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He's always hit. He hit at every minor league level and he hit his rookie year and the beginning of last year. The time he struggled last year was the only time he's struggled in his career. He was bound to break out of it. Just wanted to compare Murton's minor league stats to his major league stats: MI: .309 .380 .451 831 MLB: .303 .370 .462 832 The guy seems pretty consistent. Just let him play and you'll end up with a .300/.370/.450'ish guy, who might improve past that. Both of the years in the majors have been skewed statistically though-Murton was put in situations he could succeed when he was playing part of the time in 05 and 06, and he often sat against pitchers that he would likely struggle against. So in projecting a year for him that would have to be taken into account.

From taking a glance through the batter/pitcher matchups this week, my guess is that Murton will get the majority of starts (only updated through Thursday), mostly because Floyd has struggled against a couple right-handers that the Cubs will face this week, as well as the Cubs will face a left-hander on Wednesday I believe. I'm not sure about the start tomorrow though, in fact I'm leaning towards Floyd getting that one. I definitely think Murton will start getting some more starts here soon though. This past week has just been a couple pitching matchups that were favorable to Floyd, and then the club wanting Floyd's power when Ramirez went out, plus Murton not being able to get a start that he certainly would have gotten because of the snowed out game.

I found the note about Murton and Bynum. For all the talk about Bynum (the fantasy note was dated June 15th) he started 3 out of the next 10 games before he got hurt, while Murton started 6 of those games. I don't think Murton ever got benched for Bynum.

Give me a break. Dusty started Murton 122 times in left field last season. That's more than 75% of the time !! By "young guy", I wasn't just referring to Murton. And besides, when Murton was struggling last year, thats exactly what Dusty did. He barely played him and gave him scattered at bats. Nice attempt at a save there...... but there were only 3 instances all season where Murton did not start for more than 2 consecutive games. Twice he sat for 3 games in a row, and once for 4. The kid got over 500 PAs last year. Now..... you wanna talk about Cedeno ?? What are you talking about? "Dusty's method of helping out the young guy" is an obvious reference to Dusty's management of young players. If you want to take it as me only referring to Murton so you can pull out your obscure stats, then so be it. And where I'm specifically referring to Murton is when he was struggling last year. What are the dates for those times when Murton sat for multiple games? Is it during the stretch where he struggled? If so, then what I am saying is true. Dusty has a history of poorly handling young players and Murton was one such example. I don't know how you can prove it was poorly handled. Murton was struggling, Dusty sat him down for a few games and then platooned him for a while, and when Murton started to hit well again. Some people could even make the argument that Murton sitting down was the best thing for him in order for him to get back on his game. Even if you don't want to go that far though, I certainly don't see how it hurt him last year-if it had, he should have continued to slump with the lack of playing time. That's not what happened though.

Through the end of games on June 4th, Murton had started all but 4 games through the first 2 months of the season.

I would agree. I hope that they think that one of the two can play RF defensively because as you said this is a perfect game to pair them together. If they don't feel that way, then this is one of the few games where I don't care which of the LF's gets the start (as opposed to me wanting Murton to start on Friday and Floyd on Saturday).

he did take it away from someone. when he was starting at the end of last year. shouldn't floyd have to take it from him? Yep this is typical cub crap. Like when Corey had to earn at bats from Damon Buford. Or when we had to let Fred McGriff get his 30 homers even at Choi's expense. But, at least this year they wrapped the turd up by letting us all think Murton was going to play by giving him all the Spring ABs and the opening day start. First off, this is not a straight platoon like everyone feared. That alone proves they value Murton that they would bench a guy like Floyd against a right-handed pitcher where he has been so good over his career. Second, your other situations are not great analogies. Buford was not a good ballplayer when Patterson was trying to take at-bats away. The McGriff/Choi situation happened in September to a team that was hopelessly out of the race-if they had been in the race, there would have been no problems with McGriff starting everyday because he was still having a very good season that year. This is a team who wants to put out their best lineup everyday. Against a decent amount of right-handers, that might mean Cliff Floyd plays, because he has been so great against right-handed pitching over the years. Now, like I said I would have put Murton in against Harang and have a 5-5 start split so far instead of 6-4. The fact that it's only 6-4 when they have faced one left-hander is telling though-they want to get Murton at-bats, even if it has to come against right-handers. Murton will end up with more PA's than Floyd at the end of the year.

