Tribune photo by Nuccio DiNuzzo
The Cubs didn’t want our weekends to end on a high note, lost to the Dodgers 8-2, splitting the 4-game series. It was over before the Cubs got to bat:
Juan Pierre led off with an infield single to short.
Rafael Furcal followed with a hit-and-run grounder into right field.
Orlando Hudson’s single drove Pierre home, and Russell Martin followed
with a broken-bat hit.James Loney singled before Marshall struck out Matt
Kemp. Mark Loretta drove 2 runs home with a double, and Jamie Hoffman
hit a sacrifice fly.“He didn’t use his breaking ball at all,” Piniella
said. “I mentioned that to our pitching coach. He didn’t use his
breaking ball at all in the first inning.”Kemp homered off Marshall in the third. The Dodgers chased Marshall in the fifth, scoring twice.
Even before Sunday’s game, Sean Marshall’s fate was written: back to the bullpen for you, big guy.
Although the final decision could be delayed until after this weekend, manager Lou Piniella made it official Sunday that Sean Marshall is headed to the bullpen.
“And the only reason being is it gives us a lefty with experience out there and it improves our bullpen,” Piniella said.
“I feel just as comfortable with Marshall in the rotation. The problem is you have to look at the needs of the team right now.”
With the failure and ultimate demotion of Neal Cotts, the Cubs were left without an experienced lefty in the pen. Jason Waddell is in the majors for the first time.
So what’s going to happen with the rotation?
Marshall could make one more start, depending on the health of Rich Harden (back pain) and the seriousness of the blister on Ryan Dempster‘s right middle finger. Dempster said the blister is getting progressively better.
“We’re either going to pitch him Friday or Saturday,” Piniella said.
“If he needs an extra day, we can give it to him. If not, we can pitch
him on his regular turn.”
Looks like offseason surgery for Ramirez:
‘I’m working to get the strength back and, hopefully, I won’t need
surgery,” Ramirez told the Sun-Times on Sunday. ”If at the end of the
season, if it is still bothering me, then I’ll have to do something.
But if I rehab pretty good, and everything goes well, then I don’t have
to.
”If I have to have surgery, I’m going to have it right after
the season. And I should be ready for the next season. I don’t know if
I’ll be ready for spring training, but I should be ready for Opening
Day.”There had been whispers over the weekend that Ramirez could be done for the season, but he shot down that speculation.
”No, I’ll be back on the field; I just don’t know when,” said Ramirez.
One more Rich Harden update, this one sounding slightly more positive than yesterday’s:
Rich Harden, who’s on the disabled list with a back
strain, played catch Sunday. He’s scheduled to throw off the mound
Tuesday in Atlanta, and he may be able to start next week in Houston.“Once he throws on Tuesday, then we’ll have an idea
where we’re at with Rich,” Lou Piniella said. “Until then, I think it’s
premature to even guess.”
And more Spellcheck/Vitters news:
eff Samardzija tossed a 7-inning complete game Saturday
in Game 1 of a doubleheader for Class AAA Iowa in a 5-2 victory over
Memphis. Samardzija is 2-1 with a 4.04 ERA at Iowa.
At Class A Peoria, third-base prospect Josh Vitters was
2-for-5 with a walk a double and the game-winning homer. Vitters hit
his 13th homer Sunday.
that is some seriously dislocated shoulder aramis has. whenever i dislocated mine, they just popped it back in, it was sore for a few days, and that was it. he must have ripped and torn all kinds of things.
I think he’s dislocated it a few times before and it doesn’t rebound like that anymore
I hope he hurries back
I think they said it’s the third time he’s done it in his career. He probably stretched, tore or ripped something, and I imagine they’re going to want to strengthen it so it won’t happen again.
last nights game was wholly depressing, getting into a 5-0 hole before you bat? that just sucks
oh right. i see.
i had a friend in college who did that a bunch of times. eventually, it would just slide out of the socket when he was like, eating cereal. you could tell because he’d turn completely green all of a sudden for no apparent reason.
the most depressing part for me is that i feel like there’s no fight in this team. it feels like they get down and then move on to “we’ll get ‘em next time.”
fight back!
