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It doesn't sound like it's permanent for now. It just sounds like they are going to play him in left to ease him back into the lineup and give more time for the hamstring. If Jones is not traded, my guess is that Soriano will be back in center in another week or two.

Cedeno is 2-3 against Reyes-maybe he can figure out a way to get a hit today.

I believe that Murton is a good player, but he really needs to take pitches. Enough with the first pitch swinging crap. more fun with stats: Murton is seeing 3.8 pitches per plate appearance compared to 3.7 last year. It seems bad right now because a few instances stick out, but for the most part he's being about as patient as normal. The issue is that he's not getting hits. Plus the aforementioned bad timing with his 1-pitch ABs. While that may be true, I think it's more of a situational thing. It seems like he's swinging at the first pitch when there's either RISP, or in the 9th and we're down by one and need baserunners...those kind of things. It could be false perception, but that's what I've been noticing. That said I still want him to get playing time because I think he's got a lot of potential. Right, which is why I included the bad timing bit. I agree that it certainly *feels* like he's seeing fewer pitches (much like it *feels* like the cubs bullpen sucks), but he's really just timed his 1-pitch ABs poorly. I think this is where pitches per plate appearance and patience might be somewhat exclusive as well. For example, on Opening Day Murton saw 3.75 pitches per plate appearance. I don't think anyone would call him anywhere near patient that day though, as he struck 3 times, at least twice on terrible pitches. So it's not just that he's swinging early in the count-but he's swinging at many more balls then he used to as well.

He'd have known the answer to that last year if the Cubs' management weren't so incompetent. I don't know about that-when I was there for the 2003 playoff series, I had people tell me that they didn't realize Kerry Wood was good and they wondered if this Prior guy that was going in game 3 was any good.

Part of this I think is how late Floyd signed. At the time Ward signed, he was signed as the LH power bat and the key pinch-hitter for the team. When Floyd came available, the club felt that he would be an asset even though he does take away some of Ward's value to the club.

Lou started Theriot 1 game at SS in ST, and I don't think he played another inning there after that game. He does seem very unwilling to put Theriot at SS, considering that Theriot has spent time at 4 other positions and no time at SS, even in situations where it would have made more sense to put him in there (for example, in one game somebody pinch-hit for Izturis, and instead of Theriot switching to SS they took out another player to put Cedeno in). So until I see any other indications to the contrary, I'm not even considering Theriot at SS as something that management would do, no matter how much of an upgrade he might be.

I think the club will have to hang on to Cedeno a while longer simply out of necessity. It doesn't appear like they feel any of the others can play SS, and they will need a backup SS somewhere on the bench so they can pinch-hit for Izturis. There isn't really any help from the minors that the organization would bring up. If the poor play of both Izturis and Cedeno continues, I can see a trade for a SS happening in June or July. It won't be A-Rod (IMO) or probably any of the other great SS's, but somebody average to above average will become available. At that time, they can demote Cedeno and keep Izturis in the backup role until they let him go after the season. Unfortunately, the team will probably just have to tread water on the SS issue until then, so hopefully one of Izturis or Cedeno will be able to pick up the pace a little bit.

...has given up 3 runs or less to the Mets, Brewers, Pirates, and Cubs now. The league hasn't been able to hit him so far-maybe they will be able to their second time around. Right now he's pitching very well though-he has only given up 3 runs in his last 20 innings.

Gameday has him at 29 through 2.

Nonsensical. DeRosa and Floyd should be switched. They don't want to put Floyd and Jones back to back-too easy to put the teams best left-hander in when it comes time for the two of them later in the game. So go: Theriot DeRosa Lee Floyd ARam Jones Blanco Izturis I'd be fine with that, although so far this season things seem to be switched. DeRosa has been great power, horrible OBP. I wouldn't want to see the lineup they have today as a long-term lineup, but I don't think it's that bad either. Well, I'd prefer if Murton were in there and batting 2nd to give us better OBP at the top (I know he hasn't been great in his 30 ABs, but I think he's more likely to be around the .365 he's been for the first 500 or so ABs of his career than the .300 he's been in the last 30 ABs). But I think DeRosa is better in the 2 spot than Floyd. Heck, Jones would probably be better than Floyd for the 2 spot. Why though? Floyd's OBP against RHP is just fine for the 2 spot. Even last year, in his horrible injured year, he had a 342 against right-handers. Before that, he was regularly above 370 OBP against RHP.

