[Editors Note: added from FanPosts-- bbs]

Well ... I've got an amazing story for all of you at SB and it doesn't involve me ranting about bad run defense or my favorite #4 wide receiver

I'm a member of the Army Reserves and right now I'm in the middle of my second deployment to Afghanistan.  Currently I'm home for my two week leave, I returned to Indy last Wednesday and it's been crazy ever since.

My girlfriend and I are huge Colts fans, and we had tickets to Sunday's game against the Ravens.  Two days after I got home, as in Friday - as in two days before the Colts game - I went to Reis-Nichols in Indy to pick up the engagement ring I had picked out for my girlfriend.  At this point I still had no idea how i was going to propose, I had some ideas in my head, including the Colts game. 

Well I mentioned this to the jeweler (who was amazing in helping me pick out a ring via email from overseas) and this is the where the story gets good:  he says do it, and you should use the jumbo-tron !! We can make this happen !! and he gets on his cell phone and starts texting people at the Colts !! (they are the official jeweler of the Colts) ...  So it was to late to get in on the jumbo-tron, but long story short - after many, many phone calls - the Colts hooked us up !!

Here's what they did ... not only did they arrange for Blue the Mascot to come to our section with a sign and flowers for my soon to be fiancee, but they also gave us four complimentary tickets .... yes four free tickets ... in the lower level ..... section 141 .... second row on the 40 yard line !!!! The absolute best seats i've ever had at a game in my life, and the Colts gave us 4 of them - for free !! Unbelievable !!

It all happened so fast, but in the first quarter with about 6 minutes left, Blue showed up, held up the sign and the section went crazy .... and i proposed and it could not have been more amazing. My girlfriend was blown away and she absolutely loved it.  Ofcourse she called about 378 people and at the end of the game, with things winding down, I asked an equipment manager if our favorite player, Dallas Clark, could come over for a quick picture .... he couldn't come over ... but he did wave and yell at us and say congratulations.  It was an awesome ending to an awesome day.

I wanted to share this story with all you Colts fans out there and say a huge thank you and huge kudos to Reis-Nichols, Dallas Clark, and the Indianapolis Colts for being such an amazing organization and classy football team.    

So i'm watching Sunday NFL Countdown on ESPN and by now we all know that Jeff Saturday and Dallas Clark are not playing. Also out are Jacob Tamme and Roy Hall. And believe it or not, i'm actually worried because of the last two. 

With Clark out i was looking for Tamme to have a nice game, well now we have to rely on two first year TE's ... and neither really known for there recceiving talent. However, this might be a good thing to help shore up the line.  Now, obviously we will turn to the WR's, in which we are set with the big 3. But it would have been nice to see Hall out there trying to haul in some passes. But he's out with his third different injury.

Which leads to the bigger question .... is Roy Hall ever going to play WR ?? Shoulder, hamstring, and knee injuries to a guy who is physical beast, yet can't stay healthy (he was injured at OSU a lot as well). I was huge on Hall in camp this year and hoping for big things .... but have the Colts got their hands on a dud here ??  

On another note - ESPN reports that the Vikings coaching staff are confident they have deciphered Peyton's audible's at the line. They have studied tape and know what means what. The defense says now they know what each signal means. Yeah and last week i learned to speak Mandarin Chinese.

They also said the Vikings used WR's and RB's at defensive end in practice to simulate Dwight Freeney. Interest tactic, and actually maybe not a bad idea, but last time i checked Freeney was a lot bigger than most wide receivers.

And oh yeah, the wise folks at ESPN say the Colts need this game more than the Vikes ... kind of hard to argue with them ... i would hate to start 0-2 in our division.

And finally i hate ESPN. They have more commercials than any station ever.  They talk about one game, or one or two things and then break. I have seen previews on three games and 17 commercials.

OK .... that's all for now ... i need to breath ... i feel like a little school girl, i am getting giddy waiting for the game to start

Just wanted to take a moment to share this nugget of truth i found this week. 

After reading all of BBS's articles this past week naming all the various reasons and excuses for why we lost against the Bears, i found an interesting rant slipped in there. BBS, in one of his posts - maybe two, talks about the poor management of Peyton's knee injury. Mostly he wishes the surgery could have been done in May or sometime earlier.

I thought i remember reading on Yahoo Sports that the surgery was done as soon as possible, i.e. as soon as it became a major problem. And then i dug through some old issues of Sporting News and found this from an article dated August 11.

Manning woke up July 14 in excruciating pain.  He flew from New Orleans to Indianapolis, saw a doctor and had surgery to remove an infected bursa sac from his left knee.  All in the same day. 

Now to me, that's a pretty quick response. No more management excuses, no more injury excuses - Let's go out and win !!

Should be a great game today - so let's go out and make it happen - GO COLTS !!!

Wow ... I had no idea that Eyre would be on the market, I like him and thought Lou did as well, he seemed to be rather reliable when he pitched and was healthy, I recall a really nice scoreless streak he had going .... however, a few points:

- Marshall is good enough to stay on this roster and i think we keep him at all costs, if he doesn't go back to the rotation, he has been solid as long relief

- With Marshall and Neal Cotts performing as LH relief ... this makes Eyre expendable ...