What does that mean exactly? Jones in the three spot and no Murton yet again. It wasn't a mistake though yesterday. Jones had 2 hits from the 3 spot, and Floyd had 2 hits as well. Now-I wanted Murton to play yesterday because of his numbers against Harang. If you look at their numbers against Arroyo though, it was pretty obvious that Floyd was going to play-he had a hit and 2 balls hit hard last week when the Cubs played the Reds against Arroyo. Also, the team still has faced a much smaller sample of left-handers than they really should have so far (based on last year's numbers, they should have faced 2 more left-handers so far than they actually have). If Murton continues to even get 33% of the starts against right-handers like he has so far, he will play more than Floyd will on the season when the number of left-handers evens themselves out.

What does that mean exactly?

Well, it's possible DeRosa will be back, unless there was something I didn't hear tonight.

He definitely could do that-I was just referencing the idea of him pinch-hitting for Jones. I bet Murton will still pinch-hit sometime later in this game. Edit: Oh, I understand now. You were responding to the same thing. Never mind :D

He can't be unfortunately-the club doesn't trust Murton or Floyd in RF, and Theriot or DeRosa are already playing positions that nobody can come in for them. Jones cannot really be replaced other than an emergency.

How is Lou responsible for the fact that freakin Ohman couldn't throw a strike. So who made the decision to put Ohman in? He should have put in Wuertz to begin with. I'm sure everyone on here would have made that call. Hatteberg can't hit left-handers. If you're facing Jacque Jones, do you put in your LOOGY, or a better right-handed reliever?

What have the Reds been doing? They were doing great with the bat on their shoulder, and when Wuertz came in they swung at the first 5 and 6 out of 7 pitches, a few which according to Gameday were out of the zone. They are almost letting us out of the inning thankfully.

I think we only have 4 steals-the Soriano one was credited as advancing on a WP.

In the 4 games Murton started, Theriot came in for him only once. The other game that Murton came out of the game, it was so Jones could come in during the later innings. I don't get how Theriot is hurting Murton much whatsoever.

Ryan Theriot is playing 3B today because he is the only player on the entire roster with Aram and DeRosa hurt that can play 3B.

Well, I guess for those that thought the second backup infielder was completely useless, this is the scenario where the team needs him. I definitely didn't want his need proven this early though-especially since the lineup will likely be something like Soriano/Theriot/Lee/Jones/Barrett/Murton/Izturis/Cedeno (5/6 may be switched, 7/8 may be switched, or Theriot/Izturis may possibly be switched).

Well, that's interesting. My guess is that Theriot comes in at 2B and moves into the 2 spot. Jones moves up to 4, Barrett to 5, DeRosa playing 3B to 6th, and Murton to 7th (although those 5/6/7 hitters could really be in any order).

I'm not sure we'll ever know the cause of Prior's injuries for sure. There are simply too many variables. The overuse is a very reasonable explanation for at least part of his injuries. He also has had a couple injuries that he came back very fast from in 03 and 05-if they didn't find everything that was wrong (especially in 05) it is certainly possible that it was just a matter of time after the injury before his arm gave out. There also is the minor injury/changed mechanics argument. Do I think Prior is injured because of the overuse? No, not necessarily directly. Do I believe that the overuse contributed to the extent of his injuries and his inability to heal as well when he was otherwise injured? Yes. It's just hard to know for sure how much all the factors came into the equation.

No, if he doesn't get ejected at all this year I win-that's what I chose.

Samardzija is a ways behind Veal and Gallagher, IMO. He's still very raw. He still has a lot of work to do on his secondary pitches. He's mostly throwing fastballs so far. I would agree, but I can't see him as any more than 2 years behind. Veal and Gallagher might be 2008 ready, and Samardzija is in deep trouble as a prospect if he's not ready by 2010. That's one other reason why I think Veal or Gallagher will be traded-because if they are ready that soon, then they are going to run into a logjam, and there's almost no way the Cubs would allow 3/5 of their 2008 rotation to be Guzman/Veal/Gallagher.

I for one would be surprised if Veal/Samardzija/Gallagher were ever in the major league rotation together for any length of time for a couple of reasons. One, the likelihood is that at least one of them will stop being so highly rated, if it is because of injury or simply ineffectiveness. Even if that isn't the case though, they are coming up a little too close together to all make a rotation of a team like the Cubs. If all 3 of them are being projected well by the end of the year, I think one of them will be traded (likely Veal or Gallagher) simply because the Cubs would not want to guarantee spots in the rotation for so many unproven players in such a short period of time, highly touted or not.

This is Colvin's first game batting since game number 1 right? If so, that's a great very, very early start-5 for 6 with 2 SB and 1 HR. No, he played both games yesterday, going 1/7 with a double and K. Oh-well, oops. 6/13 doesn't sound quite as good as 5/6, but it's still very good...that's a .462/.462/.846 line so far. Again though, it can change in the blink of an eye at this point.

This is Colvin's first game batting since game number 1 right? If so, that's a great very, very early start-5 for 6 with 2 SB and 1 HR.