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1.) The Carlos Lee for Scott Podsednik trade did not help the White Sox. 2.) The White Sox are no more real than the A's or the Orioles right now. Are you kidding me? He was their leadoff man. I guarantee the Cubs would take vintage 2005 Scott Podsednik in a heartbreat. The Cubs had Scott Podsednik Podsednik in 2005: .290/.351/.349, 59 SB/23 CS Cubs player: .292/.330/.388, 58 SB/20 CS The Cubs player played an average CF. Podsednik played an average left field. It certainly can be argued that the Cubs player was actually more valuable than Podsenik was in 2005. Their offensive numbers are almost the exact same (21 points of OBP is offset by the 39 point advantage that the Cubs player has in SLG, and the Cubs player was slightly more efficient on the bases). The Cubs player also played CF, while Podsednik played one of the two easiest positions to play on the field. So you're saying that the Cubs would love to have Juan Pierre back and that his 2006 season would be wonderful for them?

Cubs.com seems to agree with you:

Even if one expected Marquis to be good for the rest of April and May, I think that person would still think it would be likely that he wouldn't pitch well in this game. Not only is this a terrible matchup for him, but the one star player for the Phillies that Marquis has dominated (Rollins) isn't even playing. I'm interested to see what Marquis does after this start. I think the true test to see if he can stay in the rotation will be to see if he can salvage a decent month by pitching well against the Pirates, Rockies, and Brewers. For this one, I'm just hoping he leaves before he gives up 5 or more. I honestly think that the best case reasonable scenario for this game is 6 innings, 4 runs, maybe 3 runs if some luck goes his way.

Yeah, that doesnt seem like a very fun league to be a part of. I'd say since you don't really have any holes go with who you think has the biggest upside. Also, with that amount of quality on the waiver wire (and since the rest of your league might be dumb), try to trade quantity for quality. A friend asked me to join. I think about 7 owners are pretty good, and the other 3 are making some poor reactionary choices. I hope that they will either get better from the experience this year or get replaced next year.

No, but I did take advantage of some people panicking early to pick up somebody like Myers from free agency. Also somebody really panicked and dropped Granderson because my league has no DL spot, and he thought he could pick him back up in a week or two before he came back. I also made a trade to get Martin and Fielder (for Vlad, Carlos Pena, and Soto). In shallow leagues like this, I like to make 3 for 2 type trades to get better starters because I know I can find talent in free agency.

I don't mind putting Ward out in RF for a few games. The difference between Pie and Ward offensively is a huge one. Sometimes the Cubs need that boost offensively and risk the defensive issues that result. With the Cubs offense rolling like it has been and an emotional Zambrano on the mound, last night was simply not the correct night for it. In fact, I would say that they don't really need to put Ward out there in RF unless there is an injury to 1 of the 4 big hitters (Soriano, Lee, Ramirez, Fukduome). If one of those players gets hurt, then maybe the Cubs will be struggling enough offensively to take a risk and put Ward out there.

I am in a 5x5 league with OBP instead of AVG, 10 team league. My lineup as it currently stands is C: Russell Martin 1B: Prince Fielder 2B: Brian Roberts SS: Jose Reyes 3B: Garrett Atkins OF: Adam Dunn OF: Brad Hawpe OF: Jason Bay Util: Travis Hafner Util: Nick Swisher Bench: Orlando Hudson, Curtis Granderson SP: Jake Peavy SP: A.J. Burnett RP: George Sherrill RP: Brandon Lyon P: C.J. Wilson P: Chris Young P: Brett Myers Bench: Rich Hill, Pedro Martinez I have limits of 162 games per lineup spot, and 1250 innings from my pitchers. I have 1 open roster spot now with a trade I made recently. What should I add? The best 7 hitters by Yahoo's rankings are Andruw Jones, Shane Victorino, Juan Pierre, Matt Kemp, Jacoby Ellesbury, Carlos Delgado, and Edwin Encarnacion. The best 2 starters are Liriano and Cain, and then a big dropoff after that. The best relievers are Borowski and Brian Wilson, and I doubt I'll want to go that direction. So what does my team need most? Thanks for any help that can be given.

It's a planned day off for Fukudome, which really makes me wonder how Lou is going to arrange the outfield. Ward is the worst option-can't hit left-handers, can't play defense. Pie is a little better, but I don't know why Lou would sit him tonight and then play him tomorrow against a left-hander. Maybe DeRosa in right and Fontenot at 2nd? This was pretty poorly planned by Lou. Fukudome should have been given the night off today (Friday) and had Pie-Ward in the OF, and then Johnson and Fukudome could be the CF-RF combo for Saturday. Instead, it's a bad situation no matter how it's done.

