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That's a pretty funny defense. A guy can't hit lefties and needs a platoon partner. So the GM is trying to get rid of him. And since he spent so much time trying to find anybody to take him, he didn't try to get a platoon partner. But, because nobody would take him, we have to keep him and play him everyday even though he's a blatant platoon player. It's like the self fulfilling prophecy of negligent management. Either way it's poor planning. It's not a defense-I agree that it was poor planning, and I hope it's corrected soon by either finding a SS (which might let Theriot play CF) or finding a RH platoon partner for CF.

Yeah, it would be shocking to me if Blanco didn't start this game: day game after night game Barrett caught 15 innings 2 nights ago left-hander on the mound for the opposition Blanco is 2-5 against this pitcher Z is on the mound All the factors say a Blanco start is coming. My guess is that the rest of the lineup will be the same, but there could be 1 or 2 other small changes. My first instinct would be to think he'd sit Jones, since he's really cooled down after that brief hot streak, and already ranks third on the team in most playing time. And of course since he can't hit lefties at all, and never has. But when you think about how much stock Lou puts into coddling his veterans' egos and the thought of showing faith in Jones by putting him right back out there, I begin to doubt that idea. But it would be smart to give Felix "I've got 6 at bats in the past 7 days" Pie a start before he rots any further, at least taking advantage of his clear defensive edge over Jones. The next most likely change I have is the Pie for Jones today, but the only reason I'm reluctant is two things-1) I'm not sure Lou wants to put Pie or Blanco in the 7 spot, and 2) Lou seems to like double-switching Pie in for whichever OF batted last in the middle innings.

please read the thread before you start mocking people. jones is useless against LHP, and if lou absolutely insists on using him against them, it's better for the team if he's somehow gone. Lou doesn't absolutely insist it-it's simply that there's nobody else. When Soriano was playing CF, Jones was benched every time the team started against a LHP. Yesterday, he got moved down to 8th-Lou understands completely that Jones is terrible against left-handed pitching. The problem is, there is nobody to go to on the bench who is better. I really think this is on Hendry. Floyd is a redundant player. Murton did not have drastic platoon splits last year. Jones did. We got Murton a platoon partner and not Jones. The only problem I have right now is that Pie is on the team sitting the bench. If he isnt going to play send him down and bring up Walker or Pagan. At the time of course, Jones wasn't sure to be on the team this long, so there was no need to find a platoon partner with him. I'd still try to find one though, because even when you turn the job over to Pie it would be good if he didn't play against left-handers. I'm trying to think of who might be available right now.

Wolf-7 GS, 41 IP, 44 H, 44K/13BB, 4 HBP, 6 HR, 4.61 ERA, 1.39 WHIP Padilla-7 GS, 42 IP, 40 H, 17K/21BB, 3 HBP, 8 HR, 4.93 ERA, 1.452 WHIP Of course a lot of people wanted Schmidt+ rookie-that wouldn't have worked out too well. Also, here's one more pitcher that was wanted over the offseason: Westbrook-6 GS, 27 1/3 IP, 32 H, 18 K/14 BB, 1 HBP, 6 HR, 7.90 ERA, 1.683 WHIP

please read the thread before you start mocking people. jones is useless against LHP, and if lou absolutely insists on using him against them, it's better for the team if he's somehow gone. Lou doesn't absolutely insist it-it's simply that there's nobody else. When Soriano was playing CF, Jones was benched every time the team started against a LHP. Yesterday, he got moved down to 8th-Lou understands completely that Jones is terrible against left-handed pitching. The problem is, there is nobody to go to on the bench who is better.

Yeah, it would be shocking to me if Blanco didn't start this game: day game after night game Barrett caught 15 innings 2 nights ago left-hander on the mound for the opposition Blanco is 2-5 against this pitcher Z is on the mound All the factors say a Blanco start is coming. My guess is that the rest of the lineup will be the same, but there could be 1 or 2 other small changes.