I’m sure the team would disagree, but yeah, I totally get what you’re saying
sooooo, i just wanted to let everyone know, like i said last night, that were still in beta testing on this site, and we’re still working out some of the kinks, as well as adding new functions that you’ll begin to see in a little while.
with that said, if anyone is having issues with commenting, posting, logging in, etc., please feel free to shoot me and email and let me know. even if there’s just something you find really annoying–speak up. we can’t fix the kinks if we don’t know what they are!
thanks for hanging there while we build a new and better LOHO!
i’m sure they would, but then i would direct them to watching tape of LAST YEAR’s team.
to be fair, they did play like last year’s postseason team, so maybe if they make the playoffs this season they’ll play the opposite of this?
ha.
god, i wish that theory were true. but at this rate, i have my doubts about even getting to the playoffs.
playoffs?
PLAYOFFS?!?!?
every day I’m a little less confident of that too, I’m now below the 50% mark
it was so much easier when there were no expectations, then there was no disappointment
Seriously…
We need to get Michael Barrett back on this team…
Z needs to beat the shit out of him…
Then we trade him again…
And then we go to the playoffs.
This is very easy to figure out…so Jim Hendry needs to get off his fat ass and get this thing done.
hee. post of the day.
I know close to nothing about minor league player progression, but if Ramirez ends up being done for the year (yeah, I know he said he’ll be back, but I’m pretty sure Prior and Wood said that, too), do we call up Vitters, or is he not even close to ready?
Yeah, I was all set (after that massive two-game winning streak) to do a big post about the re-building of Confidence Island.
But evidently, construction has been delayed and is running massively behind schedule and over budget. It’s now looking doubtful that Confidence Island will re-open at all this year. We’re still targeting a soft opening over the All-Star break, with Grand Opening for the beginning of August.
The project is out to bid now, but there are all kinds of zoning regulations and the contractor seems to have some tax issues. It’s a mess.
Spellcheck threw a 7-inning complete game? Where does he pitch, Babe Ruth League?
Thinking out of the box, maybe Peavy can play 3B?
Somehow, I’m still confident in this team. I think Bradley will start hitting, Lee will hit better, Ramirez will come back, Soriano will start hitting, Soto will start hitting. Things will be fine, yo. Just gotta have faith-a-faith-a-faith.
Vitters might be a year away? I think they’d have to at least give him time at AA or AAA just so he could see some better pitching. I know absolutely nothing about prospects, but at best he’d be a Sep call up?
can we value engineer the cost down? we don’t need all the pretty finishes, I could give up a silver slugger award and a golden glove or 2, strip it to the basics, winning season, plans for a trip to the playoff for future expansion?
I don’t know about Soto coming around. I know flyball, you were shocked to see me pick him as the goat of the week, but he’s been struggle city. I don’t think it’s all him though, I believe his shoulder is not right and he’s playing through pain.
Millertime, I agree with you … Vitters is prob. a year away. He’s tearing it up, but needs some time at Iowa to make sure he can translate in the bigs. Good to see other people know about him though … it will be interesting to see how the Cubs progress with him. He’ll be asked about a lot come midseason and potential trades. It would take a mega-deal for the Cubs to give him up right now (i.e., Peavy).
how dare you sully george michael by associating him with this putrid team?
can we shut up about peavy already? we won’t get him, we don’t need him. how about we go and get aaron hill to play 2B instead?
That was more about Vitters … I just used Peavy as an example. I can change it, like there’s no way in hell the Cubs would give up Vitters to acquire Aaron Hill.
Besides, do we really want an all-Aaron team? We already have 6 or 7 Aarons, don’t we?
Hey everybody, don’t know if you found this yet but we’ve got a blogger who focuses on nothing but Cubs (and White Sox) prospects. He’s out with his Top Ten prospects for June…
http://www.chicagonow.com/blogs/cubs-white-sox-prospects/2009/06/cubs-top-10-propsects—june.html
i would be okay with getting rid of all the other aarons if we got aaron hill.
beat me to it! i was going to post that link as well. check it out everyone, it’s a great site.
can we keep Old Style?
“Spellcheck threw a 7-inning complete game? Where does he pitch, Babe Ruth League?”
It was a double header. I guess when they play double headers, they play only 7 innings each game.
They play 7-inning games for double-headers in the minors.
who’s Old Style?
Aaron Heilman
Oh shit!
http://www.joystiq.com/2009/06/01/see-the-first-beatles-rock-band-trailer-and-ludwig-drums/#continued
I’d bet Zambrano could play 3B.
Oh, I get it.