CubColtPacer

BTW, one of the notes from yesterday said that Ward may get the start tonight in RF.

Just to add this note to the thread that I saw this morning: http://www.signonsandiego.com/sports/padres/20070707-9999-1s7padnotes.html

Lou won't pinch-hit Ward or Floyd against a left-hander unless he absolutely has to. Remember the same thing happened when he pinch-hit Hill against Colorado (Fuentes) and left Ward on the bench.

Yeah, not a good night for the sinker that had been working well for 3-4 starts (that doesn't mean all those starts were good, but his g/f ratio over the last few weeks has been very good) suddenly be lost again.

he's a big groundball pitcher, almost 2.3 to 1 Not good when he's going against a FB pitcher and the wind is blowing out A fly ball pitcher? Marquis is a big ground ball pitcher as well-1.69 G/F. Maholm is at 1.99. Also Maholm has allowed 15 HR this year in 106 1/3 IP, Marquis has allowed 10 in 100 2/3.

Everybody knew he would struggle being promoted so fast. The good thing is that he can spend a year and a half there without being behind on track, so it's just fine if he struggles the rest of the year there as long as he plays well next year. Besides, his struggles have mostly been because of his disastrous start there (3 for his first 28). Since then, 38 AB's, .316/.333/.500 So he's been pretty good lately-he just needs to work on that K/BB ratio, which he has time to do.

Yes and no. Both Wuertz and Marmol struggle some with lefties, so there's some validity of needing more than one lefty in the pen. I don't think Wuertz or Marmol struggle enough against lefties to warrant another LHP in the pen. Wuertz has walked more of them this year, but his OPS against is nearly the same between the two sides of the plate, and he was significantly better against lefties last year(and he did well against them in AAA). Marmol is a little harder to get a read on considering he hasn't been a reliever that long, but my guess is considering his repertoire(similar to Wuertz's) that he won't have a super drastic split. Just to counter a little bit-Wuertz has also not been used a lot or pulled when tough left-handers are coming up, which artificially deflates his numbers. Plus, his 3 year numbers before this one showed this: Against Left: .230/.341/.399 Against Right: .216/.292/.332 He may have corrected something to make that split disappear, but I think usage pattern has had a lot to do with it as well.

Two words: Jim and Hendry. yeah well, that [expletive] better be sent packing after this season... I wouldn't count on it unless we end up below .500. Yeah, as the season goes along it seems less and less likely that Hendry will be fired. Even if the Cubs finish a few games short this year, he will most likely be the G.M. next year IMO.

I didn't realize you could go on a rehab assignment before your DL stint was even over. It's been that way as far back as I can remember. You just can't rejoin the major league club before then. That seems like a convenient way to skirt around the 10 day rule then. Petrick goes down, Cherry comes up, and Petrick is available to be immediately recalled because Cherry goes on the DL while the only thing it costs the club is 5 extra days to recall Cherry.

I can't imagine that's the case. If you have a solid medical reason for taking a medication, no organization can ban you from taking them. I'm sure that certain players have received exemptions so long as they're under a doctor's care (as long as the doctor isn't Dr. Nick). well it wouldn't be the organization, it would be the league. there are tons of medical reasons to take steroids. I wouldn't think MLB would allow that just because there is a medical reason for it. I don't see why the Cubs don't come up with an imagined injury for Eyre. every team in the league does it (see Wade Miller). You can't imagine an injury if the player refuses to go along with it.

Ding, you win I think it's in a little better shape than you are making it out to be. No...it's not. It's pathetic. Agreed. Seems terrible to me, position-player wise. All we have to show for ourselves at the moment are a couple of admittedly eager college prospects with pretty low ceilings and another "toolsy" CF who is, not suprisingly, floudering at the plate. Others we have recently tried out, such as Cedeno & Murton, seem to be close to tanking. And it's been this way for 20 years. I don't see how it could be classified as anything else other than bad. I look across the Illinois/Wisconsin border, and I see a farm system up there that makes us look like idiots. While I won't argue the Cubs have been better at developing players than the Brewers have (because I don't believe they have) looking at position players only obscures your point. In pitchers, the Cubs have a key advantage. Z, Hill and Marshall in the rotation plus Wuertz, Marmol, Ohman, and Gallagher/Petrick in the bullpen compared to Sheets and Gallardo for Milwaukee. That still doesn't make up for the Brewers advantage in position prospects, but it makes up ground (and a large part of the remaining difference has been problems with injuries for the Cubs-Patterson, Wood, Prior, and Guzman having major injuries really hurt the farm system record of success) Carlos Villanueva? And the big difference between the two has been sell high trading vs sell low trading. Acquiring Jorge De La Rosa, Chris Capuano, Chad Moeller, Lyle Overbay, Craig Counsell and Junior Spivey for Sexson, then flipping Overbay for Dave Bush, Gabe Gross and flipping Spivey for Ohka. Also Davis for Vargas and Estrada. A lot of those guys aren't rocking the world, but they are providing good solid production for guys who were close to their walk years. I didn't include Villanueva because he came in through a trade from the Giants, and I was only including players who came up completely through the system. None of those trades you just included involved anybody from the Brewers farm system, which is what we were discussing. If you do want to include trades though, the Cubs farm system also netted them Lee, Ramirez, and Murton. I'm not sure what actual trades that involved Brewers that came up all the way through their system gave them.

