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I mentioned it in another thread. It's strange..when DeRosa came over to Texas and the Cubs said they were going to put him at 2B, the book on him was supposed to be that his best defensive position was RF followed by 2B. He was a guy who you were supposed to lose offense and gain defense if you put him in the corner outfield. That, of course, hasn't been the case with the Cubs. 3B has been his best defensive position, where he's above average. 2B he's average at, and he seems to be a little below average in the OF.

This probably isn't the right weekend to make this statement. Which is strange. When he came over from Texas, they said RF was his best natural position. Yet with the Cubs, it's been 3rd base, then 2nd base, then the OF.

Yeah, we're trotting out a fairly punchless (for the Cubs) lineup against possibly the best pitcher in the National League (no its not an intra-squad game :-" ) Surprise me, Cubs. Please tell me Reed is in Center as opposed to Edmonds EDIT: Eurgh why does Lou insist on playing the defensively challenged Edmonds over Reed in Center? Probably because Edmonds hasn't really played either corner outfield for a few years, and with the Cubs situation there really isn't much need for him to get out there and practice playing in the corner when he would only do it for 4-5 games all season. Johnson is much more used to it. It's not a transition that is easily made on the fly if you haven't done it in a while. The good thing is that the Cubs got 3 runs against Lincecum with almost no contribution from Fukudome and Soto last time out (1-6, infield hit, 4 K's) so hopefully they can do that again.

I doubt Marmol will get a scheduled inning with all the starters and closers there. They'll probably save him to possibly get 1 out in case somebody struggles and can't get out of a particular inning.

I was coming here to post that this was probably the case. Hurdle has paid attention to the player voting very, very closely when replacing people in the starting lineup/roster. That's the same reason that was given for Holliday being given the starting nod, for example.

This is the lineup according to Gameday: Theriot Fontenot Lee Ramirez DeRosa Edmonds Johnson Blanco Dempster And for the Giants: Lewis Castillo Durham Molina Rowand Bowker Aurilia Vizquel Lincecum

I guess I'll put this here..a little note that I found interesting. Marquis isn't headed home to NY to be with his family during the All-Star Break. They're sending him to AZ to throw on Tuesday because of his long break between starts.

zambrano produces offense from a position that normally gets next to no offense, so those 54 ABs have been more valuable than 54 ABs of, say, a LF producing an .833 OPS. VORP: Zambrano: 36.8 pitching + 10.1 hitting = 46.9 Dempster: 27.6 pitching + 1.9 hitting = 29.5 Lee: 27.8 Soto: 27.1 ARam: 26.3 lee being ahead of soto and aram seems a little weird to me, though. Lee is ahead because he has only sat 1 game this year. So he has had 50-60 more plate appearances than either Ramirez or Soto, which has allowed him to sneak ahead. And Zambrano's hitting is counted for exactly the reason you describe. He has a 501 point OPS advantage over the average pitcher right now (.833 compared to league average of .332). That's a lot of production that you wouldn't normally get. The next highest difference is Soto, who is 173 points above the average C (.888 vs league average of .715). So even though Soto has 6 times as many at-bats as Z does at a higher OPS, his overall value with the bat has only been 2-3 times better than Z because Z is outclassing his peers by a much wider margin.

I was just thinking about him earlier this Morning. Whats the word on him? What's his time table? The Cubs have him on a timetable to come up on September 1st in order to protect his last remaining option for next season. He's still in Mesa, but he's just waiting for the date that he can start moving up the minors.

Should the others be penalized because they aren't replacing a black hole? And I'm not sure where you're getting the Soto numbers from. His OPS was .894 before the game today, and it will probably go down 7-8 points after today. A player who can put up great offensive numbers at a defensive position with few good hitters is definitely more valuable to the team than a player putting up great offensive numbers from a position played by better hitters. Not to take anything away from Ramirez or Lee, but playing as a catcher definitely makes Soto more valuable. Soto's OPS is actually higher than Lee's right now, and a bit below Ramirez's. I think I'd have to go with Soto for first half MVP. He's a huge improvement over what the Cubs put behind the plate last year. Oh, I definitely agree that Soto as a catcher brings a ton of value. But the Cubs could have had Russell Martin back there last year, and that doesn't make Soto's impact on this season any larger. The better argument (IMO) would have been to compare Soto to other NL catchers, not to what the Cubs had last year. I've eliminated Lee from my list at this point, so that leaves Soto, Ramirez, Zambrano, DeRosa. Soto plays the toughest position to get offense from, and has been very good offensively and defensively. Ramirez has the best OPS on the team and played very good defense at 3rd. Z has a 2.80 ERA and also has a .833 OPS at the plate. That dual threat has made him one of the best value pitchers in the NL this season. DeRosa has good numbers. Not as good as the others. He deserves to be on this list because his flexibility has allowed the Cubs to mix and match the best production in there. For example, DeRosa moving to 3rd and OF has allowed Fontenot (.874 OPS) to even have a roster spot and to shine. It allowed the Cubs to feel comfortable moving both Murton and Patterson in the trade for Harden. DeRosa has also been up and down the lineup, and really doesn't have the same stability that the others have had (and you know how ballplayers love stability!) and still has performed very, very well. After further thought, I'd probably lean towards Z. I think a point and half of ERA+400 OPS points as a hitter is greater than Soto's 200 point OPS upgrade over another catcher.

