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Just to nitpick this one part, I'm not sure how shotgun remedies this. The shotgun snap is something that would be a far more difficult snap to handle. It'd be like someone having trouble driving an automatic, so we put them in a stick shift instead... I'm speaking strictly as far as handling the snap here... I'm not really sure that's true. Is it easier to catch a ball tossed to you or to complete a Center/QB exchange? To be honest, I'm not sure. Most of his fumbles in the QB/Center exchange seem to be timing issues and not "grasping the ball" issues. He either pulls away too early, or the ball hits has hands and he closes them late. I don't think shotgun snaps would be hard to handle unless they are bad. Admittidly, that was kind of a reach. You wouldn't think taking a snap from center, a form of a handoff, would be difficult either, but for the sake of argument, maybe catching it is easier. The problem is that if Rex is too worried about the pass rush, or where his receivers are, and he looks up too early.... I'm not dead-set against the shotgun. I just don't think it's going to have much impact. I think used effectively the shotgun can help Grossman have less negative plays (sacks and fumbles especially). It's not going to have much of an impact at all on making positive plays, except for those 3rd and 4-6 yards, which isn't enough to really say that it's making an impact that way.

Just to nitpick this one part, I'm not sure how shotgun remedies this. The shotgun snap is something that would be a far more difficult snap to handle. It'd be like someone having trouble driving an automatic, so we put them in a stick shift instead... I'm speaking strictly as far as handling the snap here... Normally, yes. However, from what I saw of Grossman (about 2/3 of the games last year) he became increasingly concerned about getting out from under the center very quickly. That helped cause some of the QB/center exchange problems by him pulling out a little too early, as well as some of the times where he took a couple steps back and then tripped like he did a couple times in the Super Bowl. I have to wonder if the shotgun, where he can worry about just catching the ball and not having to worry about moving his feet as much will help lessen those situations.

The last time the Cubs faced a left-hander, it was neither of them. If one of them does start, my guess is it will be Floyd.

I've seen a lot more than one game where his reputation didn't really hold up. Blowing a routine play yesterday that would have ended the inning comes to mind. 3 error game. Um..that doesn't exactly help with the lot more than 1 game comment, because that was the one game they were talking about. Izturis has been pretty good defensively other than that 1 game, but not great. I'm actually not sure why that is-he showed a stronger arm in the limited time he was here in August than he's showed so far this year. That limit on the arm caused a play like last night, where with his previous arm he had plenty of time, and now he doesn't (although as I said in another thread, the runner was still out, but Izturis shouldn't have made it that close). If he can get back to the arm he had in August, he'll be fine-I just don't know if he can get back to that or not.

link That doesn't change the fact that the Cubs could've bagged the whole deal the second before getting that slip of paper, the second after getting that slip of paper, or the second after selecting Hamilton. True, but you better have quite a reason to do so-normally, there's not enough of one to make the other GM's in the league upset by breaking an agreement.

our......he could have not walked two people. call me crazy. I totally agree with not walking people. I also think it was obvious Eyre was running out of gas and under normal circumstances, had others been available, he would have been pulled earlier in the inning. Again, credit Cox for bringing in the RH pinch hitters because he knew the Cubs bullpen situation. The ball to Izturis should have ended the inning without a run scoring; He was too lackadaisical. Yup-the guy was actually still out at first, but Izturis made it close enough with his hesitancy that it enabled the umpire to make that call.

Hernandez left with his team down, and his team never tied it up. The team would have had to tie it up or take the lead at some point to make sure Hernandez didn't get the loss, and they never did-they got down 5-0, and they closed it to 5-4 but never got it tied.

Maybe so, but it's pretty obvious that the Cubs don't think very much of Theriot at SS at all. He isn't exactly great defensively in the OF, but he has spent a decent amount of time in both LF and RF, along with 3B and 2B. Even with Izturis and Cedeno playing terribly offensively and being double switched out several times, and with Theriot coming in to every single game, Theriot still hasn't logged an inning at SS the entire season. That tells you that he's not even likely an option there for anything but an emergency situation.

