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The Cubs bullpen has been a little above average so far this year in the NL. Our starters have had so many short outings and the team has had so many extra innings games that I think it's easy to forget how many innings this bullpen has had to throw. They're going to give up some runs, but mostly they haven't been bad. There's nothing in Howry's splits from previous years to indicate that he's any worse against good teams than a normal reliever. When he's locating his fastball well, he's good against any team. When he's not, even teams like the Nationals light him up. He's been pretty effective as a 1 pitch pitcher for a long time now, and he'll likely come around and figure out how to locate it once again this year. Same goes for Wuertz. He's incredibly streaky. Later on in the season he'll go through his period where hitters aren't even come close to touching him, and he'll also go through stretches where he can't find the plate. That doesn't mean he's not a good reliever. As for the others, Marmol and Wood have shown so far that they were no flukes. Hart and Lieber are fine as long men/back end of the bullpen types. Marshall is fine as a LOOGY. Eyre will probably be used for full innings when he probably comes back in a week or so, and he'll do his usual get the bases loaded every inning and usually get out of it trick. The two pitchers who are the streakiest in the bullpen (Howry and Wuertz) are both down right now, and the bullpen is still a little better than league average. This bullpen will be just fine.

He's been better than half the people tonight, and that includes the 2 CS. Even if you take those out, he still had another at-bat he got on base, and his double before 1 of those CS drove in a run from first. I know the mental plays are very frustrating, but his game has still been better tonight than DeRosa, Soto, or Cedeno.

I still say the mistake was in the first substitution. After that, you cannot leave Ward up there to bat against a left-hander. When you then have a left-hander on the mound, you have to pinch-hit Blanco, and then when a right-hander comes into the game, you have to pinch-hit for him. If you trust Cedeno though, at most you have to use 2 extra players in that inning. This game and a game a few games ago proves that we need a good right-handed hitter on the bench though. Ward is going to get burned sometimes because they'll put a left-hander in the game, and we need a great pinch-hitter to make them pay for that move.

The Cubs will not pinch-hit for Blanco with the right-hander coming in. Is it going to be Pie or Fontenot? My guess is Fontenot.

Pinch-hitting Murton for Ward when the left-hander came in was the correct move, but it should have been done in the 9 spot. Cedeno and either Ward/Murton is better than Ward/Murton and probably Fontenot against a left-hander in the 9 spot.

I believe its 6 SB 4 CS. Don't forget one of those SB was because of a dropped catch at 3B in Pittsburgh, so realistically it should be 5 and 5 It really makes one wonder how he was 55 of his last 64 before that. He hasn't even been close on many of them this year.

Still very commendable for Dempster to bounce back after he couldn't find the plate in the first inning. 6 innings, 3 runs, 2 earned. Only 7 baserunners given up. Another good outing.

Did they eliminate the rule completely in the NFL? I can't remember if they just tweaked it or what. I know for sure they got rid of the 5 yard face mask, though. That irks me a tad bit. Pretty much the rule is completely gone. There's a very rare exception if the defender actually catches the receiver in the air and literally carries him out of bounds.

The dropped third strike is the dumbest rule in sports. No, in all of sports, that would be the inability to review force-out plays in football. That one doesn't count since it doesn't exist anymore :D. It will be interesting to see if they pinch-hit for Perez. 91 pitches, and he really hasn't pitched all that well, giving up 10 baserunners over his 5 innings.

The reverse is also true though. Blanco has come in and caught a couple innings 3-4 times when Soto started.

Samardzija leaves after 3 giving up 3 hits, 6 walks, and 3 runs. He also struck out 3. Just a very strange outing overall, and makes me wonder if he was trying a different pitch as his main pitch that caused him to both lose all control and yet have more strikeouts than normal.

Hmmm, well I would like to have had seen those two flipped. I think I'll stop trying to predict what Lou will do. My guess is that it isn't who Lou thinks is playing better, but he thinks that Theriot's skillset is better for the top of the lineup. If those two were at 7 and 8 in the order, Cedeno would hit 7th most of the time (as he did on April 12th, the only day that they have hit 7 and 8). That situation isn't going to happen very often though, because for Lou to bump Theriot down from the top 2 spots, you need to have both Soriano and Johnson in the lineup (maybe Fontenot, and maybe Pie if he's hitting well), and then you have to sneak Cedeno in there somehow.

If I didn't know they were going to lose in the WS beforehand and was still able to enjoy all the games, I'd definitely lock that in.

Replacing Blanco with Laird would be an upgrade as long as he doesn't cut into Geo's playing time. Speaking of which, is this finally the last year of that bloated backup catcher contract? Yes, this is finally the last year of that 2 year deal. Well, yes and no. There is a 3 million dollar club option for next year with a 300k buyout. That option could technically become guaranteed, but he'd need 170 games started between this year and last... which he wont come close. Yeah, I remembered the buyout later. Thanks for that catch. The guarantee is already gone. He can't reach 170 even if he starts every game left in this year.

Replacing Blanco with Laird would be an upgrade as long as he doesn't cut into Geo's playing time. Speaking of which, is this finally the last year of that bloated backup catcher contract? Yes, this is finally the last year of that 2 year deal.

I bet it will be the usual lineup lately against left-handers: Johnson Theriot Lee Ramirez Fukudome DeRosa Soto Cedeno That's just a guess, but I doubt Lou changes much right now unless one of those players needs a day off.

