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No-this would be 3 out of his last 4 he hasn't started. Since May 2nd though, Theriot has dropped 90 points in OPS-maybe Izturis shouldn't be in there, but Theriot isn't exactly much of an improvement. I wouldn't mind if Theriot was in there whatsoever, but the middle IF so far is DeRosa>>>>>Theriot>Izturis.

Theriot hasn't been great this year though-and not very good lately (5 for his last 30 with 2 BB's). In fact, he has only been marginally better than Izturis so far this year.

Yeah-Izturis's OBP has actually slipped just below his SLG now, but the Cubs still have 2 players who's OBP is above their SLG-Ward with a .465 OBP and a .424 SLG, and Theriot with a .350 OBP and a .345 SLG.

It's still a pretty large difference. Last year the Cubs has 2842 at-bats during day games. The next highest total from anyone in the majors was Oakland and San Francisco tied at 2086 at-bats. That's still a massive disparity. As far as the day games cause more trouble for the Cubs than the others, I have no idea what to think about that. If there is an effect, than it is worse for the Cubs (even though both teams have to play in the same conditions, for the Cubs it is the cumulative effect throughout the season that builds up). I'm not sure I believe that there is any effect at all to build up though.

Being in 2nd place by being 4 games under .500 is nothing to brag about. I don't think he meant it in a bragging way, he's just saying that even though the team has been terrible, they still only have to catch one team that is also similarly struggling lately. If they were in 5th place, it would be a much harder road to have 4 teams in front of them play badly-right now they just need the one to keep scuffling and for them to hit some kind of winning streak.

He hasn't rarely batted leadoff. In fact, he has batted leadoff most of his career. He has 2186 at-bats in the leadoff spot, and the next highest number from any spot is 630 from the 3rd spot.

I actually had a post earlier today that was going to compare what Hendry did this past offseason and what the board would have done with the money, but it disappeared before it was finished, and I didn't want to repeat the whole thing. Needless to say, this team is a lot better today with Derosa instead of Giles or Durham, Soriano instead of Drew, Marquis and Lilly instead of Schmidt, Westbrook, or Padilla. The only one that the board was completely right on was Blanco. At the same time, if this team still doesn't win with that great offseason that just says how horrible the team was before, which might get Hendry fired anyway.

Does the Abreu contract still have his NTC? He refused to go anywhere but a select group of teams last year without a huge extension-is there any sense that this fact would be different now?

Who on earth said that? The same guys who said Brownlie threw a 97 MPH curve? Here's one: I've seen others like that, so I'm not just going by the word of that source alone, but that's an example. http://www.baseball-fever.com/archive/index.php/t-39433.html

What does Marshall top out at? His sinker can get up to the upper 80s right? not bad for a lefty. And considering "velocity" is a quantum defining speed and direction (not just speed alone), I'll give her the benefit of the doubt. I've seen wildly varying reports on his sinker. Most reports I've seen have him between 89-91 on his sinker, with some reports claiming he can touch 95 at his upper limit with it. Just about every thing I've looked at has said the same thing though "power sinker" "hard sinker", etc.-so this scouting report isn't much different.

I thought I'd put this in this game thread, but it applies to more than that: Piniella on how the offense can become more consistent: So Piniella isn't just ignoring it as a problem-he just hasn't been able to fix it yet (and he will only be able to fix it to a degree with the current roster). http://chicago.cubs.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20070524&content_id=1983984&vkey=news_chc&fext=.jsp&c_id=chc

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 That 3-run homer all of a sudden made his pinch hitting #'s look good. Yeah, I was about to mention that-it actually made all of his numbers look better. That 1 HR is the only difference between Murton and Izturis's numbers so far this year.

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.