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Yeah. He'll likely be going up against St. Clair. Which of course means whoever wins the QB battle has earned the right to be carted off the field in an ambulance on opening day. "Congtratulations, you won the starting job! We will pray for you and your family." LOL. I wouldn't be so concerned about Freeney. I'm not sure he'll be quite ready for game action by then. I believe he'll play, but I don't have high expectations for him in week 1 or 2. His best use for the Colts right now is to just step on the field. If he does that, then the Bears will probably doubleteam him, which should leave the incredibly productive Mathis 1 on 1. I didn't know Freeney was hurting, but he could probably beat St. Clair at far less than 100%. Freeney is still recovering from the foot surgery that took him out for the last half of the season/playoffs last year. There really hasn't been a clear indication of how he's progressing yet, but that's true for about half the Colts stars right now. Colts fans are trying to wait patiently because this is simply the way the team operates, but it's hard not knowing if names like Manning, Harrison, Freeney, Sanders are going to play week 1. They are all "supposed to", but people like Harrison and Sanders have not come back when they were supposed to before. So let's just say I wouldn't be shocked if one of those names doesn't end up taking the field for the Colts Week 1. I'm not sure who it will be, other then I assume that Manning will find a way to be there.

The only issue I have is the timing issue. If I could be promised to swap them, I'd almost certainly do it and pick up the extra prospects. However, if one side falls through, I either have 2 expensive first baseman, or a big hole at first base. It's a massive risk that I'm not sure can be mitigated enough to be worth the benefit.

Yeah. He'll likely be going up against St. Clair. Which of course means whoever wins the QB battle has earned the right to be carted off the field in an ambulance on opening day. "Congtratulations, you won the starting job! We will pray for you and your family." LOL. I wouldn't be so concerned about Freeney. I'm not sure he'll be quite ready for game action by then. I believe he'll play, but I don't have high expectations for him in week 1 or 2. His best use for the Colts right now is to just step on the field. If he does that, then the Bears will probably doubleteam him, which should leave the incredibly productive Mathis 1 on 1.

Actually the Cubs couldn't offer him arbitration in that case since they'd no longer hold his rights. But the effect is the same; it would be assumed that the Cubs would have offered him arbitration.[/nitpick] Interesting. It's always said that the team then goes ahead and "offers" him arbitration, so I always thought they had to go through the formal paperwork anyway, even though it would be an automatic decline. Thanks for the clarification on that.

I'm not sure if he was actually playing defense at the time of his removal, but he did start in center field today. Gameday said he was replaced for a pinch-hitter, so he must have either developed the cramping in the dugout or he managed to finish the inning with it. He did have one ball come to him the previous half inning that resulted in a triple.

Misread your post..thought you were talking about why they moved him from CF in the past, not now. Speaking of Griffey, he is day to day after leaving the game due to cramping in his leg.

When is the last time we had an outfielder, not named Sosa, put up an OPS as high as the reject that is Ludwick? Hack Wilson? He isn't quite up to Ludwick's numbers, but here is the Cubs version: Jerry Mumphrey. He never had higher than an .813 OPS in any season over a long major league career, and then suddenly busted out to the tune of a .934 OPS. http://www.baseball-reference.com/m/mumphje01.shtml The only other OF I saw match Ludwick's numbers (besides Sosa) from 1987-present was Glenallen Hill over the final 2 months in 1998. Leon Durham put up a 151 OPS+ (Ludwick's is 155) for the Cubs in 1982. To find a person who actually beat Ludwick in straight OPS, you'd have to go back to Billy Williams and 1972. He had a 1.004 OPS and a 172 OPS+.

First off, the Brewers series was all of a day and a half ago. Second, they drew 7 walks yesterday. Their approach today certainly isn't what I would call horrible, and has gotten good results. I don't see where the problem is in their approach. They didn't hit the ball well yesterday, but that's a completely different argument.

I would call it more of frequent days off rather than a platoon. Lou thought that Fukudome was wearing down a little bit. Fukudome is still starting against about half the left-handers.

Yesterday.

