Doug Davis struck out eight over six scoreless innings Saturday in an extended spring game.
He needed just 75 pitches to do so. Davis' next start will come Thursday for Low-A Peoria or High-A Daytona, then he'll move up to Triple-A Iowa for at least one start. James Russell will start on Monday, but after that the Cubs won't need a No. 5 starter for nearly two weeks, at which point Davis could be ready to assume the role. ‘‘In my mind, with my confidence right now, I’m ready," Davis said. "I understand they obviously want me to throw 100 pitches, and I’m not there yet. Mentally, I’m ready.’’ May. 1 - 10:18 am et
Source: Chicago Sun-Times

75 pitches is what Russell has been giving them - and getting shelled.

The Shark actually looking good again. Wow.

That talk of not needing a 5th starter for 2 weeks is bullshit. They could have gotten away with not pitching Russell 2 or 3 times already because of off days and keeping guys on normal 5 day rotations but they gave them the extra off day of rest instead.

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That's my purse! I don't know you!

agreed, gorz was never great but a solid lefty that needed to stay after lily was dealt.

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i liked lilly too, he or gorz had to stay..losing both makes no sense

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He has over a 4.50 career era and a 1.461WHIP. In no world is that considered solid.

He is out of his mind outperforming his career averages this year. Good for him. We saved a bit of money trading him and hoped that a couple of our younger guys, Russell,Coleman etc would do better than what they have.

To think that Gorz would have somehow been the lynch pin holding our season together is lunacy

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Team Cutler.

dumpster and russell would cut their pinky off to have those numbers...and dumpster makes alot more coin

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Okay, well Dempster's career numbers are better than Gorz's and this year has been the anomaly. So that point you made is worthless...

They didn't know what they had in Russell considering, get ready for this, his WHIP was better last year than Gorzelany's time with the Cubs! Woah! You mean they did what everyone wants and letting a kid pitch! The nerve.

But totes your right bro, Gorz would be 5-0 with a .96era if he were still here I'm sure.

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Team Cutler.

I don't think Gorz was some kind of savior but there were somethings I liked and reasons I would have kept him around instead of trading him off for what looks like some of Washington's bust prospects.

He was solid innings eater, he could look pedestrian on some nights, but he also had a few really nice starts such as the one he had for them last night.

Going into the spring with an open spot in the rotation and a shitty veteran in Silva, a kid who was promising as a reliever the year before in Cashner and the shark.....I would have held on to him until the end of spring where you could sell him a little higher than they did. At that point Silva also flipped out and got himself released so keeping him around would not have been a terrible idea as insurance. I probably would have started him and had Cash in the pen at that point.

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That's my purse! I don't know you!

missing the point..dumpster makes like 13 mill...gorz like 2 mill... it is typical cubs..

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Totally understand your point UMN, I think the Cubs just wanted to save a couple million and figured Russell, who looked somewhat okay for a #5 type last year, would be able to fill Gorz's spot in a pinch.

It wasn't a shockingly bad decision at the time, unfortunate it worked out like it is.

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Team Cutler.

it was a bad decision, this team continues to piss money away and make bad decisions...gorz @ 2 million is a steal... i would have kept lilly and never traded him to l.a...gorz was great trade bait for his small salary. this club constantly makes the wrong moves. i just hope they wake up and move byrd,fukudome and get some prospects up here

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They saved money by moving Gorz and trying to replace him with Russell.


Russell had similar numbers, albeit in a smaller sample size, than Gorz. The Dempster deal is done, you aren't getting that money back, I agree with you that the $$ was a mistake. They had to cut costs somewhere and saving 1.5-2m ish by moving Gorz wasn't a horrible idea

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Team Cutler.

Alfonso Soriano is leading all of baseball in homeruns with 11. Seriously, Jose Bautista can take his piddly 9HR and insignificant 1.292 OPS and shove it, this is the year of Adolpho Soriano!!!!!

btw, did anyone else here scream out "WHAT THE FUCK?!!?!" when the angels took on Vernon Wells' actually-worse-than-soriano money?

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The Angels usually know what they are doing...however...picking wells was shockingly bad. They even gave up Napoli and Juan Rivera. I would have loved for the Cubs to have aquired Napoli to play 1st for a year or 2.

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That's my purse! I don't know you!

What are the numbers on that "some"? I thought it was virtually nothing.

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That's my purse! I don't know you!

$5M.

I still do not understand why with all the lineup shifting Quade makes he refuses to bat Soriano ahead of Pena. He may actually have some runners on base for one of his bombs if Pena was not always the guy in front of him.

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That's my purse! I don't know you!

Soriano cannot hit with men on base.

Dempster going tonight: My guess 4.2 IP, 7 ER, 83 pitches

Another AB another nothing from Pena.

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That's my purse! I don't know you!

Hey don't fuck with Quade. "The boys played hard for him" last year in the stretch drive for 4th place!

Tell me which Cub does?

Hack Wilson.

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favrefan said:"Chris Coghlan isn't gonna pay your rent, Jimmy."

About fucking time Pena!!!

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That's my purse! I don't know you!

No shit.

That's 1.

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Will Dempster go back out there for the 7th and if so, will he get shelled? Is the bullpen already up or has Quade not thought that far ahead?

Brenly just said you can tell Dempster is about to the end the way his slider is going now. Gives up a leadoff single and no movement from Qball.

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Fuck Edwards and Zobrist