Sorry. By the "tattered remnants" I meant Wood. The nearly-glorious runs of both 98 and 03 spelled disaster for Wood (and also Prior in 03). A 4-man rotation with Marshall and Hill would only unnecessarily add many innings to the admirable season both are putting together very early in their careers. If the Cubs are more careful with them than they were with Wood and Prior, we could be looking at two dependable LEFT-HANDED starters that we don't have to pay Zito-bucks for. Let them pitch, but don't increase their workload.

I don't know about a 4-man rotation. Didn't we all witness, last night, the tattered remnants of the last time the Cubs leaned on young pitching to put us into the playoffs? And as for Jason Marquis, the guy is 8-7 and still has an ERA better than his career. Yes, he has been much worse of late, but who in their right mind would have thought Marquis would make it as long as he has with numbers this good (for him)?

And hey, as for Soriano, we get a rested slugger back in early September. It might be a nice boost once we get to that point. The Cubs have been doing what they don't usually do this year, and that is beat the teams they're supposed to beat and challenge the ones they are well-matched with. Remember last year? When we absolutely demolished the World Series Champions in the head-to-head regular season series? And lost to everybody else? How depressing was that? I don't mind what happened this past week if we continue to beat the teams we are supposed to beat. Enter Houston.

I love Soriano, so dont get what Im about to say wrong.


But what has Soriano given us? Leads team in HRs? He hit 3 in Atlanta when we were ahead, thats all. His avg. has only been good on the road. More importantly, its hi energy and enthusiasm we are losing. So keep the guy in the clubhouse just to keep the team in good spirits.


Hopefully Patterson will look REALLY good.


And keep this in mind, we still have D-Lee and Rami. This is a good team and were in this race. And we get to beat up on HOUSTON this week!


How fun!

I don't think Lou will go to a 4 man rotation though it's a pretty solid idea. Worked out well in '89 when we went to a 3 man rotation for Septemeber of Sutcliffe, Maddux, and Bielecki.

Does anyone else find it ironic that on Kerry Wood's first game back, a significant injury occurs?

And I'm going to pull my hair out the next time Ohman gets into a tight game. He has had some of the most deflating performances this past week.

I say forget the "left handed specialist" role, quit playing the righty/lefty match-ups, and just give Wood/Howry the 7th, Marmol the 8th and Dempster the 9th. Maybe use Weurtz occasionally if those guys need a night off.

Eyre and Ohman should be relegated to mop-up duty, and should never see the field in a close game. Who cares if all of your releivers are right handed? Get the best pitchers on the field in clutch situations Lou!

Games can be won in the 9th when there is only a 2-run deficit, but not when it's a 5-run lead. If it's deflating to me as a fan, then I'm sure it is deflating to the players as well.

Think Lou would ever go with a four man rotation?

Patterson over Pie? I didn't see that coming.

Marquis line since the all star break

GS - 5, IP - 28, H - 32, BB - 14, ERA - 7.07, BAA .304

Uh oh!

DMac, i saw that as well on Cubs.com. I would rather see Pie.

Thanks for the updates Cory.

O-pla-de, o-pla-da, life goes on...yea, yea, yea, life goes on.

Was at the I-Cubs game yesterday they won 9-8, there 4th in a row to go 12 games over .500. They are now 5.5 games behind the Nashville Sounds,( the Brewer's AAA team is unfortunately REALLY good).

Highlights include Pie was 1-2, very impressive 3 walks, an rbi,and a run scored + he threw a guy out at home. Pie is now batting .359! He has been playing rightfield and Eric Patterson has been in center.

Patterson was 1-3, 2 walks,2 runs, and 2 steals(16), and is at .299.

Giovanni Soto went 3-5 including a HR, 4 rbi's, 2 runs, and is hitting .345

Jake Fox played left and went 2-4 with a double,a walk, and a run. He's batting .333.

Negative side the reason it was close is that Rocky Cherry continues to pitch like his first name and not his last. 1 inning pitched, 3hits, a walk, 0 strikeouts, and 3 runs. His era is now a bloated 5.89.

It's time for Pie in Chicago now! He has nothing left to prove here in Des Moines. Tragic as Fonzy's injury is I belive Pie brings electricity to the team and will excell this next shot he's given. I believe loosing Aram or Dlee would've been much more devistating.

Heard some reports that Eric Patterson is the one being recalled. Not sure of the validity of these reports

Jason, love the Byrnes idea, but his salary is pretty low this year and he wouldn't make it through waivers so it won't be an option.

Jason, I agree with you on Pagan, I will be the first to admitt at the beginning of the year I wanted Pagan as our everyday CF, but not anymore.

