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Most leagues that I know of don't count return production into a person's stats. I'm sure you can get a specialized league that might do it, but a standard one won't.

I really don't understand why he keeps getting called up. He's been terrible this year. He has a 5+ ERA at Iowa. The question is-who deserves to get called up besides Cherry? Petrick was sent down because he was terrible on the major league level and he couldn't throw on back to back days. That's a bad combination to have, so he left. There simply aren't that many options. Also, to be fair, Cherry's been pitching much better in Triple A recently: 7 G, 9.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 BB, 10 K

??? CB behind the plate. I sure wish Lee or SOriano would try to help Ramirez out a little. Bums. Lee's last 6 games not doing it for you? 21 AB's, 3 HR's, 4 BB's, .429/.520/.857

Well, he's not taking up a roster spot right now, and I don't believe he's blocking any prospects from getting their starts. He's not going to retire today and forfeit the rest of his guaranteed money. I don't see any harm in keeping him around as a worst case scenario insurance policy for a spot start if something happens to the rest of the staff and all their backups. Isn't he on the 40 man? He's on the 60 day DL right now, which means he doesn't take a spot up on the 40 man as long as he remains on the that list.

I'm glad they decided to have Floyd play today with his numbers against Arroyo.

If his contract for next year is voided if he's traded during this year, how do they trade him in the offseason? It's not that his contract is voided, it's that the club option for 08 is voided. All the Reds have to do in the offseason is exercise the club option during the window its open, and then trade him off... but they can't exercise that option yet. I read someplace that if Dunn's option is exercised, he cannot be traded without his permission until after June 15th. No, I don't have a link. That's what this person is saying here: http://thenastyboys.wordpress.com/2007/07/13/the-dunn-debate/

That's what they are trying to do. No other team in the league wants him apparently.

Payton is not in his walk year first of all-he also has another year left on his contract. Payton has had 0 seasons in the last 4 over a 95 OPS+, Jones has had 2. Jones has the better chance to rebound to be something pretty good, while Payton is simply an expensive bench player at this point. If you look at 08 (when Floyd will almost certainly not be re-signed) who would you rather have as the 4th OF? I don't think it's a terrible deal for the Cubs, but it's not a good deal either. Is everyone just ignoring my second edit? As you can see, I started my post after your first edit. I didn't see the next few posts or your second edit until after I had posted that.

Payton is not in his walk year first of all-he also has another year left on his contract. Payton has had 0 seasons in the last 4 over a 95 OPS+, Jones has had 2. Jones has the better chance to rebound to be something pretty good, while Payton is simply an expensive bench player at this point. If you look at 08 (when Floyd will almost certainly not be re-signed) who would you rather have as the 4th OF? I don't think it's a terrible deal for the Cubs, but it's not a good deal either.

And CF Leon Johnson & SS Darwin Barney aren't real prospects? Then why did the Cubs draft them in the top 10 rounds a month ago? Johnson is 22 and Barney turns 22 in November. Johnson through 8 games: .308/.419/.462 Barney through 7 games: .269/.387/.308 - Needs to work on his power I don't know why they drafted them, they were incredible reaches. Barney looks like a slightly better version of Joe Simokaitis, and Johnson is Sam Fuld reincarnated. I dont believe that the Cubs drafted Barney because they were thinking of Simokaitis and Sam Fuld is a pretty good player who'll have a chance to play in the big leagues, thou he cant come close to running with Johnson. My next question is, do they check birth certificates in the major leagues? Of course they had something better in mind when they drafted them, just like they had something better in mind when they drafted Montanez, or Harvey, or Dopirak, or Pawelek, or Colvin. It doesn't mean that's going to happen. Fuld will be a 5th outfielder if he makes the major leagues, and his ~.750 OPS in AA at age 25 doesn't exactly put him on track to make it there. I don't really know what you're addressing with the birth certificate thing, but I suspect it has something to do with the fact that Johnson and Barney are both 22(EDIT: Barney isn't quite 22) and in Low A. I never said anything about it, and I'm not holding it against them right now, but age matters, and those two are going to have to move quickly through the system. Barney was a reach, but how can you call Leon Johnson an "incredible reach"? He was a 10th round pick.... unless you want the Cubs drafting high school guys and signing them above slot (which they didn't do much of this year), you can't call Johnson much of a reach. I know he might've been rusty from his Mormon mission, but did you see his numbers at BYU? Flat out terrible(.248/.335/.339), and the Mountain West isn't exactly a baseball power either. I don't think Johnson is a non-prospect though, especially after he destroyed the rookie league and then has done very well in a small (26) number of at-bats in Peoria. I'm not terribly excited about him at this point, but he at least deserves a look with those numbers and considering his break from baseball.

Ramirez was the player who was traded from the Braves to the Indians last July for Bob Wickman. His bat is supposed to make him a major leaguer whichever position he plays, but there are doubts if he can remain a catcher or not. John Sickels has him ranked as the 11th best Indians prospect, a B-, and says that his glove is shaky but he loves the bat. So basically, this guy is a better Jake Fox who has at least a chance of staying behind the plate if he improves.

