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CubColtPacer

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Everything posted by CubColtPacer

  1. CubColtPacer
    Lou has tried to be careful with Wood, but they let Wood go 3 days in a row sometimes. An example is the last 3 days when he has picked up a 2 run, a 1 run, and a 3 run save. And 6 of Wood's last 7 saves have been 1 or 2 run saves (3 1 run, 3 2 run), with 5 of those coming in the win streak. And they haven't exactly had to find too many places for Wood to get work, which is why he has the most appearances on the entire team.
  2. CubColtPacer
    I'm certainly not defending him, but doesn't that make him the best 5th starter in baseball? Yeah, I threw that in there to say that while perception may make all of us think one of he's the worst we've ever seen, he's really not quite that bad. Right now his numbers are in that frustrating middle zone. He's not good enough to really be productive or to be able to trade him, but he isn't really bad enough to get cut either.
  3. CubColtPacer
    erik went to bed, so my guess is that the new game thread will be up in the morning or early afternoon. Wood will definitely be completely unavailable tomorrow, and Wuertz almost certainly will also be unavailable. Marmol has had 2 of the last 3 days off, but I still hope they only use him for 1 tomorrow. Lieber could possibly go 2. Howry should probably go only 1, but could go 2 if he's efficient. Hart could go 1 or 2 if he can get out of the inning this time (he threw 20 pitches tonight to get 1 out). Eyre and Cotts should be ready to take on the middle of the Padres lineup again. So they have barely enough, but they really could use a deep game by one of these starting pitchers. Hopefully Lilly can rebound from his terrible last start and go at least 6 in this game, and the Cubs can start to get some of their bullpen arms rested.
  4. CubColtPacer
    It's certainly a different time in the Cubs history when the starting rotation is 3rd in the NL in ERA and is labeled a "weakness". Not that I completely disagree..I understand the concern. But normally a ranking like that would be the crowning achievement of the team, and certainly not the weakness. It's nice to have to figure out how to make a well above average part even better rather than the alternative in recent years of struggling to maintain average production in every area.
  5. CubColtPacer
    Scott Eyre this season: 6 1/3 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 8 K. I'm particularly impressed by the only 1 walk figure so far. BTW, he's thrown 12 pitches tonight so far, and 11 have been for strikes.
  6. CubColtPacer
    Wuertz time. I'm always in favor of letting the pitcher hit when you're going to pull him anyway. I think we're a little short on the bench with Fukudome unavailable and 13 pitchers. Miles claims Fukudome is available, didn't he? He did. Eyre better pitch the flippin 7th. I think he will with Giles and Gonzalez both coming up. If he struggles and has runners on for Kouzmanoff though, I wouldn't put it past Lou to pull him then.
  7. CubColtPacer
    Wuertz time. I'm always in favor of letting the pitcher hit when you're going to pull him anyway. I think we're a little short on the bench with Fukudome unavailable and 13 pitchers. Miles claims Fukudome is available, didn't he? Why isn't he in the game? He got a day off because his family is in town. He is available to pinch-hit though. Hopefully this has more to do with the fact that it's Wuertz's 4th day in a row, and less to do with the fact that Lou doesn't trust him. Putting Eyre in during this part of the order is the best use for him though, and he is much more rested than Wuertz is is.
  8. CubColtPacer
    Is Gameday wrong? They have DeRosa taking two balls, and then hitting the homer on the third pitch. Where in that is a hit and run? I assumed that it was a straight steal until you said that.
  9. CubColtPacer
    Marquis has to be one of the most frustrating pitchers I have ever seen. He's the type of pitcher that you have to let your emotion go and look after the game at his line, because he just does the dumbest things on the mound, and melts down half the time to boot. Watching him, it actually somewhat amazes me that there are 37 pitchers in the majors who have thrown at least 40 innings (so basically any starter who has pitched the majority of the season) that have a worse ERA than him. I said earlier in the year that I wasn't sure if 2008 or 2009 would be the year he would be really bad. I knew he would likely be decent for one, bad for the other. It looks like 2008 will be the bad year. He simply cannot find the plate, and for a guy who is hittable as he is, that doesn't produce good results. They either need to know what is wrong with his control right now and be taking steps to fix it, or they need to cut bait. If they don't know what's wrong, it's not likely to fix itself, and Marquis will continue to be only marginally effective without it.
  10. CubColtPacer
    Interesting issue comes up with this. How much rest do you think is given to a player with a full day off, vs a player who only plays 5-6 innings? For example, DeRosa has been getting a lot of starts. But he also has been coming out of a lot of games, especially lately. Can he play in more games because of that? Or does he need the same number of true days off? I definitely agree with you on both Theriot and Soto. Lou's starting to work Blanco in a little more and promises that Soto will get regular rest as the weather continues to be warm, but I'm taking a wait and see approach on that.
  11. CubColtPacer
    It says in play run(s) like it does for a sac fly. Of course, in the situation that you're describing, it would probably take 5 minutes to say anything because it was so confused.
  12. CubColtPacer
    The answer is yes. If Ward isn't ready (and the hopeful target date for his return is that series) I think the Cubs should be able to bring Hoffpauir back up right before the Toronto series starts. I believe the rule is 10 days, and that should be precisely 10 days. At worst, they'll be able to bring him up after the first Toronto game.
  13. CubColtPacer
    When you say the bullpen you mean Marmol and Wood. Everyone else should be rested. Even though he's only thrown to a couple batters each game, Wuertz has still thrown 3 days straight. It's hard to ask any pitcher to go 4 days in a row, no matter how many pitches they've thrown the previous day, and it's especially true for a guy like Wuertz, who from reports needs regular rest more than most bullpen pitchers do.
