cubsfan26

In all honest Hill has been alot better at the plate then I expected him to be. Try to keep in mind though back up catchers usually suck offensivly and thats why there back up catchers. If Hill can hit 220, with a little HR pop here and there and play good defense. I'll be happy with him as the back up.

I know were all overreacting here, because thats what Cubs fans do. But his numbers from 06-08 as a reliever were pretty solid. I can't think of anyone besides Marmol who's numbers were that good over a three year average. I know we haven't seen that guy so far, but at some point we will. I'm just scared if he keeps struggling and blows a bunch of games it can ruin him and make him worthless for the rest of the year. If by "solid," you mean "not as good as Mike Wuertz," then yes. I'm not gonna get in this debate, but Mike Wuertz had one Kevin Gregg like year(07) in the last three seasons. In 06 and 08 he spent time in the minors for a reason. Gregg has put up his numbers in 62, 84 and 68 innings. It's hard to say Wuertz is better when Wuertz only pitched in 44 and 40 innings in 06 and 08. With the way Wuertz struggled before he got sent down, he most likely has a much higher era if he pitches in the innings Gregg does. I know Gregg has pitched like crap the last two games, and I understand people are gonna think he's crap. Thats what fans do when a guy isn't a lights out reliever, and struggled the first week of the season. But if people use there heads for a minute they know Gregg isn't this bad. Remmeber this is the same reliever who averaged a 3.47 era in 215 innings over the last three years, and his highest era season was 3.54. Right now Gregg can't even get through a inning without giving up a run. So he's obviously in a funk, but his track records says he will figure it out. From watching him pitch alot this spring, I can tell his pitches aren't nearly as sharp and he's hanging alot of his pitches. So hopefully he figures it out goes on a scoreless inning streak again soon like he did in spring training.

I know were all overreacting here, because thats what Cubs fans do. But his numbers from 06-08 as a reliever were pretty solid. I can't think of anyone besides Marmol who's numbers were that good on a three year average(Heilmans might be close). I know we haven't seen that guy yet, but at some point we will. I'm just scared if he keeps struggling and blows a bunch of games it can ruin him and make him worthless for the rest of the year. The Cubs need Kevin Gregg to pitch the way he's capable of. So hope he gets it together.

I try not to overreact about 4 games or 3 innings. But Gregg is pitching really poorly the last few games. Having him struggle like this in big situations is only gonna kill is confidence. So maybe Marmol should be the closer until Gregg gets back on track. I know Gregg isn't a great pitcher, but there's no way he's this bad.

Wow Gregg has not pitched well at all. ](*,)

Yep, as long as he doesn't pitch like he did Friday we will be fine. Even if he does pitch that poorly again we still might be alright with a three run lead.

Radio said it was a right groin strain. He got hurt running the bases. Fantastic. His groin didn't explode like Nomar's did, did he? No it didn't really look bad. Lou said during the interview that it was tightness. Seems like they pulled him to be cautious. He's probably day to day and hopefully only will miss a game or two.

Solid game by Dempster tonight(thanks to Reed), he obviously didn't have the best control of his pitches. But he still made it through six innings and only allowed 4 runs to score.

Hopefully Dempster can get through the lower half in the order in the 6th and our bullpen can hold it from the 7-9 innings. But most importantly lets get some more runs.

Crap Dempster isn't at his best tonight.

Sounds like the Cubs are being cautious with Bradley.

Jorge Julio control is just as bad as Suppan.

Wow Lou would punch Suppan if he played for the Cubs.

Bradley didn't look that hurt, so hopefully Lou took him out just to be cautious.

Nice recovery inning for Dempster.

Hopefully Dempster settles down now.

Peavy won't be a Brewer because 1. He probably doesn't wanna go there 2. They can't afford his big contract 3. He's gonna want to have a full no-trade clause

I'm not really concerned yet, Heilman has pitched pretty well overall. Kevin Gregg hasn't been good, but he will get in a grove at some point. Angel Guzman I think will be already, he had some control issues after he faced Weeks. But he pitched well before tonight, and I think he will be alright. Neal Cotts is crap, he will have some good moments but he's really inconsistent and is gonna suck half the time. As long as Gregg, Marmol, Heilman and Guzman do well this pen will be fine. It just had a shakey two games, but overall it will be alright.

I never said he pitched well so far, he was average the first two games, and crap yesterday. All I'm saying he pitched 2 total innings and it's a small sample size. People are already acting like he's Antoino Alfonseca after three games.

lou hated him; i don't think things would be any different if we'd kept wuertz. he'd just pitch at iowa or rot at the end of the pen. Wuertz had the same type of control issues last season.

You can actually look at is really only having one bat outing though. In his first save he gave up a single to the leadoff hitter. Then Bradley messed up and cost Gregg a run. So in all honestly Gregg pitched just fine in his first save chance, and should have only gave up on single and no runs.Then in the next game he came in with two on and no out. He got a fly out, intentional walk, then gave up a very weak single that just found the hole. Those two games wasn't really bad pitching at all. Yesterdays 2 walks, double that allowed two runs was really just one bad outing. The whole point is it's early, and very small sample size of struggling. Kerry Wood wasn't a whole lot better at this point, and he was just fine. By the way Wood gave up 3 hits, and 1 walk in his 2 innings pitched. So when you factor in that one of the 4 hits Gregg gave up was a misjudged flyball that Bradley screwed up on, and one of his walks was intentional. There honestly hasn't been much of a difference between Gregg and Wood after four games. I know you don't like Gregg, but I think fans are being pretty picky with his performance so far and being way to hard on him. It's been three games, so anyone calling him horrible right now is flat out overreacting.

