Realistic Chicago Sports

Cubs get de-pantsed by Nationals

2009-08-26T10:36:00.002-05:00

I last wrote on August 18th and said I felt the season was over, now after the ensuing road trip and last night's game, I KNOW the Cubs' season is over. There was a weird vibe to the Wrigleyville neighborhood before the game as scalpers (lots of them) were selling tickets for "half price".

For some reason my friends and I decided to go to the game. Originally we tried to barter with another friend for his tickets but he would not meet our low price, confident we could get cheap tickets we headed off for the game. We took the X80 Irving Park bus down to the game and as soon as we stepped off, a cougar in a convertible asked us if we needed tickets. We approached her car and she said she'd take $20 apiece for all 4, we said we needed only 3, so she sold us all 4 for $59, my friend, Steve, only gave her $19. The seats were solid, Aisle 135, Row 13, Seats 1-4, $60 face value. Next, since we were on a budget, we headed to the liquor store to pick up some flasks/pints to sneak into the game, I purchased a small bottle of Captain Morgan. For the record sneaking booze into Wrigley is awesome and easy, it also saves you tons of money you would have spent on beers, and saves you many trips to the bathroom. Everyone should do this, from now on, I will try and do this for every game.

Too bad the game itself sucked last night, I personally would blame Lou Piniella, because he managed the game like an ass, here is why I think this:

1.) When we were down only a few runs in the early stages of the game (I believe it was 3-1) Aramis Ramirez led off with a single. Then inexplicably, Lou called for a hit-and-run with Fukudome at the plate who wiffed on strike-3 leaving Ramirez hung out to dry and then gunned-down at second base. Way to run your team out of an inning Lou, using your slowest base-runner, and a poor contact guy. This was a wasted opportunity and seemed to kill any momentum the Cubs had going.

2.) The Pitching. Need I say more? Carlos Zambrano was terrible: 4.1IP, 8ER, 7H, 3BB, 4K. Way to step up Z with your season hanging by a thread you come out and pitch your worst game of the season, you should be real proud of yourself. Then when Lou finally pulled Z down 5-1 with the bases loaded and one out, who did he bring in? None other than Aaron Heilman. What a bad decision! Heilman did strike out the first batter he faced, but then right on cue gave up a Grand Slam to Elijah Dukes that still has not landed. The Cubs season ended right there, how fitting for this season, Lou bringing in the wrong pitcher at the wrong time, a theme for the whole year. Heilman had no business being in the game at that point, he is not a long reliever! Furthermore, he has no business being on the roster. Jim Hendry should release him right now, he is not signed beyond this season anyway. I still can't believe Heilman thought he could be a starter when this season began, what a jackass.

3.) Mike Fontenot, Aaron Miles, and Geovany Soto. None of these jerks belongs on the field. I will start with Fontenot who was 0-2 BB and made a throwing error in which he looked like an ass. He is hitting .222 on the season and has shown no signs of improvement, I said as soon as he came up in the second that he should not be out there, rather Jeff Baker should. I was proved right in the 9th when Baker blasted a solo HR. Baker is hitting .284 and is one of the hotter hitters on the team, there is no reason whatsoever Fontenot deserved to start last night, he is a loser, and should be playing elsewhere in 2010. Miles, in his only at-bat, struck out and got booed off the field. He is now hitting .177 and has 5 RBI this season! Seriously, he has no business being in MLB. Why Andres Blanco is at Iowa, while Fonty and Miles are here, I will never know. Lastly, Soto is a fat waste of space and a huge disappointment. His ROY season in 2008 is looking like a fluke and he looks like the next Rick Wilkins. If Soto wants to play next season he should be forced to go through extensive conditioning drills in the offseason. Another problem with Soto is that he can not hit a breaking ball, he is a real-life Pedro Cerrano, from Major League.

There were VERY few bright-spots last night but here they are: Milton Bradley had a nice game going 4-4 HR, RBI, 2R, BB and also made a great catch against the right-field wall late. Bradley hustled and played hard all night, and really has all season. He is the one guy who still seems to be trying out there. Our infielders: Derrek Lee, Ryan Theriot, Ramirez, and Fontenot seemed to be out of it last night, standing listlessly around the diamond. This was probably due to the fact that all the balls the Nats hit last night were hit hard to the outfield, mostly to Jake Fox, who looked as bad as Alfonso Soriano out there (but gets a pass because he is tyring and is not a dick). Bottom Line: Bradley played well last night, hopefully he can play well the rest of the way and carry that into 2010. Also, I gave him a standing-ovation when he hit his HR and made his catch, I have stuck by him all season and am proud of it!

The final score last night was 16-5, by far the worst loss I have ever been to, but I had a good time nonetheless. Eddie Vedder sang the 7th inning stretch admirably. Last night may just be the last game I will go to in 2009, mostly because I do not want to give this pathetic excuse for a team any more of my money (I don't have much). Last night, the fans finally seemed to turn on this team, lots of booing, and there was hardly anyone left by the end of the game (I stayed til the very end!).

My personal record in 2009: 8 and 4.
Next game I am going to as of right now: TBA.

The Cubs Season is likely over and so is my summer

2009-08-18T09:36:00.002-05:00

Last night the Cubs were not trailing for 8.2 innings and still found a way to lose. Kevin Gregg was called upon to pick up the save in the 9th protecting a 1-0 lead. Once again he could not get the job done as he completely derailed: 0.2IP, 2H (a game-tying double and a walk-off HR), 4ER, 2BB. This was his 6th blown save of the season and his 5th loss. With the Cardinals victory last night, the Cubs are now 6GB in the Division. Gregg cost his team the game last night and it is not like this is anything new either. Just two weeks ago, he blew saves against the Marlins on back-to-back days! His biggest problem is allowing HR's. I told my friends at the bar last night "At least he won't give up any homers, this stadium is too hard to hit one out of at night." Man do I sound like a dick, not only did Gregg allow a HR, he allowed a BOMB, and to a guy I have never heard of or seen before in my life: Kyle Blanks. It was bad enough he blew the save, but to allow him to remain in there to try and get out of the inning was just stupid. In my opinion, Gregg should be removed from the closer role effective immediately and replaced by Carlos Marmol (no matter how bad he looks some nights, I will still take him) or Angel Guzman.

Furthermore, it is not responsible of me to only blame Gregg for last night's loss. The Cubs had opportunities to score more than the one run they did, on an Aramis Ramirez RBI-Single. The Cubs were 1-8 with RISP and left 10 men on base (sound familiar). The biggest culprit last night was Mike Fontenot, who could not get the job done with the bases loaded on a full count to end the top half of the 6th inning. Why did this piss me off more than anything else a Cub hitter had done all night? Well, for starters, Fontenot is hitting .225. I would much rather see Alfonso Soriano pinch hit there, in a 0-0 game with the bases loaded, and then use Jeff Baker to play the field. I know Lou Piniella would have to waste two players there, but the game was on the line, and you could tell just by the look on Fonty's face that he was scared. He is nice little player, but I hope the Cubs have no plans to bring him back next season, the guy just can not hit the baseball! In fairness he did make one hell of a play to start a key double play in the bottom half of the 6th, but Andres Blanco can do the same thing.

Additionally, the Cubs wasted some pretty good performances from last night. Ted Lilly in his return from the DL did a hell of a job: 6IP, 0R, 4H, BB, 4K on 70 pitches (he had a pitch count, better safe than sorry with a guy coming off of a shoulder injury). Ramirez and Derrek Lee each had two hits last night, Lee even legged out a triple, and scored the team's only run. John Grabow pitched an impressive 1.1 innings last night and Carlos Marmol was as sharp as ever in his 2/3 of an inning.

Last night it hit me, the season is likely over. There is just something about this team: bad luck, lack of timing, lack of talent, lack of managing? I don't know what it is, but I had a real feeling after that game that this season was over for us, barring a complete and unlikely collapse by the Cardinals, or us jumping 3 teams in the Wild-Card race.

