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I missed it to somewhere-what happened to Ceda?

My guess is that Fontenot will mostly rot while he's up here. I'm not too concerned about that, because that's not really hurting his development. He may get a start or two, but with Theriot and Izturis both playing well at the moment they are going to get most to all of the starts. Being the only backup at 2nd, SS, or 3B as well, Fontenot won't get as many chances for PH either, as Lou will want to save him as long as he can in games just in case.

If they leave Soriano at leadoff (which Lou said they will when Lee comes back) then it's better to have Theriot in the 2 spot then Murton, and Murton in a middle of the order spot (5/6/7). Why? The same reason that people want to move Soriano down in the order-they have similar OBP potential right now but Murton has a lot more power potential. That is better utilized in having more opportunities to drive runners in at 5 or 6 than at 2. Also, while Lou is better at this than some managers, he still likes to use his 2 hitter sometimes to go up there to make productive outs. I'd rather use the weaker bat of Theriot in those situations rather than the better bat of Murton's. Finally, and this is a very small reason and doesn't factor in much, but Theriot's speed will make him slightly more likely to score on a Lee or Ramirez double. Now, Theriot's not going to play everyday, and Murton should be in the 2 spot on those other days.

If they leave Soriano at leadoff (which Lou said they will when Lee comes back) then it's better to have Theriot in the 2 spot then Murton, and Murton in a middle of the order spot (5/6/7).

I don't know about Wuertz. Haven't we seen this act from him before? I seem to remember him starting out good one other year and then tanking. I'm not sure I would give him all that much more time. He seems to be unable to maintain any consistency over the long haul. It's been the opposite actually. Wuertz has been typically poor in the first half, and unbelievable in the second half. Here are his combined numbers from 2004-2006: Pre All-Star-60.0 IP, 5.40 ERA, 62 H, 9 HR, 59 K/37 BB, .273 BAA Post All-Star-85.1 IP, 2.32 ERA, 55 H, 6 HR, 102 K/36 BB, .182 BAA

He has some spasms in his neck. They sent him to Chicago to get examined yesterday. It doesn't sound serious, but like they said, when it's the neck you just want to be completely sure. He'll probably be out a couple more days and then be back.

Boy, has DeRosa been struggling as of late. Yeah, DeRosa really has struggled lately with the bat. Thankfully, his ISOD is very high right now, which is helping keep his numbers from dropping any further. Here are his May and last 7 day totals: May: .160/.364/.200 Last 7: .077/.368/.077 His total numbers still look pretty good though-.240/.350/.440. I think most people expected him somewhere around a 750, so he's still exceeding that on the season, mostly due to his large amount of walks. Hopefully he can turn it around, but if injuries are ever at the right time, last night's might have been it for him (as it was for Soriano) in order to let him sit a few days and come back hopefully out of his slump.

Novoa released Wood to 60 day DL Buck Coats Dopirak My guess would be Wood to the 60 day-with the retroactive date, that's what-15 days away? That seems like the very easy answer to me.

If they were going to release Izturis, it would be weeks ago. They aren't going to release him after having a fantastic May so far. DeRosa sprained his wrist-right now the Cubs are down to 2 MIF's if DeRosa can't go tonight. Another MIF would have to be brought up so there at least is one backup, and Fontenot is the best option. If DeRosa doesn't go on the DL, I guess one of the pitchers would have to go down.

I agree. It's the same old, which is what many expected when he got hired only to be fooled by his bs lies during spring training. why wouldn't he start Floyd, or even Ward at 1B? on what planet would it ever make sense to bat Izturis 2nd? i really can't wait to see Floyd get run out into RF for a week straight so Lou can show him some "respect" now that he's complaining. good times. Floyd and Ward are both terrible against left-handed pitching-I might have started Floyd just because of his numbers against Glavine, but I can understand why Lou put DeRosa in instead (DeRosa hits left-handers hard along with Theriot, and Theriot and Izturis have both been hot). As far as Izturis being 2nd, did you see the lineup yesterday? I would rather have seen Izturis bat 2nd than 6th, which is where he would have fit in otherwise with that lineup. Plus, he's batting .394/.444/.485 so far in May. If Lou puts him there constantly, that will most likely be a horrible thing, but the combination of Lee being hurt/Barrett resting/Izturis being hot/facing a left-hander made him a good option for the 2 spot last night.