  14. CubColtPacer
    I disagree. The two pitchers with most chance of injury if you use them tonight are Wuertz and Wood. Those are the pitchers you need to protect most in tonight's game. Marmol's right behind them in the short-term. With him, the bigger concern is the long-term. Once they get the bullpen rested again, they need to start sitting him more in order to get his pace for innings in a season down closer to 90 instead of 103. It would be wonderful if it started tonight, but they shouldn't throw Wuertz or Wood out in a very risky situation for them in order to do it.
  15. CubColtPacer
    I'll second that. My guess at the lineup: Soriano Theriot Lee Ramirez Soto Cedeno DeRosa Johnson Marquis
  16. CubColtPacer
    I'd imagine Wood is probably a little closer to unavailable than Marmol is because Wood would be going 3 days in a row, which the organization doesn't want to do very often, and Marmol had the off day on Sunday. Both have pitched 4 out of 5 games though, so while I'd pitch Marmol before Wood, I don't really want to pitch either of them. The Cubs need to be patient against Ledezma tonight. He's extremely shaky with his control and tends to throw a lot of pitches. He does strike out a decent number, so he may be able to get out of a few jams, but if they remain patient he'll be out by the end of the 5th tonight, and if they can get the big hit he could very well be out quicker than that.
  17. CubColtPacer
    I really do like the attitude of Edmonds in this article. Here are a couple of snippets: And this last quote about the fans in Chicago: http://chicago.cubs.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20080602&content_id=2825326&vkey=news_chc&fext=.jsp&c_id=chc
  18. CubColtPacer
    If he's either really good or really terrible, I'd leave him out there for a while tonight. If he's in that in between zone (5-6 innings, 3-4 runs) and the game is close, I'd pull him. 2 innings of your bullpen saved is not enough reward to hurt your chances of winning by continuing to throw a tired Marquis out there. I wouldn't pull him before the end of the 5th for almost any circumstance though. BTW, I just read that Fukudome is getting the night off tonight. His wife and his recently born son are with him for the first time all season, and Lou is giving him the day off so he can concentrate on them.
  19. CubColtPacer
    Cedeno's started 3 out of the last 16 games at SS (and 2 out of the last 7). I hope that continues and Theriot doesn't have any stretches like he did earlier in May where he started 23 straight games. Cedeno once a week or so at SS should be enough to keep Theriot pretty fresh.
  20. CubColtPacer
    Once again? Z had 5 starts last year coming off a high pitch count (120 or more) 4 of them were quality starts. 9 innings, 1 run 8 innings, 1 run 7 innings, 3 runs 6 2/3 innings, 0 runs 5 innings, 6 runs for a total ERA of 2.77 after a high pitch count last year, which is quite a bit better than his ERA for the season last year. Taking a quick look through game logs from previous seasons (when Z was over 120 with some regularity) it does not look like Z was noticeably worse coming off high pitch counts than any other time.
  21. CubColtPacer
    I think part of that was some carryover from the last few games when Lou pulled Wuertz under similar circumstances. He hasn't been good entering the game the last few appearances, and Lou hasn't given him a very long leash either. Wuertz's last 7 appearances: 4 2/3 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 6 BB, 4 K That's an ERA of 1.93, but a WHIP of 2.57. I can tell you one thing. If Lou's going to pull Wuertz that quickly when he isn't good, then he needs to go back to making sure to pitch him 2 or 2 1/3 innings when he is good. I would support 13 pitchers for now. Bring up Hart, hopefully one of the next 2 games is a blowout and he can throw 4 innings, the rest of the bullpen can get a much needed day off, and he can go right back to AAA after the ballgame.
  22. CubColtPacer
    Scratch Wuertz from that list. Lou hasn't asked any reliever to go 4 days in a row this year (or last year if I remember right), and I doubt he starts with Wuertz.
  23. CubColtPacer
    That's the part I don't understand. I was understanding the bullpen usage until the 9th. In the 9th, Eyre needed to be brought in to face the same left-handers that Cotts faced in the 7th. No need to throw Marmol out there for more than the 2 outs he got in the 8th when you have a great situation for a left-hander to pitch.
  24. CubColtPacer
    I'm hoping the Cubs offense takes care of this for Lou. Because I believe Lou would bring in Marmol in a game of 5 or less runs. The Cubs just need to blow the doors open for a few days (Till the 2nd game of the Dodgers) to get Marmol some rest. I still don't know why Lou took Lieber out after 1 inning. Maybe he's forseeing a short outing by Marquis tomorrow, but I wanted Lieber to go through the 7th, then use anyone but Marmol and Wood for the last 2. I know it's a 4 run lead, but it's still the 7th inning, and the lead can get a lot closer a lot quicker if you leave Lieber in to face a lot of left-handers. They've had over an .800 OPS against him each of the last 6 years that I can find data on, including a 1.242 OPS so far this year. With the top of the Padres order coming up, 3 out of 4 being left-handers, and the 5th being a pinch-hitter for the pitcher that will also be left-handed, you're basically asking the Padres to come back if you leave Lieber in there.
  25. CubColtPacer
    absolutely cannot use marmol or wood tomorrow night. Marquis pretty much has to go more than 5 for that to happen. Because Wuertz is almost certainly unavailable for tomorrow, and Lieber can probably only pitch 1 inning tomorrow. All the other pitchers better be effective or else there won't be much left to turn to.
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