I watched last night's game at a new bar as well. My friends and I went to Tavern on Milwaukee, North, and Damen, in Wicker Park. Not my favorite bar (especially past 12am on weekends) but the place was nearly empty last night other than our group. They did have a good deal: $2 PBR bottles, which they have all the time, but do not advertise because they like to rip people off. The service was below average. The bartender who was probably younger than the entire group I went with grilled us on our ID's and did not seem to want us there. The TVs were nice, but the sound was turned off in favor of "Chick Music" according to Steve Twardowski. Also, we went there with my friend Nick's pilot-buddies, and two out of the three totally suck. One of them is a euro-guy who thinks he can walk on water and only talks about him making money, spending money, and how awesome he thinks he is. Despite how awesome he thinks he is, I have never seen him with a woman, and I know for a fact he got peed on by a stripper just a few weeks ago, Oh, and he is bald. The other douche was from St.Louis and just sat there mocking us for being Cubs fans, etc. Enough said, I tried to ignore him all night, literally, and he got mad at me for not laughing at his joke (it wasn't funny?). The only way I got him to stop talking was to bring up the St. Louis Rams. All in all, not the worst place to watch a game, a step up over Nick's Beer Garden, but unless you live in the area, I would not recommend going there.

Up Next: Cubs vs Padres at 9:05pm on WGN. Ryan Dempster (6-6, 4.23 ERA) vs Cesar Carrillo (0-1, 30.86 ERA). Note to Dumpster: The Padres Suck! And apparently so does Carrillo, if you can not pick up the win tonight, you are officially the worst! Every time Dempster pitches it seems like his ERA goes up and so does his loss total. Hopefully tonight he can change that and dominate a weak line-up, other than Adrian Gonzalez. I know nothing about Carrillo other than he has had a bad outing (looking at the ERA), hopefully the Cubs can tee-off on him as well.

There will be no morning post tomorrow, I have to go to my Grad School Orientation at UIC at 8 am. This signals the beginning of the end of a great summer. Also, as I was writing this, it was brought to my attention that Kevin Gregg has been demoted from the closer role, NICE!

Go Cubs! Rock out Chicago, Diet Pepsi, Uh Huh!

The kid who threw the beer on Shane Victorino's head

2009-08-13T18:10:00.002-05:00

The kid who threw a beer on Shane Victorino's head, while he was trying to make a catch, turned himself into authorities today. He is a 21-year old from where: BARTLETT, Illinois. To my one reader who commented earlier today, Dan, YES, he was from the Western Suburbs and a douche-bag. I go on rants about these western-suburbs losers all the time (see my post about the Captain Morgan Club from a few days ago). Somebody needs to tell these dicks to get the hell out of town, nobody wants you in Chicago. They are fairly easy to spot, usually wearing some sort of plaid shorts, an Ed Hardy-esque T-shirt, or some sort of expensive yet lame Cubs shirt, and they likely are wearing their sunglasses on top of their heads. Oh, and they can handle drinking about 6 beers max before their equally lame girlfriends or bang-bros need to walk them home from the Cubbie Bear, Moe's Cantina, Sluggers, or Casey Moran's after the game (those are my four worst rated bars in the Wrigleyville area). I am sick and tired of all these clowns graduating from College and moving into this great city and making real Chicagoans and Cubs fans look bad.

Also, Shane Victorino is a pussy for pressing charges against this kid in the first place. I mean c'mon man, it was only a beer dumped on you, and you made the catch regardless, get a life!

Furthermore, today's game sucked. Ryan Dempster lost again, which I believe I predicted in my morning post. Not a shocker for me, the guy is a bad pitcher, who had a career year last year, and duped Jim Hendry into giving him a 5-yr deal. I only caught a few minutes of the game on the radio this afternoon and the one half inning I could sit through was the inning Dumpster gave up 4 runs on a "wind-aided" HR to Ryan Howard and a solo shot by Pedro Feliz. I love how the delusional Cubs fans and the media are trying to let Demp off the hook by calling Howard's dinger "wind aided" get real, Howard is the Bill Brasky of baseball and Dempster sucks, the result: a HR! Do not blame the wind, blame the crappy pitcher, who also happened to walk the guys in front of Howard. The Cubs will not win consistently with Dempster in the rotation and I will leave it at that. Maybe he will come back focused and improved next season, but I doubt it. He will more than likely just continue to pitch like the number 4 or 5 starter that he actually is for the remainder of his time with the Cubs.

Cubs get their heads flushed down the toilet by the Phillies

2009-08-13T09:18:00.002-05:00

The Phillies are a good team, the Cubs are not, and that is why the Cubs lost last night 12-5. I hope last night was the end of the Jeff Samardzija Era here in Chicago (as a baseball player) he showed last night he is not ready to pitch at the Major League level. Not that it is entirely his fault, he has been shuttled between Iowa and Chicago all season, primarily as a reliever. Ideally, the Cubs management would have called up a starter from Iowa like Mitch Atkins to make this emergency start. Samardzija was awful last night: 3.1IP, 8H, 7ER, 4K, at least he did not walk anybody. Samardzija needs to be sent down to the minors to regroup and/or develop other pitches besides his fastball. My advice for him would be to retire from baseball and sign as a free-agent with the Chicago Bears. I watched every game he played as a football player at Notre Dame and I truly believe he could still play football, he would have been a 1st or 2nd round pick in the NFL Draft when he graduated.

The Cubs offense again was pathetic. How do you only manage 3 runs off of a washed-up Pedro Martinez, seriously! The Phillies were trying to give us this game by starting him and we still got blown out. The Cubs managed only two extra-base hits: Doubles by Derrek Lee and Fukudome. Ryan Theriot was really the only bright spot going 3-5, RBI, and raising his average to a team-high .300 (among every-day players).

Up Next: Cubs vs Phillies this afternoon at 1:20pm on CSN and WGN Radio. Ryan Dempster (6-5, 4.05 ERA) vs Cliff Lee (9-9, 2.95 ERA). Who would you pick to win this game? An all-star caliber pitcher with a Cy Young or an overpaid clown who can't keep the ball down? I would take Lee. I do not see Dempster giving the Cubs much in this outing since he has not done anything all season to make me think different. The Cubs have seen Lee this season and they won that game (although he was with Cleveland at the time). It was the game we trailed 7-0 and eventually won in extra-innings because Kerry Wood could not convert the save. I was at that game, albeit on a rooftop, but I do not remember the Cubs doing much against Lee. The Phillies are rolling and the Cubs are in a tailspin, unfortunately I see the Phillies finishing the sweep this afternoon. Thank God the Pirates are coming in for a weekend series, maybe the Cubs can get back on track against them.

The Cubs out-hit the Phillies, but refuse to Win

2009-08-11T22:28:00.003-05:00

This Cubs team is not very good and they always seem to find ways to lose. On a night where Rich Harden was nearly un-hittable (he had a perfect game through 5.1IP) we still could not do enough to win. Harden was spotted an early 2-0 lead when the Cubs scored twice in the third inning off of J.A. Happ. Milton Bradley got things going with a lead-off double, then Derrek Lee walked, and Jake Fox came through with an RBI single. The Cubs would load the bases in the inning but would only get one more run on an Alfonso Soriano Sac-Fly (all he would do in the game). After this point the Cubs hitters basically took the rest of the night off, especially Fat-Ass Geovany Soto who was 0-4 and refuses to take pitches in his at-bats, and can not lay off of face-high fastballs in key situations.

Harden took his perfect game into the 6th, but it all blew up once he got there. After retiring the lead-off guy, he walked the next hitter, and then gave up a 2R-HR to Jimmy Rollins (who happens to be the only Phillies hitter who is hot). Harden looked rattled at this point and was lucky to get out of the 6th inning, let alone the 7th. All in all he had a good start: 7IP, 2H, 2ER, 2BB, 6K, in a rarely efficient outing he threw 87 pitches, but had clearly unraveled towards the end. For awhile, I really thought we could see a no-hitter tonight, it was not meant to be.

Fast-Forward to the 8th inning and enter Carlos Marmol, who sure enough blew the game by walking 3 and beaning one, allowing a run to score without allowing a hit, in 2/3 of an inning. Marmol was pitiful, again, and deserved to lose this game. He also deserves to no longer be the set-up man. My advice to Lou Piniella would be to use Angel Guzman (who did pitch two perfect innings in the 9th and 10th) as the set-up guy, and use Marmol only with big leads and earlier in the games. John Grabow also did a nice job getting out of Marmol's jam in the 8th, retiring Raul Ibanez on 3 pitches.

