CubColtPacer

Looking through the game logs from this month, that isn't really true. I think it's more that the pitchers decide to attack him outside the zone. From those at-bats, he takes a lot of called balls on pitch number 1, but otherwise it's about a 50/50 ratio of Cedeno either swinging at the first pitch versus taking a called strike.

Gooz gets Howry's spot first. Am I the only one who doesn't trust Guzman to be an effective reliever? Do you trust him less than Howry? I don't think anybody is investing anything into Guzman beyond hoping that he does prove to be an effective reliever over the next few weeks, because that would be a nice way to round out our bullpen and replace Howry. I don't think people necessarily believe he will, but I, for one, believe he can and hope he will... I would rather have someone other than Howry, I'm just wondering if Guzman is the answer to bringing in an effective replacement. Do we not have other pitchers who would fit better than him? The guy's only pitched like 15 innings this year, but I continually see people on here hoping that they give Guzman a spot over anyone else that's available to call up. I'd rather get someone in there who has been pitching effectively all year as opposed to a guy who just started pitching again after being out for a year. My dead grandfather could be more effective than Howry, that's not the point I'm getting at. I'm just wondering if there was another pitcher who would probably be a much wiser decision to call up He's only pitched 15 innings of recorded competition this year. The Cubs held him back quite a while in Mesa because they wanted to get him an extra option year. So he really could have come back earlier, but they had to wait a certain number of days until they began his rehab assignment because they couldn't bring him up until September 1st. And if a reliever had been pitching effectively all year down at AAA, he already would have been up with the major league club. There's been plenty of opportunities, and in fact 3 members of the current bullpen started the year in AAA (Marshall, Cotts, Samardzija). Most of the people left down there are still down there because they have only been pitching ok. That isn't necessarily the case with Guzman.

National League 2nd baseman, SS, and 3rd baseman are up: No Cubs free agents Aramis Ramirez is a solid A (don't have to worry about this for a while) Mark DeRosa is a pretty solid A (he should be very likely to keep that A going into free agency after next year. His 2008 numbers are going to help him along a lot even after the 2007 campaign drops off). Mike Fontenot is the very last person to get a B ranking. Once again, not really a concern, but interesting. Theriot is unranked. My guess is he'll be a B after next season when he'll likely drop off, but still be better than he was in 2007. Again though, still doesn't really matter. So not very much relevant Cub news for free agents, but I'm always curious to see how all the Cubs stack up. Derosa's the biggest key, and it's good to have it confirmed that he would likely be an A when he hits free agency.

You've been struggling to get runners on all game, you have a chance to take the lead, your starter hasn't looked that good and you have 3 guys in the pen who can give you at least 2 shut down innings? And your facing a very good offense, and its highly unlikely that the Phillies are going to be held to 1 run. Plus with Hamels stuff and the IF playing in, the chances of a PH actually getting the run in are minimal. Plus you have to burn your pen with 3 more games against the Phillies this weekend. There is no reason to take out a starter that has only given up 1 run and 80 pitches at that point. Agreed...plus, who is on the bench who you trust to get good contact against Hamels? The PH options are bad against him.

I've seen lineups delayed, but this is I think the first time I've ever seen it be within 25 minutes of gametime and still not be there. There it finally comes: Soriano Theriot Lee Ramirez Soto Johnson Fukudome DeRosa Dempster

Got stuck waiting around for a QB too long. Choices left include: Jason Campbell Jake Delhomme Kurt Warner Jon Kitna Jeff Garcia I need 2 on my roster and have been debating it back and forth for days. Who do you guys suggest?

Excites the few ND delusional fans who actually believe him (less than 15% I'd say) and continually inflames the ND hate from everybody else. The 85% of the remainder of ND fans are caught in the middle left wondering how he slipped down the hill so quickly. He's the worst analyst at ESPN, but he does seem to get a lot of people awfully fired up over his comments (not saying that you're doing that), so that's probably why he has a job. It's sad too-ESPN execs probably knowingly continue to sell him the lie that he's there because he provides quality analysis even though everybody knows that he just continues to embarrass himself.

It just looks like a fluff column to excite White Sox fans. You notice he never really goes into why he thinks the White Sox would be bad for the Cubs (I'm sure the reasons he would give would be bad anyway, but he doesn't even try, which shows how little he probably believes in what he's saying). The only real baseball opinion he gives in the article is that the Cubs are the best team. After that he just sort of rambles, gives vague comments about how the Cubs should be fearful of the White Sox, but is careful never to really go beyond that.

It's a 2-run game. That said, Gaudin didn't pitch last night, right? I was thinking Marquis 1 more but oh well. I'm just worried that Wood and Marmol won't be available tomorrow vs. Philly and Cole Hamels on the mound I'm sure Marmol would be available (if he doesn't come out for the 9th, which would make Wood available tomorrow). Marmol threw 11 pitches yesterday and 16 today. If necessary, he could pitch an inning tomorrow and then be unavailable for Friday.

