CubColtPacer

He's batting 2nd.

Last I knew, I think the Braves signed him. The Braves signed him in the offseason-they then cut him in May. He's on the DL at AAA Charlotte in the White Sox organization now.

They say that Capuano is not on a pitch count even though this is his first start back from the DL-it will be interesting to see if that's true. He threw 23 pitches in the first.

Last night during the MASN telecast of the game they said 20 different starters. Then they said, "not 20 total pitchers, but 20 starters!" Knew that couldn't be correct. For all the horror of 2006, did the Cubs even start half that many last year? The Cubs had 15 different starting pitchers in 06.

Exactly...doing the same exercise last year. Jacque Jones 306/336/528 How well is that working out for us? Uh, you might want to look at his statement again-he's making a play on words. Obviously, things could change I don't think anybody is disputing that.

the production from SS isn't anything to write home about either And it's not just when Izturis starts. The Cubs are still bottom of the league in SS OPS, and Izturis actually has the best numbers out of the SS position. Plus, RF is still ranked 10th in the league. They are being carried by 3B (2nd in league), 1B (3rd in league), LF (4th) and 2B (5th in league). I can't believe that there are 6 worse RF in the NL than what the Cubs have had. That hasn't been nearly the abyss that SS and CF have been, but I'm surprised it's ranked that high. It's propped up by their OBP in right. The OBP is 4th in the league, the SLG is 15th.

So who is telling the truth? It doesn't make any sense that the Trib Tower would veto a trade of Jones based on salary. (For the reason Bruce stated). It also doesn' t make any sense that MLB offices would come out any deny having any involvement in stopping the trade, if they truly vetoed the trade. How about Hendry? I suppose that could be true, but wouldn't he have had to make the deal with Florida (which leaked to the press) and then at the last minute decide it wasn't a good deal and pull it off the table? The precise money amount was probably done last. Hendry found out their interest and offered to pay some of the contract. Then they agreed on the prospect. Finally, Florida came with their demand of exactly how much money they wanted, and Hendry thought about it and then demanded less money or a better prospect. While this was going on, Florida people leak the story that the deal is done (almost all of the reports came from a Florida source). When the Marlins don't budge on the money or the prospect, Hendry shuts down the negotiations.

All you have to do is click on view results-it's right under the poll options, and you can look for yourself as many times as you want without having to vote.

Shane Youman, a 27 year old left-hander out of LSU.

I love how, in all that talk about pitchers having excellent seasons despite the lack of wins, those articles are written like the win category is a hurdle that needs to be overcome, rather than admit that wins are a worthless measuring stick. No pitcher with a 1-5 record and a 3.47 ERA is going to feel bad about his season, other than perhaps that it's being spent with the wrong team. I don't know about that-pitchers get pretty concerned about their win-loss record. It doesn't mean much as a stat, but pitchers themselves do care about it, and I'm sure that many care about wins more than their ERA, which is kind of strange.

That's very true. I probably should have listed him, although he was basically unavailable with how much the Nationals were reportedly asking for him. I mentioned him mainly because Westbrook was mentioned. It seemed like the Cubs had as much interest in Church as they did in Westbrook. I actually think the Cubs had a lot more interest in Church than Westbrook. From what Bruce told us, Hendry was in conversations about Church for a while this off-season, but the Nats weren't giving him up without a king's ransom. I listed Westbook because I didn't know how much the Indians wanted for him exactly, and he was one of the main 2 or 3 pitchers that the board wanted.

That's very true. I probably should have listed him, although he was basically unavailable with how much the Nationals were reportedly asking for him.

I was looking at Miller's numbers last night-he's had above a 710 OPS every year since 1998 with the exception of 1 (and most years was above a 750). That year of course was 2003 with the Cubs, when he had a 679.

