CubColtPacer

I've seen about 10 mock drafts, and only in 2 of them was he picked in the first 3 rounds. I was planning to take him with my next pick though as he's absolutely perfect for the Colt's system being so short.

If I remember right, that's why the Cubs are on CSN+ anyway, because the Bulls bumped them there-the Cubs were originally supposed to be on the channel the Bulls are going to be on tonight. the Cubs were supposed to be on TNT? I believe now that the Bulls game is also being shown on CSN. That pushes the Cubs back to CSN+, and the White Sox back to CSN plus 2.

If I remember right, that's why the Cubs are on CSN+ anyway, because the Bulls bumped them there-the Cubs were originally supposed to be on the channel the Bulls are going to be on tonight.

Our ace is a basket case who still can't meltdown even when he's leading by 3 or more runs. That's not even close to being very good. I know everyone loves heaping on the bullpen right now, but it's not like it's a disaster. The main weakness is our sleepy offense. Some guys are eventually going to break out because of their history (Soriano in a big way, Jacque in a less big way), but Lee's lack of power is worrisome given his injury last year. I know he's got a bunch of double so far, but he hasn't had anything slapped down by the wind moreso than a guy like DeRosa. Maybe this is just the current variation of his old slow starts...I hope so. Even if it is, Zambrano needs to be traded to pump up the offense ASAP before he flakes out even more. Our offense has been just fine though lately-here are the scores from the last 8 games: 12, 3, 6, 3, 1, 6, 9, 4-avg-5.5 runs per game. The offense has been fine-not great, but just fine. The problem is that when the offense is good, the pitching fails-and when the pitching is good, the offense is terrible. It's just a matter of putting it together in the same games. A team that is 0-10 when the lead is 2 or 1 runs does not have an offense that's doing fine. That's pathetic. It's 0-8 actually, and that includes games like an 8-6 loss and a 6-5 loss, along with last night's loss 5-4, not to mention the extra inning loss the other day 12-9. The first 3 games had Z on the mound-the team's offense is not responsible for at least 3 of those games, and possibly all 4.

Our ace is a basket case who still can't meltdown even when he's leading by 3 or more runs. That's not even close to being very good. I know everyone loves heaping on the bullpen right now, but it's not like it's a disaster. The main weakness is our sleepy offense. Some guys are eventually going to break out because of their history (Soriano in a big way, Jacque in a less big way), but Lee's lack of power is worrisome given his injury last year. I know he's got a bunch of double so far, but he hasn't had anything slapped down by the wind moreso than a guy like DeRosa. Maybe this is just the current variation of his old slow starts...I hope so. Even if it is, Zambrano needs to be traded to pump up the offense ASAP before he flakes out even more. Our offense has been just fine though lately-here are the scores from the last 8 games: 12, 3, 6, 3, 1, 6, 9, 4-avg-5.5 runs per game. The offense has been fine-not great, but just fine. The problem is that when the offense is good, the pitching fails-and when the pitching is good, the offense is terrible. It's just a matter of putting it together in the same games. What you've just described is a losing baseball team. Every team in the league that sucks will tell you "we just can't get both going at the same time." We've gone through this many other years, too. It's the same old story. If we don't rectify this by May, then we are finished. We're already in an ever-deepening hole that will be difficult to climb out of. Yes, but most of the teams who would say that aren't in the top half of the league in both pitching and offense like the Cubs are.

Our ace is a basket case who still can't meltdown even when he's leading by 3 or more runs. That's not even close to being very good. I know everyone loves heaping on the bullpen right now, but it's not like it's a disaster. The main weakness is our sleepy offense. Some guys are eventually going to break out because of their history (Soriano in a big way, Jacque in a less big way), but Lee's lack of power is worrisome given his injury last year. I know he's got a bunch of double so far, but he hasn't had anything slapped down by the wind moreso than a guy like DeRosa. Maybe this is just the current variation of his old slow starts...I hope so. Even if it is, Zambrano needs to be traded to pump up the offense ASAP before he flakes out even more. Our offense has been just fine though lately-here are the scores from the last 8 games: 12, 3, 6, 3, 1, 6, 9, 4-avg-5.5 runs per game. The offense has been fine-not great, but just fine. The problem is that when the offense is good, the pitching fails-and when the pitching is good, the offense is terrible. It's just a matter of putting it together in the same games.

Yup, by ERA the team bullpen is 3rd out of 6th in the division, 7th out of 16 in the NL, and 13th out of 30 in the league. So it has been very average so far. If Howry can pitch like he did last night and Ohman continue to be used against left-handers like he was last night, I think the Cubs can bump those league rankings up more. The only question then is what to do with Eyre-I'd like to see him get those mop-up innings that Ohman was getting for a couple of weeks. I think Eyre can be pretty effective once he finds it, but right now he shouldn't be given any serious work until he does. I also think the bullpen will look better when they don't have to go for so long of a stretch in these ballgames. That's 3 extra inning games in a week, and if the Cubs don't have to use their bullpen as much in close games then their effective relievers right now don't have to be unavailable for half the games because they had to pitch multiple innings the previous day.

