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Yet...I'm not completely convinced he won't pitch the 9th. Although as I think about it more, he probably won't. If Lou was trying to save him from pitching the 8th, he probably won't want him to pitch in the 9th. And part of Marmol's high innings total has been just his unbelievable effectiveness. He has had a similar number of appearances to other Cubs relievers (30 for Marmol, 29 for Wood, 28 for Howry, 27 for Wuertz) but Howry and Wuertz especially had some outings where they had to leave early due to ineffectiveness, and therefore don't have as many innings. It's been a tough week for resting Marmol. lots of wins (and Marmol is used a lot more in leads then trailing), lots of close games, and starters who have taxed the bullpen. I'm worried about his total workload, but I can't really point to a series of days where he has been really overworked. It's just that he is rarely underworked in any week, and therefore the innings are piling up.

Edmonds has something like an .865 OPS as a Cub now. Still only 37 plate appearances, so a lot could change. 6 of his 10 hits with the team have gone for extra bases.

If it makes you feel any better (other then the argument that the Hamilton could have been kept over Pagan, which I keep seeing, is false considering that Pagan didn't make the team in Spring Training 07, but I digress): The Reds had connections from Hamilton's past that made it much easier to stay clean in his early days with the team. It was the perfect situation for him, and there still is the distinct possibility that without that support system that he would have relapsed with the Cubs.

Should Smith be a little more on the radar? He put up pretty good numbers last year, and has put up good numbers again this year. I know he's a 23 year old in A ball, which isn't good, but he's also only in his first full year of professional baseball. I'm not sure what his defense is like, but he really should be promoted at mid-season.

You mean a young player who gets a handful of ABs each week, often in a pitch-hitting role, isn't excelling? No! I'm just saying that for those people who say that the season he has had right now is the reason he should be getting at-bats. If you throw out Cedeno's second month on the basis that he's not getting regular at-bats, it's hard not to throw out the first month on a similar basis. He played only slightly less sporadically in April then he did in May. The only debate is between him and Theriot. There is no way that we should put Theriot and Cedeno together, even in the interleague lineup, on a regular basis without some injuries. That's why I was countering the argument that UMfan stated that: It's simply not. If Theriot gets put in the lineup (and it's certainly not criminal that he's in over Cedeno right now) then Cedeno does not have a spot other then being a spot starter. Cedeno's not the best hitter on the bench that would be the logical choice to put in during a DH situation, and there's an argument to if he's even the second best hitter on the bench. I don't really want to get into the Cedeno/Theriot yet again. But people had issues with Cedeno's pro career before this year. When he put together a great start in sporadic time, that still wasn't enough. The fact that he didn't keep up those numbers in even more sporadic ABs shouldn't surprise anyone. I don't contend Cedeno should start based on his 1 great month this season. But to suggest that his ABs were as sporadic in April as they were in May is just wrong. During Soriano's injury, Cedeno had a stretch where he had at least 3 ABs in 8 out of 9 games. Those were 33 of the 45 ABs he had in May - 33 ABs in 9 game w/ just 1 day off is regular playing time. He had 13 hits, including 4 doubles and a HR, and 2 BBs during that time. In April, Theriot was also very good in both OBP and SLG (not as good as Cedeno in either, but very good). Since then, Theriot's power numbers have plummeted so he was at about .400/.340/.740 for the month of May. I'll take that OBP from Theriot and I'd much rather have the .400/.340 line than vice versa from him. But I don't think it's fair to say Cedeno got the same opportunities in May that he had in April, so comparing the numbers without context is horribly misleading. True, but Cedeno didn't have much time before that or after that in April, while in May he had a 2 day, then a 3 out of 4 day, then a 3 out of 5 days where he had at least 3 at-bats. It was a little more split, but it was definitely less sporadic then him just getting 1 start every 6 days, and he only finished with 6 less plate appearances than he did in April. The thing about bench players is that they're typically going to get more starts when they're hot, especially with a manger like Lou. Injuries play a factor in that as well (sometimes players are pressed in service even when they're cold, and sometimes players get hot and are blocked by other hot players) If Cedeno hadn't outperformed what Fontenot had did in April in the first couple games of his big stretch, he never would have gotten to start 8 out of 9 games. Did Cedeno get more starts in April because he was hot, or was he hot because he got more starts? Did he go cold in May because of a lack of playing time, or did he not get more than a couple starts in a row because he didn't do anything in those 2 games? It's a tough conundrum to answer, and I don't think it's fair to say that he didn't do anything in May because of lack of playing time when in April the very reason he got more playing time was because he was hitting better to begin with.

You mean a young player who gets a handful of ABs each week, often in a pitch-hitting role, isn't excelling? No! I'm just saying that for those people who say that the season he has had right now is the reason he should be getting at-bats. If you throw out Cedeno's second month on the basis that he's not getting regular at-bats, it's hard not to throw out the first month on a similar basis. He played a little less sporadically in April, but where is the line to be drawn? The only debate is between him and Theriot. There is no way that we should put Theriot and Cedeno together, even in the interleague lineup, on a regular basis without some injuries. That's why I was countering the argument that UMfan stated that: It's simply not. If Theriot gets put in the lineup (and it's certainly not criminal that he's in over Cedeno right now) then Cedeno does not have a spot other then being a spot starter. Cedeno's not the best hitter on the bench that would be the logical choice to put in during a DH situation, and there's an argument to if he's even the second best hitter on the bench.

He had a 3 IP, 3 H, 3 ER, 5 K, 3 BB night on Friday. He'll start again on Wednesday.

