Bleed Cubbie Blue

Thanks for

clarifying.

Days

It’s days not games. Dempster should be eligible to come back on July 18th.

Zorb - July 7, 2009 via mobile reply

Just heard this on The Score...

Marshall for a start?

CubsBullsBears - July 7, 2009 reply

I mean, Dempster hasn't been the greatest lately, but...

Hart isn’t going to be much better. Why not Marshall? He only pitched an inning yesterday.

Maybe he is out for his daughter?

GoCubbies34 - July 7, 2009 reply

Nah, don't think ya'd

get DL’d for something like that.

Which is why you make something up...

GoCubbies34 - July 7, 2009 reply

No, I meant

to say what Allie clarified below. If it is some kind of family issue (i.e. – death, sickness) they’d put you on the berievement list, not the DL.

If you make up an injury, you go with something less tangible.

Groin strain FTW.

AndrewJStone - July 7, 2009 reply

If the daughter had gotten gravely ill again

they’d do the berievement list.

You don’t invent an injury b/c of 1 bad start.

I haven't been following the situation, so haven't heard if she is still sick... but...

A player may be placed on the MLB Bereavement List if such player is unable to render services because of the serious or severe illness or death of a member of such player’s immediate family (spouse, parent, grandparent, sibling, child or grandchild) or a member of such player’s spouse’s immediate family.

If it’s been the same illness, why hasn’t he already been on it? Or maybe he just wants to spend some time with his daughter… I don’t know. I was just speculating really. He probaly just kicked something.

GoCubbies34 - July 7, 2009 reply

Hope he just kicked something.

Great right toe fracture?

How?

My guess?

He kicked something.

Can you kick a Gatorade cooler when it's on top of a bench?

maybe Zambrano kicked him so he could start early...

Or dropped

something on his toe.

Told ya midnight bowling was a bad idea.

like...

a DUMPSTER?

look at it… LURKING….

Somewhere, a Gaudin shivers.

lol

He

stopped a Jason Kendall liner w/ his foot. My guess is that is how it happened.

Slakkr - July 7, 2009 reply

yup. probably so.

Wouldn't they have known it was broken sooner, though?

Depending on where its broken

they might’ve thought he’d be able to pitch.

Sounds like our

arch enemy may be back

Looks like Dempster really gave it the once over too, it looks pretty beat up

how in the heck

did we pick the same pic?

Google

images is a wonderful tool. Plus, this one looked the most beat up (at least of those that didn’t have some legs sticking out of it). So it seemed fitting for this posting.

Soriano's ass

You stay classy.

http://blogs.chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sports_hardball/

According to the Trib blog

He broke it on Sunday when he went over the railing to celebrate the win over the Brewers.

Ross - July 7, 2009 reply

So Z tonight, Hart tomorrow

… does that mean Hart will be pitching against the Cardinals on Sunday?

Honestly...

I’d rather see my 5-month son pitch in that game. My stomach hurts already.

CubsGirl - July 7, 2009 reply

well, wait ...

wouldn’t it be Harden, Lilly, Wells and Z?

Good

Otherwise my Tums would run out.

CubsGirl - July 7, 2009 reply

Get Marshall ready for Sunday!

No they moved Z up a day so HE can start Sunday

Wells will start the other game. Z is pitching on 3 plus days rest.

Yeah -- just posted that above

Although, the way Z has been against the Cardinals lately …

Well...,

I don’t remember any great performances from Carlos on 3 days rest. Guess it means he’s due.

has he had ANY performances on three days rest?

I can’t think of any.

See, none were great.

hehe

he works better with long rest as we all learned on sept 14

jesus christos - July 7, 2009 reply

Yeah

thats just how I want to go into a double header.

Anyone else feeling a little nauseous?

Things were going too well the last week.

We need more DRAMA!

Mapmaker - July 7, 2009 reply

well, i like it...it isn't a major injury, and it gives another of our AAAA players a chance to shine

before the all-star break….they have done pretty well so far (Fox, Scales, Wells, etc)
what i don’t like is why didn’t they make the move yesterday….maybe trying to throw off the Braves….at least he won’t start against the Cards…

hopefully he can do something and we can get some trade value out of him

It's his push off leg...

…so it could be an issue for quite a while.

It all depends how bad it is, but broken toes can be very painful for a long time.

MPH73 - July 7, 2009 reply

not good not good not good...

unless he got run over by a car or as everyone is saying kicked something recently,

the injury has probably been there for a while, and it was decided to give him a break off of the foot…bad choice of words i guess

Yep.

Having had a hairline fracture in a big toe, I can confirm this. Hurts like hell, and took a couple months to heal.

Al Yellon - July 7, 2009 reply

ah, it's all a ploy to get Halladay

Well.

Now, maybe that’s worth discussing.

Al Yellon - July 7, 2009 reply

i'd just like to hear more about the injury before we jump to conclusions.

where did he get it…how severe is it? has he had it for a while?

