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With Sori being so hot and cold, losing him right now during the middle of a cold streak isn't so bad. Hopefully he can come back and start to hit another hot streak (as I believe he did the first time he was hurt). His numbers have been absolutely atrocious since the All-Star Break anyway, so the player who is going to replace him does not have large shoes to fill in that regard, and the offense has done well during that time even with Sori struggling. If it is somebody like Murton that gets a majority of the starts with Soriano out, that would make this lineup have very little power, but the OBP in the lineup would be higher then I may have ever seen a Cubs lineup, especially with Jacque and Kendall being hot and providing very good OBP's at the bottom of the lineup to add to all the other guys who are known as good OBP guys (Lee, Ramirez, Murton, Floyd, Theriot, DeRosa probably are all 350 or above OBP guys (at least 340 or above) and if Jones and Kendall or even just one of them continues to join them-wow).

The thing is-your assumption at the beginning of the post is not completely correct. Kendall's OBP with the Cubs is over .365. There are 6 catchers out of 50 in the major leagues with 100 AB's that have that number. He is not playing terribly offensively. So-do the Cubs ride out his hot streak and take his defense with it, or do they make a move even when he's doing well offensively? Opposing players are running at will against him. We can't keep giving other teams 2nd and 3rd base. Kendall hasn't made a good throw yet. There are kids in high school that have a better chance at throwing guys out. The Cubs faced the #1 and #2 teams in stolen bases in the NL. That magnified the problem. Many of the teams the Cubs have left on their schedule (Houston, Pittsburgh, St. Louis) do not run much at all. Also, I'm not sure any catcher could really increase the CS percentage that much. Soto made 2 very good throws to try to nail runners while he was here, and he was late each time. The pitchers are really bad at holding runners on, and that is the biggest part of the problem. That's why the Cubs have had 6 catchers run through the organization this year while not being able to find anybody that can throw runners out. If you think about it, who on the starting staff can hold runners even decently? Zambrano-that's about it.

The thing is-your assumption at the beginning of the post is not completely correct. Kendall's OBP with the Cubs is over .365. There are 6 catchers out of 50 in the major leagues with 100 AB's that have that number. He is not playing terribly offensively. So-do the Cubs ride out his hot streak and take his defense with it, or do they make a move even when he's doing well offensively?

Lineup Soriano Theriot Lee Ramirez Floyd DeRosa Pagan Kendall Marquis I like it. Right-handed lineup except for Floyd, and Floyd has always hit Glavine well and Murton has not. Here is the Mets lineup: Reyes Castillo Wright Delgado Alou Green Lo Duca Milledge Glavine

I really didn't think when the Cubs traded Barrett that this would happen. Every other catcher besides Kendall has been absolutely awful, and so has Barrett. It is really strange. Everybody but Barrett's numbers coming up are with the Cubs-Barrett's numbers are his Padre numbers. Jason Kendall: .244/.354/.317 (41 AB's) Michael Barrett: .223/.223/.287 (94 AB's) Koyie Hill: .153/.221/.271 (85 AB's) Rob Bowen: .065/.167/.097 (31 AB's). It's pretty hard to get under a .250 OBP-or at least I thought it was. Barrett, Hill, and Bowen seem to be doing pretty well at it though. Kendall right now is doing a really good job at what he does. Walk, get hit, and hit singles. If he can just continue to get on base at a decent rate, that hole at catcher won't be nearly as bad (especially if Soto comes up and takes Hill's 1-2 starts per turn through the rotation away from him). As for the person who suggested re-signing him, I wouldn't come anywhere near to doing that. Just thank him for hopefully 3 good months, and move on. We don't want a repeat of the Gary Gaetti situation.

Prior, Zambrano, Clement, and Estes. The first 4 starters were the reason the Cubs got in to the playoffs for the most part. Prior was 3rd in the NL in ERA, Zambrano was 7th, Wood was 8th, and Clement was 27th.

The Mets threw 47 pitches in the 3rd inning.