Nonsensical. DeRosa and Floyd should be switched. They don't want to put Floyd and Jones back to back-too easy to put the teams best left-hander in when it comes time for the two of them later in the game. So go: Theriot DeRosa Lee Floyd ARam Jones Blanco Izturis I'd be fine with that, although so far this season things seem to be switched. DeRosa has been great power, horrible OBP. I wouldn't want to see the lineup they have today as a long-term lineup, but I don't think it's that bad either.

Nonsensical. DeRosa and Floyd should be switched. They don't want to put Floyd and Jones back to back-too easy to put the teams best left-hander in when it comes time for the two of them later in the game.

Do you have the whole lineup, or just this? So does this mean Murton or Pie sits. Dang, why does Blanco have to play? That's all I know right now. Murton could be in LF. We shall see... Where'd you hear/see this? Wouldn't make much sense to let Pie play vs. the LHP last night and then give him today off. Sounds like a Dusty move. LOL, Lou must feel Jacque will do better against Looper. Plus, if they want to trade Jones he will have to play... In a year where anyone can take this division I would hate to give away a bunch of guys shopping a guy. I assume you mean games the word I'm bolding, and the only way that the Cubs would be sacrificing games is if you think that Pie is better at playing against RHP than Jacque is-which is not definite at all, and Pie's 2-11 against RHP so far doesn't help in that matter either. Not to mention that Jacque had a better OPS against RHP in the majors than Pie did in the minors last year.

Do you have the whole lineup, or just this? So does this mean Murton or Pie sits. Dang, why does Blanco have to play? That's all I know right now. Murton could be in LF. We shall see... Where'd you hear/see this? Wouldn't make much sense to let Pie play vs. the LHP last night and then give him today off. Sounds like a Dusty move. Pie or Jones are the only two possibilities for CF, and they hit LHP the same way-so it didn't really matter which one played last night. I guess they could have played together today and only Jones last night, but that's not that big of a difference with one of the other OF's playing today, if the LF turns out to be Murton or Floyd.

I disagree that Pie is an automatic out against LHP. Nobody has really seen him enough to determine if that is the case or not. He held his own well last night and hit the ball well twice, the ball just never found a hole. I agree with Brenly, the best thing to do in regard to Pie is to play him everyday against every starting pitcher and let him adjust. One thing Pie has going for him is his speed. He is going to get alot of hits merely based upon his ability to get to 1st base in a hurry. From everything I've seen from so far, he deserves a shot to stick for an extended period of time. His defense alone is a huge improvement over the other OF on the roster. I'm not basing that off of seeing him but his minor league numbers, which indicates that he's not nearly as effective against left-handers. Maybe an automatic out is harsh though, because most of the loss is the complete lack of slugging from the left side. Here are his splits from last year: Against RHP-.293/.349/.500 Against LHP-.256/.322/.327 He only had 8 XBH in 156 AB's against left-handers. Also, in the winter league Pie struggled mightily, and one of the reasons given was that they were trying to bat him against a higher number of LHP and that helped cause his horrible winter. Maybe Pie will be better against LHP as the years progress, but right now he is a bad option in the lineup against them.

I think the Cubs should hold off on that deal for now. If a good deal comes along, don't hesitate to do it, but I'd rather hold off for a couple reasons. 1)I think Jacque's value will be higher a little closer to the deadline. 2) If Pie comes up and plays center field, he is an automatic out against LHP, unless Soriano relents again and plays different positions based on the day (right field against RHP, center against LHP). Pie has actually shown us a lot over the last couple days-more than I expected from a limited sample. In that, he's shown his talent, but his flaws have also been pretty evident. I wouldn't mind if he stayed in the majors, but I don't think he's good enough right now for me to really mind if he's sent down either.

