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where were you when Murton was 2-3 with a walk yesterday? give me a break I know he's had a few games this year, but he's had a bunch of really crappy starts, and he seems completey useless coming off the bench.[/quote He actually has been better pinch-hitting than anything: 3 for 11 with 1 BB, .272/.333/.636 All his other at-bats .284/.341/.333

I almost had the lineup today correct-I had Theriot and DeRosa switched, but Lou must have decided that with DeRosa's hitting last night and Theriot's relatively cold bat lately (5 for 27 with 1 BB his last 6 games). Hopefully the team plays well tonight.

I doubt it-because then the Cubs could have pinch-hit Floyd or Ward for Marshall after Theriot hit. They would have kept Wells in, hope he got Theriot out, and then the Cubs wouldn't have really had a good option for a pinch hitter for Marshall. they wouldn't have had any MI options left -- I doubt they look at DeRosa to play SS I think CCP was saying Floyd or Ward would PH for Marshall, not PH for Theriot. Yes, that is what I meant. Sorry for the confusion.

I doubt it-because then the Cubs could have pinch-hit Floyd or Ward for Marshall after Theriot hit. They would have kept Wells in, hope he got Theriot out, and then the Cubs wouldn't have really had a good option for a pinch hitter for Marshall.

That's a very interesting balanced article-and I would agree with him about everybody but Suppan that they definitely deserve to be on the overrated list. They just are overrated by different groups of people.

But wasn't he at about 95 and wasn't that about the limit during his rehab? 4 of the previous 6 outs were in the air, and a couple balls went pretty deep. It wasn't inevitable, but I know I wasn't expecting much more out of him. He had thrown 92 pitches in his previous start, but that was a strong 8 innings of a blowout game. The start before that, he threw 97 pitches. By my count, he was at 87 pitches through 6 and had retired 10 Padres in a row. I don't see any reason why he couldn't be trusted to go another inning. My bad, I was subtracting the pitches leading up to the HR away from his 100+ total, forgetting that he stayed in the game after that. I wasn't keeping track during the game, but I thought it was time to pull him. Regardless, I'm still pissed Izturis swung on 3-1. A K and Marshall is out of the game. A walk and the Cubs are up 2-0. I really wish somebody hit for him there. If anything you need a deep fly there, and Izturis is not good at those. Yeah, that's where the Cubs need an extra right-handed bat against left-handers. Floyd and Jones have been huge ground ball hitters this year, and they are also prime strikeout candidates against a LHP. Blanco is not really a great candidate for that job. Theriot was being saved for Marshall's spot. Ward might have been the best option, but he's not good against LHP either and so wastes your best pinch hitter for what is at best a marginal improvement. I would have wanted Izturis to take on 3-1 as well though with the bases loaded-Wells is going to have to throw him a similar pitch on 3-2 anyway because he can't afford to walk him.

But wasn't he at about 95 and wasn't that about the limit during his rehab? 4 of the previous 6 outs were in the air, and a couple balls went pretty deep. It wasn't inevitable, but I know I wasn't expecting much more out of him. He had thrown 92 pitches in his previous start, but that was a strong 8 innings of a blowout game. The start before that, he threw 97 pitches. By my count, he was at 87 pitches through 6 and had retired 10 Padres in a row. I don't see any reason why he couldn't be trusted to go another inning.

When Izturis, Derosa, Jones, and Floyd are not getting AB's. In other words, years from now. Well, let's see. DeRosa has a .849 OPS-I'm not exactly sure how he's hurting the team-considering that's the 6th highest OPS among second basemen in all of MLB. Floyd has a 741 OPS-not good, but not hurting us too much considering the other OF options right now. Here are the guys who are hurting us (excluding Pie and Cedeno, since they are gone): Blanco-.207/.250/.276 Jones-.250/.303/.343 Izturis-.266/.328/.330 And the guys who are dangerously close to joining those 3: Theriot: .288/.353/.353 Murton: .286/.343/.374 Barrett: .243/.290/.426 The major thing I see out of that is the Cubs need either a SS or a CF, now. There are 4 options there (Jones, Pagan, Izturis, Theriot) and the only one with good numbers is Pagan, and he's not an everyday player. They have to get 1 of those positions filled with an offensive player, especially with the two catchers both playing horribly.

