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It's a completely different issue. Prior can't get his arm to rehab to the point where he's both feeling no pain and getting the same velocity on his pitches. Wood would always rehab ok, but then after the 60 pitch mark he would start feeling pain again. For Wood, the bullpen was a natural way to avoid putting that many pitches on his arm in any one night, which greatly reduces the risk of injury for him. With Prior, he needs to be able to find his velocity first without pain before he can even think about how he can try to preserve it, and he hasn't really had his good stuff since 2005. If he ever does find it again though, I don't think starting will put any more stress on his arm issue then the bullpen would.

not realistic. if you're going to have a backup middle infielder, he's almost certain to be a lousy hitter. take a look around baseball and see how many teams have a solid hitter who can come off the bench and play shortstop. if the guy can hit and play SS/2B, he's already starting. When did we get rid of Cedeno? Teams rarely carry just one backup middle infielder. It leaves you too handcuffed in the people you can pinch-hit for, double switches, injuries, etc. Now the fact that Patterson is up and could switch to 2nd base if need be is a decent argument. It seems like the Cubs don't want to do that unless they absolutely need to through. But even if you said that Hoffpauir was definitely a better hitter than Fontenot, when is he going to play? They don't seem to trust him in the OF. He's not going to get many pinch-hitting appearances because he's both behind Ward on the depth chart for LH pinch-hitters, and the Cubs won't send him up there to bat against a left-hander. He'll come up, and he'll just sit on the bench and likely get burned in a 2 pinch-hitter move as often as he actually gets an at-bat. It's a bad use of resources.

Well, Ward against a left-hander was likely not going to end well. It's absurd how many pitches he's seeing so far this year though in his first few at-bats. He came into today's game seeing 4.8 pitches per plate appearance, and after a 7 pitch at-bat that's just going to go up. The Cubs should also take the MLB walks lead away from the Cardinals after tonight unless the Cardinals walk at least 5 times in the last 4 innings of their game.

well, he's over 1.000 ops .304/.387/.622/1.009 Did you add in his sac fly? Your OBP total looks a little high, at least from what I calculated.

well, he's over 1.000 ops I don't think he quite is. I think his line if I calculated right (and I did it very quickly) is a .305/.376/.622 line with the Cubs in 93 plate appearances.

He actually hits pretty well for a backup middle infielder. 2B is not exactly a premium offensive position, and Fontenot's numbers are very close to league average there, which is excellent for a backup. He is very limited, which isn't a great quality of a bench player, but that makes the Cubs the perfect fit for him with DeRosa, which hides his biggest weakness to a major league team. When you compile the list of the leagues worst bench players, Fontenot is nowhere near it.

I doubt he would make the roster if not for DeRosa. It doesn't matter that much if Fontenot can play multiple spots or not because the 1 position he plays is filled by the guy who can. So in effect, Fontenot gets to contribute whenever DeRosa needs a day off, or when Ramirez is down, or when a corner OF is down.

Is this official? I've heard the rumors, but can't seem to find any confirmation. Actually, it's not. Crap! I didn't read the whole article. I guess it's "near". The latest rumor I've heard today is that it is off, but I haven't heard anything for 2 hours or so.

Is this official? I've heard the rumors, but can't seem to find any confirmation.

Albers? Baltimore seems determined to destroy his arm. Earlier this season, he started a game, then went into the bullpen for 2 weeks throwing 10-15 pitches per outing. At the end of that time, he threw 16 pitches one day, 18 pitches the next, then had 2 days rest, and then they let him throw 94 pitches in a game he started. This time it's much less crazy. He threw 36 pitches on the 21st, so he's had 3 days rest. It will be interesting to see how long Baltimore throws him out there though. He is a high walk guy and is only a decent strikeout pitcher, so this is one pitcher the Cubs should absolutely take pitches against. There's a lot of reward and not that much risk. Note that I'm not saying the Cubs should look at every first pitch. I would never recommend that for any pitcher. But he's exactly the type of pitcher you shouldn't be worried about getting into deeper counts with, so go up there on the first pitch acting like it's a 2-0 or 3-1 count and only swinging if the ball comes into one of your best hitting zones. He's also a pretty good ground ball guy, so the Cubs need to be wary of that with runners on. I do agree that the Cubs will probably go with a very similar lineup tonight as they did last night now unless Lou was very upset with Patterson's adventures out there.

he's actually quite good when his arm isn't falling off. Is he the guy they got from the Pirates for LaRoche? Yup, that's him.

The guy who is 32 for his last 32 in save opportunities dating back to 2004, including 24 for 24 in 2006? He has missed a year after surgery, but he does have quite a streak going, and isn't a bad option for the Braves at the closer spot.

