CubColtPacer

It used to be two users. Now it's only one? :cry: It's still two. To clarify my promise, for every round I win, I will select two users to receive premium for one month. If I win all eight rounds, then 16 users will be selected. If the user is already a premium member, I will draw a random autoed card to give them. Sometime in the near future, I'll post a thread for those who want to be entered into the drawing to sign up. Is that clear? There's only 6 rounds Vance not 8-that's how it's only 60 dollars instead of 80 :D

It helps the site. It's only 10 bucks a round....so what's that around 80 bucks max if I win it all? Only 60.

I did too-it still might happen and just hasn't been reported yet. Also, if Floyd is back tonight, an announcement of who is going to be sent down also has to be coming.

So around an 80-100 point increase in OPS from the Floyd/Murton combo (less if Murton comes up like expected) for 10 million dollars of extra salary and the loss of at least one major league pitcher and a good pitching prospect. I don't think it's worth it-if the Cubs take on that much more salary in RF, they will have absolutely no money or prospects to put at SS (or a little bit C) at either the deadline or the end of the year, along with making the Z extension much more iffy then it already is. Dunn would be an upgrade, but I don't think he's a big enough one to be worth the price-there are other areas that the money and prospects need to go for first.

I thought that I won the AI competition-I was up by 1 point entering the Finals, and then in the Finals I picked Jordin to win and Banedon picked the opposite of me in order to try to catch up, and so I won by 2-is that right? i knew i'd get that wrong No problem-I just wanted to be sure :D

I thought that I won the AI competition-I was up by 1 point entering the Finals, and then in the Finals I picked Jordin to win and Banedon picked the opposite of me in order to try to catch up, and so I won by 2-is that right?

more here. http://chicago.cubs.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20070611&content_id=2019342&vkey=news_chc&fext=.jsp&c_id=chc I hope somebody askes Wolf why he decided that with 2 strikeouts in the first inning, nobody on and an 0-2 count would be a perfect time for Lilly to hit a batter. people keep saying this and I don't know why. it was a 2-0 pitch. I have no doubt in my mind it was intentional, just as there is no doubt in my mind Hudson's was intentional. that element isn't even needed to question exactly what the umpires were thinking and coming to the conclusion that they were out to screw the Cubs. what someone should ask is why Tschida wasn't "expecting it" the night before. if you're going to pre-judge one team, you should pre-judge the other. what also must be asked is why Wolf issued warnings, then decided to kick Lilly out after escorting Renteria to first. I missed that start of the game and all of the events that lead to Lilly's getting kicked out but everyone has said it is a 0-2 count including newspapers. Cubs starter Ted Lilly had no idea what that something was, but quickly found out when his 10th pitch of the game, an 0-2 inside fastball, hit Atlanta shortstop Edgar Renteria and caused both benches and bullpens to empty. It was an ejection, much to Lilly's surprise. are you sure it wasn't a 0-2 count? Seems like a big detail to be missed by everyone but you It was definitely a 2-0 count, not an 0-2 count. Lilly missed pretty badly with his first two pitches, which gives him a little credence that the third pitch just happened to miss badly as well. Here's a link to the play by play that confirms that: http://www.sportsline.com/mlb/gamecenter/playbyplay/MLB_20070610_CHC@ATL

It's been a variety of factors. In April, the bullpen was pretty good, but the offense couldn't score in the late innings. Since May 1st, the offense has been great at scoring in the late innings, but the bullpen was awful during May. In June now, it looks like the bullpen is coming back- Howry's last 6 outings-6 1/3 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 6 K/1BB Wuertz's last 5-5 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 2 K/1BB Ohman's last 11-6 2/3 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 11K/2BB Marmol's last 11 outings-12 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 13K/4BB Dempster's last 10 outings-9 1/3 IP, 7H, 3 R, 7K/5BB Even Eyre has been slightly better lately (only 2 runs in his last 5 innings and 5 in his last 13 1/3 innings-not good, but better than April Eyre). Those top 5 together have been very, very good the last couple of weeks. If that continues at all, the Cubs record in 1 run games should improve.

Yes. Pitching to Andruw Jones was something he never should have done. The interesting thing is Andruw was not getting good swings every time against Marquis. Several balls that he fouled off he just barely got a piece of. When he put it fair though, they were rockets. Marquis just struggled finding the zone last night. Combine that with 1 hitter who just torches him, and an error by Marquis, and it led to disaster. I think you could say he pitched worse than his line. 1 2/3 (does anybody else hate the 1.1 and 1.2 distinctions? If you want decimels, write 1.3 and 1.7) and 2 ER saves his ERA quite a bit. Oh definitely, the 2 ER is not indicative at all of how badly he pitched. If they had left him in longer, he could have given up the 12 or 13 like he did last year in an outing or two.