Offseason was OK, but he was at max value last July. Yanks could have had him for the 2006 stretch run plus all of 2007. Arod was in the NY doghouse then too, so I'm sure a Z for Arod swap could have happened. Why would A-Rod have ok'd that deal? He may be getting it pretty bad in NY, but A-Rod's pretty smart in this: he knows that if he agreed to go from a first place to a last place team last year, his reputation as a "loser" might have been cemented forever. He would rather have stuck in NY and had the chance to win the WS last year and change his reputation. Now, maybe, A-Rod might agree to come to the Cubs because of 2 reasons: 1)The Cubs have a decently better roster, which gives A-Rod the hope that he could lead the team to a title, and 2) Lou. A-Rod would almost certainly have declined a trade to last year's Cubs, even if the Yankees had wanted to do it.

Eh? Don't we need to do a ping pong ball blower-thingy first before we know that? We were tied for 5th (or was it 6th?) yesterday. Worst case scenario was we'd wind up at 10th, and we did. Knicks won and everyone else lost. As for the ping pong balls, we know have a lot fewer ping bong balls to be blown... If I understand it correctly, it's either get incredibly lucky and land in the top 3... or wind up 10th (or worse, if a later picking lottery team gets lucky with the ping pong balls). i still think the draft lottery is a sham until they actual draw the ping pong balls live. All this secret drawing, envelope nonsense is crap Wait... you think the idea of Stern telling the refs to call the games in favor of the Heat is ludicrous yet you think the draft lotto is fixed? Seems contradictory to me. Frankly, I think both conspiracy theories are ludicrous. Okay, sham is the wrong word. But there is no reason to hide the drawing. In fact, I think it would be more exciting to see the ping pong balls come out then the super boring envelope reveal There is one big reason-it takes forever. They spit out these 4 number combinations, and these combinations coorespond to different teams. It wouldn't be that exciting to see-okay, 0/1/2/1 has come out-that is-----Boston! Plus, let's say the team with the most combinations wins the first pick. When they draw for the second and third pick, they are likely going to pick those combinations multiple times again-so the balls come out, and the people look at it and go-hmm, no that one has already been used, got to pick again. It would be a mess. I would love to figure out how to do it live, but it would have to require significant changes to what they do to make it work.

I don't think this is very likely, but against the left-hander it is the day to move Pie down the lineup and start Murton and Theriot in the outfield like the last time they faced a left-hander. Maybe a lineup of: Theriot/Murton/Lee/Ramirez/Barrett/DeRosa/Pie/Izturis. I don't mind that Pie is batting leadoff right now, but I hope they pay attention to his minor league splits and move him down accordingly against a pitcher he is likely to struggle against.

I can't see the Yankees wanting to make a deal this early. They have some options that may come back for their pitching rotation, and they know they are going to win enough games anyway to stay afloat-so they don't really have much incentive right now to trade A-Rod. Maybe that will change in June or July, but I doubt they move on it in the next month or month and a half.

I see, that makes much more sense now. Where do you suppose Murton and Jones will hit in the lineup? My guess (again, I could be way off here)-Pie/Murton/Lee/Ramirez/Jones/Barrett/DeRosa/Izturis tonight.

That is, unless someone has shown Lou Jacque's splits. You could be right, but I still see Lou putting in Murton and Floyd over Jones today. Could go either way, we'll see. The left-hander is not until tomorrow (responding to your comment about Jacque's splits). It was supposed to be today, but it's not until tomorrow now. If Lou cares about the batter/pitcher matchups, he won't play Floyd today-he's 2 of 14 against this pitcher. So you it is reasonable to see any of the three combinations, but I think the most likely is Murton and Jones.

I thought about that, but I was kind of thinking that perhaps Lou might look at Jones' 1-6 game yesterday, plus the defensive lapse, and choose to give him a rest. That is, unless they're trying to show him off to some scouts. If they were thinking just about yesterday, I doubt Lou would hold Murton's 0 for 5 with a defensive lapse any higher than Jones going 1 for 6 with a defensive lapse. Anyway, I bet Lou doesn't really care about one day. It will probably be Murton and Jones again tonight, and then either Murton/Floyd tomorrow or Murton/Theriot. Looking ahead, Jones will likely play against Looper (he is 3/4 against him) and Murton against Reyes (2 AB's against him, both were home runs).

