Jon

That's an excellent point. At least now he won't have to worry as much about the runners and can just pitch. If Barrett were catching the runners would be moving all night long. A .231 CS% isn't that bad considering he caught 5 of Maddux's 6 starts and all 5 of Marshall's starts.

And it just gets worse. Horrible quarter.

Well I couldn't have thought of a worse way for this game to start. The shooting has picked up right where it left off.

Someone else spending that much time in the bathroom usually doesn't do much for me. :-s :?: Just a bad joke about his food poisoning. As bad as his abuse has been, it's too early to really tell what effect it may be having. He hasn't had any consistent problems and there have been other factors that contributed to his delays and time on the DL. It certainly is scary, though, and really speaks volumes about the organization.

I don't think it's necessarily nerves. He just hasn't regained his control yet, which wasn't that much better in Iowa. He may not have walked as many batters, but it resulted in a lot of deep counts and long ABs. Of course, he was having the same problem in the AFL. Guzman with the Cubs: 87 pitches, 52 strikes 104 pitches (yeow), 70 strikes total: 191 - 122 strikes, 69 balls Guzman at AAA: 85 pitches, 54 strikes 103 pitches (yeow again), 63 strikes 95 pitches, 56 strikes total: 283 - 173 strikes, 110 balls And here are Hill's numbers, just for the heck of it: Hill at AAA: 79 pitches, 54 strikes 91 pitches, 60 strikes 98 pitches, 61 strikes 98 pitches, 63 strikes total: 366 - 238 strikes, 128 balls

Someone else spending that much time in the bathroom usually doesn't do much for me.

MLB Radio has an interview up with Micah. The link is on Cubs.com. No chips are to be found in the clubhouse. :( Good interview, though.

Still tied for first place (14-6, 17-25 overall, tied for the second worst winning percentage in the Big Ten), still haven't won a non-conference game since late February. Unbelievable.

Oh, and the Cubs are dead last in the majors with a .552 OPS against left handed pitchers. Thankfully, we shouldn't be facing one for a while.

Arizona has a team .819 OPS against lefties (.749 against righties). But I think Hill will be fine if he has the same control he had in Iowa.

It's the timing that did him in. The nasty case of bronchitis left Prior out out of shape going into ST and the shoulder strain caused him to be shut down for about 12 days. He was probably pretty close to a Cactus League game since he was coming off a batting practice session, but it really set him back. Wood, on the other hand, hasn't had those kinds of setbacks. The knee surgery proved to be a relatively minor bump in the road and even him not throwing for a week recently didn't do that much since his arm strength was coming along. Yes, yes it is. I can't count on one hand how many trainers we've had. Remember when Corey got hurt and they just left him in the game anyway? Meh, who cares right? I was more referring to the lying. Certain instances have certainly be questionable and perhaps incompetency has played a role at certain points (see the past two trainer controversies). And apparently someone needs to screen all of Prior's food from now on. But hopefully he can get over it quickly. He'd still probably have to throw a BP session before facing rookies a couple of times, though.

I'm defending their handling of injuries? It's the constant accusation that they're just lying is what I don't get. The perception is just wrong for the most part. There's an unrealistic expectation in the media that injuries are an exact science. It isn't. If the Cubs set a timeline and it isn't met, then they're accused of lying. This year, they're going out of their way not to set timelines and now they're being accused of holding back information. But there's usually an update on Wood, Prior, and Miller at least twice a week on Cubs.com. The WGN Radio pregame show probably has two or three a week, as well, and the rest of the media prints them at the bottom of at least two articles a week in the notes section if there isn't a full article on one of them. The Cubs aren't really any different in this regard than any other organization other than the high-profile injuries have been more frequent. Are you going to contest any of my claims that Prior's injuries haven't been mysteries? Or that the detailed reports on Prior's bronchitis and shoulder tests have been adequate? Or about his rehab? Wood's knee surgery and rehab? They should be blasted for past mistakes, especially for pitching Wood out of the bullpen last season, and calling what they're doing wrong "lying" is a distraction from the real issue. Being wrong in the past about injuries is not the same thing as lying. And if you point out the Carroll article about the shoulder soreness from February, I'll just have to point out the other stuff he said that certainly take away from his report. It's really easy to blast the Cubs on pitching injuries, but it's often not deserved.

11 team LOB.

