Marshall law

Right now this pitching staff has me really, really worried. Three home runs in four batters? Not great. Marshall did look pretty good through five - I wasn't a fan of the bases-loaded, no-out jam in the fourth, but the fact that he was able to get out of it allowing just two runs says tons about his composure. Drew and I are looking into seeing a game on the 25th which, by my calculations, Marshall would start if the rotation holds.

The kid looks to have decent stuff. His fastball doesn't break 92, but coming down from that 6'7" frame helps, as does the fact that he's a lefty, and he has a nice sweeping curve that he used several times to good effect. That said, he hardly looks unhittable; the Pirates went down quickly the first time through the order, but they handled him a little better after that. It also would have been nice if he could have gone more than five. That's nine games this season and Cubs starters have yet to go even seven innings. Yeah, it's early, and yeah, it's a patchwork rotation at the moment. But the last thing this team needs is a gassed bullpen come late summer. Anyway, congrats to Marshall on his first win (and first Cubs win), as well as his first hit and RBI. Way to help your own cause!

Much more pleased with the hitting, as you'd expect. I love Walker; it's a shame this guy can't be an everyday player, but at least he's making his statement when he gets up. Murton also continues to get me excited - nice double, nicer triple. Amazing that he ends up being the only real value we got from the Garciaparra trade and yet I still feel like we made out better than anyone involved, long-term. Okay, Boston got the World Series out of it. But other than that. (Cabrera and Mientkiewicz are no longer with Boston; Justin Jones has yet to play in the majors; Alex Gonzalez didn't even finish that season with Montreal; Brendan Harris and Francis Beltran have made no big-league noise yet. In other words, there were four teams and eight players involved in that deal and Murton is the only guy starting for the team to which he was traded, a year and a half later. I'll take it.)

I'm not quite as happy with Juan Pierre, who teased us with a 3-for-6 opening day and hasn't had more than one hit in a game since. Right now he's the ghost of CP in center, at least at the plate. He's not, historically, this slow a starter, not even last year (his worst overall). But this is a new team for him, and all that. You have to think the hits will come. Still, right now it just doesn't seem like he's making great contact; rather than hitting line drives and flares, spraying hits like he has in the past, he's hitting a lot of weak grounders. I think he'll figure it out. He'd better, anyway - didn't we trade three pitchers to get this guy? We could use those freaking pitchers right about now.