soapy

Marquis, Zambrano and Dempster. They play Washington next, then have a day off, then Milwaukee. yeah, i see now. i'm not smart. i was thinking milwaukee was next for some reason.

FWIW, three year splits vs. MIL: Marquis: 4.17 ERA/ 45.1 IP/ 45 H/ 25 K/ .259 BAA Hill: 3.86 ERA/ 35 IP/ 25 H/ 38K/ .200 BAA

i'd bet a sizable amount they wouldn't do that if it was lilly. what does "skipped" really even mean? will he just pitch the first game against St. Louis? maybe i'm not fully awake yet, but what three righties are going to go against Milwaukee if Marquis is pitching today?

dumb

i agree with this. i'd do this until somebody (likely Cedeno or Theriot) comes back down to earth. i think Cedeno is the more likely long-term answer, but Theriot has been producing as well. Cedeno, Theriot and Derosa can get plenty of time between 2B and SS, not to mention Derosa still likely getting some time in LF or RF to spell those guys.

this has more or less been said, but i'm not worried about the cubs giving up on pie at this point. lou has clearly made it a priority to work with him personally to improve his swing. johnson being on fire has given them a chance to pull pie to the side and work on things with the idea of plugging him back in there (i assume at this point). bringing in keller makes that even more clear, imo. the organization is not going to go through the trouble to bring up a minor league instructor to travel with the team with the (seemingly) sole purpose of working individually with one player if they're ready to give up on him. particularly when said player has a history of success working with that coach. on the HR last night; that was great and i was extremely excited for felix. i was/am worried that the cubs are/were trying to make him into a "slap" hitter, but the most recent quotes make me less worried.

Yeah, but were talking Bay (who is good), Nady and LaRoche. These aren't the greatest hitters in the world. (Know that I said that they will spur a comeback for the Pirates. yeah. it's a strange move regardless but i was just trying to figure out what Lou is/was thinking.

Lou taking this inning pretty seriously. I guess I can see that. Heart of the order. Now hopefully they don't come up again until the 8th when he has Marmol in there.

Hill only at 75 pitches. Strange move.

I really can't stand this whole "versatility" thing being used to justify this. Patterson can play LF, CF and 2B. So what? Murton plays LF, so let's look at the others: 2B: Derosa, Theriot, Fontenot, Cedeno CF: Pie, Johnson, Fukudome, and Cedeno in an emergency Why do they need Patterson's versatility again? They can still salvage this to some extent and call up Murton to start in LF on Saturday and Sunday. Do it, Jim.

"hit" left handed

hahaha...Pat saying Tejada tells Astros he's actually 33, not 31 as claimed. Ron: "Why would he do that?"

35 pitches thru three for Ted. Nice.

Let's get things turned around starting today, Teddy.

i think the difference is negligible. he's performed at the MLB level when given regular ABs. i think anyone interested in him would do their homework and know that. the bottom line is he is the best option to help the team offensively and (despite some people's opinion to the contrary) defensively while Soriano is out.

i'm somewhat surprised at how many people are defending this move. it's so incredibly stupid that i can hardly fathom it. anyone who thinks that having Patterson/Fontenot in the lineup is better than having Murton in the lineup (and thus keeping Derosa in his "natural" position) is out of touch with reality.

i don't ever want to hear Lou or Hendry talk about Murton again. i can't listen to any more of their bs faux-compliments or statements about him. i really can't put into words how incredibly pissed i am about this. i can't believe i let it upset me this much, but i feel like i need to punch someone/something.

this is exactly why Patterson was called up, IMO. it's completely insane.

you're so right. the cubs have vastly superior options available to them in LF like......wait......what about....er.......yeah

hahahahahahahahahahaha..... you have to admit it is kind of funny at this point. jesus...

I don't know who you're talking to but I didn't once consider this as "helping" Pie by benching him. I'm suggesting benching him because he isn't hitting the baseball and Reed Johnson is. The manager's job is to put players in a position to succeed and give the Cubs the best chance to win every day - that would be Reed Johnson. The manager's job is to put the players on the field that would give the Cubs the best chance to win more games overall. Short term fixes to sacrifice long-term development is not the way to do that. Pie has no more he can learn in AAA. He adjusted to and mastered that league. He needs time to adjust to the major leagues, and the Cubs need time to evaluate him in their long-term plans. Neither is accomplished by benching Pie or sending him down. Pie has initially struggled for a few months at every stage of development. Once he adjusts, he's been a phenominal player, on all levels. The important thing right now is to not have a knee-jerk panic reaction and stunt his development even more just to get a below average offensive performance from CF for a month instead of a poor one. It could even be argued that his defensive value over Johnson makes up most of the offensive difference. I simply wanted to quote you to emphasize the bolded. I've always had a hard time understanding why people don't grap this aspect of managing. Taking it out of the context of simply Johnson v. Pie, the manager should always consider what is best for the team long term; both in terms of the entire season and future seasons. Let's get away from the Dusty Baker "Do you want me to win or do want me to develop players?" mentality. The simple answer is, both. There is absolutely no reason why a team with the resources the Cubs have can't do both.

There are several different ways for this to play out. If Soriano is day-to-day (no callups) I think we'll basically just see what we saw last night with Ward possibly getting some time in LF (DeRosa to 2B in that situation). If Soriano goes on the DL, the obvious step is to call up Murton. I think Lou will do this against RHP: Theriot SS Fukudome RF Lee 1B Ramirez 3B Derosa 2B Soto C Murton LF Pie CF I think I would do this, though I acknowledge Lou isn't likely to: Murton LF Fukudome RF Lee 1B Ramirez 3B Soto C Derosa 2B Pie/Johnson CF Theriot/Cedeno SS I like Murton leading off instead of Fukudome simply because I think Fukudome is less likely to hit into a DP. This is purely speculative and subjective. I haven't looked at the numbers to back that up. Murton just seem to hit a large number of grounders.

yeah. i think it's fair to be concerned about his control issues. it's something he has struggled with in the past, and seemed to have corrected last year (and second half of 2006). it's a complete over-reaction to pull him from the rotation now though. if he continues to struggle with command over the next three starts or so maybe i can see sending him down for a few starts, but sending him to the bullpen seems like a ludicrous idea to me. i'm thrilled with what lieber has done early this season but i think anyone who believes lieber is going to be better than hill over a full season is fooling themselves.

too logical

and yet, Hill's 2007 is far better than anything Lieber has done the last few years. i'm not against Lieber to the rotation, but it would be stupid to do it at the expense of Hill.