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Rumor has it that Grace may have had a word with him after the Diamondbacks series.  Just suggesting a word: tipping.

I suggested that possibility after his debacle in Phoenix.

Maybe Cactus took it up with Grace who talked to Dempster.

Ever think of that, Curt?

Look at how similar these two lines are.  Barney now has a higher OPS than Castro.
 

NAME

GP

AB

R

H

2B

3B

HR

RBI

TB

BB

SO

SB

CS

BA

OBP

SLG

OPS

Darwin Barney	28	101	15	32	4	2	1	14	43	4	10	1	1	.317	.340	.426	.765
Starlin Castro	29	127	18	40	6	2	1	12	53	4	10	4	0	.315	.341	.417	.758

Randy Wells - S - Cubs Randy Wells (forearm) is headed to the Cubs' complex in Arizona to continue his rehab.
Similar to his teammate Andrew Cashner, Wells has resumed throwing this week and it's believed a rehab assignment isn't far away. He should return in the next few weeks. Source: Carrie Muskat on Twitter May 4, 2:13 PM

Andrew Cashner - S - Cubs Andrew Cashner (shoulder) is headed to the Cubs' complex in Arizona to continue his rehab.
Cashner threw off the mound for the first time Monday and was scheduled to throw again Wednesday. The Cubs are hoping he can return before the end of the month.

Tipping pitches doesn't account for the increase in walks.  And many of the bad pitches were way out of the strike zone.  It was almost like the Steve Blass/Rick Ankiel syndrome.

It doesn't explain why his slider was so flat or why his velocity was down.

I think I heard Bob mention on the broadcast last night that when Dempster's command was so bad in his last start, he purposely took something off to try to get the ball across the plate.  I think that was the only start where his velocity was way down, so that may be a reasonable explanation.

Brenly wants the job when Quadie gets fired.

Other than getting pounded was mentally affecting him, Clark and SZ, to the point that he was throwing darts and aiming instead of letting the ball go.  In that first inning, after walking two, he maybe picked up on the fact that at least they weren't guessing right...meaning that he was back, jack.    At some point, he started firing the ball again...confidence?