I knew someone was going to do this. Boy, some of these reactions are pretty funny. Good work NC! :lol: I think it's fun to read some of the comments again a few minutes later when he turns out to be much better than anyone expected (at least for now). So will you bump this when the wind starts blowing out again? Marquis has pitched in: 2 games where the wind was blowing in 3 games where there was a crosswind 2 games where the wind was blowing out I don't think the wind has helped him nearly as much as you are implying. Besides, a lot of the people who posted in this thread would have found it shocking if Marquis posted an ERA under 5, and with every start that becomes more and more likely.

The other good thing to note is that Marquis has already put up 47 2/3 innings. So he almost is at 1/4 of the innings he will probably pitch this year.

I'm not sure that's completely true-in the data I have, he's been up and down with that. In 2002, he was much better in the first half In 2003, he was a little better in the second half In 2004, he was a little better in the second half In 2005, he was a little better in the first half In 2006, he was much better in the first half. So he's a first-half pitcher, but his two best years were split down the middle, and didn't have that much of a difference either year between first half and second half. Thanks for checking up on that, sheds a whole new light on the situation IMO. The only thing I don't see there is a little worse in the 2nd half however, so either this season will be a first or hes gonna bomb the rest of the way. I think the year you want is 2005-he was a little better in the first half, little worse in the 2nd half.

I'm not sure that's completely true-in the data I have, he's been up and down with that. In 2002, he was much better in the first half In 2003, he was a little better in the second half In 2004, he was a little better in the second half In 2005, he was a little better in the first half In 2006, he was much better in the first half. So he's a first-half pitcher, but his two best years were split down the middle, and didn't have that much of a difference either year between first half and second half.

Yeah...ok. You can't have guys who can OPS .800+ against righties on your team! you're missing a major part of the point. jones would be fine if used properly. the problem is that lou, just like dusty, refuses to do so. that .800 OPS doesn't mean much when it comes along with a terrible line against lefties (that gives a combined OPS of 730 - that's a 92 OPS+ as of this morning). The question is-who is better against LHP that could play in center instead of Jones? There are only 7 good right handed-hitters on this team (Lee, Ramirez, Barrett, Soriano, DeRosa, Murton, Theriot) and none of the left-handers can hit LHP-at all. Yes, yes, those 7 should be the lineup against LHP along with Pie in order to give him ABs and get his defense. I wouldn't mind Pie in the lineup against LHP, but he is likely to be even worse than Jones against them offensively. It's a good spot to get Pie AB's, but it's also setting him up to fail-it's a tough balance there. I do hope Pie is in there tomorrow though-good day to give Jones a day off.

Yeah...ok. You can't have guys who can OPS .800+ against righties on your team! you're missing a major part of the point. jones would be fine if used properly. the problem is that lou, just like dusty, refuses to do so. that .800 OPS doesn't mean much when it comes along with a terrible line against lefties (that gives a combined OPS of 730 - that's a 92 OPS+ as of this morning). The question is-who is better against LHP that could play in center instead of Jones? There are only 7 good right handed-hitters on this team (Lee, Ramirez, Barrett, Soriano, DeRosa, Murton, Theriot) and none of the left-handers can hit LHP-at all.

Jones had over a 360 OBP before the last two days. He's had an awful 2 days, but whichever guy they stuck out there (Jones or Pie) would have been awful against a LHP-they both are terrible against them. Jacque still has over a 350 OBP so far this season against RHP, and he has played a good CF. He's had two horrible nights-I would support Pie getting more starts and the team acquiring somebody right-handed that can play CF, but I don't think Jacque has been terrible.

Marquis now has the lowest ERA on the Cubs staff-he's up to a tie for 2nd place in the major leagues.

jones was .250 against lefties starting the game. i'm sure pie was worse jock is 226/280/370/650 the past three years against lhp And Pie had similar numbers against AAA left-handers last year. When this lineup is in the game, there simply isn't a good pinch-hitting option against a left-handed pitcher. Floyd and Pie are as bad as Jacque against LHP, and Blanco and Izturis are just terrible hitters.

After 8 innings, Marquis is now only .01 behind Rich Hill in ERA. In fact, they are 3rd and 4th in that category in the NL/ML.

