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It's an interesting question right now because Soriano is pretty bad out there at the moment. At the same time, last year Yost kept pulling Braun for a defensive replacement. The Brewers lost some games after the other team tied it up anyway, and then Braun wasn't available to hit and Yost was criticized. It's really a tough question to determine. Is the chance of a ball going out to LF that Soriano will mess up so great that it's worth losing his bat later if the opponent ties it up anyway? This is a gamble whichever way Lou decides. There's not really any good option.

I don't think it really matters to a pitcher if they go: start, off day, off day, side session, off day, start or if they go: start, off day, side session, off day, off day, start It's still essentially the same thing. The fact that he got taken out a little early of Friday's night game probably helped as well. Now if the game had continued, my gut feeling would be that Volquez would have thrown 20-25 more pitches. That would have been a problem. The amount he threw though was a decent side session.

Yes, Indiana basketball is relevant, just as I said. Illinois is not. What are you not comprehending? Clearly something, because if you had understood what I said, the entire second sentence of your response would have been unnecessary. How is a team with 2 returning scholarship players relevant? Illinois is a borderline tourney team next year, but I think even even the homer-iest of IU fans would tell you Illinois is a better team next year and '09 barring some big gets by Crean. I think that's exactly why he believes IU is relevant because of the blowup of the roster, the coach, everything. That's all news in the college basketball world, and IU has had a lot of news coverage over the last 3 months. Being that they'll be terrible next year and haven't been for a long, long time, that will also be news. Illinois, on the other hand, in his opinion will be mediocre with very little controversy. Their relevance probably comes back in 09 when the first of their huge recruits shows up. Of course, he's taking everything from a national perspective, when the Illinois discussion on this board is based on a local perspective. It doesn't matter that Illinois 08 isn't a big deal nationally because the steps being taken are a big deal to Illinois and Big 10 fans, which makes it relevant to this thread. Not everything needs to rise to the level of national news.

He's hit batters 3 times to start an inning, and walked 1 batter to start an inning. He has 5 hit by pitches and 5 walks overall. 2 of the 5 walks have been of the intentional variety. He has had a problem with hitting people, but he's been simply great with not walking them. 3 unintentional walks in 25 2/3 innings is actually pretty unbelievable for any pitcher, and simply astounding for a guy like Wood. How many of the hit batters bat lefty? I'll go ahead and track both while I'm at it: On 3/31, he hit Weeks (right-hander) and IBB'd Fielder On April 13th, he hit Dobbs (left-hander) and walked Burrell (right-hander). On May 1st, he hit Counsell (left-hander) and walked Weeks (right-hander) On May 11th, he hit Salazar (left-hander) On May 14th, he walked Gerut (left-hander) On May 24th, he hit Mientkiewicz (left-hander) and IBB'd McLouth. So 4 out of the 5 guys he hit were left-handers, and 1 out of the 3 guys that he unintentionally walked. As you can see, those 10 walks/hit batters have also been jammed into just 6 of his appearances. He has not done either in 18 of his 24 appearances.

Not really. They have an off day tomorrow. Cueto remains the scheduled starter for Tuesday. Wenesday is a little tricky. Can you pitch Harang or Volquez on 2 days rest after this outing? Volquez in particular shouldn't have any problem, as he basically threw a side session out there. Thursday Arroyo goes on normal rest. Friday they're fine going with either Belisle or whoever you didn't pitch out of Harang/Volquez.

HAHAHAHA The Reds have now used 23 of their 25 players. If I'm counting correctly, it's actually 24. Arroyo was used as a pinch-hitter several innings ago. They have Cueto left. That's it.

It's pretty obvious the Padres don't care about Josh Banks's arm, extra innings or not. He threw 42 pitches yesterday, and is now up to 72 pitches today with 2 outs in the 18th.

He's hit batters 3 times to start an inning, and walked 1 batter to start an inning. He has 5 hit by pitches and 5 walks overall. 2 of the 5 walks have been of the intentional variety. He has had a problem with hitting people, but he's been simply great with not walking them. 3 unintentional walks in 25 2/3 innings is actually pretty unbelievable for any pitcher, and simply astounding for a guy like Wood.

