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In what way is it expensive? From what I've gathered, it's like $5.00 a month more on the cable bill to receive HD signals. Is that not accurate? HD tv's, on the other hand, do seem pretty expensive still. But, I'm hoping to buy one soon since they aren't nearly as expensive as they were when they first came out. Its the TVs/recievers that are the real expensive parts. An extra 10 bucks a month for HD programing is really not that big of a deal. Its not something Im really all that interested in though. I dont think its worth all of the cost involved Well, it's coming sooner than you think then. In the next 10 years most of the TVs in the country will be HD compatible, and when that happens more and more people will go to HD. I'm not that impressed by it either, but it will expand rapidly with the FCC pushing it along, and I do know a lot of people who are impressed and will get it after it becomes more prevalent.

Everyone will eventually be digital. DirecTV plans to have the widest selection of HD fare sooner than the competition, but at some point they'll catch up. Didn't I hear at one point that there is a set time frame for everything to be digital, or am I thinking of something else. Here's a link that describes some of the things. Almost all TV's sold have to be digital compatible now, and in 2009 if things stay the way they are television stations will be prohibited from sending an analog signal. http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-7608_7-1016109-3.html

I saw that people said that Miller's fastball was very straight today-can anyone comment on that? The reason Miller was getting strikeouts last year and in the spring was a fastball that while still pretty slow had tons of movement on it. If it was straight today, it would be very, very hittable. I don't think they are willing to give up on Miller after 1 start either. 1 or 2 more bad starts and they will be ready to pull him. I think they are trying to wait it out until Prior gets back so they don't have to push Guzman from bullpen to starter back to the bullpen in a month's time. Remember, Miller was effective against some major league lineups in the spring (I think he faced the entire Diamondbacks starting lineup, for example) so he's not a guarantee to be horrible every start. They might be able to ride him out for the rest of April, and they still have the option of skipping him once if they need to.

Actually, that's what I didn't understand either. He was averaging about a K per inning both last September and in the spring, and the Brewers are going to strike out a decent amount. It might not help his run totals too much today, but Miller is likely to strike out more than 1 or 2 if he can go at least 5 innings.

never count out the possibility. Look at Orlando (Shaq), San Antonio (Duncan) and Toronto (Bargasdigoasd) Toronto is the only good example out of the 3. They've changed the rules to make it much harder for one of the best records among the lottery teams to win since the Shaq debacle, and San Antonio had one of the worst records (or possibly the worst record-they went 20-62 because David Robinson missed almost the entire season) in the league the year they got the #1 pick.

5 IP, 6H, 2R, 2BB, 5K.

I agree. I think it'll be until at least mid-May or maybe even later until we get a set #2 hitter. I think Lou is going to see what Jones, MM, Izzy, and DeRosa can do in that spot for awhile before picking someone for the spot. I don't think we'll ever see a set hitter for that spot. Lou doesn't seem to like guys who cannot drive the ball well in his 6 or 7 spots. That list includes Izturis, Blanco, Theriot. It fits from his quotes earlier that people are sometimes suited for "either the 2 or the 8 spot". I think from Lou's usage of him that Murton has graduated from that distinction. Now, this means this. If only one of those 3 players are in the game, then that hitter will almost always be the number 8 hitter. If two of them are (like today) than players like Theriot or Izturis move up to number 2. With this setup, Murton will get the most starts at the #2 spot for the season Jones will get the second most ______=major dropoff here Izturis will probably get the third most Theriot the fourth most (only because he won't start that many games even though he'll play a lot). This lineup shuffling of who will be in the #2 will probably stay the entire season based on who else is in the lineup. I don't see DeRosa being a candidate right now because he is behind both Murton and Jones, and on days when Izturis or Theriot is #2 DeRosa will be needed for his pop at the 6 or 7 slot. This is not exactly what I would do, but I think this is what Lou will do based on his usage patterns so far.

I don't know, he seems to do alright in cheap save situations. Didn't he scare us in his lone save this year? He gave up a walk, but that was it. I'm not sure it qualifies as a scare.