I can't get quite to that stat, but: the Cubs are 10th out of 16 against the 9 spot in BA. 7th out of 16 in OBP, and 11th out of 16 in OPS. That of course includes pinch-hitters, but gives you a pretty good idea of how the Cubs are in facing pitchers this year.

This is one of the only pitchers who I will say this about. I like the all-RH lineup against Maholm though. He has massive splits: 2006 left-handers-.646 OPS right-handers-.870 OPS 2007 left-handers-.623 OPS right-handers-.820 OPS 2008 left-handers-.496 OPS right-handers-.755 OPS Even though normally I wouldn't be happy about Cedeno getting the start due to Fukudome being better than Cedeno against left-handers, Maholm is just nasty against left-handed hitters. So it becomes at worst a toss up, and anytime you have a tossup you might as well give Fukudome the day off to continue to stay fresh over a longer season than he's accustomed to.

It won't matter. The chances the Cubs offer Edmonds arbitration are next to none. And I think even "next to" none is on the high side. There's no way they'll offer him arbitration; I think there would be a fairly high likelihood he'd accept it if offered. Next to none probably covers the chance that Edmonds signed before December 1st. If he did that, the Cubs would absolutely offer him arbitration (if he managed to qualify as a B). But that's really the only scenario I can see where they would. At the same time, I don't see how Edmonds would get any compensation being lumped in with all OF's. He missed the cut last year by a little bit, and replacing his 2006 with his 2008 numbers probably won't help him at all unless he absolutely kills the ball over the next 2 months.

True, but they don't have to start him. They've already said he's welcome to return as Rodgers' backup. That pretty much puts the ball in Favre's court. Green Bay can threaten that, but there's no way they can actually do that. Favre is willing to call that bluff (by reporting to camp) and there's no reason why he should believe them. That's the quickest way to fracture a fanbase, not to mention possibly kill their season from the weight of the Favre situation and him standing on the sidelines. It's pretty obvious Green Bay is extremely scared of just that scenario. That's why they are begging him to not report yet and have offered him the 20 million to stay home. Green Bay's best option at this point is to trade Favre to one of the teams he wants to go to (if he doesn't accept the 20 million). It's not ideal, but it's the only end to this that doesn't hurt the Packers for years to come. BTW, I think Favre's being unreasonable by refusing to talk to certain teams that the Packers want to trade him to. But he knows that he's got the Packers into a no-win situation, and he knows he can exploit that into getting what he wants.

Very little to this story yet. No names released among the 15 players. Peoria's interim manager was suspended for 20 days, Dayton's manager was for 3 games. Player suspensions ranged from 3 games to 60 days (assuming 60 days is Castillo). Every player on both squads was fined. http://sports.espn.go.com/minorlbb/news/story?id=3515142

That's the thing. Green Bay cannot block him. They can either keep him, or let him go to another team. That's their only 2 choices. Right now, Favre has the ultimate bargaining chip. He can just say he'll come in to camp. And Green Bay can't afford for him to do that. So they'll either have to release him or trade him to the team Favre wants (because no other team will trade for him). The alternative to the club is that Favre reports in a few days, and that will be disasterous for the Packers. The league is actually doing the best thing here for the Packers. Instead of reinstating Favre immediately and creating an absolute circus around the GB camp until the situation is resolved, they're delaying it and trying to get a resolution. Legally, the Packers have all the leverage. But because of the PR concerns, they have none of it. The absolute worst they can do to Favre is make him come in and stand on the sidelines all year. But that would be horrible for their franchise, so there really is nothing they can do to Favre.

Looks like 2004. June 14th through the 17th at Houston.

