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Bedard's still been able to make 2 more starts than Harden has so far this year. I'm not particularly interested in Bedard between the injury history (this would hardly be the first time he's broken down) and all the whispers coming out of Seattle this year. He seems to be at the center of all the dysfunction there. There have been way too many sources who says that he does whatever he wants and comes out of the game whenever he wants. Plus, he's been absolutely awful at being efficient with his pitch count lately.

So is Colvin a small diamond or coal? Too early to tell. His K percentage and BB percentage are getting much better lately. 2007 K percentage: 20.5% 2008 April through May 15th K percentage: 28.9% 2008 May 16th through present K percentage: 11.96% 2007 BB percentage: 3.05% 2008 April through May 15th BB percentage: 7.54% 2008 May 16th through present BB percentage: 10.87% Unfortuantely, at the same time his batting average is way down this year, and the loss of all those singles is really killing his slugging (his ISOP is also down a little bit, but the batting average being down is the bigger cause of the really bad numbers). So he was actually more productive last year, but his peripherals are a lot better these last couple months. It's obvious the Cubs are working with him quite a bit to make him more comfortable deeper in counts. Now when he gets more comfortable, will the batting average go back up a ways? Next year maybe? It's really hard to tell. All we know for sure right now is that he has shown the ability to hit for average last year. He has shown the ability to have a good K/BB percentage over the last couple months. What he hasn't done yet is put it together, and while I'm willing to give him a year or two before I write him off due to his adjustments, he can't be an exciting guy until he starts to put it together.

Why? Despite the claim, there's no personal attack is abuck's message (unless it was subsequently edited and I missed something good). I figured abuck's suggestion that the other guy go to Desipio would get it done except that's not what happened. We don't often get along, but if it means anything, IMO you were only pointing out that Rothschild couldn't help Hill and it appears that someone else "lower" in the organization has been able to. That's a valid point -- it doesn't mean Larry is always going to be horrible, but in Rich's case, it appears Larry didn't have the answers (and he probably should have). The point is though that lower in the organization does not always mean inferior. While every level has to be worried about mechanics to some degree, at the major league level it can take a backseat and becomes more about how to make the pitcher be most effective to the team he's facing that day. You'd be better served by keeping your best pitcher mechanics experts down in the minors where they can help a multitude of pitchers. To achieve the best results, you'd want that guy not tied down to any one team. In the Cubs case, they have hired an excellent minor league pitching coordinator. Besides...they were always going to let Hill have a month or two of trying to get his old delivery back before they then tried to change him to something completely different. For some reason, Hill still could not find his old delivery, so they took the risk of teaching him something new and it has worked well so far.

First off, I doubt that the difference between a major league pitching coach and a minor league pitching coordinator's salary is anywhere near that high. They're both important but somewhat expendable. I bet Rothschild makes more, but only because he's in the spotlight more. In many ways, the job that Riggins does is much more important. Second, it's not like Riggins is chopped liver. He's probably the best pitching coach we have in the system, and I don't think there's any problem with admitting that. He's been both a minor league and major league pitching coach before. He's been a minor league pitching coordinator for the Cardinals and Cubs for the last 13 years now. I absolutely trust him more than Rothschild, but that doesn't mean I think Rothschild is incompetent. Rothschild was trying to fix it on the fly so he could keep starting in the major leagues. Riggins has the freedom to have Hill do a completely new type of delivery and have time to keep working on it. That freedom allowed this solution to blossom.

Yes. She has explained as much in the past. Okay, you want it then you have it. I have pretty much kept this off the board but here it goes. And no I expect no one to believe me but you go ahead and ask Bruce Miles if I am lying and then you can get back to me. For the past 8 seasons prior to the one, I was indeed employed in the front office of the Chicago Cubs. I left of my own choosing partly to get out before a new owner comes in and sweeps the place clean and partly to be closer to my family as my parents are getting up there in age and the price of gas made commuting into the city was costing me more that it was worth. One of my two direct bosses is no longer with the club and left a year before I did. I suspected he left because he knew the Tribune was going to sell well before it was ever announced. The location of my office in the ballpark allowed me direct access most of the baseball braintrust on site whom I had contact with on a daily basis. In fact, my boss was interim GM from 2000 - 2002 until he handed it over to Jim Hendry. It's why I know the business side of this game as well as I do and it's why I have a great understanding of the rules, etc of this game. It's why maybe I get a bit perturbed when my knowledge of these areas is challenged by the people on this board even though I never came clean before now but that really shouldn't matter. I couldn't say anything for some time and didn't even want to bother until now but I am tired of the piling on and not being able to say one word back without being told I am a complete idiot or getting my hand slapped for responding. Regardless of my background, it shouldn't be assumed that because I am a female and I am not part of the little clique on this board that I know nothing about baseball. If it seems like I have met or know some of these guys, well guess what, this should explain that I have. Not all of the players but many...and because of my position, I always met all of the coaching staff. So fire away boys, I think it's time for me to take another break from the action. I still call BS, and it has nothing to do with you being female (which I didn't even recall at first). Over her credentials? They've been confirmed by Bruce at least once on this board and I think multiple times. I can understand the not wanting to watch the Cubs anymore but still being a sports fan after spending so much time close to the players. Ever worked in a bad restaurant/normal fast food place for a while? You've seen up close what they do, and you don't want to eat there anymore, even though you also know that people come through everyday and don't get sick. At the same time, you're still willing to eat at other restaurants/fast food places, even though your head acknowledges that the same sorts of things are probably happening there as well. That's basically what I think is probably happening here, and it's perfectly normal.