The Reds have now resorted to using Aaron Harang out of the bullpen as his side session. He's also the 17th pitcher to enter this game between the two teams combined (not counting Bronson Arroyo, who pinch-hit but didn't pitch).

Of course if we could trade him for value, we would. Just because of his contract, not because of his production. But I don't understand the winning percentage argument. Last year, the Cubs were 12-16 without him. Most of those games came in August, which happened to be the Cubs only losing month of the last 4 months. And by the way. The Cubs this year had won 6 out of 8 before Soriano went down (not counting the game he got hurt in the first inning). They then won 10 out of 15 with him gone (counting the game he went down in the first). This had absolutely nothing to do with the people who replaced Soriano. The people who were in the lineup in place of Soriano were absolutely terrible during those 15 days. The Cubs were just hot before Soriano left, and they continued to remain hot. Since then, most of the Cubs bats have cooled down. There's absolutely no evidence to say that Soriano going down had anything to do with the Cubs hot streak. They were hot when he was cold, and they continued to remain hot when his replacements were cold.

It's a leverage thing because you guys are arguing that every situation is exactly the same, which is incorrect. Let's take the usage of Marmol as a primary example. You have Marmol available to get exactly three outs in a given game and you know he's going to give you three outs regardless. No more, no less. Would you rather have him come in with the Cubs up one in the seventh inning, the bases loaded and no outs or in the ninth with the Cubs up one with nobody on and nobody out? It's the former and anyone here with half a brain would pick that situation. Why? Because it's the higher leverage situation and the Cubs are more likely to lose the game in the seventh than in the ninth in that scenario. Soriano making a misplay on the 27th out instead of the 10th out with the situations being the same (same score, runners on, outs, etc.) is obviously going to be more important because it's the 27th out. Just like a guy hitting a solo home run with the game tied in the bottom of the ninth is more important than a guy hitting a home run in the bottom of the first. Why? Because there are fewer outs left in the game and that is the limiting factor of a baseball game. You're right, Marmol is the perfect example. But his argument works against you, not for you. The entire point of leaving Marmol as not the closer is that the 25th-27th outs are no more important than any of the outs before that. All that matters is that he's used in situations that maximize him preventing runs for the game overall. If runs given up in the 9th really were more important, then Marmol should be the closer from now on. Now, there is one time I can buy that the run being given up in the 9th is a problem. That's if the leading team has changed their strategy and not scored as many runs as they otherwise could have because they're leading, such as putting in defensive replacements. The Cubs never did that today. They tried their best to score runs all the way throughout the game. So in today's game, Soriano giving up a run counted the same if it happened in the 7th as in the 9th. The Cubs would have made the same decisions and sent up the same hitters to the plate. The only difference was the psychological impact it had on the team by being the last out, and I'll leave it to everyone individually to decide how much a play like that has a psychological impact on a team.

I've never once heard anything of this until this thread... Show me where this happened and I'll give it to you. http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=195450

Considering that that play cost us a win, yeah, I'd say it was pretty important. So if a player goes 0-6 going into the 15th inning, and then gets a game-winning hit, he's a bigger hero than another player who hits 2 home runs in the first 5 innings of the game, but then struck out with runners on twice in extra innings?

If you had to take these performances from a player every day, which one would you not want to take? The guy who went 6 innings, 10 hits, 2 walks, only had 2 strikeouts, and gave up 5 extra base hits including 3 home runs. He ended up giving 4 runs. The guy who went 0 for 5 with 2 K's. The guy who went 0 for 4 with a walk The guy who went 1 for 4 with a home run and a walk, and also had a misplay that let in a run. I would win a lot more games taking Soriano's performance everyday rather than Fukudome's or Lilly's. If the Cubs had been behind from the beginning of the game until the end, Lilly would have been the one blamed. Just because the Cubs took the lead and Soriano's misplay happened to be the 27th out rather than the 10th, that means it's a lot more important?