Looks like just one man's opinion though. He doesn't cite any polls. I'm surprised to see Tennessee that high (10th) and Alabama that low (8th). I would have put Bama ahead of, at least, Oklahoma, Miami and Texas. Possibly as high as fourth (kicking Florida down a peg or two). And I respect the heck out of Bear Bryant. Bama? Hated? I don't see it. They're been absolutely irrelevant to most of the country for a long time now. If I had to guess the teams on this list, they probably wouldn't have been in my first 15 guesses. Miami should be higher..they've been hated by a lot of people for a long time now. Florida State should be on that list. I've still noticed a lot of hatred for Nebraska even though they haven't been on the map for awhile.

meh, if you can play left you can play right In Wrigley? From all accounts of many OF's that have ever played the corners there, that isn't true. RF is much harder to play than LF in that ballpark. I'm not exactly sure why they say that, other then that the sun is much worse on the RF than the LF. Usually Wrigley is seen as a spot where it is RF that is the hardest, CF the second hardest, and LF the easiest to play. As for Ibanez, I would be somewhat interested, but not enough to cover the price. I also don't see those two picks as a guarantee. In fact, the best thing for him personally would be to be a type B free agent, because I'm not sure he's going to receive much interest as a type A. I definitely think in Wrigley RF is harder to play than LF, but that doesnt mean that if you are a LF you cant play RF. RF in Wrigley is much much bigger than LF and the well is really deep. The sun really shouldnt be an issue because it sets over the 3rd baseline so unless you take a weird route you shouldn't be looking into it. It perhaps shouldn't be an issue, but it's the first thing that always comes up when talking about RF at Wrigley. The sun in the later parts of the day games makes it so the RF loses track of the ball quite a bit. I happen to agree with you that I don't really understand why it affects the RF and not the LF, but there's plenty of anecdotal evidence to the contrary. I think the transition from LF to RF depends on what skills you are poor at. I won't automatically dismiss Ibanez in RF, because I thought that if Floyd was bad in LF that he would be absolutely horrific in RF, and he really wasn't any worse at that than LF.

meh, if you can play left you can play right In Wrigley? From all accounts of many OF's that have ever played the corners there, that isn't true. RF is much harder to play than LF in that ballpark. I'm not exactly sure why they say that, other then that the sun is much worse on the RF than the LF. Usually Wrigley is seen as a spot where it is RF that is the hardest, CF the second hardest, and LF the easiest to play. As for Ibanez, I would be somewhat interested, but not enough to cover the price. I also don't see those two picks as a guarantee. In fact, the best thing for him personally would be to be a type B free agent, because I'm not sure he's going to receive much interest as a type A.

I would guess absolutely not. Howry might net us a pick. Eyre has pretty much no chance due to injury and ineffectiveness at times.

I thought Lou would be suspended for his contact as well. Thankfully he got off on what was pretty clearly an accident.

I think the Cubs would have to find somebody that intrigued them as a prospect. It wouldn't necessarily be a highly rated one, and it may very likely only be 1, but they'll try to find a name that they may have valued more than some other teams. If they don't find that name, they'll keep Eyre and option Cotts down to the minors for the next month when Wood comes back, and probably try to hold Lieber down the maximum number of days before bringing him up and optioning Marshall. I think they'll likely find a trading partner though. The bullpen rotation is getting a bit tight down there.

As far as I know, you can include cash in post deadline waiver deals. If the Cubs picked up half of the remainder of his contract, they could probably get a halfway decent prospect in return and be out from under the obligation. The Cubs would probably be better off keeping him picking up that much. Rotation crunches tend to dissipate rather quickly. I'm certainly not opposed to trading Marquis, but I wouldn't pick up over 3 million. And if the Cubs did pick up 3 million, he certainly will profile favorably in the offseason to the pitching market.

Well, it was actually Fred this time who posted that. But I would have if I had been awake then, so I can see why you thought it was me :D Definitely not a fan of Cedeno starting in this spot. Fukudome has better numbers against left-handers, the Cubs are better defensively with him on the field (I'd rather have Fukudome and DeRosa at RF and 2B than DeRosa and Cedeno). Plus, Fukudome has so little confidence against left-handers normally that he is very patient against them, seeing 4.58 pitches per plate appearance compared to Cedeno's 3.80 against left-handers. Against a pitcher like Sabathia, even that little difference could help. It's not really something that can be seen as winning or losing the game for the Cubs though, and it does help that the lineup is well thought out otherwise.