Going into the bottom of the 9th the Cubs trailed by a run, but were in luck because Brad Lidge was on to close (he is terrible) and sure enough he blew the save! Fukudome got things started with a walk and was then sac-bunted to second by Ryan Theriot. Then the unthinkable happened and Bradley came up with a big hit, finally! He had an RBI single to left. This game was just not meant to be for the Cubs, who could not win the game in the 10th or the 11th, Scott Eyre (who should never have been released by Piniella in the first place) absolutely shut them down. Piniella does not have a clue how to manage a bullpen, letting go of Eyre for really no reason other than the fact that Lou did not like him was a huge mistake. It was nice to see Eyre get his redemption tonight.

Lou was forced to bring in closer Kevin Gregg to pitch the 11th where he retired arguably the three best Phillies hitters in a row, all lefties too in: Chase Utley, Ryan Howard, and Raul Ibanez. Too bad retiring lefties is not Gregg's problem, retiring righties is his weakness. Gregg came out to start the 12th and sure enough gave up a HR to Ben Francisco that barely made the basket in left field. This was directly after Milton Bradley had thought he'd hit the game-winning HR to left-center only to watch it get caught at the wall to end the bottom of the 11th. That near miss seemed to take all the wind out of the Cubs' sails and I had a feeling that the game ended there, mostly because I had such little confidence in guys like Lee, Fox, Soto, and Soriano to win the game in the 12th inning. This was the 11th HR Gregg has allowed this season in only 53.2 IP, unacceptable. His record is 4-4, with 5 blown saves, and a 4.02 ERA. I look forward to the days when Gregg is not a Cub and we do not have to endure this B.S. anymore. He is an awful closer.

The Cubs could not muster a comeback in the bottom of the 12th as Lee flied out weakly, Fox walked, Soto struck out (on a face-high fastball), and Soriano flied out to right (his bat must be slow because he should have been trying to pull the ball). Overall, there were very few things to be happy about from tonight's game. Offensively, Jeff Baker had a great game going 4-5. Bradley had a nice night as well going 2-5, 2B, RBI, R (and nearly hit a walk-off). Lee walked 3 times and Fox also added two hits and did not make any errors at third base. Harden had a good game too, I would take his stat-line anytime, unfortunately the Cubs' hitters got complacent (as usual) once they had a lead and could not tack on any insurance runs (they were 2-8 w/RISP and left 12 men on base). Lou was very agitated in his post game interview and had very little to say about the game. At least the Cardinals lost tonight as well, thank-you Reds!!!

Up Next: The Cubs and Phillies are at it again tomorrow night at 7:20. Jeff Samardzija (1-1, 6.29 ERA) vs Pedro Martinez (0-0, N/A). Martinez is making his first Major League start of the season after spending time recently in the minors after being signed out of retirement. The Cubs last saw him last September while he was with the Mets and beat him. Martinez does not have anything left and ordinarily I would say there is no way they could lose to him, I mean his ERA was over 5 at AAA. But tomorrow the Cubs are starting Samardzija, so all bets are off! Tonight was a pitcher's duel, tomorrow should be a slug-fest, I would not be surprised to see neither pitcher last beyond the 5th, let alone the 4th inning. But who knows? Maybe the Shark will surprise all his nay-sayers out there and step up with a big game? Perhaps that is too much to ask from an over-paid, over-hyped, football player with one pitch, who has never started a Major League game before? My prediction: the Cubs win in a slug-fest. They need to win, or their season will be over before they know what hit them. It would be a shame if the team completely fell apart just as their most hated player (Bradley, who I have stood by all along) started to get hot. Hopefully the Cubs can bounce back tomorrow night! Oh, and I hope Koyie Hill starts in place of Soto.

Cubs lose to Rockies Again, Iowa Cubs, Captain Morgan, and the Cubs Return Home

2009-08-11T10:26:00.003-05:00

The Cubs lost on Monday night to the Rockies 11-5 for the second day in a row, dropping 3 of 4 to the red-hot Rockies. I have not watched a game since last Wednesday since I went golfing in Wisconsin all weekend, and all they show up there are Brewers games. It looks as if the Cubs took the rest of the week off as well. Thanks to the complete ineptitude of the Cincinnati Reds (whom the Cardinals just played) we now stand 3 GB in the division.

Sunday I went to the Iowa Cubs game at Wrigley Field, which was a blast. Tickets were as cheap as $5, my girlfriend, her friends, and I sat in the upper deck, section 517. Seeing as the place the almost totally empty the six of us decided to just find six seats together and sit there. Sure enough, a mother and her two sons come barging into our row and say "You're in our seats" (very bitchy), so I replied "Sorry we ruined your day!" (I was not sober). So we moved up two more rows, I still do not know why that woman had to be such a bitch, she could have just politely asked us to move? Hot-Dogs were $1 at all concession stands, which was tight, I had two of them. The game itself was pretty dull however, I missed the introductions, had no scorecard, so I had no idea who anyone was unless they came up to bat. I did give Micah Hoffpauir, who I did not even know had been sent down, a standing ovation in his first at bat (he flied out). Also, So Taguchi has nothing left in the tank, too bad because he was a clutch hitter once upon a time for the Cardinals. The Cubs did go on to win the game, but we had to leave early as it was so hot. We did move all they way up in the upper deck and sat along the fence, catching a very cool breeze from the west, I have not sat in the Uecker seats in a long time. All in all, the "Road to Wrigley" was a fun time, and we plan on making it an annual tradition, if they continue to play the game attendence was down to 16,000 vs 32,000 they drew last season.

Furthermore, last night, I made my first trip to The Captain Morgan Club, and it will be my last. We went because Monday nights are 1/2 off everything there. The waitress was awful, she wanted nothing to do with us. When I ordered a 16oz can of Old Style, she looked at me like I had two heads. When we put in our food order, she turned and walked away as I was mid-order. Not knowing if she'd gotten the rest of the order, my girl had to go up and ask her (I was no longer in the mood for anymore of her bullshit by this point) to which she replied yes. The food was ok, but it was basically ballpark food, and the Italian Beef I ordered was not as good as the ones they serve inside the stadium. Fortunately the bill came out to be only $15 and I left a $3 tip, the only reason I left that much was because the bus-boys did a nice job. I could not imagine ever paying full price for any of that stuff. The only reason that place stays in business is because of all the tourists, drunks, and western-suburbs d-bags who flock to Wrigleyville on weekends.

Now back to the Cubs... They return home tonight to begin a 3-game series with the Phillies at 7:20 pm on CSN and WGN Radio. Rich Harden (7-7, 4.41 ERA) vs J.A. Happ (8-2, 2.74 ERA). If the Cubs have ever needed a big start from Harden, tonight is the night. He needs to step up and pitch like the ace he used to be and end this losing streak. Happ is having a monster season, he was 8-0 at one point and would be running away with Rookie of the Year had he not burned all of his eligibility as a reliever at the end of last season. He is a good, young, left-handed pitcher, who will apparently remain in their rotation despite the additions of Cliff Lee and Pedro Martinez (the other two pitchers we are set to face in this series). Since it is a night game, I see Harden giving us a strong outing tonight and getting the victory over the Northwestern University product, Happ.

Last night as I was listening to the first two innings of the game (I turned it off once Esmalian Caridad came in to pitch) I had a feeling that the Cubs season just ended, I hope I was wrong. Apparently, Aramis Ramirez has re-injured his shoulder and two things can happend: 1) DL and 2) Cortisone Shot, where he will miss a few more games, and return this weekend. The Cubs desperately need his bat in the line-up, but if he is not healthy, maybe it would be best just to shut him down, we do not need him jeopardizing his career on this injury. Plus, as of late he has not been hitting all that well, the shoulder clearly affects his swing. Also, what is the deal with Carlos Zambrano's back? With him on the DL now we have a rotation of Harden, Randy Wells, Ryan Dempster, Tom Gorzelanny, and Jeff Samardzija. If we have to go on with this rotation, the season is over! Luckily, it looks like Ted Lilly will be back this weekend, meaning Samardzija will only make one start and then move back to the pen or to Iowa. Gorzelanny is a huge question mark, he looked awful last night. Dempster is a gamer, but he is not good, so I do not get my hopes up whenever he starts a game. Wells has logged a lot of innings this season, I hope he is not starting to fade away, the Cubs need to be careful with his arm, he needs to be included in their plans for the future. With Lilly hopefully coming back with something left in the tank (he still leads the team in wins with 9!) and Z coming back we could be ok, but for now, guys like Harden, Demp, and the entire offense (especially Milton Bradley and Alfonso Soriano) need to step up and whether the storm and keep this team in contention.

