Soul

Bears first preseason game is next weekend!!

If Lou would pencil Murton in the lineup everyday with Soriano out he will produce enough to offset Soriano's loss. Based on numbers from a down season by Soriano and a statistical stretch of mostly meaningless games (from a team standpoint) over 2.5 months by Murton. However, I do agree Murton should be the starter here, I am just in a gloomy mood and feel like trying to beat down everyone's arguments. Shoulda gotten a big bat before the deadline. Shoulda, woulda, coulda.

Quite logical, Mr. Spock 8-) I think it's just the pain of seeing him fail to return over & over. People don't want to go through that again. But to hell with it, it was great to see him back. He is definitely needed.

That's a pretty poor extrapolation. First of all, Ramirez missing the rest of the season in that case is 5 weeks. That timeframe puts Soriano back for the last 15 or so games plus the playoffs. Also, the Cubs were way out of contention by late August of 2005. There was no reason for Ramirez to come back to play 5-10 meaningless games. Yeah, but 4 weeks is probably just for the injury. Then there's the rehab, the warmup assignments (probably not in the minors in Sori's case). That'll take a couple weeks too. Then you can't expect him to be real productive the first couple weeks back, because he's rusty. I dunno, I don't think it's as poor an extrapolation as you do. where are you getting 4 weeks just for the injury? I think when the team says "out for up to 4 week", they're including everything. Really? I never think that. It's almost always longer than the timeframe they give, and it's usually because the player still needs to work up to MLB-ready form after the actual injury.

That's a pretty poor extrapolation. First of all, Ramirez missing the rest of the season in that case is 5 weeks. That timeframe puts Soriano back for the last 15 or so games plus the playoffs. Also, the Cubs were way out of contention by late August of 2005. There was no reason for Ramirez to come back to play 5-10 meaningless games. Yeah, but 4 weeks is probably just for the injury. Then there's the rehab, the warmup assignments (probably not in the minors in Sori's case). That'll take a couple weeks too. Then you can't expect him to be real productive the first couple weeks back, because he's rusty. I dunno, I don't think it's as poor an extrapolation as you do.

Countdown to Hendry trading for Edmonds in 5...4...3...2... Oh, there's some tangible bad blood between Edmonds and the Cubs, I'm not sure how the fans would react to that. Didn't Edmonds say Wrigley is the worst place to play a baseball game in the majors? Countdown to interesting love/hate relationship development in 3.....2......1...... 8-)

ChicagoSports.com had a good point in their article today: ARam strained his left quad on Aug 24, 2005 and missed the rest of the season. I think Sori's done for the year, though nobody wants to go there. To me this is as crushing as the Lee loss last year -- people tried to show statistically that it could be overcome, but in the final analysis it still did end our season. Not saying the season is over, but what I am saying is that we will need more help from the Crew now. I don't see how you take your home run leader off the club and it makes no difference, regardless of where he is hitting in the lineup. And especially when the lineup is underpowered like it is. Eventually we're going to need to muscle up some homers @ Wrigley to win -- many days at Wrigley the wind will be blowing out and the team with more power will have a decided advantage.

It's not just a bad night. He's just not a real good baseball player, and I believe we've reached the ceiling of his potential. I'd be shocked if we got much more out of Pagan.