- Despite his solid past, Bob Howry's recent troubles coupled with the Shark finally making it to The Show, also makes him expendable ...

- And if anyone is taking, i think Jason Marquis is also an option to go ...  

Now what we can get in return from an AL team for him makes all the difference, but a guy I say the Cubs pull the trigger on is Brandon Morrow from Seattle ...

We package Michael Wuertz, Micah Hoffpauir, and Marquis or cash or whomever else for Morrow and a MI .... Seattle is truly the only "seller" team out there who is willing to dump it all ... they have already dumped Sexson and put Erik Bedard up for sale ... they are in the cellar and going nowhere, plus J.J. Putz is back from the DL ...

This might make us RHP heavy, but i think a deal is worth it, Morrow has been money, with a stellar ERA and WHIP and 10 saves ... him coupled with the Shark, Gaudin, Marmol and Wood sounds about as solid as you can get ...  

Your thoughts ??

A day after an exciting win over the fish from Florida there are many exciting topics to discuss: most notably Soriano’s return,  Jeff Samardzija being called up for his first big league action, and the team’s offense being carried by the bottom of the order, again.

But I’m here to tackle a different topic folks.  One that is pretty popular on the fanposts right now ...    

As some of you might know, I recently wrote a fan post describing my love for Cubs left handed hurler Neal Cotts.  And well … I’m here to do it again … and while I’m at it, I might as well dig a little deeper into the Cubs bullpen.

After my last fanpost, one where most comments were of the joking manner, one reader asked an interesting question: what Cubs reliever has been better than Cotts? I’m here to say pretty much none.

Before I ramble on anymore, let’s take a look at the stats of the six most prominent relievers of the past several weeks.  I exclude Kerry Wood because he has been in the closer role exclusively and also hasn’t pitched in some time.  Jon Lieber and Michael Wuertz also don’t make the cut as they haven’t pitched since July 10th and Scott Eyre doesn’t make the list since he hasn’t taken the hill since June 26th. 

These stats only date back to July 10th as that’s the first day Chad Gaudin pitched for the Cubbies.

                                                      IP        ER        K          BB

The stats show (again sorry for my lackluster excel skills) that Kevin Hart is by far the lame duck of this crew which is why more time in the minors is needed.  Sean Marshall looked good in relief in Rich Harden’s first start, where he picked up the win, but he also gave up a long ball and 2 ER on July 22.  Marshall has stuff to pitch and pitch well; if Marquis is moved, Marshall should find a way back to the rotation.  Carlos Marmol … well … he got the save last night, but we all know how the month of July went for Marmol. 

It’s kind of like that one time where you met a girl at Sluggers after the game and about 23 Old Styles and 11 shots of SoCo later you wake up realizing that this girl just moved into your apartment and you still have no idea what just happened to the last three weeks of your life.  It’s a terrible nightmare you want to end.  Yeah it’s kind of been like that.

Howry’s month hasn’t been much better.  It’s becoming apparent the group’s resident elder (he turns 35 in less than two weeks) may not have his stuff of old. For the month of July, “Hot Bobby” as I love to call him, has given up 8 runs in 9.2 innings pitched and only delivered five strike outs.  However he only has one walk on the month and did help hold down the win in six straight appearances from July 2 – July 12. 

That leaves only Cotts and Gaudin, who has been quite impressive since the trade from Oakland. After the deal I immediately emailed a fellow baseball nut back home and said “Wow I can’t believe we also got Gaudin - he’s a huge part of this deal.”  So far I have not been let down, despite a home run in his first game and 1 ER last night, he has still been money.

Which leads us left with only Cotts … and well I can’t say much more than what I’ve already said: Cotts should stay exactly where he is and given the chance to put up numbers like he did in 2005.  And so far, he seems to be doing that. Since July 12 he has surrendered zero hits, zero runs, and zero walks - up to last night where he issued his first walk in weeks, which was on four pitches and was against the #4 hitter with men on 2nd and 3rd.  Cotts was immediately pulled and wasn't even given the chance to help diffuse the bases loaded  jam.         

Despite maybe Gaudin according to some, Cotts has been hands down the Cubs most reliable reliever in the month of July and his performance, along with the return of Scott Eyre should really help downspell any ideas that the club need to bring in another left handed reliever. Another lefty might be nice, but I say at this time, it's not a necessity.

Pulling in another pitcher would be nice, but the price for Huston Street or George Sherill will be to high and going for David Weathers or Damaso Marte would be a bad move. There are better options available, including some young righties, of course more on that soon ...      

A final note on Cotts numbers … a comment from the previous fanpost asked about Cotts numbers vs. lefties and righties. And not surprisingly, there’s not much difference.  He’s holding lefties to a .233 average and righties to a very nice .222 average.  And he’s also doing something many Cubs pitchers aren’t – doing well on the road.  Cotts is holding batters to a .209 average in 12.1 innings pitched away from Wrigley.