I really doubt that it is

too late, there are 5 fanposts up already...haha

Vitters and the farm

wouldn’t be enough.

it would be more than i would pay

Vitters alone…maybe with some garbage is all that i would pay. i am excited about our farm for the first time in a while….may be because of the updates on here

Not saying I'd pay

that price… but that we just don’t have enough.

Halladay is going to be someone’s Hershel Walker. I can’t even imagine how awesome he’d be in the NL.

yeah....he has a lot of miles on that arm....that's why i wouldn't pay too too

much….especially in this market…the closer we get to July 31, the price will come down.

Wow. Hart.

I really, really hope our bats are hot for that game. I also don’t like the unneeded pressure to win the game tonight because who knows how tomorrow is going to go.

No dude

Hart should be used in relief. Marshall should start Saturday or Sunday.

then you lose your only lefty

for the Cards series.

This is the best move. Z gets an extra start (and rest during the break) and Marshall stays in the pen against the Cardinals.

Not a big deal — as long as Z and the Cubs win the Atlanta series tonight.

::crosses fingers::

on the bright side… mobile posting!

Emelie - July 7, 2009 reply

+1

Too much PDA on BCB today. :)

Wow that's too bad for Demp.

Toe injuries hurt like crazy. Hope it heals soon for him. Not crazy for Hart though. I would much rather see Sean pitching.

Jay Jackson!

thehat34 - July 7, 2009 reply

Neither he nor Coleman are ready right now

shame really.

Plus, Hart is already on the 40-man

don't we have like 2 slots open....at least?

Ryan F was just removed.

Baker

was added in his place. I do think we have two slots open.

Yeah... we were at 38 with Freel.

But still… those 2 spots can be precious. Gotta conserve them for later.

Plus... they probably don't want to start the options on a younger player like Jackson right now

i'm sure if we make any moves at the deadline, some of our AAAA players will be going

so it would free up slots. or we can finally dump Miles!

Gary Coleman?

Tootie?

digitalbenjamin - July 7, 2009 reply

I've had a broken toe.

They hurt. And I was just walking on it, not coming off a mound to throw to a major league hitter.

(I turned the wrong way and ran into the bathroom door frame. Curses ensued. Many, many curses.)

MN exile - July 7, 2009 reply

Z on 4 days rest, i don't know ...

Yeah, that puts HIM at risk.

It seems like they learned of Demp’s condition at the last minute.

Hopefully wont be out more than the minimum

15 days. That being said, this increases our need for either a lefty in the pen or another starter 9even a marginal one is better than Hart in my book) Sean Marshall is doing very well as a lefty specialist, but the cubs could also use him as a spot starter during times like these

Has Hart started for the Cubs before?

Who knows? Maybe he and Wells will lead us to the promised land.

Oh no! Demp out, and Z to pitch on short rest vs the Cardinals. Ugh.

regular rest against the Cards....short rest against the Braves

Z won't pitch on

short rest vs the Cards. He’s going on short rest tonight. He’ll be on regular rest for Sunday’s game.

Z is on short rest today

he will be on his normal rest for the Cardinals

Oh.... oh... gotcha. I don't know how I mixed that up.

Z on short rest

I’m thinking he’ll do well. In fact, the longer rest he gets, the worse he is. (I haven’t done research to back that up, by the way, it’s just my impression). I think he’s one of those guys who needs to pitch often to stay sharp. When he’s pitched on extra rest, he has too much strength and has trouble with his location.

Cubs just issued a press release

and changed it so the move is not retroactive to July 3rd and instead starts today (It’s the right big toe btw for anyone still wondering). I’ll try and post the link now.

Link?

Looking for it

Heard it announced on ESPN1000

Why would they do that?

He hasn’t appeared in a game that I know of since the 3rd…

There's no point

In making it retroactive if you think it’s going to take the full two weeks to heal anyway.

Hilary Lee - July 7, 2009 reply

Theres no point in giving away days

I just don’t understand, I guess.

Because the injury may take "4 to 6 weeks" to heal

because

that way he can be back in two weeks, instead of having to go on the DL for another two weeks.

According to (gulp) Steve Stone via Twitter:

I will revise the dempster injury to 4 to 6 weeks. Stay tuned boys and girls.

Arghhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Should add the need for a loogy just multiplied with Marshall

back in the rotation.

oh, crap

Oh crap...

Please don’t sign Pedro…Please don’t sign Pedro…Please don’t sign Pedro…

Oh snap, I had forgotten about that...

Don’t even bring it up in your deepest thoughts. Let’s all forget about it and move on. Let’s wish it away.

I don't really understand

why another team’s color man is all over Twitter about another team.

Yeah, and 95% of what he tweets about the Cubs is snarky.

yeah stoney needs to stop bashing the cubs everytime he can

messy divorce always leaves one snarky

Ivy Walls - July 7, 2009 reply

Who got the kids?

Zeke - July 7, 2009 reply

Really?

Ugh, that infuriates me. I would probably whip my phone against the wall if one of his snarky tweets found me when I was not in a good mood. Something about that guys just does it to me.

