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It's going to be a long night for Daytona. It's already 4-0 in the bottom of the first. I didn't see it mentioned yesterday, but apparently Searle only threw 58 pitches in his 6 innings. I guess they really were pounding that sinker early in counts.

Vizcaino is gone. They still have confidence that Cotts will turn it around but he's on a "short leash". Samardzija will be one of the top four relievers along with Gregg, Marmol, and Heilman. http://blogs.chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sports_hardball/cubs-reds/

McDaniel leaves the game after warming up in the first inning. Sounds like a back problem. Muyco is quickly warming up to replace him.

If they didn't want to release Vizcaino at the end of spring training -- and decided to cut Gaudin instead -- what possibly could justify changing course on that decision at this point? I'm guessing they found a trade partner willing to take a small, small portion of Vizcaino's salary. The only thing I'm questioning is that if it's a trade, why wouldn't it be announced before the ballgame? The Cubs certainly aren't going to be able to use the traded player in tonight's ballgame. I guess it would be all for the benefit of the other team who would be optioning a player to make room. I don't like this move even if it were to replace Cotts. I'd be fine with it if it were any of the other relieving options in AAA replacing Cotts, but Samardzija needed the time down there. And none of the other major league relievers needed to be traded or released yet. My guess is the big reason to make this move is to have one spot in the bullpen that can be optioned up or down, and that they are going to trade a reliever now before the interest dies down.

They even booed Harden when Bruce got the single to drive in the second run. Are you certain they were not shouting "Bruce!"? This sort of confusion pops up at Springsteen shows all the time. And yeah, Glendon Rusch sucked terribly. I don't particularly care that he was "understood" to suck. When you are as awful a pitcher as Rusch is/was, part of your job is absorbing boos. I can sort of understand the booing of Rusch. His first 180 innings were pretty good, and his last 150 innings were absolutely awful for the team. At the same time, he was an excellent guy in interviews, he was really loved on the 2004 team, and he left the team because of a serious illness which usually draws some sympathy. And I would tend to agree that part of the problem is the 2004-2006 years. People had sky high expectations for the team and so anybody who was on the team for only those years is going to be maligned for being part of the problem of why the expectations of the team weren't met, even if they weren't a huge part of the problem.

So now IU will have played UNC twice, Duke twice, Wake twice, Maryland twice, and Georgia Tech once during this challenge. You think they would want to mix it up a little more.

Do they? How many times has he been used as such? I haven't really noticed it happening but perhaps I've missed it. I guess it hasn't happened as much since then, but he was used as such in 3 of the first 4 games. Lou has said they aren't going to remove Fukudome anymore like they did the first week. Gathright was assumed to be a replacement for Bradley in the late innings, but it doesn't look like they are going to do that. And lately they've been letting Reed replace Hoffpauir instead of Gathright. Gathright could possibly have a role on this team, but it would require the Cubs changing some of their decisions about how they want to use other players. If they stay the same way that they have been this past week, he really has no role.

Some quick notables from early action: Vitters 1-1 Flaherty 0-0 BB Carpenter 2 IP 0 H 0 ER 0 BB 4 K and from Tennessee: Thomas 1-2 2 BB

Well, Heilman has been very good, but I really doubt the Cubs will trade him since they really like him. I'm sure other teams would want Gregg, but wouldn't want to pay the price the Cubs would demand, nor would the Cubs be interested in trading him. Cotts probably can't be traded at this point at any price for self explanatory reasons, although if it was later in the season it wouldn't be unbelievably shocking to see another team take him on for cash. Vizcaino has been very good so far. If the Cubs were willing to eat part of his contract, somebody might be interested now that they see that he's pitching a little bit better. The Cubs might be willing to do that as he clearly is not part of their plans in the bullpen this year. That's still very unlikely at this point though. Probably the two most likely to be traded then are Guzman and Patton, who have both struggled with their control in the early going but have shown flashes of what they can do. The Cubs might not want to give them the innings they need (especially since Guzman has clearly lost the 7th inning battle to Heilman), but another team might. The Cubs also have a few arms at AAA that another team might want for their major league bullpen.

