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Gore, Manning, Parker I need to select 2 myself of: Manning, Addai, Maroney, Rudi Johnson, Housh, Colston, McGahee.

Can I ask a question? Why does that matter? Every year is different: new roster, new situation, etc. etc. Why does past history (success or failure) mean that the same thing will happen in the present (or even likely to happen)? Why the Cubs have played the Cardinals well the past few years or why Z has pitched well against them doesn't mean the Cubs will win the series or Z will win the game. Guess I never understood that logic. Ken Well, there is a small factor for ballpark (although most of the time there are so many other factors that success at a ballpark is mostly white noise, although it's much easier to pick out for pitchers than for hitters). For a team like the Cardinals though, their 3 main hitters have mostly stayed the same over the last few years (Pujols, Rolen, Edmonds). Here is Z against each of them: Pujols: 44 AB's, .205/.294/.455 Rolen: 44 AB's, .182/.234/.386 Edmonds: 38 AB's, .211/.375/.395 I'm not sure you can find another pitcher out there that can boast of those numbers against those 3 combined. Z has always done well against the Cardinals because he has consistently shut down the middle of their order. In fact, the Cardinals are in deep trouble according to the matchups. Encarnacion is 2 of 19 against Z. Eckstein is 3 of 19. Molina is 4 of 18 (with 1 HR). Duncan is 3 of 12, all singles. They have a couple of hitters that have been decent against Z, but for the most part Z has owned the Cardinals from top to bottom. BTW, the Cardinals hitters as a whole are hitting .208/.286/.331 against Z. The chances are pretty good that he'll have a nice bounce back start this weekend.

I was starting to wonder how many pitches they were going to let Santos throw. He left with 67 overall (Dumatrait threw 68).

I wouldn't say without power. Right now his AA numbers project him to hit 30-35 doubles, 6-8 triples, and 15-20 homers over a full season. While that isn't a ton of power, that's certainly not no power. His slugging percentage is .459 That's pretty much no power. It would be 68th out of 176 qualified players in the major leagues. So that would be an above average slugging percentage overall. If you look at just CF's, he would be 6th out of 22 qualified. He would be just behind Grady Sizemore, and ahead of guys like Bill Hall, Mike Cameron, Vernon Wells, and Andruw Jones. If you have a SLG percentage above .450, that is not even close to no power. It's not great, but it is definitely above average. Now, his numbers at Tennessee are not that exciting overall still, but the numbers since the break are much better and are somewhat exciting. Hopefully as time goes on he shows that the first 70 at-bats was just adjusting to AA.

Pitch Counts through 3: Reds overall: 95 :shock: Santos: 27 Lilly: 61

I wouldn't say without power. Right now his AA numbers project him to hit 30-35 doubles, 6-8 triples, and 15-20 homers over a full season. While that isn't a ton of power, that's certainly not no power.

Leftie or not, I don't think Lou sits Jones, especially with the bomb he nailed last night. It might be the best move anyway. Jones is better than Pie against left-handers, and Jones has also looked better than normal against left-handers during his hot streak. Neither one of them is a good option, but Jones is probably the better option tonight (down in the order though against the LH please Lou!).

No, he does not.

In other words, one season's worth of Jay Payton. If the Cubs didn't exist, the Orioles would be the worst franchise in MLB. There simply isn't that much risk for the Orioles though. They get a pick that is basically comparable to Wieters next year-there is no reason for them to cave in to his demands if he is asking for too large of a deal.

Patterson had 7 plate appearances and 1 start while he was up.

I'm not worried about the Cardinals either. First off because of what you said. Second off, I cannot see too many scenarios where the Cardinals finish 1st and the Cubs finish 2nd. If the Cardinals finish 1st, the Cubs probably didn't end up passing Milwaukee anyway.

As I said earlier in the thread, my guess is that Fox will start tomorrow night (they aren't going to start 2 of Jacque/Pie/Ward against a left-hander), and be the biggest right-handed pinch-hit bat on the bench the other days until Floyd gets back.

Is it even possible to cut payroll without trading off players? From right now? The only big loss would be letting Zambrano go (12.5 million). At the start of the season though, remember that the team had Izturis at over 4 million, Barrett at 4.5 million, Rusch at 3 million, Wade Miller at 1.5 million, Wood at 1.5 million, Floyd at 3 million. Even with the raises to some of the other players, the team could definitely cut payroll without making trades.