I think you'll see Ward/Hoffpauir in the 5th spot against right-handers. You might also see a lineup 1 day where Cedeno is in at SS batting 9th. That would make Fukudome 2nd, Ward 5th, Soto 6th, Edmonds 7th, and DeRosa 8th. If Blanco does play, he'll almost certainly bat 9th. I think Cedeno would also get a start at 2nd against one of the left-handers (DeRosa to LF, Soriano to DH) although considering Cedeno's splits in the major leagues, that's not particularly good for him. Cedeno's numbers have continued to fall off, and his peripherals indicate that they will continue to fall (although his good ISOD pretty much prevents him from falling to 2006 levels). I don't see the concern with him getting consistent at-bats right now.

Ward's already eligible to come off. The latest note is that Piniella hopes that he's ready to come back by the Toronto series on June 13th.

Ward has had 25 at-bats this year, has an .812 OPS, and the only reason he doesn't have any higher is that because he's been very unlucky with his BABIP (20.0% LD percentage and a .211 BABIP..it's rather hard to get much more unlucky then that). Even with him being that unlucky, he's still putting up a .200/.412/.400 line. He seems pretty likely to put up over an 850 OPS once again this year. And anybody is ready to drop him because Micah Hoffpauir has had a great 19 at-bats? Remember, they're both injury prone. The best way to make sure the Cubs have 1 of them available all season is to send Hoffpauir to the minors. Sure, it's sad for him that there's no spot for him right now, but he'll get his chance if Ward gets hurt again, and he'll almost certainly replace Ward after the season. There's no real reason to do it right now though. At the same time though, Hoffpauir's presence means that Ward should make sure he's absolutely 100% before returning to the team.

Cabrera has amazing upside. They're not going to trade him when he finally looks like he's putting it together unless they're blown away by an offer. he only looks like he's putting it together because he has a lower ERA. his BABIP this year is .245 and his K/BB is a less-than-stellar 44/32 in 80 innings pitched. I was more talking about what I think Baltimore's perception will be of him. I think he's fools gold right now, but I'm sure they're very pleased at what he's done.

Rivera at age 38, and he has an ERA of 0.36 and a WHIP of 0.52. That's absolutely amazing.

Cabrera has amazing upside. They're not going to trade him when he finally looks like he's putting it together unless they're blown away by an offer. Pie+Gallagher+1-2 others are not going to do it. They would definitely need Hill in there. With that said, there's no way the Cubs should pay anywhere close to that for Cabrera.

Ehhhhhh...Harden's a horrifying arm injury waiting to happen and Blanton is mediocre. I'd take a pass on those two. This and I never, ever want Hendry trading with Beane again As far as I remember, the only player that traded hands between those two clubs that became an impact player for their new team was Michael Barrett, and that was to the Cubs benefit. I don't see why Hendry should be scared of trading with Beane. They are good friends, and if Beane was that much better at trading he probably would have absolutely fleeced Hendry at least once over the last 5 years, and he just hasn't. I don't particularly want Harden or Blanton though. You're going to be paying too much because other clubs know you need "the missing piece", and both of those guys have too many question marks to justify spending that inflated value on.

The Central is going to end the day 25 games over .500. That's quite a bit for a division that many thought would be among the worst in the majors. To compare among the other NL divisions, right now the East is 9 games over .500 and the West is an absurd 33 games under .500.

This is also a main reason why I'm not too worried about this. Here's Lou on why Dempster left early today (courtesy of Cubs.com):

From Cubs.com:

I doubt he'll be starting in the Cubs series. They say he has a chance to start sometime next week. He had a throwing session yesterday, and is supposed to throw off the mound tomorrow. I doubt they would want to start him before Friday at the very earliest. I'm kind of glad Estes isn't starting. He's been pretty effective so far, and now with so many pitchers out for the Padres they'll probably have to start a guy on a limited pitch count, and then the Cubs can get into that bullpen early.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGACNG7-zsI no, not a rickroll, an athlete who becomes batman (snickers ad) also, I'm glad that comcast ondemand now shows Cubs games for free the night of the game. Being forced into Babies R Us during Cubs games sucks I'm guessing that's also just for the Chicago viewing area, but you had me excited for a moment.

When he entered the game in the 8th, it was only a 3 run game, so he gets the save. Ascanio was very wild tonight but effective. 2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 4 BB, 3 K

Pie's 2 of 5 with a triple and a homerun. He did pop up a bunt for an out, so unfortunately I can see the coaching staff not being too happy with that. I'm just glad to see him getting hot again.

I don't think one start, no matter how successful it is, will convince the Cubs to pull him up. He'll need 2-3 starts with pretty effective results and decent to good control strung together. And unless Marquis starts raising that ERA significantly over 5, I doubt the Marquis era will end when Hill comes back.

I think that's more referring to the fact that he's not going to switch positions like many signed prospects do. If he gets to the majors, it will be as a SS, instead of him needing to switch to a less demanding position like 3rd or 2nd as he moves up the system.

Rich Hill's first: 2 walks, 2 strikeouts looking, and a long flyout to center. 22 pitches-12 strikes, 10 balls. 5 were swung at. 3 fouls, 1 strike swinging, 1 put into play. And his second-1 walk, 2 strikeouts, and a flyout. 41 pitches through 2. 24 strikes, 17 balls. His 3rd had better control, but worse results. 2 singles and a 3 run homer to go along with 1 fly out, 1 groundout, and 1 strikeout. 66 pitches through 3. 42 strikes, 24 balls. His line: 3 IP, 3 H, 3 ER, 3 BB, 5 K And that ends up being his final line of the night.

I think Baker just tied a record. 4 doubles now.