vance_the_cubs_fan

Does anyone know where I can get a complete roster of both squads?

Gagne is a rental, so the Rangers will get less for him than if he were signed to a multi-year deal. I wouldn't give up Marmol for him unless they took Jones and all of Jones' salary in return.

While Petrick doens't deserve to go down, these type of bullpen moves happen all the time. Petrick will likely be back when the Cubs need another arm. Petrick wouldn't have been available today and we needed another arm. He had options, so he's back down. I'd prefer it have been someone else, but I saw this move coming after Rich's short outing yesterday.

More from the game notes....

Game Notes.

I love how the question is phrased. Not an ounce of bias in that, is there? It would be better phrased, "I'm using this poll because I'd like to see how many people erroneously are eager to see Sori stop leading off."

Wood? Is that the 2008 bullpen?

I guess I don't see anything or any reason to find something positive out a 3 IP, 5 H, 5 ER, 2 BB line.

Dunn!!!!!

That would be the way to go.

I wouldn't mind Gagne, but it's hardly our most pressing need.

And Gonzalez pops out to end the game on a change-up by Hoffman.

With two outs in the ninth and the Dodgers trailing by one, Kent doubles. Gonzalez now up with the game on the line.

True, but it seems that too often the moment has passed when Len gets excited. If the ball is landing at the same time your call reaches it's crescendo, the moment is ruined. The excitement of the call comes during the time between contact but before the moment it becomes obvious to the fan at home that a HR has been hit. Once I can tell the ball has left the park, the call is largely superfluous. But at the same time, I hate it when I get excited over nothing. It's a fine line. Just because we hate Chip doesn't mean he didn't actually have some good points. But if we want to talk about announcers who were premature on homer calls, Harry put his grandson to shame. I love Len Kasper much more than Chip, and his call today was spectacular. Yeah, but when I've left the room to use the john, I'd rather the HR call be a bit late than to get me all excited that I start to try to wrap it up only to find out it was a shallow fly ball to the left fielder.

Floyd is hitting 304/379/424 right now. That's acceptable for RF, but he's bad defensively out there. I also worry about his ability to hold-up over the long haul. But with DeRosa's ability to play RF, I'm not sure we need a new RF. If a nice option presents itself, great...but we may be ok there. If DeRosa is playing some RF, I still think SS is the place to look. Fontenot can play there some, but he can also play 2b when DeRosa is somewhere else. Theriot is fine as a bench player, but isn't an everyday option. Izturis is wasted roster space. I'd personally like to see us look for an upgrade at shortstop and get rid of Izturis. Giving Ronny another shot might be prudent, but I'm not sure if we can risk giving him the at bats needed while we're fighting for a playoff spot.

If we're going to give up Marshall, it might be nice to get a pitching prospect back from the Braves. Dan Smith is likely off-limits, but Jo-jo Reyes or Matt Harrison could be a possibility.

Nomar scores on a ground out by Kemp. 7-5 now.

Padres leading the Dodgers 7-4 in the bottom of the eighth.

Len IS awesome. Len is awesome. But I didn't totally dig this call. He had alot of energy, AT FIRST. But then his kermit the frog voice wasn't able to support his emotion and he lost some of the, depth of his voice. And the "oh baby" just didn't hav the "oomph" that I would expect out of a follow up phrase. 8.5 out of 10. I'm still remembering the Walker superman slide and Chip's call. That imo, was the best TV cubs win call I can remember. Say what you want about chip, but he called a GREAT homer, and great win. i disagree 100%. len is amazing and that call might be my favorite cubs tv call ever. len sounded 100% genuine in his excitement. DEEP LEFT CENTER!!!! CUUUUUUBBBBSSSS WIN!!!! It was truly awesome. I must have watched it 15 times on my DVR. I love Len, in spite of the fact he sometimes doesn't recognize a homer until it is in the stands. Chip had a better voice and had one of the best home run calls around. Having said that, Len seems to care a lot more, knows a lot more and is generally awesome. Len FTW. Len is so much better of a pbp guy than Chip, it's really insulting to Len to compare the two. It's like comparing Vin Scully to Joe Carter in terms of broadcasters.... To be fair, Chip was much better at recognizing homers off the bat and calling them. But that's about it. That's because Chip would raise his voice on a cheap pop up to shallow left. It made it seem he recognized the homer earlier, when in reality Chip used the inflection far too often. Len at least saves his excitement for when he is sure it is deserved. "SWUNG ON BELTED...and Eckstein makes the catch." BINGO!

Much better than Barrett. Fox's defense could be characterized as sub-Barrett.