Because he still sports a [crush] for the Cubs

Text from Doctor

father is a physician and a huge cubs fan. sent me a text after i texted him with the news and the injury. he confirms 4-6 weeks.

CeePee17 - July 7, 2009 reply

ok

NOW we’re looking for another pitcher. We need a LOOGY so that Marshall can come back out to the rotation. Anyone know anything about LOOGYs who are available?

joe beimal

beimel*

ERA of 3.31, ERA+ of 131, WHIP of 1.408.

What happened to Waddel?

On DL with non-baseball-related injury.

It’s a mystery.

Hm

thats a bummer.

he would’ve been useful.

George Sherril?

available--contract is up after year.

but rumors are that andy mcphail is asking for a kings ransom

MandMexpress12 - July 7, 2009 reply

Pedro welcome to the Cubs

Again, I repeat:

Please don’t sign Pedro…Please don’t sign Pedro…Please don’t sign Pedro…

LOL

He might have 6 good starts left

Why not us?

I don't know if I want the baggage though...

What baggage?

(no really, i don’t pay enough attention to non-cubs baseball to know)

He's another player that would be playing under a microscope

and there’s enough of those on this team as it is. Not to mention the condition of his body.

On the other hand, he’s a pretty no nonsense kind of guy, and he was one of the players for the Red Sox that believed you either won or lost, instead of curses. So maybe that would be helpful.

Anyone who puts a Cub uniform

(unless their undertalented and “scrappy”) gets put under an unfair microscope.

I know he’s older… but if we can get 5 good starts out of him and those starts mean something… I"d go for it.

i don't think he brings baggage

he seems like a fun teammate to have over the years.

So what will Hendry do

1) Trade for a lefty reliever so Marshall can start
2) Trade for another starter
3) Try to solve the problem without making a move

My guess? Option 1.

He could bring up Fossum and start Marshall.

so, essentially, option three

Yeah.

is Fossum in Iowa?

I don’t read the minor league updates that thoroughly.

Yeah, there was a Fanshot a day or two ago.

Casey Fossum?

The man who throws the awesome eephus pitch?

MrNFL - July 7, 2009 reply

that's what I

would prefer. Marshall is a good pitcher, no point in selling the farm.

Or they could not worry about having a LOOGY...

…and bring up Jeff Stevens.

Gotta have the token lefty

otherwise Lou really will make Marmol’s arm fall off going to his security blanket

Well

hopefully Marshall will be somewhat effective. I wish we had something to offer for Halladay, but dont see it happening. And of course there is the Pedro Martinez rumor from a couple weeks ago.

ccav23 - July 7, 2009 reply

Aaron Heilman ?

I just died a little inside

-10000

With Guzman back

that might not be a horrible idea. Heilman is frustrating but he has pitched decently this year.

define "decently"

Decently for a guy asked to pitched the 7th inning

dont know the numbers but he strikes some people out and has a reasonable era if I recall. He has good stuff as well. Put it this way, he seems better than Hart.

Hart hasn't really pitched much for the big club this year

And (without looking at the numbers) Heilman walks too many guys.

so does hart

thats always been his downfall.

he’s got a great cutter… but he’s doesn’t throw enough strikes.

fair point

Boy, Z needs to come up big tonight.

he's gotten lucky

Do you know what his ERA is?

Take a wild guess without looking it up. Because its pretty much the definition of “pitched decently”

i would assume it is somewhere between 4 and 4.5

Good assumption.

And if the criticism of Heilman on this page were to be believed, you’d probably be right, maybe even on the optimistic side.

But its actually 3.76

ERA for relievers is misleading.

Heilman has let a lot of inherited runners score – those runs are charged to the preceding pitcher.

its not misleading if the question you're using it for is:

How many of his own runners is he likely to let score? That’s what matters in assessing the chances he could do well as a spot starter.

With a 1.57 WHIP, I'm going to say: Many.

This

his 7 day splits

mind you, that’s only 3.2 innings — has him with a 1.091 WHIP and a 2.45 ERA.

But that’s a really small sample size.

actually

out of 17 runs scores on Heilman, 16 are earned. It’s the 23 walks in 38.1 innings that’s the real issue.

Doods got an ERA+ of 117.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/h/heilmaa01.shtml

or am I reading it wrong?

reading that link

(thanks for that btw)… he’s seems to be getting some really awful luck. BABIP of .318

That… seems high.

I thought you just said "he's gotten lucky"

There are many kinds of luck involved with pitchers that statisticians try to quantify.

BABIP is one type; he seems to be maybe a bit unlucky with that (but not that terribly unlucky). Another is strand rate — how many of his base runners are stranded, as opposed to scoring. His strand rate is pretty high, and unless he starts striking out a lot of batters that is probably unusual (or it means other pitchers have been cleaning up his messes). He’s given up a pretty low number of home runs this year — batters’ fly balls off of him are going for home runs at a lower-than-usual rate and infield pop-ups at a higher than usual rate.