That one last half inning is considered a caught stealing and breaks Soriano's run of successful stolen bases.

Yes. He should have the first 4 batters. If it gets beyond that, they'd start to consider changing pitchers. The bullpen shouldn't have too much of a problem. If Cotts gets through the 6th, that leaves Gaudin, Marmol, and Wood for the last 3 innings, and then Marshall if it goes beyond that. Or they can ask one pitcher to go longer and give another one the night off.

Derosa out, Fontenot in.

The Cubs offense has looked pretty good the first 3 innings. A lot of deep counts and a lot of hard hit balls. Not everybody, but most of the people have had really good at-bats, and just haven't had a lot to show for it yet. They are driving Snell's pitch count up though. 58 pitches through 3.

:| That doesn't necessarily say that. It says that Canning was part of the original 9, not that he survived the cutdown to 5.

I've been very surprised that they're willing to move on this during the season, but here it is. The Cubs are part of only 3 series that start on Thursday, so it's possible that they could end up being the test case for the system. Note: This only starts Thursday for teams who are starting their series. Teams that are playing on Thursday as the final game of their series won't have replay until they start their next series on Friday. http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3554357

The big issue I see with that rotation is that you could easily have half your rotation down by midseason. You trade Lilly and Marquis, and suddenly you lose 2 of your guys who you trust to make every start. Harden, Marshall, and Hill are all huge question marks in one way or another. They give you the best production when things are going good, but they also have a high chance of being gone for at least 1/4 of the season. That's a major problem in the rotation when you have to start dipping down into your 7th and 8th starters for long stretches of the season. That makes me wary about going with that particular rotation. I'm not that interested in dealing away Lilly, but I wouldn't think twice about depth issues when trying to unload Marquis. If the Cubs could get somebody somewhat similar to Gallagher in a deal for Lilly, that would be a nice way to clear some payroll, but I liked him before they signed him and he's done nothing to make me like him less. Agreed. I don't mind dealing Marquis away, but I'm not particularly interested in dealing Lilly. I would put both their names in discussions over the winter. If you can get something great for Lilly, then trade him and keep Marquis. If you can't, then trade Marquis if you can and keep Lilly. I wouldn't trade both of them though.

The big issue I see with that rotation is that you could easily have half your rotation down by midseason. You trade Lilly and Marquis, and suddenly you lose 2 of your guys who you trust to make every start. Harden, Marshall, and Hill are all huge question marks in one way or another. They give you the best production when things are going good, but they also have a high chance of being gone for at least 1/4 of the season. That's a major problem in the rotation when you have to start dipping down into your 7th and 8th starters for long stretches of the season. That makes me wary about going with that particular rotation.

Fontenot came in the game last inning defensively.

He's been very effective in stealing bases since he came back though. He's really picking his spots well, and that has translated into 7 for 7 in just over a month.

In what is officially his first major league game. I think it also invalidates the fact that his first major league at-bat was a homerun (it's now a groundout).

The NL 1B/OF rankings are up (even though he forgot to change the heading when he copied it, so it says American league). The two Cubs free agents in this category both currently receive no compensation: Jim Edmonds Daryle Ward However, Jim Edmonds is currently just 2 places off of the Cubs potentially receiving compensation (if they dared offer him arbitration). A big month, or some other scenarios (if the pool of players becomes bigger before August 31st, for example) could get him into that B range.

He's also been one of the luckiest players in the majors, crappy LD% notwithstanding. Happy about his isoD though Theriot's BABIP is right in line with his LD%. How has he been lucky?

Unfortunately, it's true. Sometimes you don't want 5 high contract starters on a staff. The fact that the Cubs have 4 of them might influence them to not want another one. Now, I happen to think the Cubs are going to work through that and sign Dempster anyway because of their great relationship, and they'll do their best to trade Marquis to make that not as much of a concern. But the fact that they have 4 starters signed already and a couple of starters waiting in the wings is a very valid reason why they'd be hesitant to sign another one.

Well I understand the "purposeful out" thing... but regardless... not every time does a player go up there TRYING to Sac Fly... Purposeful or not, it's still an out. I think an RBI should be awarded and that's it. That's why it still counts against the players OBP, because he was not necessarily trying to make an out. SacBunts, however, do not count against OBP as in most cases the coaches are taking the PA away from the batter by telling him to make an out. Sac bunts also count against OBP, as they are also a plate appearance. That is not correct. OBP treats sac bunts as if they don't exist.

Never thought I'd hear that sentence about the Cubs, especially after the last few years. He was talking about the Brewers (Gorzelanny threw tonight against Milwaukee) but it sure is nice to see the Cubs mashing against left-handers. But that hasn't been highly unusual though. In the last 6 years, the Cubs have been better against left-handers 3 years (2003, 2005, 2008) and better against right-handers the other 3 years (2004, 2006, 2007). They were the best team in the NL against left-handers in 2005 in OPS, and they are 2nd best this year.