Cherry Pie at HoHoKam

Pie sucks...cubs have "clearly soured on him" :)

http://thecubreporter.com/2008/03/24/gameday-open-...

I would say he had a rotten outing but maybe that's the new mediocre.

Dempster's outing:

1st inning (15 pitches - 10 strikes): Vazquez popped up P-8,  Benjamin blooped double down LF line (barely fair), Murphy lined a single to RF, scoring Benjamin, Hamilton flies out F-7, Byrd K-swinging

2nd inning (18 pitches - 11 strikes): Broussard singled to right,Saltalamacchia struck out looking, Fox singled, Broussard advanced to 2nd, Gabbard popped up bunt to pitcher, Broussard was doubled off second base 1-6

3rd inning (24 pitches - 12 strikes): Vazquez walked, Benjamin singled to right (hit & run) with Vazquez advancing to 3rd, Murphy doubled to left-center, Vazquez and Benjamin scored, Hamilton grounded out 4-3, Murphy advanced to 3rd, Byrd grounded out 5-3, runner held at 3rd, Broussard struck out looking

4th inning (12 pitches - 8 strikes): Saltalamacchia struck out swinging, Fox popped up to Derrek Lee P-3 behind 1st base, Gabbard struck out looking

5th inning (21 pitches - 11 strikes in 2/3 inning): Vazquez singled, Benjamin 5-3 sac bunt, Murphy walked, Hamilton line single to left, scoring Vazquez, Murphy to 2nd, Byrd flied out to RF, Murphy advanced to 3rd, Broussard walked, loading the bases

Dempster left the game with the bases loaded and two outs. Marmol then struck out Saltalamacchia looking to end the 5th inning.

AZ PHIL: What's up with last year's AAA MVP, Gio Soto?

Has he forgotten everything? Was last year a total fluke?

Is his "girth" getting in the way again?

so what day this week will we see more roster cuts

or

the movement of cedeno of roster

i agree with the eman about soto have heard squat about the catching
dont remember where lou has talked about it but soto is
starting to worry me not to mention the backup we have
medoza line blanco

Is anyone up?

Baseball! Baseball! Coffee... coffee... Baseball!

Cubs "team" link goes to: "View From the Bleachers"?

So I tuned in to ESPN2 to watch a little real baseball this morning before going to work. I was a few minutes early and caught the end of some fantasy season preview show. Some fantasy "guru" (Eric something) predicted that K-Pat's reunion with Dusty would result in a 30-30 season. Hee-hee.

Submitted by The E-Man on Mon, 03/24/2008 - 9:28pm.

AZ PHIL:

What's up with last year's AAA MVP, Gio Soto? Has he forgotten everything? Was last year a total fluke? Is his "girth" getting in the way again?

===================================

E-MAN: Geovany Soto has been in a hitting slump all Spring. Every now and then he hits the ball hard somewhere, but his swing looks slow. Truth is, he looks to be out of shape, like he came to camp knowing he had the starting catcher job in the bag and didn't have to work anymore.

Fortunately, Henry Blanco is having the best Spring of his career. He's hitting rockets all over the place, and is really turning on fastballs and ripping them into LF. He's also making great throws to second base. Blanco played in the Venezulan Winter League, and after a slow start, he got hot at the plate the second half of the VWL season, and he threw out 10 of the last 20 runners who tried to steal against him in the VWL.

Carlos Marmol came to camp in virtual mid-season shape, having been pitching in the Caribe Championships just before the start of ST. But his command has been terrible, and from his body language on the mound you can see he's pissed off about his performance. Marmol did come into the game with the bases loaded and two outs in the 5th and struck out Jarrod Saltalamacchia yesterday, though. And that's what Marmol (and Wuertz) do best... come into a game with men on base and leave the runners stranded.

Speaking of Michael Wuertz, he looks great. He's throwing strikes and his slider/spliter has been dropping a foot.

Rich Hill has been getting progressively worse with each outing. He can't throw strikes, but it looks to be a mental thing. He went through all of Spring Training a year ago without walking anybody, so he could turn it around at any time. The only question is when.

Sam Fuld looks like a deer in headlights. He's been facing many of the same pitchers he saw in AA, AAA, and the AFL in 2007, but instead of using the whole field, he's been rolling over on everything. For some reason, he's really pressing.

Conversely, Felix Pie is playing with self-confidence and looks like he belongs in the big leagues. He's had some good swings against LHP, too, although he's usually dead meat once he gets down two strikes to a lefty. One thing Pie has beeen doing lately is that he's been bunting for hits when he faces LHP  I've seen him drag bunts past the mound where the second-baseman has to field the ball, and I've also seen him put it right up the third-base line. So he apparently has been practicing his bunting. Fortunately, he gave up that stupid wet-newspaper shortened swing they tried to get him to do, and now he's hitting ropes again. He'll eventually be a 20 HR guy as he gets older. And watching Pie run the bases is like watching the Kentucky Derby. He REALLY motors around the bases. Too bad he struggles so much reading pitchers' moves when he's on 1st base.  

I like what I've seen of Kevin Hart, but he doesn't have his best stuff when he throws two days in a row. I would say he should be used for maybe two-innings when he pitches, but then have at least one day off between appearances. I believe his future will ultimately be in the starting rotation, alhough probably not this year.

Kosuke Fukudome is the best defensive RF the Cubs have had in years, and he is fast and is an outstanding base-runner. But the fact is, he has struggled against MLB-quality LHP. If I were the Cubs, I wouldn't be too quick to dump Matt Murton. I hate to think Fukudome is a $12 million dollar a year platoon RF, but he just might be (still TBD). 

Ronny Cedeno has been hitting the ball VERY well lately, and he's going deeper into the count and taking walks, too. But he is dumb as a post, and makes too many mental mistakes (especially on the bases), and Uncle Lou HATES that (see Michael Barrett). So with Ronny Cedeno out of minor league options, I fully expect him to be traded sometime this week, either as part of a multi-player package for Brian Roberts, or for a right-handed hitting 4th OF (like Rajai Davis), or for a veteran switch-hitting middle-infielder (like Felipe Lopez).

according to rotoworld, BRob is out with a weak back...Scott Moore is replacing him at 2nd and batting leadoff.

"when did he get traded? About a week back."

http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/sports/roch/blog/2...

ta da boom

Thank you, AZ PHIL.

Your comments regarding Soto are along the lines of what I had thought, but living in Chicago I have only seen him during last season in-person.

IF he is slow in your neighborhood, I will not hold my breath that he will meet the expectations of BP, PECOTA, et. al, when he arrives at friggin' freezing Wrigley.

Unfortunately, as you have pointed out many times, a "complete package" catcher is not a position we are deep at now.

This may be 3/44, but I read a pretty detailed piece on Reed Johnson in the Globe and Mail.

Here is an interesting quote from J.P. Riccardi:

"It really just came down to what we thought was the better offensive player. We're going to miss Reed's defense and we're going to miss a lot of grittiness about him, but at this point, we decided to go with offense over anything else."

So, if indeed Hendry were to sign the player, he'd add to the "grittieness" of the team, and still hit .240?

Is this any better than other CF options we have already (other than "Deer in the Headlights" Fuld).

person states that a "contract has been offered" to agent of Johnshon's.

If signed, does Murton stay up?