dew1679666265

Bringing in Fox today wasn't exactly a good move, but his only other realistic option was Wuertz and he isn't much better for that situation (Marmol would have been ideal, but about the only manager out there who actually might have made that move is Bobby Cox, I'm not sure any others are currently employed who will go that far away from conventionality). The main thing I disliked was IBBing Chris Young - a young, impatient hitter who struggles with breaking balls - to get to a much more patient Connor Jackson. Young likely swings at some of those breaking pitches Fox was tossing out of the zone. In Lou's defense on walking Young, though, it set up the double play. Lou played with fire and got singed. Luckily, the team made up for it. As for Pie/Johnson, I agree Pie should be starting against more righties. I think Lou is likely babying Pie to an extreme, which can be good, but I'd like to see Felix out there at least a little more.

You have to figure that at least some of the wildness and the mounting problems in the fifth came from his youth. He's 22 and has barely ever started in the majors (is this his first?), you have to know the adrenaline is pumping and that accounts for at least some of the struggles. Not excusing the final numbers, but if this is as bad as he'll get, I'm excited for the future.

I can see where you get that Lou left him in too long - and he may have by one batter or so - but coming into the inning Gallagher was pitching well enough to make you think he could get one more inning in. Perhaps you have Fox or Wuertz up soft tossing to start the inning, but otherwise I thought Lou handled Sean fine today.

also would've been nice if sean could've thrown more. I don't know how well he felt since he's been in the pen for a while. I thought he pitched fairly well. The final numbers don't look great, thus the comments that it was a bad outing, but after a wind-blown RBI double (it's a lazy fly to Pie without the wind) he settled down and allowed next to nothing in the second, third and fourth. Finally, he did wear down in the fifth, but that was no shocker to me. Overall, I doubt he won himself a rotation spot with the outing, but it was good experience for him and likely didn't hurt his standing with Lou. It was a triple and I don't know about wind blown. It was a line shot. Without the wind knocking it down it definitely wasn't a lazy fly and it may have even gotten out. The first inning hit by Jackson? It was hit toward straightaway center field, but started carrying on Pie to right-center. It was definitely wind blown, Len and Bob even commented on it during the broadcast. And my bad on the triple. Yeah, he was getting by, but not dominating. At this point in his career, though, I don't expect dominant. He had decent command and wasn't working out of terrible jams all day - resulting in three scoreless innings. Honestly, though, I'd rather pitch Marquis until the break and hope he does decently enough to trade him. Then I'd take my chances with either Marshall or Gallagher.

also would've been nice if sean could've thrown more. I don't know how well he felt since he's been in the pen for a while. I thought he pitched fairly well. The final numbers don't look great, thus the comments that it was a bad outing, but after a wind-blown RBI double (it's a lazy fly to Pie without the wind) he settled down and allowed next to nothing in the second, third and fourth. Finally, he did wear down in the fifth, but that was no shocker to me. Overall, I doubt he won himself a rotation spot with the outing, but it was good experience for him and likely didn't hurt his standing with Lou.

Wind's blowing toward right field, I believe. The D'Back double that drove in Young hooked that way.

I'm pretty sure it's Pat Listach, who was with the Smokies last year. And that's an awesome double switch. It puts Dusty to shame.

Its nice and all, but unless they are auctioned for charity it doesn't really mean much. it's an awareness and acknowledgment thing, not a money thing I'm watching the Mets/Reds game and the Reds announcers said Griffey would auction off his pink bat after the game. Z may be doing the same thing with the shoes and batting gloves.

To be fair, Theriot hit a rocket, but Jackson made a nice play. Normally, though, I agree on Ryan.

Scherzer is impressive.

That's pretty poor reasoning. really? why? they've lost every tinkered-with game. if i remember correctly, they shuffled the rotation to allow marquis (and not hill) to start against the brewers. they lost. hill was then nine days removed from his last start when he threw against the cardinals. they lost that game. and lieber, who took hill's spot in the rotation, got battered today. they lost. you really don't see how this rotation shuffle hurt the cubs? I could be wrong on this, but I seem to remember that Marquis was going to start anyway in that series and Lou pushing back Hill moved Dempster or Z up a day. Not 100% on that, but I think I remember seeing that. It moved Z into the Brewers series. Some were arguing that Marquis should have been the one skipped, but that would be a different argument than the one proposed above. That is suggesting that the tinkering itself was a big problem, regardless of who got switched. So the tinkering then caused us to lose a game started by our best starting pitcher? Interesting logic. Whether or not skipping Hill was a good idea, I see no way Lou's tinkering hurt Z or Wood's ability to pitch on that day.

