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You can't go a week with one catcher, especially one with no track record and a mangled hand. Good point, but my other option (sending Gathtight down and bringing up Johnson) should work. I'd rather be without Gathright for 10 days (the minimum length of a minor league assignment) that Soto for 15. I'd be fine with that, but doesn't he have to clear waivers? Is he out of options? If so it might need to be Hoffpauir instead. I was thinking in terms of optioning Gathright, but maybe that's not possible. Gathright is out of options.

You can't go a week with one catcher, especially one with no track record and a mangled hand. Good point, but my other option (sending Gathtight down and bringing up Johnson) should work. I'd rather be without Gathright for 10 days (the minimum length of a minor league assignment) that Soto for 15. I'm not sure that you can take someone off the 40 man roster and then add them back again so quickly. Plus, Gathright might refuse to go down to AAA. Also, I doubt the Cubs would want to expose him to other teams and possibly lose him.

I dunno, how often should you expect a random sampling of 750 healthy, in shape 20-40 year olds to die during a 6 month period? 750 healthy, financially well off 20-40 year olds in America, nonetheless. i don't think a person's financial status or arm strength would save them in a car crash. True, but if a ballplayer has the same chance of dying in a car accident as the average American, then a ballplayer will only die in one once every 10 years. Their lifestyle habits would increase their chances of a fatal crash, but their health decreases those chances.

Thanks so much for taking our questions Len. Do the two different networks you're on ask anything different of you for the broadcast? Is it hard on WGN sometimes when you reference something that Bob and you were discussing on CSN the previous day and you know that only part of your audience was able to hear that discussion?

Now that's a depressing way to lose a lead. The Braves were up 10-3 on the Phillies in the 7th and gave up 8 in that inning. The Phillies total for the inning: 4 hits, 5 walks, and 1 HBP. 4 of the 5 walks were with the bases loaded. In fact, they didn't score multiple runs on any one play. 8 straight batters brought in 1 run apiece.

I'm assuming he got the green light and made the decision to go on his own, as opposed to getting the "must steal" sign. This reminds me of something I saw that was rather stupid in game one. Houston had Bourne batting 8th. He gets a lead off single. Oswalt bunts him to 2nd. That's it. Done. I'm sorry, but what is the point of even having that guy in the big leagues at all if he can't steal a base. Wouldn't it have made a lot more sense to have Oswalt bunt him to 3rd after Bourne stole 2nd? This leads me back to Theriot. Let Theriot bat 8th and steal all he wants while batting in front of the pitcher. With the heart of the order coming up, however, unforced errors are rather stupid. I don't know about that. If Theriot gets on base in front of the pitcher and gets bunted over, there's a good chance Soriano drives him in. If he gets caught stealing, Soriano comes up with 2 outs. Soriano is such a heavy fly ball hitter though that getting Theriot to 3rd base with only 1 out gives you a good chance of a run on a sac fly (certainly better than the chance of Soriano getting a base hit). The only big problem is that the defense when the pitcher is up can cheat a little bit which could lessen Theriot's chances to steal past even the lower break-even point that would be needed for that situation.

Nice article Tim. I liked to see Fontenot start as well as you mentioned. Not necessarily because I want to see him against a ton of left-handers if he proves he has problems with them, but because the fact that Lou has started him against both a right-hander and a left-hander shows a lot of faith in Fontenot. So Miles might take the left-hander bats eventually, but Lou likes Fontenot enough to keep him playing most of the time. I'm pretty sure Cotts stayed in during the 10th specifically to turn Berkman around. He murders right-handers and is pretty human against left-handers so it's not really a terrible decision to try to base your moves around trying to keep him down as he was easily the biggest threat left in the Astros lineup. My guess is that even if Cotts had gotten Rodriguez and Berkman to start the inning that Lou would have summoned Gregg anyway to face Michaels.

Theriot is a lot better than Fontenot against left-handers which is why he got the 2 spot and Fontenot was moved down to 8th against one: Theriot career against left-handers: .303/.395/.422 Fontenot career against left-handers: .247/.313/.370 It was a big step for Lou to put Fontenot in the lineup at all against a left-hander. He certainly shouldn't put him any higher than 8th against one (or maybe 7th if Hill is playing).

