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That's the part that makes me chuckle. 8 freaking RBI's? That's terrible! His defense hasn't been all that bad. How many assist's does he have 5-6 already? His arm has been fine. His glove and his routes are terrible. I'm willing to bet that his defensive play has negated the OF assists as far as runs scored go. And 8 RBI on May 22 is pretty lousy. True. His routes are terrible. I still can't get over the 8 RBI's...Unreal! Who would've thought that Sammy Sosa would be more productive at this point in the season. Oh man... I'm not surprised, typical Cub, if something bad can happen, it will, if a player who has put big numbers is going to struggle, he will. Not really. Barrett, Lee, and Aram where all better then expected... Some of those weren't good at the beginning of the season though. The big time position players that the Cubs acquire during offseasons have had a habit of struggling early in the season in their first year with the team. If you look back at the past 6 offseasons, the 6 newcomers who I think had the most expectations placed on them were this: 1) Soriano, 2) Alou, 3)Lee, 4)Pierre, 5) Burnitz, 6) Jones. Only Burnitz had a good start to the season, and even he had an awful May. Everybody else had to overcome their horrible starts with the club to try to salvage a good year. I'll wait to see if Soriano can do the same.

I believe he came up last year for observation before he got called up. He definititely was there when the minor league season ended, but from looking back through the minor league logs, his last start was on August 23rd in the minors. After this start must have been when he joined the major league team (Iowa's season didn't end until September 4th, so he would have had another turn or two if he had stayed), and he wasn't officially called up in order to start on September 9th. So, even if he joins the team, that won't necessarily mean he gets activated right away, and hopefully never.

A large part of his walk rate ballooning is the fact that nobody else is behind him. Vlad has been walked 12 times intentionally already, and a few of his other fifteen walks were probably the unintentional intentional walk.

I agree that a high AVG with RISP is luck, but when voting for MVP, I think it has to be taken into consideration. For example, Hanley Ramirez is hitting .420 with the bases empty and .160 with runners on. While it will probably even out over the course of his career, during the first quarter of this season he has been a poor hitter in more important situations, and that's a big reason that he only has 9 RBI. All other things equal, a guy who hit better in the clutch should win the award over a guy who didn't hit as well, even though in the long run, it's just luck that will even out. Hardy is hitting over 100 points better with RISP, thus another point for him. also, for me, MVP doesn't mean "best player", it means "most valuable", meaning you HAVE to take his team and lineup scenario into account. OPS and such doesn't happen in a vaccuum exactly -- you take the fact that the 40 R, 50 RBI guy had a better team around him. example: andruw jones scored more runs and drove in more runs in 2006 than derrek lee did in 2005. are you going to tell me that jones' 2006 was more valuable to his team than lee's 2005? derrek lee was #1 in VORP in all of baseball in 2005. andruw jones didn't crack the top 30 in 2006. In this case though, that doesn't apply. Hardy is putting up greater RBI and run totals in Milwaukee even though his team's offense is slightly worse than Chipper's Braves.

Yes, but Eyre's contract gets in the way. If he refuses to go on the DL, they either have to trade or release him. They aren't likely to be willing to eat that money for this year and next year unless they absolutely have to-they'd rather keep him, hope he gets better, and then either keep him or raise his trade value.

Ok-if Dempster is staying in the bullpen, then this whole picture becomes a little easier. One person from the bullpen has to go. The most obvious choice who one would think the Cubs would select would be Marmol-but Lou has been talking him up for 3 days about how they are going to load up the pen with power arms, so one has to assume he's safe for now. Cotts and Wuertz are probably also still safe even though neither have been very good lately. So that leaves Ohman, Howry, and Eyre. Eyre is the obvious choice here-he has really fallen out of favor with Lou. The only big question is if they can find a way to send him to the DL, a trade to a team, or an outright release (the first one being the most likely, the last one being the least likely). The second question is of course who the fifth starter is going to be. It seems to be down to 2 choices-Sean Marshall or Wade Miller. If Marshall comes up as a starter and Eyre is put on the DL, then the pitching staff overall got a little better. If Miller comes up, then the Cubs are in a slightly better position then when they started the season with both Miller and Eyre, but still in a very bad position and in a worse one then they were in a few days ago.