Overall, you wouldn’t expect someone with his K, BB, and HR numbers to have such a good ERA, and you wouldn’t expect his HR totals to be that low. You definitely don’t expect someone with a WHIP like his to have a remotely decent ERA (unless that guy is Carlos Marmol).

aldimond - July 7, 2009 reply

No, you're reading it right.

But he’s given up almost a hit an inning and has been walking guys all season. I’m just not a big Heilman fan. Then again, I’m not a big Kevin Hart fan either, but I understand Hart was pitching better in Iowa this season. I guess I’d just prefer to leave Heilman in his set role and give Hart the shot, assuming Marshall will take over thereafter.

assuming Marshall takes over

then I agree. But if he doesn’t…

Hart still walks too many guys

52.1 IP 20 BB.

Not as high as I expected.

I think

it’s three something.

3.76

Yeah but his WHiP

is 1.57

and he has been better lately it seems. Id give him a shot over Hart.

I guess that's a possibility.

Not a very exciting one.

The Aaron Heilman Sucks Fanclub disapproves of this message

but understands the logic behind it. He was decent in ST as a starter.

Was he?

Very much so, yes.

As much as it pains me to admit it. Look it up.

What?

This morning I had tickets to a Zambrano game, and now I have tickets to a Hart game?
…ugh, I want a refund. Now I gotta find a new sig.

Anyway – best wishes on Dempster healing quickly, and on a ‘mirac’ from Hart. Go Cubs

redivycubs - July 7, 2009 reply

You know

there are, like, a whole team of guys that plays, and not just Z, right?

Yes

At least I should get to see Ramirez play this time around.

redivycubs - July 7, 2009 reply

I sympathize

But I’m going tonight, and I’d rather see Z than Dempster. So I got the best of things.

BTW

the press release is wrong. His DL time isn’t retroactive to July 4.

+1

I posted that above as well

retroactively

natch

huh?

you posted the retroactive change

retroactively. :D

Haha ok I gotcha

Sorry I feel like I’m in slow motion today, I’m about to fall asleep at work. This game needs to hurry up and start already!

whoops sorry i didn't see that.

Can Soriano pitch?

sarcasm

can he hit?

He's got an arm...

Looks

like he’d have a mean two-seam fastball

damn....just behind you on this one...

Soriano has a good arm....why not try him out?

at least get something out of all those millions

would we bat him 9th?

It'd be just like having a second leadoff hitter!

Oh wait…

Chris Dobbertean - July 7, 2009 reply

clearly, this isn't as big a deal as the Ramirez injury

… but it’s extremely frustrating that we lose one of our top starters the day after the team finally got healthy.

The story of our season.

still ...

I think we can get through this.

I agree

The Cubs should skim again, going 3-3, and staying at the mean for the season.

It better be a baseball related injury

If not, they better start giving out steel toed boots for guys to wear when their not on the field!! We had the the whole team together for one damn day!

Score is reporting it's non-baseball related

If he caused this himself by kicking something

Then perhaps he shouldn’t be paid for his time off.

jerry morales rules - July 7, 2009 reply

Jumping to conclusions

It could be a lot of things. Stubbing his toe last night to go to the bathroom for instance.

Which is why I said "kicking something"

Accidents happen, but if this is the result of stupidity or carelessness, I don’t want him around.

Athletes are paid for what their bodies can do. When they abuse those bodies, they are useless.

Oh FFS Worf

Demp's a pretty smart guy.

It was probably an accident.

I agree.

I stubbed my toe yesterday playing hide-and-seek with my son; I’m pretty sure it’s broken. Today I don’t want myself around. I’m totally useless.

ScottieG33 - July 7, 2009 reply

Oh good grief.

I do that nightly and have never fractured a toe

well

obviously we need more Cubs pitchers to take dumps like you.

Drew.......

you are so clever I can’t stand it

besides Drew I'm not go to the bathroom........

when I can’t sleep I get up and read your insightful posts

Clutche

Babbling Curse

I’d say worse, but I’ll be told to be nice.

No Dan..........

you’re a kind and gentle man respected by all

or some that don't throw tantrums

Dude

Seriously. 3 comments? Trying to catch up?

GOD NO.....

if there is one person I don’t want to emulate that would be Drew

then make your snark and MOVE ON

you’re killing my z mojo!

Three posts to make a joke

= NOT FUNNY!

I knew it one too many as soon as I hit the post button...damn

That you know of

Ever gone out the next day and tried to throw a 94 mph sinker?

"It's a jump to conclusions mat!"

JUMP!

This idea

it is horrible.

somebody posted earlier that Dempster got hit in the foot by a line drive

I’m guessing that’s it.

I don't think so.

That happened a few days ago – why would this just be coming out now?

you're right. WGN reported that it was non-baseball related injury

actually i heard it from WSCR, who got it from WGN.

ha

This would truly be a soap opera season if we signed Pedro Martinez.

LOOGYs are cheap

Look how long it took to get Ohman and Beimel signed this winter. I think the best course of action is to try and get a cheap LOOGY from someone to bump Marshall to the rotation. We are only talking about 5-8 starts missing from Dempster here. How about John Grabow from Pit?