probably just a day off-he had started 9 games in a row prior to this-that's the longest streak of consecutive games started by anyone in the lineup except the big 3 (Lee, Ramirez, Soriano). It was coming one of these days that he'd get a day off.

hahaha yeah right Why not? People act like Portland has been a dormat forever. Well since about 1992 they got out of the 1st round of the playoffs once and haven't been there for the last couple years at all so ya they suck. They almost won it all when the Lakers got there first one. Yup. They were 15 minutes away in Game 7 in 2000 from going to the NBA finals. I still can't believe the Lakers came back in that game. I can't either-it's really too bad as well, because I think the Pacers beat the Trail Blazers in the finals that year. Instead, they simply didn't have enough big men to stop Shaq, and one OT loss changed the series.

You cannot compare stats over two seasons. Those are not consecutive starts nor are they consecutive appearences. This is so much like the Rich Hill saga from last year. He's up, he's down, he's in the pen, he's starting, he's in the pen. They haven't given him enough time to go much over 75 pitches. What I'm saying is that he couldn't do it last year, even when he had about 16 consecutive starts. Why was Dusty willing to throw Marmol out there for a ton of pitches but not Guzman? Even Mateo, who Dusty had the quickest hook on, was allowed to throw a lot of pitches in some games, but not Guzman. In the last two months of the season, Dusty ran every starting pitcher into the ground, but Guzman only broke 85 pitches for him once. I find that strange. I would agree this year they haven't given him many chances to go above 75 (although they have given him a little bit of a chance, the last start he made was his 6th in a row, he should be fully stretched out already). I would have liked to see that he proved that he couldn't throw that deep into a game before I sent him down to the bullpen, but apparently the doubt about that (which I fully understand) was enough to make Lou act. If Marshall pitches at least decently, it shouldn't be too bad of a thing for the team-because while Guzman has the stuff to be a decent to good starter, his stuff gets a lot better in the pen with the extra velocity on his fastball. If Marshall is terrible as a starter, then Guzman to the pen is an awful move, because the 5th starter is more important than a reliever. Guzman NEVER made 16 consecutive starts with the Cubs. http://www.fangraphs.com/statsd.aspx?playerid=2145&position=P&season=2006 He pitched in 4 consecutive starts in April. In June he was used in the bullpen. Then sent down. Then in late August and Early September he made 5 consecutive starts and was again moved to the pen. This year he started in the pen. Then was sent down. Then brought up and made three starts. Now he's in the pen. You see a pattern? I meant between the minors and the majors-he started consecutively from the time he was sent down in June until they moved him to the pen in September.

You cannot compare stats over two seasons. Those are not consecutive starts nor are they consecutive appearences. This is so much like the Rich Hill saga from last year. He's up, he's down, he's in the pen, he's starting, he's in the pen. They haven't given him enough time to go much over 75 pitches. What I'm saying is that he couldn't do it last year, even when he had about 16 consecutive starts. Why was Dusty willing to throw Marmol out there for a ton of pitches but not Guzman? Even Mateo, who Dusty had the quickest hook on, was allowed to throw a lot of pitches in some games, but not Guzman. In the last two months of the season, Dusty ran every starting pitcher into the ground, but Guzman only broke 85 pitches for him once. I find that strange. I would agree this year they haven't given him many chances to go above 75 (although they have given him a little bit of a chance, the last start he made was his 6th in a row, he should be fully stretched out already). I would have liked to see that he proved that he couldn't throw that deep into a game before I sent him down to the bullpen, but apparently the doubt about that (which I fully understand) was enough to make Lou act. If Marshall pitches at least decently, it shouldn't be too bad of a thing for the team-because while Guzman has the stuff to be a decent to good starter, his stuff gets a lot better in the pen with the extra velocity on his fastball. If Marshall is terrible as a starter, then Guzman to the pen is an awful move, because the 5th starter is more important than a reliever.

