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I decided to test this theory out-so I am going to go back and look at the last several games where the Cubs where the game was either close or the Cubs were trailing, and then look at the P/PA numbers from the 7th inning onward. I'm going to do this going backwards-from the most recent date back. 4/24-5.0 P/PA 4/23-4.0 (12 innings) 4/22-3.1875 (10 innings) 4/20-4.0 4/18-3.64 4/17-4.38 (14 innings) 4/15-4.5 4/13-4.416 That's probably enough of a sample right there-that would take us all the way back to the first game after the snowed out game. It looks like the Cubs are not seeing less pitches overall in these close games late-they are actually seeing a little more.

There's no salary cap in baseball. You may be thinking of the luxury tax instead. No, I was more using salary cap as another term to refer to the limits of the Cubss budget-I edited out the word cap for clarity.

Defensive replacements aren't necessary in every single game. If you can afford it, it doesn't hurt, but doing things like removing Barrett in the 8th inning of every game is the definition of insanity. This may be off topic, but is anyone else a little puzzled about how Lou has handled our bench in several of our closer games this season? In both of our extra innings games, it seemed that Lou burned through our bench a little too fast, leaving nobody to pinch hit (besides marquis) in crucial spots later on. I understand that Soriano was out and our bench was a little thin, but having no one on your bench in two different spots was interesting to me. I just think there were some strange circumstances in a couple of those games. There were 3 games that emptied out the bench-the SD 14 inning game, the first Atlanta game, and the Milwaukee extra inning game. A lot of Lou's moves have been to protect pitchers because his starters have not gone very long into these extra innings games. SD game-Miller goes 5 innings. Izturis pinch-hit for him in the 6th. Cotts then pitched for 2 innings. After Blanco hit last in the 7th, Lou double-switched so Wuertz could also pitch multiple innings-and Wuertz did do that. 2nd substitution was in the 9th-Eyre had come on to replace Wuertz, and Floyd pinch-hit for him with 1 out, 1 on in the 9th. Howry then came in and pitched a couple of innings. When it came time for the 12th, Howry was done-but the pitcher's spot was due up in the bottom of the 12th, and the next pitcher in Dempster had to pitch a couple of innings. So rather than waste an out Lou double-switched again and put DeRosa in. Dempster then pitched a couple of innings, and when he was done Ohman was the only guy left-so Lou did one more double-switch and put Daryle Ward in so Ward could bat in the bottom of that inning. When Ward doubled, they pinch-ran with Marquis only because they desperately needed the run to tie the game at that point. I won't go detailed through the other couple because that was really, really long. I really don't see anything wrong with Lou's moves in the game I outlined above. The Milwaukee game had a couple bad things against it that Lou had to contend with at all. Floyd against a left-hander, Blanco, and Izturis were all in the game, and they all happened to bat with runners in scoring position late, and it made sense for Lou to replace all of them in the late innings. When no runs were scored in either of the situations, Lou ran out of players in the 11th. I don't think the team will have as much of a problem with this with Theriot at SS, because that's one less player that you have to pinch-hit for. On any days with Theriot at SS and Barrett catching, I doubt they will almost ever run out of players.

Did Sammy throw you into one? So was Ernie Banks. In fact, the Cubs were much worse during his career than they were during Sosa's. The Cubs were a bad team during Sosa's career with them. The Cubs have been a bad team during everyone's career with them since WWII. To create some sort of connection of Sosa's time with the team being the reason the Cubs lost is akin to blaming Hendry for letting Paul Bako go when all he did was average 88.5 wins in his time on the north side. I don't think he did that-I interpreted what he said to mean that even though Sammy was that good, the teams were so bad that they'd even get blown out on many of his great days.

-doesn't have great tools -too many walks Then why did Theriot make it over him, and then they were planning to bring up Augie Ojeda before him? I was willing to believe that explanation until those two things happened.

Did we ever figure out what the organization hates about Fontenot? Was he one of the ones who was not even invited to ST this year? If they are not going to play him at the majors ever, I wish they would trade him before he gets too old to have any value whatsoever. He has the most confusing story-they traded for him (so they must think something of him, but he gets passed over and over again, even for slightly worse players in the same season like Theriot.

