VanceJergins

Come on, Eyre's a nice guy. a 15 era is not nice.

He'll be here all season.....earning that fat paycheck.

It will be inexcusable if Eyre pitches another inning for the Cubs.

I'm pretty sure I'm just pissed.

Get him out of there.

Maybe Marmol can replace Eyre and Guzman can replace Izturis on the roster.

Cotts has been great, but Eyre sucks enough for all of them.

Eyre never ceases to amaze.

Murton now 0-10 as a PH/sub.....catching on yet, Lou?

Maybe if he got the opportunity to, ya know, start, he would have better at bats.

Why is Soriano bunting?

Wait....Izturis didn't make ANY outs that AB? I'm excited when he only makes 1!!

Wuertz for fire-putter-outter, whatever inning that may be. But I agree with the sentiment that he is our best relief pitcher.

Yes

Send Izzy packing and let Theriot play short. Miller, Izturis, and Eyre for ARod. Miller is on the DL and can't be traded. If the Yankees were to agree to that trade, we would be in an alternate dimension, so those rules wouldn't apply.

Send Izzy packing and let Theriot play short. Miller, Izturis, and Eyre for ARod.

(unaided) 1. Soriano 2. Floyd 3. Murton 4. Jones 5. Pie 6. Ward 7. Theriot 8. Lee 9. Ramirez 10. DeRosa 11. Izturis 12. Cedeno 13. Barrett 14. Blanco 15. Zambrano 16. Hill 17. Lilly 18. Marquis 19. Cotts 20. Ohman 21. Eyre 22. Wuertz 23. Cherry 24. Howry 25. Dempster

Then I'd like some of whatever Murton is smoking that makes him the luckiest player on the planet. .357/.400 without hitting the ball hard. Pass some of that to the rest of the team, Matty. That lack of power is concerning. Not necessarily HR power (although a couple would be nice) but the ability to hit 2B's. Murton had 22 2B's and 3 3B's with 14 HR's last year. He only has one 2B this year, and that was a bloop the other day. He might be hitting the ball hard on the ground to get singles, but he's not driving the ball at all. If he continues to not drive the ball combined with that poor walk rate, he's not going to be a productive corner outfielder. Do I expect that to continue? No, I'm sure he'll figure out a way soon to work through this-but that's why think he needs to work through some things. Again, if .357/.400 is Murton struggling, then I think I'll be able to live with his production if he can get consistent playing time. Without driving the ball, he cannot sustain that .357/.400 line-if you look at his BABIP as a starter, it's extraordinarily high-which means that he's getting quite lucky right now for so many singles to fall in the way they have. Ok, I'll give up the jig. I know Murton hasn't been amazing this year (I do think he's been good when given regular AB's, though). I'm just pointing out how ridiculous all the talk of Murton't tremendous struggle is. You can't really say that someone hitting .357/.400 when they start is lost at the plate.

Then I'd like some of whatever Murton is smoking that makes him the luckiest player on the planet. .357/.400 without hitting the ball hard. Pass some of that to the rest of the team, Matty. That lack of power is concerning. Not necessarily HR power (although a couple would be nice) but the ability to hit 2B's. Murton had 22 2B's and 3 3B's with 14 HR's last year. He only has one 2B this year, and that was a bloop the other day. He might be hitting the ball hard on the ground to get singles, but he's not driving the ball at all. If he continues to not drive the ball combined with that poor walk rate, he's not going to be a productive corner outfielder. Do I expect that to continue? No, I'm sure he'll figure out a way soon to work through this-but that's why think he needs to work through some things. Again, if .357/.400 is Murton struggling, then I think I'll be able to live with his production if he can get consistent playing time. I don't really like how you assume the "starting" Murton is the real Murton, and you the unproductive ABs from games that he didn't start. So you think sporadic AB Murton is the real Murton? It seems pretty logical to put more focus on the AB's when he's started a game and getting consistent AB's. I'm sorry if you don't like the way I assess young players.

Not like it matters. Why has it taken him so long to see this guy? P.S. I hate still caring about Prior, but I just can't make myself stop.

Then I'd like some of whatever Murton is smoking that makes him the luckiest player on the planet. .357/.400 without hitting the ball hard. Pass some of that to the rest of the team, Matty. That lack of power is concerning. Not necessarily HR power (although a couple would be nice) but the ability to hit 2B's. Murton had 22 2B's and 3 3B's with 14 HR's last year. He only has one 2B this year, and that was a bloop the other day. He might be hitting the ball hard on the ground to get singles, but he's not driving the ball at all. If he continues to not drive the ball combined with that poor walk rate, he's not going to be a productive corner outfielder. Do I expect that to continue? No, I'm sure he'll figure out a way soon to work through this-but that's why think he needs to work through some things. Again, if .357/.400 is Murton struggling, then I think I'll be able to live with his production if he can get consistent playing time.

Then I'd like some of whatever Murton is smoking that makes him the luckiest player on the planet. .357/.400 without hitting the ball hard. Pass some of that to the rest of the team, Matty.

In an MLB.com article, Lee isn't even mentioned with 1B All-Star possibilities: So they mention Pujols, Howard, Berkman, Delgado, Gonzalez, Helton, Aurilia, Fielder, Jackson, LaRoche, and Thorman. That's 11/16 first basemen and they don't mention Lee, who although isn't hitting for power has a line of .348/.451/.449.

Exactly. One could make the case that he is struggling becuase of sporadic use and PHing. That sporadic use and PHing are a direct cause of Murton's struggles. Put a young player in a position where he has to produce to "save" his job and he's going to get hacking. Considering Murton's history from last year, I'm not so sure that's true. His job was safe until he started hacking too much, and then when he had to fight for playing time he became much more patient. That same history though does give plenty of hope that he will work through this pretty soon, and I'm hoping (without being too upset if he doesn't) that he gets a good amount of the starts soon. I'd prefer if he didn't try to work through his .357 AVG and .400 OBP. He needs to work on the power a little bit, but when he's started I've been very happy with what I've seen.

Murton also got a couple lucky IF hits and weak bloopers to drop. I wouldn't get too excited about his numbers as a starter. Murton is struggling at the plate. That's pretty apparent if you watch him. First pitch hacking and failing to work the count really stand out with a player like Murton, who is a very good 2 strike hitter. IMO, with such a small sample size, it's better to go off what you see with the naked eye than look at a player's stats. However you want to look at it, if a .357 AVG and .400 OBP is Murton struggling, then look out world.