Marquez Smith with another home run tonight. Some quick minor league notes from the most recent Cubs.com article: On Colvin (who btw is 2 for 3 so far tonight with a walk and has his average up to .300 at the moment): And on Mateo:

Heck I bet Cuban would give a billion to get the team from Ricketts. He reportedly bid more than that IIRC so he would actually be getting the team for less. Cuban was planning on getting loans for most of the money the same way that Ricketts is. The reason that Cuban pulled out in the first place was that he didn't have enough cash to buy the team and he got worried about being able to refinance the loans he would need to take out.

I was wondering that myself. His fielding deficiencies may be exaggerated at times on here, but I don't see him being all that good in the field. It makes me seriously doubt the defensive metrics all the more. I always thought he was about average defensively for a LF. It's not saying much, cause it's LF, but when compared to his peers, Murton's range and arm weren't so bad. Agreed. I thought Murton was about average in LF and would have been below average in right if he had stayed there (he was a disaster in 2007, but that was partly because he was learning the position). I think they're overrating his range. That's the figure that is putting him so far into the positive. They even had him saving 1.5 runs with his range in just 282 innings in RF in 2007. I really don't think he's a guy who is that much above average range wise in RF to where he is saving a run every 190 innings. His range numbers are even more questionable in LF where his range numbers are very high for a part-time player. The other components seem to be fine..it's just that one component that appears to be throwing things off.

Since there is almost the same people available as last time for the Colts (although Heyward-Bay is intriguing, he would be a departure from other Colts receivers) and the Colts needs certainly haven't changed with free agency, I don't think Exile will be upset if I go ahead and select the same person: Knowshon Moreno, RB, Georgia.

Could he really be worse defensively than Daryl Ward? Bring him up. No, he's not. But the reason that Hoffpauir got stuck in the minor leagues last year for most of the year was because Ward was on the roster. The same will likely be true this year with Fox because Hoffpauir is blocking him.

Probably since it became his real name. Actually, it's been since before it became his real name. Some people would call him that but it wasn't very often (at least on national things, I'm sure in some areas local programs ran with the joke constantly). In the couple of months after he changed his name, there were many radio and TV people that were still saying Chad Johnson and then had to correct themselves on air to say Chad Ochocinco.

Probably since it became his real name.

Tony Thomas with his third home run of the season. The Cubs decided to promote him anyway even with his rather poor season in Daytona last year. It's quite a start so far for him this year. Just as a comparison with the home runs, he had seven total last year. His K/BB ratio is still a problem for him though. He's going to have a hard time if he continues to strike out more than 25 percent of the time and doesn't improve that walk rate to compensate.

Just a couple quick thoughts about this article here: http://www.northsidebaseball.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1537:week-2-recap&catid=60:jamie-bradley&Itemid=117 I thought this line was a little bit disingenuous: Yes, the bullpen did give up the 1 run lead in that game. But they also only gave up 1 run in 5 innings, and it seemed wrong to imply that game as an example of where they pitched poorly. And this one: Bradley pinch-hit on Saturday and grounded out. Ramirez was fine as a pick as the hitter of the week, although Lee and Kosuke had great weeks as well, and Ramirez only played 3 out of the 5 games this week while the other two played all 5.

3 for 4 day so far for Colvin including his 1st home run of the season. Marquez Smith with another two hits. He still isn't progressing quite fast enough for a college player but it's nice to see him doing much better at Daytona than last year.

Otherwise they jeopardize their chance at the pennant? Well they do have another decent prospect at 25 years of age who is going to be stuck at AAA as long as Pie is getting the majority of at-bats at the major league level: http://www.thebaseballcube.com/players/R/nolan-reimold.shtml If he keeps hitting while Pie keeps struggling, it's going to be hard not to make the switch in a few weeks. I never really understood what the Orioles were trying to do with Pie anyway. His bat is unlikely to be good enough to be a very good option at LF. The only way they'd get a decent amount of value out of him would be to develop his bat in LF this year and then trade him to another team who needs a CF once he shows he can hit, but that's a very risky plan to undertake.