Go Cubs!

Thank you Aaron Harang, again

2009-08-04T10:41:00.004-05:00

Last night the Cubs bounced back from what I would call a demoralizing loss on Sunday night to the bastard Marlins with a 4-2 win over the familiar punching bag known as the Cincinnati Reds. Is it just me or have the Cubs owned the Reds recently? If I am not mistaken, this was four wins in a row against them, and two in a row against Aaron Harang. Harang actually did not pitch too poorly last night, the lone mistake he made was leaving a ball up in the zone against Mike Fontenot, who promptly launched it into the right-center bleachers, making the game 3-0 in the 2nd. That was really all the Cubs would need last night. Other than this, Harang was solid, he struck out 10 Cubs hitters: Alfonso Soriano twice (not surprising), Derrek Lee twice, and Koyie Hill THREE times (a few looking too). Some games, Hill looks like he has no intention of swinging the bat, like a pitcher, and just takes a ton of pitches to wear out the opposing pitcher, last night was one of those games. However, I am not really alarmed over the number of K's last night, Harang is among the league leaders in that category each year. Lee did come through with a clutch double in the 8th to score Fukudome, making the game 4-0, the Cubs could have done more that inning, but as usual they did not. Also, it was nice to see Fontenot step up and have a big game, he has really struggled lately, and I have been very critical of him on this site and others, last night's HR was BIG!

What can I say about Randy Wells? The guy is the man, seriously: 7.1IP, 6H, ER, 2BB, 5K. The only run he allowed came in the 8th, when he gave up a solo HR to Alex Gonzalez (not the former Cub). Seriously, I did not think Gonzo was capable of hitting one out, the pitch was a mistake, a little bit of a hanger. But that was the only blunder in an otherwise dominant performance, on National TV mind you. This game just did wonders for Wells' Rookie of the Year chances. ESPN was really kissing his ass after the game, noting that he has the most wins among MLB starters since June 21st, with 8. That is 8 straight wins for Wells, imagine what his record would be had he gotten any run support during his first couple of starts this season. With Colby Rasmus no longer an everyday player, Wells could run away with the ROY if he continues to pitch well. Wells improved his record to 8-4, 2.73 ERA. Basically Wells is pitching as well as Ryan Dempster did last year, while Dempster has struggled mightily this season. Hopefully Demp can revert to form (although I am highly skeptical) and give us a strong rotation down the stretch this season, making the Cubs a force to be reckoned with.

The bullpen last night was entertaining to say the least. Newly acquired, John Grabow, came in to finish the 8th and beaned the first batter he faced, Joey Votto, a lefty mind you. This was just a typical Cubs play, bringing in the lefty to face the other team's best hitter (also a lefty) and he plunks him on the first pitch. Then to top it off, he gets Brandon Phillips to ground into a double play to end the inning. Then in the 9th, Carlos Marmol made things really interesting: walking the lead-off hitter (as always), strikeout, single, flyout, RBI double, groundout. Marmol escaped allowing only one run and got his 4th save of the season. I guess this performance will quiet all of the Anti-Kevin Gregg people out there, for now. Marmol has been erratic all season and I really do not expect it to change. I can handle his ups and downs and most Cub fans should be able to as well, I mean two of our best closers ever were Mitch "Wild Thing" Williams and Rod Beck, both of whom always kept things interesting. It is the end result that matters and Marmol indeed got the save. Despite all of his wildness this season, there is no one else in our bullpen I would rather have out there with the game on the line than Marmol.

Additionally my friend Steve and I tried a new bar to watch the Cubs game, we chose Nick's Beer Garden in Wicker Park on Milwaukee Ave. Their special was $5 PBR can & "well" shot, we chose Vodka, and did multiple rounds. Not a bad deal at all, we were getting drunk quickly, and well vodka is not that bad, it was definitely better than the tequila I was about to try, before Steve stopped me. The rest of the patrons were as interesting as the game: the guy sitting next to us was in his mid-50's and a total bozo. He went through more than a whole bottle of Pinot Grigo by himself, what man drinks Pinot Grigio, at a bar? I could tell he was a complete ass due to the fact that he said he loves to "You-Tube Steve Goodman" and listen to songs about the pain and joy of being a Cubs fan. For those who do not know, Goodman is the writer of the song "Go-Cubs-Go", a song that I, and most of my friends detest. Also, this gentleman looked exactly like the Public Access Producer in Wayne's World and was wearing a Hawaiian shirt, generally a good sign that you are a weirdo. That guy probably went to McDonalds on his way home and cried over a double cheeseburger. Other than that guy, there were two women making out near the pool table for a solid hour or more. All the while the bartender had a sweet mix of Otis Redding and Sam Cooke going on her Ipod. Not my favorite place to watch a game, the place was not really designed to watch sports (they had the food network on when we came in), they only had two TVs, and no sound, but it was a good time nonetheless.

Up Next: Cubs vs Reds tonight at 6:10pm on CSN (Not WCIU, the Tribune gave me shotty information) and WGN Radio (my new way of taking in the games because my girlfriend doesn't have a TV). Tom Gorzelanny (3-1, 5.19 ERA) vs Johnny Cueto (8-8, 4.06 ERA). This is Gorzelanny's Cubs debut and I really do not know what to expect from the lefty tonight. He has not started in the majors since earlier in the season (April or May), was relegated to the bullpen, and has allegedly pitched well at Triple-A recently. Honestly, I do not expect much out him, I would take 5IP and 4ER, but who knows maybe he will go out there and throw a gem? Cueto is the Reds ace, escpecially since Edinson Volquez just got shut down for a year due to Tommy John Surgery. He was decent the last time we faced him and I am worried he is overdue for a strong start and the Cubs hitters have been a little weak the last two games. I guess we'll find out tonight, Go Cubs!

Cubs beat Astros 12-3, Acquire 2 pitchers from Pittsburgh

2009-07-30T17:05:00.004-05:00

Kevin Hart we barely knew you... Hart earned his 3rd victory of the season improving to 3-1 with a quality start: 6IP, 6H, 3ER, 2BB, 4K, he was also 1-3 at the plate. This was also Hart's final start in a Cubs uniform as he was traded after the game along with P Jose Ascanio and INF Josh Harrison (A) to the Pittsburgh Pirates (our favorite trading partner) for LHP John Grabow and LHP Tom Gorzelanny. Grabow, 30, was a highly sought after left-handed reliever who is 3-0, 3.42 ERA in 45 games this season for the Pirates. He is a lefty specialist who should be Lou Piniella's best left-handed option out of the bullpen for the rest of this season. Gorzelanny, 26, is a Chicago native (south-side, though) who has been a starter for most of his short career. This season he has been relegated to the bullpen with little success in only 9 games, he was on the DL/in the minors for the rest of the season, he has not pitched in the big leagues since June 10th. I do like this trade for the Cubs. Although Hart did give us 3 straight solid starts, I do not feel he was in the Cubs' long term plans, I also feel that Ascanio could develop into a solid set-up guy. The Cubs desperately needed a lefty set-up man, and Grabow fills that void. My guess is, B.J. Ryan was not too impressive at Iowa, or they plan to bring Ryan up as well, and move Sean Marshall (who did pitch today) back into the starting rotation to replace Ted Lilly/Hart. I am not quite sure where Gorzelanny fits into the Cubs future plans. He was a decent starter at times in his young career, hopefully he can get back on track, and provide some depth at starter for the Cubs. In my opinion the Cubs paid a high price for Grabow, but there was a demand for him throughout the league, hopefully this deal pays off for both clubs.

As for the game itself today, it was another blowout Cubs win. Things were tight early, but right on cue, Astros starter Russ Ortiz (who was walking a tightrope) finally caved and gave up 5 runs in the 3rd inning, after allowing 4 in the 2nd inning. This was the second day in a row that an Astros starter allowed 9ER. In the 2nd, Fukudome had an RBI single and Ryan Theriot would later add a 2-RBI double in the same inning. Hart let the Astros back in the game in the top half of the third giving up a 2-Run HR to Kaz Matsui, making the score 4-3, that was the last time the Astros would score.