CeePee17 - July 7, 2009 reply

John Grabow, George Sherrill, Ron Mahay, Doug Davis,

possible names?

Isn't Davis a starter?

yeah Cubs can trade for Davis and keep Marshall in his bullpen role

now THIS is something I can see happening

is that sarcasm? i honestly don't know

no -- I could really see us going after Doug Davis

Makes a lot of sense, actually.

3.15 ERA, 144 ERZ+

has he simply been unlucky to go 3-8?

D-back offense is terrible.

might make him cheaper

looks pretty unlucky to m

at least to be 3-8. Thats a lot of losses with a low ERA

Just like Randy Wells! :P

it almost makes sense

maybe.

Oh, I see.

Well, Davis did pitch well against the Cubs this season.

No way your're getting Sherrill, he's their closer now.

13.5 GB

That’s why he’s available.

Yahbut

The O’s could be contenders next season with Markakis and the new kid they brought up and their CF… Nevermind, the AL East should just be those two a-hole teams. Move the rest of them to the other divisions…

Um no

but making up the difference in talent between the O’s and the Jays, Yanks, BoSox, and Rays…. thats a lot.

If they can sell Sherrill and get something… they might do it.

As someone who sees the O's in person a lot...

I agree…the talent gap, particularly on the pitching side, between them and the other four teams in the division is more like a gulf.

Chris Dobbertean - July 7, 2009 reply

i'm not saying that this is exactly what's gonna happen but

from mlb.com
George Sherrill, Orioles
Why he’s available: Sherrill has drawn solid inquiries from around the league for the last two years.

Will he go? The southpaw is perhaps the most likely Oriole to get traded, thanks to his performance and his salary.

Where might he go? The Dodgers and White Sox are rumored to have interest in adding relief help.

OK cool

So, what do the Dodgers and Sux have that the Cubs don’t? Is this doable? Sherrill would be my favorite bullpen addition.

if the cubs bring the dough, the trade will be a go

It was just reported that the reason

the DL stint isn’t retroactive is because they had to recall Hart who was jusst sent down (or something along those lines). Probably also because it’ll take the full two weeks at least to heal (if not more).

Jason Marquis anyone

This really makes Hendry look bad. He just had to dump the Marquis $$………for what? He agrees to pay half of his $$……..takes on 3 M in Vizcaino and releases him. What was saved in that transaction? Say what you want about Marquis but he took the ball every 5th day and kept them in games

I posted this in another thread

Given Wells’ emergence, I don’t think trading Marquis looks that bad. What looks TERRIBLE is that we got nothing for Marquis. Hendry’s offseason is looking really bad.

I didn't care that Marquis left

It’s just that the reasoning behind it ($$$$)……..didn’t make sense…….they saved hardly anything and got nada to show for it

agreed

Horrible trade... because we got absolutely nothing of value for him othet than some chash releif.

Horrible.

Actually

didn’t it COST money to unload Marquis?

once we DFA's Vizcanio

yes.

I don't how much of marquis' contract we agreed to pay

Then, we dumped Vizcaino… and ate his entire contract when we DFA’d him. Horrible, horrible trade. The worst deal Hendry’s made in my opinion.

You trade a serviceable/quality starting pitcher for… well… nothing.

all all that just to get MB, basically

A complete waste.

regardless of Marquis current outstanding performance, he had much more value in the off-season than what we got for him.

No thanks

Marquis is a notoriously fast starter, but talk to me again in September and see if you still want him back. There’s a reason that he’s been left off of post season rosters in both Chicago and St Louis.

Muck Farquis

I’m sick of that name. I’m sick of the love for him.

He was a 5th starter. Nothing more, nothing less. He couldn’t make 17 playoff rosters in a row.

not Love for him on my part

it’s just the way it went down………why pay half his salary AND take another bad contract on? Actually, Marquis contract wasn’t that bad given what’s out there……..we have many other worse contracts than his

Please tell me Dempster's injury is not the subject of the sentence beginning "This..."

Because if it is, then “this,” as in your comment, is one of the stupidest things I’ve ever read.

Marquis is making the Cubs regret the decision to trade him, no doubt. That Dempster hurt his toe and will miss some time makes the decision no better or worse.

Baseball injuries and their predictability, per NYT>

I think this is rather sharp and relevant right now

I think that's the premise of a Hitchcock movie....

whoops, was on the wrong comment when I hit reply.

Meant to be in reference to the Gatorade one below….

What exactly caused this?

Gatorade jug fell on his toe

Since it's a broken toe, who knows

The last time I broke mine I broke it when I was walking too through a doorway, and my toe clipped the door frame.

jerry morales rules - July 7, 2009 reply

Ted Lillly looked at it too long

It completely shattered.

winner

This team must learn to win through adversity and injury.

Bad news, but we have to pick up the slack and not get into the “woe is us” stuff

Nationals just released Kip Wells this morning...

Anyone interested? Just to be clear, I’m not interested in him at all, if he couldn’t make it on the Nats then we definitely have no use for him but I thought I’d mention it.