Bring Rapada if you want a lefty reliever. Leave Marshall stretched out in case you need a starter. Piggy for LH reliever. :lol: True enough, Rapada's L/R splits are worse than Ohman's. He's more of a LOOGY than Ohman and if you want a lefty reliever who can face righties, you'd be better off with Piggy. Maybe Lou is pulling a joke? Dempster would be more than willing to be in on a joke like this. With all of Lou's comments about the Chicago media asking him too many questions over and over again, it is at least plausible that he'd be pulling everybody's leg. This is certainly one strange situation.

Um, wow. This has a chance of working out, but that doesn't make it a good move. It looks like Lou's insistence on tinkering with everything this year has in this instance interfered with the good of the team. I don't like this move whatsoever.

And that explains the guys who creamed the ball after AJ? Cotts didn't have anything today.

Floyd went around, West didn't need to ask for help. And why is it disgraceful that he tossed Floyd? He followed Floyd back to the dugout, then tossed him. Floyd was complaining and yelling the whole time and probably had some choice words for West. And West didn't follow him all the way back to the dugout. West made the right call. Floyd complained. Floyd got tossed. Plain and simple. Which game are you watching? He followed him back to the dugout. Plain and simple. Like I said: West made the right call, Floyd complained, Floyd got tossed. It's not rocket science. He followed him part way because Floyd was complaining. Floyd had no business arguing that call. If a player is walking away as he is complaining, the ump is supposed to just let him go. An umpire is supposed to try to defuse a confrontation, not make it worse by following him.

Hendry's extension? That's number one on the short list. Signing Baker? That's on there too. Nolasco and Mitre for Pierre? Nolasco, Pinto, and Mitre for Pierre. And Corey Patterson for Nate Spears. Since CPatt outperformed Pierre last year, the deal is looking awfully more and more lopsided. $136 million for Alfonso Soriano is far worse than any of these, except maybe the Hendry extension. Are you serious? Sure. In time I think it will most likely land on the short list of the worst contracts in the history of sports. I don't even think it will be one of the worst in baseball in several years. For example, Soriano would have to average a .700 OPS or worse the next several years to be as bad as Hampton and Chan Ho Park were with their big contracts for the teams that signed them. Barry Zito's contract has a good chance to be just as bad or worse than Soriano's. Mo Vaughn's 6 year deal ended up with 2 years of production. The Ken Griffey Jr. deal. The Darren Dreifort deal. Even if Soriano is bad, and ends up with an 800 OPS the next 3-4 years, and then starts slowly falling after that, he still will be better than those deals.

This is a move I would be very, very against-it doesn't make any sense to do that.

Actually that's backwards. He hit for a .753 OPS against right-handers, and a .596 OPS against left-handers. He hasn't shown an ability to hit right-handed until this year, both in the minors and majors. It will be interesting to see if that lasts or not.

If this ends up happening (what I'm quoting), this makes the move a lot better-because it makes the pen a lot better, without hurting the rotation too much: The only part I'm not sure about is that if Marshall is called up, it better be as a starter. And for the previous poster in this thread: http://chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/cs-070519citybits,1,3884184.story?coll=cs-home-headlines

Yup. Blowout games probably boost that way up. the cubs are 4th in the nl in hitting in close and late games. I'm not sure where you're getting that-they are 10th in the NL in runs scored in close and late, and 8th in OPS. That number has really improved though the last couple of weeks. It seems like that the Cubs either score an insurance run or two, or the bullpen blows the game. The Cubs offense has become pretty good at coming back in games though (Pitsburgh game, Philly Saturday game, Washington Sunday game, last two games all are examples off the top of my head of comebacks in May in the late innings-of course the bullpen gave the Philly game right back).