In the bottom of the third Jake Fox and Milton Bradley hit back-to-back HR's to left-field. The Cubs were not done here, Alfonso Soriano followed with a single up the middle, and Mike Fontenot followed that with an RBI triple (after he looked like a douche popping out on a first pitch in his first at-bat). Next, Koyie Hill hit a Sac-Fly scoring Fontenot, this is all I really expect from Hill, any run production from him is a bonus, the man calls one hell of a game. After Hill, Hart got a base hit and later scored on a Fukudome RBI double. In all, the Cubs got 5 runs in the 3rd inning, which lasted about 40 minutes, no thanks to Ortiz, who is one of the slowest pitchers in MLB, much like Steve Trachsel.

The Cubs would go on to tack on another run in the 5th and two more in the 7th. In the end Fukudome probably had the best day among Cubs hitters going 3-3, 3B, 2B, 2 BB, 4RBI. Ryan Theriot also had a big day going 1-4 with 4RBI. That is very good production from the top of the order, I feel as if Lou should leave Fukudome in the lead-off spot against right-handed pitching for the remainder of the season. Soriano and Fontenot each had 2 hits apiece, Soriano even walked 2 times, and they both scored 2 runs apiece. Andres Blanco had a nice pinch-hit as well, he is due for some more playing time. The only Cub who had a bad day was Derrek Lee, but this was somewhat expected since he has struggled against Ortiz his whole career, he was 3 for 33 (.091) lifetime vs Ortiz, and did nothing to change that today. I am not at all concerned. Lee did make a phenomenal catch & tag on an errant throw from Theriot on a double-play, a crucial one actually, it came with the bases loaded and one out in the second inning, and saved Hart's day.

Furthermore, the bullpen was sharp today as well: Marshall, Mitch Atkins, and Kevin Gregg each pitched a scoreless inning. Atkins looked good once again, although most pitchers do when they are up by 9 runs. Gregg struck out the side and needed the work, he had not been used since Sunday afternoon, it was good to see Gregg pitch well/efficiently with a big lead (something he has struggled with this season).

This home-stand was a huge success for the Cubs who went 6 and 1 and are now 14 games over .500 at home this season. Now the Cubs embark on a 10-game road trip stopping in Florida, Cincinnati, and Colorado. The Cubs would like to take care of business on this trip and continue their good play from the last road trip. The Cubs will need to win not only to stay in the division race, but Florida and Colorado are also competing with the Cubs for the Wild-Card race, so these games are BIG.

Up Next: Cubs vs Marlins Friday night at 6:10pm on Comcast Sports Net and WGN Radio. Rich Harden (7-6, 4.55 ERA) goes against Kris Volstad (8-9, 4.44). Harden is coming off of 3 straight good starts, his most recent one, was proabably his best of the season. Tomorrow's game is a night game and we all know how well Harden pitches in those, hopefully he can keep up the good work tomorrow night. As for Volstad, I do not know too much about him: I know he is young and very talented, probably better than his numbers show, he is also a big/imposing figure on the mound. I expect tomorrow night's game to be a close one for sure. Hopefully the Cubs can keep their winning streak alive and start off their road-trip on a positive note with a win!
*Also, the demoralized Astros are headed to St.Louis for a weekend series with the suddenly hot Cardinals, who are fresh off a few victories (as I am writing this, we'll see about tonight's game) of the Dodgers (who suddenly look beat-able). Hopefully the Dodgers can help out the Cubs tonight with a win over the Cards and maybe the Astros can come back to life and at least compete with the Cards over the weekend, but that may be asking too much, they looked terrible in this series against the Cubs, their starting pitching other than Roy Oswalt and Wandy Rodriguez is pathetic.

Cubs win big in laugher over Astros

2009-07-30T10:19:00.003-05:00

The Cubs did lose on Tuesday night, I do not really want to talk about that game, any game in which Ryan Dempster starts I feel the Cubs will lose, he is just not very effective. He got hit hard, I honestly thought he would give up 10 runs in that game. I guess the bullpen was brutal as well, the lone bright spot, if you could call it that was that Roy Oswalt hurt his back and had to leave the game in the second inning, therefore further taxing the Astros' bullpen.

Yesterday's game was complete domination by the Cubs. They got off to a quick start, scoring 6 runs in the first inning, highlighted by an Alfonso Soriano 3 run-HR. Reed Johnson also injured himself during his second at-bat of the inning fouling a ball off of his foot, and breaking his foot (he will miss at least a month). I expect Sam Fuld to be called up to replace Johnson, but I am not sure how much playing time he will see, due to the fact he is a lefty, and Soriano and Fukudome are playing well.

The Cubs offense all had a good day, everyone had a hit with the exception of Fukudome and Mike Fonetenot (who walked in his only at-bat). The game was essentially over after the first inning. Aramis Ramirez hit his 9th HR of the season and is really playing well as of late. Andres Blanco hit his first career HR in the 8th, well after the game was out of reach. Micah Hoffpauir may have gotten some of the critics off of his back with a triple, the first of his career. Also, Jake Fox, who came in to play for Soriano had a nice game with a Sac-Fly and an RBI single, they guy is a flat-out run producer. There are too many good things to say about the Cubs bats yesterday, what a great team effort! Since Ramirez's return the Cubs have scored 10+ runs three times, where they only had done so twice without him, we are seeing just how valuable he is to our line-up.

The pitching was the real story yesterday as Randy Wells went out and pitched 8 innings allowing no runs on 6 hits, walking two, and striking out only one. He was dominant to say the least, no baserunner reached second base against him until the 8th inning, his last. He pitched a lot of ground balls, resulting in 3 GIDP for the Astros. Wells earned his 7th win in 8 games and is now 7-4 with a 2.84 ERA on the season. Once he has enough innings pitched he could be near the league lead in ERA and a strong candidate for Rookie of the Year. In addition to Wells, Mitch Atkins pitched the 9th in his MLB debut, he shook off a Jeff Baker error and induced yet another double play to end the game. From what I saw, Atkins did not look all that bad, he threw strikes (7 out of 8 pitches) and looked poised out on the mound. Hard to understand how this guy had a 6.92 ERA at AAA-Iowa, he was considered an outside chance to make the club out of spring training. I would expect to see Atkins again in September if he continues to pitch well.

Up next: The Cubs and Astros finish their 4 game series this afternoon at 1:20pm on WGN TV and Radio. Kevin Hart (2-1, 2.08 ERA) vs Russ Ortiz (3-5, 4.75 ERA). Hart has had back-to-back strong outings, I am not really sure if we can expect him to do it again? His track record in the minors would suggest he can not. But he has been keeping the ball down, all he really needs to do is go out there and keep his team in the ball game. I would like to see 6IP and 3ER, maybe 4ER. Russ Ortiz is a familiar face to the Cubs hitters, they have seen him twice already this season, winning once and losing once. The last time Ortiz had the Cubs' number, this time, I see them scoring some runs off of him, possibly a lot of runs. The Cubs have the Astros on the ropes, if Ortiz does not have his best stuff out there, he will have to remain in the game, due to the overuse of the Astros Bullpen, thanks to Oswalt's injury and Mike Hampton's turd of a start yesterday, not to mention the 13 inning game on Monday. If the Cubs can score a few runs today, like say 5, they should win this game and take three of four from the Astros. The Cubs are currently 1/2 game out of first place trailing the Cardinals who defeated the Dodgers in 15 innings last night, thank you LA for blowing the lead in the 9th you bunch of over-rated jerks! One last thing, Mark DeRosa looks like a dick in a Cards uniform.

Cubs defeat Astros in Grand fashion in 13 innings

2009-07-28T10:48:00.002-05:00

Last night the Cubs needed to win, especially since St.Louis got lucky and beat the Dodgers. Last night before I left for the game, I was for some unexplainable reason watching Chicago Tribune Live (CTL) and Paul Sullivan, Cubs beat writer, said that Carlos Zambrano nudged him before the game, as he does when he is about to pitch well, or have his good stuff. Zambrano was right, he did have his good stuff last night: 7IP, ER, 3H, 4BB, 4K. He pitched quickly and was dominant at times, the only blunder was when he allowed at towering HR to fellow Venezuelan, Carlos Lee, on an 0-2 count. Seriously, that was one of the farthest hit balls I have ever seen to center field, it almost hit the the little camera box!

