I think Gallagher will go 6 + tonight and be impressive. Two of his 3 walks will be to Bergman--which will show that he is smarter than he looks in the Cubs' site picture. He should be more relaxed and throwing a lot of first pitch strikes. Like all of us, I want to win this important game, and if we score 4 or more we will. It's time for Dome to drive in a couple, in addition to doing his table setting. And Edwards is due for a timely hit or two also.

For those of you interested in the Pie watch he finally got his first hit since being sent down and you guessed it.....it was a homer. His numbers now after 5 games are; 1-18(.056).190 OPB .222 SLG 4 runs 2 rbi's 2 walks 3 k's and 1 for 1 in steals.

He hit the homer off of ex big leaguer Brandon Duckworth.

Have not seen full lineup yet, but Soriano is out. Hoffpauir is starting in left and hitting 5th. Theriot leading off and Fukudome in the 2-hole.

Will post full lineup as soon as possible....

Id rather have Sori out than Derrek.

Derrek looked like he was coming out of the slump yesterday.

I like the idea of getting Soriano's legs two days off.

Tonight's lineup:

Theriot - SS
Fukudome - RF
Lee - 1B
Ramirez - 3B
Hoffpauir - LF
Soto - C
Edmonds - CF
DeRosa - 2B
Gallagher - P

Good AB Mr Fukudome.

Thats D-Lee saying, "Dont sit me!"

#11 for D-Lee!!! Fukudome with the walk!

First big league hit for Hoffpauir!!

SOTO!!! 34 RBI's leads team

What a Start!!! Hoffpauir gets his first major league hit and Soto drives him with another extra-base hit. How about Lou batting Hoffpauir ahead of Edmonds? Up 3, it's your turn Gally. Throw strikes!!

Have I mentioned I like Soto?

Well I do...I think I love him.

Gallagher must throw strikes...behind on the first 2 hitters. Cannot give these guys free passes

Theriot's the man!!! Sweet grab!

GREAT CATCH RYAN THERIOT!!!!

I was a Riot Cynic last year.....

but he is like an energizer bunny!! gotta love the guy's effort.

Another highlight reel catch! Awesome!

Never a doubt, Gally. But listen to Neil on not getting behind the hitters. Save your walks for Bergman. He sounded settled in on the last two hitters.

The Riot's base stealing skills are pretty sub-standard though... He is barely 50% on the success rate.... someone needs to teach him how to do it right

Pickoff doesn't hurt that much..mainly because Fuku gets to leadoff next inning instead of being on the latter end of an inning.

That was '07 Cedenoic Ryan...Goodness.

Ryan's whole baserunning/stealing tactics needs a lecturing.

Theriot was out...but did Chacon balk?

Who was the Cubs baserunning instructor that Lou brought in last year?

Bobby Dernier

That walk by Gally does hurt though. Instead of getting another waste inning with the pitcher leading off next inning, he burns through Chacon here with two outs. On a pos note, Gally's throwing his sinker in the low to mid-90's.

My bad. Not walk. The single by Towles.

Oh hell no...no 3 pitch inning PLEASE.

Gallagher's falling behind again....

It would be nice if the young old man would hit into a DP here.

Can't fall behind hitters....good job on Berkman.

Damn..This feels a little like last night.

Tejada and Lee...both on 0-2 pitches.

Time for the offense to wake-up and make Chacon work.

Matt...I was thinking the same...did not want to say it.

You gotta be kidding me....Lee made a very good catch, always does against the Cubs, and did not even realize that was the 3rd out.

Frankly,

This is a D grade performance for Gallagher. He has nice stuff, and might get it together...

but 8 hits, 1 walk (9 base-runners) and 4 ER in 4 innings is very mediocre...

There's no way to sugarcoat that.

Hey-hey, ho-ho Michael Wuertz has got to go.

Hey-hey, ho-ho. Michael Wuertz has got to go.

He'll get it together.

Great stuff. He just needs more confidence to throw it in the zone when he wants to instead of when he has to.

A comment filter?

wuertz got very lucky there that Houston
left chacon in there. He was awful.
Let's hope that chacon comes back to
earth now.

Baron...can't argue. Most of the damage the Astros did was on 0-2 pitches. Gallagher has to work on an effective out pitch. He left his curve up.

I agree neil.

Hoffpauir!!!great start for him on his first day.
Let's get some runs.

I fall asleep in my chair, and Gallagher starts hitting bats. It's my fault. Hey...Micah just got another hit!! Let the rally continue!

Hoffpauir has 2 of the Cubs' 5 hits...

what happened with the patience at the
plate??

I can't stand when we play Houston. These last two games have made me sick. It's like they're another team when they face these a-holes. I had no idea how much I dislike doughy Berkman, that frik'n college rah rah Pence, cocky a55 Tejada, and we all feel the same about Carlos Lee...and the dude I hate the worst didn't even pitch this series! Man I can't wait to leave this god forsaken dump they call the juice box!