Not that the Pacers have made great deals recently, but the Bulls would either have to a) give up more or b) take on Tinsley or another bad contract along with O'Neal for the Pacers to accept that deal. That said, as a Pacer fan, I'd be very interested in some incarnation of O'Neal to the Bulls for young players/draft picks. Tyrus, Duhon, 10th pick for JO? I would absolutely do that. I think the Pacers would too. The problem with Nocioni as the centerpiece (and he was in the proposed deal) is that a) he basically plays the same position as the Pacers last two draft picks and most promising young players (Danny Granger and Shawn Williams) and b) when trading the face of a franchise which O'Neal is, you have to sell your fans on it and Nocioni isn't a sexy enough player I'm afraid. That said, I like him and would love to have him on the Pacers. I think the pacers would go for lessthan that. Just to get rid of JO as their max player. I really think Bird and Walsh would like to blow that team up and start over. I think they probably would take less than that too, mainly because I consider Tyrus Thomas a lot. I haven't looked at how salaries match up or anything, but I still think the Nocioni-Duhon-pick pot would have to be sweetened in some way. I agree that Duhon-Nocioni-pick is too low, and Tyrus is probably too much. My guess is that the Pacers would be demanding a guard anyway-they want Diogu to be their future post threat, and Granger and Williams are their wing players. They need a dominant center, but they need some great guards first. Looking at the salaries of the Bulls though, I'm not sure how any deal could possibly be done. The Bulls just don't have any players making enough money right now to make a deal realistically work.

Consistantly very very above average. Yes. Consitantly excellent? No. Now I'm not gonna argue Z doesn't have the STUFF. Because he does. The problem is is control and walks. The ONLY year where I think he has had stellar stuff, and stellar results, is in 2004. ERA === 03 - 3.11 04 - 2.75 05 - 3.26 06 - 3.41 This year is going to be very important for Zambrano. Is he going to continue to trend downward? Or shape things back up? So far it's not looking so good. He's going to have to have a couple more shutout games than previous years to end up in the low 3's of ERA. There are 150 starting slots in MLB. Zambrano has been in the top 15 of ERA each of the last 4 years, and top 10 3 times. Top 15 would be the top half of the "aces" in the league, and for him to hit that all 4 times says that he has been consistently excellent. Will he maintain that this year? I don't know. In fact, I just checked-Zambrano is the only pitcher in the majors who pitched the innings required to qualify in ERA and was in the top 15 each of the last 4 years-the only one.

The full batter/pitcher matchups will probably be posted later, but I'll just post a few highlights. Obviously, nobody has that many at-bats against Looper always being in the bullpen. Barrett is 7/11 with 2 2B and 1 BB Ramirez is 2/11 DeRosa is 1/7 Lee is 1/5 with 3 K Jones 3/4 Izturis 2/4 On the other side, the batter/pitcher matchups are going to be messed up all series long with Lilly in the AL for so long, Marquis a Cardinal for the last 3 years, and Miller's appearances being years ago. Here's a couple highlights though for Lilly: Eckstein: 4/22 Spezio-2/13 Encarnacion-4/11 Kennedy-3/8 Pujols-2/6, 2 K

This is Ward's 3rd IBB of the season already.

I would agree with you, but I think Aramis always made those type of plays. I remember saying in 2003 or 2004 that Aramis would make every tough play look easy and botch some of the routine ones. Now, he's much better at the routine and can still make the tough play.

Mostly youngsters and some career journeymen (Yates in this group). Their payroll has dropped drastically the past few years giving them the need to try to catch lightning in the bottle. well clearly no one goes to their games anymore They haven't in many years. Braves fans became spoiled with success after 14 straight years of playoffs and basically quite showing up during the season. They just waited until the postseason. didn't they also not sell out playoff games? Sometimes, they didn't sell out even playoff games. It was pretty easy to get tickets for the Cubs/Braves playoff series a few years back, that was for sure.

Mostly youngsters and some career journeymen (Yates in this group). Their payroll has dropped drastically the past few years giving them the need to try to catch lightning in the bottle. well clearly no one goes to their games anymore No one was going to their games the last few years they were winning division titles either. The fans got really, really spoiled and just stopped coming during the regular season entirely.

I wouldn't mind if he went another inning-he doesn't appear to be tired at all. I would have people ready if he got into a little trouble though and pull him if a couple runner got on.

Cedno has it. Three hits from him and he he still sucks. Three runs off of Hill and he jumps quite a bit. Both of those things could happen before the end of the year. Well, I know Cedeno will be lower by the end of the year-I'm just saying right now. They are both 0.50 or lower right now.