i think he had a pitch count in his first game. in his second game he wasn't pitching well, in his third game he was taken out as what I would assume was a precautionary measure due to the cramp. I don't think it's fair to say he'll usually/probably pitch 5 innings per start. it's not like he had a high pitch count in any of his 3 starts. He could have pitched more, but Lou didn't let him. His highest pitch count of the 3 starts was 82. This is what scares me a little about Guz. I looked back into his minor league and major league starts from last year, as far back as when he came back down from the ML in the middle of June. He made 8-9 starts in the minors, then 10 more in the majors. This year, he's made 3 starts in the minors and 3 in the majors. So that's 24-25 starts-Guzman made it into the 7th inning whatsoever in exactly 1 of those ballgames-notice I didn't even say completed, but rather simply started the 7th inning. He started the 6th inning in less than half of those starts. While I would expect that number to be lower than a normal pitcher due to coming back from injury/called up to the major leagues/some games being on a pitch count due to conversion from bullpen to starter, the fact that he has only 1 game over 6 innings concerns me. He hasn't shown that he can be stretched out very long, and that could tax the bullpen heavily. When you consider also that 3 of those starts he left early due to cramps after going 3.2 innings or more, it makes you wonder about his body's ability to handle those innings/pitch counts. And Sean Marshall is the leading option to replace Guzman. He's got a long injury history too and averaged 85.8 pitches/game last season in the bigs. That's a good point. At the same time, Marshall has shown in the past couple weeks that he can handle the pitch counts at the moment. Guzman hasn't made it to 85 pitches in any of his last 9 starts, dating back to last year, twice coming out because of cramps. His stats show that he wears down in ballgames, and he hasn't been able to break 85 pitches, something he was able to do only a few times last year. However effective he might have been in the rotation had he been left there, he wasn't likely going to be a guy this year who was going to give you 90-100 pitches an outing before leaving on a regular basis, and the fact that he has had trouble going over that pitch count since last year (and as far as I can tell, he only broke 100 once last year) means that the bullpen would be getting a lot of work. Even while rehabbing, Marshall has been higher recently-87, 92, and 97 pitches in his last 3 starts.

I really dont disagree with anything you are saying here. I just would like to know what are the better options though. If we had even some semi option this would make sense. I dont think the Cubs really have another option at starter. Yup, we're in a bit of a bind. Marshall had a couple decent starts in AAA, but he's pretty similar stuff-wise to Lilly and Hill. Having 3 similar pitchers go every 5 days is not a good idea. I'm really hoping for a trade. Hopefully we get rid of either Murton or Jones and nab a serviceable 5th starter who can keep you in the game for 6-7 innings. I like Gooz. He's a lot better than his limited numbers in Chicago indicate, but he's got a lot to prove IMO. I'd be fine keeping him in the rotation if we had a steady pen. We don't. He usually only goes 5 innings when he starts. Not good. It just puts that much more pressure on the pen. With the crap that's been going on lately, you can almost guarantee the Cubs lose that game. Wuertz/Dempster can't pitch 4 innings every time Gooz starts. i think he had a pitch count in his first game. in his second game he wasn't pitching well, in his third game he was taken out as what I would assume was a precautionary measure due to the cramp. I don't think it's fair to say he'll usually/probably pitch 5 innings per start. it's not like he had a high pitch count in any of his 3 starts. He could have pitched more, but Lou didn't let him. His highest pitch count of the 3 starts was 82. This is what scares me a little about Guz. I looked back into his minor league and major league starts from last year, as far back as when he came back down from the ML in the middle of June. He made 8-9 starts in the minors, then 10 more in the majors. This year, he's made 3 starts in the minors and 3 in the majors. So that's 24-25 starts-Guzman made it into the 7th inning whatsoever in exactly 1 of those ballgames-notice I didn't even say completed, but rather simply started the 7th inning. He started the 6th inning in less than half of those starts. While I would expect that number to be lower than a normal pitcher due to coming back from injury/called up to the major leagues/some games being on a pitch count due to conversion from bullpen to starter, the fact that he has only 1 game over 6 innings concerns me. He hasn't shown that he can be stretched out very long, and that could tax the bullpen heavily. When you consider also that 3 of those starts he left early due to cramps after going 3.2 innings or more, it makes you wonder about his body's ability to handle those innings/pitch counts.

