Hill's back stiffness raises question marks

Rich Hill's refresher course down at Class AAA Iowa isn't going exactly as planned.

The Cubs lefty, who was sent down to Iowa on May 3 to get his house in order, was pulled out of Friday night's game with back stiffness after allowing 3 walks and a 2-run single in the third inning.

"The extent of it I don't know yet," said Cubs pitching coach Larry Rothschild. "I don't think they do either until later (on). It's not anything. It just cropped up last night."

Has the back bothered Hill before?

"Don't know. He didn't have it last year, he didn't have it earlier in the year," manager Lou Piniella said. "I don't know what the problem is. Let's not make it too serious; it might not be serious at all."

Hill is 1-2 with a 3.38 ERA at Iowa. He has allowed a dozen hits in 13 innings, striking out 15 while walking eight.

"He was doing OK," Rothschild said. "You'd like to see him get down there and dominate the way he did the times before. He was coming along. At any point you hope he gets that going (again)."

Go ask the pitching coach: A day after Lou Piniella announced he wanted his pitchers and catchers to spend more time learning about opposing pitchers who swing the bat well, pitching coach Larry Rothschild didn't seem pleased to even have to discuss the topic.

"I've always done that," Rothschild said a bit tersely. "I've always gone over the opposing starter because it's an important out. (Pitchers) may be as important as anyone in the lineup.

"That's something I've done all along."

Walk this way: The Cubs have drawn 194 walks, good for second in the majors behind St. Louis.

How much of a change is that from a year ago? Consider that through 42 games in 2007, they drew only 132 walks.

If the Cubs were to keep up their current pace, they would end up with 740 walks, shattering the club record of 650 set in 1975.

Lou slays 'em: There are a couple of media members with whom Lou Piniella seems to enjoy sparring, and one of them got the Cubs skipper going early Saturday morning when he asked Piniella if his team was emotionally ready to win.

"Emotionally ready? How do you come up with these things?" Piniella said. "I don't know why we get into the emotional aspects.

"You can get into the emotional aspects of being married … about making a decision on where you're going to eat … but baseball? You let these guys play and stay out of their way."

Later, when asked a follow-up about what made his New York Yankees so good, Piniella sealed the deal.

"We had talent and we had confidence," he said, warming up. "I don't know, is that emotional? I don't know how to correlate between that and emotional. Do you sob before the ballgame? Do you sing out loud? I don't know. Let's drop that subject and go to something else."