That's pretty poor reasoning. really? why? they've lost every tinkered-with game. if i remember correctly, they shuffled the rotation to allow marquis (and not hill) to start against the brewers. they lost. hill was then nine days removed from his last start when he threw against the cardinals. they lost that game. and lieber, who took hill's spot in the rotation, got battered today. they lost. you really don't see how this rotation shuffle hurt the cubs? I could be wrong on this, but I seem to remember that Marquis was going to start anyway in that series and Lou pushing back Hill moved Dempster or Z up a day. Not 100% on that, but I think I remember seeing that.

Agreed. Which is why, going back to the original point, I don't particularly believe him when he talks about needing Hill. I don't know why Lou would specifically mention that to the Reds radio guys in a casual conversation that's not on the air (people he certainly doesn't need to impress) that the Cubs "absolutely need Hill to be himself in order for the team to win this year". The Reds radio guys talked about it as that Lou thought it was one of the biggest keys to the whole season. I'm inclined to give the benefit of the doubt. There's just no real reason why he would feel the need to volunteer that to the opposing team's radio guys if he didn't believe it. I think this is a very good point that hasn't been mentioned much. Lou didn't say this after prompting from Bruce Levine or a Chicago media guy, he said it off camera to the Reds radio man. Seems odd he'd volunteer something he didn't mean.

Cedeno in to play third in place of DeRo.

I like Jon Miller.

That last ab was a good sign though. I like seeing him hit it hard through the middle like that. agreed. everyone is grumpy at him for getting down 0-2 every AB, but from what i've seen the last two days, a lot of the problem has been that he's missing first pitch and second pitch strikes, not that he's just hacking at complete garbage. the garbage hacks have generally been coming when he's trying to protect with two strikes. His hitting will come around. I know this. I am more worried that playing left field is going to get into his head. He doesn't look right at all out there at this point. Hopefully any issues in the field are a result of taking his hitting struggles with him. When he gets right offensively, I'm hoping an improvement in the field will follow. Ryan Franklin in to face DeRosa with two down.

If he was the tying run, I would have been fine with taking the chance. Right now, though, his run alone isn't meaningful enough. And he scored anyway...good job Kosuke!

Down three with Lee and Kosuke coming up, why would we not?

Nice hit for Theriot! Bases juiced for DLee!

He actually pitched to five. At least that many, he could come out next inning. Typed my post as the second hitter came up. But it was good to see some Marshall TV time. Ah, no worries. Just keeping you in check. :D Though Marshall is not coming back out for the 7th.

He actually pitched to five. At least that many, he could come out next inning.

And when DLee and Kosuke are slumping. I'm pretty sure what sori is going thru is more than a "semi-funk" Yea, it's pretty massive at this point. I figure he'll bust out in a big way at some point, I'm just really starting to wonder when.

And when DLee and Kosuke are slumping.

he doesn't actually. 83% (or so) for his career (59 attempts) but 7 for 12 this year... He's been pretty good and this year he has been terrible 70% in the minors. The evidence is pretty mixed. 70% isn't terrible, though. And 83% is pretty good. Therefore, he's not terrible. May not be great, but he's certainly not terrible. I wonder, how odd is it to have much higher SB% in the majors when you didn't get real playing time until your late 20s? Should be uncommon/improbable, right? All I'm saying is Theriot's true basestealing ability is likely somewhere in between 70 and 83% - which would put him right around decent. Like Truffle said, though, he shouldn't be running on Molina.

he doesn't actually. 83% (or so) for his career (59 attempts) but 7 for 12 this year... He's been pretty good and this year he has been terrible 70% in the minors. The evidence is pretty mixed. 70% isn't terrible, though. And 83% is pretty good. Therefore, he's not terrible. May not be great, but he's certainly not terrible.