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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.

Z's missing badly on some pitches, and the zone is really tiny when he does throw it in there. That is not a good combination for him.

I would agree that Murton should get a chance to start against one of these right-handers, although Floyd has turned it around recently: 8 for his last 21 with 1 BB, 2 2B's, and 3 K's. In contrast, Murton is 3 for 9 with 2 BB's, 1 2B, and 4 K's since he has been up. I would have liked to have seen Murton start today (then Floyd could start tomorrow and Murton against the left-hander on Sunday) but Floyd is in another hot streak again so I'm not upset that he's starting.

Update: Eyre had a couple bad outings after this poll was created, and now he has put together 7 2/3 straight innings of scoreless baseball to lower his ERA all the way down to 5.55 (considering he was at 8.27 at the end of May, that's a pretty good improvement). Lou also plans to put him in more games: Thoughts? http://chicago.cubs.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20070802&content_id=2125494&vkey=news_chc&fext=.jsp&c_id=chc

Kendall has a nice little hot streak going. It's only about 25 plate appearances so far though, so another couple weeks will tell a lot more on that front. Hill's only value is to Z, and I think Soto could provide that to Z as well. So a change there would be really nice. If Jacque's defense keeps up the way it has the last couple of days, they might have to make a change. He's hitting the ball a lot better to the opposite field than he did in May and June especially, but he needs to get some of that power back now. I think the ship has sailed on Pie for this year-by the time he would get through his struggles and make adjustments, the season would be over. I think I'd rather risk Jacque there right now, at least for another week or two (to see how his offense and defense is doing). If Pie does come up, Pagan needs to keep platooning with him like he is doing with Jacque. As far as Murton, I definitely think he should get his chances. He probably will have to just hit well against left-handers and wait for Floyd's next injury to get at-bats against right-handers though. If he produces then, he probably will get more of those at-bats as the season finishes. The other good thing here is that the chance of Floyd hitting his options in his contract at this point is really, really small at this point. DeRosa should stick to the infield for now with both Fontenot and Cedeno struggling (nothing against DeRosa, he plays just fine in RF, but the team has more capable OF's than IF's at the moment). Those two should only be used if people in the infield need a day off. As for Marquis, Lou just needs to have a little quicker hook on the innings where Marquis loses it. If he does that, Marquis becomes not that much of a problem. Take the Cardinals game for example-Marquis pitches pretty well for 4 innings or so, and then walks the pitcher who is trying to bunt. As soon as he did that, Lou should have had the bullpen up. When Marquis hit Pujols with the bases loaded, Lou should have pulled him. If a reliever comes in and gets out of the jam, the outing for Marquis looks a lot better. Marquis doesn't implode in the middle innings like that every game, but in the games he does Lou needs to be ready for it.