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At least it's refreshing to see a move made quickly, rather than the Dusty philosophy of letting a horrid player like Neifi start game after game with nothing being done about it. Agreed. I just hope Theriot continues his hot streak and makes it where the only part of Izturis' uniform that gets dirty is the seat of his pants from sitting on the bench. I hope Theriot can find his hot streak again-his OBP is down to .328, and his SLG is similar to that. He needs to hit better than that if he expects to keep starting long-term.

It just underscores what Quinn had to work with, i.e. very little. Yeah, a 1,000 yard rusher at running back, one receiver with over 1,000 yards and one with over 900. It was really Quinn and a bunch of scrubs back there. Just because they aren't pro prospects doesn't mean they weren't great college football players. Rhema Mcknight was a drop machine, and any RB on that roster could have gained 1000 yards. THe only weapon was Jeff S. If their drop machine WR came just over 90 yards short of 1,000 and "any" runningback could have gone over 1,000 yards, doesn't that sort of dispel the notion of having "nothing to work with"? No, it doesn't. For fairness, I want to add John Carlson-other then one bad play in the Michigan game, he was very good all season. Darius Walker had over 1,000 yards-that was entirely because of the passing offense. He's a guy who can get some yards if everybody is spread out enough-when ND needed to run, he struggled. I wasn't even sorry he left-with Quinn and everyone else leaving, Walker would have been awful next year, and probably would have lost his job to his backup. Rhema Mcknight was the quintessential good one play, horrible the next. He got his yards because ND threw deep a ton in order to try to make up points. His statistics are very deceiving-for example, the USC game. Mcknight had 6 catches, 109 yards and a TD. It sounds great-but I can tell you that Mcknight dropped 4 easy catches that cost his team the chance to keep up with USC's offense, and he was the goat. Every receiver is going to catch some balls given enough chances and accurate throws. The only things that could be counted upon last season were Quinn, Samardzija, and Carlson. The line, the rest of the receivers, and the runningbacks were all either incredibly inconsistent or simply horrible.

I don't know how to research this information, but it would be very interesting to know about the HS kids Wilken drafted in (say) the 1st and 2nd rounds in earlier drafts, for context if nothing else. I am not sure overall, but many of his first picks (some of these are when he was a cross-checker, the other ones have been as scouting director) that have really succeeded have been non-college players. Shawn Green, Shannon Stewart, Chris Carpenter, Roy Halladay, Craig Wilson, Vernon Wells, Felipe Lopez, and Alexis Rios were all drafted by Wilken in a 10 year period without going to college. He had some busts, but I think Wilken should probably be given the benefit of the doubt with regards in being able to pick out high school talent.

i find that to be a terrible idea of thinking being left handed is great, but means nothing if you cant hit lefties. Murton's career line vs. Lefties = .329 AVG .404 OBP .512 SLG Jones' career line vs. Lefties = .226 AVG .280 OBP .370 SLG I dont see the argument being made here? He said against RHP, not LHP. Murton will obviously play every time a LHP is on the mound. Also, I don't think he's trying to say what should happen, just about why it is happening. It is probably true that if the Cubs had a left-handed bat in their infield that they would be more apt to play Murton. Whether that's a right approach to take or a completely wrong approach to take, it probably is their approach.

This makes more sense now. Howry has not allowed runs in his last 2 outings and 6 out of his last 7-when he wasn't even warming up for the 8th inning the other night, the speculation was that he lost his job. That didn't make much sense though, because he had part of the 8th and 9th on Monday, and he hadn't allowed a run since then. The fact that he was unavailable for that game clears up that little bit of confusion.

I am almost completely sure that I just saw on the ESPN ticker that the Bears had signed a free agent deal with Chris Leak.

Looking ahead to the whole series using the batter/pitcher matchups: It would probably do the Cubs some good to have 3 different SS's this series. Cedeno on Monday is 7 for 16 against Duke Izturis on Tuesday against Armas is 7 for 12, 3 doubles, a triple, and a home run :shock: On Wednesday, it really could be anybody. Izturis is 3-5 against Snell, Cedeno 2-4, and Theriot 0-2-look for Theriot to get a start here because neither of the others are very definitive. In the OF-Murton and Pie should get the start tomorrow night. Tuesday night, Floyd should start in right, with either Pie or Jones in center Wednesday is again unknown, because none of the hitters even have 5 AB's vs Snell (Murton and Jones 0-4, Floyd 1-3)-my guess is Pie in center, Jones in right. Let's go Hill tomorrow night and get this series off to a good start!

I just looked up a little information-he's about 250, raw, and pretty much purely a situational pass rusher. He had 15 sacks combined the last 2 years.