How 'bout

David Wells?

all's well that ends Wells?

When you can't make the Nationals...

Yup that was my thinking exactly...

6.49 ERA, 66 EAR+???

He has 66 ears?! Freakish!

If I didn't make it clear in my post

I’m not interested in him whatsoever. Just thought I’d throw it out there as an option because I don’t know much about Wells.

I don't either

but a 66 ERA+ is enough to know.

I'll take it that that's a bad thing

because I’m not too familiar with ERA+ and other stats like that. Yea I know, guess I just go by the kind of stats used in the media and by the general public, I’m not much of a statistician I guess lol

ERA+

100 is average. over 100 is better than average. under 100 is not.

The reason they did not go retro active

is because if you go retroactive, then Kevin Hart could not be called up since he was on the team July 3 when they would have said the injury occurred.

niuhuskie224 - July 7, 2009 reply

thank you

that makes more sense

Ah, okay

Thanks for ’splaining that…

Whatever happened to...

Antonio Alfonseca? He was disgusting to watch

jthack - July 7, 2009 reply

Random Post of the Day

award!!

I hated that six-fingered freak

lol

Twittermeyer reports

Demp will have an XRay in 2 weeks. No prognosis expected till then. o.0

ha beat me to it.

hope he heals fast

our strength is in pitching…

Why does he have to wait that long for an X-Ray?

Canadian health

care system.

FTW

Boooooooo!

I’m telling Michael Moore

I would assume that means

ANOTHER X-Ray to see how it’s healing

ohhhhhhhhhhh

probably for another xray?

toes are tricky?

i got nuthin’

This isn't as bad as it seems at first glance

If he misses 4 to 6 weeks, you are talking about 6-8 starts, now if we assume that we win 2-3 of those anyway because Marshall is decent enough, and that dempster would have won lets say 5 or 6 of the 8 starts, you really are only losing at most 3 or 4 games. Granted that can make a difference but it isn’t that horrible.

niuhuskie224 - July 7, 2009 reply

What would Eric Hanna say we should do?

I THINK WE SHOULD GO AFTER ROGR CLEMENS. HE IS A HALL OF FAMER AND NOT WITH ANYONE RIGHT NOW.

lol...WWEHD.

You should market "WWEHSWSD" bracelets

I think WWEHD is snappier

But good suggestions from both of you. hehehehe

HAHA eric hanna lives!

of course i think he’d say: I THINK WE SHOULD TRADE ALFONSO SORIANO FOR TIM LINCECUM BECAUSE HE IS A GREAT PITCHER AND HE WOULD BE REALLY GOOD ON THIS TEAM AND SORIANO IS NOT HITTING VERY GOOD RIGHT NOW AND THEN WE WOULD WIN THE WORLD SERIES.

WWEHD

NOW IS OUR CHANCE TO GET RID OF THAT IDIOT BRADLEY. TRADE HIM TO YANKS FOR CC AND THROW IN BOBBY SCALES. KTHXBYE.

Awesome

“KTHXBYE”

KTHXBYE is actually in that post, isn't it?

I need to start using it on my business letters.

I don't think it is.

I saw someone do that on Twitter the other day and I had to throw it in there.

It's delightful

WWEHD

RIGHT NOW LETS TRADE BRADLEY AND THEN THAT WOULD FREE UP ENOUGH MONEY TO SIGN PEAVY AND GREG MADDOX FOR INSURANCE CAUSE MADDOX USED TO TALK TO MARSHALL ALL THE TIME AND HE DID GOOD TOO.

GET ITDONE JIM!

From Twittermeyer...

Demp to have xray in 2 wks. Prognosis expected then.

lswaidz - July 7, 2009 reply

Didn't see your post up there, Drew... my bad.

lswaidz - July 7, 2009 reply

no worries

Just when i thought the entire team was gonna be together.....

Well with this news

maybe stinky llama barn isn’t so bad…

stinky llama barn?

4H

you must’ve missed it in the recap thread. :-P

Oh yeah...just kinda skimmed through that one.

Mr. Dempster

please report to the Llama barn. We have a Llama that wants to step on some toes.

Did he break his toe

chasing the Beagle? Beagle’s are sneaky you know.

Lou Piniella thought he was being funny

when he coined the phrase “Cubbie Occurrence”

He’s not laughing now.

it's happening!?!?!?

So what's everyone's best guess for what caused the injury?

I’ll say he slipped in the hot tub.

Well, in all seriousness...

…I believe their baby daughter is home now. So he may have been getting up in the middle of the night to check on her and simply run into something.

C'mon, daver!

Have fun with this. All we can do is laugh about it.

Yeah thats a good theory

Or he cracked the bone doing the kick save someone mentioned… and then finished it off by kicking the wall while checking on the baby.

Sigh...I was trying to give him the benefit of the doubt as a parent.

Naturally, the cause of his injury is something far more embarassing.

Eh

He’s probably jumped that railing or one like it a million times.

That's true - I'm just kiddin'.

