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When Castro came up Lou said that Fontenot would continue to be the backup at SS because they wanted Theriot to become fully acclimated at 2B without switching back and forth. Good thing that Lou will be gone after this year at the latest, otherwise, this could spell the beginning of Castros journey to Baltimore for a PTBNL. Isn't this the first day off Starlin's had since being called up? I wouldn't read a thing into it. He didn't start either yesterday or today. Lou said that because he ended up playing 4 innings after entering yesterday's game due to it going 13 innings that he wanted to give him a real day off today.

When Castro came up Lou said that Fontenot would continue to be the backup at SS because they wanted Theriot to become fully acclimated at 2B without switching back and forth.

Although facing the winner of Paraguay-Japan has to be an improvement over facing the Netherlands in the quarterfinals isn't it? Obviously if Spain wins the group today then Portugal will wish they had tried a little harder against Brazil. But if they avoid Spain somehow that lower right quadrant seems to be a very good place.

When I think of baseball player, I think of players like Colvin, etc. I would give some other names, but then I would get crucified for putting those guys' names in the same sentence with Colvin. My point with the "baseball player" remark was that when I look at Colvin, I see a young player who is eager for his opportunity, but still goes out and hits in a lesser role. And when he does start, he's got a hop in his step and it is just fun to watch him out there. I don't really get the same vibe from Kosuke, that's all. You asked if Kosuke cares. What would make you think Kosuke doesn't care? He has done well when he comes in as a pinch hitter. He's been excellent in the clutch. He asks a man to come halfway around the world just to help him with his swing. If he didn't care, would he do any of these things? Why would he even be playing in America in the first place if not for the challenge? Also he's been continually fine tuning his swing which is not something that many veterans like to do. Fukudome seems to do things in a very professional manner. That's a very mature approach to take. Just because he doesn't wear his emotions on his sleeve doesn't mean he doesn't care. It is pretty obvious he does from all the work he puts in, the fact that he's ready for all situations, and the occasional emotion he shows when an important call does go against him.

Right now they're in the same position the US faced. Score and win the group, tie and go home. Italy even with 2 goals can't win the group unless Paraguay loses as far as I can tell. Italy would need 3 goals in the second half to win the group without help. Edit: Oops. Realized you were talking about New Zealand. Sorry.

Ghana would finish 2nd with a Germany and Serbia win today which is one of the more likely scenarios. BTW, the odds on 538 has the US playing Serbia 48% of the time, Ghana 29%, Germany 16.5%, and Australia 6%. If Germany and Serbia win, the US plays the tiebreak loser of Germany and Serbia. If Germany and Australia win, then US plays Ghana If Ghana and Serbia win, the US plays Serbia. If Ghana and Australia win, the US plays Germany, unless Australia wins like 8-0. If Serbia wins and Ghana and Germany tie, the US plays Ghana. Thanks for the correction. IMO, the most likely scenarios in order are: Germany win, Serbia win-US likely plays Serbia Ghana tie, Serbia win-US plays Ghana Germany win, Serbia tie-US plays Ghana Germany tie, Serbia tie-US plays Germany Ghana win, Serbia win-US plays Serbia Ghana win, Serbia tie-US plays Serbia Germany win, Australia win-US likely plays Ghana Ghana win, Australia win-US plays Australia Any of those scenarios incorrect or any others out there?

Ghana would finish 2nd with a Germany and Serbia win today which is one of the more likely scenarios. BTW, the odds on 538 has the US playing Serbia 48% of the time, Ghana 29%, Germany 16.5%, and Australia 6%.

Fukudome should probably have hit for Nady even though Nady is the better fastball hitter. By the time it got to Colvin, I was fine with Colvin up there even though Colvin has struggled somewhat with the great fastballs around the league. If he did catch up to one though, he was likely to do more damage with it than Kosuke and the potential for an extra base hit to tie the game was worth more than Fukudome's slightly better chance of doing something positive (walk or base hit) especially with the Cubs options for the next hitter.

Kosuke was never going to play against left-handers this year. The only sign that he's been relegated to a backup role is the two games against right-handers that Colvin started a week ago. Since then the Cubs have only faced one right-hander and Fukudome started that game.