Guzman's final line: 4.1 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 5 K/0 BB, 76 pitches/50 strikes

Guzman is done-he left with 2 runners on, so his line isn't complete yet. He threw 76 and was pulled in the middle of an inning after a strikeout, so my guess is that he was on a 75 pitch limit. What's the pitch count on Tuesday-85-90 maybe? The team really needs to try to protect the bullpen for that day, as I can't see Guzman really making it past 5 innings with that strict a pitch count, and the game the next day will start 13-14 hours after that game ends. This was definitely a much better outing for him though.

When Colvin is ready for the bigs, he will over-ride Murton IMO (but I highly doubt he'll even be with us by that point). murton or colvin? I think Murton will be gone by the time that Colvin is ready. Even if Murton is still here, he would probably take a back seat to Colvin. you don't think if murton is still with the cubs in three years that he will have established himself enough to not be overtaken by a rookie? For a college player, wouldn't 3 years be a little much anyway? That would mean he spent a whole year in Daytona, Tennessee, and Iowa-if he turns out to be a great prospect, won't it be more likely he'll do it in 2? I'm not sure about the Murton/Colvin thing. There's simply too much to project to really know much for sure even next year, let alone 2 years from now.

Mathes, O'Malley, and Walrond. None of those guys are prospects. Not so sure I'd say that about Walrond, he's a lefty and he's been throwing well. There's always room on a ML roster for a lefty reliever that can throw strikes. In fact, I can think of a team right now, in Chicago, that plays in the NL, that could probably use one..... Walrond is 30, he's never been able to throw strikes with any kind of consistency, and his AAA numbers haven't been stellar the last few years or his two cups of coffee in the major leagues. The chances of him turning it on at this age and sustaining it for any length of time is very low.

I'm not sure about the pitching/hitting for his park, but here are his stats so far: Colvin: 55 AB's, .309/.333/.491, 5 2B's, 1 3B, 1 HR, 2 BB, 11 K, 4 SB/1 CS. I'd like to see him walk a little bit more, but I think that's a pretty good line so far for somebody who skipped a level.

I was just thinking that. How would the Panthers radio announcer take it if they drafted Steve Smith? How could he call passing plays?

It makes no sense (that he tried to dump Jones for nothing and nobody would take him) because that fact isn't necessarily true.

Yes, we have to pay him-and I don't understand why he has little hope of improvement. He has been a pretty good reliever for most of his career, and he has just recently made a mechanical change after his horrible start. If you want to trade him, that's fine-the Cubs could use one less left-hander in the bullpen and the salary relief. He still has value though.

Hendry said that Guzman earned the chance to start with his performance in the majors, no matter how he starts tonight.

Sorry if it makes me an ass, but this is not a word. My biggest pet peeve. there are 285,000 words in the English language, if we use this enough it will become one. It actually is a word according to the Miriam-Webster dictionary website. A somewhat frowned upon word, but a recognized one. On topic, I can't see Soriano moving down. If he did, I would probably put Theriot/Lee at the top.

Sigh. I know. Thanks for letting me know there's other parts of this website. My point is that Theriot's run production has not been discussed as much as defensive liability. The fact remains this guy may be our biggest run producer outside of the obvious DLee or aRam. His runs scored only tell you that he gets on a lot, and has been in the 1 or 2 spot every day he's played (with the biggest RBI threats right behind him). Plus he has been used as a pinch runner several times, which don't give him an at-bat but sometimes a run scored. Theriot probably should have actually scored more runs then he has-he hasn't been good on the basepaths so far. I just think its ridiculous that a 390K player is outproducing half the team. It just cant be ignored, and I don't think its a fluke either. We sign Soriano with the intention to play CF, he isn't. We sign DeRosa with the intention to play 2B, he shouldn't be. Where's the faith in our system? We signed Soriano with the intention of playing one of the corners-him being a CF didn't happen until January. We signed DeRosa to play 2B-he's been great there, a decent bit better than Theriot has been starting the season. I don't understand the concern.

Sigh. I know. Thanks for letting me know there's other parts of this website. My point is that Theriot's run production has not been discussed as much as defensive liability. The fact remains this guy may be our biggest run producer outside of the obvious DLee or aRam. His runs scored only tell you that he gets on a lot, and has been in the 1 or 2 spot every day he's played (with the biggest RBI threats right behind him). Plus he has been used as a pinch runner several times, which don't give him an at-bat but sometimes a run scored. Theriot probably should have actually scored more runs then he has-he hasn't been good on the basepaths so far.