Furthermore, even the bullpen pitched well last night, combining for 6IP, OER, 2BB, 7K. Aaron Heilman actually pitched decently as did Carlos Marmol, neither walked anyone. Jeff Stevens for some reason pitched the 9th and most of the 10th inning allowing only 2 hits and striking out three, he showed good poise out on the mound in a tough spot, Kevin Gregg also probably needed a day off. Sean Marshall got out of a minor Stevens jam and only pitched 1/3 of an inning, Lou Piniella needs to figure out a way to get more out of him, he is vastly underused. Finally, Jeff Samardzija pitched the final two innings, he made things interesting in the 13th getting into a first and third one out jam, but was saved by a great Jake Fox catch of a high fastball, and a convenient Carlos Lee double play, to get out of the jam and eventually pick up his first win of the season. My guess would be either Samardzija or recently called up Justin Berg will be sent back down to make room for Ryan Dempster who is set to come off of the DL today and start tonight.

Last night the Cubs did not do too much offensively, mostly since they were facing lefty, Wandy Rodriguez, who seems to give them fits. The Cubs were 1-9 with RISP last night, looking like the Cubs of May/June, fortunately, the Astros were worse, going 0-7 with RISP. The lone Cubs run in the first 9 innings came when Derrek Lee hit a solo-HR to lead off the 4th inning, of course I was in the bathroom/getting an Old Style when this happened. But it continues to prove that I am Lee's good luck charm, he always seems to hit homers when I am in attendance. I can not believe he has 20 HR this season, what a pleasant surprise! Maybe he can give us 30+?

The rest of the Cubs did not look good last night, except Aramis Ramirez, who was 3-6 2B, R. D Lee managed to reach base 5 times last night. The top of the order did absolutely nothing as Reed Johnson and Ryan Theriot went a combined 0-12, Johnson is now hitting .243, Lou may want to consider not batting him lead-off anymore as he is not consistent enough. My suggestion against lefties would be to either bat Theriot or Milton Bradley first. Alfonso Soriano had a bad looking night as well, he grounded into a double play and failed to run out a grounder to third base (he thought he fouled it off his foot, but it did not look like it did) and really took a lot of heat from the fans, especially the ones in my area. In all fairness, he did make some nice catches in left field and did eventually win us the game (more on that later).

The Cubs should have won the game in the 9th when they had the bases loaded and one out for PH Mike Fontenot. Fontenot really screwed up, he failed to get a suicide squeeze (which I predicted before it happened to my Dad) down, leaving Bradley hung out to dry at third. Then hit a weak fly ball to center accomplishing nothing with his at-bat. Then later in extras he made a bad relay throw which allowed a Astros runner to reach third base, when he had all the time in the world to throw him out, Fontenot did his best last night to lose his team the game, thankfully his mistakes did not matter in the end. My point is, Fontenot should never have been out there in the first place. Lou had two much better options in the 9th: 1.) If he wanted to do the squeeze play he should have gone with Andres Blanco, who is on this team to do two things field and bunt (he is a good bunter) I guess Lou did not want to be obvious. 2.) Use Jake Fox and play for a Sac-Fly! Fox would have a better chance of making contact and hitting a fly ball, which was all we needed. I think Lou simply out-smarted himself. If Fontenot wants to continue to play in the major leagues as a light hitting second baseman, which he is, then he seriously needs to learn how to bunt and throw, before he costs the Cubs anymore games. Fonty is hitting a pedestrian .229, with Jeff Baker playing better and Blanco a better defender, how can Lou continue to justify playing Fontenot?

Finally, after Samardzija got out of the 13th the Cubs managed to load the bases for Alfonso Soriano, who like I mentioned was having an awful game. I was hoping for a Bradley walk-off, but really just wanted a win. With the Astros outfield drawn in, all Soriano had to do was hit a fly ball, and boy did he ever. With the bases loaded and nobody out, the Astros pitcher, Chris Sampson had to throw Soriano strikes. Soriano responded by launching a Walk-OFF Grand Slam to the same spot Carlos Lee hit a HR in over the batter's eye in center field. Soriano posed at home plate to admire his HR and then slowly trotted around the bases savoring the moment and the cheers, he stutter-stepped around second, touched third with his hand, and then jumped into a crowd of teammates at home plate. What a finish to a great game, Soriano made us all forget about the awful game he'd had to that point, and more importantly the Cubs stayed in first place. The Cubs have now won 5 in a row and 9 of 11 overall.

Great game to be at last night, I did not get there in time to recieve the free luggage tags at the gate, because I opted for an Old Style Fan can and free hot-dog compliments of the Full Shilling. I went to the game with my Dad and sat in aisle 208 down the third base side, a solid view of the game and conveniently located near restrooms and beer stands. This was also at least the second if not third extra innings game I have been to this season.

My personal 2009 Cubs record: 8 and 3.
The next game I am going to as of right now: TBD.

Up next: The Cubs and Astros play again at 7:05 pm. Ryan Dempster (5-5, 4.09 ERA) vs Roy Oswalt (6-4, 3.66 ERA). Dempster is making his first start since coming off of the DL today after breaking his toe celebrating a Cubs victory a few weeks ago. I am really not expecting much from Demp, I just hope his toe has healed, and that he is not rushing to get back. Oswalt is a good pitcher and his team could really use a win tonight. The Cubs have seen plenty of Oswalt over the years, hopefully he has on off night, and the Cubs can continue their winning streak!

The Cubs will have to make some moves

2009-07-25T12:08:00.003-05:00

With Ted Lilly heading to the DL with a soar shoulder (thank goodness there is no tear) and for arthroscopic knee surgery, he will be out for at least 4-5 weeks. That leaves a gaping hole in the Cubs rotation. Ryan Dempster is set to come off of the DL to start on Tuesday, but for now it also means that Kevin Hart will remain in the rotation. Lou Piniella has said he would like to keep Sean Marshall in the bullpen, so for now, they're going to go with Hart as the 5th starter. This really worries me because Hart is not very good. He has not given up a lot of runs this season, but he does allow a lot of hits, and walks far too many men. I do not believe that the Cubs can win the division or the wild-card with Hart pitching every 5 days.

Therefore I feel the Cubs need to add a starting pitcher before the trade deadline, preferably a lefty to offset the loss of Lilly. Here are two ideas:
1.) Zach Duke, Pittsburgh Pirates: 9-9, 3.42 ERA, 3CG, 139 IP, 1.227 WHIP. Pretty good numbers considering he plays for the Pirates, career-wise he is 13 games under .500.
2.) Doug Davis, Arizona Diamondbacks: 4-10, 3.95 ERA, 118 IP, 1.496 WHIP. Davis is 33 years old and is 8 games under .500 for his career. His best seasons were with Milwaukee from 2004-06. He was also a key pitcher for the D-Backs in '07 going 13-12. He has not been as bad as his record would suggest this season, he got off to a terrible start, and does not get a lot of run support.

If the Cubs are smart, I think they would at least inquire about one, if not both of these guys. Milwaukee could be looking to add Davis as well, he is known as a Cub-Killer. Of the two, I would prefer Duke because he is 26 and has more upside.

Cardinals Acquire Matt Holliday

2009-07-24T11:34:00.006-05:00

The St.Louis Cardinals have acquired OF Matt Holliday from the Oakland A's for 3 prospects, including the Cards' top hitting prospect. Yet another shady Oakland-St.Louis deal see:
1. Mark McGwire deal in 1997, total BS, St.Lou gave up basically nothing to get the then top slugger in MLB.
2. Mark Mulder to St.Louis in 2004. Mulder was at the time, one of the best pitchers in the game, few saw the injury problems ahead, well maybe Billy Beane. In return the A's got Dan Haren among others, Haren turned out to be a stud, he was later dealt to the D-Backs for more prospects, Haren is currently one of the premier pitchers in the NL.
3. Willie McGee to Oakland in 1990. McGee actually won the NL Batting Title in 1990 despite being traded to the AL at the deadline, he had enough at-bats, McGee was also the 1985 NL MVP. Nevertheless, the Cards did not get much in return, and McGee helped Oakland get to the World Series, where they eventually lost to Lou Piniella's Cincinnati Reds.

