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That doesn't mean they'll actually use him. It's just saying that he's on the roster but won't start, and to tell everyone that he's being put on the roster just as an insurance policy doesn't sit well with people. So Marquis is technically available out of the bullpen, but the only place he likely would be used is the long reliever.

I'll take Chip over Joe I'll take Chip over Stockton. Dick Stockton is brutal. every time I hear Stockton's voice I think Bears and Lions for some reason I'll take him over Joe Buck for a season. Even if he is brutal. I just don't want to hear Joe Buck call a Cubs game, at all costs. If it were up to me, I wouldn't mind Joe Buck calling a few Cubs games yet this year. Really? I just can't take him anymore. I'd take Chip over Buck, any day. Let me think of a hyperbolic example. I'd take that Brewer play-by-play guy over Buck (Brian Anderson) :P "and the Cubs are within Grand Slam range!!" I think he meant the only way that the Cubs will get Buck is if they make the WS, and he happily would hear him in order to watch Cubs WS games.

same problem as blanco - getting dempster's salary off the books is a nice idea; getting someone to take the whole thing on will be damn near impossible. Why? Dempster has 1/5.5 left on his deal. Even the most SABR-savvy GMs have turned to much worse than Dempster in the name of getting a "true closer", and of course the not-so-bright GMs would probably see him as a bargain. Getting someone to take Dempster wouldn't be a problem, it'd be a matter of getting an appropriate return. If you believe he's so awful it's addition by subtraction. Be satisfied if they just take his contract. I'm not sure it's addition by subtraction because Dempster's awful, it's more that the Cubs simply have a surplus of relievers. If they re-sign Wood and trade Dempster, their top 5 relievers still are Marmol, Howry, Wood, Wuertz, and Eyre. That's a good bullpen, and Dempster's marginal value is not worth the 5 million to the Cubs. It might be to another team who has very few good relievers.

There is very little doubt in my mind that this is the Brewer's division for the next several years. I wouldn't say that for sure. Most of their young players are not going to get much better because they started out so well this year. I don't know if they have too much room to expand payroll after they have gone from 27 to 70 million in the last 3 years.. In 2-4 years they might have to trade off some of their talent because it will be so expensive to keep Fielder, Braun, Gallardo, Hart, etc. intact even during their arbitration years.

I completely agree with this statement. Hendry is very mediocre, and a big reason why is that he is reactive. He reacts to a need and tries to fill it. A great G.M. knows what his future needs are going to be and makes sure to fill it beforehand to get the best value and player. Hendry waits until the need is there without backup plans, and by then there aren't nearly as many options to fill that need, and you get trades like the Monroe and Trachsel deals. I think Hendry is overall a pretty decent talent evaluator, and everybody says that he's a good salesman. He just has a hard time seeing the big picture, and until he does he won't be able to rise above being mediocre.

I don't think that team would have won 85 games this year. You've tied up 47 million of your 100 million already in 3 players. Beltran has been close to Soriano offensively this year, Drew is identical to Cliff Floyd this year, and Schmidt has pitched 25 innings of over a 6 ERA. Your other 53 million would have to be very well spent in order to get a team that won over 75 games with that start.

They might have a good record against left-handers this year, but that might be coincidence. Arizona is 15th in the NL in hitting against LH's. In fact, look at this: Batting against LHP: Cubs: .263/.325/.431 Arizona: .250/.319/.402 The Cubs have a 16 point advantage over Arizona facing right-handers, and a 35 point edge against left-handers.

Ok, I'm going to give Jim Hendry appreciation for one thing in this thread. Yes, he did spend a lot of money in the 2006 offseason. The big thing was though, he spent it on the right players! There were a ton of horrible contracts thrown out last season. Here is what Hendry did: got the best second baseman on the market, but didn't pay him anywhere near that level. got the best outfielder on the market got the second and sixth best pitchers on the market, and avoided every disaster in the pitching market (for those who are understandably upset about Marquis's contract, think about having Padilla, Eaton, Igawa, Scmidt, or Zito's contracts instead). If you look at the pitching market and look at the 1 year deals, they either were hometown deals or they were absolutely awful pitchers. Most of the long-term deals failed as well, and the only person that you could say Hendry missed on was Gil Meche. got the best bench player by quite a bit on the market for an affordable price. A lot of teams threw around money, but the Cubs were the only team to significantly improve through free agency. The Cubs overpaid for some productive players, but they got the best players. Most teams overpaid for bad players. The Hendry mistakes are well known and some of them are still continuing. The reason they needed such a major overhaul in 2006 was because of Hendry's mistakes. At the same time, if he hadn't done a brilliant job picking the right players to give contracts to in the 2006 offseason the Cubs wouldn't be in the playoffs now. In fact, let's not even look at the total value of the players. Did any team get more value for their money then the Cubs last offseason?

I can't remember if they put her at 60'6" or not, but I know they had a little competition to see how she could do against a major league hitter a few years ago. Richie Sexon got the chance to try to hit about 20 pitches from her. I think he made contact with 2 or 3 of them and generally looked awful at the plate.