Fox is almost certainly being brought up to add a right-handed pinch hitting bat to the bench and a right fielder against left-handers (it will probably be Murton/Pie/Jones against right-handers and Murton/Jones/Fox against left-handers until Floyd gets back, and when Floyd gets back he'll probably push Pie out of the lineup). So that means we'll almost certainly see Fox get his first career ML start tomorrow night.

Agreed. I think they should go back to the original plan of batting him 2nd. I wouldn't be opposed to that, but I don't really see much of a point either. The OBP at the top of the lineup really hasn't been a problem for the Cubs this year. It hasn't been a great success, but it hasn't been a problem (especially the 2 spot-where the Cubs have put up a .359 OBP). Jones is doing fine there right now, and Theriot will probably slide back there in 3 weeks. If the Cubs decide they need to make a change from Jones, Kendall is just as good of an option as Murton to put in that spot. Again, I have no problem putting Murton there and sliding Jones down, but right now it seems like making a change just to make a change.

He also has the Cubs going 3-5 against the Cardinals the last 8 games in the series. I'd expect better than that, so that sort of evens out the sweeps thing.

The Cubs are not going to win a WS until Pie becomes a valuable everyday player. That will happen with playing time in the major leagues. So I would contend the Cubs cannot afford to not let him play. i'm all for pie getting his PT, but thats a bit far fetched to say that we can't win WITHOUT him. My point is that the Cubs are not an elite team. Since the Cubs are probably not going to be able to add a free agent CFer this offseason, one way the Cubs can improve and become an elite team is for players like Pie, Soto and Murton to become quality everday players. Probably the only way that is going to happen at this point is to just let them play. Yes it may cost the team a playoff spot this year but may really improve them in the future. I would be much more in favor of taking that risk than hoping we can have a fluke playoff run like the Cardinals did last year. Who is elite in the NL though? If the Cubs sneak into the playoffs, are they even going to be underdogs in the first round? The Cardinals at least had to beat a really good team in the Mets last year. This year, everybody in the NL side of the playoffs are going to be about the same. I'd rather take that risk then have the added advantage of a month and half of playing time for 3 players, of which 1 of those 3 is probably going to get a lot of PT anyway. BTW, I'm still all for Murton to get most all of the playing time in the OF and Soto to get all the time at backup C. Pie can get a decent amount of PT until Soriano comes back, and I'd still like Pie to be on the playoff roster if the Cubs get there.

=D> Quite a change from "I'm gonna go gangbusters to make a waiver deal!!" from a couple days ago, isn't it. Ahh the shifting winds of the mind of Jim Hendry. Next time Jim, just tell the truth: the team is being sold, nobody's going to let us spend a ton of cash. It's very simple, it's the truth, and it avoids making everyone look like fools down the road. When did he say that he was desperately trying to make a deal? He said he's put in lots of claims, but I've never heard him say that he wanted to make a deal for anything but the right price.

more so than a bat? really? rapada and piggy haven't been up here this year have they? cherry and petrick aren't exactly trash i think the pen is the least of our troubles right now They've all been up. The bullpen is at worst out #2 biggest issue. #1 as far as I'm concerned. You are on crack. nice personal attack who is piggy omaphelos? hang on... Carmen Pignatiello The answer to your question is that Pignatiello has not been up. Rapada has and pitched to a total of 1 major league batter, and he got him out. sweet, thank you, when was rapada up here? edited it too late..June 14th was when he pitched.

more so than a bat? really? rapada and piggy haven't been up here this year have they? cherry and petrick aren't exactly trash i think the pen is the least of our troubles right now They've all been up. The bullpen is at worst out #2 biggest issue. #1 as far as I'm concerned. You are on crack. nice personal attack who is piggy omaphelos? hang on... Carmen Pignatiello The answer to your question is that Pignatiello has not been up. Rapada has and pitched to a total of 1 major league batter, and he got him out. That was on June 14th against Seattle.

It's supposed to be Harang-Zambrano on Tuesday.

That is the exact same thing you said last night in the first inning. :D

52 pitches now for Suppan through 2. It looks like the Milwaukee bullpen will have another longer than average night tonight.

Lou's quote about Ward not being activated the other day: I think Floyd will start playing again when we leave Colorado at the expense of Pie.

Same lineup as the last two days: Theriot Jones Lee Murton DeRosa Fontenot Kendall Pie R. Hill For the Rockies: Matsui Tulowitski Holliday Atkins Spilborghs Hawpe Torrealba Stewart Fogg