Open Thread: Cubs vs. Braves, Wednesday 6/11, 7:05 CT

By Al Yellon@bleedcubbieblue Jun 11, 2008, 3:31pm CDT

Next Game

Wednesday, Jun 11, 2008, 7:05 PM CDT
Wrigley Field

Jeff Bennett vs Ryan Dempster

Partly cloudy. Winds blowing out to left field at 10-15 m.p.h. Game Time temperature: Around 75.

The Cubs catch a break -- and reading this makes me think of some Cub teams (1985 comes to mind) when everyone got hurt in ridiculous ways. Jair Jurrjens, a 22-year-old righthander who has a lot of promise, placed high on the list of Weird Injuries Of The Year when he twisted his ankle on the dugout stairs after Tuesday's game and was scratched from tonight's start.

Caveat: sometimes emergency starters like Jeff Bennett do well against the Cubs. Hope they've got a scouting report ready. More below the stat boxes.

Other interesting news: the books have been delivered to potential team/ballpark buyers, different sets of books depending on whether the buyer wanted both the team and the park, or just one or the other:

Potential bidders, pre-approved by Major League Baseball to receive the confidential financial information, include Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban; a Chicago group led by Madison Dearborn Chairman John Canning; and Omaha's Ricketts family among others.(Emphasis added by me. Obviously, some buyers don't need their names ::coughMarkCubancough:: in the papers.)

Today's Starting Pitchers


R. Dempster Cubs	vs.	J. Bennett Braves


7-2	W-L	0-3
2.90	ERA	3.47
64	SO	38
35	BB	24
7	HR	4
vs. Atl	--	vs. Cubs

	W-L	G	GS	CG	SHO	SV	BS	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA	WHIP
2008 - Ryan Dempster	7-2	13	13	0	0	0	0	80.2	56	33	26	7	35	64	2.90	1.13

	W-L	G	GS	CG	SHO	SV	BS	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA	WHIP
2008 - Jeff Bennett	0-3	30	3	0	0	1	0	49.1	39	19	19	4	24	38	3.47	1.28

You can't judge either of today's starters by his record against the other team. Bennett has a 1.17 ERA in 6 career relief appearances (7.2 IP) vs. the Cubs. All six of those were in 2004 when he was a Brewer. No current Cub has more than four AB vs. Bennett -- and that's Derrek Lee, who's 3-for-4 with a HR.

Ryan Dempster is 1-8, 5.61 in 13 lifetime starts vs. the Braves -- but the last one of those was in 2003. The only current Brave who has more than seven AB vs. Dempster is Chipper Jones, and he likely won't start again tonight.

Today's game is on cable, everywhere: FSN South, CSN Chicago, and featured on ESPN. Also see the MLB.com Mediacenter.

MLB.com Gameday (2007 version)

MLB.com Gameday (2008 version)

Baseball-reference.com game preview

Today's overflow comment threads will post at 8:15 pm and 9:15 pm CT.

Discuss amongst yourselves.