If they'd send him to Iowa (if they can) to stretch him out, I wouldn't at all mind seeing him as the long man out of the pen, provided the keep him as the long man this time and not as a LOOGY. say what? I said, I wouldn't mind seeing Lieber as the long man out of the pen. That just makes me even more confused. Lieber is the long man right now. Both Lieber and Marshall are already stretched out enough to be the long man. So who are you sending to Iowa to get stretched out? And if you were talking about Lieber as the long man, why did you mention not making him a LOOGY again when that was Marshall? And why would you mention Lieber having to become the long man when he already is? And if you were talking about Marshall, why were you worried about either his ability to be sent down (considering he just came up yesterday) or how much he's stretched out, considering he just started yesterday? I'm honestly not trying to be picky. I'm just trying to understand what you meant.

I've looked at a lot of game logs of starting pitchers, and Burres has to be one of the most inconsistent I've seen. He has been a roller coaster all season long. He's had 4 starts of 1 run or less. 4 starts of 6 runs or more. And 6 starts in between-and 4 of those starts in between were in a row in early May. He's a guy who has not been efficient in his pitch counts lately. The Cubs need to take advantage of that and run him out hopefully at least during the 6th inning and continue to tire out that bullpen. I would tend to agree with rawaction on the LH thing. I'd start 2 of the left-handers (resting either Edmonds or Patterson) in the OF and put Murton at the other spot.

I know, I was listening to the radio and when I heard Pat say "Blanco will be pinch hitting" I was like.......crap, game over man. I assume that was a last second change in plans by Lou. Henry doesn't have strong splits against lefties, and he really never has. I think he saw 3 righties get on base and 1 lefty look foolish so he made the move. If Kosuke's at bat went a little different, I bet Patterson gets a chance to make a play. The last 3 years Blanco has been healthy (I don't count last year for his stats..he was pretty clearly not healthy both offensively and defensively at the beginning of the year, and then he was on the disabled list most of the year) against left-handers he has put up OPS's of .715, .749, .870, and this year had a .697 prior to last night. Could Patterson put up those type of numbers against left-handers? Maybe. He almost certainly could match Blanco's OBP against left-handers. But then when you add in Sherill's splits, Blanco becomes a little bit of a better option. As soon as the bases were loaded, I looked at the lineup and realized that it likely had to be Cedeno, Fukudome, Blanco. Whichever choice was made though, it was going to be picking between bad options.

He's done what he had to do. The first month he was huge for us because the starting rotation was still finding its legs. The last month and a half, the starting rotation has been great for us, and the long man hasn't been needed very much. Lieber cannot really be used as any other role out of the bullpen consistently because of his huge splits. He's one of the least overall needed guys on the team, but he's a nice insurance policy back there.

This was actually DeRosa's best game in awhile. Had a hit and a walk in 4 plate appearances. He did ground into 1 double play, but it seems to be an odd time to complain about him being a rally killer, especially after he kept the rally going in the 9th. The Orioles went all out to win this game, and they did. The Cubs have made their 2 most effective relievers shaky for tomorrow though. Jim Johnson threw 33 pitches, and Sherill threw 30. I thought Lou pulled the right strings at the end. Even Blanco is an ok emergency option against a left-hander due to his significant splits. The players just didn't come through. Cedeno especially was way too aggressive in a bases loaded nobody out situation. The way the Cubs are built are going to make them weak sometimes against left-handed setup men and closers though, because Ward, Edmonds, and Fontenot aren't hitters you can send up against left-handers in any key situation. It would be a lot better if Cedeno didn't have reverse splits of his own, but that is the way it is. The only hitters the Cubs have off the bench to counter a left-hander are Murton and Blanco, or Johnson and Blanco once Reed comes back. The rest are terrible options against any LHP. If you're going to have any loss in the first game of the series though, this is the best kind of loss. The worst pitching matchup is out of the way, and the Cubs best arms in the pen are fresher than Baltimore's. It bodes well for the rest of the series, even if they lost tonight.