Bad Bullpen meaing Ohman and Eyre. The rest has been pretty good. I agree, but we have used those two along with Miller enough that we have given away games. Yup, not to mention that our hitting has been awful in those close and late situations, which has cost us in 4-5 games already this season and prolonged games (which is why the team has had so many extra inning games already). If that comes up to anywhere near the level that the team is hitting at overall (and there's no real reason it shouldn't), the team will win a lot more games.

The Cubs are 9th in OBP, 7th in SLG, 7th in OPS, 7th in runs. So far they've been average with many struggling members and only 2-3 hitters that are likely going to be above what they are for a full season (Lee, DeRosa, Theriot) with 2-3 hitters likely going to be better (Soriano, Murton/Floyd/Jones, Pie). The second group is likely to improve by more than the first group is likely to decline, so the offense should continue to get better-along with Theriot being inserted at SS, which should help the offense out as well. So I can see very encouraging signs that this will be an above-average to very good offense when all is said and done.

Go ahead and pick. Looks like texascub picked Jacoby Jones already. Didn't see that. Good-that leaves my pick on the board. The Colts have needs at CB, RB, and WR left. With 3 fourth round picks, they should be able to fill all their needs. The best value left at any of those positions is: WR Johnnie Lee Higgins, UTEP Higgins is a speedster that could really excel in the slot in the Colts system. He gives the team another weapon to replace Stokley, and the worries about him not being able to play outside don't apply to the Colts.

Says the guy who takes every opportunity to he can to talk about how great Rich Hill is. actually, more people talk about how i talk about being right about rich hill than i actually talk about how i was right about rich hill. by quite a bit. plus, i don't really know what you're saying. I mean we all have a lot of hope for these guys. We all get angry when we perceive the Cubs didn't give them a fair shake. I don't think Harris or Hill got one from the Cubs. Until this year, I don't think Rich Hill did. When we have a team the loses 90 every other year, this is a problem. I don't think it's about a fair shake with those two guys. I mean, it's not like the Cubs gave up on those two-they simply traded them for quality players. In the case of Harris, he had just made it to AAA in 2004, so the team traded him, and at the time both of the primary positions he played (3B and 2B) were blocked. In the case of Hill, he got some at-bats in 2002 (probably should have had a few more), didn't really play in 2003 because the player at his position at the major leagues was playing well, and then was traded for a valuable player. The Cubs certainly have not given some players a fair shake over the last few years, but these two really weren't part of that. They just simply got traded because the Cubs needed a couple of pieces to make playoff runs, and they had value as prospects.

bump on this thread. Can somebody pick for the 49ers please? I don't feel like I can be very objective on this particular pick.

When I saw him speaking, I thought there was a lot of tension between he and Prior. I'd guess Prior and his people think the Cubs are to blame for much of his problems, and Hendry blames Prior for all the problems the Cubs have had. That's a pretty baseless and hyperbolic statement. I sincerely doubt that Hendry blames Prior for all of the Cubs problems over the last several years. He might be frustrated with Mark's approach. I wouldn't be surprised if management is a little frustrated now. Wasn't some of the staff pushing surgery either 2 years ago or 1 year ago, and Prior opted to go with the non-surgery route instead? It was reasonable for Prior to choose that, but it's frustrating in management when you realize that if he had just chosen the other way he might be back now.

Sounds far fetched. Why not just get the 6th from Washington directly? Are they saying all they'd end up with is the 6th? Or are they saying they'd trade to get the 9, and then end up with the 6th and 31st still? Anyway, I'm all for getting a QB in this draft. I wouldn't complain about Quinn, even though I'm fine with Grossman in a make or break year. It sounds like they would trade up with the Dolphins then trade up again with the Redskins. Not really sure what they would we be trading in all those senarios. I actually wouldn't mind Quinn either but I am fine with Rex if thats the way they want to roll this year. Yeah, I don't see any way this deal is happening. To trade up with the Dolphins for #9 without using Briggs, the Bears would probably have to give up #31, #37, and their third round pick. Then, to trade Briggs to Washington for only moving up 3 spots doesn't make very much sense, and Washington doesn't have any decent picks they can throw in to make the deal more fair. That rumor just doesn't make sense.