Jehrico

ITI? Let me know when a credible source reports it :wink:

Whooow calm down a little. :lol: I agree. That was absolutely uncalled for. Anymore of that, and I'm calling for him to be Banned!

One other thing I'd throw in there... STOP WALKING GUYS! I don't know off of the top of my head, but I'd bet that over half of the runs scored against us (i.e. most of them) are guys that initially got on by being walked.

My concern is Baker puts him in the starting lineup. When I saw both Bynum and Perez starting over Murton and Cedeno, I puked. :pukel: Murton and Cedeno started 26 of 27 games before yesterday. Dusty gives the a game off. Before the season it was Dusty doesn't play rookies. Now it's that he rests them? That's not the complaint. The complaint was he basically put a forfeit lineup out there. Resting them is fine. Do it on alternating days. Don't have both Perez and Bynum starting at the same time. If you have to rest starters and play crappy players, do it on a rotational basis.

Seconded. I'd take Baker over Baylor in a heartbeat, and I can't stand seeing Dusty in the clubhouse anymore.

CPatt is hitting a lot better than Jones right now. So is my grandmother.

Link. I don't know how much help they would be considering both of them have low .200 avg. So does Aramis...but you have to expect that their average will move towards the mean. But in these guys cases, the mean isn't that great either though...

Is he still alive? even at 60-70 years old, he may be the Cubs solution to no Left handed BP pitcher. Hell, he's probably better than Rusch, and would sign for less money! Put him in the pen as the long man!

First off, I'm not in favor of dealing Big Z. But, if I were going to trade him, the first question I would ask is "what could we get out of AZ?" Want young, cheap, impact bats? Superstar prospects? That's where I look first.

Not necessarily. You still have to have the stamina to keep pitching, or risk developing bad habits. It's not a matter of "switching" arms, it's a matter if he has the stamina in the legs to keep pumping. It's probably a little of both. Depending on the mechanics and style of pitching (finess vs power), there's probably a little arm in there. But you're right in that alot of people think fatigue is just an issue with the throwing arm for pitchers. For bigger guys, your lower back can fatigue too. I wish Prior and Wood were ambidextrous. The benefit for those guys wouldn't necessarily be going deeper into games, but rather, throwing with one arm while rehabbing the other!

I don't think it's necessarily nerves. He just hasn't regained his control yet, which wasn't that much better in Iowa. He may not have walked as many batters, but it resulted in a lot of deep counts and long ABs. Of course, he was having the same problem in the AFL. Guzman with the Cubs: 87 pitches, 52 strikes 104 pitches (yeow), 70 strikes total: 191 - 122 strikes, 69 balls Guzman at AAA: 85 pitches, 54 strikes 103 pitches (yeow again), 63 strikes 95 pitches, 56 strikes total: 283 - 173 strikes, 110 balls And here are Hill's numbers, just for the heck of it: Hill at AAA: 79 pitches, 54 strikes 91 pitches, 60 strikes 98 pitches, 61 strikes 98 pitches, 63 strikes total: 366 - 238 strikes, 128 balls That's about a 64% ratio of strikes to pitches thrown for Guzman, while Hill is at 65%. That's really not that bad of control on either part. I don't Guzman's problem is control, he can throw his share of strikes. He's thinking too much. When he gets ahead of someone, he starts picking the corners and missing. There are some momentary bouts of wildness, but overall, it appeared to me like he's trying to hard to make the perfect pitch with 3 strikes and he ends up running up his pitch totals and even giving a few walks away. Either that, or he's doing the same thing if he gets behind 1-0 or 2-0 in the count. I can't read his mind of course, but I think he's trying to hard to pitch like a finesse pitcher rather than pitching like a power pitcher with nasty stuff like we know he can.

Maddux got 5 starts in '86. He put up a 5.52 ERA with a 1.774 WHIP. Guzman's a little worse after his first 2 starts...5.91 ERA and a 1.96 WHIP. He's given up 7 BBs and 2 HBP in 10.2 innings. His control in the minors has never been that bad. He has so far shown an ability to strike out more than a guy an inning, even with the control problems. I'm attributing this to a case of nerves (that's built up over 3 years thanks to injuries) for the time being. I like the idea of reevaluating when Wood comes up, see if he settles down after his 2nd or 3rd start.