Ok...we've got a little bit of info on this from Cubs.com The he refers to Marshall at the beginning. I believe the Gallagher comment is a misprint on the name because we also have this: So it looks like it's Tuesday-Dempster Wednesday-Zambrano Thursday-Lilly Friday-Marquis Saturday-Marshall Sunday-Dempster

I doubt they'll send Dempster and Zambrano to the hill on 3 days rest this early in the season. I think your computer wanted to forget Marquis existed Fred :D , as does both ESPN.com and Cubs.com's probable starters. He or Gallagher will have to pitch sometime next week.

Didn't we tag him last year when we faced him? I thought we did. It was 2 years ago, and yes we did. 9 runs in 2 1/3 innings. The only 4 Cubs in the starting lineup that are on the roster today: Ramirez, Murton, Cedeno, Blanco. Ramirez was 2-2 against him that day, Murton 0-1 with a walk, Cedeno 0-2, and Blanco 1-2.

The one thing I was pleasantly surprised about: I was curious to see if Sabathia had any experience against Cubs hitters. And I found he hasn't had much. Only 68 at-bats against him, and 46 of those have been against either Soriano or Johnson. The Cubs have hit him to a tune of a .976 OPS so far though. It certainly doesn't mean much, but I'm really glad to see Soriano (who typically has either wonderful or terrible numbers against a pitcher) has had success against Sabathia.

Honestly, I'm not even sure the Giants are going to sell this year at the deadline. Even though they're 10 games under .500, they might also see that they are just 4 games out of a playoff spot right now. I think they're crazy to think that they can last the entire season, but with that small deficit I can definitely believe the Giants organization might think that they're right in the thick of it.

Marmol's about as extreme of a fly ball pitcher as it gets. 58.7% of balls hit against them are fly balls. That's why I'm not too worried about the home runs, as long as he can keep his control better. His HR rate at the start of the year was way too low for how many fly balls he gives up.

Lilly has been very quietly having a great stretch of games. He really has turned into that dependable #2-#3 starter again after his very tough start to the season.

There's several issues with Burnett. 1) He hasn't been any better than Jason Marquis this season. Could he suddenly get better moving to the NL? Probably. How much better? Unknown. He's got great career numbers, but he hasn't shown any consistency this year. In his last 7 starts, he's given up 2 runs or less in 4 of them, but in the other 3 he's given up 8 runs a start. 2) He has an opt out clause after the season. So if he's good, the Cubs lose him. If he stinks, the Cubs have to keep him for 2 more years at 12 million per year. 3)He does still have that long injury history, so even if he is good, he could get hurt the day after the trade. Of course the main positive is that he has proved that at times, he has been a very dominant pitcher. Is that worth all the issues? Maybe. I certainly wouldn't trade Hill to go get him though. I'd rather take the risk on Hill suddenly finding it than gamble on Burnett suddenly finding it, especially since Burnett's gamble if gone wrong also puts a significant dent on the payroll and requires us to also lose our only backup SS. Burnett only looks like he's been as bad as Marquis because Marquis has a great defense backing him up. They have similar HR rates, and Burnett smokes him at K/BB. I don't judge a pitcher solely on DIPs/FIP but when you have a glaring difference like there is for Burnett compared to Marquis I take notice. Burnett's never been this bad before and he's only 31. There's no reason to believe he won't be at worst league average the rest of the way and his peripherals point to him being much better than that. Best of all he's cheap. Cedeno + junk should get him. Yeah, looking at their careers, Burnett's numbers are much more likely to improve, while Marquis will probably stay the same or get worse. Although, Burnett is much more likely to get hurt. I wasn't really trying to compare Burnett to Marquis in any way but trying to give a visual example of how bad Burnett has been this season. If I had to choose Burnett or Marquis to be a better pitcher over the next 3 years, I'd bet on Burnett at least 99 out of 100 times. I'd be careful using Burnett's peripherals though to say that he's due for a rapid improvement. For example, his LOB percentage. It's a 65.9 percent, which is low. At the same time, that's because Burnett simply hasn't had the same type of stuff from start to start. In many starts, he's been dominant and hasn't had many runners to leave on base. When he doesn't have his best stuff, he gets absolutely pounded. That leads itself to a deceiving lob percentage because when there are runners on base, that is a huge indication with Burnett that he's going to continue leaving easy pitches to hit over the plate. That's not the case with normal pitchers. Any pitcher who has such a wide disparity in their starts (and believe me, there aren't many of them) are going to have better peripherals than their numbers. I would suspect an improvement from his K percentage, but that's not going to get rid of the disaster starts, and those starts are the only reason his numbers are that bad.

