soapy

I don't know who the Padres have coming up through their system, but I think Jones for Cameron does make sense, on the surface. Cameron can still hit lefties well. Call up Pie and platoon him with Cameron for the rest of this season. Pie (theoretically) takes over CF full time next season. It also gives the Cubs someone with RH pop to come off of the bench, which they currently lack. Having said that, I'm not entirely sure I see the logic for making this move from the Padres perspective, other than some salary relief and someone that can play any OF position this year and next.

this is not going to end well. i can see it now; miller starting and marshall in the pen. :pukel:

I don't understand the Guzman for reliever suggestions. Guzman has a helluva lot more talent than Sean Marshall. Additionally, Marshall makes for a nice insurance plan right now if/when one of the current starters *cough*Marquis*cough* comes back down to reality or gets injured.

Lou will probably skip the postgame and have a "meeting" with his team. Don't worry, this time it will work. It has to.

what a mess.

Instead of demoting people like Rocky Cherry to shake things up, it's time to start shipping of some of the "veteren" guys who blow down there.

too bad he can't play CF (I don't think). he'd be a great platoon partner for Jones.

You're right. i just looked it up and Murton actually has more ABs as a RF than Floyd. It sure doesn't seem like it. I hope that trend continues. I disagree. Guzman was the better choice from the beginning. He may not end up with far better than numbers than Miller, but there is at least a solid chance that he will. Miller has shown little to nothing since coming back from rehab, IMO. I really don't see how pulling the plug after only three starts is any feather in Lou's cap. It was stupid to ever have him out there in the first place. Dusty may have kept running him out there, but that's not really saying too much.

it shouldn't really shock anyone that a 32 year old coming off of career year that's way out of line with his previous production is struggling. i'm sure he'll improve from where he is now, but he's not likely to do anything too noteworthy. he was pretty bad before 2006.

I agree. It's the same old, which is what many expected when he got hired only to be fooled by his bs lies during spring training. why wouldn't he start Floyd, or even Ward at 1B? on what planet would it ever make sense to bat Izturis 2nd? i really can't wait to see Floyd get run out into RF for a week straight so Lou can show him some "respect" now that he's complaining. good times. A lot of you have VERY short memories. This year, Piniella has already removed Izturis from the starting lineup for Theriot, demoted Eyre, removed Miller, moved Murton to right field, and given Wuertz a spot in the bullpen despite barely playing in spring training. I can guarantee you that none of those would have happened under Baker. I'm not quite sure what these "bs lies" were, but I haven't really seen him stray from his promise to play the people who produce. So he started DeRosa at first one game and batted Izturis 2nd. At least Izturis is hitting well, and we were facing a lefty which probably explains why Ward didn't play. With Dusty, we'd be seeing that lineup every day with Lee out, and Izturis would have been batting second the whole year. He's made some bad calls (putting Soriano in CF) but overall he has been MUCH better than Dusty Being better than Dusty isn't good enough, IMO. Izturis is still starting way too much. Theriot should be the full-time SS at this point. Murton has been benched continually for Floyd, Jones and even DeRosa since the switch to RF. He should probably be getting 60-70 percent of the starts at this point, and should never be benched in favor of DeRosa in RF. Beginning the season with Miller as the 5th starter was clearly a stupid mistake and may have costs them a few games. He micromanages too much and ends up having to use someone like Marquis to pinch-hit.

i assume DeRosa won't start because of his wrist. they will be working with a very short bench with out DeRosa and Lee. i can't wait to see Marquis pinch hit. yay.

Well the lineup has scored just 4 or less in 7 of the past 8 games, averaging just 3.625, and the starting pitcher has given up 4 or more (usually in just 5-6 innings) in 5 games, so any run the bullpen gives up is going to make it look bad. The lineup has been a much bigger problem than the bullpen recently, so, if anything, there is not disjointing, there's co-struggling. it's not like this is a recent problem. it's been this way for years, and will continue to be until there is a philosophy change at the top.

I agree. It's the same old, which is what many expected when he got hired only to be fooled by his bs lies during spring training. why wouldn't he start Floyd, or even Ward at 1B? on what planet would it ever make sense to bat Izturis 2nd? i really can't wait to see Floyd get run out into RF for a week straight so Lou can show him some "respect" now that he's complaining. good times.