When Kevin Gregg was named the closer, most fans were happy. They thought he would do a solid job, and be fine as the closer. So whats changed? One save when he gave up a hit, then a double his RF should have caught? Then giving up softy hit single when he came into a jam, and giving up 2 runs in a blown save yesterday. So a few shakey games all of the sudden makes him crappy. Kevin Gregg is no Kerry Wood, but he's a solid reliever/closer. Infact here's some stats after four games last year and this year. Cubs 08 closer Wood after 4 games in 2008, 13.50 era, 1 for 1 in saves Cubs 09 closer Gregg after 4 games in 2009, 13.50 era, 1 for 2 in saves. The difference is Gregg blew one save, while Kerry Wood gave up 3 runs in a tie game. Like I said before Gregg isn't Kerry Wood, but it's silly to say this guys crap after four games. At least give him until May before we start calling him Latroy Hawkins or Alfonseca. I just can't believe how bad baseball fans can overreact. It's a shame

I'm glad you feel that way, but your probably wrong. I'm sure you watched alot of games on tv, or maybe even coached Little league, so you think you know what your talking about. I'm not gonna debate this crap, but it's really funny how people can act like they know so much. People are sitting here bashing a guy for being a horrible in game manager, when he's been doing it for over 20 years(rarely been out of work), and is a borderline hall of fame manager. If Lou was really that bad he wouldn't have been managing as long as he has. If anybody thinks Lou is bad they should watch Tony LaRussa manage. Yet many believe he's one of the all time greatest managers. I don't think fans realize that the difference from average joe little league manager, and veteran big league manager is there gut instrict moves that don't always seem logical but work out more then they don't. Like I said before when they don't work out the manager looks like a jackass. But when they do nobody talks about how it was a great move by the manager. Yet if you watch a bunch of games from different teams, you will see simliar things done as Pineilla did yesterday. But hey if fans need to bash Piniella to feel better, well thats fine with me. I just don't see the point of it. Because his track records tells us he will be right alot more then wrong like yesterday, when making a decision that we probably won't like. When are fans ever happy with a manager, and always love his game decisions when they don't work out? Name a manager that doesn't get bashed by his fan base for making a poor in game decision at least once a week?

No, he isn't. It just looks like it when every bad decision is blown up and highlighted. Lou is the best Cubs manage in a long, long, long time and it's annoying to hear people freak out over every little thing he does. I know it's the basis for every message board, but it's hypersensitive overreaction. And you're right, I probably shouldn't read any of these threads, since I already know what is inside. It looks like he's a bad manager when he makes a ridiculously long string of consecutive bad decisions and we highlight them by pointing them out? How else do you judge managing? His managing yesterday was worse than someone picking players to use at random. In the case of Miles, he picked the worst non-pitcher on the team to use. He screwed up the use of every single reliever, and he went through quite a few of them. Became a fan of another team, and you will see simliar long string of consecutive bad decisions by a manager. When you play a 162 games you can't go by the book all the time and you gotta do different things. Alot of times it works, and nobody ever talks about it. Other times you got egg on your face like Piniella does today. As a manager you can't always make the logical move and expect it to work. You gotta go outside the box, and do different things. Anybody can go out and manage a game doing the logical moves that make sense. Having a good singles hitter like Miles at the plate when your trying to get a run home from third isn't really a rare thing either. Double plays happen, the point of that situation was to make contact. So Lou put the best contact hitter he had on the bench. If he puts Hoffpauir up there he could have easily been bashed for putting a guy who's more likely to strike out then make contact and get that run home from third without a hit. If you watch a bunch of different Major League games I think you will see a contact hitter like Miles pinch hitting in that situation more often then a power guy like Hoffpauir. So I think that move was more logical then fans realize, but the reliever stuff was a bit of a mess yesterday. But like I said before those things happen, and you gotta go on gut instict alot.

Wow this board can be bad. Lou is not a horrible in game manager, he's average. Lou also makes alot of good decisions, but good moves a manager can make never get brought up. I don't think fans realize that and honestly you can follow any big league team and make simliar negative comments about any manager moves. Alot of decisions depends on a managers insticts, and what a manager knows that we don't know. When I say what we don't know. I mean reports by scouts, reports by coaches on how the pitchers looked today in warm ups and so on. When it goes right people don't say anything about the manager and talk about the players doing well. But when things go wrong like today, fans go overboard and start acting stupid and calling Lou an idiot. If Miles pinch hits and gets a double and two runs score. Then Marshall/Vizcaino pitch a scoreless 8th and Gregg gets the save in the 9th. Then people are just talking about how it was a good game right now, and nobody is really bashing Piniella. If Piniella makes the decisions that many people wanted him to make and we still don't win fans are still complaining about him not doing something different. If Hoffpauir pinch hits and strikes out, people would be saying Piniella should have went with a contact hitter like Miles. If there was a real by the book way of managing, then any person on this board could manage a team There's so much stuff that we don't know about when Lou makes these decisions. So we can call him a idiot or whatever, thats our right as fans. But it's pretty pointless and we all could be the ones wrong and not even realize it. Thats why these manager bashing threads are a big waste of time.