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CubColtPacer

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Everything posted by CubColtPacer

  1. CubColtPacer
    Agreed. Which is why, going back to the original point, I don't particularly believe him when he talks about needing Hill. I don't know why Lou would specifically mention that to the Reds radio guys in a casual conversation that's not on the air (people he certainly doesn't need to impress) that the Cubs "absolutely need Hill to be himself in order for the team to win this year". The Reds radio guys talked about it as that Lou thought it was one of the biggest keys to the whole season. I'm inclined to give the benefit of the doubt. There's just no real reason why he would feel the need to volunteer that to the opposing team's radio guys if he didn't believe it.
  2. CubColtPacer
    That might be going a bit crazy with the Pie love. If we could get Griffey cheap enough, Id do it in a heartbeat. Nope, Pie more than makes up for any possible difference with the bat with his glove. Griffey would be a brutal defensive CF. I doubt they'd start Griffey in CF is they traded for him. Griffey is still not a good bet. There's no reason to trade resources for a guy who will not even likely still be in the lineup when the playoffs roll around. Griffey might be an upgrade during the season, he may not. Add that to the huge injury risk and there's just not much reason to consider him, especially when considering that the Reds might trade him, but they aren't likely to give him away for less than 1 or 2 top 15 prospects.
  3. CubColtPacer
    Yeah, DeRosa has not started 1 game all season. He has been playing way too much. Note that this is not because of his talent level, but DeRosa has shown to be a player who tires and is not a good 155 game starter. They really need to rest him more like once a week.
  4. CubColtPacer
    To be honest, we don't know how much fault that is of Theriot's, and how much it is of Lou's. Is Lou giving him the general green light, or is Lou calling steal attempts from the dugout? We know for sure that Theriot is not going to add much positive value from his SB's this year because of the CS (even if he steals the next 15 in a row). Assigning blame for CS is tricky though because there has never been clarification on if Lou is the one who's telling him to run. Now his outs made at third base on general baserunning plays? Those are open season.
  5. CubColtPacer
    The only interesting note that I heard on the Reds radio broadcast last night was that Lou had told them in the clubouse that "We have to have Rich Hill back to win this season. We need him badly". Other then that they bashed Pie's hitting, although a little more complimentary of his defense than the TV guys (especially after the catch, which for the first 3-4 seconds they had announced it as a homerun). They implied that Soto wasn't great, but I could have misinterpreted that as it was a throwaway comment relating to Cueto coming out of the game.
  6. CubColtPacer
    Pat Burrell...did I get it right? :)
  7. CubColtPacer
    Other then the fact that he's been a good hitter to start the season? (.844 OPS currently) Anyway, 13 pitchers really isn't a good idea. There are side benefits. They want to stretch out Marshall, which is good whether he goes to the rotation or just replaces Gallagher as the long man so Gallagher can be a starter somewhere. Lou also specifically mentioned trying to lower the workload on Marmol. So the reasons for doing it are solid, but I just think there are much better ways of doing it than losing another bench player when you're already thin there, especially a guy who needs some starts in the majors like Pie does.
  8. CubColtPacer
    Unless they skip him (which I've heard they're considering but no official word) the Cubs scheduled starter is Marquis for that game.
  9. CubColtPacer
    The three you mentioned are and were better prospects than Vitters. A lot of people were projecting Josh to fall after a terrible senior year. How the heck does a team with our money let great prospects drop past us because of signability? I just looked at 10 mock drafts, and not a single one had Vitters below 4. Many of them said the Pirates would be thrilled if the Cubs let Vitters pass at 3. I'm not saying that Vitters was the best pick the Cubs could have made, but he definitely was a consensus top 5 guy. And most people believe the Cubs went the way they did last year because of the uncertainty of the ownership situation, which is why they mostly stayed away from the high bonus guys (others believe it's because of the threats that MLB gave to them, but I have a hard time they'd take those that seriously).