How vague. I'll ask again, what's wrong then, and what is their "diagnosis?" If there's something new, it has yet to be reported in print. Articles published today have said that the Cubs expected Prior to pitch for them in Arizona. If there was something since then, it would be pretty unrealistic to expect to hear about it by now. Or are you referring to the shoulder strain?

Other than the diagnosis they gave? The updates on him have been pretty regular and he shouldn't be more than two weeks behind Wood, if that. I don't buy it. I'm sorry, Jon, but giving updates on a non-injury related delayed rehab isn't going to get me to cut Prior any slack. 3 years now he's been delayed out of the gate, and all 3 times for mystery issues. What mysteries? The 2004 elbow/achilles thing, the 2005 whatever it was (i still can't remember) and the 2006 flu he got in January that set him back 5 months somehow. When does a pattern become a pattern? It's insane. Like I said, at least with Kerry he goes out and pitches unless he needs to be operated on. This spring, they talked about his bronchitis (not the flu) and disclosed the MRI results on his shoulder. And I'm not really sure what's mysterious about the others, either. They're injuries, they were talked about, and took time to heal.

Only 6 LOB so far through 4.

Wow. Please do something good, Pierre. And start by taking a pitch.

Other than the diagnosis they gave? The updates on him have been pretty regular and he shouldn't be more than two weeks behind Wood, if that. I don't buy it. I'm sorry, Jon, but giving updates on a non-injury related delayed rehab isn't going to get me to cut Prior any slack. 3 years now he's been delayed out of the gate, and all 3 times for mystery issues. What mysteries? And if it was talked about today, nothing would be written up until tonight.

Other than the diagnosis they gave? The updates on him have been pretty regular and he shouldn't be more than two weeks behind Wood, if that. Even if there was something today (he's joining the team tomorrow), it's not necessarily anything different or serious. Plus, you're not going to get quick updates from the Cubs on that until they talk.

Sounds like he's just getting tattooed tonight.

Heck of an AB by Cedeno after going down 1-2 early.

Back-to-back games in which Neifi has taken the first two pitches in an AB. Oh boy. Anytime you want to stop doing that, Jones, that would be great.

The roof is open tonight. 91 degrees right now with a 12 mph wind coming in from center, according to Gameday.

I don't know anything about Merricks, but I believe he had an ERA over 4.50 coming into tonight and yet dominated Daytona. 5.2 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 10 Ks. Something similar can be said for Berg, though. Vazquez gives up an ER in relief on 3 hits. 2-0 Vero Beach.

He also won a World Series with a bad offense, but that doesn't mean it was the right offense to have. And throwing too many pitches usually won't take a toll on previously healthy pitchers in one or two seasons. The risk is for future health. Angel was brought up out of a perceived necessity. His pitching wasn't 100% yet and they knew that. They also knew just how much time he's spent rehabbing over the past three years. You have to adjust standards based on who the pitcher is. Of course, with Angel, you're worried about his immediate health. It's the same reasoning why (hopefully) Wood's pitch count will be limited at least for a few starts when he gets back. You're not going to leave him out of the rotation until he's actually 100% in terms of pitching. Hmmmmm......it doesn't? Object is to win the World Series, isn't it? Who cares if you have a world-beater offense if you can get that done? Maybe I'm missing something here.... The goal is to put together the best team possible, not just rely on great pitching performances. For every 2005 White Sox team, there are quite a few more 2005 Cubs teams. Having a bad offense doesn't exactly give you much insurance if the pitching doesn't work out just as you hoped. Understood. But I wouldn't characterize the Sox's offense last year as "bad." It was adequate. Some good timely hitting, if not copious hitting. I agree you always try to put together the best team possible. You surely must agree that hope for a less-than-perfect team is a good thing----especially being a Cub fan :) Well, they were in the bottom half of the AL and trailed the Cubs in all categories aside from HRs (slim lead), triples (tied), and runs scored. I'd imagine they hit more multi-run HRs and had some better luck than the Cubs, who certainly had some bad luck on offense, but they certainly weren't good. Maybe bad is overstating it, but I'd definitely put them in the below-average/bad category. Hoping for good pitching is certainly a must for this team, especially when I think Hendry had the ability to improve the offense at certain spots and didn't, but it hasn't exactly worked out in terms of health so far. It'd be nice to have a better offense to fall back on right now.