I got a Soto-like feeling about Hoffpauir....

Interesting Stat..

In terms of pitches seen per plate appearence....

The 3 worst hitters on the Cubs roster are

1. Soriano - 3.54
2. Theriot - 3.70
3. DeRosa - 3.82

Every other regular on the roster is 3.92 or >

Here is the reference for above stats

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/teams/batting?team=chc&season=2008&seasonType=2&split=0&type=exp

The Cajun duo are starting to get on my nerves...

You would think that we would be ahead in a game where Hoffpauir has two hits and Berkman has struck out three times. Micah hits everything in spring training, endures an injury at AAA and takes advantage of his opportunity in the bigs tonight.

Hubert, in Theriot's defense that was a great catch by Berkman.

The lack of patience the past two nights is concerning. Chacon should not have made it out of the 3rd inning. He threw 27 pitches in the 1st inning and at the end of 6....just 78 total.

Also, if you guys think about it...the difference the past 2 nights is all of the extra/free baserunners. The Cubs have walked only 1 time tonight....Fukudome in the 1st. The Astros have walked 4 times and Berkman was hit by a pitch.

My main qualm with Fonty's AB is that he saw 6 fastballs middle-away, and he rolled over the 6th one trying to pull it. If he goes oppo, there's no problem there.

Theriot's contact was nice, however, the outs that are annoying to see Theriot make are when he flies out. He should be trying to slap it oppo or hit line drives.

On a positive note, Bobby is back to normal although he still needs about 3-4 mph to get his fastball back to normal velocity.

Hubert, I agree with all of your points. The book on Cubs' hitters appears to be throw the ball outside and let them pull a ground ball...either to short or to 2nd. When they all start going with pitches those balls they can pull will be there.

I really hope we can get to valverde tonight, we owe him big time. Common

I take it D-Lee doesn't want to take the first pitch to even see Valverde's curve/slider thing before he tries to swing at it...OO;

He should take a look at Rammy..

Their retread pitcher gives up only 5 hits in 7 innings and our up and coming rookie pitches poorly. Edmonds has to do a lot better with the bat or that experiment will have failed. And we have to keep our eye out for another consistently good starter.

Not going after Grienke is looking like a dumb decision now..

Oh one more I forgot...Valverde can go take a long walk off a short pier! Hopefully our boys use the day off to reaquire their patience at the plate!

as much as I dislike Dayn Perry, he DOES have some good points, and the dude actually did his research this time to back it up:
http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/8159418/Numbers-paint-a-confusing-picture-for-Cubs

I really think this is going to continue like this all year. We'll be unbeatable one week, then the next 10 games completely stink it up, then come out mediocre 6-4 in the next 10, then go 9-1, or 8-2 in the next 10 to be nearly unbeatable again, but this team will just keep teasing all of us fans into thinking they've got what it takes to win a championship.

It's almost like last year all over again right now with the impatience at the plate, and reverting to old ways. Last year was also similar in a way, in that Z would be unbeatable one moment, then Hill would have a great start, and get ZERO run support--ditto Marshall, then Marquis would lay a stinker, and we'd score like 8 runs.

Look, Dempster didn't pitch well the other day, but he also didn't pitch terrible. One bad pitch made all the difference, but let's face it, against a sub-par pitcher, we suck. Then, again, as was said earlier, we stink it up again against a career journeyman in Chacon. We light him up early, then we lose patience. IMO, it was almost as if the guys were impatient, because they ALL wanted to be the hero because we haven't been scoring many runs of late, and they see the other guys jumping on Chacon, and EVERYONE becomes impatient.

I agree with the comments about Theriot and Fontenot. I've never really liked Theriot's style much. When he first became the "flavor of the month", I thought he was in the mold of Eckstein---very scrappy player...But the fact is, Theriot has a big man's game plan in a little man's body. You look at him hitting, and there are SO many pitches that he could flip into the OF, but since he's always swinging for the fences it seems, he hits lazy fly balls instead. Additionally, when he's pressing to get a hit, he grounds out a lot. In a way, he's probably the worst .300 hitter in the game right now in that regard...ditto DeRosa.

That, unfortunately is why I hate to admit that Dayn Perry is actually right. Numbers don't lie, as the old saying goes, and numbers are NOT on our side at this point. Here's why:

1) Dempster, historically, will put up a plus 4.50 ERA
2) Lilly will do likewise, as history shows
3) Rich Hill is M.I.A.
4) Jason Marquis is dreadful
5) Gallagher is unproven, and threw almost 100 pitches in under 5 innings of work
6) Theriot is NOT a .300 hitter, AND will revert to his historical MLB and MiLB numbers of .320-.330 OBP
7) Fontenot is a mirror image of Theriot, only worse
8) Soriano will give EVERYONE fits by being on an unbelievable tear, then doing his best David Copperfield vanishing act in front of our eyes, just like the last few games when we needed him most
9) DeRosa is slightly more patient than Theriot, and will have a better OBP, but the two ground into so many double plays in CRUCIAL situations, that it's truly unbelievable---even more so for a supposed "speed-guy" in Theriot
10) Absolutely NO CF production offensively. The CF situation is becoming our 2B/SS situation of a few years ago, with the 3-headed all defense, no offense monster.