  10. CubColtPacer
    Not unless he batted 30 times in the 1st 2 games of the season. By game 3, he was already sitting vs. a RHP. It was game 5, but the point remains.
  11. CubColtPacer
    Again, that's speculation on my part. This from today's Peoria Journal-Star: And here is more info from courtesy of Cubs.com:
  12. CubColtPacer
    I'm just posting to make sure I'm not crazy. I have Russell Martin already on my team, and my starting pitching has already lost Pedro, Gallardo, Hill, and Smoltz. I still have Peavy, Lincecum, Jered Weaver, and I just picked up Adam Wainwright and Volquez. Would it be smart to trade for Verlander, stick him on my bench for a month, and hope he returns to the form of last year rather than keep Soto? My guess is that it's a smart move, but something is holding me back, so I thought I'd ask.
  13. CubColtPacer
    I might be an idiot, but I think Cleveland gets them. I think they are a decent team that would have been about 7th best in the West. 7th in the West? They have LeBron but they're not that good outside of him. I realize they made the Finals last year with just LeBron and a bunch of role players, but I don't think there's any chance they get past Boston in the second round. No I mean Boston as 7th in the West. Really? Yeah I like all the four teams left and Phoenix and Dallas better than them. I like the big three, but after that I don't. Rondo and Perkins are just bleh. Well, they played 30 games against the West this year. They went 25-5. So that means that in the other 22 games against the West and the 30 games against the East you'd have them going 26-26? Boston may not dominate in the playoffs (although there is certainly plenty of history for a team struggling in one round and then coming back and plying well in later rounds), but they didn't win 66 games just by being in the East. They thoroughly dominated both conferences during the season by being the most consistent team.
  14. CubColtPacer
    Johnson's the one who really is a problem. At least with Fontenot, he has the fact that he's hot and that Wellemeyer has had pretty big splits the last year and a half. With Johnson, Pie is playing better offensively lately, is better defensively, and the splits work in Pie's favor. There is no justification for starting Reed tonight.
  15. CubColtPacer
    Lieber is going to the rotation. Marshall will be playing LF. When a lefty comes up to bat, Marshall will run in from LF and pitch to that left hander. Leiber will run out to LF. Then, when a righty comes back up, Leiber will come back from LF and pitch again. Lou is calling it the craptastic two-handed monster. Lou actually almost did this with Marshall and Hart a couple weeks ago. I believe that Hart was going to play LF for one batter, then come back in to pitch, but he decided against it at the last minute.
  16. CubColtPacer
    If Aramis doesn't go, my guess is that Pie and Fontenot are both in the lineup tomorrow. I know Lou looks closely at the starting pitcher's splits because he has mentioned it several times. My guess is that he only really looks at closely the splits from last year and this year, and Wellemeyer brings this: 2007 vs left: .311/.391/.486 vs right: .200/.291/.335 2008 vs left: .262/.318/.443 vs right: .216/.282/.419 His career splits are not nearly as dramatic, but they are still there. Left-handers have a 44 point OPS advantage against him over his career. I think Lou will be much more concerned with this year and last year more than career numbers though. So I really doubt you'll see Cedeno in there once again, but I think you have a pretty decent shot of seeing Pie.
  17. CubColtPacer
    Probably, but the "outrageous" label is more about what we expect him to do in the future, rather than what he has done to date. For his actual production so far, his contract is at or below expected market value. Don't get me wrong...if I could trade him right now only paying a million or two of his contract, I'd do it in a heartbeat. I fully expect one of 08 or 09 will be a terrible year, although I haven't figured out which one yet. At least so far though, he's done the job. I thought he was only signed through 08? Unfortunately, no. If that were the case, the contract wouldn't look bad at all right now. Dempster's the one in the starting rotation only signed through the end of the year.
  18. CubColtPacer
    Its not so much the sending Hill down that bothers me. Its the trying to change stuff with a pitcher who was in the top 30-40 pitchers in all of baseball last year. Just leave him alone and let him pitch, but Lou has been pretty annoyed with Rich ever since he got the job, and its mind boggling. As for leaving Soriano in with the big lead today, I think the only other option would have been Ward. Murton can only PH just like Marshall can only face lefties. Murton's been off the team for a few days now. I think he meant they could have shifted Johnson over to LF instead of taking him out of the game.
