Jon

Looks like that double raised his SLG % to .670 and OBP to near .400. Sure hope he can keep that going!

Nathan, apparently Rothschild and other members of the Cubs staff listened to you in the clubhouse last night. Any idea how many people listened in?

How long until the Cubs get rid of their weight room and fill it with a bunch of treadmills?

In all seriousness I'm starting to wonder if Neifi's stock is down because his speed is just average and he doesn't steal bases. First I laughed, then I realized it made a lot of sense, then I laughed again. Then I cried. Dusty cited his ability to "run and bunt" as reasons for bringing Ryan up. He thinks the move will light a fire under the other guys.......... ........

Surprise, surprise. Restovich sent down. He was really weighing down the team's average speed.

Fox is 2-4 so far with a HR and 3 RBIs. Berg didn't last long, but Daytona is leading 17-5. Craig hit his second HR of the game, his fourth of the season.

Uh, Jon, I only set it in the future for the fun of it. It is the exact same scenario the Cubs faced on July 31st last season so it is completely relevent. It couldn't be a more relevent hypothetical. The argument is about the future, not the scenario. Well, oddly enough, it is almost the exact same situation (just change a few minor details) the Cubs faced with Wood last season, who was the Cubs best right-handed set-up man at the time just like Howry is now. So for all intents and purposes, it is completely plausible. According to the doctors, Kerry wouldn't be further damaged if allowed to pitch with the rotator fraying. He just would have to deal with the discomfort which would get a lot easier if he is only pitching an inning instead of 6 or 7 innings. So, basically, the Cubs were presented with the exact same choice on July 31st last season that you have called not plausible. You are 4 games back of the wildcard with two months to play. Anything can happen. You are given the choice of sitting your best set up man (last season Wood, this season Howry) or not sitting him and putting your best 25 on the field to try to get into the playoffs. What would you choose? The doctor's word aside, it didn't take into account him messing something else up. When you pitch with discomfort, you change your mechanics. It's dangerous. And how is the scenario plausible? When is the best reliever on a team shut down when there's no injury? There are many considerations that an injury brings. It is absolutely relevant to the decision. Where do you get 12 IPs? Is that the amount of innings your best set up will pitch in two months? Because that is the potential difference Kerry would have made, not 12 innings. I don't know where you got that. Even though they didn't follow through with it, what happened to not pitching Kerry in multiple innings or pitching him on back-to-back days? I'm not sure the doctor considered that. And that's the only way he even got to 12 IP in the month he pitched. Even though they did that, Kerry Wood was not being treated as a normal reliever. He was being treated as an injured pitcher who was going to be used out the bullpen as long as it made sense and only in situations in which he was needed. That was going to limit his innings. The problem was their judgement in keeping him in the bullpen. I thought baseball and the GM's job was about winning games. So the GM's job stops after the last two months? Or are the next season's game less important, even when you're in a better position to compete. They focus on more than one season at a time. No GM makes moves based on one season. No, Jon. That's why I mentioned that they were only 4 games out with two months to play. Come on, let's have an honest discussion, okay? If they were more games back with less time to play, of course it would make a difference. It obviously did make a difference to Cubs management because they chose to shut him down on August 31st. I probably would have done it a week or so earlier, but now we are talking about a 1-2 weeks difference instead of a month. The potential impact of Kerry Wood not being with the team the next season for a period of one to two weeks is rather negligible, don't you think? You mentioned 4 games out because that's where they were. I didn't see you say anything about where they were a week, two weeks, or three weeks later. And I don't see how three starts is negligible. Here, we agree. So if you want to blame Hendry and Baker for having Kerry miss a week or two more this season than was absolutely necessary, I will gladly join you. I didn't mean those of you who have been bashing the move from the beginning, I meant Cubs fans in general. If other things hadn't gone wrong (Rusch and Williams collapsing, Lee injury, Ramirez and Pierre underperforming), the Cubs would be in a much better place right now and Marshall would ostensibly be replacing Wood. Many people would look at this move as a decent gamble to take to give the Cubs their best chance of winning last season and that it has had very little to no impact on the results of the Cubs this season given Marshall's excellent performance. Unfortunately, a lot of other unrelated and unexpected things have gone wrong and so here we are. Marshall would not be pitching for Wood right now. He replaced Williams in the rotation as the #4 started. If Prior was healthy, which they assumed would be the case going into the season, the rotation would have started off as Prior, Maddux, Z, Rusch, and Williams. If Williams pitched himself out of the rotation during ST, which he did, they would have gone with a 4-man rotation and then have Williams join the rotation later. I don't see the Cubs leaving Williams in AAA to start the season and leaving him out of the rotation. That is not Hendry's style. If they did bring up Marshall, it would have been several weeks into the season to replace Williams. And at that point, Hill probably would have been the more attractive option. But the way it worked out with Marshall was just luck on Hendry's part, which isn't a good method for GMs. Nobody expected him to be ready to compete for that position. That can't be used to justify the decision and shouldn't even really be brought up. The potential downside is what...two fewer wins to date this season, maybe? The potential upside was giving the Cubs and their fans their best chance of getting into the playoffs and winning a World Series. Unless you are seeing a different downside, I don't see how you are justifying the above statement. The potential downside is a month or more without one of your best starting pitchers when you're starting tied for first. The potential upside was a making a minimal contribution out of the bullpen to a team on its way down and in competition with 7 other teams for the Wild Card spot. And a week later, they were 8th in that Wild Card race. I doubt I'm the only one who saw a much better chance to get to the World Series this year than on August 1st last year, when the Cubs were doing nothing to stand out from the pack.

