As of this writing, Ted Lilly is still a Cub. This means BCB'er elgato owes me a Big Gulp. Ted is in tonight's lineup tweeted by Carrie:
#cubs lineup tues nite is rf colvin, ss castro, 1b lee, 3b ramy, cf byrd, lf sori, 2b riot, c hill, p lilly
Obviously, Ryan Theriot's show of power last night has him moved up to the #7 spot.
Ted's next scheduled start is Sunday at Colorado. It is, of course, entirely possible he'll be traded by then, since the non-waiver deadline is 3 pm CDT on Saturday. But it was pointed out somewhere in one of the various trade threads that Ted would be a rental -- and it's not likely any team is going to give the Cubs decent prospects in return for a two-month rental of Ted Lilly. Thus, I think he's probably staying, and the Cubs will offer him arbitration. Getting a draft pick if he chooses to leave is probably better than any trade return.
The Astros' Brett Myers is also the subject of trade rumors. However, I'd think the Astros would like to hang on to him; he's arguably been their best pitcher this year, and his $8 million mutual option for 2011 isn't outrageously expensive. The Astros are going nowhere this year, but they've made a pretty good pickup in Myers, one of the better acquisitions Ed Wade has made.
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Tonight's pitching matchup is a rematch of last Wednesday afternoon's game at Wrigley Field, in which both starters threw well for seven innings (allowing one run each), but were long gone by the time the Cubs lost in the 12th inning.
So, here's a repost of (most of) the information I posted last week about Ted Lilly and Brett Myers, because not much has changed since then.
Brett Myers defeated the Cubs on June 6 in Houston and is now 8-3 lifetime with a 2.52 ERA vs. the Cubs in 14 appearances (10 starts). Current Cubs are hitting .299 against him (52-for-174) with 10 HR. Three of those have been hit by Derrek Lee (17-for-34, .500 career vs. Myers).
Ted Lilly went 4-0 against the Astros in 2009 with a 2.45 ERA. He has held current Astros to a .210 average (37-for-176) and even noted Cub-killer Carlos Lee is only 8-for-38 (.211) vs. Ted.
Tonight's game is on WGN and FSN Houston. Here is the complete MLB.com Mediacenter for today.
Baseball-reference.com game preview
Please visit our SB Nation Astros site Crawfish Boxes.
Today's first pitch thread will be up at 7 pm CDT, and the overflows will post at 8 pm, 9 pm and 9:45 pm CDT.
Discuss amongst yourselves.