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I wouldn't call the Soriano contract brilliant. He was bidding against himself. Nobody would have given Soriano 8 years, probably not even 7. Here is an article from the Houston Chronicle talking about how the Astros had made an offer to Soriano-here's a quote: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/4340964.html And here's one from San Fran: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/11/20/SPGINMGE7R1.DTL From Baltimore: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/30/AR2006103000899.html I think you can see that the Cubs were not bidding against themselves whatsoever. There were several teams willing to give Soriano 7 years, 120 million. The Cubs decided to go 8 in order to make sure they got him, and they impressed him enough that they did. There are even other teams besides the Astros and Giants that made similar offers for Soriano in that week of free agency that I didn't list. The thought that nobody was willing to give Soriano 7 years at that type of money is simply not true.

BTW, I noticed something that should help us next week. Brandon Webb is now at 40 consecutive scoreless innings. His next scheduled start is Wednesday against Milwaukee, and then he'll miss the Cubs series. That's a huge break for the Cubs (and makes up for the fact that last month he pitched against the Cubs but not the Brewers).

Howry and Pie are in the game. Pie's in for Ward, Pie to center, Jones to right.

What? They said he lost a lot of weight and got tired playing catch for 5 minutes. Colitis can be pretty serious. I find it surprising that he was able to play through it as long as he was.

Well, that's a little of an exaggeration don't you think. His ERA is 5.01, if you count that as almost 6 :D This is the one Cardinals pitcher who the Cubs cannot seem to figure out, and I'm not sure why. It's not that he's just a bad pitcher, or the Cubs offense, because they hit the other pitchers just fine for the most part. I take it you missed Kip Wells owning us. I try not to think about that :D Seriously though, Wells allowed 11 baserunners against us in 6 2/3 (8 hits and 3 walks). He got really lucky that he only allowed the number of runs he did.

Well, that's a little of an exaggeration don't you think. His ERA is 5.01, if you count that as almost 6 :D This is the one Cardinals pitcher who the Cubs cannot seem to figure out, and I'm not sure why. It's not that he's just a bad pitcher, or the Cubs offense, because they hit the other pitchers just fine for the most part.

It was announced a little under 3 hours ago.

Well, now that's probably a little over the top reaction. At the same time, I think there is evidence to possibly show that Hendry has learned from some of his mistakes. After the Izturis trade (which was probably his last big misstep) Hendry has been very good as a GM this past year. He traded Neifi and Nevin away for prospects. He had a very good 2006 offseason acquiring some of the best on the market at every position. Kendall has ended up being a big piece to the puzzle acquired during 2007. He also refused to make the Jones trade to the Marlins even when there was significant public pressure to do so, and that has turned out well. There is no debating that Hendry's tenure from offseason 2004-middle of 2006 was very, very bad. Since then though, Hendry has turned it around. Will that be enough to save his job? I don't know, but I think he has gotten better as a G.M. as time has gone along.

and my point was less about comparing them statistically and more about people clamoring over a guy who is maybe 5th or 6th best on his own team. latent racism? who knows, but there is no reason at all that Theriot should be selling jerseys at such a high rate when he really is just sort of okay. he doesn't even really have much personality Agreed, although you have to remember that jersey sales are always tilted towards rookies/players with new teams. Theriot is basically a rookie with a catchy nickname-there aren't that many of them out there. My guess is that in regular jersey sales, Theriot is probably still behind Soriano, Lee, Ramirez, and Zambrano.

I wish the eckstein references would stop. While I agree that people (and the media) love their "scrappy", light hitting, white middle infielders; Theriot doesn't exactly fall into that category. Just take a look at their slg/ops over the past 3 years: Eckstein 2005: .395/.758 2006: .344/.694 2007: .363/.706 CAREER: .360/.710 (7 Seasons) Theriot 2005: *Only had 14 PA* 2006: .522/.934 (159 PA) 2007: .374/.724 CAREER: .408/.771 (3 seasons) I realize he's never going to be some bigtime slugger, but he's proved to have more pop than eckstein with 2 more of both homers and doubles over the past two seasons. And while two isn't really a big difference, when you consider he's done it in nearly 300 fewer PA, it becomes a little more significant. Theriot's minor league numbers and major league numbers this season match up pretty closely to Eckstein's. Theriot's 2006 major league numbers are the only aberration in the data set. He is really a very similar player to Eckstein. He has maybe slightly more pop and slightly less OBP ability, but they are still close enough to be a valid comparison.

Compared to the pitching market? Hardly. Z would have gotten 7 years, 130 million+ out there. Props to BleacherBadger for bringing us this news last night!

I'm not surprised by the Cubs withdrawing him. They need him right now for the race. As far as next season goes, Jones should have a little bit more value on the trade market if the Cubs want to trade him. He'll only have 1 year left as opposed to 1 1/2, and his recent play has probably convinced some teams wondering if he was simply done. I'm still not sure the Cubs could get much in return, but they can probably get out of his deal without paying anything just as much in December as they could have if they had let him go to the claiming team now. As far as Patterson goes, his July was this: .340/.359/.510, and his August is this: .288/.328/.424. For somebody looking for outfield help, Patterson is not bad for a month and half stopgap, and remember whoever claims him can simply non-tender him in the offseason. I can understand why somebody claimed him-I'm not quite sure why the Orioles pulled him back.