Look, Dempster is paid to PITCH, nothing else. He shouldn't be looking for every stupid railing to jump over!

i know

how dare he go celebrate with his teammates.

guess selfish railing jumper guy

Doubt it

A recent news profile of Dempster and his baby says they have 24-hour help, so I doubt Ryan is doing the late-night stuff. (Must be nice to have $40 mln in the bank)

Hm, didn't know that.

not surprising

being able to have someone who knows what they’re doing, especially with a young one who is home but probably not 100%

I’m not gonna knock him. Most parents of sick kids would like that. At least his money is going to help his kids.

Just because they

have help doesn’t mean he doesn’t get up to check on her himself. It’s just part of being a parent.

HERE IT IS: He jumped over the dugout railing

Seriously?

you're kidding me

please tell me you’re kidding

nope

They labelled it as non-baseball related

I guess they were kinda truthful

Why does that seem like the type of thing that would only happen to a Cub?

MrNFL - July 7, 2009 reply

My best guess...

…he was have a nightmare in which he left the game with 2 outs in the 9th, nobody on, and a 20-run lead – and ended up with a no-decision. As the tying run scored (bases-loaded walk), he awoke in a cold sweat and leaped from his bed in terror… and hit his toe on the nightstand.

Or would that be baseball-related?

hip2bsquare - July 7, 2009 reply

Ted can go every other day.

No worries…

Zeke - July 7, 2009 reply

TWSS!

That's in insult to Ted

to assume he can only go every other day! Blasphemous!

This is true

I have brought shame to the Lilly name

Depster jumping over dugout railing

that’s how he got injured …

what? When?

not sure but that's what somebody reported on the radio

i’m guessing right after a win ..

isn't that baseball related?

LOL.

Remember what I said up above about Demp being smart?

Yeah, I’m gonna go ahead and take that back…

eh

he probably does that 15 times and doesn’t break his toe.

Fooking Moron

Hey, Demp. There is a baseball season going on here. We don’t have time for your stupidity

Don't you think that's a little harsh?

It’s not like he was doing anything reckless, like kicking something out of anger. It’s simply an accident. They happen, even to athletes.

I'm hoping my sarcasm is still broken

It must really

be nice to be so perfect and never make any mistakes.

It is

Pity you will never know the feeling

I wouldn't want

to be perfect if it meant I had to act like you.

This is the kind of silly thing that ruined Mark Fydrich's career.

He screwed up his knee jumping over a fence in ST. He altered his pitching delivery to favor the knee as he rehabbed and that screwed up his arm. For good.

I’m not saying that’s going to happen here, but your big toes are your balance toes.

So here’s hoping it gets better quickly and doesn’t impact anything else…

Zeke - July 7, 2009 reply

I guess the dugout should have a ramp for the disabled ballplayers anyway.

The dumbbell broke his toe jumping over the dugout railing on Sunday!!!

Dock his pay!!!

Dugout injury

Didn’t the Cubs once lose a player to injury from tripping on the dugout steps? That’s what this sounds like.

Mo Vaughn.

The Braves did last year.

Yesterday’s starter (JJ) triped on the steps last year at Wrigley and ended up missing his start.

Mike Harkey hurt himself jacking around in the dugout.

Wasn’t he doing handstands or something??

please

he’s probably done it 10,000x and just landed funny this time.

It's stupid!!

Who cares how many times he did it before? He just screwed the team, that’s not funny!!!

LOL!

ugh

itchy. really?

he went on to the field to celebrate with his teammates. he should just stay in the dugout and practice knitting patterns, i guess.

Ok, so just whitewash the blame away

Someone must be held accountable!! LOL!!

Maybe

He can knit a new alternate jersey while he’s there seeing as how so many people don’t like the blue one.

Knitting?

With those giant pointy needles? That’s an accident waiting to happen

chitownhawkeye - July 7, 2009 reply

omg....

Here's a more realistic chain of events in my view.

We move Marshall to the rotation, and acquire a left-handed reliever to fill his role in the pen.

I'm on board with that.

I like what we saw from Marshall in the few starts he had earlier this year. Now the question is who can we realistically go out and get?

i really think George Sherril can be had

it's gonna be tough though. The O's want a future SS or 3B. I don't know if the Cubs can do that.

Aaron Miles can be had

Yeah, I hear the "got your nose" bit works on him EVERYTIME!

he might give the O's a future triple-A 3B

Speaking of that...

What would happen if we try to demote him to AAA (assuming he agrees to it) and someone claims him while on waivers? Would we still be on the hook for his contract or would the team that picks him up take over the contract? Something I’ve been wondering for a while…

i'm assuming the team that picks him up.

Then I wonder why the team hasn't tried this yet?

Unless they actually believe that Miles is useful…

The future is now for Aaron Miles.

He'd be a welcome addition...

But I don’t kow why the O’s would need to trade him considering he’s fairly inexpensive.

They don't need to trade him,

he has as much value now as he’ll ever have.

Or we hang on to our trade pieces...

…forego having a LHP in the pen and bring up Jeff Stevens. Or give that Fossum guy a shot.