From looking over the matchups, it looks like the best outfield tonight would be Soriano/Pie/Jones.

Well, the Cubs had plenty of baserunners in this game-17 to be exact. Just about everyone failed to execute in a key situation late in the game. Soriano and Murton couldn't drive a run home from 3rd with less than 2 outs. Lee couldn't get a 2 out hit in that same inning. DeRosa and Barrett couldn't get it done in the 8th. Cedeno couldn't get it done in the 10th. Soriano and Marquis in the 11th. Jones and DeRosa in the 12th. Can't really blame the bullpen as a whole on this one-6 2/3 of 3 run ball. That may not be great, but it's certainly not terrible either. Eyre was bad again, as he has been since last August. Cherry had a first outing that he'd like to forget. Ohman did great getting his two outs, Wuertz had his customary flawless inning, Howry was good in his inning and a third, Dempster got through with little trouble in his 2. I'm not sure Lou really over-managed here. Pie pinch-hitting for the pitcher in the 7th was pretty obvious. At the time, Murton coming in for Floyd against a left-hander with runners on 2nd and 3rd and 1 out was a good move, as the team looked to put insurance runs on the board and ice the game. Similarly, Blanco had to be taken down for a pinch-hitter with 2 on and 1 out in a tie game in the 8th. Then it made sense to take Izturis down as well. Once Izturis was pinch hit for, Cedeno pinch-ran for Ward, and Cedeno would have had to come in for Izturis after the inning anyway. The only person he could have really saved was Theriot, and even that is a debatable situation.

I was thinking that too, but then I realized that they do not want to face Lee in this inning if they can help it.

Ronny has hit the ball hard, he's got to be due some time soon. I don't really care about him being due...I care about winning...Riot would have been nicer to have there...Hell...Marquis might have been better. Theriot was used in the 9th, and if you use Marquis and he gets an out-if DeRosa slides to SS, who plays second?

I guess I don't understand-the bench was used almost exactly as people have been calling for. Murton was put in when a left-hander faced Floyd with 2 runners in scoring position in the 7th. Two pinch-hitters hit for the pitcher, and two more did when there were 2 runners on in the 8th inning of a tie game and Blanco and Izturis were at the plate. So the only one that was even questionable was putting in Cedeno to pinch-run, and yet Lou is criticized for using too much of his bench. So which situation would you not have used a pinch-hitter?

The team doesn't even have 12 pitchers up. They do need 7 relievers if the game goes into extra innings. Besides, Marquis is just as good as many pinch-hitters on the benches of many teams anyway.

That's Ward's 5th walk- 3rd intentional walk of the season-1 of them was after he took the count to 3-0.

It hasn't been a strength this year, but it hasn't been a weakness-the bullpen ERA is still in the top half of the league.

When Eyre got hurt in August of last year, the pitcher that the team has seen since then hasn't been anywhere near the same.

apparently absolutely nobody for either tonight or tomorrow night.

That's the second hit in 2 days for Pie that was pure luck-somebody is going to see these hits and think that he is actually hitting well :D

Honestly how many teams have really strong 7 and 8 hitters other than the Yankees? Come on. Izturis and Blanco are two of the worst hitters in the Majors. They have to basically get lucky to get a hit. Yadier Molina, Brad Ausmus, Adam Everett, Alex Gonzalez, Craig Counsell-those are just some of those hitters in our division that are just as bad over a typical full season, and I'm sure I could come up with 3-4 more if I thought harder.

Honestly how many teams have really strong 7 and 8 hitters other than the Yankees? Not many teams-that's for sure, especially when they are playing a backup catcher like the Cubs are tonight.

So-how was the defensive play on the DP? Pat is going on and on about how Jones hit it so hard and it should have been a base hit that Hardy made a great play on to stop it.

Lou just needs to use him correctly. Hopefully Lou "gets it", now. I think Lou always knew that. He was used in one game correctly, and most of the rest were just mop-up innings in blowouts. The only other close game that Ohman was in was the game in the 14th inning, where Lou was forced to go to him against both left and right-handers

This is a good move-Gross has a very large right/left split.

I don't know why you'd be shocked. Before Saturday (the last time I saw the stats) DeRosa was only behind Pie in P/PA. It goes all the way down to the position player who sees the least pitches of anybody-Theriot.

Send Izzy packing and let Theriot play short. Miller, Izturis, and Eyre for ARod. Miller is on the DL and can't be traded. Miller is on the DL? Placed on the DL today. Cherry was called up. Excellent. So I assume we'll be skipping the fifth starter spot this time around with the off day on Thursday? Yes. Hendry said Guzman is the probable starter next Tuesday, somewhat depending on his next outing in the minors. If not, I guess it could be Marmol.