So maybe today's deal between the Cards and A's is the Cards getting paid back for McGee? Matt Holliday is hitting .286, 11Hr, 54 RBI, .378 OBP which is not actually that bad considering he plays in Oakland (and isn't on steroids like Miguel Tejada or Jason Giambi, Oakland is a bad hitters park!). He got off to a terrible start this season and is in the midst of his best stretch of the season. Holliday was a strong performer while with the Rockies, he was constantly near the top of the leaderboards in AVG, HR, and RBI each of the last few seasons. He also knows NL pitching. The Mark DeRosa deal has not worked out as well as the Cards had hoped, so they were forced to acquire another power bat to go with Albert Pujols and Ryan Ludwick. The only question is where are they going to play him, the outfield is getting pretty crowded in St. Louis with Ludwick, Rick Ankiel, Colby Rasmus, and Skip Schumacher already out there. Who would play right? Holliday I guess would have to play right. Hopefully for Cubs fans, Holliday stays in his funk from earlier in the season, if not it could be a long couple of months for the Cubs as we chase the Cards.

Maybe Tony LaRussa is why the Cards and A's do so many deals? I mean he has managed both of them to a World Series Title. Also, lots of teams make frequent deals together, the Cubs themselves send off their rejects to Baltimore for their mid-level prospects, examples: Corey Patterson, Felix Pie, Rich Hill, Joey Gathright, and Sammy Sosa for basically Mike Fontenot and Ryan Freel. And we did make multiple deals with the Pirates, a division rival, in 2003: getting Aramis Ramirez and Kenny Lofton for Bobby Hill and Jose Hernandez, and later aquired Randall Simon for basically nothing. Point is, there are lots of shady trades in baseball, it is just when it comes to the Cards and A's there are usually some big names being traded for very little in return. Here's to the Cubs playing better baseball rendering this trade useless!

Perfect game, other thoughts

2009-07-23T15:12:00.004-05:00

Today there was very little on T.V. so I found myself watching the first two innings of the White Sox game for some reason. Mark Buehrle was starting against the Tampa Bay Rays who struggle mightily against lefties and he retired the first 6 hitters. I was so into the game that I opted to watch a couple of episodes of Cheap Seats I have recorded on my DVR, featuring 1978 Superstars, which is a must see, Ron Cey running is still one of the funniest things I have ever seen. Also, Reggie Jackson, who was working for ABC at the time was filmed sitting shirtless in the crowd while he was supposed to be providing commentary and/or interviews.

Back to the game, as soon as I was finished with the Superstars I heard that Buerhle was working on a perfect game going into the 9th, so I decided to watch. Dewayne Wise made one of the best catches I have ever seen, it was Reed Johnson-esque as Wise robbed Gabe Kapler of a Home Run. Buerhle then struck out some guy named Michel Hernandez, a catcher whom I have never heard of and got another nobody, I believe Jason (I thought it was Josh) Bartlett to ground out weakly to shortstop. Mark Buerhle pitched the 16th perfect game in MLB history, his second no-hitter overall, congrats! As soon as the game ended Ken "Hawk" Harrelson, who is a ridiculous person, began screaming "Yes, Yes, Yes,!" it sounded like he was having an orgasm on air. I do not think I can handle all of the media attention this is going to cause, especially on Comcast Sports Net and their awful White Sox Broadcast and Post-Game Crews featuring Chuck Garfein.

As for the team I actually do care about, the Cubs have the day off today after a successful 7-game road trip to the east coast where they won 5 of 7. The Cubs begin a 3-game weekend series with the Reds tomorrow afternoon at 1:20 on CSN. Randy Wells (5-4, 3.00 ERA) vs Aaron Harang (5-10, 4.17). Harang apparently has not won a game since May 25, a streak of 11 starts. He also pitches for a poor offensive team who does not score a whole lot of runs for him. Harang is a dangerous pitcher, who can dominate at times, and strike out a lot of hitters. If I were the Cubs I would be wary of Harang, who is due to break out of his slump. Wells has been just OK recently, I am curious to see how he will pitch tomorrow, at the very least I would expect a quality start from him. I hope the Cubs can take 2 of three from the Reds, minimum. But I am not too optimistic since we have Kevin Hart, who walks too many hitters, starting on Sunday. Ted Lilly is starting on Saturday and is coming off of his worst start in awhile, he usually has bad starts in bunches, so he could give us another one on Saturday. Lilly always seems to have 3 or 4 good starts followed by 1 or 2 bad ones. Hopefully Wells gets the team off to a good start tomorrow. The Cubs will face the Reds ace (arguably) Johnny Cueto on Saturday and punching-bag Micah Owings on Sunday.

I will be very curious to see what Lou Piniella does with the line-up this weekend. Will Milton Bradley start all three games or none? Will he find his left-handed swing, has he had enough time to fix it with Lou? I guess we will see this weekend. Koyie Hill can not really hit, I think we all know this, I think that Lou should give Jake Fox the start on Saturday or Sunday, just to see what happens, and to give Hill some rest. I have been critical of Jeff Baker in the past, but he is starting to show some promise at second base, Lou should find a way to get him in the line-up this weekend.

A week from now is the trading deadline, I will be interested to see what the Cubs will do, although I could honestly see them doing nothing. At the very least I think they need to acquire another catcher, preferably one who can hit their weight, maybe he could even be left-handed? Is Rob Bowen still available? Among other needs: relief pitcher, preferably a lefty, we do have B.J. Ryan, but I do not expect to get much out of him. I still think the team could use another right-hander in the pen as well, Aaron Heilman is basically worthless, and Jeff Samardzija is too unreliable and inconsistent. What would happen if Angel Guzman got hurt again? I have not seen enough of Jeff Stevens yet. Lou wants another lefty-power bat, but where is this person going to come from, and where would the Cubs play him anyways? Dream on Lou, I think you are basically stuck with this line-up. Lou wanted this type of team and he got it, he can with it, but it is not going to be easy.

And finally I just wanted to comment on how big of a tool Rick Reilly of ESPN (formerly of SI) is. He wrote an article this week whining about Tiger Woods' golf course etiquette i.e. swearing ( a lot of on camera F-bombs and throwing clubs). Guess what Rick? This happens in golf all the time, at least with the people I play with, including myself! How about you do not mic-up Woods? It is not like the guy is that interesting anyways, c'mon. Does anyone really care about what Woods says or does on the course? Because I don't. I am really tired of Rick Reilly's bullshit, I can not believe ESPN even allows him on television.

And we're back!

2009-07-20T11:12:00.002-05:00

The Cubs may just be back in this thing after a sweep of the lowly Washington Nationals. As of today the Cubs are 2 GB in the NL Central behind the first-place St. Louis Cardinals, but we are even in the loss column. The Cubs were supposed to beat the Nats and they took care of business. Yesterday we got a 7-run 4th inning, reminiscent of last season, where the hits just kept coming. The big lead we staked Kevin Hart was enough for him to get the win.

For the second day in a row, Alfonso Soriano, who had been left for dead by most Cubs fans, hit a HR, this one was also a game-winner. Soriano's HR's the last two days were also hit in key situations, yesterday's especially, since it was after an error, Soriano made the Nats pay. If Soriano can stay "hot" then the Cubs have a chance to get back in this division race in a hurry. Micah Hoffpauir and Mike Fontenot had three hits apiece yesterday, which was great to see, since both had been slumping for some time, but they both seem to be reverting back to their old form (which is good). Throughout the series Hoffpauir saw a lot of playing time and did well, combining multiple hits with surprisingly strong fielding in the outfield and at first base. Props go out to Jake Fox who just keeps hitting when given the opportunity, yesterday he hit a 3-run HR that basically put the game out of reach for the Nats. Fox has hit when given the chances, he's hitting .326 on the season with 5 HR and 19 RBI in only 86 ABs. Too bad Cubs management did not call him up right away when Aramis Ramirez went down with an injury. Anyhow, Fox brings a positive attitude, energy, and hustle to an otherwise dull team, he has basically taken the place of Mark DeRosa.