To answer a question earlier-Murton's BABIP this year is almost exactly league average: http://www.fangraphs.com/graphs.aspx?playerid=6307&position=OF&page=0&type=full

yes, it's 1-0.

Well, this is an interesting outing for Marquis. None of his typical ground balls through 2 innings, but 2 strikeouts and 3 popouts to go with the 1 fly ball.

DeRosa wouldn't be dealt so soon unless Hendry is willing to swallow his pride on what is a bad FA signing. The others maybe, but why would Hendry have to swallow his pride over DeRosa? So far his start is even better than his season last year, and his contract is a bargain even if his OPS drops by 50-60 points over the course of the year.

With all of the suckiness over 25 years, it would be too difficult to pick the 25 worst. So many are worthy of that title. You'd probably have to set a minimum number of plate appearances for hitters, innings for starters, and games for relievers. Otherwise, you're going to end up with the 1999 version of Micah Bowie in the starting rotation (9.96 ERA in 47 innings). oh, i think Anthony Young, Ozzie Timmons and Shane Andrews got enough playing time to qualify Patterson's 2005 and Cedeno's 2006 would probably be easy choices for CF and SS. kevin roberson and rey sanchez may disagree with you Yeah, I guess it would depend on the at-bats needed. If it was more than 300, than neither of those would have a season that would match the two I mentioned.

With all of the suckiness over 25 years, it would be too difficult to pick the 25 worst. So many are worthy of that title. You'd probably have to set a minimum number of plate appearances for hitters, innings for starters, and games for relievers. Otherwise, you're going to end up with the 1999 version of Micah Bowie in the starting rotation (9.96 ERA in 47 innings). oh, i think Anthony Young, Ozzie Timmons and Shane Andrews got enough playing time to qualify Patterson's 2005 and Cedeno's 2006 would probably be easy choices for CF and SS.

Ohh......that's why he wouldn't take a walk. I was thinking that Cedeno probably forgot and instinctively stepped down to try to walk back into the dugout and got surprised by the base.

By the same token, teams have days where they don't get many chances-it happens all the time. Both are at fault yesterday-the Cubs would have had a .330-.340 OBP yesterday if a run had been knocked in when it was supposed to, but their lack of chances in extra innings was also a big factor in the loss This is their first game out of the last 6 in which they had less than a .355 OBP for the game-if individual hitters can play the percentage card, then so can the team.

I still can't figure out why Lou called that. Jones racks up plenty of strikeouts as it is and that was a pitch he couldn't do anything with. The best result he could have gotten with that pitch was a foul ball out of play; that's pretty much it. I'm concerned with Lou's style of managing. While I don't think he's as prone to stupid and head-scratching decisions as previous managers, I think he tries too hard to micromanage the game. Part of this might have to do with a lack of familiarity with his players' strengths and weaknesses, which is understandable, but if this trend continues, I won't be too happy with it. Cubs had so many chances to win way before that call. That call didn't lose the game, not even close. We could've played another 9 innings and not score. We just couldn't get a big hit when needed. I hear the consensus sounds like the Cubs just couldn't get the big hit despite numerous chances. It should be pointed out the Cubs drew 2 walks to the Pirates 8. That's the key, as it always is with the Cubs. Their OBP yesterday was about .280, absolutely pathetic. Pitt's OBP was .361. They are the ones that had all the chances to score. Add Lou's insistence on running his few baserunners into outs on a regular basis and you have a perfectly good explanation for why the Cubs couldn't score yesterday. That was the Cubs problem in extra innings-but the Cubs would have had a much higher OBP if they could have just brought a runner home that didn't even require a hit in the 8th and again in the 10th. I'm not upset at the Cubs who couldn't get the big hit, because you're right, they didn't have very many chances in extra innings with runners on base. I am upset though at the people who didn't need a hit to score a run (2nd and 3rd with nobody out in the 8th) or advance a runner (2nd base with nobody out in the 10th)-that would be Murton, Jones, and Lee. After those chances their OBP divebombed because they only got 1 runner on base in the last 4 innings.