I would say that's very likely that Miles will also be in. The interesting thing will be the lineup order..we haven't seen anything against lefties. Does Theriot move up to 2? Reed? Or Miles? My guess is: Soriano Theriot Lee Bradley Ramirez Soto Johnson Miles But Miles and Theriot could be switched, Reed could be up to 2, Miles to 7, Theriot to 8..Reed could also be moved ahead of Soto. There's several combinations that Lou could easily come out with tonight.

The Bills took him 2 picks ago.

He was bad for us for half a season and had a bad spring. But he had some success in Oakland. I'm still surprised we couldn't trade him for something. It's not like his salary would make a trade impossible. Hendry was saying during the game on Saturday that he was shocked this spring when getting calls about his relievers how most teams in the league couldn't even take on 1 million dollars in salary. He couldn't believe that they didn't save a little flexibility at the 11th hour to add somebody. I'm pretty sure he was implying about his efforts to try to trade Gaudin and that the contract was just making that almost impossible.

Atkins and Wells are also on the 40 man, plus they could stretch out Heilman if that's the route they wanted to go. Forgot about Atkins and Wells, though Hart and Shark are probably our best choices. I'd think if Heilman is going to be pitching in the back end of the pen, that he'd likely be one of the last possible alternatives. This is what Piniella earlier this week had to say about Atkins:

Gathright's deal would not have been a major financial concern to cut if they felt there was someone better (very similar salary to Bako who did get cut). It sounds like they just really like Gathright as a situational player for this squad. As long as they don't have him get very many starts (and he hopefully shouldn't as it is has been made quite clear that Johnson and Hoffpauir are ahead of him on the depth chart) he could do some good late in games. I'd still rather have a decent backup SS/3B instead of Gathright, but barring that person coming available Gathright is an ok player to have. A luxury that's hard to sustain with only a 25 man roster, but at least they have clear defined areas where he'll do well.

Thanks for the info Bruce. It is always appreciated. Are the Cubs looking to add anybody to their major league roster at this point, or are they happy with Gathright as the final bench spot? Are any potential deals more likely to be minor league ones for depth in case of an injury?

Agreed, but it's also the best we have. Nonconference games could be argued to be even more flawed. There is a limited number of cross conference matchups to look at, and it's so early in the season that athleticism becomes a bigger factor in November or December when teams haven't fully integrated their team game yet. Overall though, there are just way too many variables and way too small of a sample to ever get a true reading of whether a great conference is better than a very good one.

That doesn't make much sense. If they do trade Gaudin to Colorado, I'd like to get an outfielder, Patton's rights, or both out of the deal. That's an interesting option to get Patton's rights out of the deal. I hadn't thought of that. That would give the Cubs a lot more flexibility to change relievers throughout the season as needed. Now that I think about it, I don't think you can do that under the rules, can you? I think he'd have to get through the other teams first before a trade could be worked out, and I don't think the Cubs would risk that.

Not really. A decent percentage of DeRosa's starts against left-handers last year came in the OF. If I counted correctly, there were 25 starts against left-handers where Cedeno started at 2B and DeRosa started in the OF. In those scenarios, it will be Miles taking Cedeno's AB's and either Soriano, Bradley, or Hoffpauir taking DeRosa's AB's. DeRosa had 272 AB's at second base and 47 at third. Fontenot will likely take around 175 of those AB's at second and Miles will take the other 100 of Derosa's along with Cedeno's 110. Miles will likely get between 300-350 at-bats this year, but only 150 or so of them (100 at second and 50 at third) are replacing DeRosa. The other 150-200 are replacing Cedeno. The combination of Hoffpauir, Johnson, and Gathright will probably pick up more of DeRosa's AB's than Miles will. They will be the ones who will be the injury replacements in the OF which was DeRosa's role.

I just didn't see the need to bring up Bob Howry in this. A guy who has 66 saves and about 30 blown saves in his career. It's hard to imagine that guy as your closer. You can't even compare him to Gregg. Gregg's a guy who has about the same amount of saves Howry has and he's only blown half the saves Howry has. That's because Howry has been a setup man a lot longer than Gregg was. If you're a 7th or 8th inning pitcher, you can't get saves (because you never go all the way to the finish) but if you lose the lead you get a blown save. His numbers are skewed quite a bit because of that.

