CUBZ99

Its too bad Hendry didn't dangle Hill for Bedard over the offseason. Maybe the Mariners would be willing to trade him.

What is going on with Piggy this year? 8+ ERA :(

Hopefully some time soon he will learn how to throw strikes again. The Cubs could really use "good" Rich Hill.

Any bets as to how long it is before Fukudome plays CF vs. righties and Hoffpaiur(sp?) plays RF? This Edmonds experiment has to end soon. It is disappointing that every single person not named "Jim Hendry" forcasted that Edmonds was not going to hit, but Hendry still signed him anyways based on a gut reaction. Hopefully, Lou runs out of patience soon.

Don't know why he is throwing a pitch that high on a 0-2 count.

May want to update the title of the thread: This would seem to be one huge step for Cuban. Does anyone know whether this "approval" indicates that Cuban will no longer have to worry about getting a majority of the owners to let him in? http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20080513&content_id=2691506&vkey=news_chc&fext=.jsp&c_id=chc

Theriot stunk last year but kept his job with no threat of losing it to a younger more talented player. Reed Johnson has been allowed to fail repeatedly against RHP without a legit threat of Pie getting more time. Jason Marquis has been allowed to fail repeatedly, same with Howry and Eyre. And Jason Kendall was abysmal for months until the odd practice of September callups actually forced them to even think about replacing him. The fact that they are even considering Edmonds is more evidence that bad veterans are given priority over kids who need to produce. I cannot think of a better time to live through the struggles of a young kid than when you are scoring lots of runs and winning games, getting production from everybody else. Add in the fact that the kid plays better defense than any other option and will produce similar numbers against RHP than any reasonable replacement and you have a perfect situation for living with the struggles. I agree with not signing Edmonds for many of the reasons you stated. But I disagree with you regarding Lou's inability to get rid of unproductive players. 1. I know it is only the first month + of the season, but personally I'm glad the Cubs gave Theriot the job at SS. The Cubs have been getting way above average production from SS for the first month and a half of the season. I'm not saying it will last, but Theriot has been remarkably consistent so far this year. 2. In Marquis' case, Lou did bench Marquis for the playoffs and went with the more unexperienced Hill during the playoffs. So far this year we have heard about Marquis pitching for his spot in the rotation. 3. Eyre didn't pitch in a big game situation for a period of a month or so last year, until he finally got things turned around. Howry is the same this year. Lets not forget that Hendry is paying those guys $3-4MM to pitch out of the bullpen. I'm certain that Hendry has more control over who is on the roster than Lou does. One thing that bothers me about the Edmonds rumors is that this must signal that Lou doesn't think that Pie is going to put it together. It has been talked about for weeks that Pie may be in Lou's doghouse, and that Lou has been working personally with Pie on his swing. Hopefully Pie hasn't lost all his trade value if this is the case.

There is no way that Hendry should sign Edmonds, but if he does sign him I would like nothing more than for Edmonds to come in and hit .300/.380/.850+ and absolutely tear it up for the rest of the year. Stranger things have been known to happen. Of course I'm also hoping that I win the powerball this week.

Here is this little gem from Sullivan at CS.com :lol: Classic.

Sean looked good for most of the game today, but in the 5th it appeared that he ran out of gas. (From 94-97 in the first to 90-91) and he was getting less break on his off speed stuff. I'm guessing that was a product of sticking him in the pen for the last week or so. BTW was Sean throwing a slider and a curve today? He had some nasty offspeed stuff to start the game, and he seemed to be changing speeds very well.

Maybe they don't want Lou to yell at them?

Shark with 5 K's in 5.2 IP :shock: is that a professional high for him?

Theriot has a .389 OBP, I don't think he is going to be sitting anytime soon. There's no plausible reason for a 1.000+ OPS riding the pine for over a week, especially since during that time, Soriano and Ramirez have missed time opening up a spot in the lineup. Yep, but then again there was no reason to have Geo Soto rotting in the minors last year with a huge hole at our catcher spot. I'm not saying that Lou is making the right move, I'm just pointing out that there is a plausible explanation as to why Theriot hasn't lost his starting job yet. My guess is that if he continues to put up an almost .400 OBP he will remain in the lineup.

Theriot has a .389 OBP, I don't think he is going to be sitting anytime soon.

Looks like a busy day for Mitch Atkins. Hopefully they are not overworking him.

no, he hasn't. i don't think there's any doubt that he's out of the rotation...90% sure of that. and i'd say there's a very good chance he goes to AAA. he should have been left in for at least one more batter tonight. that's four starts in a row that lou has had a remarkably short leash on hill. it's as if it's 2005 and hill has never had success before. One more batter and the game might have been over in the first inning. Hill was terrible tonight. It is frustrating to see him struggle this bad to start the season. He was the one pitcher coming into this year that had the potential to be the good #2 starter on the staff. I agree with you that he is no longer in the rotation though.

:lol: :oops:

double post

I've tried nothing and I'm all out of ideas. ](*,) Soooo pissed right now. yep this sucks. I'm getting the same thing. Let me know if you find something that works.

I'd have been really worried if Lou started screaming obscenities when Pie hit a 3-run bomb in the 8th. Come on. You could tell they handled this differently than other Cubs homers. Everyone in the dugout, including the coaches, looked really excited about it. It was cool to watch. Sure it was different. He's a young player that hasn't had much success at this level. Much more exciting than a DLee HR at this point (unless it's a walk off or something). But WilcoFan's post is a little weird. Their reactions signal that they want him to succeed? Did anyone here really think Lou wanted him to fail? I think the coaches want him to succeed. I (and many others) just don't agree with the way they've been going about it. If this HR earns him more regular ABs, I think that's a pretty stupid reason to get more ABs, but I'll be happy that he's actually seeing the field rather than riding pine. For those that didn't see the game on ESPN, there were some very interesting comments by the ESPN announcers regarding Felix. According to them (not direct quotes), Lou loves Felix and thinks he has a chance to be a special player, so much so that Lou has personally taken it upon himself to work with Pie on his hitting in BP and is dedicated to seeing him succeed. I think that is why Wilco's comments are significant. After the HR and after hearing the announcers talk about Pie, it seemed like everyone was proud for Felix. Maybe Bruce can chime in and comment on whether the ESPN announcers were accurate or not, but, if they were accurate I think we are all misreading Lou's treatment towards Pie.

wow, did this just happen...if so, congrats!!! A little over an hour ago. Your doing the right thing by checking in on the game. Congrats.

It's easy to assert things. It's harder to prove them. Soriano's OPS+ over the past three years (05,06,07): 109, 135, 123 Murton's OPS+ over the past three years (05,06,07): 132, 104, 100 So a difference of 10 points a year on average in a stat that ignores Murton's strength over Soriano (OBP) and overvalues one of Soriano's strengths (SLG)? Sorry, even you trying to stretch the numbers doesn't help your argument. In 05 Murton only played 51 games to get that 132. We could play that same game with Theriot, and use his .934 OPS over 53 games in 06. Not to mention your argument completely dismisses any benefit of having a better defensive player or other tools, such as speed (SBs).

It's easy to assert things. It's harder to prove them. In this case it is easy to assert and prove.

No

Rosenthal's latest. Not that I condone trading Murton (especially for cheap), but I wonder what is the asking price the Cubs telling clubs who are interested in Murton? It should be very high. I'm not real big on the Cubs trying to trade Murton. He is cheap, and tremendous insurance in the event that either Soriano or Fukudome get injured.