option years, not times. Murton has been optioned 1 this year already. Doesnt that mean if they want to send him down, theyd have to DFA him, and hope he doesnt make it through waivers, which he wouldnt? And Ronny hasnt been Optioned yet this year, hint hint. once you have been optioned once in a year, he can be optioned as many times possible in that year without losing an option gotcha. I'm pretty sure this is correct. Cedeno is kind of like a Rule 5 draft pick this year, he had to make the team out of spring training and stay on the team the entire year or we would have had to DFA him or trade him. I'm not sure, but if I had to guess Murton probably will be the same way next year. Does Fontenot have any options left? Fontenot has to have a lot more than Murt and Cedeno. He was up for 7 games in '05, but was never sent back down since being brought up last season, and was never brought up by the O's. Fontenot went back down to Iowa 3 days after he came up the first time he was up last year. He has 1 option left. Cubs minor leaguers of note: Zero options: Soto, Cedeno 1 option: Fontenot, Marmol, Wuertz 1 option already being used this year: Ascanio, Cotts, Hill, Pie I see a website that Murton had 2 options to start the year (obviously he would be using 1 during this year). I don't think that's correct though. This should be his last option year unless there is something I'm not aware of. Patterson still has another option for next year if the Cubs need it, as do Marshall and Gallagher.

Meche was a type B free agent. Elias uses the 2 years before free agency to determine their rankings. The good thing for Wood and Dempster is they both should be high on the strikeouts category. Wood should be helped by the fact that he's in a normally weak relief pitcher class, while he's hurt by the fact that playing time is a major factor, and he missed 2/3 of the year last year. Wood's save totals this year will also be a huge asset to his ranking. Dempster will be a fascinating case. On a relief pitcher scale last year, he was pretty good. He had a high ERA, but that was balanced out by pretty high strikeout totals and a decently high save count. This year, as a starting pitcher, he's got everything Elias seems to like. He's durable. He wins lots of games at a good percentage. He has a good ERA. He has high strikeout totals. Unfortuantely, I have a feeling they'll lump both of Dempster's years together and simply classify him as a starting pitcher without any adjustments. That will hurt his innings pitched number, his wins, his winning percentage, pretty much everything.

The odd part in keeping Fontenot over Patterson, assuming that is what eventually happens, is that Piniella apparently thought enough of Fontenot's defense to pull him in the 4th inning of a blowout after he already hit a HR that inning. Of course, Piniella did admit that he completely forgot about that HR, but how can he be that high on Fontenot when he won't even keep him in the game early in a blowout because of his defense? I don't think it was his defense considering he's put Fontenot in the game several times this year in close games late. I think Piniella was trying to get DeRosa to start getting out of his slump by getting him an at-bat against a left-hander.

I'm not so sure about that. 14 mil a year is pretty steep, but I easily see Dempster getting between 10 to 12 a year for 4 years. That would be comparable to the contracts of several other mediocre pitchers who have hit the market in the last couple years (Silva, Lilly, Meche, Suppan, etc.). Why would Dempster automatically get less than those guys? His 3.40 ERA that badnews speculated would be the best contract year of any of them. Plus, you add in any playoff pitching which typically only inflates and rarely deflates any value for a mediocre pitcher. An interesting thing that badnews brought up is..what type of free agent will Dempster be classified as? I honestly don't know how they average the statistics when you have a guy who was a reliever one year and a starter the next. His save and strikeout totals made him good in the 2007 rankings for closer. His wins, winning percentage, strikeouts, and ERA are all excellent right now, which means he'll be ranked highly on their system as a starting pitcher. If they average them together, he should be a type A FA. If they try to shoehorn him only into the starter system and just throw in his relief numbers from 2007 into the starter formula, he'll be a type B. I wouldn't go 4 years 56 for Dempster. I doubt Wood will reach Cordero money, but if he does I'd have to let him go too.

They don't need to send both of them down. Reed Johnson going on the DL will keep one of those two safe for at least another 10 days or so.

It was all about the Cubs CF position. Pie blocked the 8 spot for a while, leaving nowhere for Theriot to go but 2 in Lou's mind. At the same time, a left-handed bat was needed in Lou's mind to protect Ramirez. Now Edmonds is filling that role of the 5th place hitter, which allows Lou to do what he wanted all along and put Fukudome up at 2 and Theriot down at 8. How Edmonds hits the next 3 weeks will probably be the biggest determining factor in where Fukudome goes when Soriano gets back, no matter what Fukudome or Theriot does. Not saying I agree with it, but piecing together all of Lou's quotes, this seems to be the plan he had envisioned all along.

Longest home winning streak for the Cubs since 1936. It's just so nice to expect good things out of your team. I wasn't even really upset after the Tampa Bay series even though it was very tough just because I knew the team would bounce back, and that was a nice way to do it!

Yeah, I think Hoffpauir is gone. It's too bad for him, but he'll get more shots with the club, and he'll likely be a big favorite for a bench spot next year. Your bench just has to fill certain gaps though in your ballclub, and the gap he would fit into is already covered on this team. Murton's still a darkhorse to be sent down though just because of how much they like Hoffpauir.