CubColtPacer

It looks like that if Blanco can get Fukudome home Lou will let Lilly bat and if he can't than Lou will bring a pinch-hitter in.

I think it would be a huge mistake to trade anywhere near that much for a rent a player. That's sacrificing way too much of the future (as early as next year) for an upgrade for three months. I don't think Hendry would be opposed to reaquiring DeRosa at a much smaller price though. He already said in an interview when asked about the possibility of trading for DeRosa that he would always love to have DeRosa on his team and that he wasn't going to rule out any speculation.

Only benefit to that is that Wood can't throw a 2nd inning now..have to get Garko though.

Yeah, only they have 9 hits so far. I was chuckling earlier when Johnson had that ball hit off his glove and it was given a triple thinking that infielders must hate how they are judged to such a harsher standard than outfielders. Even with that thought, I was still shocked when they gave that error to Peralta..that ball was on him before he even knew it was coming.

It wasn't an extra base hit though. Hmm, this is a tough decision. Even though this guy has struggled against left-handers, I probably am forced to pull Fontenot for Hill here. Fontenot has really, really struggled against left-handed pitching.

Well, the positives have in number been bigger than the negatives so far today. Unfortunately, the negative is the single biggest influence on any game (the starting pitcher). The lesser relievers continue to pitch much better than they did early in the season. Heilman especially has been very good since the last few days of May. The offense has looked better today with their swings. 3 hits taken away by the Indians stellar defense today and the fact that both HR happened in solo situations hurt the run total (along with Lee pitching well at times) but the approach and where they hit it was a lot better. Still not nearly enough to overcome a very poor start by Harden, but definitely some encouraging signs today for future games.

A couple quotes from Lou from Bruce's pre-game blog: On Fox: And on Guzman: As I suspected, Angel Guzman is one of the Cubs' "tender" pitchers. Lou says he has some discomfort under his right arm that isn't serious and that he's taking medication for it.

I don't think he's worried about the effectiveness of the fastball. It seems to be that Carlos believes that he has better control of the slider than the fastball. And he might be right on that.

I don't see any way they let Fox play regularly against right-handers at third base. But the Cubs are in much worse shape at those two positions against left-handers (2B and 3B) so maybe Fox can win the job against them. It will be interesting to see who they put at second. It shouldn't be Fontenot. Miles is the logical choice with Blanco batting left-handed all the time, but Lou just replaced Miles in the lineup yesterday (and had Fontenot batting ahead of Miles against the last left-hander), so it will be interesting to see if he goes back to him today. Give me Jake Fox over Miles anyday. Just play Fox and Fontenot vs right handers. Against lefties play Fox and Im pretty sure Blanco has been batting RH recently, am I wrong? Honestly when they play Fox at 3rd I wish they would play Blanco at SS since hes a better fielder than Theriot, and can get to more balls. I know its not happening, but it would be the logical thing to do. Plain and simple, this team needs offense, and anyone who thinks Blanco or Miles will give more offense than Fox is crazy. Right now say to hell with the D, and start scoring runs. EDIT: Nevermind about Blanco batting RH he hasnt. I dont know why I thought he had. Blanco has been batting RH when he bunts, which is probably what caught in your memory. I understand the sentiment of Fox over Miles and somewhat agree with it, but I'm guessing Lou isn't that desperate against right-handers just yet. It's a lot easier to accept one certain black hole position player in the lineup than against left-handers when you have two. As for Blanco vs Theriot, I'm not sure why they feel comfortable moving Kosuke from CF to RF when Bradley is out but they don't feel comfortable moving Theriot from SS to 2B when Blanco plays. Theriot certainly should feel comfortable switching back and forth as he did just that for multiple years in the minors.