Get the pitchforks out. This year's Jacque Jones just made a mistake. Let the avalanche begin. didn't see much from the anti-theriot crowd after his game-winning rbi yesterday. plus, isn't it generally a good idea to try to hit the ball hard? that's what he did in the 8th inning; unfortunately it was a line drive right at helton and it was a dp. I've taken a back seat to who should actually start since both are playing well and the team is playing well, but do you honestly believe that the ball Theriot hit in the 8th inning was a hard hit ball? That's not the way I saw it. And I will admit that Theriot has hit some balls hard these past few weeks. I would tend to agree with that. The 1st inning DP was a hard hit ball that Tulo made a beautiful play on. The 8th inning ball was unlucky to be a DP, but was a pretty soft line drive. Theriot's got to be careful though. His leash is shortening, and even hitting into bad luck is probably not going to help him much in Lou's eyes with Cedeno playing so well. These next 2 weeks will be very important for him. I'm just happy Cedeno is playing well, because that means Theriot either plays well (which helps the ballclub) or is replaced (which also helps the club).

That's a good point. After watching Cameron bat against Hill last year, I'd rather not see Hill pitch against him if we can possibly help it. Add in the rest of the Brewers great offense against left-handers, and I'm glad the Cubs are avoiding Hill against the Brewers. Skipping his start though is ridiculous. Most of the benefit you get from missing Hill in the Brewers series is lost by losing a start from one of your better pitchers. I hope they re-think this part of the plan. Start him Friday night against St. Louis. That's at least only pushing his start back two days. I think though that Marquis against Milwaukee and Hill against St. Louis will give you better combined results then the other way around.

Its absurd? Isn't the best statistical lineup in baseball that which puts your OBPs in descending order? Not necessarily. There are several lineup construction analysts who say that decreasing by OPS is actually slightly better than decreasing OBP. Of course, similar OPS's would have you go by OBP first. For example, Fukduome would be a better option at the top than Soriano, but Soriano is definitely a better option at the top than Johnson/Theriot/Fontenot/Pie or even DeRosa. The extra plate appearances for one of your best hitters is that important. Then from ideal you have to factor in player reactions as well. Lee and Ramirez are comfortable at 3 and 4 and those placements are close to ideal, so there is little to gain by moving them. Soriano and Fukudome should be the other 2 top hitters because they are better bets to be very productive then the other hitters in the lineup. Because of Soriano's desire to hit leadoff, it makes more sense to bat Soriano 1st/Fukudome 2nd then the other way around.

Pretty good at the plate, although it certainly helped him that Cook was throwing early strikes (Pie saw 4 total pitches today). He probably took too much time getting the ball back into the infield on Holliday's double in the 8th, but I think he was surprised that Holliday was attempting it. It was a very small error, not anything to be concerned about.

I'm pretty sure they got to 10 games over (83-73) before they got swept by the Marlins. I think that was the highest they got though.

I agree. Just a question, how close was the game winning run. I'm just curious if Fontenot scored where Soto wouldn't have. There was no play on Fontenot. Hawpe went away from the play to get it, but I'm still not sure Soto scores. There's definitely a play on him at the plate. Yeah, I didn't disagree with PR for soto. I just wish we wouldn't have done it for lee. Save Pie and PR him for Soto. Regardless of the fact that Lou had no idea Ramirez would homer, lee isn't that slow. That's exactly my thoughts. In fact pinch running for Lee also made it so pinch running for Soto could have been a bad move because we would have had no hitters. My guess is that if Theriot had grounded out, Lou would have put the pitcher spot 2nd, moved Cedeno to short, DeRosa to 2nd, and Ward would have played 1st. That wouldn't have ended up being too terrible of a lineup, albeit jumbled. That's the only reason I'd consider substituting for Lee knowing that it frees up Ward's bat to come into the game, but even then the dropoff between those two players is too much for me, even accounting for the difference in speed between Pie and Lee. It makes it more defensible, but still not correct.

I see at least a couple of mentions in most game threads about how Ward needs to come in against this left-hander or that left-hander. The problem is, Ward is just as bad as Jacque Jones against left-handers. career against left-handers: .233/.290/.377 Also, his career transformation against right-handers the last couple years? Hasn't happened against left-handers. Last 3 years: Against right: .306/.378/.507 Against left: .185/.243/.246 He may be our big pinch-hitter that is supposed to be used in key situations, but it is silly to waste him in any situation where a left-hander is on the mound. For all the crazy things Lou did tonight (and there could be books written about them, and I'm sure there will be threads devoted to them quite deservedly) pinch-hitting Murton instead of Ward against a left-hander was absolutely the right move.

Since I'm pretty sure Jacksonville is not going to pick a RB (and I won't be able to check this at work tomorrow), I'll go ahead and with the Colts pick select: Felix Jones If Jones were somehow selected with the next pick, I'll do what the Colts would normally do, bypass the next 3 or 4 backs, and go with: Matt Forte For Exile's sake (I haven't seen him lately, so I'm not even sure he's reading). I considered several positions for the team. I didn't see a pass rusher that the Colts would want. Corner is a need but not a huge one. Offensive guard is a need, but my guess is that they'll wait until later in the draft. The Colts really could use a backup RB who could catch the ball out of the backfield and spell Addai well. That's Jones. Even though I picked out of turn, please let the Jaguars have their time. Thank you.

It also gave Ramirez a chance to drive the run home from 3rd base with 0 outs. It's his fault that he struck out and left Fukudome to be intentionally walked.