CubColtPacer

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.

New to being a Cubs fan? "This has got to be Shawn Estes' last start." "Lenny Harris has surely played himself out a job." "At least we won't have to worry about Theriot starting at SS next year" (though this one isn't turning out so bad." "Well, at least Neifi is just a rental." "If we catch lightning in a bottle with Gaetti, great, but even if not it's not like he'll be back next year." "This has got to be Jason Marquis' last start." Fred McGriff is upset at his exclusion from this list. McGriff gets a pass thanks to his actual good production with the team.

It was kind of a rare situation. Usually a pitcher gets pulled before that because of either pitch count starting the inning, or trouble during the inning. Z was at 103 to begin the inning, so I can see going either way with throwing him out there again. Then he got the first 2 outs on 6 pitches. After that, the trouble was only halfway his fault, and he was still the pitcher I trusted most to get the 3rd out. Z's done this sort of long outing before, and he probably will again. This is a guy who throws 120+ pitches 5-6 times each year (5 last year, 7 the year before, 7 the year before that). This is his first one this year. He has even proven that he can go out and throw 120+ pitches in back to back outings before and have no ill effects (did that twice last year and once the year before that). At the same time, even though he's proven that, I'd rather try to limit his pitch count to less than 110 the next couple starts, just to be safe. But I'm not a big fan of pulling Z in the middle of an inning unless he isn't being effective, so if he starts an inning with less than 100 and goes up to 115 during the inning (in a close game of course), I'm ok with that. If it wasn't a close game, I'd want him pulled before that inning.

then what are they paying him for? does he sit all day in the corner and just masturbate? my whole point was if this guy was such a shrewd talent evaluator, maybe they'd have acquired a decent player or two during his tenure. i wasn't much blaming anybody, i just said that team's roster is awful. jesus, i don't even care that much about the guy either way. what's with this weird allegiance anyways? His tenure has been two months as an assistant to the GM. This is why blaming the current roster failure on DePo is silly. The allegiance stems from a management exec that is open about his decision making process on a blog, and takes SABR stats into account in the decision making process. His article today on why the Padres just made a trade is fascinating, really. Cro Magnon is right on the timeframe. It has been almost 2 years, not 2 months that DePodesta has been at his post. But Towers is a pretty strong G.M. We just don't know what has happened in that office over the last 2 years. Maybe the two of them have agreed on mostly everything, and Depodesta has whiffed on a lot of players. However, maybe DePodesta tried to suggest some good players that Towers wouldn't devote the money to. I'm not what you exactly call a supporter of Depodesta, but I have a hard time blaming him when you simply don't know which decisions he was heavily involved in and which ones he wasn't. The same thing goes if the Padres have success; credit cannot be given to him for that. Unless it specifically comes out that he was involved, it will be hard to attribute anything the Padres do to Depodesta. I know this is a little off topic, but why aren't you a supporter of DePo? Are you saying you think he'd make a bad GM? I can understand if you think he's overrated by some, he probably is. But I'm curious what you mean by that. I didn't mean that I think he would be bad. I'm rather neutral on him. I'm not jumping for joy if he was hired as the general manager of the Cubs, but I would be optimistic for the team's future. So essentially all I was saying was that I'm not one of the ones on here who would normally jump in to defend his GM record just because they like him and his philosophy. Fair enough, but I think his GM record is pretty good (I also like his philosophy). You think his GM record needs defending? I think his actual moves were pretty good, bordering on very good. DePodesta didn't quite realize when he was a GM that it was very risky to be so out of step with both the fans and ownership. I'm not shocked that he got fired whatsoever. He tried to move so quickly to rebuild an already pretty good team that he essentially put his own head on the chopping block if it went wrong, even if it were for just a year, and it did. If Depodesta wants to succeed, his best bet would be to go to a smaller market team that has been losing, and is willing to give him a little bit of a longer leash. I think he would do quite well in that position.

I'm curious to who you put in the rotation at the moment. I'd try to trade Marquis, and I would be willing to pick up a decent part of the contract to do it. I wouldn't DFA him at this point. Too much contract eaten, not enough benefit by another pitcher being in his place. Of course, how he pitches over the next couple weeks and how Gallagher does in the same timeframe could change that decision.