Soriano definitely wasn't the worst part of the day. Lilly was definitely the worst today. 12 baserunners in 6 innings, including 3 home runs and 2 doubles. He's incredibly lucky that he only gave up 4 in his 6 innings. Fukudome also had a tough day. 0-5 with 2 K's and Theriot wasn't much better, going 0-4 with a walk. Soriano's misplay might have looked the most ridiculous, but the timing of the play is the only reason people are blaming him. Overall, his day was ok.

There were runners on first and second with one out. Lou brought Eyre in to face LaRoche. After LaRoche struck out, Lou decided to bring Wuertz in to try to get the next guy out and end the inning. Since he only had Wuertz and Ascanio left, Lou had to use Wuertz for more than 1 inning. Wuertz was due up 3rd the next inning, so the only way to keep Wuertz from batting was to doubleswitch. Blanco was the last guy remaining on the bench, and based on where the Cubs were in the lineup (they had just finished with Ramirez the previous inning) Lee was the only candidate to be replaced. Lou gambled that the Cubs could score before they got all the way back around to Lee's spot. The mistake lies in bringing in Wuertz, not the double switch. If you let Eyre pitch to one more batter, you can then pinch-hit for him the next inning and then bring in Wuertz. Once Lou pulled Eyre, the double switch made sense, but I'd rather gamble that Eyre can get the next batter out then be forced into that decision. I actually thought that the decision to bunt with Blanco was a poor one. He had walked the previous two hitters. Blanco is better against left-handers than right-handers. It was a 1-0 count. I'd let him take a strike (showing bunt) and hope that the pitcher either continues to be wild or attempts to groove one over expecting the bunt attempt.

The Pirates could struggle with bullpen pitchers today. They had 2 pitchers go 50+ pitches Friday night (I guess technically they could bring them back, but it would be awfully fast for that many pitches). Grabow threw 46 pitches last night, so he's out, and Capps threw 32, so he can throw 1 inning max. So we'll likely see a lot of Osoria and Marte today out of the bullpen. For the Cubs, Wood's the only guy who is probably completely out, and Wuertz and maybe Lieber are questionable. The others will be ready to go.

Because then Wuertz would have to come out of the game, and the Cubs need to have him pitch multiple innings. The pitcher's spot was due up 3rd the next inning. You either have Wuertz bat for himself (which does pretty severe damage to you scoring in the 13th) or you double switch, take your best hitter out, and hope that you win it before he has too many turns at bat. Lou's gambling and trying to win it in the next 2 innings.

Durability is huge with organizations. Loaiza only pitched 40 innings last year, and was worse in those innings than Marquis has been either last year or this year (Marquis with a 4.60 ERA, Loaiza had a 5.79 ERA). Then, he came back this year, and while being unlucky had put up a 5.63 ERA, which is quite a bit worse than Marquis's 4.83 to date. Add that into the fact that Loaiza is 36 years old and in the final year of the contract (which is much easier for GM's to swallow and cut) and there's a huge difference between those two situations.

That was him all year long, even when he was hot. But I do agree the next right-handers the Cubs face he needs to sit down for a game or two and catch his breath.

Interesting. I like this lineup against left-handers.

The Pirates are the team keeping Marquis afloat this year. Hopefully he can pitch well against them for the 3rd straight time this year.

Thought that I'd give a little section of the recent Cubs.com article: Soriano is certainly an...interesting individual. Hopefully the threat of possibly going back on the DL is enough for him to test it a little more.

I think I'd rather see the Cubs face Kershaw than Billingsly, even though I really wouldn't want to see either of them.

And it gets even more interesting. Estes' no-no is going and Volquez has 9 K's through 4 but they're in a rain delay. I can't wait for Dusty to bring Volquez back after an hour and a half delay and have him throw 110 pitches. Or just have him throw 110+ just because. He's at 63 through 4 innings. Estes's no-no actually got broken up right before the delay with a Hairston single. And it will be interesting to see if Volquez comes back. They decided to not bring him back the last time there was a rain delay like this when he was at 75 pitches, but that was also only his 2nd start of the year as well.