I personally think that he always had a violent motion that caused him to have control problems. Remember, this is the same guy who had 3 starts in the majors in 2006 where he walked 8 men in 5 innings, 7 men in 5 1/3 innings, and 7 men in 4 1/3 innings. He found a repeatable pattern in 07 that allowed him to throw enough strikes to dominate. Teams also went up and were aggressive against him and chased some pitches out of the zone. As he has established a reputation for being unhittable now, teams are just waiting him out hoping he'll walk people. And as time has gone on, he has lost that little bit of magically timing the motion that he found suddenly in 07. So he's not able to repeat it very well. When he finds it in an outing, he seems to get locked in and just keeps throwing strikes. But he then loses it before the next time he steps on the mound, and while he might have been able to get away with some outings of lesser control in the past he can't now because teams know that's their only real chance of scoring off of him.

Waddels gone, Im starting to trust Heilman again, and we know what Marmols capable of. As for Patton, that little experiment needs to come to an end. Im sure hed have no problem making it through waivers and if they really want him that bad, a deal could probably be worked out. If not, oh well. Why does it need to come to an end though? It's not like they are desperate for BP arms right now. They are desperate for roster spots for people who can hit the baseball. What happens when Freel is activated. Does Fox get sent down again because they insist on using 12 roster spots for pitchers without using 12 pitchers? I really will be surprised if Freel wears a Chicago Cubs uniform again. I doubt they give up on him until at least Ramirez comes back. Freel also is showing that his legs are in a little better shape at AAA right now (.385/.529/.538 line in 13 AB's and 3 stolen bases already). I believe he'll get hurt again in just a few weeks, but for right now I don't know why they would be rehabbing him in AAA if he wasn't going to come up the majors in a few days.

I don't see any way they let Fox play regularly against right-handers at third base. But the Cubs are in much worse shape at those two positions against left-handers (2B and 3B) so maybe Fox can win the job against them. It will be interesting to see who they put at second. It shouldn't be Fontenot. Miles is the logical choice with Blanco batting left-handed all the time, but Lou just replaced Miles in the lineup yesterday (and had Fontenot batting ahead of Miles against the last left-hander), so it will be interesting to see if he goes back to him today.

Doesn't it get old comparing a deal for Teahen to a deal for Teixiera, ARod, Ruth, Bay, and Beckett? I see outlandish trade proposals that aren't going to happen all the time on this site: trade DLee (NTC), get Adrian Gonzalez, etc. None of us (including the "experts") know what value a GM places on his team's talents or needs especially in this economy. The Harden and Garciaparra deals were both deals that nobody saw happening. The bottom line is that Teahen is a decent role player (not star) with an immediate replacement at 3B (Gordon) and the Royals have a big hole at SS which eliminates them from competing until it's filled. I think the main point is, we could probably get Teahen without getting fancy. Sure, Beimals a good lefty, but with the Cubs finances they way they are, theres no reason to go after too much. We could probably afford the remaining 2 mil or whatever on Teahens contract, and even if we couldnt, the Royals might be inclined to pay it if we were willing to overpay a bit in terms of prospects. Im not talking Vitters or Jackson, but a bit more than the normal market for a guy like Teahen, which would be like Kevin Hart+ 1 or 2 PTBNL or lower level prospects. Why would the Royals want to give up a guy who hits, isn't super expensive, can play 6 positions, and they have under control for a bit longer? Especially for some prospects that aren't very good? Because hes on a 1 year deal and a FA next year, and not a type A. Hes very versatile and has a decent bat, so he could cost more than the Royals want to spend next year, especially for a "super sub" so why not get a few prospects in return for him now. As Tiger said earlier in the thread, Teahen is not a free agent after the year. He still will be in his arbitration years.