BTW also, the reporter was the only one said that he would move to left field. If you look at what Soriano said, he said he would move to either left or right-the only time he mentioned left specifically was when he said he played left last year, which simply meant that he was willing to switch positions like he did from left to center this year.

Murton must be sitting on the bench thinking Soriano considers him chopped liver. I like the fact that he's taking to and looking after felix. He shouldn't be treating other teammates like they're nothing in order to do it though. Let the coach figure out who plays where and when, quit trying to play coach yourself, Sori. You're a newb on this team and you haven't done jack to earn your pay here yet, so in the mean time, sit down and shut up. Lou asked Soriano if he wanted to move to left field a couple of days ago. Soriano said he didn't need to, but now he's clarifying and saying that he will if Lou wants him to. I don't exactly seem the harm in that.

The cubs are never fine when Ohman can go. Especially the way Lou has been using him. Well, I meant more that nobody is hopefully going to blow out their arms from overuse tonight. Hopefully Ohman can just be used as a LOOGY tonight, although I bet he'll have to go an inning. It all depends if Carlos goes 5, 6, 7, or 8.

If someone has pointed this out before, I missed it, but.... What kind of weather does Lou Piniella plan on playing in if the Cubs make the playoffs? The average temperature is higher in October than in April, and even more importantly the wind doesn't blow in nearly as much. That allows the Cubs power hitters to hit it out of the ballpark, rather than watching them blast the ball and then watch in blow back onto the field of play like they did multiple times yesterday.

Somebody brought up a good point-since Ohman would have to go on revocable waivers, I don't think another pitcher could join the roster until he passed through those waivers. Therefore, there's nothing that can be done with Ohman. The other two candidates for being sent down are Cotts and Wuertz, and they are pitching too well to be sent down for 10 days. The Cubs will be fine if they are careful tonight or tomorrow. Erye can go an inning or two. Ohman can go. Everyone else could possibly go 1 tonight, although anybody who does is definitely unavailable tomorrow. If the Cubs can get 6 out of Z, they should be fine-especially with Hill going tomorrow.

The bad zone didn't affect Miller's pitching performance-it caused him to walk a guy or 2 in the 3rd that should have been struck out, but he got out of that inning without any damage. That's the only time it was a big deal, and the ump was very consistent-a tight zone for both sides.

Not the losses-just this loss. The offense Sunday and the offense yesterday were two completely different things. Between the 6th and the 9th, the Cubs offense hit 5 hard hit low line drives-1 directly at the first baseman, 2 directly at the shortstop, and 2 hit directly at the 3rd baseman. In extra innings, the Cubs hit 4 balls that would have been home runs on any average day-none of them left the park. Could they have won the game even with all that bad luck? Yes-but yesterday, the Cubs were pretty unlucky-while Sunday had a ball or two that were unlucky, but most of it was simply a horrible offensive performance. Is that luck, or is that the reason those people play those positions -- because that's where most of the balls are hit? The people play those spots so that they can cover the available ground from right to left, not necessarily because that's exactly where the most balls are hit-of course I think you know that :D

So, I just saw the Sportscenter highlights of the game. They didn't refer to Pie by the pronunciation that seems obvious, but neither did they do it the correct way. Instead, it was two syllables-the first syllable was Pie, and then they added the syllable that is actually at the end of his name, the a sound. so it's Pie-a. It sounds kind of ridiculous, and he said it at least 4 times during the highlights.

Well, he'll get a chance on Sunday to see what he can do on 4 days rest. The Cubs cannot afford to give him consistent starts after that if he doesn't pitch well on Sunday.

Not the losses-just this loss. The offense Sunday and the offense yesterday were two completely different things. Between the 6th and the 9th, the Cubs offense hit 5 hard hit low line drives-1 directly at the first baseman, 2 directly at the shortstop, and 2 hit directly at the 3rd baseman. In extra innings, the Cubs hit 4 balls that would have been home runs on any average day-none of them left the park. Could they have won the game even with all that bad luck? Yes-but yesterday, the Cubs were pretty unlucky-while Sunday had a ball or two that were unlucky, but most of it was simply a horrible offensive performance.