Please get rid of "K" Mabry while you are at it please. What do you expect out of bench players? I'm not crazy about his stat line either, but if he were good, he'd be able to start for someone like Pitt or KC.

I liked the last line of the article... “But now I’m completely serious. Now I can concentrate on other teams in other sports that have caused me pain and misery.”

What the hell is Rusch signed for? He sure looks like a LH BP pitcher to me...

Jim Edmonds?

Actually, I think the Unit has a couple of inches on him. Maybe little unit would be more appropriate? uh....nevermind...

As long as there are guys like Bowden and Colletti running teams in the Major Leagues, there will always be a market for guys like Rusch.

http://www.minorleaguebaseball.com/app/milb/stats/stats.jsp?n=Rich%20Hill&pos=P&sid=t451&t=p_pbp&pid=448179 He's been really good. Why not Ryu? He was battling for a job in the rotation this spring, and barely lost to Marshall. And what is the point of putting Rusch in the bullpen. Just get rid of him! http://cubswatch.blogspot.com I agree they should just cut bait on him. I'm hoping the reason they're holding on to him is they're hoping a Cards or Stros reliever goes down, and they need help. Offer him up to one of those teams (and pay his salary if we must). Don't need anything back, just promise to have them pitch him as often as they can possibly work him in.

http://www.suntimes.com/output/cubs/cst-spt-cub01.html At least they aren't putting up with losing this year this early, regardless of all of the excuses injuries bring with them...

I thought teams that were getting money from the revenue sharing had to put those funds back into the team. I don't see Selig enforcing this. Just another reason he should go...

Just for the record...I never implied I was in the least bit enlightened by the news...just that I wasn't going to be to sorry for him. His family, yes, but him, no. Ummm....do you not feel sorry for Kurt Kobain or Jim Morrison either? Lots of people do drugs. I don't get why how a person decided to treat themselves should have any weight on how you feel about their death. Its not like he hurt anyone else No, I don't feel sorry for them. It's not like I'm ridiculing anyone or taking pleasure in their demise, but when someone attains something millions of others only dream, and work incredibly hard to get but never do, and these guys subsequently throw it away like it's nothing. I'm not going to feel sorry for them. Don't twist it so it's like I'm taking some perverse pleasure in hearing their fate, not feeling sorry for someone in their time of (self-caused) anguish doesn't always translate to enjoying their downfalls. In Steve Howe's case, maybe it's a little bit of jealousy on my part. How many people would have given their first born to have what he blatantly threw away? Either way, I'm not going to apologize for being honest.

.240/.349/.437/.786, Choi's career numbers Can you reasonably expect Clark to do much better? Excellent point. I'm not advocating Choi because of his days as a Cubs' prospect. Right now the firstbase options that could be acquired are as follows: Carlos Pena, Tony Clark, Choi, Miekiewiwiwitiitititz, and Hinske. None of those really look too hot. Pena will become a FA if the Yanks don't put him on their 25 man roster by May 2nd. He might be available for free.

I remember way back to 2004: Vasquez, Brown, Mussina, Lieber, Loaiza. Not to mention Gordon and Rivera. But it sure would be nice to have our pitchers healthy all at once. I forgot Vasquez made it that year. It's actually kind of funny...he makes the all-star team his first year in NY, at the end of which he was basically run out of town for sucking. His only all-star appearance (thus far) was easily the worst year of his career.

Can anyone remember any team ever having 4 all-star pitchers in their starting rotation? I'm sure it's not unprecedented, but probably pretty rare. With Madduz, Zambrano, Wood, and Prior, we would have four former all-stars in our rotation. Dempster and Williamson would give us 6 former all-star pitchers on the team at once...that's alot to have on one team. If only we could get an all-star year out of all of them during the same year...