The Colts continue their Ohio State draft-Roy Hall becomes the 3rd Buckeye to be drafted by the Colts this year.

The report from Chicago this morning was that Angelo wanted Anthony Gonzalez, and then traded down after the Colts took him at 32.

Theriot is now the everyday SS. He has started the last 3 games there. Piniella said that this will continue, even though he had planned to play Izturis there tonight before the cancellation of the game. Cherry replaced Wade Miller, who went on the DL because of back spasms. Guzman has started in Iowa twice, and was scheduled to come up to the majors on Tuesday to take the 5th starter's turn in the rotation-not sure how the cancellation will affect that. Jones/Murton/Floyd are all seemingly playing the same position right now, except for the days that Jones starts in center. Murton was bothered by a bad back early in the week, and then got a start on Friday. Everybody is pretty healthy right now, and Soriano has not homered yet, although he has hit a ball or two off the wall. You pretty much hit the major points though-I can't remember any big things that happened other than that.

Quite a run on linemen going on right now, both offensive and defensive.

I feel bad even thinking of baseball at a time like this, but because of the absolutely horrible tragedy today, the Cubs now have an unexpected off day. What should happen to Guzman? The Cubs now will not need a 5th starter until May 12th. My hope is that the team will keep Guzman in Iowa until then so that more time can shake out the OF situation a little bit. What do you think-pitch him this week as planned, or wait until the 12th?

My prayers are with his family-it's always horrible when somebody is taken so suddenly.

The Indians finished 12 games off last year, but that was the largest number in the 6 years that were checked. It has to level off at least a little bit from the 4 in April that the Cubs currently have. That terrible team OBP by the way is still good enough to be in the top half of the NL.

That really isn't an option for the Cubs though-when they go to 11 pitchers, that means that if your bullpen is overworked, you have to send down Cotts and Wuertz and have them down there for at least 10 days. I'd rather have the 12th pitcher then that happen.

Well apparently Moss is going to the Pats for a 4th rounder. We could have matched that. Grrrrrr Here's the Moss link: http://www.nfl.com/nflnetwork/story/10156954 I don't think there was any real way for the Pack to take on Moss's contract without re-structuring it, and if he refused to do that for anybody but the Patriots, there isn't much that anyone else could do.

I wish the team would do that too, even if they don't stick with it. Tuesday is when the roster move will be made. Then they will play two games, then an off day-then 3 more, then another off day. I don't see any reason to need 12 pitchers that week. Finally they have 13 in a row, but Cherry will be eligible to be called back up by game 4 of that, and that will buy them another 10 days of figuring out what to do and possibly putting together a trade.

It probably has to be Pie right now. If they feel that they can stick with 1 reserve IF, then it will be Cedeno, but Piniella was very, very nervous about the prospect of only having 1 during ST. So my guess is that they send Pie down, and they start working on trading Jones so they can get Pie back up as soon as possible.

The Colts need to address a pick at LB, RB, special teams (probably a safety), and then the other two picks can go to pretty much every area for a little more depth.

I'm not sure you would want to do that. He was an amazing hitter off the bench last year, and it's obvious other teams fear him, considering that he's received 4 intentional walks to go with his 2 other walks. The 4 hitters who Ward was intentionally walked to get to-Soriano, Theriot (2 times), Barrett (Ward was pinch-hitting for Blanco, and so everyone knew that Barrett would pinch-hit for Izturis the next hitter, so I'm marking it as that). If teams are afraid to pitch to Ward, that can only help the Cubs.

I agree that assists can be a very misleading stat, and your answer is correct. Juan Pierre was the last to accomplish that last year.

Please-try not to cheat on this. If you know the answer for sure because you read in very recently, please don't answer either. For those who haven't seen the answer to this question, just take a guess-it can't hurt if you're wrong :D Here's the question: Alfonso Soriano recorded 2 outfield assists in the same game last night. Who was the last Cub to record 2 OF assists in one game?

I am usually a fan of his work, but not that one. He has errors all over the place. When I went down to the Colts pick, he picks a safety and then says that he can replace "starting safety Marlin Jackson so Jackson can move to corner". Jackson may have started several games last year because Sanders was hurt, but he is not a starting safety-Sanders and Bethea are. Not to mention, even if a safety is not drafted today or tomorrow, Jackson will be a starting corner next year.

I reviewed it a few times myself, and after a few tries at it finally managed to pause it at the correct moment. He was out, but only by the tiniest sliver of margins-his foot touched the edge of the bag a fraction of a second after the ball went into the glove. It was a close enough play that I couldn't have been upset at the umpire if it had gone the other way, but from the look I got when it was paused and in the slow motion replays that I did I think the umpire got it right.