I'm finally going to see a game this year

probably the only game I’ll get it, plus, it’s the first time that my fiance’s daughters will be to Wrigley. I was really looking forward to seeing Z pitch.
Now this. I am not happy.
(sure, Demp is probably less happy, but still)

chitownhawkeye - July 7, 2009 reply

Yeah, I'm going to the game tomorrow as well

Too bad my Kevin Hart jersey is in the wash

wallrock - July 7, 2009 reply

this is going to a punch line for a while

A team that hasn’t won a title in 100 years loses one its best pitchers because of a broken toe caused by jumping over a railing.

What’s next? A torn tricep muscle from a celebratory fist pump?

A hamstring injury from trying to beat out a bunt for a basehit by our ACE!

our home run hitter pulling a muscle during a sneeze?

our closer brusing a rib getting out of a hot tub?

one of our relievers hurting his hand in a recliner?

(thanks Mike Remlinger)

or kicking a fan? (Captain Tightpants)

Aaron Miles signing an extension!

are we switching to general sucky events?

If so …

A black cat circling Ron Santo in the on-deck circle?

generally

I expect a dugout railing of doom picture

sometime in the near future

Dempster is not a train

I expected more from you SWL

That's the Cubs express.

Then I like!

Yeah, that's weak dude.

I mean, I can find that picture on the internets.

How much has Hart started ?

Was he a starter in Iowa ? Has he ever started in the bigs. I still would take Shark or Heilman

I don't believe he's ever started in the bigs but he was starting at Iowa this season.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/minors/player.cgi?id=hart—001kev

here are his stats

if you’re interested.

This team is gonna be fine. Dempster will be back in September and Kevin Hart will pitch like Bret Hart.

Who's Bret Hart?

And is that a good thing or bad?

The Hitman Hart!

Another canadian

some random wrestler that got screwed

i know really random.

His brother really got screwed

cable snapped coming down off a high wire into the ring and broke his neck

i still don't understand why he was SOOOOO mad.

I know it wasn’t the way you wanted to end your career there, but seriously to make that big of a deal was kind of ridiculous.

I'm with you

Curtain Jerker - July 7, 2009 reply

Famous American Writer

Did not know he pitched though. THE OUTCASTS OF WRIGLEY FIELD ?

wow ...

I hadn’t really thought about how he’ll be out until September.

Twitterymeyer says Demp

only to miss 3 starts. “all about pain tolerance”

Too bad you couldn't quantify pain tolerance

Ted Lilly’s would be infinity

Ted Lilly doesn't feel pain...

pain feels Ted Lilly.

That actually makes me worry a bit

Toes are painful and if you are pushing off of it, does he change his delivery in some way to compensate for the pain. You worry about an arm injury in those circumstances. I hope that the Cubs take it easy with him.

Ryan Dempster is Canadian!

He eats pain for breakfast, spits it out, watches it freeze then plays hockey on it!

http://blogs.chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sports_hardball/2009/07/dempster-to-disabled-list-with-broken-toe.html

Being half-Canadian...

I have to rec this!

Chris Dobbertean - July 7, 2009 reply

Dempster said he caught his foot on the dugout railing while jumping out of the dugout running onto the field after Sunday’s win over the Brewers

AGC - July 7, 2009 reply

more from Paul Sullivan.....

He said it’s a non-displaced fracture and he would likely lose his toe nail.

AGC - July 7, 2009 reply

Ugh, that sounds painful.

On the bright side - he'll pay less for pedicures!

That's a 10% discount!

ouch

Easy.

Marathon runners lose toe nails all the time. Just think of it this way—less to paint!

hmmm, maybe we should win less games.

The Heilman approach

The Heilman/Cotts/Patton approach

OK, if it's just three starts, no biggie

I hope we’re not back to Dusty-era injury predictions.

New nickname for Dempster- Captain Hulka.

Well OK, Hotshot. We're gonna see what kind of soldier you are.

That movie’s got one of my all-time favorites:

“It’s Czechoslovakia. It’s like going into Wisconsin.”
“Well I got the sh*t kicked out of me in Wisconsin once. Forget it!”

wallrock - July 7, 2009 reply

"Chicks dig me because I rarely wear underware."

Alright

STINKY LLAMA BARN TIME.

2 weeks til fair!! :-) woohooo!!!

later everyone.

have fun!

This Utay/Ricketts stuff is really weird

Sun-Times is reporting one thing while the Tribune is reporting another. I don’t know who to trust, but since Kaplan talked about Ricketts finalizing a deal two weeks from now, i tend to believe the Trib.

Rather,

“I want to believe the Trib,” no?

Another crossroads for the Cubs

I say put pressure on Rickett’s and make a big trade for Halladay, Haren or Peavy and go for it.

Ivy Walls - July 7, 2009 reply

Riiiiigggghhhhhtttt.

Because pitching has been the weakness of this team.

But if we would have limited the other teams to no runs, then we would win every game. (eventually)

Beat them into submission

using our offense’s power of mediocrity?