I don't think Floyd should be traded or released, but I do agree with you that the last thing I want to see is a trade that makes it much easier for him to hit his options, especially the second one. At his current pace, Floyd isn't anywhere near the AB's needed to make even the first option, which is good at the moment (I won't mind the first option if he starts hitting better, and I think hitting much better is the only real way other than a trade that he has a chance of hitting that one-I don't want to see him hit that second option under any circumstance).

The bullpen officially gave up only one run, but Cherry also let both inherited runs score in the 6th. While I agree the offense should have scored more than 4 last night, scoring at least 4 runs has been found as a good indicator of winning. The bullpen hasn't been the biggest reason why the Cubs have the record they have, but it was the biggest reason why they lost last night.

It still would be ridiculous to send Wuertz down at this point, but his struggles were there before last night. His last 6 1/3 innings have been this: 10 appearances, 0-2, 6.1 IP, 10 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 5 BB, 3 K He's going through a rough stretch right now. That ERA could be a lot worse too-only 1 of those runs was a run that somebody else inherited, and other relievers have saved him multiple times with runners on base. Let's hope he can work through this and become the dominant guy he was at the start of the season.

DeRosa sounds a little banged up-he probably will get the day off tonight. If Lee does at well, this is probably the lineup: Theriot Murton or Floyd Soriano Ramirez Ward Barrett Jones Izturis It could really be anything though. The main thing is that whatever left-handers are in there, Lou is going to try to split them, which helps figure out the lineup order a little bit easier.

I wouldn't say a long shot. I don't really see our 'Pen getting any better. Cotts and Wuertz should be moved into the setup roles. Howry needs to be used cautiously until he figures it out. He's been too consistently good/great over the last several years to write him off. Ohman is great as a LOOGY. Eyre can be hidden earlier in games. Demp has been pretty good so far. The pieces are there. The pen just needs to be re-organized. I think Howry has figured it out for the most part. He looked absolutely awful the other day, but before that he had only given up 2 runs of his own in the past 11 appearances (13 2/3 innings-and both runs were in the same game), and I believe only one inherited run in that time (Dmitri Young single). That's a really good stretch, and I don't think an awful outing necessarily means he has lost it again. I agree with your other assesments.

Yeah, it wasn't Wuertz's fault It was, but why after all year of Jason pitching well to Barrett did we deside to change things? For the sake of it? We sure could have used Barretts bat. Why did we let Marquis go two whole innings after it was obvious to even Dusty in the booth he had lost it? Why did we let Wuertz, who needed a map, pitch to all those hitters? I guess we built such a big lead we can afford to give games away. 1) Blanco was about due for a start-he was going to have to start sometime in this series, and he had good numbers against Glavine, so he might as well have started today. 2) Marquis pitched well in the 2 innings after he had "lost it". His 2 runners in the 6th he gave up were a bloop single that Soriano should have had and then a clean single to left. Plus, you want to remove Marquis in the 4th and turn it over to the bullpen? That almost definitely would have been worse than what Marquis did. 3)This one is tougher. Lou has been heavily criticized for taking out Wuertz when he couldn't get anywhere near the plate in a couple of his recent appearances, and now he's criticized again for leaving him in. I would have taken him out, but I understand why he left him in-if the reliever manages to get the game into extras, the Cubs are going to need all the relievers they can have.

I'm a little shocked Glavine is batting here-he's at 95 pitches and isn't exactly cruising.

Murton's in the 5 spot because of his power potential. Same with Soriano at 3, and DeRosa at 6. Izturis has a better OBP than Ramirez, Jones, Floyd, Blanco, and Barrett this year-while he shouldn't be considered at all for the 2 spot on a normal day, he's probably the best 2 spot option today.

First change I would expect from your lineup is that Pagan will be in CF, not Jones. Pretty much everybody on the lineup has a chance to be in the lineup now-Blanco, Izturis, or Ward all have decent shots of being in the lineup.

Dusty won't be doing it. In another thread (I believe in Baseball Discussions) he said that he wouldn't be doing any Cubs games this year. Dusty posts here? Yeah. His screen name is "jersey cubs fan." That's the first thing that popped into my head :D

No-3 day games, 2 night games.