I also agree with you on the bullpen with the exception of Ohman's performance last night, that sucked, really sucked. If Wood can stay healthy, he showed last night what he can do to help this bullpen (Reyes looked absolutely lost on that strike three slider by Wood) I missed seeing that all the time.

I do have to disagree with you on DeRosa, Theriot, and Fontenot, DeRosa IS an everyday major league starter. He hit ALL last year with Texas and so far with us he has done nothing but produce, he is hitting .286, I'll take that any day.

Plus when Ramirez went down, wasn't it those three (DeRosa, Theriot, Fontenot) who stepped up and kept this teams head above water? I know Fontenot has came back down to earth, but he is still hitting above .300.

I think this team can stay afloat untill Soriano comes back, but I wouldn't be against a trade either, I would have liked Hendry to make a deal at the deadline. Also lets not forget we get Ward back this month, that will be another lift for the stretch run.

Byrnes isn't going anywhere and an outfield of Murton Jones and Floyd isn't going to cut it. The best it can be is bring Pie up and play Pie and Pagan in center. Derosa Floyd and Jones in left and right. In any case this takes more punch out of a power challenged offense that is putting pressure on an average starting pitchiing rotation. A waiver deal to outlast the Brewers may be needed (ouch do you hock the future with an ownership change coming)) The best solution Dye likely would not clear waivers, wouldn't be offered to the Cubs and would cost prime prospects. Anybody for Sammy and the boom box? Reggie Sanders has no power but is an upgrade. If they do nothing hope that the last two weeks of September mean something.

Offense is more my concern. Eyre has been regaining his form, and the rest of the bullpen is largely fine.

You need to avoid having Pagan starting in a Soriano-less lineup. Pagan is a backup...it irks me that he starts even when Soriano is available.

Also...can't have Theriot, Fontenot, and DeRosa all in the lineup at the same time...too unreliable, and still unproven as starters over the long-haul.

I think you have to do these three things:

Jones in CF, Murton in LF, Floyd in RF. Bad defense, but you have professional hitters there at least.

Pie in CF, Jones in RF, Floyd/Murton in LF. I would put Theriot in the leadoff spot here, with Pie in the #2 spot...I liked how he looked there earlier in the year.

Make a smart trade for a quality (not Phil Nevin-esque) player, such as Eric Byrnes of the Diamondbacks. The D-Backs just called up their young phenom, Justin Upton and they are likely not resigning Byrnes after the season, because of Upton, Chris Young, and Carlos Quentin at the OF spots now. Quentin is currently hurt, thus the Upton callup, so any trade would have to yield the D-Backs another OF, plus likely a good minor-league pitcher. My guess is Matt Murton plus a Petrick/Cherry type of pitcher may do the trick, although the DBacks may be more interested in a pitcher projected as a starter in the future (their rotation is questionable and aging).

I would do this in a heartbeat...AZ fans would probably lose it, as Byrnes is popular, but if they won't resign him, getting quality (and less-expensive) pieces in return for Byrnes will be hard for DBacks ownership to pass up.

Losing Soriano really sucks, but good teams find a ways to win, when both Lee and Ramirez went down, we had people step up and we won. I think losing Lee or Ramirez would have been a lot more devistating than it is losing Soriano.

My linuep Card would read this:

Theriot - SS

Fontenot - 2nd

Lee - 1st

Ramirez -3rd

Floyd - LF

DeRosa - RF

Pie - CF

Kendall - C

Pitcher

Lee looks like he might have found his power swing, and Kendall looks like his bat is starting to warm up (thank goodness).

We only play four teams with an above five hundred record the rest of the year, lets keep the winning ways going, and hopefully Soriano is bak in time to help us sweep the brewers at the end of the month.

The Cubs are now forced to play smart baseball and make some moves. Now, more than ever, with one of our top RBI producers out, we need not just offense, but reliable bullpen arms. Wood looks great, but it was just one outing, so we'll see how he does next time out (if he does as good as he looked, we'll have two quality arms in the pen). Howry, I can deal with, same with Wuertz. And Dempster is great as a closer, but not in non-save situations. Eyre and Ohman are worthless.

My idea: Mike Myers just got DFA'd by the Yankees. Why not make a move for him? You could throw in a Double A or Single A guy (maybe part ways with Petrick? Not sure) and maybe package Eyre or Ohman in with them and obtain a lefty who's pitched in a tougher offensive league and has an ERA under 2.5 (better than any non-Marmol pitcher in the pen!). Even if Pinella doesn't use him correctly, he'll still benefit us plenty, giving us a reliable lefty that's been criminally misused by a team that is getting rid of their best pen arm.

2-4 weeks, we are looking at the rest of this season

what a loss