Well, let's see. The National League average starter put up a 4.65 ERA last year. The average National League reliever put up a 4.06 ERA. So 200 innings of 3.75 and 80 innings of 4.06 gets you a 3.84 ERA out of both players combined. 80 innings of 2.00 and 200 innings of 4.65 gets you a 3.89 ERA overall. Of course, having those good innings all come in close games does give an extra benefit to the setup guy. At the same time, you have to add in that an average reliever costs you probably 1 million dollars and can easily be replaced if something goes wrong, while an average starter is going to cost you 3-6 million dollars at least and if they bust, they're much harder to find a replacement for. If I could lock in either of those two choices, I'd go for the starter. There is so much more flexibility in a bullpen to find a few good players and use them in all the important situations. In the Cubs case for example, Marmol going into the rotation moves Howry into Marmol's sport, Wuertz's into Howry's, and Eyre into Wuertz's. The guy who would replace Marmol wouldn't even have to be that good, because he'd be getting most of the mop up innings anyway. Of course, I have my doubts that Marmol could produce that much as either a starter or do it again as a reliever, but that's another discussion entirely.

Before tonight, mostly bad luck. His opening day at bat was a line drive that was drilled but right at the second baseman. I know the other day he hit one that the first baseman made a great play on as well.

Myers really isn't the type of right-hander who you want to load up the left-handers against. I like the lineup in general, but not really tonight. Z is a very good hitting pitcher and also your best pitcher overall. Myers is a right-hander who has smaller splits then most right-handed pitchers. Out of all the nights that you need the offensive boost that putting Ward in provides, this isn't necessarily the best one. That doesn't mean I think the lineup is a bad one. I actually think it gives you the best chance to win tonight. At the same time, my feeling is that the amount of times you can put Ward on RF is limited with his possibility of injury, and so long-term I'd rather save this for another day.

At least the quote wasn't Piniella saying something about how the Cubs need to get off to a fast start, and that was the reason for him considering taking Hill out. It is right to do the best thing for Hill that gets him fixed the quickest. Now, I don't believe that's taking him out of the rotation, and I think at this point Piniella won't either after thinking about it. There's definitely something wrong though. Hill hasn't been able to hit the strike zone consistently for weeks. His first outing had good stuff, and the Astros were swinging early in the count which helped him to be effectively wild. I'm sure that if he continues in the rotation he'll continue to have several outings where he can be wild and still be effective. At some point, the underlying problem will have to be addressed though.

I don't think so. When I hear the GREAT and FEARED players of this league, Chase Utley is rarely mentioned. Utley is a DAMN good player, but like Derek Jeter, he's slightly overpaid, due to the "GRIT" factor. I said, slightly overpaid, he's more of a $10-12 mill per, and not $13 mill +. I'm talking about the Chase Utley that right now looks like he could have a better career than Jeff Kent and Ryne Sandberg. Which one are you talking about? http://www.baseball-reference.com/friv/scomp.cgi?I=utleych01:Chase+Utley&st=career How about the one, who career's numbers are in line with Bill Hall ($4.8 mill this yr), Victor Martinez ($4.25 mill this yr), David Wright ($5 mill this yr) and Jose Reyes ($4 mill this yr) and Grady Sizemore ($3mill this yr)? Thes guys are in his same group (25-30 yrs old). And while they don't play the same position, it doesn't change the facts his numbers are no different then said players. So, while Utley is a damn good player, I don't view him as highly as some. None of those players have hit free agency yet, and their teams have decided to wait for free agency and risk paying them even more than they would make if they signed them to a big contract right now, like the Phillies did with Utley. Arbitration contracts and free agency contracts simply do not compare well, because there are definite limits on how quickly a players salary can rise in the arbitration process. When Wright, Reyes, and Sizemore especially get to free agency, they'll make 15-18 million dollars a year, maybe even more than that. Bill Hall won't get the same type of money, but he's not nearly the same type of player as Utley. Martinez's contract will probably be highly based on what he does in the next year or two.

