Little Slide Rooter

Would reed have scored from 2nd? It's not impossible. It took fairly long for the CF to get it, but he was really close to the IF when he did Also, Starlin robbed of a double or triple and the Cubs robbed of runs just now And even if Reed didn't score on the Baker single, he would have scored on Fukudome's single. Looks like this sequence of events ended up looming large. Oh well, we still won the series. Lets go out there and beat the Dodgers while they still have a team to beat.

WTF, is there anyone in the Padres bullpen with an ERA over 2.00?

I know every organization has a JR Mathes or 2 or 3 stashed in their AAA affiliate, and we have 3, but It does frustrate me that we have him, Diamond, and B-D in the rotation with an actual prospect in Chris Carpenter in middle relief. And then the Iowa rotation was made even more pointless with the Ortiz signing. Maybe the assumption is that he would be more useful as a reliever if needed for the big league club, but as we found out early this season, you can never have too much starting pitching depth. The only big league ready starters we really had on the farm were Carpenter and Jackson, and Jacksons either injured or working out some kind of issue at Fitch. Have we been given a definitive answer as to why Carpenter is in the pen?

If it was 2-3 years ago, Id be very afraid of a lineup with Ludwick and Hawpe at the 6-7 spots.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/split.cgi?id=soriaal01&year=Career&t=b I dont have a link. I remember him saying he wanted to hit leadoff, and that he doesnt like hitting 3rd. No Aramis, on the other hand has no problem hitting 3rd, which he should be doing and we could pieve together a perfectly good 4-6 with Pena, Soriano, and Soto with Byrd and Colvin/Fukudome at 7-8. While the Cubs dont have a Pujols/Holliday or Braun/Fielder, we have a deep lineup with no easy outs.

I hate Byrd hitting 3rd. I'd rather see everyone in this lineup except for Barney there. Yes, even Colvin has been more patient that Byrd this year, and has more power. Pena's been much more patient, and I heard a rumor that he had power but who knows where that has been. With the way Soriano's been hitting, he should be in the 3 spot until he cools off. He seems pretty comfortable where he's at. I understand the temptation, but Soriano is a futzy player. Over his career Soriano has the second highest OPS in the six spot. He only has a higher OPS leading off, and I think we can all agree that we don't want him there right now. I remember the 1st red flag when we signed Soriano was that from the beginning, he said he doesnt feel comfortable hitting in the heart of the lineup, although he was plenty comfortable taking heart of the lineup money.

Wow, I just looked at his career line on BBR. Hes only 26, but damn, the big leagues have been pretty brutal to him. This being said, Id take him on and put him in the spare parts shop in Iowa. Wasnt he a cant miss prospect once upon a time?

But we have the best hitting coach $3 million can buy. He'll be hitting his potential in no time.

Am I the only one here who thinks that its time for Flaherty to be given the bump to Iowa? He might not be the most exciting of the Smokies studs, but Iowa doesn't have much going on in terms of middle infielders, and more importantly, unlike Vitters, Jackson,and Lamahieu who are in the 22-23 age range, Flaherty is going to be 25 in July, and that might not seem like a huge difference, but in minor league baseball years, its a pretty big one. I'd be all for giving him the bump and trying him out at 2B.

Bruce tweets that both Wells and Cashner will brgin throwing programs Friday. Hopefully all goes well and they begin rehab assignmenst sooner than later.

Id take out a flyer. Cant be much less useful than DeWitt.

Is there room for one more on the JH Ha bandwagon?

Archer traded, Colemans on the Cubs, Cashners on the DL, Carpenter converted to middle relief, Jackson in extened ST and will likely be coverted to middle relief so they can keep grooming top prospects like Mathes, Diamond, and Bibens-Dierx/

Iowa and Peoria have both been postponed.

move over Lou Brock.

I think the Reds should cut him for disiplinary reason. And then I think the Cubs should sign him.

