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Only 3 of Cedeno's starts at SS have come within the last 6 games-the other one came at game 6, the first Sunday of the season. Also, the main reason he didn't play SS the second week was because he got 2 starts at 2nd. My guess is that Cedeno will keep getting 2-3 starts a week at SS.

This is somewhat strange-when the Cubs do get a hit off Vargas, it is almost always for extra bases. Look at some of these: Izturis: 4/12, 2 2B's, 1 3B Floyd: 3/10, 2 2B's, 1 HR Ramirez: 4/10, 1 HR Jones: 3/9, 2 HR Barrett: 2/4, 1 HR Murton: 2/2, 1 HR Cedeno: 1/1, 1 HR Hopefully the wind blows out again tonight-because this team loves to elevate the ball for home runs against Vargas.

I believe he can't be traded until June 1. Floyd is currently sporting a .647 OPS. He's also slow, a below average defender, has serious health questions, and is coming off a bad season. If he can get a hot streak going he might be marketable, but I don't think we could get anything for him now. Hendry was able to get him at a cheap price precisely because he lacked marketability. Hendry was able to get him cheap because Floyd turned down several more lucrative offers to come home. It was reported that there were 5 other teams that wanted him, and most of them were wanting him to be a starter full-time. Reported by who? Floyd's agent. He's old, comming off surgery, and can't throw the ball. He's a DH. I said this in January and we are now seeing the results: The Cubs are put together like a jigsaw puzzle with several pieces that don't fit. The sooner Hendry is gone, the better off the Cubs will be unless they hire another "baseball man" like Jim Boden. It was not Floyd's agent that reported it. You are right though-one of the common themes was that it was AL teams who were interested in him. The Mariners, the Orioles, the Athletics, the Indians. As far as I know, the only National League team that was interested in him was the Pirates.

I believe he can't be traded until June 1. Floyd is currently sporting a .647 OPS. He's also slow, a below average defender, has serious health questions, and is coming off a bad season. If he can get a hot streak going he might be marketable, but I don't think we could get anything for him now. Hendry was able to get him at a cheap price precisely because he lacked marketability. Hendry was able to get him cheap because Floyd turned down several more lucrative offers to come home. It was reported that there were 5 other teams that wanted him, and most of them were wanting him to be a starter full-time.

Lou wants 12 pitchers-that would still leave him with 11. I do like the idea of bringing up Cherrry now and releasing Miller. Then you bring up a starter next week (likely Guzman) and either demote Pie or trade Jones. Jones is the best hitting OF ATM. He is not my favorite player on the Cubs but the Cubs shouldn't be rushing to get rid of him, without being sure that Pie is going to stick. I would agree. Like IMB said, I don't think Pie is going to stick right now. My guess is that when that starter is pulled up, Pie will be sent down for a while. My guess is that if Jones is traded this year, it won't be until closer until the deadline.

It's not Jim Hendry's job to figure out how the possible sale of the Tribune Company would affect the on field decisions of the Cubs. He doesn't talk to the Tribune at all-anything like that would have to be communicated from the Tribune to McDonough to Hendry. McDonough didn't do that until it was too late (and basically said as much in the press)-it's not known for sure if McDonough knew and didn't tell Hendry, or if the Tribune didn't tell McDonough until it was too late either. Hendry did his job-he negotiated the contract with the player using all available information, and he did it before he lost the player. The ownership just changed the rules, for a reason that had nothing to do with the Cubs, and there was a failure to inform the proper people until it was already done.

Lou wants 12 pitchers-that would still leave him with 11. I do like the idea of bringing up Cherrry now and releasing Miller. Then you bring up a starter next week (likely Guzman) and either demote Pie or trade Jones.

Except Des Moines on Monday. I have a bad feeling you are right about this. Didn't you watch the 10th inning? Murton is going to be the CF from here on out. :^o Yeah!!!! When the Cubs start making roster moves I usually think what would make the least amount of sense. Like sending down Guzman the other day. What move would make the least amount of sense now? You think sending down Guzman so he could replace Miller made the least amount of sense?

I hate Posey, Wade, and Payton with a passion. But I don't hate them more than the Cardinals. They are definitely the team I hate the most in the NBA though. I don't watch the NBA, but why do you not like Wade? The main reason is because if you breath on him, it can be called a foul. Somebody should actually watch the NBA before coming up with a ridiculous question, and within one Heat game, that question would be answered. Wade's a classy guy, blah blah blah, but the Bulls are going to make him work for everything he gets this series. This is NOT the matchup he wanted. Okay, I don't watch the NBA on a regular basis. I think the NBA sucks, but I wasn't going to say that in this thread since it wasn't relevant. I have watched games from time to time. Personally I don't mind the Heat or Dwayne Wade. Does he get calls? Yes, but so did Michael Jordan. I suppose you didn't care that Jordan got those calls though because you were a Bulls fan. The calls Wade gets are beyond anything Michael got. I think he mentioned watching the NBA because last Finals, Wade got a foul call after hitting a fadeaway jumper and falling down literally untouched. It's almost reached a new level with him. The calls Wade gets are bad, but they are nothing like Jordan's, or even Shaq's calls for most of his career for example. Those 2 have been the worst in the last 20 years.

