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I'll certainly miss Colvin swinging at everything. The thought of him gone brings me to tears. Actually, that Tyler Colvin has disappeared. The new Tyler Colvin has good patience, but has lost the ability to hit. We're looking for the first one to see if we can somehow merge the old one and the new one together.

Sullivan probably got confused like normal. The Cubs told him they were interested in Crisp. The Cubs told him that Rich Hill was becoming available. Sullivan put the two together, but I doubt they were together to begin with. Or it's still possible that he could be making up the Rich Hill part completely on his own. That second part of the line sounds more like speculation than anything else.

Hoffpauir batting was the right move. There were runners on 2nd and 3rd with 1 out. If you bat Edmonds, the Rays probably walk him intentionally and set up the double play. Now you have Hoffpauir and Johnson to try to win the game for you. If you send Hoffpauir up there first, the Rays probably pitch to him. If they walk him, you're fine with that also. But even if Hoffpauir gets out, they aren't going to intentionally walk Edmonds with 2 outs. I thought it was a good piece of managing to make sure our best hitter left didn't have the bat taken out of his hands.

can't use up your whole bench when it looks like it could go extras Why not? You dont have to worry about the pitcher hitting, and you essentially have all your best guys out there. move Edmonds to center, Kosuke to right, DeRosa to 2nd Soto to catch. You do have to worry about the pitcher hitting. Soto would have had to come in to catch, so the Cubs would have lost the privilege of using the DH for the rest of the game. The pitcher would be slotted into the 8th slot. From what it sounds like, Johnson's bunt had a 30% or better chance of succeeding. Normally, that's not very good odds. But when you need 1 to tie like that and a runner on 3rd (making a single a much better outcome than it normally is), it's better to try it than to continue batting against a tough closer.

I'm guessing it will be Soto, DeRosa, and then as many pinch-hitters in the next few spots until either the game ends, the Cubs take the lead, or the bench is completely gone.

Um, why? He's the best reliever in baseball Setup men only get picked if they are either having an absolutely historic season, or if they are the only representative of their team. Setup men with over 2.00 ERA's on a team filled with All-Star candidates? I think it would be really hard for him to get picked. The only good thing for him is that there are so few dominant closers in the NL this year, who automatically get priority over setup guys.

Backup position players do not go by vote totals. The fans have no say other than the starters and then picking the 32nd man. The only way in for Theriot is if he wins the vote. DeRosa makes it if they need a 3rd 2nd baseman, but that's the only way. I also believe Marmol is for sure out at this point.

The only thing I'm worried about is that you will have to be pretty sure you're going to end it soon if you want to pinch-hit for Blanco later in the game. He has a decent chance of coming up in a big spot, and Lou will almost certainly have to stick with him.

And an OPS nearing .900. He's been a good pickup for them, even if he probably will hit the DL a couple of other times this year.

this is coming from a guy that likes soccer. You know the old saying about soccer and golf. We love to play it because it is so boring to watch. Not even close to the same thing. In golf they hit a shot, walk 200 yards, then stand over the ball for 30 second, then walk around it for few more, talk to the caddy and then hit the shot. Putts are even worse because they walk around the ball for a minute looking at every single angle and slope, then take some practice swings, look at the lie a little more, take a couple more practice swings and then finally shoot the ball. And in soccer, players kick the ball around the field, and the ball is never close to the goal for 95 percent of the match. It's without a doubt the most boring sport I've ever tried to watch. At least the players are doing something on the field (i.e. kicking the ball around) rather than walking for 200 yards in between shots. There's not a chance soccer is more boring than golf. Not even close. Televised Golfing events usually bounce between players so there's little time that nothing is happening. Usually the moments that take "forever" such as stepping up to the ball or reading a putt build the tension, at least for me anyway. Granted, it isn't everyones cup of tea and I understand that. But watching Golf on tv has never bored me. I'm hoping to go to the US Open next year seeing as it's about 30 minutes away :cool: I also believe that golf is a very social TV sport. You watch it with a group and you know when you need to concentrate and in between the shots you just talk. I've enjoyed many major championships watching with a group of 10-20 having a great time. While in soccer, there is approximately the same amount of action, but you have to concentrate the entire time on the match because you never know when the action is going to come. That makes it a more boring sport to watch for me because you have more active concentration time that nothing big is happening.

You could actually push Theriot into the game with that small deficit. I think the other Cubs are pretty much locked in at this point, in or out.

The Devil Rays are not a great offensive team. They're 8th in the AL in runs (6th in OPS) and 17th in the majors in runs (13th in OPS). Pretty much exactly like the 2007 Cubs offense, even down to the exact same OBP number. Their pitching is better than their offense. None of the starters stand out besides Kazmir, but they are pretty decent. Their back end of the bullpen is very good, especially Wheeler and Percival.

Way too logical for the Cubs. Tend to agree. It will certainly be Edmonds/Johnson in CF. But I see the LF at-bats being handed out on a game to game basis. Johnson will gets starts in LF against right-handers, Hoffpauir will get starts there, Murton will get starts against left-handers, Fontenot will get occasional starts with DeRosa moving to LF, and Cedeno will get occasional starts with DeRosa moving to LF. Maybe the same group will start 3-4 games in a row, but I doubt you see the same 1-2 players getting at-bats there for very long before Lou tries yet another combination.