Thank you so much! I didn't think of that at all, and now I get to watch the game!

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=2951390 That's just the conundrum of the NFL-teams can't really afford to let good QB's get away because they are so hard to find. Bulger did have a very good year last year. 62.9% completion percentage, 4301 yards, 24 TD's, 8 INT.

We are in a pennant race, so playing through slumps is out the door this year. You either produce or you don't play. Floyd's July line of .324/.343/.667 suggests Lou doesn't really buy into that. Nor does the fact that JJ's terrible 3 months bought him a lot of time in July (though he's produced during that time). Lou & JH seem to allow veterans to attempt to play their way out of slumps whereas young kids get shipped to AAA. Floyd's July line? 35 AB's-and now they are bringing up Murton to possibly take away some of his at-bats. That's similar to how Pie struggled for 50 AB's and they replaced him, Izturis had about the same, about the same for Theriot, etc. Jones has only got so many chances because he has been "the other guy" many times. Pie struggles in his first callup, Jones becomes "the other guy". Jones struggles, and Pie gets called up again. Pie struggles, and Jones takes it again. So what's the difference between the two?

:? That's not awful. If they are willing to give Murton a good chance, then it is better than trading for somebody like Dye. Obviously not as good as somebody like Griffey or Dunn, but both of those would be very expensive to acquire. If Murton plays like he did last year, this offense becomes a lot more stable.

That's exactly what Ron Santo was saying last night. He said in his last outing, he got back to his breaking stuff (which is why he was successful), and then in the 5th inning you could hear him shaking his head after every pitch and saying "another fastball..come on Marquis, throw that breaking ball!" Ron thinks Marquis is more wild with his fastball, and when he tries to depend on it too much that's what causes his walk problems.

I'm sure it did. There were some things that were caused by range/arm problems, but many of his mistakes was Murton just taking awful angles to balls. As he got more experience out there, most of that is probably gone at this point. Murton should start against all left-handers and start at least 45-50 percent overall. I think he'll get the start tonight against Arroyo with Floyd getting the day off. Of course, if he continues to swing the bat well my expectations for how much Lou should play him will continue to go way up, and my hope is that Lou will give him 70-75 percent of the at-bats immediately.

As far as I know, there is no connection between Lovie and Simeon. Lovie was the linebackers coach in TB from 1996-2000 before he left for St. Louis, and Simeon didn't arrive in TB until 2001.

I don't think it's a big deal. He's not actually wasting a roster spot because he's not on the 25 man or the 40 man roster right now. As long as they don't try to put him on either of those rosters, he will just fade away after another month.

Not really. They were facing a team with the second worst pitching in the PCL (5.20 ERA) had a man on first with two outs in the 4th and a 7-2 ballgame when Pie got pinch-hit for. That's not a situation where you would suddenly pull your starter because it was a blowout.

Well, at least Kendall is 5/10 off Looper in his career. I also think Kendall is probably the right choice to catch Marquis if they are going to alternate the two catchers (because Z already has Hill and Marquis is the other quality hitting pitcher).

Jesus, that's about as bad as you can get :puke: LOL-this lineup was tied for the most games by any Cubs lineup last year: Pierre Theriot Ramirez Murton Jones Blanco Cedeno Soto When that's tied for your most common lineup, you know you have problems.

Why does Lou deserve credit? Unless he suggested something to JJ that changed his approach or something, I think the credit goes to JJ for having a great month. Of course, if I'm going to tell JJ "great job in July" I also get to tell him "you sucked hard in June...and May...and you were bad in April too." To be fair, Lou supposedly changed Jacque's swing near the end of June, so there potentially could be credit to Lou for that. Jacque still needs the power to come around, but I really like what I am seeing in other areas of his game. Some sharp hits to the opposite field, walks, and not looking completely helpless against the left-handed relievers he has been facing recently. He still does his ground it to first or second a lot, but the shortening of his swing may have helped cause his strikeouts to go down (4 in 45 AB's this month, and 6 BB's). I don't think it's just luck that has propelled him into this streak-it's a definite change in his approach (although he lapses back at times and has some pretty bad swings, he was doing that every swing earlier in the year). I have absolutely no idea if he'll go right back to what he was doing whenever he struggles though, so I'm not sure if he can sustain this production or not.

I found that to be an interesting exchange with all that has been talked about with the old regime/new regime and pitch counts. http://chicago.cubs.mlb.com/news/gameday_recap.jsp?ymd=20070725&content_id=2109020&vkey=recap&fext=.jsp&c_id=chc

That's very true about Dunn, but if the Cubs got his second best month out of the 9 (.847 OPS) for the next two months, Dunn probably wouldn't be worth the amount it would take to get him. He would have to be better than that-which is certainly possible, but the question then becomes how likely it would be.