Lilly is slow, and the ball was bunted hard enough for it to be a double play possibility. Yup-I also just looked back at the Jones play. If Jones reacts instantly and dives back to the bag, Wright may have tagged him anyway (it would have been close). So there are no assurances that even if he knew he was safe, that he could have gotten back to the bag in time.

Maybe so, but the ump didn't call it and Quade was yelling at Jones to get back and he was ignoring him. Still an incredibly boneheaded play. I'm just not that upset because the right call ended up being made. I take it when the umpire makes a incorrect call that helps the Cubs, but I'd rather the right call be made.

If you watch the replay, Jones should have been called out anyway. Wright's foot was on the bag when he caught the ball.

Hart has really done a good job reducing his walk rate this year. Is he a guy who could help the Cubs next year in some capacity? Actually, looking over his numbers, I wouldn't mind if they brought him up as a reliever to get right-handed hitters out. He has some pretty significant splits in AA and also looking at a prior year's numbers though. He appears to have been pretty consistent in one thing throughout his minor league career though-he strikes out a good amount of right-handers. Does he project to be much more than that? I'd have to think his future as a starter is shaky, while he could be an effective reliever.

The Cubs starters are 5th out of 16 in starters IP/G in the NL (and with a long outing today they could move into 2nd in that department). That hasn't been a big problem with the Cubs overall getting deep into ballgames. It just happened that Marshall's short outing, Hill's short outing, and Z being taken out earlier then usual happened on the same time through the order.

Because they weren't necessarily "proven" wrong. I don't think any of the formulas would say that they are infallible or that they are able to take all the factors into consideration. For example, the psychological impact on other hitters of Sosa's home runs or the home run chase. It may not have been much, but it was a factor, and it can tip the balance between two great hitters like Sosa and Olerud were that year.

Link. I found it curious because I don't see how Dunn would clear waivers. A team claiming him would not be taking on a big contract, so I could see many teams making the claim to prevent someone else from getting him. Either way, I found the quote interesting. If he's still out there, I'd hope in light of our anemic offense, Hendry would make a run at him. If a team claims him, the Reds pull him off waivers and try to make a deal with the team that claimed him. The Reds certainly won't let him go for nothing. but if he's claimed... he can't be traded, though. even if it's to that team that claimed him. right? No, they can trade him to the team that claims him. The Reds have the option to either simply let Dunn go to that team, work out a trade with the claiming team, or pull him back.

The Browns are really being hypocritical here. First off, they negotiated with Joe Thomas. During those negotiations, they told him that he shouldn't get as much money as last year's #3 pick Vince Young, because Vince is "a QB and QB's get paid a premium" Now, they say that Brady was taken at 22 for a reason. Three things come to mind here: 1) Brady is a QB, so he should be getting a premium just like you told Thomas. 2) Brady is only asking for around what the #19 or #20 pick gets-it's not like he's holding out for top 10 money. 3) The Browns tried to trade and pick Brady at #19 or #20! They just couldn't get anyone to trade with them until #22. Now you're going to hurt your franchise over like 1 million dollars (which is about all they are arguing over). It simply doesn't make sense.

Link. I found it curious because I don't see how Dunn would clear waivers. A team claiming him would not be taking on a big contract, so I could see many teams making the claim to prevent someone else from getting him. Either way, I found the quote interesting. If he's still out there, I'd hope in light of our anemic offense, Hendry would make a run at him. Yeah, I don't see how that's feasible. Edit: I also think "anemic" is hyperbole. Average, yes; anemic, no. The Cubs are 8th in the NL in runs OBP, SLG and OPS. That's average. They have also averaged 5.2 runs per game since the all star break and almost 4.7 for the season. That's not anemic. That said, if Dunn's available they should certainly try for him. Yeah, I'm not sure I understand the anemic reference either. Cubs numbers in June: .277/.336/.440, 4.75 R/G Cubs numbers since the All-Star Break: .275/.346/.408, 5.10 R/G They had that one really bad offensive week the first week of July that took down the July numbers-other than that, they've been pretty good. Would an upgrade help? Sure, especially because that since the All-Star break slugging is pretty bad, and Dunn could help raise that quite a bit. It's a far cry from anemic though (which a lot of people try to present it like it is). That OBP especially I like quite a bit-here are the OBP's of the Cubs starters since the break: Soriano-.284 Theriot-.388 Lee-.444 Ramirez-.372 Floyd-.348 DeRosa-.388 Jones-.361 Kendall-.341 That's pretty good right there. This team as currently constructed has almost no power in it, but with Theriot in full-time at SS and Kendall behind the plate, this team could easily become a very, very high OBP team.

