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I agree with much that has been said here already. First, the pitching. I believe that the two lefties (Marshall and Hill) have the inside track on possible rotation spots, with Guzman a little behind. I think Marmol could really use some more seasoning-he has a lot of great potential and this is still early in his actual pitching career. I think he should start in the minors next year, and would come up when he has some more command than he showed for much of his time in Wrigley. O'Malley will be sent back to Triple A-the injury probably ruined his one chance he had with the luck of the way he was able to be brought up. Mateo should head back to the minors at the start of next year also-although he has the most ability to change that opinion with a great end to the year, because of the lack of evidence at the major league level for him either way. For the hitters-we should improve at 2B (hopefully Soriano) and start Murton on a regular basis in LF. I don't mind playing Pagan against some of the tougher right handed hitters though-right now Murton is playing about 2 out of every 3 games, and I think he should be playing at least 5 out of every 6 nex t year in LF if we don't sign anybody else to play LF. Pagan-4th OF, 5th if we do what we need to do and sign a platoon partner for Jacque-if we don't, we need to use him as that platoon partner sometimes, even though that would not be his best use or anywhere close to ideal. Cedeno-backup at the SS and 2B positions, traded if we can get any decent value for him-Theriot would then become our backup at both positions, otherwise I can't see him having a place on the team-for the simple fact that the bench will probably be 5 players again, and that should be backup catcher/platoon partner/Pagan/Cedeno-Theriot/?. Both slots cannot be filled by Theriot and Cedeno-we need someone who can back up at the corner infield positions.

I was a little shocked about this myself. Isn't it his job to know most of these things? I think the Cubs farm system is below average-but with the responses today, I don't know how Sickels could possibly know that with the answers he gave today-basically, it appears that he has only taken a cursory glance at best at the Cubs this year. At least that's what I got out of it-I was very disappointed.

And that's not even getting into the whole question of whether Maddux ever threw 167 pitches in a game. Well, I can somewhat answer this part of the question. Yahoo Splits has 41 games where he threw 121 or more-4 more games where he threw 136 or more, and 1 game he threw 151+ pitches in his career. It lists 4 hits and 3 runs, none of the runs earned for Maddux after pitch 151 in that game-so it was likely that he threw 160 pitches or more, making me believe that the 167 number is probably correct-or at least close to it.

I wouldn't be surprised to see Rusch get O'Malley's next start, and I wouldn't be too upset by that. Give him 1 start before the 31st, and cross your fingers that it is the 1 out of 6 that he is pretty good-and then maybe you could trade him.

Congratulations to Ceda! He certainly looks promising so far.

vs What was the game situation of that Aramis game when he did that? Was it the same as Theriot's?

I'd hardly call a bloop single and a solid hit falling apart-and even if it is, the pitcher has done better 2 of the 3 times Larry has visited the mound (a much higher percentage than normal, that's for sure) And a walk... The walk was before Larry visited the mound..Larry went to the mound to tell Howry how to pitch to the pinch hitter who got the bloop single, so the walk cannot be blamed on him.

I'd hardly call a bloop single and a solid hit falling apart-and even if it is, the pitcher has done better 2 of the 3 times Larry has visited the mound (a much higher percentage than normal, that's for sure)

Murton may not have hit many home runs this season, but he has hit some in some pretty key spots, that's for sure.

Well, whatever Dusty says about that move, he'll get criticized tomorrow. If he says that, people will say he's favoring the people he likes. If he says he made a bad mistake, people will say he shouldn't call out the young players like the Theriot thread today. So, expect Dusty to get criticized tomorrow-I hope of the options though he says that it was a mistake, because that is the truth-and a bad one. Whatever he says, it won't be as direct and won't be as much of a "call out" as it was to Theriot. I look foward to reading the Sun Times tomorrow morning. If Dusty doesn't critizize Bynum the same as Theriot..he is a downright racist. It's a little different situation. Bynum got picked off at first with 1 out. Theriot got caught trying to steal third with 2 outs and the team's best power hitter up. I agree with this-Theriot made a decision to steal (which was a terrible decision) while Bynum made a bad concentration lapse-both are bad, but they are very different scenarios.