Perhaps the most remarkable thing about these numbers, despite how good they are, is that three times this month Cubs skipper Sweet Lou has yanked Cotts after 1/3 of an inning.  Maybe, just maybe, it’s time to let him go a little longer and see if he can keep this hot streak going. Because I, for one, think he can.          

All this talk about the Cubs relief pitching has got me thinking.

I've thought about Kerry Wood's blister and Scott Eyre's groin and the hope that Carlos Marmol will return to his early year form so that I can sleep at night and that my blood pressure will return to that of a normal 24 year old.   

It's also got me thinking about how I wished Bob Howry was maybe a little bit younger and how sometimes it looks like it'd be nice to still have Will Ohman (I was always a fan of the south paw).  But it also makes me think that there is a certain relief pitcher that I am really starting to like. 

So maybe last year he spent most of his time in the minors, and perhaps two years ago he posted an ERA of 5.17 and ok, maybe worst of all, he spent the 2005 season on the south side.  Let me mention, it was on the south side where he happened to help a certain baseball team win their first world series in a long, long time.

Give up yet??? Well, I’ll give you a hint … it rhymes with Teal Potts.

Of course I’m talking about Cubs left handed reliever Neal Cotts.  I am beginning to think that I am possibly the only Cubs fan who is giving Cotts any love.  Recently on BCB it was noted that Cotts was “on the bubble” in terms of possibly being sent to the minors with the flurry of pitching activity – to include rumors surrounding all the possibilities involving Wood, Eyre, Marmol, Howry, Sean Marshall, Jason Marquis, Michael Wuertz, Jon Lieber, Lee Smith and Dennis Eckersly. Ok maybe not the last two …

I’m here to say that Cotts should not be sent to minors and actually shouldn’t even be on the bubble at all. I could ramble for a bit here in this space, but (for a moment) I’ll let the numbers do the talking.  So far this season Cotts has posted a 2.65 ERA in 17 innings pitched to go with 23 K’s and only nine walks.  Not too shabby at all, the earned runs might be a bit high to some, but you can’t be mad about that K/BB ratio or his 1.35 K’s per inning.

Now let us dig a little deeper, let us take a look at Cotts’ July stats.  In 6 1/3 inning pitched he has only allowed 5 hits, 1 ER and 10 punch outs compared with two base on balls. Ok, so maybe that doesn’t look overly impressive, but wait … take away one game and you take away three hits and the lone run. The game, you ask? None other than the Cubs-Reds slugfest on July 10 where every single Cubs pitcher gave up a home run (including Chad Gaudin on his first batter faced as a Cub) and every Reds hitter launched a home run (including Barry Larkin who came back and suited up for one at bat).

Even with one bad outing, Cotts is still looking pretty solid and actually rather consistent for a bullpen that has been rattled with inconsistency the past several weeks.  The lone run on July 10 is his only run dating back to mid-June.  But despite a nearly non-existent 2007 campaign Cotts has shown this brilliance before.  Once again, the numbers:

 Ok, so I apologize, that’s about as good as my excel spreadsheet skills get, but I included what I figure to be the four most basic stats for relief pitchers: Innings pitched, earned runs, strike outs and walks( I said basic, I’m not figuring stats like inherited runners, RISP, and etc..).

Ok, so 2004 was not great by any means, but it was his rookie season and he still put up 58 K’s in 65.1 innings.  And 2006, well 2006 was really a season to forget, 31 runs in only 54 innings for a staggering 5.17 ERA. 

But 2005, oh 2005, what a year. 

In just over 60 innings, Cotts sat down 58 hitters (once again), but this time around only gave up 13 ER for a stellar 1.94 ERA.  He was also magnificent down the stretch.  And that is exactly why the Cubs need to keep him on the roster. In AUGUST (as in next month) of 2005 Cotts gave up ZERO earned runs and only two more runs the entire season.  Including an outstanding post-season in which he helped the White Sox preserve their World Series win.  His playoff line included 2.1 innings pitched with one hit, no runs, and two strike outs.  He was pivotal in the White Sox championship, retiring nearly every batter he faced. 

And this is why the Cubbies need to keep him in the pen and keep sending him to the mound.  He has playoff experience, he has proven himself down the home stretch, and he has pitched in biggest of games – and came out on top.  He has risen to the occasion and shown he has the grit to get the big outs in the absolute toughest of spots.

Marshall is still young and could be put back in the rotation, Lieber has been less than impressive, Marquis has given the Cubs some quality starts, but could be shipped out soon.  Kevin Hart needs to be sent back to the minors, where hopefully Wuertz is recapturing his old stuff.  Eyre is coming off an injury, Wood has a blister problem and Marmol is still causing every Cubs fan to hold their breath when he takes the mound. 

Perhaps minus the added Gaudin (who has been very solid after that first batter), Cotts has possibly been the Cubs most reliable reliever.

I say keep him there. Let him do what he is doing. He’s getting hitters out and that’s what we need.  Let him do his thing and maybe we might just see another scoreless August.

Hope you enjoyed my first post, let me know what you think !!