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The Cubs moved to only 5.5 back in the WC today. They gained 1 1/2 games on Philly, and 1 game on LA. They are 5.5 back of Arizona (4 back in the loss column) 5 out of LA (4 back in loss column) 2 out of Atlanta (1 back in loss column) 1 out of Philly (tied in loss column) Also, the two teams behind the Cubs fell back another game, so they are now 2 games ahead of Colorado and 3 ahead of Florida. Let's once ahead get closer in the division and WC race today!

Actually a couple weeks ago, when we last had the "Soriano shouldn't be leading off" debate, Jon had some great posts that showed that the stats don't prove anything about whether he should lead off. He's been very up and down throughout his career. i thought the stats showed that, except for one season, his numbers as a leadoff hitter were significantly better than the other spots in the batting order. maybe you're right though. 2001 I don't have figures for No, you're right. 2002 he didn't have enough at-bats in any other slot to really count (I'm counting 35 AB's as a decent sample). 2003 he was much better at leadoff than at 3rd 2004 he was much better at leadoff than batting 3rd or 5th 2005 he was best at 5th, then leadoff, then 4th 2006 he was much better at leadoff than batting 4th 2007 he doesn't have enough of a sample (although he has 28 AB's and was almost 400 points lower at the 3 spot than leadoff, so he would have to be unbelievable at the 3 spot later in the year to possibly catch leadoff). Add to that from 2002-2007, Soriano has had 4 years above an 850 OPS, and 2 years below. The 4 years he had an 850 or above were all batting leadoff primarily, and the 2 years he didn't he batted primarily lower in the order. There are possible other explanations for this (something else in Texas may have caused it, since there isn't a year where Soriano batted leadoff in Texas), but the fact that Texas is a great hitters park and Soriano was batting around great hitters lessens the chance that it was another factor.

Barrett is 1/2 tonight with an RBI. I'm not sure they should let the Chris Young-Barrett combination happen much though. It's simply too easy to take bases from both of them. Look at what has happened tonight: 1st-Pierre singles, steals 2nd base, steals 3rd base, scores on a groundout Russell Martin walks, advances to 2nd on the groundout, and then steals 3rd base. 2nd inning-Dodgers go down 1/2/3 3rd inning-Furcal singles, steals 2nd base, scores on a single Pierre standing on 2nd gets to 3rd because of a balk So 4 stolen bases and a balk already through 3 innings, and two of those were steals of third base. Now-don't get me wrong, Chris Young gets the majority of blame-he was 2nd in the league entering the game with 20 stolen bases given up with 0 caught on the season-so he's allowing 1.25 stolen bases per start. Because Young is so bad though, it's not a good idea to have Barrett be with him, or else teams will simply run at will like they have so far tonight.

Grrrrrrr-I just went to tape tomorrow's game, and what do I get? "Mets vs Phillies". So I went to make sure the listings were correct, and I found that the Cubs-Brewers game is being shown on my Fox Spanish affiliate, so I was happy again. Then I went to that channel and found that I do not have it. So a game I was looking forward to watching is no more.

I agree it's Z's problem. It doesn't look like Z and Barrett were going to be quite comfortable working with one another again though (by Lou's actions of not wanting to put Barrett in there, and some of Z's reactions at the time of the trade). It may be Z's fault that it was that way, but it was still for a problem for the club, and Barrett was the one that was more expendable of the two in order to solve that problem. Note-this is not the only and maybe not even one of the biggest reasons Barrett was traded. It was a problem though, however small it may have been.

Agreed. He's just trying to find that balance. When he came up the first time he was too aggressive. They sent him down to the minors and told him that he needed to work on his patience, and it's obvious that he has done that. Now he just needs to be a little more aggressive and put the two things together and he can really start having success.

beat him up in milwaukee the first week of the year when he came off his opening day shutout of LA and got to him a little bit in Chicago before he tweaked his groin....so i wouldn't be afraid of Sheets...unfortunately i have to work and am goin to tape it (god i miss my DVR) and watch it after work We didn't get to Sheets that game that he got hurt. He threw 3 scoreless against us, hurt himself, and then the reliever came in and we got 6 runs the next inning. Lee's been excellent against Sheets, Floyd has been good, DeRosa has been ok, and Ramirez has been terrible. None of the rest likely to play have many AB's against Sheets (thankfully, no Jones and Izturis tomorrow like earlier in the season. Their career numbers against Sheets are each below a .300 OPS.)

Not necessarily-if Arizona wins over SF today, they will be in the lead of the WC and the Cubs will be 5.5 back at the end of the day. They did move to within a game and a half of the Phillies today as well though. And the most important thing-only 6.5 back of the Brewers! Figure out a way to beat Sheets tomorrow please!

Thats why I said the best spot would be 6th with Derosa behind him Except with Pie's struggles right now that hurts the team to bat him 6th. Putting a guy who is 5 for his last 40 (3 BB's, 10 K's in that span) 6th will mean more failures for the team with runners on base.

Most people like Marmol as a reliever because he has 2 pitches and is prone to control issues. As a reliever, he can be taken out if his control is off, and that option is not available as a starter. Add to that the extra velocity on his fastball as a reliever, and it adds up to the possibility of developing into a good starter while being a very good reliever right now.

People sometimes just skim the game thread-it can be hard for them to figure out what is a joke and what is not. Here is the Cubs lineup: Soriano-LF Fontenot-SS Lee-1B Ramirez-3B Floyd-RF DeRosa-2B Bowen-C Pie-CF R. Hill-P

Cubs lineup is exactly what navigator posted. Brewers Hart-RF Hardy-SS Braun-3B Fielder-1B Hall-CF Estrada-C Mench-LF Weeks-2B Gallardo-P

Yeah, I don't think the 12th pitcher is coming today (nor does it need to after the off day).