I'm kind of surprised they didn't put Theriot in center-wasn't he working there a little bit? I guess that clears up if they thought he could play it at all if they are going to put Murton there over him.

Floyd is struggling right now-let him have a few days off. He'll be valuable for this team, but he is not even taking the same type of swings as he was a week and a half ago.

And by a little bit, he's still been only our 3rd most effective reliever. Amazing.

That would be my plan. You're right, the 5th start is not needed until May 1st (a week from Tuesday). The gamble for Miller didn't work-it's not a big deal if the mistake is admitted and corrected. It can become a very big deal if it continues. Release him in the next day or two, and bring up a reliever. Then send down Pie for Guzman on May 1st.

he was asking too much. the truth is, despite jones' numbers last season, there aren't a lot of modern GM's in the market for an undisciplined hitter. Well, I think a "modern" GM, or any GM for that matter, who finds himself in need of an additional OF, maybe to complement a younger RH bat in a platoon or to solve an injury problem, can appreciate a player who can: *play a capable CF *.850 OPS against RH *under reasonable contract terms for this year and the next Before last year he hadn't put up an .850 OPS against RH since 2002. Hendry worked hard to deal him in the off-season and he couldn't. The Cubs couldn't trade Jones until they found the stopgap CF that they wanted to start the season with-they never found that player before Soriano agreed to play CF. That was the failure.

Miller is pitching much better today than either of his previous starts.

You mean like the power he didn't have last September when he had 4 HR's in 44 AB's? no, i mean the 0 HR's he has in his last 76 plate appearances. it's time to worry. I see no more reason to worry about Lee than Soriano. Lee showed a lot of power when he came back last year, and if not for the wind blowing in earlier in the month, he would have had 2-3 homers already this season.

You mean like the power he didn't have last September when he had 4 HR's in 44 AB's?

Hey, at least Wade is pitching a little better then the last two starts. If he pitched the same way he did Tuesday today with all those hard hit balls, he would have given up 6-7 already. He has improved, but the wind blowing out is really going to hurt him.

I can't blame Cedeno too much-it's hard hitting up there trying to protect on a 1-2 pitch with a zone this huge.

It's hard to tell if Theriot had a decision to make or not-it could have been a go on contact play no matter what.

Wow-that wind is really pushing the ball. That wasn't that hard of a hit.

I think rotoworld is not correct on this-nothing about the tribune article states that Pie is going to stay long-term. It even says "if Pie sticks". It is still decently likely that the Cubs will give Pie starts until Friday when Guzman is eligible to come back up, and if his offense hasn't significantly improved by then he'll go down for Guzman. Pie is just likely going to stay up when Soriano comes back because it hasn't been 10 days for Guzman yet.

Navigator had the Cubs lineup correct as Theriot-2B Floyd-LF Lee-1B Ramirez-3B Barrett-C Jones-RF Cedeno-SS Pie-CF Miller-P The Cardinals lineup is: Miles-SS Duncan-LF Pujols-1B Rolen-3B Edmonds-CF Spiezio-RF Kennedy-2B Molina-C Wainwright-P

The defense wasn't that good. Pie made a couple above average plays (one that Soriano and Jones certainly would have made, one I'm not so sure about). They also had two defensive problems in the 4th-a bobble that led to an error and then another bobble that led to an inability to get an easy double play. The net effect of Marquis's defense was about zero-and those are about the only plays he needed them, because most of the contact was pop ups and soft ground balls. I do agree with you that if he gives up baserunners like this, he will not pitch many shutouts-he still might pitch well, but a team will break through once or twice with runners on. I just wanted to address this comment, as the defense was not helping Marquis out all day.

The team finished 64 walks behind every other team in the league last year, and 99 walks behind the team in third to last. They had quite a bit of work to do just to get past 2 teams. Plus, look at the teams around them-4 of the 5 teams that are closest to them are division teams. That suggests that either almost the entire division has the same problem (which wasn't the case last year) or else these teams have been playing each other a lot, and there are a great deal of control pitchers inside the division. It could be either one, but it's impossible to tell right now. There is one thing that is true-no matter what the reason for the low walks so far, the Cubs probably do need to get closer to the middle of the league in walks or better in order to really have a good offense.