down from last year so who knows. i don't think his velocity is down. how hard do you think he throws? he's never been a flamethrower, and i haven't noticed and marked difference this year. Actually, Howry used to be a flamethrower before he had arm injuries. He was throwing 93-94 last year, that isn't the case this year. I don't think that's right. I'm pretty sure he was throwing in the upper 80's/low 90's last year, which he's still doing this year.

You definitely don't pay a reliever as much as you paid Eyre when he's been mediocre every year except for one. Howry, at least, has been a good pitcher for most of his career, and was excellent for two straight years before the Cubs signed him. He was still very good last year. I think he's had bad luck with a high BABIP against this year, and I still think he'll have a pretty good season unless last year's unnecessary workload damaged his arm. Well, there is no doubt his velocity is a bit down from last year so who knows. i don't think his velocity is down. how hard do you think he throws? he's never been a flamethrower, and i haven't noticed and marked difference this year.

i wouldn't carry either on my team regardless of how big of a cub fan i am.

WHAT IS THE PRIMARY MAIN OBJECTIVE?!?!?

i love west coast trips, because i get to see at least a good portion of the games. Well, at least the ones against the Dodgers and Padres.

if people are going to say stuff like "we should just trust wilkins track record" they should at least know the guy's name. maybe they are saying "we should trust wilkin's track record" but are forgetting the '. it doesn't really matter though.

I would take a gamble on Josh Towers. why? his year two years ago was nice, but he has turned into a different pitcher since then. he's giving up more line drives, fewer groundballs, and fewer pop ups. He's making nearly 3m dollars this year on top of that. if i were going to take a gamble on one of those two, it would be Ohka since was at least average last year in the NL Central (97 innings). Really, the Cubs shouldn't be looking at either guy, since Guzman (ugh) is almost definitely going to be at least as good as both of them this year.

what's his line drive percentage? Even with a league average BABIP, would his numbers be any good? BABIP is not a hitters stat. 20.4 he's hitting lots of groundballs though. he'll probably come around to some extent, but he's having an awful year that isn't looking to get a ton better without a massive adjustment -- something he's needed since he broke into the majors.

yep, the Cubs .287 avg w/ risp leads the NL. The .370 OBP is 5th in the NL. The .437 SLG is 3rd in the NL. The .808 OPS is 3rd.

I really dont disagree with anything you are saying here. I just would like to know what are the better options though. If we had even some semi option this would make sense. I dont think the Cubs really have another option at starter. Yup, we're in a bit of a bind. Marshall had a couple decent starts in AAA, but he's pretty similar stuff-wise to Lilly and Hill. Having 3 similar pitchers go every 5 days is not a good idea. I'm really hoping for a trade. Hopefully we get rid of either Murton or Jones and nab a serviceable 5th starter who can keep you in the game for 6-7 innings. I like Gooz. He's a lot better than his limited numbers in Chicago indicate, but he's got a lot to prove IMO. I'd be fine keeping him in the rotation if we had a steady pen. We don't. He usually only goes 5 innings when he starts. Not good. It just puts that much more pressure on the pen. With the crap that's been going on lately, you can almost guarantee the Cubs lose that game. Wuertz/Dempster can't pitch 4 innings every time Gooz starts. i think he had a pitch count in his first game. in his second game he wasn't pitching well, in his third game he was taken out as what I would assume was a precautionary measure due to the cramp. I don't think it's fair to say he'll usually/probably pitch 5 innings per start. it's not like he had a high pitch count in any of his 3 starts. He could have pitched more, but Lou didn't let him. His highest pitch count of the 3 starts was 82.