Sammy Sofa

I'm not sure why you think he'll be an acceptable at 1B anymore than people think he's unacceptable anywhere else right now. If his defense/injuries gets worse but he can still hit in a few years, the best option is likely to try and trade him to the AL as a DH and eat a chunk of the salary. I think he'd be a MUCH worse 1st baseman than an OFer. What makes you think he couldn't be a decent 1B? He has plenty of experience on the right side of the infield and he's a good athlete when healthy. It doesn't seem like the kind of position for someone with leg issues or apparently trepedation about colliding with something else to thrive.

Sadly, I think we'll keep saying that for a little while longer.

True, but it makes me worry less seeing the other road records around baseball right now. At this time last year, road teams were 341-386. That's a winning percentage of .469. This year, road teams are 321-437. That's a winning percentage of .423. The Cubs definitely need to play better on the road, but so do most of the teams in the league. Last year at this time, Milwaukee's road record was good for 12th out of 16 teams in the NL. The Cubs road record, albeit slightly worse than Milwaukee's last year at this point, is 7th best. OK, that makes it less worrisome. Nice post. It's getting pretty dark and cloudy out...

I'm not sure why you think he'll be an acceptable at 1B anymore than people think he's unacceptable anywhere else right now. If his defense/injuries gets worse but he can still hit in a few years, the best option is likely to try and trade him to the AL as a DH and eat a chunk of the salary. I think he'd be a MUCH worse 1st baseman than an OFer.

The home vs. road records are more than a little worrisome. Stinking on the road is one of the main things that killed the Brewers last year.

He's an even worse 2nd baseman. I agree that he's looked awful out there, but along the lines of what CM is pointing out, to describe last two seasons as an OFer as being defensively "awful" doesn't seem to match reality.

Hah! So awesome.

That easily makes it more frustrating...it's not like a lot of the other bust closers this year, who have been shaky or worse in most of their appeaances, even when they get the save...those other 18 games, he pretty much looks like one of the most dominant bullpen arms in the game.

If Dempster can get a long win, he is a god.

If Dempster can get a long win, he is a god.

Dude loves his hit and runs and worthless steals when the heart of the lineup is up.

Lou is batting Johnson 5th today and Fukudome 6th.

Great minds of science will still be trying to determine the answer to that final question centuries from now.

Wait...what? Why is Johnson batting 5th?

Wood needs to stop hitting the first batter. It's ridiculous/frustrating how he has such a clear pattern of that occuring and then a bad outing. If he doesn't hit the batter, he's almost certainly out of the inning with little to no problem. At this point, if he hits the first batter and Marmol, Wuertz or Howry are available, Lou needs to have one of them start warming up ASAP. It's too obvious a recurring and specific warning sign.

Oy vey. It could be a ten ton truck.

Mabe a car will bump you in the face.

Wasn't the whole point in sending him down to work fulltime on adjusting his swing? I'd assume that'll take some time.

It's not a bad strategy...not a guaentee for success by any means, but better than the Cubs' "target all veterans all the time" approach.

Except that it's not. He never had a season with a significant number of starts where he's more than 2 games under .500. Look at who else has been number 5 or better on the Cubs recently -- Rusch? Mitre? Estes? Maddux? Clement? They are all still floating around, and though Maddux is a wonder, Marquis is a clear upgrade on the others. Look at it this way, if your #5 starter is two games under .500, and your #4 starter is at .500, it's reasonable to expect your team to be at least 20 games over .500, with a strong performance from the pan and the rest of the rotation. Zambrano and Dempster have held up their ends this year, the others haven't. Yet, the problem in the rotation is the number 5 starter, even though they are .500 in his starts, and he has a better ERA than Lilly? There is every reason to believe Marquis will get bumped in the second half. Until then, he is performing exactly as would have been expected -- as a major league #5 starter. And no one has done enough to take that job away from him. We're picking starters based on W/L record? Wow. Well how else is one supposed to value a pitcher's worth? You act like there are other statistics (that are not team dependent) that are indicative of a pitcher's performance as an individual contributor. :blink: This should be in sarcastic green.

LLF isn't known for his rational, well-reasoned conclusions around here.

Baseball is rather bonkers so far this year in terms of the teams leading the divisions. While I prefer the White Sox losing, I wouldn't mind the off chance the Cubs and the Sawx meeting in October.

Give this post a standing ovation until your hands bleed.

Bill Murray should always do it.

Haven't they supposedly been trying hard to trade Marquis for months now? Just release him and be done with it. Nobody wants to give up players for that hump and his bag of money.