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Umm because he sucks? Maybe Lou is playing Theriot because hes younger and feels that maybe Theriot could get better, where as we/he knows what he has in Izturis. Theriot is older than Izturis.

*COUGH* Alfonso Soriano *COUGH* He's talking between center and right-the 3 of them could cover the 2 positions with Pie playing 80 in CF, Floyd playing 40 in RF, and Griffey playing 60 in RF and 20 in CF.

yeah, i was gonna say, losing koyie hill should be at the bottom of the cubs concerns. With the sudden influx of young catching depth, concerns about losing Koyie Hill should be completely non-existent. Worst case scenario if you lose him is you still have Bowen and Soto for the rest of the year. You have Blanco still under contract through 2008. Donaldson just signed. Fox is not going to stick as a starting big league catcher, but he provides emergency type depth at the position. Not to mention Wiet...oh wait If Boras is as crazy as he can be at times, Wieters might not sign with anybody this year. With the date moved up for signing players into August, and this being the first year where the draft rules are being changed so you get the same pick next year, Wieters may very well be the fall guy in the standoff and have to go into the draft again next year. http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/columns/story?columnist=stark_jayson&id=2910803

waiting for proof He won a WS? So did Kenny Williams, technically. Would you gys all want him? If Walt was bringing the St. Louis coaching staff with him and Pujols, I'd like it. Since he wouldn't be, I can't take or leave him. He leans too much on scrapheap picking for my liking. I don't get this...it wasn't just one fluke WS. Like I said in my previous post, it's 7 of 11 divsion titles. Pujols has only been around for 6 years, and Jocketty is the one that made that selection in the draft. He has to do some scrapheap searching because of a more limited payroll than the Cubs. If he had a longer leash, who knows what he could do? The Cardinals payroll is 90 million. It has been 85 million or more 4 out of the last 5 years. Until the Cubs spent all the money this year, the Cardinals payroll has been pretty consistent with the Cubs (some years more money, some years less). Looking over the Cardinals payroll as well, there is plenty of dead money. Edmonds at 9.5 million, Isringhausen's great, but 8.75 million worth? Encarnacion making 5 million, Eckstein making 4.5, Looper making 4.5, Mulder making 4.5, Wells making 4, Kennedy making 2.5.

The Cubs broadcast is on WGN with Len Kasper & Bob Brenly. The Sox broadcast is on CSN with Ha*gets shot* A lot better than the last series... The Cubs were on CSN, and the Sox were on WGN. Some fans dont have CSN... So they suffered, DJ. Last series they split the games. One of them was the White Sox crew, and one of them was Len and Bob (the third game was FOX). With Len and Bob doing Friday here, does this mean that Len and Bob get two of the three games? Please? Yes, Len and Bob have today's and Sunday's games. If you watched any of the 5 straight games that were on WGN, you would've known that. I watched all 5 of them, and didn't know that. Of course, I don't usually pay attention to things like that either.

When I look at the batter-pitcher matchups against left-handers, normally Jacque's numbers are bad but they aren't usually this bad: 1 for 27, 1 RBI, 12 K, .037/.037/.037 Ouch. Unfortunately, Soriano is 4 for 26 (with a double and a home run though). DeRosa is 6 of 17 with 2 doubles and a home run. Aramis is 2 of 8 with a double and a walk. Lee is 4 of 6 with 2 doubles and a home run. Pagan is 3 of 6. Z is 1 of 3 with a HR No clues on who to start at SS today-Izturis is 1 of 5, Theriot 1 of 4. The other side doesn't look pretty-Mackowiak, Konerko, Dye, Pierzynski, and Thome have all hit Z hard.

waiting for proof He won a WS? So did Kenny Williams, technically. Would you gys all want him? If Walt was bringing the St. Louis coaching staff with him and Pujols, I'd like it. Since he wouldn't be, I can't take or leave him. He leans too much on scrapheap picking for my liking. Yeah, in many ways Jocketty was just like Hendry in his moves the last couple years. He signed Juan Encarnacion to just about the same deal that Hendry signed Jacque Jones. He gave Braden Looper a 3 year deal that was worth more than what Howry or Eyre got. Sidney Ponson got to start for the team at the beginning of the year, and when he struggled Jocketty replaced him with the equally struggling Jeff Weaver. The Cardinals have had 3 really bad offensive spots (C, 2B, SS), and both corner outfield spots weren't exactly stellar either but Jocketty filled them with players like Encarnacion, Miles, Eckstein, Preston Wilson, and so on. This year, he signed a declining Edmonds to a 2 year 19 million dollar deal which hasn't worked out, Kip Wells for 4 million, Adam Kennedy for 3 years and 10 million who has been awful, Mark Mulder for 2 years 13 million that is still a big question mark, Preston Wilson for 1 million to be Neifi and Aaron Miles also for a million who is also not good. Does any of that sound familiar? I don't see Jocketty as being a huge upgrade.