Ok, going in most people said that the Cubs needed a big bat, a second baseman, a possible shortstop (only possible because very few were on the market), and starting pitching. Not many people really wanted a good center fielder because nobody wanted to block Pie for too long, and several people wanted Pie to start in the majors from the beginning of they year. Here are the candidates-I'm going to put board favorites (who the majority of the board wanted, not necessarily everybody) in italics and Hendry signings in bold: Big Bat: Alfonso Soriano-.305/.353/.542-8 years, 136 million Carlos Lee-.296/.349/.522-6 years, 100 million J.D. Drew-.257/.371/.392-5 years, 70 million Remember also that Soriano was signed as a RF originally. Second Baseman: Mark DeRosa-.286/.363/.452-3 years, 13 million Ray Durham-.253/.321/.405-2 years, 14 million Marcus Giles-.252/.325/.346-1 year, 3.2 million Adam Kennedy-.212/.283/.256-3 years, 10 million Ronnie Belliard-.290/.329/.381-minor league deal Todd Walker-.271/.288/.292-minor league deal Also note that Durham and Kennedy (and Walker) were all type A free agents, while DeRosa was a type B because he was listed as an OF. Shortstop: Julio Lugo-.189/.260/.281-4 years, 36 million Alex Gonzalez-.253/.301/.456-3 years, 14 million Royce Clayton-.231/.281/.327-1 year, 1.5 million Not a lot of options there-I'm glad the team avoided the Lugo disaster though. Starting Pitching Jason Marquis-3.31 ERA, 1.21 WHIP, 133 ERA+ (3 years, 21 million) Ted Lilly-3.84 ERA, 1.04 WHIP, 115 ERA+ (4 years, 40 million) Barry Zito-4.61 ERA, 1.38 WHIP, 93 ERA+ (7 years, 126 million) Daisuke Matsuzaka-3.80 ERA, 1.24 WHIP, 117 ERA+ (6 years, 52 million, plus 51 million posting fee) Jason Schmidt-6.31 ERA, 1.79 WHIP, 69 ERA+ (3 years, 47 million) Gil Meche-3.26 ERA, 1.29 WHIP, 143 ERA+ (5 years, 55 million) Miguel Batista-4.63 ERA, 1.60 WHIP, 93 ERA+ (3 years, 25 million) Adam Eaton-5.75 ERA, 1.50 WHIP, 77 ERA+ (3 years, 24.5 million) Kei Igawa-6.91 ERA, 1.56 WHIP, 61 ERA+ (5 years, 20 million, plus 26 million posting fee) Mark Mulder-hasn't pitched yet this year (2 years, 13 million) Tomo Ohka-5.79 ERA, 1.61 WHIP, 78 ERA+ (1 year, 1.5 million) Vincente Padilla-6.69 ERA, 1.81 WHIP, 68 ERA+ (3 years, 33.75 million) Jeff Suppan-4.90 ERA, 1.47 WHIP, 87 ERA+ (4 years, 42 million) Jeff Weaver-6.75 ERA, 1.68 WHIP, 62 ERA+ (1 year, 8.325 million) Kip Wells-6.30 ERA, 1.59 WHIP, 67 ERA+ (1 year, 4 million) Greg Maddux-3.66 ERA, 1.23 WHIP, 110 ERA+ (1 year, 10 million) Woody Williams-5.47 ERA, 1.49 WHIP, 79 ERA+ (2 years, 12.5 million) Randy Wolf-4.33 ERA, 1.40 WHIP, 101 ERA+ (1 year, 8 million)-note on Wolf-he turned down multiple 3 year deals to go home. And one trade target discussed quite a bit: Jake Westbrook-6.10 ERA, 1.45 WHIP, 71 ERA+ Well, there were tons of horrible contracts handed out to pitchers as you can see. Bench Daryle Ward-.319/.448/.404 (1 year, 1.05 million) Craig Wilson-.172/.304/.259 (1 year, 2 million) Henry Blanco-.194/.231/.250 (2 years, 5.25 million) Cliff Floyd-.295/.364/.404 (1 year, 3 million) Trot Nixon-.244/.341/.329 (1 year, 3 million) Jose Cruz Jr.-.256/.336/.396 (1 year, 650K) The bench is a mixed bag. Ward has been a success, and Blanco has been a flop. Signing Wilson or Nixon wouldn't have helped at all, and the Floyd signing is still up in the air. I think Hendry did a very good job this year of avoiding the awful contracts. I remember plenty of people saying how smart the Red Sox were to sign Drew and Lugo for the same money as Soriano and DeRosa like the Cubs did-I think you can realize how bad this team would be now if that had been reversed. Same if the Cubs had gone with Schmidt, Padilla, or Westbrook.