As I was just saying on the game thread, what can Dusty say about Bynum's play that won't get criticized tomorrow? If he dismisses it as a regular play of the game, he will get criticized for favortism. If he says it was a mistake, then people will say he is biased against youngsters just like they said today. Basically, there is nothing he can say about a move like this that will be accepted.

Well, whatever Dusty says about that move, he'll get criticized tomorrow. If he says that, people will say he's favoring the people he likes. If he says he made a bad mistake, people will say he shouldn't call out the young players like the Theriot thread today. So, expect Dusty to get criticized tomorrow-I hope of the options though he says that it was a mistake, because that is the truth-and a bad one.

Yep. I had to say it. I actually thought to myself when Guzman threw the 3-0 strike to Howard that if he threw him another good pitch, it was going to be a home run-I almost wanted him to try to throw a breaking ball in that spot. did howard hit that hr on a 3-0 pitch? No, I meant I thought that when I saw him throw the 3-0 strike right down the middle...the 3-1 pitch was the pitch Howard hit the home run.

It's nice to see Coats used both games so far as a pinch hitter-he has struck out both times, but it doesn't look like he will waste away on the bench.

That will probably be the end for Guzman with him coming up in the order this inning. A very good outing for him-the key for him has always been throwing good strikes early in counts to set up his breaking pitch, and other than most of the 1st and a couple of batters later he did an excellent job with that tonight. This is something he can build on to hopefully have many more starts like that in the major leagues.

Yep. I had to say it. I actually thought to myself when Guzman threw the 3-0 strike to Howard that if he threw him another good pitch, it was going to be a home run-I almost wanted him to try to throw a breaking ball in that spot.

Why? We'll reach 5 pages before the end of the game :D

I know-of course the night where we decide to be very patient is the night that the wide strike zone has already caught 2 people looking.

Whatever Rothschild told Guzman in the 1st, I wish he would say it to all our pitchers-Guzman has pitched great since that point.

When's the last time the Cubs took the first 7 pitches of the ballgame?

First, he's been hitting .249 in the leadoff spot, not "under .230." But who cares about batting average? He's got a .341 OBP when htting leadoff this year, which is just .10 lower than his overall OBP this season. He's only hit second in the order in 14 games this season. 14 games isn't enough to draw any meaningful conclusions from his stats. Did you know that Neifi Perez had a .263 OBP in the 1 spot but a .375 OBP in the 8 spot last year? Jose Macias had a .270 OBP hitting first, but also had a .375 OBP hitting eighth. Matt Murton had just a .310 OBP hitting #7, but a .615 OBP hitting #8. Nomar had a .222 OBP hitting #3, but he had a .386 OBP hitting #5. Aramis was just at .231 hitting #3, but he was at .383 hitting #5. Burnitz had a .361 OBP when hitting cleanup, but just a .238 OBP when hitting #7. Barrett had a .431 OBP when hitting 5th, but a .241 OBP when hitting 7th. Stats based on position in the batting order are next to worthless if not completely worthless. The thing is-it's not just the stats that concern people. He just moved to the leadoff spot this year, and it is certainly possible he has just had a down year that coincidentally came with his move to the leadoff spot. Here's some quotes from Giles from August the 10th: And from later in the article: One more His slugging is down over 60 points this year. Just a change in the lineup order and a down year together might be coincidence, but I think there is a much greater chance of a link when the player himself says he is not very comfortable in that spot. I still like Giles, and would be fine if we got him if we didn't get Soriano to play 2nd-but I think batting him 1st would not bring the best results we could have from him. Edit: Here's the source on that article http://www.macon.com/mld/macon/sports/baseball/mlb/atlanta_braves/15238161.htm

Actually, Dusty did comment on that one-he called the Pierre steal from the dugout-so he can't exactly criticize Pierre since it was Dusty's fault. His comments were posted the next day at the end of that particular game thread.

How does that get scored for his OBP?

Well-certainly shaky there, but good job for O'Malley to only give up 1 there after getting into that jam.

I thought calling O'Malley up eliminated the open spot (since he wasn't on the 40-man), unless there were two spots previously open. If it is full, however, they could open a spot by transferring Wood to the 60-day DL. Wouldn't the Neifi trade open that spot back up again though? I think that's the spot that Coats took.