Yeah, Pie has been pretty awful both at the plate and in the field. He of course is both trying to learn a new position and adjust to a new league, but they are already clamoring for his head in Baltimore, and I don't see a happy ending coming for him. As for the Baltimore bullpen, overall that is one of the worst pitching staffs I have ever seen. Their 3, 4, and 5 spots are awful. Their bullpen has a couple decent guys and then a lot of question marks or downright bad guys. They're actually using 13 pitchers right now to stem the tide and prevent overuse but they still cannot find anybody to be effective for them.

He had one decent start against the Cubs in 07, but overall no. He has an ERA over 7 against the team since he's been in the league. However, the Cubs on the team now haven't had much success against him. They haven't faced him all that much, but they're a combined 6 for 29 against him with a combined .644 OPS. The only extra base hit against him by a member of the current Cubs was an Aaron Miles home run. He had a pretty good start last year against Marquis... (5 innings, 1 ER) Gm# Date Opponent Score Starter Opp Starter 100 Tue 07/22 @ Arizona N 2- 9 Marquis Owings .... and in 2007 he went 4 IP & 2 ER then 6 IP & 3 ER in his 2 starts........ Gm# Date Opponent Score Starter Opp Starter .96 Sat 07/21 Arizona 2- 3 Hill Owings 127 Fri 08/24 @ Arizona N 6- 2 Marshall Owings ETA: Never mind.... that was Petit in '08, not Owings. Where is Cubs.com getting their info? http://chicago.cubs.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20090418&content_id=4327844&vkey=news_chc&fext=.jsp&c_id=chc Their mistake is that was his numbers against the Cubs in 08, not for his career. He came out of the bullpen twice last year against the Cubs and posted that line in his two appearances. But he also did make the two starts that Fred referenced back in 07.

He had one decent start against the Cubs in 07, but overall no. He has an ERA over 7 against the team since he's been in the league. However, the Cubs on the team now haven't had much success against him. They haven't faced him all that much, but they're a combined 6 for 29 against him with a combined .644 OPS. The only extra base hit against him by a member of the current Cubs was an Aaron Miles home run. He had a pretty good start last year against Marquis... (5 innings, 1 ER) Gm# Date Opponent Score Starter Opp Starter 100 Tue 07/22 @ Arizona N 2- 9 Marquis Owings .... and in 2007 he went 4 IP & 2 ER then 6 IP & 3 ER in his 2 starts........ Gm# Date Opponent Score Starter Opp Starter .96 Sat 07/21 Arizona 2- 3 Hill Owings 127 Fri 08/24 @ Arizona N 6- 2 Marshall Owings I think your computer might have a mistake there Fred. Owings didn't start against the Cubs on July 22nd last year. In fact, he came out of the bullpen against the Cubs on July 21st and again on July 23rd. According to the box score, the starter of the July 22nd game was Yusmeiro Petit. Petit did go 5 innings giving up 1 run in a 9-2 Arizona victory. http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/boxscore?gameId=280722129

He had one decent start against the Cubs in 07, but overall no. He has an ERA over 7 against the team since he's been in the league. However, the Cubs on the team now haven't had much success against him. They haven't faced him all that much, but they're a combined 6 for 29 against him with a combined .644 OPS. The only extra base hit against him by a member of the current Cubs was an Aaron Miles home run.

Bradley's appealing on principle, but I wish the Cubs would tell him he's hurting the team by appealing. He isn't in the lineup today according to the article, and if he just got suspended he could be back in the lineup after the off day on Monday. He could probably use the two extra days to make sure he's healthy anyway and so there's no reason to delay a possible suspension until later in the season when he is both more healthy and hitting well.