Sounds good to me. I knew another Ramirez day off was coming soon, and this seems like the best day to do it (and the Cubs got lucky-it gets even better compared to other days when you consider that Aramis has not been good against Redding). Hopefully this is his last day off before the break.

Well, the Cubs are no closer to the lead in the WC, but the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th place team all lost. So the Cubs remain 5 out of LA, 3.5 out of Arizona, 1 out of Atlanta, and now are tied with Philadelphia for 4th. A Cubs win today and they will either move within 4 games of the WC or be in a tie with Atlanta for 3rd.

I agree. If we have to lose him, there is no better time than now (not that he's been contributing anyway) The Cubs still face 3 left-handers this week. I'd rather put Ward in against mostly right-handers (the dropoff from Lee to Ward against right-handers is not all that much, against left-handers it's huge). If you look at the Cubs schedule, there will be plenty of places where the Cubs face bad teams (3/4 or so of their games left are with teams under .500). Lee can miss some of those games instead, and hopefully the team won't face 3 left-handers that week (which is abnormally high). I know this is a longshot, but what are the odds that we see Hoffpauir during the time Lee is out? It would probably help if he was a righty considering that Ward bats left as well. OK I just wanna see Hoff in the majors... he's really tearing it up at Iowa with 73 RBIs. I see it as extremely unlikely. The Cubs don't even have enough roster spots to have 12 pitchers right now. How are they going to find a roster spot to bring Hoffpauir up? I'm sure they'd at least consider it if it weren't for that issue, but there simply won't be any space for him.

I agree. If we have to lose him, there is no better time than now (not that he's been contributing anyway) The Cubs still face 3 left-handers this week. I'd rather put Ward in against mostly right-handers (the dropoff from Lee to Ward against right-handers is not all that much, against left-handers it's huge). If you look at the Cubs schedule, there will be plenty of places where the Cubs face bad teams (3/4 or so of their games left are with teams under .500). Lee can miss some of those games instead, and hopefully the team won't face 3 left-handers that week (which is abnormally high).

They delayed his hearing until after the All-Star break.

The Phillies loss moves the Cubs into a tie with them for 4th place in the WC. The Diamondbacks loss moves the Cubs to within 3.5 games of them.

Because the pitching in AAA absolutely SUCKS. Seems like most teams anymore put their best pitching prospects in AA, and when they're ready, promote them straight to the bigs. Not an absolute rule, of course, but it's happening much more frequently than in the past. The net effect is that the quality of AAA pitching is significantly diluted. Look at the Cubs recent young pitching promotions as one example. For all practical purposes, Sean Marshall, Carlos Marmol, and Billy Petrick made the jump straight from AA. Only Rich Hill and Mike Wuertz saw significant AAA time in the minors. And look at the Cubs minor league rosters right now. Until Sean Gallagher's recent cup of coffee in Chicago, for which he earned a roundabout promotion from Knoxville to Des Moines, the Iowa staff "featured" the likes of Les Walrond, John Webb, Ryan O'Malley, JR Mathes and Ben Howard; yikes. Meanwhile, AA has had Sean Gallagher, Donnie Veal, Billy Petrick and Mark Holliman, amongst others. This is a good point. The PCL has been a huge hitters league this season (the 8th best hitting team in the PCL has a better OPS than the 2nd best team in the majors, and that is with only 16 teams to choose from rather than 30 like MLB). Cedeno absolutely kills bad pitching-he has the swing to hit mistakes very hard. It's just the good pitchers who know how to pitch to his weaknesses that can get him out consistently. I still think he should get a shot, but that's a big warning sign to me.

I'm not too concerned at the moment (any more than any game). I think it will end up being a game where the game thread feels like the Cubs are losing with all the comments about why can't the Cubs score more off Redding, and in all actuality the Cubs will be winning throughout and win 4-2.

I can understand why they wanted to get Howry in. He hadn't pitched since Friday, so they wanted him to get some work. He obviously showed why he needed the work, as he was quite rusty. Hopefully he shook off the rust tonight to be ready for a save situation tomorrow.

The ERA for that Pirate reliever just went from 2.53 to 7.94.

The Brewers get out of it-still 3-3 going to the 6th. Suppan has 106 pitches though through 5.