I gave jones plenty of chances, and at this point he's the best option that the cubs have in CF. But that's saying more about the condition of their CF situation than about jock. He was fine at 2006 production, but this year he's been lousy. If Jones keeps his hot streak up for even another week or two, he might be getting closer to 2006 production then you think. He has raised his season OPS 94 points in August-that's amazing this far into the season. To be worth 5 million as a CF, he probably would only need to raise that OPS 25-30 points more. If he can do that by the end of the season, he actually would be worth his contract this season-something I didn't think would be possible whatsoever a month or two ago.

When the Cubs were leading 12-4 in the bottom of the 8th, Jones singled and as he was turning to head out of the batter's box appeared to twist his ankle slightly. He didn't run very hard to first. The Cubs sent Pie in to pinch-run for him, but if it was a close game my guess is that Jones would have been able to stay in. He walked off of the field on his own power unaccompanied.

Considering that if I saw the situation correctly the trainer didn't even come out, and Jones walked back to the dugout without assistance, I would consider it likely that he plays tomorrow.

Actually, save one inning, he had a good start today. but he had that inning, and it wasn't a good start. except for the two home runs lilly gave up last night, he had a good day! Yeah, it wasn't a good start, but it does appear like Marquis is stabilizing a bit. His last 4 starts have only raised his ERA by .05 combined. He still has a pretty good shot of staying right around a 4.50 for the season, which would be just fine. That would make him a league average pitcher overall, and a slightly above average starting pitcher.

You can't have 10 hitters in your lineup. BTW, I know people don't want this to happen, but Lou has said once again a day or two ago that Soriano is his leadoff hitter. I'm more concerned about the position of the other hitters-it seems likely that Soriano, Lee, and Ramirez are going to stick in their spots unless something drastic happens.

Can you imagine saying those two sentences two months ago? No, I really can't. I thought he would have a chance of getting back to his career norms against right-handers, but never anything like this. BTW, an interesting note: Jacque Jones in 2007 vs right: .272/.329/.397 vs left: .300/.375/.420 Is that not a strange stat. Most of the reason for that is that Jones had very, very few AB's against left-handers when he wasn't red hot. The at-bats yesterday and today are about 1/5 of his total at-bats against left-handers for the entire season. Still, people are going to look at every other year for Jacque and his woeful numbers against left-handers, and then come to this year and go :shock:

Jacque has 4 hits today, and they have all been against left-handers. We really don't need him to be hurt either, so please be nothing serious Jones.

Looking now, it looks like the problem might not be as much in these lineup holes anymore. RF will be hopefully covered by Murton. It will be interesting to see when Floyd gets back if Murton still plays a ton, but my guess is that Murton has earned the majority of time at this point. C-Kendall probably won't do as well as he has so far for the Cubs, but he is on quite a streak right now. This certainly doesn't look like an offensive black hole in the lineup right now. 1 out of every 5 days, there is definitely a hole when Hill is in the lineup. CF-Jacque Jones is simply scalding the ball right now-he is hot as any player I've seen in quite a while. Obviously he isn't going to keep his August up (it would be just about impossible for him to keep up between a 1.100 and a 1.200 OPS as he has right now through the first two weeks of August). By the same token, I'm not sure you can call this an offensive hole anymore either. He had the OBP in July, and in August he's added the power to it. SS-probably still the biggest hole, although Theriot has been very good at times. In September, when Soriano comes back, the likely lineup will be: Soriano Theriot Lee Ramirez Jones DeRosa Murton Kendall Pitcher I think that's a better lineup now than anything the Cubs have put up earlier in the season (even if one of Jones or Kendall simply collapse and start being terrible again). Basically, I'm not sure the offense will be as much of a problem in the final few weeks of the season, especially when Soriano gets back. The pitching is probably more concerning to me right now-the pitching carried the offense through most of the year, it's only fair if the offense carries the pitching a little bit down the stretch.

I would let Marquis bat here. He is only at 91 pitches, and the Cubs could still use the fresh bullpen. Keener, I do not think that Piggy has pitched yet.

I hope that is it for him I don't. The Cubs BP pitched 4 innings yesterday, and with the 4 games against the Cardinals coming up the Cubs need Marquis to go at least 1 more.

Would everyone be content if he was the backup catcher? Or does he have to start? Why not let him backup at the least? Oh, I definitely want him to come up and be the backup catcher. I'm just wondering for the people calling for Soto if they think he has to be the starter to be productive (as has been said for other young position players). I would love for him to replace Koyie Hill, but I think Kendall should get most of the PT at catcher right now.

Would everyone be content if he was the backup catcher? Or does he have to start?

That was a double no matter what, I fail to see the problem. The ground is extremely wet. There was absolutely no way it was going to be a double. If you watch the replay, after Murton misplays it, you then see Valentin pick up the pace and take 2nd. He was going to stay at 1st otherwise. When Valentin hit the 1st base bag, he was jogging-he wasn't going anywhere.