He's not been determined to be an "effective starter" based on 2 starts. what? I'm determining him to be effective based on his talent + his 3 starts this year + a body of minor league work. And it doesn't really matter if he's effective or not, his replacement is probably going to be worse than he would have been in the same situation. That minor league work hasn't been amazing since the injuries. He hasn't faced a full ML lineup since he came back. He faced the worst team in the majors in runs per game, then he faced a good offensive team without its top slugger, then he faced a complete forfeit lineup without its top 3 guys. His level of competition hasn't been good at all. His talent I would give you-and his talent is the reason I wish they would have started him until he proved he wasn't effective there this year.

A few quick points 1) Guzman will likely be better than Marshall in the rotation, but that isn't for sure. There were legitimate concerns about Guzman in the rotation post-injury, and so far I don't think there has been much proof to convince otherwise. His numbers starting in Triple A both 06 and 07 were not great. His numbers starting in the major leagues were terrible last year, and this year he's faced 2 absolutely awful lineups out of 3 starts, and those were his 2 good outings. He has the stuff to become a very good ML starting pitcher, and it is reasonable to think he would be a pretty good ML pitcher, but I don't think you can just pencil him in to be better than Marshall for sure 2) Guzman does have very good numbers in the pen, partly because he can let loose with his fastball a little more in relief. Whatever numbers he has a starter, he will likely have even better numbers in relief. So the loss in innings will partly be helped with more effective production. With that, the big issue is who replaces him in the rotation, and who does Guzman replace in the bullpen. If Marshall replaces him in the rotation and Guzman sends somebody like Eyre to the DL, the team likely gets better. If Marshall comes in to the rotation and Marmol has sent down, then it's not that bad, but it shouldn't have been done (because Guzman is likely better than Marshall and there won't likely be a huge difference between Guz and Marmol in the pen). If Miller or Dempster replaces Guzman in the rotation, this is an awful switch.

I wouldn't say no reason (Z could blow up again, and pitchers making their major league debut are usually dangerous because of the lack of scouting) but you're right, the Cubs should win this game. Tim has to be one of the most interested people in the outcome as well-that's quite a difference in his operating costs. Masset isn't making his major league debut, it's just his frst major league start. Ok-that makes it better, I think.

I wouldn't say no reason (Z could blow up again, and pitchers making their major league debut are usually dangerous because of the lack of scouting) but you're right, the Cubs should win this game. Tim has to be one of the most interested people in the outcome as well-that's quite a difference in his operating costs.

Interesting point about this game-Ramirez, Floyd, and Soriano are 6 of 17 combined against Contreras. All 6 hits have been home runs.

Yes and no-he's available, but Lou doesn't really want to use him in case he's not ready for a few days, and they want to DL him retroactive to a week ago.

With the way the lineup was constructed today and where the last out was made, there wasn't a really good double switch option available. The closest one would really be Murton, but he's at the 2 spot-which doesn't help very much.

That's not uncommon amongst bad baseball players. ??? DeRosa isn't a "bad baseball player." He's certainly not what I would call starter quality. Last 28 days for DeRosa: .224/.375/.310/.685 2B around the league isn't exactly a great position-there aren't very many great ones. DeRosa is average around the league, and still having a better season than some of the others that people wanted instead (Ray Durham, Marcus Giles)