  19. CubColtPacer
    Probably, but the "outrageous" label is more about what we expect him to do in the future, rather than what he has done to date. For his actual production so far, his contract is at or below expected market value. Don't get me wrong...if I could trade him right now only paying a million or two of his contract, I'd do it in a heartbeat. I fully expect one of 08 or 09 will be a terrible year, although I haven't figured out which one yet. At least so far though, he's done the job.
  20. CubColtPacer
    I agree with all of this. Pie should have gotten the start today. Cedeno should have started either yesterday or today (I don't care which position, but you need to give some PT to a guy who is playing that well). I could understand most of Marmol's usage patterns until today, and then Lou just baffled me throwing him 2 innings. And I also agree about Hill. He's going to get fixed a lot quicker down there because there will be no need for a quick hook. They'll let him struggle and get up close to his pitch count, and all those innings will just make it that much sooner that he's back up and is at last year's form once again. I think he left Soriano in today just to get him some more work and get him back up to game speed.
  21. CubColtPacer
    Tom Glavine, Bronson Arroyo, and Dontrelle Willis thank you for throwing them out of the league :D Seriously though, it is a problem. Marquis can maintain being a league average pitcher and stay ok, but he's certainly not earning himself any points with Piniella. I don't think he's on thin ice as long as he remains that way (unless he starts losing his control or having really short outings), but knowing Piniella, he could slide there pretty quickly. So far, he's done exactly what they signed him to do though. Put up league average production, and take the ball every time out. You just always have the feeling with Marquis though that the cliff is one or two starts away, even though he hasn't fallen so far. I think that's why he's so frustrating. You just never know what to expect out of him from game to game or even inning to inning.
  22. CubColtPacer
    The scary thing is that's a better lineup for the Reds than what they had before. Moving Votto and Encarnacion up in the order from 6 and 7 to 4 and 5 helps, dropping Keppinger from 2 to 7 also helps. That more than offsets dropping Dunn, which is the only silly part of the switch. Votto is the real big change. He's going to help them a lot more at 4 than he was at 7.
  23. CubColtPacer
    If the Cubs starting rotation continues like it has the first month, Gallagher will get plenty of work, just like Lieber has.
  24. CubColtPacer
    yep, LaRussa has totally lucked into the 3rd most manager victories of all time And Piniella is 14th, and would have had as high of winning percentage as LaRussa if he hadn't tried to manage TB. The only reason he isn't up there in total wins is because he's only managed approximately 3100 games to LaRussa's approximate 4500 games. So if you're going to make that argument for LaRussa, it's hard not to make it for Piniella as well.
  25. CubColtPacer
    25 pitches isn't bad, but when he threw 25 of them for no damn reason, and all the warmup pitches between innings, yes it could hurt him. FYP. I don't mind him getting 1 inning today, since he was the only guy that didn't throw yesterday. Those arms are valuable too, regardless of being lesser than Marmol. But you don't throw Marmol in the 9th. Put Marshall in, and you have all pitchers are your disposal tomorrow night. Marmol now may not be able to go tomorrow. But I'd imagine Lou would throw him in there, because it's a night game tomorrow. He wouldn't have to pitch til likely after 9PM CST, which gives him over 24 hours off. No reason Marshall couldnt go 2 innings today after throwing 1 pitch yesterday. But Lou needs his Loogy. He threw 4 pitches yesterday. And he's not used to being a reliever. Ask him to throw 2 innings, and he might be gone for 2 days before you can throw him again. I'd still have put him in the 9th though, and unless Wuertz's arm is sore (which happens sometimes without us knowing completely about it), then he should have used Wuertz in the 8th. So Marmol for 1 inning is not optimal but defensible. I don't think Marmol for 2 innings really has any defense.
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