*cues twilight zone theme* Yes, ESPN. Find a way to deflect blame like the tools you are. They didn't try to deflect blame-that's just why they said the Braves were angry. They showed Soriano getting hit yesterday, showed Renteria getting hit and then the conversation between Lou and the home plate umpire about why Lilly got thrown out of the game (and it was obvious from the way the anchor said that Lilly got tossed that he didn't agree with it at all) and then showed Renteria's forearm hitting Fontenot. They did a pretty good job of it-I just wish it had been further up in the show so maybe more people could have seen the highlights and be outraged themselves.

Sportscenter said that the Braves were more angry about Soriano trying to stretch a single into a double during a blowout in Friday night's game.

I love that Fontenot is doing this, but why does everyone want to get rid of DeRosa? He certainly has played well. Now-if DeRosa can somehow play SS again, and DeRosa and Fontenot can play together until Fontenot has a long cold streak like Theriot is in the middle of right now, I would be on board for that.

Lou double-switched him out in the 4th to try to keep the relievers from coming up in the order too quickly.

The Cubs have 7 hits tonight-6 of them are from the bottom 4 in the order. 1 for DeRosa, 2 for Fontenot, 2 for Izturis, and 1 for Pagan.

For some reason I think that Pagan is going down in a few days and Fontenot is staying in the big leagues.

With his increased velocity, Howry looks so much better than he did a couple of weeks ago.

Without warnings being issued they can only throw out the pitcher, not the manager.

Entering tonight Murton as an OF: .273/.339/.333 Murton as a PH: .200/.368/.467 Murton's been a lot better as a pinch hitter.

Cubs next off day is 6/18. They have to be somewhat conservative. cubs have a day off according to the schedule....or is there a make up tomorrow Yeah-the Cubs wanted to put the makeup game with Houston in July, but apparently MLB didn't approve-so they scheduled it for tomorrow.

Nobody-this is Wuertz's 3rd day in a row pitching. Lou put him in here so he wouldn't have to double switch this time-pitch him one inning, then pinch-hit for him after the inning.

His arm isn't stretched out anymore, and he pitching an inning on Friday. He simply couldn't go much farther. As far as Eyre, he went two innings yesterday, so he wouldn't be able to go too long today. Howry and Dempster can both go a couple, and Wuertz can probably go 1.

I'd have to say Lilly. He already has 4 average or above seasons in the book (I'm counting his 98 ERA+ as an average), and if Marshall hits a cold streak this year, who knows if he'll be even allowed to start in 5 years for a major league squad. Lilly also could put up more good years over the next 4 when he will continue to get to start. I like Marshall's potential, but I believe the answer has to be Lilly right now.

You know what.....until Murton can prove he can do anything besides beat out infiield singles against right handers, I'd rather stick with Jones to see if he can start to pound righties like he has like clockwork for his entire career. Against lefties, obviously Murton should be in there every day, and Jones shouldn't be let within a country mile of the field. Well, if you're going to have Jones, you might as well put Floyd in instead-who has hit right-handers better than Jones has in the past, and has hit right-handers better than either Murton or Jones this year. I'd be batting Floyd against most right-handers, Murton with the left-handers, and Jones against the occasional right-hander that he's had success with.

Given how far (and quickly) Theriot has fallen, I'd hit him 7th or 8th and let Murton lead off. He's shown the ability to get on base at a .350-.360 clip, which is solid. All those concerned with his lack of power should have those concerns eased b/c he'd be hitting 1st, where power is less important. And Murton should be starting every day in RF anyway. Actually, I'd start Murton every day in LF and put Soriano in RF, but that's a discussion for a different day. No telling what effect a move to RF and out of the top spot would have on our $136m egg-shelled-psyche star. BTW - how does Soriano not wanting to move to the OF last year, then putting up career best #s, fit with your suggestion that his performance hinges on comfort? If his comfort dictated his offensive output, would he really have started last season with a .921 OPS in April and .977 in May? I don't know how to explain that exactly other than to say that he adjusted a lot better to being an OF than to moving down in the order. That's why he insisted on being a leadoff hitter, and he insisted on being an OF when he signed. He may have been reluctant to go to the OF originally (probably because it was something he had never done before), but he was on board with it quickly when he experienced it. He spent a full season at both the #3 and #5 spots in the order-so the chance of him changing his mind after he got to be in those spots is already gone. As far as Murton playing everday, the loss of production that the team is going to get by playing him over Floyd everyday (at least right now while Floyd has been much better than him) would make it a lateral move overall.

I don't know. I think I'd rather see him promoted. When it does catch up to him, a little failure will help him work harder on changing his ways. Also then when he does adjust, he'll be adjusted to AA or AAA pitching rather than single A pitching. I just think it's a hard sell to a guy who's having success like he's having to suddenly start being more selective with his pitches.