Jon

I'd like to see Juan improve upon his .243 OBP.

Marshall with his first hit and RBI!

gay Huh?

Keep your fingers crossed that this continues to move south: http://image.weather.com/web/radar/us_pit_closeradar_medium_usen.jpg

I'm attending Saturday's game at Round Rock. Who will be pitching for the Iowa Cubs on Saturday? I'm not Raisin, but Rich Hill follows Guzman in the Iowa rotation.

Getting Wood back on April 30 would be great! Interesting. An April 30th return would mean that he'd pitch just one rehab start. His endurance should be pretty good at that point, but I was still thinking more along the lines of at least two rehab starts.

The only thing that is wrong with Zambrano is what's between his ears. Zambrano gave up more runs than hits. He was a few pitches and one anger management issue away from giving up only 1 run. Can't that be said about any pitcher? Z didn't have great stuff or command. It even took him a while before he actually started getting ground balls. The pitch to Lopez was a meatball and the one to Dunn wasn't much better. They were both poorly located with little to no movement. He fell behind Lopez 3-0, I believe, and even at 3-1, he had to throw a strike. You can't load the bases with Dunn coming up. The error on the pickoff throw wasn't a mental error. Neifi called for it. It was just a bad throw. As for the HBP, Z isn't exactly the only pitcher to overthrow a fastball. And let's not forget that he made a nice play on a sac bunt attempt right before the balk. The outing was not a result of anger issues or mental problems. It was just ineffective pitching that happens to just about every pitcher out there. It really isn't fair to him to blame things that go wrong on his emotion while they're just mistakes for other pitchers. Lapses in concentration and focus are not uncommon, but you also can't tell how much of an effect those kinds of things have in a given AB. Even if the HBP was a result of such a thing, that was still just a HBP. And while he "only" gave up four hits, only one was a single.

Great weather and great seats (3rd row behind homeplate). On the other hand, I felt like collapsing (have a cold) and the game sucked. Glad I made it home before I died, although it was touch and go there on the el.

Yeah, wouldn't want a power-hitting catcher to start with a wind blowing out, Eric Milton on the mound, and your cleanup hitter out.

Dusty better not be starting Blanco if Aramis isn't playing. That would be one pathetic lineup.

For what it's worth, Neifi was going to start at short today if not for Aramis' injury.

A wind blowing out to left-center isn't going to help Milton much. Let's hope he pitches like his first two appearances vs. the Cubs last year and not the next two. And stay away, rain. My seats are too good and my cold won't tolerate a delay.

Cubs win! Let's take the series tomorrow.

Thank you, Kearns.

Not true. Just like Cedeno's throws.

No faith in Ohman eh? I do but he's coming off a bad game and I'd rather have a good frame of mind going after the lefties in case it is a tight game tommorrow. I don't understand why Baker went to him so early instead of letting Williams be the first guy in. Williams? or Williamson? Williams. I thougt Williams would be the long relief guy. He's starting Saturday, so he's probably done with work out of the 'pen for now.

Before the game there was a recording of some questioning of O'Neil, I think, and he said that Ramirez was day to day, and they'd see how he was when they went to Pittsburgh. So he's likely going to sit tomorrow? I'm less than impressed with his offseason conditioning program. That and Mark O'Neal and the rest of the staff that can't make sure their guys stretch properly. It's way too early to make any comments on his conditioning program. If he just misses one game with this, it's no big deal. If he misses two and then none the rest of the year, no big deal. Dusty said he thinks he should be able to go tomorrow, but they're not going to take much of a chance and it really just depends on how he feels tomorrow morning. Jon, I love Aramis, he's my favorite player. It's just that yesterday wasn't cold, and I don't see how you could pull something this early in the season in decent weather swinging a bat. I'm just irritated that either he's not in as good of shape as I hoped he'd be, or the training staff isn't stretching guys out like they need to be. He didn't pull it. It's a minor strain that may not be a big deal. With as hard as he swings, there's going to be some soreness every now and then. But it's still too early to say much about this injury.

And there's a mixup. I'd have to believe it was Lee. Why would you pull a hit and run there?

Before the game there was a recording of some questioning of O'Neil, I think, and he said that Ramirez was day to day, and they'd see how he was when they went to Pittsburgh. So he's likely going to sit tomorrow? I'm less than impressed with his offseason conditioning program. That and Mark O'Neal and the rest of the staff that can't make sure their guys stretch properly. It's way too early to make any comments on his conditioning program. If he just misses one game with this, it's no big deal. If he misses two and then none the rest of the year, no big deal. Dusty said he thinks he should be able to go tomorrow, but they're not going to take much of a chance and it really just depends on how he feels tomorrow morning.

It's still day-to-day. He's probably 50/50 for tomrrow. You and your crazy statistics! 55/55? Nice pick by Lee.

It's still day-to-day. He's probably 50/50 for tomrrow.

I thought Pat said Eyre was warming up. But I'm only listening with one ear right now. Yeah. Williamson was warming up during the top of the 6th.

Brian Mcann How do you figure? I don't really. Maybe in a year or two if Salty doesn't take his job. how many runs did Paul knock in today? Yep but Michael can't catch anyday. Will he always knock in 3? I'm not watching, so I don't know what your gripe is, but will there be a short hop play at the plate every day? Barrett is a good hitter, but how many games has he just killed us? Like with the play at Philadelphia when he threw to third when he could have reached out to tag Rollins. I would trade Barrett for a number of catchers straight up. The best defensive catcher in the league is still going to make bad plays every now and then. I don't think a statistical look at Barrett's defense will show he's that bad. And with the offense the Cubs have, they can't really afford to start sacrificing offense for defense (again).

That's harsh, would you rather have Piazza? 5 years ago Piazza yes, now no. If you're referring to the relay throw, that was a really tough short-hop. I just watched Bako make the same play look easy for the Royals. And it was still a really tough play. If Barrett knew that he had time, he could've made an attempt to just smother it, but that doesn't really happen. Barrett had to stretch out for it to his right and attempt a backhand catch. It's not easy.

That's harsh, would you rather have Piazza? 5 years ago Piazza yes, now no. If you're referring to the relay throw, that was a really tough short-hop.