That first idea about the 3rd time in a game simply is not very feasible. That limits to a pitcher to 6 innings max, and most pitchers around 4. There probably would have to be 8 starters piggy-backing off of one another with 3-4 arms left in the pen. It has a chance of working, but that requires finding a lot of arms that can even go that long, which is much harder than a traditional pitching staff.

That doesn't necessarily mean though that Soriano has had far fewer chances though-part of it is because that Soriano hasn't come through in those chances so far: Soriano: Nobody on (87 AB's)-.333/.370/.563 RISP (17 AB's)-.294/.368/.412 Theriot: Nobody on (65 AB's)-.323/.362/.400 RISP (23 AB's)-.435/.480/.478 Now, that's not all of it-as you can see, Theriot has more at-bats with RISP despite having fewer at-bats overall. Moving Soriano down would increase his chances, but it is not his only reason for a low RBI number. The other interesting thing about Soriano is that his numbers flip every single year in regards to his numbers with nobody on vs runners on: 2002-39 points better with runners on 2003-140 points better with none on 2004-45 points better with runners on 2005-145 points better with none on 2006-80 points better with runners on There is no rhyme or reason to it-but to continue the pattern, he'd have to be much better with nobody on, and so far he's right there with 159 points better with nobody on. I don't think it has any predictive value whatsoever, but it's a very strange coincidence.

I don't know what to say. ??? Please enlighten me with your infinite wisdom Every single plate appearance "skews" statistics by your definition. Why should Murton's last 5 or 6 ABs not be considered but a 5 or 6 AB stretch earlier in the year where he did nothing is. It's not misleading at all to say Murton has been more productive this season when his season long stats (all included, it's not like his most recent at bats are weighted more heavily) are better. Additionally, if you factor in the fact that since Soriano's switch to LF, Murton's barely played, and yet he's STILL HITTING BETTER THAN FLOYD OR JONES. Kinda hard to justify going with Floyd, in particular, except that he's a veteran playing for a manager who likes veterans. Well, if you would factor that in, you should at least mention that Floyd has barely played at all since Soriano moved to LF as well-considering this is how many at-bats each have gotten since Soriano's first game in LF: Murton-32 Floyd-26 So Murton has gotten more at-bats since Soriano switched to LF, which kind of eliminates your point that he's hardly played since that time compared to Floyd. BTW, even without that point-I think Murton is really starting to hit the ball well, and I hope he is in there for at least a majority if not a good majority of at bats in the near future, because he is playing better than Floyd. Except that I did include Jones, as well as Floyd, in my commentary. I made the point that Murton should be playing over Floyd and Jones, though Floyd in particular. Playing Murton is clearly the least of Sweet Lou's priorities. Which means that Lou lied to the fans and the media -- repeatedly. And I don't like being lied to. Lou can't play Murton over Jones-they play different positions. Jones has started a total of 1 game in RF since Soriano took over LF, and that was weeks ago when Murton was having his back problems. The only other times Jones has played RF is when he was switched over there as part of a defensive double switch to get Pie in the game late. So Jones is really getting very little time in RF to take away from Murton. It's been pretty much a Floyd/Murton platoon over there (with one DeRosa game thrown in) and Murton has gotten the majority of the at-bats since Soriano came back.

I don't know what to say. ??? Please enlighten me with your infinite wisdom Every single plate appearance "skews" statistics by your definition. Why should Murton's last 5 or 6 ABs not be considered but a 5 or 6 AB stretch earlier in the year where he did nothing is. It's not misleading at all to say Murton has been more productive this season when his season long stats (all included, it's not like his most recent at bats are weighted more heavily) are better. Additionally, if you factor in the fact that since Soriano's switch to LF, Murton's barely played, and yet he's STILL HITTING BETTER THAN FLOYD OR JONES. Kinda hard to justify going with Floyd, in particular, except that he's a veteran playing for a manager who likes veterans. Well, if you would factor that in, you should at least mention that Floyd has barely played at all since Soriano moved to LF as well-considering this is how many at-bats each have gotten since Soriano's first game in LF: Murton-32 Floyd-26 So Murton has gotten more at-bats since Soriano switched to LF, which kind of eliminates your point that he's hardly played since that time compared to Floyd. BTW, even without that point-I think Murton is really starting to hit the ball well, and I hope he is in there for at least a majority if not a good majority of at bats in the near future, because he is playing better than Floyd.