Steroids are a 50 game ban. Other substance abuse cases have a completely different program and punishment scale.

Steroids aren't stimulants. And stimulants aren't steroids. yeah - it's greenies, not roids. http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2927670 Damn. Read between the lines on this quote: Haha. Tigers can't get rid of Neifi soon enough. It's easy to interpret that way in this case, but teams say that every single time something like this happens, quality player or not.

I keep meaning to ask, WTF is a Senior Circuit club, and why does it matter how they rank among senior circuit clubs vs among the rest of the league? The National League is referred to as the Senior Circuit because it is the older of the two leagues. So they are just saying how the Cubs rank in the N.L. in those categories.

I didn't realize you could go on a rehab assignment before your DL stint was even over.

We have to DFA Eyre. Dempster Wood Howry Marmol Weurtz Ohman Guzman If Demp or Howry are traded, add in Petrick. Wow is that an amazing bullpen. That's only one left-hander. So? The Cubs have essentially only had one left-hander for the last month and a half and it's worked out just fine. Eyre doesn't really count because he has just been coming in during blowouts and in blowouts it doesn't matter if the pitcher throws with his right or left hand. Also, the Padres bullpen has gone between 0 and 1 left-handers all year, and they have been pretty good I'd say.

Ick. Brown has a .310 slugging percentage. Pop? Well, he did have pop before this year, and he does have a .360 OBP against left-handers. I'd trade Jones for Brown-KC was interested in him before the Cubs signed, maybe they'd still be. At least it gets us a player who can hit left-handers better than right-handers instead of the other way around. That would fit better with the Cubs roster.

I'll be more worried about the offense if they don't have a pretty good weekend here. RFK turned some of their home runs into outs, and that really hurt the offense (Ward and Soriano's balls last night are good examples of that). The Cubs haven't hit a home run since Ramirez's walk off shot a week ago-PNC park should hopefully change that a bit.

A truly confident person doesn't need to brag. Kind of like scoring a touchdown and just handing the ball to the ref. It makes perfect sense to me. Same thing with me-I don't really understand the confusion.

Technically, Koyie Hill has a higher OPS than Barrett since the trade: 29 AB's, .172/.250/.310 compared to for Barrett 37 AB's, .243/.243/.297 They are all terrible though. I certainly did not think that after 3 weeks all 3 catchers (Hill, Barrett, Bowen) would all be under a .600 OPS. It appears that Barrett has lost the starting job in SD already-now it's time for one of Hill/Bowen to lose their job to Soto.

I hate to see news like that. I hate to see anybody get hurt, although I know it happens. I'm very glad it wasn't a Cubs guy, but I wish we could have passed the Brewers without seeing somebody go down with an injury that could really hurt his career.

I want them dead and buried before the deadline. But they have reason for optimism right now with Carp coming back soon. But if the Cubs and Brewers come out strong after the break and the Cards continue to muddle a few games below .500, I don't think we'll see any big deadline moves from Jocketty. They may not sell everyone off (Rolen?), but you won't see them make a splash. I completely agree...I'd like to see them lose a couple more series in a row...and Jockety start selling off pieces...Rolen/Edmonds...some of their remaining bullpen arms...The team is not good right now...but if Carp and Mulder come back at 80-90% of their former selves, their starting staff becomes very serviceable...and they've still got that pujols guy. I wouldn't worry about Mulder-he had another set-back a week or so ago, and is nowhere close to going on a rehab assignment. Probably the best case scenario right now for him is to return in mid-August, and with how many delays and setbacks he has had already that seems very unlikely.