I'd probably put Soriano ahead of Dunn. Dunn's been a little better offensively, but Soriano's defense (both his better range and his 10 assists so far) probably at least make that a wash, if not a slight edge to Soriano. I'd probably also put Gorzellany ahead of Z if I were just going on performance so far this season.

In 43 June at-bats. Now his line looks like this in June-.277/.319/.400. So the Cubs might have actually traded him at higher value. If they had waited a few weeks like one poster suggested and he turned cold again (like he has right now for the Padres) that simply further depresses his trade value. This is hindsight. At the time of the trade, his offense was improving. The Cubs didn't have any reason to beleive that he would all of the sudden slump again. To think that they should be commended for trading him because they somehow saw a slump coming, is silly. Which is exactly what the article is doing by saying the Cubs traded these players too late-hindsight. There was no reason to believe that Sosa would fall as far as he did so fast and lose the city, or that Patterson would suddenly do worse at 25 than he did even at 22, or that Walker's offense would drop like it did. He blames the Cubs for waiting to sell until after their dropoff, which is quite a bit of hindsight.

That whole list is a joke anyway. 10, 11, and 12 is a good example. If you said you could have any one of three receivers this year-Randy Moss, Reggie Wayne, or Torry Holt-I'm not sure which name would come out of you, but I'd be pretty sure it wasn't Moss. As for Moose and Berrian, it's hard to put Moose on there when he's only had 1 season above 900 yards in his last 6, and that was 3 years ago. Berrian's 775 can't really be considered either. Here are some people that probably should be on the list: Isaac Bruce-he put up almost 1100 yards last year! I know he's declining, but he deserves to be there low on the list. Mike Furrey-this is the Lion that should have been on the list, not Calvin Johnson. 98 catches, 1086 yards last year. Joey Galloway put up his 2nd straight 1000 yard season in an awful offense in Tampa, and yet didn't make the list. Terry Glenn put up his 2nd straight 1000 yard season, and didn't make the list.

In 43 June at-bats. Now his line looks like this in June-.277/.319/.400. So the Cubs might have actually traded him at higher value. If they had waited a few weeks like one poster suggested and he turned cold again (like he has right now for the Padres) that simply further depresses his trade value.

Well, OPS, but you didn't list that. Here is how the league stacks up in that this morning (the runs category is per game) Phillies-1st in runs, 1st in OBP, 2nd in SLG, 1st in OPS Milwaukee-2nd in runs, 5th in OBP, 1st in SLG, 2nd in OPS Florida-3rd in runs, 6th in OBP, 4th in SLG, 3rd in OPS Cincy-4th in runs, 11th in OBP, 3rd in SLG, 4th in OPS Colorado-5th in runs, 2nd in OBP, 8th in SLG, 5th in OPS Cubs-6th in runs, 7th in OBP, 5th in SLG, 6th in OPS Mets-7th in runs, 4th in OBP, 7th in SLG, 7th in OPS Astros-t8th in runs, 9th in OBP, 9th in SLG, 9th in OPS Dodgers-t8th in runs, 3rd in OBP, 12th in SLG, 10th in OPS Atlanta-10th in runs, 8th in OBP, 6th in SLG, 8th in OPS Padres-11th in runs, 15th in OBP, 11th in SLG, 13th in OPS Arizona-12th in runs, 12th in OBP, 10th in SLG, 11th in OPS Cardinals-13th in runs, 10th in OBP, 13th in SLG, 12th in OPS Giants-14th in runs, 13th in OBP, 14th in SLG, 14th in OPS Pirates-15th in runs, 14th in OBP, 15th in SLG, 15th in OPS Nationals-16th in runs, 16th in OBP, 16th in SLG, 16th in OPS

I'm more worried about tomorrow than Sunday. Marquis will probably give up 3-4 to their offense, but I think the offense has a good chance to do that to Bush as well. I'm not sure what they are going to do against Sheets-he has allowed only 6 runs in his last 5 outings combined.

The strange thing-the Rockies hit a homerun to take the lead in the top half of the inning. Hit by who? Troy Tulowitski. Sound familiar? This has to have been an absolutely crushing week for Rockies fans-they had just come off sweeping the Yankees, right in the middle of the race for the West, and now they have lost 7 in a row including 2 absolutely crushing losses.

A lot of people like to read what people's thoughts were back then to what they are now. BTW, check a couple threads down in the "Hall of Fame" thread started by Derwood. I think you are proposing basically the same thing as he did.

Probably the key plays of the Smokies game tonight: Top of the 8th, Smokies down 3-0, 1 out: Ouch. Edit: It was 3-0, not 1-0. Still pretty ridiculous though.

Noah probably does make Wallace expendable, but I doubt Wallace has much trade value. In fact, he probably has negative trade value with how much money he makes and declining skills.

Was it Allen straight up for the #5? Or was Theo Ratliff somehow involved? I know Delonte West is going to Seattle and there was one other player but I don't remember who it was. I think Wally is supposed to be the other player.

Also Florida is right in front of us in the WC They aren't in front of us anymore-they are 2 games behind the Cubs now. The 4 teams ahead of the Cubs in the WC are 2 of (LA/SD/Arizona), Philadelphia, and Atlanta. Philadelphia and Atlanta are each only 2 games ahead of the Cubs, and so hopefully Cincy can steal one from the Phillies tonight and the Cubs can move closer. The Cubs schedule is a lot softer over the next month than any of the 4 teams ahead of them in the WC, so I really would hope that they could gain some ground.