Jon

Impressive. And the game just got a lot more interesting.

I forgot to TiVo the game today. I hope ESPN replays it. Looks like they'll replay it at 11:30 central tonight on ESPN2.

We'll see about the radar. Things are moving quickly right now and it doesn't look all that bad for later tonight. If they get the game in uninterrupted, it'll be interesting to see how Dusty handles the bullpen with Wood going tomorrow. That's probably one of the main reasons why Dusty left Z in there yesterday.

Ooh, good thing I decided to delay my shower by a few minutes.

Interesting. Is Luis going to play in Iowa? Greenberg barely even saw the field there.

You should work for Hendry's excuse making department.

He could probably be more productive than Bynum, but aside from ST, Pagan has never really had much of a bat at all.

60% chance of rain tonight with possible thunderstorms.

I don't see how he'd be back by Memorial Day. He's looking at the first or second week in June if things go well, most likely. Here's more on his simulated game: If I were to guess, I'd say that he'll have one more start (whether in Mesa or in rehab) than Wood did. And his rehab assignment would likely start on Memorial Day or later.

So Dave Otto didn't impress?

The Nationals have done very well against lefties this season with an .828 OPS, good for 5th in the NL. Hopefully Marshall will be on his game tomorrow night.

Z needs to start picking up that 2-out pitch count efficiency.

The pitcher with an OPS against of 1.389 in the first inning this season gets through it on 5 pitches.

Because Soriano bats leadoff. Thats were he bats, DONT CHALLENGE IT. WHY ARE YOU CHALLENGING IT?! His 6 SB against the 3 CS are really lighting it up, as well.

Anyone else care to guess before I reveal the answer? Pretty sure it's Ronny considering his recent struggles. Maybe that's what finally made Dusty (not the poor OBP, of course) move him down. You'd be correct. Cedeno tops the charts with 24 strikeouts for #80 in the Majors. Which is HALF of Wilkerson's 50!!! :shock: Yeesh. He's only on pace for about 225. Of course, Wilkerson still has an .800 OPS.

Is there a rational reason that Soriano (much better SLG) is hitting in front of Vidro (much better OBP)?

The Dusty interview is usually taped a couple of hours or so beforehand.

Anyone else care to guess before I reveal the answer? Pretty sure it's Ronny considering his recent struggles. Maybe that's what finally made Dusty (not the poor OBP, of course) move him down.

There's no reason to give up all hope, but the team will need just about everything to start going right in June and they can't continue to tank this month. If Wood, Prior, Miller, Zambrano, Lee, and Ramirez can produce like they could reasonably be expected to, the team will be vastly different. The odds of that happening, although not great, may not be as low as most might think. Will they be good enough to make up this ground? Perhaps not, but we're not even a quarter of the way through the season. The Cubs and Astros comparisson is also not a great one because the Astros were in a worse position. Hendry really dropped the ball, but the team isn't this bad. Remember, even Pierre won't continue to suck at this rate.

And only slightly less humorous. I like him letting Murton bat 2nd right now. That is, until he starts making him lay down bunts. Thanks, Bruce.

Well, it's the same site whose previous polls have declared Paul Sullivan a good beat writer.

Hey, no unearned runs for Walrond today!

I still don't really see him as much of an option at this point. We need a bat that can platoon with Jones. And I'm not even sure that Shealy would be the first right-handed bat off the bench. If Dusty can't double-switch him into the field, is he going to be able to have that much of an impact?

if jwilliams came through, like many of us expected, rusch & guzman wouldn't have been starting much. I don't think it would have affected Rusch much. Marshall took Williams' spot in the rotation and if Jerome was pitching well, it would have meant no Marshall. If they had then decided to pull Rusch from the rotation later, I'm not sure that they wouldn't have chosen Guzman. Marshall darn near made the rotation out of ST if I'm not mistaken. And why would they have gone to Guzman 1stto replace Rusch when they went to Marshall 1st to replace Williams. I'm not quite making the connection with your logic. Bottom line for me is, if Williams was pitching better, we'd have 4 solid guys in the rotation now instead of 3. Marshall was named the #4 starter over Williams, leaving Jerome temporarily out of the rotation. He wasn't that far ahead of Guzman, though. Best case scenario for Sean would be taking the #5 spot a couple of weeks into the season. Of course, at that point, Guzman's brief time at Iowa may very well have propelled him into the rotation. In his first start, the only start he had time for before he theoretically could have been inserted into the rotation on April 15, he went 5 innings giving up 2 hits, 1 walk, and no runs while striking out 6. And there's no telling what Marshall would have done in the minors during those two weeks. If he struggled in a start, that would probably have cost him the spot. Or, when Rusch is pulled from the rotation at the very end of April/beginning of May, one of those two probably would probably have been inserted into the rotation then. But whatever Williams did wasn't going to effect Rusch's suckitude. He was getting that shot regardless.

What's age have to do with anything? He's been the Cubs No. 2 behind Z since he got here. 40 is quite old for a Major League pitcher and his numbers haven't exact been overly impressive since he got here. Especially if Hendry was thinking of something for more than one year, he'd essentially be spending millions of dollars on production that could most likely be replaced by younger pitchers in the system.