Ding, you win I think it's in a little better shape than you are making it out to be. No...it's not. It's pathetic. Agreed. Seems terrible to me, position-player wise. All we have to show for ourselves at the moment are a couple of admittedly eager college prospects with pretty low ceilings and another "toolsy" CF who is, not suprisingly, floudering at the plate. Others we have recently tried out, such as Cedeno & Murton, seem to be close to tanking. And it's been this way for 20 years. I don't see how it could be classified as anything else other than bad. I look across the Illinois/Wisconsin border, and I see a farm system up there that makes us look like idiots. While I won't argue the Cubs have been better at developing players than the Brewers have (because I don't believe they have) looking at position players only obscures your point. In pitchers, the Cubs have a key advantage. Z, Hill and Marshall in the rotation plus Wuertz, Marmol, Ohman, and Gallagher/Petrick in the bullpen compared to Sheets and Gallardo for Milwaukee. That still doesn't make up for the Brewers advantage in position prospects, but it makes up ground (and a large part of the remaining difference has been problems with injuries for the Cubs-Patterson, Wood, Prior, and Guzman having major injuries really hurt the farm system record of success) I'd sacrifice a few of our arms for positional talent, becuase arms tend to have a much shorter shelf life even if they prove out at the majors, due to increased possibility for injury. A little balance would be nice rather than simply developing pitchers and being absolutely horrid at everything else. Also, you're painting a pretty rosy picture here. CPatt didn't pan out because of injury? You can't be serious. He didn't pan out because he's clueless at the plate and has one of the worst swings I've ever seen (developed by the Cubs). He would have failed regardless of his injury in '03 because his plate talents are far too low to succeed for more than a short stretch. Also let's not just talk about right now. Let's talk about the last 20 years or more. Since Grace, not 1 bona-fide talented hitter developed by the Cubs. Even Grace is arguable -- he probably benefitted from being a maverick and knowing when to ignore bad coaching than anything else. If we don't stop at Grace, then we're looking at a black-hole abyss of minor league development that probably goes all the way back to Santo. I don't think 20 years ago has much bearing on the discussion. Sure, it might be frustrating for Cubs fans who want to put a pattern together, but it's completely different management, different coaches, and different players. To evaluate the current version based on what past versions did is unfair. With that said, this current version better hope that some of their positional prospects work out soon. Out of Pie, Soto, Cedeno, and Colvin, two of them at least better be average major league players when all is said and done.

If Lou is wanting to keep Pie's confidence up like he claims, he's not going to throw him back into the lineup against a left-hander where Pie is going to have an almost certain 0-4. The only chance for Pie to start before the break is tomorrow.

The most highly optimistic view would be that the Cubs really do value Murton highly, and see them as part of their future, but sent him down for two reasons: 1 - to get consistent ABs, and 2 - to get himself comfortable in RF someplace other than in the bigleagues. Now whether that interpretation has any validity is anyone's guess. But just because a young guy gets sent down, and a lesser player assumes his spot on the big club, doesn't automatically mean that the team doesn't value that young guy. What does Murton need to work on? The idea that RF is *that* much different than left is balderdash. The difference is longer throws to third and a different POV on the game. Murton doesn't have a great arm so he seems more suited to LF. The problem is the Cubs think they need to get a run producer out there. Maybe they do, but they also need guys to get on base too. Although I don't think the Cubs will do it, Soriano seems much more suited for RF and Floyd/Murton seem better suited for LF. I guess they don't want to switch Soriano again. Which brings me to my last point, Murton doesn't really have that much trade value as a stand alone. He's not going to be an elite outfielder and most teams want power from the corners. A team like the A's, Boston, or San Deigo might value Murton's skills but they are not likely to want to give up much to get him. I think the Cubs will have to package Murton with some other talent to get any value for him at all. The fact that you're asking this suggests that maybe you didn't see him playing RF much for the Cubs. He was bad, and looked uncomfortable there. It seemed pretty clear early on that OTJ training with the big club wasn't the most prudent approach to acclimating Murton to RF. I'm sure your eyes never lie. The Murton in RF was different than him in LF. Unless you are willing to admit that Murton in LF would: repeatedly allow bloop hits that fell in front of him to bounce right past him (3 times) drop easy fly balls or popups (twice) throw the ball to nobody in particular (once) make crazy dives that allowed the ball to bounce past him (at least 3 times) Those were the types of mistakes Murton was not making in LF last year, and he did all that in a month in RF. Sure, he had only average range and average arm strength, but he played the ball well off the bat and tended to catch the things in his range while in LF. In RF, it was completely different. He was not taking proper angles to the ball, which was causing him to get there late and have him dive at a few balls, and also improper angles to bloops that allowed them to bounce past him for extra bases. He definitely could eliminate most of that through practice, but there was a definite difference in his defensive play in RF in late April-early June then his defensive play in LF that we've seen out of him the past couple years. Errors themselves do not tell all that much (most of what I've listed above ended up being labeled a misplay rather than an error), but I'll include this last note: Murton had 3 errors in 133 games in LF last year, and 0 in 9 games there this year. He had 3 errors in 24 games in RF this year.