You have to protest a rule-the umpires didn't follow this rule or that rule. Subjective calls on the field cannot be protested.

Peavy said he had his worst stuff of the season last time out even though his results were good. Now his stuff is once again bad tonight, and the results are reflecting that. This year is a career high in innings for him. If he is starting to lose his stuff, that makes me want to root for SD tonight because if Peavy isn't dominant, that simply isn't a very good team out there right now.

Thanks for the info. I was wondering about that. As for why they are doing that, there are probably 4 times as many ND fans as PU fans in the Indianapolis area. I agree that the PU-OSU game will be a better game, but ND-UCLA will still draw more local viewers. The Purdue fans are going to be furious though, and I really don't blame them. That's really bad scheduling to put the two biggest programs in the state on at the same time, same channel.

Shouldn't those games start at 9:35 instead? I know a lot of you might not like the late start but for once it works for me! Well the lastest possible start on wednesday is 7:30. The 9:30 one is going to SUCK. Yup. I have the first day of a new job soon. Of course the first day is Friday morning early and I have a 45 minute drive to get there. I really wish the Cubs game wouldn't start at 10:30 here the previous night, but I guess I'll manage.

Now that I think about it, for the reason CubinNY stated and some others, I think Marquis probably will make the roster anyway for a long relief option, another starter in case of injury to one of the starters, and another option just in case some other disaster happens (Chase can be closed right?). I like going with 3 starters though because I don't think Z's stuff was affected that much by the short rest.

It depends how many starters the Cubs go with. If they go with 4 starters, Marquis will certainly make it. If they go with 3, then they probably leave him off in favor of another reliever.

I have the same feeling, and it pissees me off. If Monroe isn't the starting CF v. LHP, he's pointless. Definitely agree on that. If you're not starting him, the only situation I can think of where he would play is if the left-handed starter for Arizona is still in and the Cubs need a pinch-hitter. If that happens, Cedeno can fill in and Cedeno's versatility otherwise is worth a lot more than that one specific situation.

I think they are taking the not happy part by Piniella's actions during the game and how upset he was. By the time he was quoted, his quote was that he was unconcerned.

I think the only way Fuld gets back on the roster due to an injury is if Pie gets hurt. I sincerely hope Ward will be ready to go. The Cubs absolutely need his bat in the division series. Thankfully IIRC the Diamondbacks don't have too many left-handers down there that could nullify him in the late innings.

They traded Freddie Bynum for Hart It was Scott Moore and Rocky Cherry for Trachsel. Cherry was awful for Baltimore after the trade and is now 28 years old. The chances of him re-gaining and becoming a good reliever at this time is less than 50/50. Bynum is a low OBP above average slugging guy with great speed who plays bad defense. Moore is the key to these two trades. He was also pretty terrible in his cup of coffee with Baltimore, but he turns 24 in a few weeks so he still has time.

I'd start Z on short rest. I thought his stuff was fine when pitching on short rest earlier in the month, he was just facing a lot of hitters that really do well historically against him. I also think the adrenaline of the playoffs would help offset being tired at all. Is the difference between Lilly and Marquis greater than the difference between Z on normal rest and short rest? IMO, yes and I think he should start on Sunday. At the same time, since Z has become more of a fly ball pitcher he has been better on the road than at home (both 2006 and 2007). That probably needs to be considered as well.

TBS I believe has the rights to this game as well.

The only scenario that would likely delay the playoffs is the 4 team scenario. Every other one (including the Rockies-Padres playoff) and the playoffs should continue on schedule.

That's a signal that some of the AP people didn't really watch some of the games either. To have 20 voters change their mind on LSU-USC based on yesterday's games? I don't see it. I watched USC look really bad, but LSU looked pretty bad themselves yesterday. I really like the jump to #6 for South Florida though. For what they've done so far, they deserve that ranking for now. While I'm quite sure you're right that some of the AP people didn't watch all the games, in defense of LSU jumping USC - LSU looked bad for a half, USC looked bad an entire game. The difference between Washington and Tulane is massive though. Washington has beaten Syracuse and Boise State while losing to USC, UCLA, and blown out by Ohio State in the second half. Tulane has gotten blown out by Mississippi State, blown out by Houston, and beaten Southeastern Louisiana.

It all depends if the team wants to go with 4 starters or not. If there's only 3, they won't put Marquis on as a reliever. If 4, he'll be the 4th guy. Remember also that the roster can change from round to round so if the Cubs want to use 4 starters in one round and then 3 the next, they always could bring Marquis for one series and leave him off of another.

That's a signal that some of the AP people didn't really watch some of the games either. To have 20 voters change their mind on LSU-USC based on yesterday's games? I don't see it. I watched USC look really bad, but LSU looked pretty bad themselves yesterday. I really like the jump to #6 for South Florida though. For what they've done so far, they deserve that ranking for now.