Hill should stay as well. Besides his last outing, his previous 3 starts were all good starts and he still has respectable numbers. IF anybody was to be removed from the rotation it should be Jason Marquis. Marquis is basically living off his first 2 months of the season, and the 2 months since then have been horrible. However the only way I see anybody getting moved out of the rotation is if somebody gets hurt. As for you disagreeing about Pie because of his impatience, Jones is not any more patient than Felix is. However Felix gives you top notch D in CF, and the likelihood of improving, while we know what we have with Jones, and its nothing spectacular at the plate. Jones D has been horrible of late, and if hes not going to play good D, then there really is no reason for him to be here. Fun Fact Jones has as many HRs as Felix does in the Majors this year in 150 more AB's. Felix only has 13 fewer RBI than Jones, and 12 less runs scored. Why is Jones the better option? Pie in his first two stints simply couldn't get on base. A .272 OBP is not something that this team needs right now. His K/BB percentage was also not good at all. Jones meanwhile has given the team around .370 OBP since July 1st. His walks are up and his K's are down during that stretch. It's a close call-do you want the defense and the possibility of improving from Pie, or the OBP that Jones has been giving? I'd say to stick with Jones for now-if they were going to let Pie play through his struggles, the time to do that was earlier in the season. At this point, by the time he starts to figure out major league pitching the season will be over. Jones is a better bet to produce over the next month or two, and the Cubs need every single bit of offense that they can get.

Cramps and Dehydration-doesn't sound like anything serious.

I don't even know why people are listing Jones as one of the problem areas today (maybe overall, but not today). 1-4 with a double is not anything to write home about, but it's not a bad day either. The ones who did have a bad day: Dempster, and the 1-2 hitters going 0-8 today. Those were the problem areas.

boy i'm glad you're not running the cubs boy i'm glad you love to root for a team that has a few losers in it. Remove the losers on this team and we can actually win this division. Dempster, Jones, Howry, Eyre are all losers. And who are you going to have replace Dempster, Howry, and Eyre? Petrick and Cherry, and ? ? The way they have been pitching, in a month you would call them losers and cut them as well.

I don't know why. His last 6 games before this one: 2 games with 3 hits 3 games with 2 hits 1 game with 0 hits

have you seen any reason to believe different with their previous AB's this game? It's not all about the Cubs approach. Hernandez is pitching well...give him credit. He won't pitch a CG though, and there's a good possibility he'll tire soon and wil be more hittable. of course its always the other pitcher, and not the Cubs approach. It amazes me how many "tip your cap" games the Cubs supposedly have What don't you like about the approach today? Cubs hitters have actually been quite patient today...I think it's at or above 4 pitches/plate appearance. El Duque's ERA is in the 2's...we're not talking about a slouch of a pitcher. The Cubs offense has been very good of late. The've been averaging over 5 runs a game over the last week or so... The Cubs try pulling everything everyday. There are a couple guys on this team(Theriot, Aram) who will go the other way but everybody else goes up trying to pull everything. Usually when you are trying to pull everything, you will either K or hit little weak ass grounders or pop ups, which is exactly what this offense is doing(minus Lees HR) The Cubs balls hit today: 6 pulled (2 for hits) 1 ball to center 7 balls hit the other way (1 hit) It certainly doesn't look like they are trying to pull everything.

What stretches out the bandwidth Tim? Are there things that users can do to try to conserve it a bit?

I'll say, I bet he's the only guy in the league below zero. Pretty good trick isn't it? I wonder if that's the lowest number for any starter this year.

El Duque's BABIP so far this year-.223. That's just absurd.