Interesting to see this in the sidebar article: I wonder what the motive for the players is for this. I know many times they try to avoid too much of the statistical side not because they don't like it, but because they don't want any focus on that to affect them on the field. At the same time though, it can be hard to evaluate exactly what your weaknesses are on defense (as far as I know, position players don't look at videos of their defense nearly as much as their batting or opposing pitchers) and so their section could give them a fair objective opinion. Then again, who knows. They often have very different perspectives about things than fans.

In the first, Figgins reached on a wild pitch on a strikeout and then a walk and two groundouts brought him around. Marshall's line so far-2 innings, 1 hit, 1 ER, 1 BB, 5 K Fukudome and Lee had singles in the first, although Kosuke was also picked off of first base. That's hilarious about their supposed knowledge about the NL Central. It always seems to be those AL West announcers who seem absolutely clueless.

Counting Vizcaino makes it 5 players for 3 spots. The OP was counting Vizcaino as a guaranteed spot already. I'd try to trade Gaudin and keep Guzman and Patton. Gaudin's upside is only in his starting, and with the fact that Lou has not warmed to him he probably won't be a serious candidate to get starts anytime soon even if there are injuries. That takes away part of his insurance policy value. At the same time, if they want a long reliever, Gaudin is their only decent option. You certainly don't want to waste Heilman in such a little used role and so Gaudin may be needed for those occasional 3-4 inning outings. I'm not a big fan of keeping a specified long man, but Gaudin has to be kept if they want one.

sadly, no. for some strange and inunderstandable reason, tennessee is considered the reds market. who knew? oh, yeah, try living here in louisville. this is NOT a reds town, despite the bats being the AAA affiliate. i know of more cubs, sox (both), and (explitive deleted) cardinal fans here than reds fans and yet we are stuck with reds broadcasts over the cubs games. and yes that is important. do any one of you want to listen to 9 innings of jeff brantley and thom brennamen female doging about the cubs and/or cubs fans 3 game straight? its bad enough that if i ever wanted to catch the game on radio, bitter old marty brennamen comes out the speakers. thankfully when the games are on wgn, they aren't blacked out here (strangely enough). it's only when the games are on espn or tbs when i really don't have much of a choice. WGN games aren't blacked out anywhere. They pay the "superstation tax" for each game that they show. As MLB has found other ways to get money off of having out of market fans (through MLB EI and MLB.tv), that superstation tax has gone up which is why you no longer see Braves games on TBS and WGN has slowly but steadily cut the number of games that are shown.

Follett would definitely be a change from the Colts defense now. He is supposed to be stiff and not play fast. I think Gerald McRath would be the most likely best LB pick here, but it really depends on how the Colts are looking at their defense at this point. And I agree with you that this is when Polian just starts drafting any position he wants so there is little chance we get this right. With that said, there are multiple LB's that might fit, but I have had my eye on one WR most of the round. The Colts love to grab the same type of WR over and over again and use them interchangeably in their routes. Gonzalez is better as an outside receiver and so the Colts could really use somebody that could step in today as their slot receiver, and they don't need a receiver with a huge upside as Wayne and Gonzalez still have years left in them. So the Colts select Juaquin Iglesias, University of Oklahoma. Andy has been PM'd.

I will like usual wait for Exile to give his advice first. I probably know less about the players down this far than he does, but I think the Colts probably should go either WR or LB in this spot. I see certain prospects in both positions that seem like Colt players. I'm not sure which one will more likely have a good player available with one of the Colts 4th rounders.

Apparently Directv doesn't publish that number: http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/california/ci_11989270 It also sounds like by 2012 there will be some sort of broadband version of ST offered to non-Directv subscribers. I don't even subscribe to ST because it's ridiculously expensive and I'd rather pay for Center Ice and Extra Innings, but I like having the option to do so. Yeah, but it's dirt cheap to go watch the games at the bar, if you don't count the food and drinks. Unfortunately, if you don't live in Bear Country, you're not going to get much luck getting sound with the Bears games. Seriously, between the lack of choice viewing space at any bar around here, and the extra money I'd spend if I went to the bar 16 Sundays a year, paying for Sunday Ticket is a no brainer for me. Do you have DirecTV? I'm perfectly happy with my cable company and have no intention of switching. If NFL is satisfied with limiting their options on Sunday Ticket, I guess I'll have to be satisfied too. Out of curiosity, how much is Sunday Ticket for a household? I know the bars pay based on occupant capacities. It looks like their early bird price this year is $279.99. I know that in previous years they charged an extra $100 if you wanted the games in HD and I would assume they are continuing that.