Just to count again, 5 of Samardzija's flyouts were actually popups to the infielders. He seems to have a knack at doing that. If fact, looking through his innings, it was a very strange outing as far as how he got his outs. 1st: 2 groundouts, 1 strikeout 2nd: 2 groundouts, 1 popout 3rd: 1 groundout, 1 popout, 1 lineout 4th: 1 groundout, 2 popouts 5th: 1 popout, 2 fly outs 6th: 2 fly outs, 1 strikeout 7th: 3 strikeouts Very, very strange. Had the sinker working early but very little strikeouts. Then moved to 4 out of 5 hitters popping up. Then 4 straight fly outs, then 4 straight strikeouts. No matter how he's doing it, it's nice to see him continue the good run he had at Tennessee near the end of last year.

I know it may not be fasionable, but I still would prefer to not give into the Pirates early season strength (and that killing lefties). I would almost like to see Lieber start, let him go 5 innings, atleast. Have Marshall pitched 2 innings, and then finish the game with Howry and/or Wood. So that's the major problem with playing two LONG Extra inning games, you leave yourself thin for a couple of games. Trying to throw Lieber out there for that long without getting him properly stretched back out at his age is just begging for him to get hurt, at least IMO. The guy wasn't even available to pitch at all last night. How is he going to suddenly be able to go 5 or 6 innings just 1 day later? It really is too bad that Marquis couldn't start tonight though. Philadelphia is a terrible matchup for Marquis (except for Jimmy Rollins-for some reason Marquis absolutely owns him), and Pittsburgh of course has this strange split as well that impacts Hill.

Some plans Lou has for today's game. First on Marmol: Also, Piniella is considering several options in the OF tonight. Any one of Pie/Johnson/Fukudome could start in CF tonight. If it's Fukudome in center, that means that Daryle Ward will get the start in right. Fontenot has a decent chance at getting his first start at second as well, and it was hinted that Theriot may start, but not nearly for certain.

Bruce said that if Marquis felt better tomorrow he would start. If he is still feeling ill, he'll be pushed back until Friday.

If the game continues, Dumatrait won't be in long. He pitched 17 pitches on Sunday (on 1 day's rest after throwing 40 pitches), 26 on Monday, and 20 so far tonight. If he has a rubber arm, maybe one more inning.

Hart, Wuertz, Lieber, Marshall Lieber's not available tonight, and Hart is only in emergencies. If the game keeps going, it will be Marshall's game for quite a while when he comes in either next inning or the one after that. Why aren't Lieber or Hart available? Lieber went 3 innings on Monday (and he's not used to being in the bullpen and so takes an extra day to recover from that) and Hart also threw 32 pitches on Monday.

Hart, Wuertz, Lieber, Marshall Lieber's not available tonight, and Hart is only in emergencies. If the game keeps going, it will be Marshall's game for quite a while when he comes in either next inning or the one after that.

Marquis was sent back to the hotel..he was feeling a little under the weather, so really Blanco is our only even somewhat capable hitter left.

Cubs.com had a note the other day that Cedeno would likely start tonight because of his numbers against Duke.

Comparing Utley and Hudson as players and then trying to say that Hudson is not the same player as Utley, so he shouldn't get the same contract is somewhat flawed. First, Utley was not a free agent when he signed his deal. The Phillies bought out all 3 of his arbitration years and like all arbitration contracts, they received a significant discount for doing so. Utley as a free agent could probably make 17-18 a year, not 13. Second, Hudson is looking for the same yearly salary, not the same exact contract. No team is going to sign him to a 7 year, 85 million dollar deal. It's not unreasonable for him to think he could get 3 years, 39 million from somebody though or even 4 years, 52 million. My guess is that he'll end up settling for something like 4 for 45, but unless he has a bad year this year his contract should be close to Utley's yearly aveage. Oops, just saw that he wanted the 15 million for the final 3 years, not the 13 million average. That seems steep, but still isn't crazy for him to have that as his starting point. A big problem that Hudson has is that he has very little name recognition, and that can really hurt when you start looking for that big payday because teams typically want to overpay and make their splashes on guys who the fans will be really excited about.

And the Cubs should do this for Bartman now, do it when they play the Mets and have Alou be the catcher. The Cubs asked him to do it last year. Bartman understandably refused. Or am I dreaming? Now I'm doubting myself on this, so don't completely belive me here. I'm really not sure now that I think about it if it was simply proposed as an idea or if they actually asked him.

Cesar Izturis has now played for 4 teams, and the Cubs are the only one of the 4 who didn't bat him in the leadoff spot at any time during his stay there. The other 3 have batted him in the leadoff spot for 1071 AB's, which is actually more than any other spot in the lineup. Simply amazing.