According to PeoriaChiefs.com, Johnston has been activated off the 7-day DL and placed Morgan on the 7-day DL with a strained left calf.

A great article about the state of the Cubs...or the greatest article about the state of the Cubs? (sorry T_T) That was great, Bruce. If it was from any other writer, I wouldn't have believed that it was actually printed.

The hypothetical is irrelevent since the argument seems to be about the team's future. It's also not plausible. If Howry had an injury requiring surgery, I'd definitely shut him down. He's got 2 years left on his contract and will be much more valuable to his team during a period of a month next season than he would during the same period this season (just like Wood, only Wood would be significantly more valuable after surgery). In 12 IP, what's the difference between a good ERA and a bad ERA? 3 earned runs? There's a good chance that won't even make a difference between two wins or losses. Baseball is all about the weighing the present and the future. That is what the GM's job is and Hendry made the decision to keep Wood in there. He obviously considered the future when he made that decision, but grossly misunderstood the downside to the decision. There is absolutely no way the future can be ignored. Would you say that it doesn't matter how far out of the Wild Card the team is? Would you also say that a slightly more productive veteran with absolutely no future with the team should be playing over a high-ceiling rookie in that scenario who, if played, will result in three fewer runs over that stretch? At some point, the only way to ignore the future would be to take Dusty's approach and cite a responsibility to the game to field the best team despite being out of it. It's also worth pointing out that half-way through August, the Cubs were 5 games under .500. Houston was 10 games over. And yet they continued to keep Wood in the bullpen for 2 more weeks. As for your post before about Hendry receiving praise about the decision if the Cubs were winning right now, I don't think you could be further from the truth. The same people who have been bashing the move, of which I am one, have been doing so consistently since it was made. That includes before the season started, before Prior was shut down, and before Hendry completed his offseason. In context, it was a terrible decision. In isolation, it still was a terrible decision. The potential downside to keeping Wood pitching out of the bullpen was significantly greater than the potential benefit. It showed absolutely no vision of the team's future, which, not coincidentally, has been a problem for this organization.

Great job as always tonight, Nathan. Sounded like a great atmosphere, a great game, and great fun in the booth. Nathan will try to get some of the Kerry Wood press conference on the pregame show tomorrow.

Norwood with a 2-run, walkoff bomb! What a game for Ryan.

A few notes from the press conference thanks to Nathan: -Felt fine -Happy with results -Hopes to make a start in Iowa in 5 days and then be ready to go in Chicago His final line again: 5 IP, 0 R, 1 H, 1 BB, 12 K, 1 HBP on 70 pitches (51 strikes). He topped out at 97 mph.

Wood will still get a second rehab start in order to get his pitch count up. He'll probably also be able to get in a little more work with runners on, which he didn't get tonight. Sounds like we'll get to hear about the press conference from Nathan before Banedon gets back.

That was pretty ridiculous.

And he just keeps rolling. That's about what, 45-50 pitches?

Aside from his 29 Ks to 6 walks, Norwood is off to a pretty nice start this season: .333/.370 (about)/.505 in 111 ABs.

That's a good sign. Hopefully he can boost his power numbers. He only had 4 doubles and 2 HRs coming into today, keeping his OPS below .900.

Daytona is putting it away in the top of the 9th: And they win 11-5. Weston was a double shy of the cycle. Salas through 69 ABs: .362/.405/.464

#8 for Fox! Fuld has 2 RBIs. Daytona up 4-1.

Did that cause his atrocious 2005, too, Jim?

EPatt's line after his 3 for 5 day: .261/.307/.395/.702

There's no reason to bring up his religion, especially in the context of an insult.

One run on three hard hit balls and a walk isn't too bad.

That almost never gets called a strike.