It's the 8th. I think I'd rather have Wuertz in there than Howry. I don't know why-as good as Wuertz has been the last 3 years, Howry has been better.

you mean Todd Walker wasn't good with the glove at first base???? :lol: I didn't think Walker was that bad with the glove last year at first. He did a good job of making the routine plays, which is the most important part, but he just doesn't have the range of somebody like Lee to snag those possible doubles down the line or the very underrated long stretch of Lee's that can make the difference on those bang bang plays at first base.

I don't mind leaving Z in either-his pitch count isn't absurdly high, and your ace has to be given a little latitude-this is a low pressure situation to give him some latitude to work it out with a 3 run lead and nobody on. Next batter to get on Carlos will get pulled. BTW, that's one under-rated thing that I think the Cubs missed last year when Lee went down-his defense can really help the pitcher. That's 2 plays resulting in 3 extra outs for the Cubs pitchers just today.

I was just about to post that as much as bad agressive baserunning hurt us the other day, aggressive baserunning really helped us in that inning. Izturis stretching that out into a double caused him to score later in the inning, and Lee running kept in from being an inning-ending double play. I know every time aggressive baserunning goes wrong it will get pointed out, so I did want to point out that it does work in preventing outs sometimes :D

An outfield of Floyd, Soriano, and Ward would be....interesting. I was just thinking that as well-they'd have to give Soriano a motorcycle in CF to cover all the ground he'd need to cover.

That's definitely possible-I never heard Lou mention Ward as a possible OF, but Ward has played there from time to time making it possible.

I doubt it, considering that IIRC correctly neither of them got a game in RF in ST (one of them was supposed to, but it got changed before the game started). My guess is the only options right now in RF are Jacque, Theriot, or possibly DeRosa.

First homerun for one of the top 4 Cubs home run hitters-those are some big runs also at this juncture.

I think he was here opening day-he made a mistake he said and was scheduled to be on the road during the first week.

All of them have at least 1 appearance already-Guzman, Ohman, and Howry have 2.

they are not skipping the 5th starter-they are just going to let Z pitch on normal rest each time. Miller will be pitching tomorrow though, so they aren't skipping his turn.

That was one of those purely accidental check swing contact things-Izzy just didn't get the luck that time for it to go foul.

Apparently WGN's graphics team thinks that Cotts is pitching from that pitch count they just displayed.

I do think Izturis is in the 2nd spot is because of Blanco, which should limit the number of times he actually is in the 2 spot this year. Also, if Theriot, Izturis, and Blanco play together on any days, my guess is that Theriot will be in the 2 spot by Lou's usage patterns-Izturis probably will be in the 2 spot less than 20 times this year. This might have been a good day to give Theriot a start. Sheets doesn't give up many walks, but if anyone can draw one off of him, it might just be Theriot. That's probably true. I actually thought this would have been a good day to get Cedeno a start-they do want to give Izturis a little more rest to make sure he stays healthy, Z's on the mound who has a lot of strikeouts (which makes defensive players less valuable on his days), and Izturis has been terrible against Sheets. IMO, it would have been logical to give Cedeno his start today (even though of course whichever one you pick is likely going to have a tough day). My guess is with Theriot that they just wanted to ride the hot hand with DeRosa, and also Lou seems to want to use Theriot aggressively off of the bench.

I do think Izturis is in the 2nd spot is because of Blanco, which should limit the number of times he actually is in the 2 spot this year. Also, if Theriot, Izturis, and Blanco play together on any days, my guess is that Theriot will be in the 2 spot by Lou's usage patterns-Izturis probably will be in the 2 spot less than 20 times this year.

If Izturis is hitting like this, I have no problem hitting him 2nd normally-however, his numbers against Sheets are really, really bad..so I wish he was down in the lineup today-if there had been another Milwaukee pitcher that Blanco had started against, I would have been fine with him, just not today.

I really, really like it Vance. It puts most of the relevant news into one place, which is something that is really nice to have. If you do decide to do any more of those types of blogs, I will be using it. BTW, I really liked your blog yesterday as well-very fair and balanced.