2 for 4 with a walk his last start, 3 for 10 with 2 walks since being called up. 2/6 with 2 BBs and a double in 2 starts. After last night, 1/5 in PH chances. It bugs me to no end that Lou didn't replace Soriano with Murton last night and that Murton will, at best, platoon in the OF even now. Didn't get the start against the LHP, didn't get to sub when the starter at his regular position got injured. I've joked before about what Murton must have done to Lou, but I'm partially serious. Matt must have pissed Lou off in some way. Maybe it goes back to the dispute over the change in Murton's stance/swing, maybe Matt said something to Lou or others about his reduced role, maybe Lou got beat up by a redhead when he was a kid and holds it against all redheads. I wish I knew b/c the complete lack of playing time for Murton defies all explanation, given the information I have. i think he still holds a couple dropped balls in the OF and a couple of base-running mistakes from April against him. They were bad mistakes, but not bad enough to villify the guy over. Especially considering other OF on this team have had gaffs too, and haven't been punished like this. Soriano and Jones in particular have embarrassed themselves on occasion. It hasn't led to purgatory for either of them. Murton is being treated unfairly, and IMO it's already hurting us and will continue to. I'm starting to think everyday Pagan instead of Murton could be the tipping point that sends us spiraling down in the standings. I know that's an extreme view, but I believe we've been teetering on the edge for a couple weeks now, scratching out a few wins to keep near the top in the standings but not making any real progress like we were before. It's something like this that could prove to tip us back headed down. IMO, of course.

The Ghosts of Cubbie past, I like it. Can we get '98 Sosa back to play RF too? 8-) I sort of felt it, too Derwood. I didn't pay much heed to the feeling until you mentioned it though. He pitched well. Let's hope he holds together.

The Brewers will block it. How? We are currently beneath them in the standings. Brewers couldn't. Cards could -- or one of the WC teams below us. I'm not going to get excited about a waiver deal unless the guy actually clears through first.

No. There will be a platoon at all three OF positions. Floyd/Murton in Left, Pie/Pagan in Center and Jones/DeRosa in Right. When DeRosa plays RF Cedeno will start somewhere in the infield. It's very logical. Logical, yes. Here's another piece of logic: if you're platooning all 3 outfield positions, it's because your outfield sucks. Inescapable logic. Gotta love it.

It's OK to stand pat, eh?

The last time Matt played didn't he have a good game? I seem to remember that he did. I thought Lou was all about rewarding good performances with more play time. Apparently Murton's not going to be held to the same standard as the rest of the roster. I find that to be unfair, and ridiculous.

Ouch! :!: Yeah, I think this is a disaster. I do. This lineup is so severely underpowered now. It's incredible. I think we'll start seeing the results in the W/L column at some point, sooner or later. And also, if they say Sori's out for a month, he'll probably barely make it back in for the end of September. That means he won't possibly be really ready for the playoffs if we did go. This is huge IMO. Is it? His hitting, especially for power, came in fits and spurts. This team, for better or for worse, has been mostly winning without a ton of home run power. I think the main key is still getting people on base out of the leadoff spot, and I don't think that's gonna be too difficult to beat THAT production from Soriano so long as they use Theriot and Murton or even Pie in the top 2 spots. We'll see. I think it's likely the major replacement ABs will come from Pagan, not Pie or Murton. I don't see how that won't hurt, if indeed that's what happens.

Ouch! :!: Yeah, I think this is a disaster. I do. This lineup is so severely underpowered now. It's incredible. I think we'll start seeing the results in the W/L column at some point, sooner or later. And also, if they say Sori's out for a month, he'll probably barely make it back in for the end of September. That means he won't possibly be really ready for the playoffs if we did go. This is huge IMO.

I don't see a problem. Just make Pagan the everyday LF, play Cliff most days, and when you need a righty throw DeRosa in RF and slip Font into the lineup @ 2B. Anything to keep Murton out of the lineup. But I don't think it will be hard. Also, they might bring Pie up, but what do you want to bet he'll ride the bench as a defensive replacement only, with only an occasional start?

Nice little run, game blowage by Ohman forthcoming.

"You don't need the money when you look like that, do you honey?"

Oooh, you are nasty 8-)

Fonty comes through. 5 -3 now!

Haha. Now I'm starting to question Lou. This is ridiculous we've faced nothng but lefties tonight and Murton never gets into the game at all? That's ridiculous Lou. I hope there's a reporter after the game that will call him on it. It's about time someone started taking him to task for this.

The term Good Sportsmanship comes to mind.

Well there ya go. Fans at Wrigley being very nice & decent. Good to see.

yep, even the hit was just a perfectly placed grounder, nothing more. wow we needed that tonight, it'll help soften the blow of Sori and the loss.