Len IS awesome. Len is awesome. But I didn't totally dig this call. He had alot of energy, AT FIRST. But then his kermit the frog voice wasn't able to support his emotion and he lost some of the, depth of his voice. And the "oh baby" just didn't hav the "oomph" that I would expect out of a follow up phrase. 8.5 out of 10. I'm still remembering the Walker superman slide and Chip's call. That imo, was the best TV cubs win call I can remember. Say what you want about chip, but he called a GREAT homer, and great win. i disagree 100%. len is amazing and that call might be my favorite cubs tv call ever. len sounded 100% genuine in his excitement. DEEP LEFT CENTER!!!! CUUUUUUBBBBSSSS WIN!!!! It was truly awesome. I must have watched it 15 times on my DVR. I love Len, in spite of the fact he sometimes doesn't recognize a homer until it is in the stands. Chip had a better voice and had one of the best home run calls around. Having said that, Len seems to care a lot more, knows a lot more and is generally awesome. Len FTW. Len is so much better of a pbp guy than Chip, it's really insulting to Len to compare the two. It's like comparing Vin Scully to Joe Carter in terms of broadcasters.... To be fair, Chip was much better at recognizing homers off the bat and calling them. But that's about it. That's because Chip would raise his voice on a cheap pop up to shallow left. It made it seem he recognized the homer earlier, when in reality Chip used the inflection far too often. Len at least saves his excitement for when he is sure it is deserved.

Nah, I agree. The 2nd and 3rd weren't pretty, but he didn't allow any more runs and still ended up striking out 5. He kept the team in the game for the next two innings. I like Hill, but when a starter only goes three innings, there's nothing positive about that. I'm not going to go off on a Rich Hill sucks tangent, because that's ridiculous, nor will I question his desire or any overreaction like that. But, to try to put any positive spin on his start today is pretty silly. He was bad. Did he confine the damage to one inning? Yes. But he still pitched so poorly that he left trailing by a huge amount and forced the bullpen to be perfect. Had he given up five and then held the Brewers scoreless into the fifth or sixth, then more props could be given. But he got lit up, had another bad inning, and had to be lifted after only three innings. In no metric, no book, no where is that a good outing. Will he rebound? I surely hope so. But just because many of us like Hill, I think it's a bit ludicrous to try to say anything positive about this start. If Marquis lasted three innings while allowing five runs, I doubt anyone here would try to give him credit for throwing two scoreless innings after giving up five in the first. The simple truth: Hill sucked today. It happens to a lot of pitchers. Hopefully, Hill gets his act together over the next four days. I know he can do it, but he definitely wasn't a good pitcher today. Well put. Right, and I agree with Vance...this was a bad outing. But I don't see the harm in looking for any kind of upside considering the expectations we have for Hill. It's not like I'm trying to explain away how bad he was. But would you be looking for the same upside in a Marquis start? Did he really pitch that well for two innings? Are we really surprised that a pitcher held a team scoreless for two innings? Like I said, had he lasted into the fifth, then I'd be far more willing to give him props for getting his act together. But looking beyond the box score, he threw way too many pitches in two innings and therefore doomed himself to a short outing. He got lit in the first and then was far from perfect in the second. He flirted with disaster then too. It was a bad start. His ERA for the game was 15.00 or something like that. Hill is a better pitcher than that. But trying to find anything positive is akin to having a student miss every question on a multiple choice test, yet say well at least he spelled his name correctly and wow he makes a pretty "a" even if it's incorrect.

Len IS awesome. Len is awesome. But I didn't totally dig this call. He had alot of energy, AT FIRST. But then his kermit the frog voice wasn't able to support his emotion and he lost some of the, depth of his voice. And the "oh baby" just didn't hav the "oomph" that I would expect out of a follow up phrase. 8.5 out of 10. I'm still remembering the Walker superman slide and Chip's call. That imo, was the best TV cubs win call I can remember. Say what you want about chip, but he called a GREAT homer, and great win. i disagree 100%. len is amazing and that call might be my favorite cubs tv call ever. len sounded 100% genuine in his excitement. DEEP LEFT CENTER!!!! CUUUUUUBBBBSSSS WIN!!!! It was truly awesome. I must have watched it 15 times on my DVR. I love Len, in spite of the fact he sometimes doesn't recognize a homer until it is in the stands. Chip had a better voice and had one of the best home run calls around. Having said that, Len seems to care a lot more, knows a lot more and is generally awesome. Len FTW. Len is so much better of a pbp guy than Chip, it's really insulting to Len to compare the two. It's like comparing Vin Scully to Joe Carter in terms of broadcasters....

I think the bullpen can make it one more day. The off day on Thursday helps. Ohman, Eyre, Marmol, and Howry all should be available. I'm sure they'd prefer not to use Wuertz or Petrick, but could for an inning in a pinch. If Marshall can give the Cubs six or seven strong innings, we'll be fine. An early exit by Marshall tomorrow and the Cubs likely have to add a pitcher on Sunday. One option would be to send Petrick back down and replace him with Cotts or Rapada or another fresh reliever. I'm not advocating such a move, but it would be a possibility.