I was working last night and didn’t get a chance to see the game. I always feel like I get more of a feel for things reading your take on the game than reading ESPN or one of the Chicago Sports sites views on things.

I did see on BBTN the pitch Fontenot struck out on w/ the bases juiced and it was not a good pitch to hit. Great play by Johnson in the outfield, and I agree with the bench comments.

On the other hand, I’m going to school up here in Milwaukee so see a fair amount of boneheaded moves from the Ned Yost School of Baseball Management and I think it’s fair to say that whatever Lou’s failings, he is nothing like as bad as Yost. It is nice to be on the good side of the management match-up whenever you face off against a rival.

I agree that Lou is overdoing it a bit with his uses of pinch hitters and pinch runners (Pie for Lee when a game can go to extras?) lately. More than anything doing, I think Fontenot is becoming a black hole. For a short bench he is a guy that brings very little value – can only play one position and not very good either; for a little guy with not much power he strikesout more than what you desire and doesn’t draw many walks either. Who knows how extended a chance they are going to give him, but I don’t think he brings much value at all, especially considering the Cubs carry a short bench as it is.

will go down soon(after this series). What good is a lefthanded bat that can’t hit. His approach last night was brutal. And then he took it to the field and missed a ball a good 2nd baseman would have had.

Reed Johnson – best catch I ever saw. I know it is still early, but what a pickup.

and then he disappeared from my view. I hate those seats in LF! To make matters worse, the Nationals are charging “premium” prices for about 5 games this year. The first was Opening Night, and three of the 5 are for the Cubs games during this homestand. I guess their business model realizes that there are a lot of Cubbie fans that are a good source of revenue. Oh well, at least the fireworks after the game were pretty cool. Oh, yes: I agree with Luis above that Fontenot should go to the minors, and I also wouldn’t mind seeing Reed Johnson in LF sometimes when Pie is in CF. That would be a good defensive outfield!

So was also at game last night and had great view and it was hands-down the best catch I’ve ever seen in the 400+ games I attended. Everyone just kind of stood there shocked with what they just saw, mostly because be ball squirted into the bottom of the mitt and there was so much white.

Separately, I have figured out one reason that I am very excited to see Soriano come back – it will hopefully result in Mike Fontenot sent down to the Minors. He was awful – again – at the plate last night and botched another play at 2B. He’s a likable guy but he has been downright awful this year.

than we sometimes like to think we do. When he goes into one of his hot streaks it could do a lot to getting us through a mini-rough patch like we’ve been on the last couple of games.

The Cubs have looked flat to me the last two games. The LOB stat is a big concern. They need a big win to get back on track.

Go Cubs!

Against the LF, especially since he is a guy that draws walks like crazy and could have forced a run home like Murton did. Using both Murton and Ward in the same at bat leaves you with the black abyss of Blanco-Fontenot-Pie for the pitchers spot. No thanks. And with that trio I’d have used Pie just because he has more upside and has gotten some hits lately.

for the extra bat on the bench but also because I hate seeing managers overuse a bullpen. Giving a manager extra pitchers just encourages micromanaging the pen. Seems to me that if you think you’ve got pitching concerns then you should go with your best pitchers and not water it down further with guys who should be in AAA or lower. Adding minor league pitchers doesn’t seem to be a good way to improve a pitching staff and it motivates managers to do things like use 3 pitchers to get 4 outs in the middle of a game when one could have done the job. Or, if that one pitcher couldn’t have done the job then perhaps he shouldn’t be in the big leagues anyway. I guess this is a long winded way of saying that it’s easier to find 11 good pitchers than 14 good pitchers. Addition by subtraction. Gee, I hope Ned Yost isn’t reading this….

I think he is a good pitcher, but it seems that every year he tends to be inconsistent in the first few months. I wasn’t very impressed with his performance yesterday. Seems a little unprofessional….isn’t there some way he could think about mitigating this weakness?

With all this talk about Lou burning bench players, I thought I’d add my 2 cents.

First, I think Lou was managing to win in 9 innings last night. I think he decided to punt if it went to extras. That makes sense to me because of this crazy road trip we’re on right now. It was a long flight, and we’ve been playing a lot of EI games. In fact, in one series, I forget which one right now, we played 9 full innings of EI baseball. That’s a whole ballgame played around three other ballgames. Lou must MANAGE this club for 6 months, hopefully 7, not coach to win every night. It just can’t be done.

Secondly, operating inside the above described mindset, the moves he made did make sense. Cedeno had lined out to 2nd, flied out to 2nd, and struck out swinging on a total of 8 pitches. It just wasn’t ONEDEC’s night. He was begging to be PH’ed for last night. Sure, Lou burned Ward, but Big Red drew a 5 pitch RBI walk to tie the game. Sounds like a good move to me.

The only thing I might have done differently is maybe go for a squeeze with the bases loaded and one out to break the tie. Fukudome was on 3rd, and with speedy Fontenot at the plate perhaps we score and still have the bases loaded.

All that being said, we must look at the Nat’s moves as well. Lou’s moves had something to do with the Nat’s using four pitchers in the last three innings of the game. That’s tough on a pen. On the other hand, with the exception of Marmol, our pen should be relatively well rested for tonight’s game, and if Z can go deep tonight, they’ll be really well rested for what might be the rubber match tomorrow.

Sometimes we fans don’t see the proverbial forest, but I believe Lou does, and that he has a good handle on this club. I trust him.

That’s just one man’s opinion.
Go Cubs!