Silva called out his teammates publicly in Seattle on multiple occasions for being selfish and trying to pad stats. He also said this: Of course the fact that Silva did this while he was pitching horribly and some felt that was partly due to his refusal to get in shape did not go over well.

Apparently lineups are actually in for both sides: Cubs Byrd CF Baker 3B Lee 1B Nady DH Soto C Soriano LF Colvin RF Castro SS Theriot 2B (Dempster P) Mariners Ichiro RF Figgins 2B Bradley DH Lopez 3B Gutierrez CF Carp 1B Alfonzo C Wilson SS Saunders LF (Vargas P)

But again, it's not that he gave up future hall of famers. He gave up valuable trade pieces for a useless player. I question how valuable they were in trade talks. Nolasco was the 7th best Cubs prospect in a year where only 3 Cubs made BA's top 100 list. Pinto had a very good AA run for most of 2005 but had a wildly inconsistent minor league career and also had control problems and had fallen off the Cubs top 10 list. Mitre had put up very poor numbers in the majors 2 years in a row and was seen as at best a fringe #5 pitcher. Obviously just the fact that they were traded for Juan Pierre made it a poor move. But I don't think they really had a ton of trade value either. At the same time, judging it to be a decent move because of getting Donaldson out of it isn't fair either. The Cubs got very lucky to get compensation out of Pierre. It has turned out ok in hindsight, but that doesn't mean it was anything but a poor move at the time.

The Cubs are pretty close to middle of the pack in this. Attendance is down across MLB this year. Also last year the Cubs attendance didn't drop as much as MLB as a whole did so they have a higher number to shoot towards. This year is comparable to 2004/2005/2006 attendance, higher than 2003, and lower than 2007/2008/2009. But there is also no doubt that the quality of the team has hurt attendance.

So would I, but aside from DeRosa, when has Hendry sold high on a player? Jose Ceda and Kevin Hart probably qualify. Sean Gallagher would as well. I guess it could be argued he sold reasonably high on Choi and Bobby Hill, too. What about Clement? Clement was let go in free agency by the Cubs. That's probably a little bit of a different category in which a few notable names would appear.

So would I, but aside from DeRosa, when has Hendry sold high on a player? Jose Ceda and Kevin Hart probably qualify. Sean Gallagher would as well.

did the ref say that it was a foul on bocanegra? it would be like a ref calling a holding penalty on a game-winning touchdown and refusing to name what kind of call it was until he got an opportunity to watch the film. That's what the official word was, it's not from the ref's mouth. I don't know why he didn't tell the players on the field, my first instinct is that the language barrier was the big reason. That in itself is not a terribly uncommon situation. I'm surprised that none of the TV coverage has commented on that. They've all speculated that maybe the ref called it on Edu. I haven't heard anybody even today (and they broke the play down on both the morning and afternoon coverage) say that the official called it on Bocanegra.

They need at least a draw. A win makes things much less complicated, gives them a chance to win the group, and it would definitely be a disappointment if the US doesn't win.

It's against another left-hander so unless Lou changes his mind from earlier in the week Soto is starting.

Great point. And I don't understand why people would assume that the power he's shown in the limited sample size of his time in the bigs would just carry over to a full season. If that's the case, then is his appallingly high strikeout ratio going to stretch out as well? His relatively limited defense is going to carry out over the whole season? LH pitchers having their way with him completely and totally? Why are some people acting like the power is the only thing that'll stick around? Well, the power would have to stick around and he'd need to have to keep hitting at these ridiculous levels all season to offset the liabilities he displays as a player. That's why his success as a starter is such a long shot despite what he's shown this season. That's why in a sane world it makes much more sense for him to be starting in the minors since he's yet to show down there that he can be a viable option as a starting OF. Production in a limited role as a part time player up here for a couple months doesn't just suddenly prove he's a good option to be starting over the Cubs current starters, especially when they're trying to shop one of them for a trade. I don't think people are assuming his power is going to translate exactly. He's on a 40 home run pace over a full season and I haven't seen anybody expect numbers anywhere close to that. And I would be quite happy if his defense he's shown so far translates over a full season. He's been very solid so far. And of course he wouldn't have to hit nearly this well to be a fine option as a starter even if his defense was subpar (at least 100 points of OPS less and probably closer to 150 points would be fine). Of course, the strikeout rate is a huge concern. He seems to be a little lucky in the BABIP department. His HR per FB percentage is also really high but the fact that his home runs so far have been hit a long way balances that out. And the small sample size rules all. I agree that it's still too early to give him a spot. But he definitely is a good candidate at this point to be a full season 15-20 home run guy with potential up to 30 or so. His minor league numbers suggest he's a 15 home run player. The elbow injury affecting some of his power numbers in the minors, his 14 homers in 1/2 a season at Tenessee last year after rehabbing from that injury, his muscle gain, his 7 homers in 1/6 of a season this year, and the fact that he hits home runs that would be gone in most every park in the majors all suggest he could be more than that.

