Little Slide Rooter

Yup, startrs have been very good led by Dempster and Silva. Silva may end up a Hendrysaver. fixed.

As valuable as Lilly is, Id really rather they not rush him back. Besides, so far, starting pitching has been the least of our problems.

Its good to see Starlin lighting it up, but all of our other position player prospects are off to very slow starts.

Not THAT was vintage Marmol. Pure filth.

The Sox seem to be having the same issues we are, aside from our very different opening days. Great starting pitching, minimal offense, and shaky middle relief.

Nice! Now lets get us some Geico in case Marmol decides to go all Rick Vaughn on us in the 9th.

And now comes the part where the bullpen gives up our meager lead. Hooray for predictibility!

I suppose thats the only logical move. Risk further injury to one of your best starters so you can move a guy who has never done anything to lead us to believe that he'll be any better than what we already have to the pen.

I said it in the game thread, but weve seen a lot of flies to the warning track by Cubs hitters, and when the weather heats up, a lot of those balls are going to leave the yard. If we get the type of starting pitching that weve seen the last 3 games, we'll start winning more games. Caridad was brutal today, but Ive liked everything else Ive seen from him so far.

so if you're going to go into the season with a player as your starter, why are you benching him after going 1-for-6 in 2 games??? if you have that little confidence in him then just don't have him around; give the job to a guy who's actually going to get a chance to build up some confidence. Im not denying that Soto should be the everyday starter, and yes, he does need to build some confidence. Its just that a lot of people keep saying that Sotos had just 2 bad games, and thats really not the case.

How is it ADD exactly? ADD is when you have difficulty concentrating on whats going on and keep getting distracted. OCD is when you have a certai type of tickm habit, or routine that you just cant stop doing, such as washing your hands over and over, going outside to make sure you turned off your headlights every few minutes, or always going with that righty/righty matchup even if your lefty is doing just fine.

Im not going to say I want to see Koyie Hill as a starter, but why does everyone keepo saying that Soto has only had 2 bad games and completely ignoring 2009 and spring training? I dont agree with benching someone as punishment unless theres a better option, but Soto has had much more than 2 bad games. Unfortunately, between Robinson, Castillo, and Clevenger, we dont have a better option by any means, and I do think that Soto is the best option behind the plate, but it's not just 2 bad games. And not to nitpick, but its really more OCD than ADD.

So how did Silva look anyway? I dodnt tue in until the end. Was he good or did he get lucky? Even if he does end up as the 2nd coming of Jason Marquis, it could end up being the best thing we could have gotten back for Bradley. Maybe Rothschild really did help him figure some things out.

I think the Cubs have a very reliable 8th inning reliever (Marshall); Lou just needs to actually use him in the 8th. Up until tonight, I like everything Ive seen from Caridad, and Im not ready to railroad him out of town after 1 bad outing. It happens to everyone.

Why does every NL Central team perenially see the Cubs as their arch rival? Pound for pound, the Cards have been the most successful team in the division.

Maybe the fans thtat jumped on the '03 and '08 bandwagons have long since jumped off, but us lifers are here to stay whether we like it or not.

Sure, Tracy made himself silly, but Soto hasnt done anything the last year and 2 games that leads me to believe that the outcome would have been any different.

The good news is that once the weather starts heating up, alot of those warning trackers will leave the field.

Well they tried to give it to us be wed have none of it. [expletive] the bullpen.

Im always excited for the baseball season. My expectations just arent as high as they have been the past few years, and that could be a good thing. The fact is while our team is decent enough, its not spectacular. Good enough to contend though. Lets look at the lineup: -the top of the order Theriot and Fukudome is below average as far as Im concerned. -Lee, Ram, and Byrd in the heart of the order is solid, but there are better out there. Maybe my opinion is clouded because between St. Louis and Milwaukee, were up against 2 of the top 5 3-4 combos in the game. -The lower part of the order, Soriano, Baker/Fontenot, and Soto is a big X Factor. If all these guys perform as they were expected to pre 2009, it could be one of the best 6-8s out there. Nady, Colvin, Tracy, and Font/Baker give us some very good pop off the bench. Pitching: -Z, Lilly, Demp. Again, a very good 1-3. No true ace though, unless Dempster manages to pitch all season like he did last night. -Wells is a solid number 4, and between Silva and Gorzo, not really much better or worse than your average #5 starter, which is basically what they are. Marshall would probably be a better choice, but hes to valuable where he is right now. Thomas Diamond intrigues me as well. Pen: we have some good guys in Marshall, Caridad, and Marmol Im not sure what to make of Berg or Russell just yet. Grabiow makes a lot of money, and thats all I have to say about him. Then theres Samardzjia. The pen is obviously not steller, but its not horrible if used right. Most big league pens only have those 2 or 3 guys who are truely dependable, and the rest fall into shades of grey. Thats basically how ours shapes up. With Stevens, Gaub, Gray, and maybe even Cashner waiting in the wings, anyone of them not pulling their weight could be on borrowed time. So in the end, what we have is an above .500 team. Maybe they'll surprise us. maybe we'll be hanging around the race come July and we'll be able to pick up a piece or 2 to make us that much better. Maybe we'll be well out of it by then and we can trade somebody and get some nice prospects in return and make us better for the future.

A WIN!

Heyward is a fine young player, but Marmol made him look silly.

lets do this Marmol.

Chavez is filthy. Hopefully Marmol can be for another 3 outs.

Marshall hasn't stood out? Based on these 3 games (sample size!) he should be the clear favorite to be the setup guy. Well, yeah. That's fine. I wouldn't have a problem with him as the high leverage guy used to put out any fires regardless of the inning either. Caridads looked very nice between his outings this year, spring training, and what we saw of him late last season.