Trading Murton to get Floyd more playing time would probably be the worst possible outcome for this situation......which is exactly why it will probably happen.

this probably does present the best scenario to put Floyd at 1B for a game. Lee is banged up and Floyd has good numbers against the opposing pitcher, despite him being a lefty.

For the 999th time. I never said he wasn't. i guess when you started comparing him to Neifi, i just assumed that's what you meant.

I wouldn't necessarily consider your discussions in this thread to be rational. Give me a break...Murton simply is not as good as most around here thinks he is. Especially the dude that has started a church named Murton. I wish he were. We'd probably be undefeated. But hey, people posting on an internet board are much more knowledgable then people actually running the teams. LOL The lunacy of it all. Murton is far from great, but he's better than Floyd and that's the point.

when Floyd was "hot" early in the season, that was used as justification to keep running him out there every day. i'm curious to see if Lou will take the same approach with Murton.

it's been pointed out by others, but Soriano's drop in production could be attributed to other things besides his place in the order. at some point during his tenure at Texas, the league started to figure him out. his production dropped overall, not just when hitting out of the leadoff spot. eventually, Soriano made adjustments to the way pitchers were attacking him and improved on those numbers. i am not totally dismissing the whole "he's comfortable at leadoff" arguement, but there may be more to it than that. i would prefer to see him hitting lower in the order, but i'm not sure what the alternative is. i'm still skeptical that Theriot will maintain his current obp, i guess. if they did make a change, a 1/2 of Theriot/Murton would probably make the most sense. ETA: in 2005, Soriano's best number actually came batting 5th, though it's very close. in 2006, he only had 29 ABs in the 5th spot, but put up 310/375/690.

Yeah, it would be shocking to me if Blanco didn't start this game: day game after night game Barrett caught 15 innings 2 nights ago left-hander on the mound for the opposition Blanco is 2-5 against this pitcher Z is on the mound All the factors say a Blanco start is coming. My guess is that the rest of the lineup will be the same, but there could be 1 or 2 other small changes. My first instinct would be to think he'd sit Jones, since he's really cooled down after that brief hot streak, and already ranks third on the team in most playing time. And of course since he can't hit lefties at all, and never has. But when you think about how much stock Lou puts into coddling his veterans' egos and the thought of showing faith in Jones by putting him right back out there, I begin to doubt that idea. But it would be smart to give Felix "I've got 6 at bats in the past 7 days" Pie a start before he rots any further, at least taking advantage of his clear defensive edge over Jones. I'd rather not see Pie and Blanco in the lineup together against a LHP, but it's certainly a possibility. Pie can't do much worse than Jones against a lefty, I guess.

You aren't even paying attention. There is a plethora of evidence in Jones' career numbers that show you that he's down right terrible against LHP. It's not just, "because you say so". The problem is (which people are pointing out) that the Cubs need a RH to platoon with him. Be it in CF or RF.

what are the odds we see the same lineup back to back with another LHP on the mound? probably not good as I'm guessing Blanco is likely to start this one.

But his 3 year splits are about 300 AB's fewer than Floyds so it's like comparing apples to oranges. Well I hope not but the pattern the Cubs are using him isn't working out so well. Right now I wouldn't mind seeing him do a stint in Iowa where he can get some regular AB's and maybe get his stroke back and then when Floyd does go down, as we all know he will, maybe Murton could come back and contribute. I'm wondering too if the Cubs didn't tell Cliff he would be a regular when they signed him and maybe that's why Murton is seeing so muuch bench time. I do agree it is not going to be easy to start hitting with his frequency of playing time he's getting now. I really don't understand what Murton has left to prove in the minors. If they told Floyd he'd be a starter, than they are stupid, which wouldn't surprise me.

Over the last three years, Murton and Floyd have an almost identical slugging percentage. 462 to 466. And Murtons is dropping when a player of his age should be on the rise. .521 in 2005, .444 in 2006, and .327 thus far this year but then 2005 and 2007 are small sample sizes so... People need to quit quoting 3 year splits with Murton. In 2005 he was only in 51 games and only 23 this year so far, His 3 year splits are more like 1.5 year splits. Well it's all we have to go on (re: Murton's splits). It's his entirety in the majors, so what would you propose? Do you really expect Murton's SLG to keep dropping if he got regular playing time? I sure don't. I think it's more a matter of small sample size from this year.

Murtons lack of power for a corner OF, not his BA, is what concerns me the most. Over the last three years, Murton and Floyd have an almost identical slugging percentage. 462 to 466.