I guess I could throw in Howry's ugly stats, but it's really pretty minor, considering the above issues.

I hate to say it, but I don't know how you can fix it, to make it consistent. Remember, that is what matters most------CONSISTENCY. The Rockies and Red Sox had it last year, and that's what led them to the World Series...Who cares about playoffs. I mean, honestly, who gives a damn if we make it....If we can't be consistent in the season, how do you expect consistency in the playoffs?!?!?!? Remember the 10 game illustration I pointed out earlier? That's exactly what happened last year, and it's exactly what's going on this year, only we had a dreadful start last year---last year's on again, off again 10 game stretches came after the All-Star break.

Inevitably, we'll win more games than last year at the pace we're at, especially if Fukodome can rub off on the team with patience as he did with Soriano out of the lineup.

I still stand by what I said before...Soriano makes this team IMPATIENT, and drags it down. Some may say he carried us, but I say we would've won quite a few games when he first came back if it weren't for his dreadful fielding AND hitting. If you put Hoffpauir in there (though he was injured at the time), I wonder what production we would've gotten. I bet anything Soriano would've gone 0-4 tonight with 3 K's. Hoffpauir had 2 doubles in his first start.

Anyway, that's just my take. If Hoffpauir could remain healthy, I believe he has what it takes to be a VERY productive big leaguer...perhaps even bringing more patience.

It's just maddening to watch the team swing so irresponsibly at the plate like they did tonight, and it's because certain players are struggling, they think they have to be the hero. Lee and ARAM were struggling, and Soto and Soriano were hitting everything. Soriano and ARAM are struggling, then Lee figures out how to hit again, only to have ARAM be clueless up there, and Fukodome struggling, and an impatient Theriot before him, and all of a sudden, you have 2 outs with Soriano and Theriot before him, and he'd hit a single or double, and nobody would drive him in. If Piniella really wanted to shake it up, he would've put the hot hand---Soto behind Lee, with ARAM and Fukodome behind.

Oh well, lots of daydreaming before Friday, but with a struggling lineup, I'd like to see this:

Soriano (as he's not moving, let's face it)
Edmonds (to see better pitches and get him going)
Lee
Soto
ARAM
Fukodome
DeRosa
Theriot

Aaron:

The last couple of years you have spoken highly of Hoffpauir and I can see why.I actually can see Lou asking Fukudome to play CF and inserting Hoffpauir to RF. You brought up a list with a lot of negatives to happen which I agree with. I am not a Gallagher lover and I believe Derosa s/b a bench player. The jury is out on Dempster as a starter though. I like Lilly but I also squirm at the thought of Marquis.

Jim,

I forgot to add that I think the route to go is the minors, and not guys like Edmonds, even though it cost us nothing....

I say this, because that is 100% why we made the playoffs last year-----our system contributing with the likes of Marshall, Fontenot, Soto, Marmol, etc.

I believe you go with the hot hand, no matter what, but it almost seems that Piniella contradicts himself somewhat, as he waits entirely too long to sit struggling veterans in favor of Pie (while he was up), Cedeno, Hoffpauir, etc.

They also waited too long to put Ward on the DL, and we essentially were playing with a four man bench.

It just made sense when Johnson was scuffling to give him a break and let Pie have a few starts, but they didn't, and yet again, they mishandled a top prospect. When ARAM was scuffling, it would've made sense to get him a day or two off and insert Cedeno more. Ditto DeRosa in favor of Cedeno----that one was long overdue...as was Lee. Now we have a tired Fukodome. Hopefully the off-day will help us, but Piniella needs to manage the days off a lot better when they're struggling, because with Soriano back, this team has become a different animal. It doesn't feel like a team effort anymore with guys picking each other up and such....it seems to have become a situation where they're trying too hard to be the hero, rather than simply getting on base and and moving runners along.

Anyone else noticed this, or am I crazy?

I'm telling you guys...it's an entirely different team with Soriano in the lineup, and we've shown that. It's almost like when he came back, guys were looking for his power right away, and were simply spectators in the lineup, and when they realized he wasn't hitting, they all tried to be the hero. Then, when he started hitting again, they reverted to simply being spectators, and if you remember, most of the games we barely won, and it was due, in large part to Soriano.

Now, we're back to Soriano not hitting again, and everyone's being spectators again. When he wasn't on the scene, everyone did what they had to do to make this team win. It's just not a team feel, at least in my eyes right now.

Jim (TP) I was thinking the same thing last night. If Hoff continues to hit, it wouldn't suprise me at all to see Dome in CF.