Unless he leads the league in hitting, it's going to be hard to make an ALL Star team with Tulo and HRam in the same league. you underestimated the vance factor Don't say his name... he needs his rest before the ballot opens. Then the beast awakens. Justafiable or not, I wouldnt be shocked if Castro beats those 2 in the ballots. As we learned in 2008, when Cubs fans are excited about a player(s), they tend to go nuts on the ballots. If nothing esle,, hed probably be the Cubs pity all star if it comes down to that.

Theriots celing was David Eckstein. Castros is somewhere between Roberto Alomar, Hanley Ramirez, and Babe DiMaggio-Yaztremskie.

Does anyone know what happened to Jay Jackson? Did he show up camp overweight or is this injury related? I don't even bother reading the Iowa box scores these days. He was sent to extended ST because his velo was down.

Hopefully Jay Jackson returns soon and they convert Carpenter to starter so theres someone in the Iowa rotation worth caring about.

And our setup/closer situation is probably elite while mateo might be "promising," his results as a major league pitcher have not been solid or better. nor has russell, whose decent 1.3 WHIP is damaged by the 11 home runs allowed in 52 innings. it would be more accurate to say that mateo has been lousy and russell has been solid against LH batters while throwing batting practice to RH batters. Yes, congratulations, you've realized that Russell is a LOOGY. Going into yesterday Mateo's numbers were very, very good and not "lousy" at all. Obviously, his appearance yesterday wasn't ideal, but it was exacerbated by a cheap infield single, not getting an obvious strike 3 call and a bloop single being bumbled by Fukudome into a double that put guys on 2nd and 3rd with no outs. To then come back and be only a strike away from getting out of that just emphasizes what had been seen from Mateo so far this year and shows how useful he can be. Relievers aren't going to be perfect, and yesterday's outcome was far from perfect, but to just label the bullpen as useless junk outside of Marshall and Wood and Marmol is incorrect. It's a good bullpen being exposed too much due to the starters struggling to go 5-6 innings almost every game so far this season. Saying Mateos lousy as a result of last night outing isnt much different from saying Samardjzia good because he threw 2 solid innings. He was a strike away from being out of it before giving up the double, which probably rattled him a bit with the meat of the Rockies lineup coming up. Im not ready to crown Mateo yet, as weve seen guys like Caridad, Ascanio, and Samardzjia look great when they first came up before the wheels came off, but he deserves another shot. Good thing that Lou isnt in charge, because yesterdays perfomrance probably would have earned him a trip to Iowa and been replaced with Berg or some other atrocity.

The only other viable options are Geovany Soto, and the Cubs never like batting him earlier than 6th, or cloning Starlin Castro and we havnt perfected that kind of technology yet.

Great game sans the 1st and 8th innings. I like Marlon Byrd. Productive player. good clubhouse guy. steal of a contract. A lot of managers would be happy to have him on their team. This being said, Marlon is the type of guy who would be the first to tell you that he has no business hitting 3rd in a major league lineup. Its about as much Marlon Byrds fault that hes hitting 3rd as it is John Grabows fault that hes being paid 3.5 million dollars. Fukudome Castro Ramirez Pena Soriano Soto Byrd Barney P Just once Mike, Im begging you.

I'm sure we'll have to use him tomorrow in a much closer situation too. i was going to say that we will probably lose tomorrow since the rockies are good and we are not, but it's dempster against some 27 year old guy making his major league debut, so we should have a reasonably good chance of winning. Thats really not true though. Cubs arent great, but they are good. Were a .500 team, that could be a few games over if things had gone our way, and yeah, I know if my aunt had balls shed be my uncle, but its not like we have a bunch of guys playing over their heads with the possible exception of Barney, and thats with Pena, Soto, and Colvin that really havnt got it going yet. Most of our hitters are doing as expected, and if our starting pitching can click, this team can definitely contend.

have you seen the cubs' roster right now? i think he already is the franchise. The only real options are him ans Aramis. Of course once Prince Fielder or Albert Pujols come to town, that could change.