How is he continually taken out in the 4th? Well, if he cramps up around 60 pitches then I'm sure there would be multiple times where he wouldn't make it out of the 4th/5th inning. I'd rather not have a starter who cannot make it past the 60 pitch mark. So now he can't make it past 60 pitches? News to me. http://chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/cs-070522cubsbits,1,4871807.story?coll=cs-cubs-headlines Read that, then it won't be news to you anymore. It sort of sounds like they had to pull him out of one of the first 2 starts with cramps as well and it just wasn't reported. That's what would have left Piniella frustrated if he had to pull him out of 2 of his 3 starts with the same thing. I don't see anything in the link about more than one cramp: It's in the fact that Lou already says it's a recurring problem that leads me to believe that it's happened more than once on his watch.

How is he continually taken out in the 4th? Well, if he cramps up around 60 pitches then I'm sure there would be multiple times where he wouldn't make it out of the 4th/5th inning. I'd rather not have a starter who cannot make it past the 60 pitch mark. I saw Guzman pitch here in Memphis when he was getting "stretched out" to become a starter and he threw almost exactly 100 pitches and they took him out. He looked pissed. Let's not try to make too much out of his cramps. I would think any competent medical staff could aleviate this problem. Seriously. If it's dehydration, make sure he's drinking water or gatorade regularly between innings. If it's something more serious, get it checked out. And for the record, he's made it well past the 60-pitch mark in each of his three starts. That's true-it's been more around between pitches 75-90 that Guzman has hit a wall. Here are Guzman's pitch counts for the past 19 starts (dating back to the 8th of July last year, after he got stretched out to start again in the minors): 75 74 82 76 76 54 81 80 80 93 (in 3 innings) 95 68 94 27 84 104 66 86 65 19 starts, and he exceeded 95 pitches once, and only went past 85 pitches 4 times out of those 19 (there were about 4 of those starts where he was on a stricter pitch count that that, so it's not quite as bad as that). Guzman is simply not efficient enough to stay at that low of a pitch count. If he had stayed as a major league starter, he would have had to throw between 85-105 pitches just about every game-Piniella decided that his arm was not ready for that, and while I might not agree with his skepticism, I certainly can understand it.

How is he continually taken out in the 4th? Well, if he cramps up around 60 pitches then I'm sure there would be multiple times where he wouldn't make it out of the 4th/5th inning. I'd rather not have a starter who cannot make it past the 60 pitch mark. I saw Guzman pitch here in Memphis when he was getting "stretched out" to become a starter and he threw almost exactly 100 pitches and they took him out. He looked pissed. Let's not try to make too much out of his cramps. I would think any competent medical staff could aleviate this problem. Not quite 100 pitches-Guzman threw 76 pitches that night in Memphis. In fact, he hasn't thrown above 85 pitches since last August.

How is he continually taken out in the 4th? Well, if he cramps up around 60 pitches then I'm sure there would be multiple times where he wouldn't make it out of the 4th/5th inning. I'd rather not have a starter who cannot make it past the 60 pitch mark. So now he can't make it past 60 pitches? News to me. http://chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/cs-070522cubsbits,1,4871807.story?coll=cs-cubs-headlines Read that, then it won't be news to you anymore. It sort of sounds like they had to pull him out of one of the first 2 starts with cramps as well and it just wasn't reported. That's what would have left Piniella frustrated if he had to pull him out of 2 of his 3 starts with the same thing.