When you consider that the Red Sox couldn't even give Manny away on his contract, there is not a chance in hell that anyone takes that horrendous monstrosity of a contract we gave Soriano off our hands, unless we eat a significant chunk. Contracts have changed quite a bit since that Manny situation. That was at the height of deflation, when everyone was still reeling over A-Rods deal. Right now is the middle of the biggest collective expansion of payroll ever. I still agree with you that teams are going to seriously question why the Cubs would be trading Soriano with 6 years left on his deal, and wouldn't bite on that contract. The Cubs are probably not going to get a good opportunity to deal him unless he's still pretty productive after year 4, and more likely after year 5. I don't think the Cubs can get Beltran. There have been some recent rumors once again that the Cubs aren't sure what they can do as far as future payroll with the ownership situation. I'm sure they'd be authorized to take on some payroll, but I have to think they'd be very hesitant to take on 60 extra million for Beltran.

Patterson burned his option for the year when the Cubs sent him to AAA out of Spring training. Everything done after that is on the same option year. Plus he was already up to the major leagues in April. The Cubs can call him up 100 more times this year if they need to. It has absolutely no effect on his option status.

Agreed, and the funny thing is that these DH games are probably the thing that made Lou realize it. The bench tomorrow night against Kazmir would have consisted of Hoffpauir, Patterson, Edmonds, and Fontenot. Lou saw that and realized the team was slightly unbalanced. I think we'll see Murton get the majority of starts against left-handers. I hope he gets all of them considering the alternative is Cedeno and his reverse splits, but I can definitely see Cedeno stealing some and possibly most of those at-bats. Even if he doesn't get those starting at-bats though, he's a better option for this particular team as the last man off the bench then Patterson was.

Lou said it will probably be Soto in the DH slot with Blanco catching.

He's 3rd overall in pitches thrown in relief work. http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/stats/pitching?split=128&league=mlb&season=2008&seasonType=2&sort=pitches&type=pitch3&ageMin=17&ageMax=51&state=0&college=0&country=0&hand=a&pos=all

He would probably have to overpay for Burnett to get him right now. The Blue Jays will likely wait to see what contender gets desperate unless someone knocks their socks off with an offer.

Bad situation for marmol. Please use him for this one out Lou, and then get him out of the game like you have been lately at least. The real mistake was warming him up...if he only pitches to one batter, it won't really be any more stressful then the warmup itself was. Then again, they warmed him up in the 6th when it was 3-0.

The funny thing is that's not even really true. If he ever played a full season, he'd be a 15-20 home run type of guy. I'm not sure how those stayed in.

They're going straight by the statistics, not by the talent level. The Cubs have the best ERA by a starting rotation in the National League. The Phillies have the best ERA in the bullpen. And the Cubs and Phillies have been trading the offensive total back and forth over the last week, so it really depends on which day they took their data from. So they weren't wrong. They were just looking at it straight from the stats, not necessarily looking at who might be better in the future.

I don't really understand the complaining about the lineup. It's mostly a standard Cubs lineup with a few exceptions: Johnson batting 1st: Ok, I can see why you think this is a major problem. Fukudome batting 2nd: isn't this a good thing? Edmonds batting 5th: he bats in front of DeRosa every day, so that's nothing new. Being in front of Soto-not crazy about it, but Edmonds is scorching hot this month, so it's not something to particularly worry about. Hoffpauir 8th: basically the DH. He's finally behind Soto and DeRosa. I think this is a good change. Theriot 9th: scuffling lately and against a right-hander. Good time to hide him by batting in the 9 spot. So really I don't get the problem. Reed Johnson batting 1st is the only thing I see as a major error. This is a good overall lineup, at least IMO. I don't think it's anything close to what we had yesterday.

Good scouting report. I'm guessing he has a good changeup, because he only has 11 Ks in 130 ABs vs. RH hitters. 31 in 170 vs. lefties. Still, LH hitters have been 70 OPS points better vs. Litsch. Probably not a guy the Cubs are gonna get to before the 2nd time thru the lineup. But being that he's not a strikeout pitcher, the Cubs should be able to wait him out and still get some good swings with 2 strikes. So yeah, Lilly has to have a strong start to the game. I'm hoping that going against his former team will get the adrenaline going, in a good way for Ted. Looking thru the boxscores, the guys that seem to have the most success against Litsch are the guys who cut down their swings. He's given up 34 hits in his last 4 starts, but most of those hits have NOT come from guys that typically put up big numbers. So, guys like Theriot, Fukudome, and Derosa could have good showings today. Thanks for the good detailed info there. If Lou is going to give Fukudome a DH start, this might be the one. DeRosa sliding to RF, Fontenot to 2nd. Then one of Johnson/Hoffpauir/Patterson in LF. The lineup order would then be completely dictated by who was playing in LF (Johnson would bat at leadoff while Patterson would bat at 9th, and Hoffpauir would probably bat in the middle of the order. Whichever one it is makes all the other pieces change to fit Lou's philosophy on lineup order). I guess we'll find out in a few minutes.

I'm happy we have him even at his contract because I believe he will likely be very consistent. This is pretty much what I expected of him. A little higher OBP and a little lower SLG than I expected, but around the same OPS number. It depends on how you define unimpressive. If you define it using the connotations of disappointment then no, I'm not disappointed mostly because he's what I expected. At the same time, Fukudome isn't going to be one of those players who you would spend a lot of time talking about if he wasn't new. He locks you in good, consistent RF production. He doesn't have the talent level to be an All-Star even though he will make the team this year. He's simply a good asset to have on the team. I don't see his production headed much further south. He dropped below .850 OPS for the first time on May 21st, and that was an .840 OPS. His OPS almost a month later is at .835. I see him ending up the year somewhere between an .800 and an .850 OPS.