/posted on Indians board before this weekend's series Our pen really hasnt been that bad lately. Sure, Marmol blew yesterday, but even in those extra inning games, one of the pens was bound to give up a run eventually, and since our offense had no intention of scoring, our pen got tagged with the L. The pen definitely has been a whole lot better. Adding Ascanio and Marshall has helped. Gregg has been great for most of the past 2 months and Heilman has settled down. Their June numbers: Ascanio: 6 2/3 IP, 1.35 ERA, 1.20 WHIP Gregg: 8 IP, 2.25 ERA, 0.75 WHIP (and no walks) Guzman: 7 2/3 IP, 2.35 ERA, 1.7 WHIP Heilman: 6 1/3 IP, 2.84 ERA, 1.26 WHIP Marshall: 6 IP, 3.00 ERA, 1.33 WHIP Patton: 2 IP, 4.50 ERA, 1.5 WHIP Marmol: 8 IP, 5.63 ERA, 1.63 WHIP If you went back into late May, you would find more evidence of the same transformation. The Cubs bullpen really isn't a bad bullpen anymore with all of the roster shuffling. They aren't as good as they have pitched recently, but they have 4-5 good guys to turn to at any given time. The Cubs even have enough depth at this point to go without Marmol for a little while and still be decent, although obviously Marmol when he's on makes this bullpen quite a bit better.

Colvin hit his 2nd home run of the day in the bottom of the 12th to give Tennessee a 7-6 win in game 1 of their doubleheader.

I would have taken the out with Fontenot there and saved Fox for the 9th. Now you have to put the pitcher in the 6 spot, Miles in the 9 spot. Your defense is better but your offense will have Fukudome, Blanco, Miles up next inning.

For all the questions about Soto's arm this season, he's now thrown out a higher percentage of baserunners this year than last year. It's also really nice to see Bradley hitting a variety of pitches to all fields.

He gave up the winning run in the bottom of the 13th.

Bruce reported in his blog that the early news is that Soriano will lead off today. Blanco will replace Miles at second base. And Fox was taking grounders again, but there didn't seem to be any intimation that he'd get a look at third. http://blogs.dailyherald.com/blog/18

Andrew Clark seems like he's intimating that he wants somewhere between 1st round and 3rd round money (the only thing we know for sure is that he wants more than he could get in the 6th or 7th): http://www.indystar.com/article/20090617/SPORTS0204/90617040/1004/SPORTS/New+Pal+player+holds+off+signing+with+Cubs

Haha, what? Haven't they won a couple in a row? The makings of a hot streak. They aren't great teams but they do get hot and cold like everyone else. They've (the Cardinals) won 1 in a row. They have won 4 out of their last 6, but that followed a 5 game losing streak, and they've alternated winning and losing for the last 5 games. The Brewers have won 2 in a row but lost 6 of their previous 7 before that.

The 2008 Cubs. They are going to make the playoffs everytime. The '06 Cards usually won't. The Cardinals made the playoffs and then won the world series, and you would take the 2008 Cubs, a team that failed to show up for even one inning and went home with the title "division winner"? That's some very strong kool aid there. Here's the question. If the ump calls Dave Roberts out at 2B in game 4 of the ALCS on a close play (which certainly could happen and is something completely out of their control) are the Red Sox a choking team? They would have been swept by their rivals and would have lost in the ALCS two years in a row. How can you say that the best teams always advance when they rely on an umpires call of a bang bang play to not get swept?

Not much chance of the big inning with the 8th hitter up and 1 man out. It makes sense to play the infield in there (and that would have been the case even if it hadn't worked).

Less pressure? He also didn't miss by a ton with many of his pitches in the majors and his pitches had movement on them. Maybe AAA hitters are just having a hard time laying off the somewhat close pitches while many major league hitters do not. And we know Cotts can be effective when he either is throwing strikes or hitters are chasing his pitches. His stuff is certainly good enough.

He's talked about it, but he hasn't done it prior to this year. He's gotten riled up before this year. Not to umpires though (which is where people are clamoring most for him to show passion). The only time he really did was that game in 2007, and he admitted afterward that he planned to blow up beforehand, which is quite a different thing from getting riled up. He's gotten riled up at relievers before this year, but he also has done so this year (Cotts for example). I don't see a big change in Lou from past years to this year.