I bet it is what he is thinking-this year's sample size is small enough still to not know if this stat is an aberration or not (there are still way too many variables in play for now)-here is the stat though: Soriano in LF, batting 1st-.333/.395/.564

He pitches tonight. So Cotts is going to start? That's a very interesting development to this whole 5th starter saga.

Randolf's set to make $13.34M next year. The Bulls would have to package more than Noc (sign and trade) to make the money work most likely. Boers and Bernstein said they could make Stoudamire work, so they could make Randolph work. They have the $8mil from PJ Brown plus their MLE to work with You can't trade a MLE, and P.J. Brown is a free agent. Neither of those would work in trying to match up salaries in order to make a trade.

Minnesota doesn't really have that option, especially with the Bulls. In order for a trade to work out now, the Bulls would have to ship out half their roster unless the T-Wolves agreed to take Wallace, which I doubt. Otherwise, they have to get 18 million somewhere, and none of their players really makes over 4 million. Gasol is possible, but again, the Bulls would have to give up too much talent to make the salaries match.

This is going to be a strange lottery for me. One bounce of the ball changes the Pacers fortune for the next 3-4 years-unfortunately, it's not likely to happen in a good way. The Pacers will either have one of the top 3 picks in the draft or no pick at all, in either the 1st or the 2nd round. What happens tonight probably decides if the team reloads or rebuilds.

That's very questionable. Are you kidding me? Soriano is a terrible defensive player no matter where you put him. I think Soriano are about equal defensively-Soriano has superior range and the much better arm, while Murton takes much better routes to balls. Soriano's range doesn't mean crap if he can't figure out the right route to take. His poor play in the OF has probably negated the OF assists he's had. He's an absolute butcher. Now, add to that the fact that Murton will get on base at a better clip, and costs a fraction of what Soriano costs, and tell me that Murton is merely an average player in our OF. I wouldn't call Soriano a butcher out there-he hasn't been good out there (and probably the only thing improved when he switched to LF was his arm, as his routes got worse), but his range has allowed him to make up some mistakes he's made on his routes. In our outfield, Murton is one of the better players. I don't see him fitting in the Cubs plans long-term though-Pie/Soriano will get two of the spots, and I can't see them leaving Murton in the other spot for years, especially after this year when our plus offense at catcher disappears. I do think that they should play him a pretty good amount of the time this year, and only trade him if the right deal comes along-and if it's for one pitcher, it better be for either a dominant reliever (who I doubt people will want to give up, because there are only 10-15 names I'd put under this category), an average or better starting pitcher, or packaged together with pitching to get an impact bat. Otherwise I think he'd be a good option for an offseason trade-not because I don't think he's a good ballplayer, but only because he will start to get slowly squeezed out with the Cubs, and his value to the team might end up being higher trading him to a small market team than it would to possibly only be a part-time player with the Cubs.

That's very questionable. Are you kidding me? Soriano is a terrible defensive player no matter where you put him. I think Soriano are about equal defensively-Soriano has superior range and the much better arm, while Murton takes much better routes to balls.

That's my guess as well. The biggest thing for Soriano right now is that his ground ball percentage is way up and his fly ball percentage is way down. If he starts hitting his usual percentage of fly balls during the summer with the Wrigley wind, he'll hit a pretty good amount of home runs, and that will increase his OPS even if his average slips a little bit.

If Aramis continues to perform like he has over the length of his contract, he'll be just as deserving as Santo is now. I think it would take a little longer than Aramis's current contract to be just as deserving as Santo. Here are Santo's best 10 OPS+ years: Santo: 164, 161, 153, 146, 138, 131, 129, 126, 121, 115 Here is Aramis's 5 best: Aramis: 138, 137, 136, 126, 125 (only one other year above 100) If Aramis has a 130 OPS+ for the next 5 years, he'll be getting somewhat close to Santo-but those 3 great years of Santo's are still going to give Santo the edge. If Aramis plays about 8 years more and has 5 years 130 or more and the other 3 110 or more though, I think he could catch Santo.