Probably the same reason Michaels is in the game for Nady. No. That one makes sense. Nady made the last out, Michaels would be 3rd up in the inning, and the Pirates are low on relievers. So it makes perfect sense to take Nady out and put the pitcher in his spot. It makes absolutely no sense to put your backup catcher in the leadoff spot for the next inning when he's not replacing the picher's spot. The Pirates could have just put the pitcher in Nady's spot like they did, and had LaRoche-Bautista-Michaels up in the 10th. Thankfully even with that bad move (which can only be explained by a LaRoche injury) it still worked out for the Pirates in the end! Good work Pittsburgh.

I'm confused as to why the Pirates would take LaRoche out of the game at that point. Now you have the horrible Raul Chavez leading off the bottom of the 10th instead of LaRoche. He wasn't involved at all in the double switch. I have no explanation.

At the same time, the Cardinals do have 9 extra base hits, 21 hits overall, and more walks than the Pirates do. But they've also left 12 runners on base while the Pirates have left 4. The Pirates have hit home runs at the right times tonight.

And even with a new owner I think Hendry returning is a near certainty. He's had a good run the last couple of years, so I don't see a new owner firing him and having to pay off the remainder of his contract. Extending his contract could be another story. Hendry's contract is over at the end of this year. But if the Cubs make the playoffs 2 straight years, I see an owner having a very hard time not giving him at least another year or two. It's not the best PR move to simply let him go after potentially the best season in a long time.

I wouldn't exactly say that. I mean, he is 2 for 2 so far tonight.

Should the others be penalized because they aren't replacing a black hole? And I'm not sure where you're getting the Soto numbers from. His OPS was .894 before the game today, and it will probably go down 7-8 points after today.

That is correct. Marshall was ready in the bullpen halfway through the inning, but Lou didn't go to him. Marmol didn't get hit particularly hard most of the inning, but a combination of poor control and balls finding holes did him in. And, apparently, Theriot's defensive deficiencies. Yeah. Theriot made a good play to get to the ball in the hole, and then tried to be a hero and throw the ball to 2nd from his back to get the final out of the game and threw it into right field.

the order after the break is Lilly, Zambrano, Dempster, Harden, Marquis.

That is correct. Marshall was ready in the bullpen halfway through the inning, but Lou didn't go to him. Marmol didn't get hit particularly hard most of the inning, but a combination of poor control and balls finding holes did him in.

4 of those balls were intentional, and if Soto walks you get Ronny Cedeno up there to win the game. It's not a bad situation to swing at the first pitch if you like it.

Seriously. He will now. But you had to warm Lieber up just in case Soto was walked. The pitchers spot was due up next.

The Cubs have as many pitchers left as pinch-hitters. The bench is not an issue today. I'm thankful for the 13 man staff today (although it's pretty silly)..otherwise the game would be done a lot sooner than all those pinch-hitters could be used.

The radio says that Wood is not in the bullpen at all, and Marshall is warming up.

Every reliever should be available tomorrow anyway. Howry will be the only one who pitched 2 consecutive days. I'd rather not kill Marmols arm though. Last year he pitched in 59 games and 69.1 innings. This year he has already pitched in 48 games and 51.1 innings. I understand. Remember though that Marmol also had 41 innings starting for Iowa last year. Those 69.1 innings with the Cubs were only from the beginning of June on.

A little of both. He allowed the first 2 batters to reach base, then Lou stuck with him for the next batter. Harden struck him out and Lou pulled him at the 96 pitch mark to a standing ovation.