Huh? Most of the contracts are all off the books after 2012. You just have to sign the right FA to go along with whoever the farm system produces. Yeah, current contracts won't hold us back from being able to compete again by 2012-2013. Most are off the books by after the 2011 season and we'll have two FA classes to supplement what our farm system can't fill. The key will be making good decisions leading up to the 2012-2013 seasons. I don't know why people pretend that the contracts that run through 2012 are no big deal. The Cubs have a tremendous amount of money guaranteed in future years, much more than most teams. And those contracts absolutely do affect beyond 2012, because they affect what they can do right now, and right now is when you need to be positioning yourself for the future. You can't just wait up November 1, 2012 and say, okay, we can fix all this now. Every contract handed out affects future payroll flexibility. The Cubs have a higher budget than most teams. It's not a shock that they have more future money committed as well. Boston has 75 million committed for 2012. The Yankees have 107 million. The Mets have almost 61. The Phillies have 87. The Cubs are at 62.5 which includes the buyouts to both Ramirez and Silva. BTW, for 2011 the Cubs are at 103.5. Boston is at 100.5. The Yankees are at 144.6. The Mets are at 108.8. The Phillies are at 134.7. So the Cubs don't have an extreme amount of money committed in future years compared to the teams who are directly above and below in payroll. That's mostly because the Cubs had a pretty quiet offseason only committing 10 extra million or so to 2011 and 8.5 to 2012. They'll have plenty of flexibility to make moves as early as this offseason and definitely by the offseason after 2011.

It should be noted that PR wise sending down Colvin anytime soon to get at-bats isn't really possible. It's a tough situation. While I also believe some of Colvin's minor league numbers have been skewed, that still leaves him as a huge question market with plenty of tools and some flashes but not much of a track record. That isn't much to fall back on when giving a lot of PT at the major league level . But the minors isn't an option at the moment and I don't know when it will be an option again unless he does get significant PT and struggles.

Are you talking about Fukudome? A typically productive player? Are you watching the same games I am? 715 OPS in May and dipping to an abomination like 552 OPS this month. This happens EVERY YEAR. He starts off hot (fukudome), and everyones like oh hey he gets on base he's a pretty preductive guy. Fukudome was better in the second half of the year last year than the first half. He could easily end up doing that again this year.

The point isn't whether Theriot should or shouldn't have thrown it to 2nd; the point is that the runner was smart enough to stop as soon as Theriot was on the base path with the ball so he couldn't be tagged. I believe it was Soto who recently botched a similar scoring opportunity recently for the Cubs by just charging like a goon. I think we interpreted Jersey's question differently. I'm thinking he asked if it was a normal double play ball that somebody (which I took to mean one of the Cubs middle infielders because he asked if it was Theriot in the next sentence) made more difficult than it should have been. I agree it was a smart baserunning play by the Athletics that the Cubs couldn't really do anything about and I definitely remember one of the Cubs runners not stopping in time a week or two ago.

im sorry, but when was this? (not being sarcastis, im reading these posts a few hours after the game and cant exactly pinpoint when it happened over even for which team It wasn't the Cubs, unfortunately. I think it was when the A's scored their final run, and it was because the runner they had on first stopped immediately because the Cubs threw to first, so they had to tag that runner to get the 3rd out, which allowed their runner on 3rd to score before the tag was applied. So, like a normal double play situation that somebody made more difficult? Was it Theriot? It was a slow hit ball that Theriot had to charge into the baseline on. I think that if he had thrown to second the batter would have been safe at first.

On gamecast Zambrano was charged with all 4 runs there. That doesn't make sense to me..he should only be charged with 2 at most. Do the errors on 2 different plays cost him? And as soon as I said that, they changed it to 2.