Thanks Bruce! Looks good.

There's several issues with Burnett. 1) He hasn't been any better than Jason Marquis this season. Could he suddenly get better moving to the NL? Probably. How much better? Unknown. He's got great career numbers, but he hasn't shown any consistency this year. In his last 7 starts, he's given up 2 runs or less in 4 of them, but in the other 3 he's given up 8 runs a start. 2) He has an opt out clause after the season. So if he's good, the Cubs lose him. If he stinks, the Cubs have to keep him for 2 more years at 12 million per year. 3)He does still have that long injury history, so even if he is good, he could get hurt the day after the trade. Of course the main positive is that he has proved that at times, he has been a very dominant pitcher. Is that worth all the issues? Maybe. I certainly wouldn't trade Hill to go get him though. I'd rather take the risk on Hill suddenly finding it than gamble on Burnett suddenly finding it, especially since Burnett's gamble if gone wrong also puts a significant dent on the payroll and requires us to also lose our only backup SS.

It looks like they are trying to keep Fukudome in the 2 spot so that he can be acclimated to it when Soriano comes back. Hopefully that means Theriot or Fontenot are in the leadoff spot today, not Johnson for the 3rd straight day. Johnson probably has the inside track though.

Does anybody want to get anybody out in Colorado tonight? Colorado has scored in all 7 innings tonight, including 4 in the 5th, 3 in the 6th, and 4 in the 7th, but is still trailing to Florida. The score? 17-16. Yes, you read that right. And Colorado is still batting in the 7th.

The only way I could say Theriot coming close to the All-Star game is if he makes the 32nd player voting and then somehow gets voted in that way. I see it as more likely though that one of the others gets left to the 32nd man vote, if it be Ramirez, Fukudome, or Dempster.

He was an 8th round pick out of Clemson last year. It was the 4th time he had been drafted. He was supposed to have good power potential when he came out, and he really has realized it so far this year. After a slow start in April, he's been red hot in May-July. His error totals are a little high, but he had an excellent defensive reputation in college. He's a player who should be in Daytona right now, but regardless of how he moves right now he'll probably do a pretty good job of moving through the system in the next couple years. I don't really see a future with the Cubs unless he can make the transition to 2nd base like they were working earlier in the year with him on. His future potential with the Cubs is probably a decent trade chip if he's still hitting well when he hits AA.

Didn't he say he was going to ease Marmol slowly back into high leverage situations spots? So he puts him in in a 1 run game with guys at first and third with no outs, after getting bombed the night before. He asically was saying "we need a strike out right now. nothing else will do. No pressue though!" And then he pulls him after 1 batter, leaving him confidence at an all-time low. Well played. Where did Lou say that? I haven't seen that quote at all.

Interesting choice to sit Gallagher down now with his spot due up 1st next inning only at 74 pitches. Let's go Wuertz.

Lincecum's up to 54 pitches after 3 despite the Cubs only having 3 baserunners so far. He's not pitching a complete game tonight unless the Cubs go hacking away up there for the next 6 innings, and the man is not invincible even when he is in the game. This game is certainly not anywhere near over.

Probably Ascanio Thanks so much Bruce. Hopefully the team can give you an easy story tonight. Those games where the offense gets shut down and the team has to get on a plane right after the game can't be very fun to try to get any good quotes, so hopefully that won't happen tonight.

One more question if I may Bruce, although I understand if you cannot comment on it: Do you know if the Cubs are going to send down either a pitcher or a hitter tomorrow? I know a specific name probably hasn't been decided on, but have they expressed that they are going to go with 13 pitchers over the weekend (considering Marshall is going to stay up for at least a couple days after Z is activated) or is one of the pitchers going down tomorrow?

This is really the lineup? Considering how much better Johnson has done hitting lower and the order and with runners on (especially in scoring position) and how horrible he's been at leadoff AND that Lincecum is a rightie, this seems rather dumb. That is the lineup. I can understand putting Johnson in the lineup in an effort to work him back in. Lou likes to do that to people just returning to the team. However, it should be Fukudome 1st, Theriot 2nd, and Johnson 8th. Hopefully Johnson can surprise us like he did the last two times he lead off against right-handers.