It will be interesting to see if Bowen can stay close to Barrett's offense the rest of the year. I think he can, but I know that's very much in dispute. If he can stay within 50 points of OPS of Barrett, I'd probably call the trade a success considering 1) the upgrade in defense, however small it will be, 2) Bowen is here after this year, 3) the prospect, and 4)Bowen can catch Z without any problems, which helps flexibility. I hope Barrett does well in SD because I liked him-I just hope Bowen matches him or does a little better.

That's a scary wrist injury for a guy who already lost a bunch of power this season. Tejada's production for 2008 is very uncertain right now, and I think what it would take to get him still would not come down (remember, Angelos won't permit Tejada to be dumped, and he has stopped them from trading Tejada at all before).

I can think of worse things than that. DeRosa batted 5th for 163 at-bats in Texas last year, and they finished 6th in the majors in runs last year. (note-I do get your point, but I've seen over and over again that example used that DeRosa batting 5th sometimes is something a good offense doesn't do, and there is evidence that it is not true). The lineup could definitely use the power boost that Ramirez will provide. As far as Gallagher, I'm glad he got his feet wet in the majors, but I'm glad that they didn't wait any longer to send him down. Now he can get the innings he needs and continue to develop, and hopefully be a part of the Cubs come 2008.

The Cubs broadcast is on WGN with Len Kasper & Bob Brenly. The Sox broadcast is on CSN with Ha*gets shot* A lot better than the last series... The Cubs were on CSN, and the Sox were on WGN. Some fans dont have CSN... So they suffered, DJ. Last series they split the games. One of them was the White Sox crew, and one of them was Len and Bob (the third game was FOX). With Len and Bob doing Friday here, does this mean that Len and Bob get two of the three games? Please?

NO THANK YOU! Surely the Reds would have to eat some of that contract if they wanted to move him, right? Absolutely not. He has been one of the best hitters in the NL this year (949 OPS, 6th in the NL). That 12.5 million next year is misleading-only 6 million has to be paid next year, and 6.5 million of it is deferred, which makes the contract a lot easier to absorb. If Griffey forces a team to pick up his option, that makes things a little different, but if it's just for next year the Reds won't be forced to pick up any part of the contract unless they want to in order to get better prospects.

Lou did take responsibility when talking about Barrett. He came out several times in the last week and a half and said that Barrett was being unfairly singled out and that the club loses as a team, and everybody makes mistakes including the manager. He also admitted to playing Barrett too much early in the season, not giving him the proper rest he needed to be most effective. Either Kaplan is mostly wrong (which I tend to believe from other things he has reported) or Lou has changed his ways quite a bit in the last couple of weeks.

They aren't usually. The minors go to 7 IP for each game when they are playing a doubleheader.

Yeah-his OPS is third worst among all qualified players (Omar Visquel and Jason Kendall are the only worse right now). Unfortunately, two Cubs are in the bottom 15-Jacque Jones and Ryan Theriot.

Who in the world was he able to throw out? :shock: Nick Markakis-it was on a 3-1 count, so it might have been a hit and run (similar to how Lee got thrown out either today or yesterday).

The draft is a week from tonight, June 28th.

Barrett flies out to center. He finishes 0-4 with 3 K and a PB. (1 of 2 runners thrown out)

there's nothing to take notice of or adjust to. he does not have the talent to be a starter in the major leagues. he was riding a massive hot streak at the beginning of the year, nothing more, nothing less. Time to bring up EPatt and ride that hot streak. Right now, bringing up another guy who plays 2B won't help very much-they need somebody who can bring some offense to the SS position.

Gagne hasn't gone more than 1 inning in a game all season-so if the Cubs can get to the 10th, it will likely be with a different pitcher on the mound.

104. There's still a small chance at that number that Lou sends him out there another inning, although it's not as likely as if it were Z or Marquis.

Thank you Lilly for at least after your terrible start coming back and pitching 4 shutout innings, retiring the last 10 guys you faced, and striking out 10 on the day.

The Cubs have had 19 baserunners through 7 innings. The Rangers have had 7 baserunners through 6 innings.

To follow up my last post....he is still on schedule to be back tomorrow right? Lou said in the pregame show that they would be glad to get him back tomorrow, so yes, it looks like he's on schedule.

? He has been having a rough time with 3B of late. Is this really accurate? I'm asking this to anyone...I've seen him bobble a couple of plays, but he's had at the very least twice as many stellar grabs and saves. I think he's looked pretty good and has made some really nice plays. He did have 2 errors but considering he hasn't been there full time you can't expect much more. Also, if you read the story in the papers that error last night wasn't his fault. His eye had a flare up and he literally couldn't see the ball coming. I think his 4-5 fantastic plays have outweighed his 1 error that he's made. I think he'd do fine at SS still.