Even the Cubs pitching was top-notch against the Nats, who are a good hitting ball club. Rich Harden had one of his better outings of the season on Thursday. Carlos Zambrano despite a bad first inning and lack of his best stuff, did just enough to win on Friday, including his 2RBI. On Saturday night Randy Wells was not as sharp as he could be but still got the win, thanks to some run support (finally) and despite Aaron Heilman's best efforts to blow the game. By the way, Heilman needs to be shown the door out of town. Every time he comes into the game I cringe, if he does not blow the lead, he will make sure to at least walk a few guys and give up hits to make it interesting. Jeff Samardzija has pitched well as of late, let him and/or Jeff Stevens take Heilman's place in the bullpen. And to think that Heilman thought he could still be a starter at the beginning of the season, HA! Well maybe he could start for the Nats? Finally, yesterday Kevin Hart gave us 5 solid innings, despite walking 5 again (he did the same thing vs Atlanta a few weeks ago) and got his first win of the season, as well as his first hit and RBI, congrats. Here is another thought, couldn't we move Hart back to the bullpen once Ryan Dempster returns from the DL? He too would be an upgrade over Heilman.

After sweeping the Nats the Cubs appear to be back. All except for Milton Bradley who is now taking private hitting lessons from Lou Piniella and will not likely play until Wednesday afternoon, when we face a lefty starter, and he can bat right-handed. I really hope that Lou can help Bradley get back on track from the left side of the plate, Bradley has been so unproductive at times, he is starting to remind me of Todd Hundley. At least Bradley has played a decent right field and takes a lot of walks, hence he is second on the team in OBP at .372, just behind new lead-off hitter Fukudome who is at .377 and has been really good at leading off despite his lack of base stealing ability. For the record, Lou should keep Fukudome at lead-off as long as he continues to hit and keep Soriano at the 6 spot for the remainder of his career. I do not like Reed Johnson batting lead-off against lefties though, he just does not get on base enough, and is too streaky. I would like to see Ryan Theriot get a look at lead-off vs lefties with Bradley batting second or vice-versa.

This is my first post since July 10th, I decided to give myself my own All-Star Break. I did go to game one of the double-header vs the Cardinals on July 12th it was awesome. Got in line for bleacher seats early ready to go with a can of Arizona Iced Tea's Arnold Palmer Drink mixed with Gordon's Vodka, a choice pre-game drink if you ask me. They did not let us in the stadium until 11:05 am because on double-header days you can only enter one hour before game-time. Nevertheless once we were in we sprinted up the stairs and got second row seats in left-center, but closer to left. We were treated to a nice Cubs win, highlighted by a Hoffpauir 3-Run HR and a Zambrano GW- HR. What a game, the rest of the details are a little fuzzy for me, I had plenty of Beck's, and got a lot of sun.

My personal 2009 Cubs record: 7 and 3.
The next game I am going to as of right now: Monday July 27th at 7:05 vs Houston. Not sure where the seats are yet, but I want to get there early so I can get my Cubs luggage tags at the gate.

What the new Cubs owner should do...

2009-07-10T11:19:00.002-05:00

Cuba has confirmed that prized LHP Ardolis Chapman has defected. He managed to defect while the Cuban team was playing in a tournament in the Netherlands. Chapman is said to have a a fastball that touches 100 mph and is rated as one of the top left-handed pitchers in the world. If I were new Cubs owner, Tom Ricketts, I would make a strong effort to sign this guy. Chapman is only 21 years old (allegedly) and is the best pitching prospect to leave Cuba since Jose Contreras. The Cubs could really use a young, talented left-handed starting pitching prospect with this kind of potential. The Cubs are not really as deep at starting pitching beyond this season, I do not expect Rich Harden to remain a Cub beyond this season. Who knows how good Sean Marshall, Jeff Samardzija, or Kevin Hart will do over a full season? Who knows how good Randy Wells will be beyond this season, or even in the second half? Carlos Zambrano's early retirement in a few years? With all of these question marks, the Cubs should make it a priority to sign Chapman, it is going to cost a lot of money, but it would be worth the risk.

Cubs Roster Move

2009-07-09T15:08:00.002-05:00

The Cubs sent down P Kevin Hart today and called up reliever Jeff Stevens from Iowa, Stevens was acquired from Cleveland in the Mark DeRosa trade. I really do not know much about Stevens other than the fact that he is 0-3 at Iowa with a 2.18 ERA, who knows how this will translate in the big leagues? The Cubs called him up because they needed an extra reliever for the 4-game weekend series with the Cardinals, including a double-header on Sunday. With the All-Star Break coming up, Hart was no longer needed here, he is set to return to the Cubs and start a game after the break. The Cubs need to be careful with Hart, I am not sure how many more options he has left.

Also, Jason Waddell is due to come off of the DL, and will return to Iowa. I assume if he pitches well down there, he will return to the Cubs as their lefty specialist out of the bullpen, and Sean Marshall can return to the rotation to replace injured Ryan Dempster, instead of Hart. I would much rather have Waddell back in the pen over Neal Cotts or B.J. Ryan.

I am tired of Shaq's Bullshit

2009-07-09T12:29:00.005-05:00

Shaq is asking fans on Twitter what his new nickname should be: The Big Witness or Shaquilier (a not so clever play on the word Cavalier). My question is who gives a shit? I am so tired of Shaq, all he does is bounce around from contender to contender just so he can get a shot to one-up Kobe Bryant with another title. Too bad Shaq is not that good anymore, all he does is latch on to superstars see: Penny Hardaway, Kobe, Dwyane Wade, and Steve Nash. I wish this clown would just retire so I don't have to hear about his Twitter updates on Sportscenter anymore. Seriously what a jerk, I bet he sucks in Cleveland too.

Cubs lose to Braves 4-1in a real yawner

2009-07-09T11:30:00.005-05:00

The Cubs game yesterday was a real yawner, I know because I was there. Their lone run came on a Fukudome solo HR in the 6th inning. Kevin Hart was recalled from AAA- Iowa to replace injured starter Ryan Dempster who is on the DL with a broken toe. Hart was not too bad: 5IP, ER, 4H, 5BB, 3K. It could have been worse for Hart, he pitched out of a few jams, and did not get much help. Hart did not get much help defensively as Derrek Lee let a grounder get over him, it was ruled a double, but it should have been an error, he is supposed to make that play. Fukudome and Jake Fox (who started in LF) also both let balls get by them, Fox's lack of defensive skills are starting to show. The umpires, specifically the second base umpire, blew multiple calls that favored the Braves. The first was when Fukudome was ruled out at second on a double play ball hit by Ryan Theriot, it was clear from my seats that Fukudome was safe. Then later in the game Casey Kotchman was ruled safe on a similar play, when he was clearly out, if you follow the in the neighborhood "rule" at second base. Derryl Cousins needs to get his eyes checked, he is a complete ass. Nevertheless, the Cubs never really deserved to win the game yesterday, they did not hit the ball, again.

With Ryan Dempster on the DL we need to do something about the rotation, Kevin Hart is not the answer. I would like to see Lou Piniella either bring Sean Marshall or Jeff Samardzija into the rotation, preferably Marshall of the two. If Mitch Atkins starts to perform better at Iowa, he could be a possibility as well, especially since Marshall has been pitching so well out of the pen, and he is our only lefty in the pen. The Cubs would have to add another lefty to the pen if they move Marshall to the rotation, I am not sure when Jason Waddell is due back from the DL, or if Neal Cotts is still considered a big-league pitcher. I have heard rumors that recently released B.J. Ryan (Toronto and fomerly of Baltimore) could be had for the league minimum, similar to Jim Edmonds' deal last season. Ryan likely is not the answer, he has battled major arm injuries the last few seasons, and does not have much left in the tank, I guess it could be worth a look though.

I was wondering why Geovany Soto was not in the line-up yesterday, especially since Koyie Hill started the night before, apparently fat-boy strained his oblique in batting practice. The club is not sure if he will have to go on the DL yet and Fox is the backup there for now. If Soto does have to go on the DL the Cubs will be in trouble, we do not have much depth at Catcher in the organization, it would be similar to our catching situation of 2007. I hope he is ok, but oblique injuries can be troublesome.

Furthermore, Jeff Baker sucks. Why did we trade for this guy? What happened to Andres Blanco? I know he does not hit all that well, but he can really field, unlike Mike Fontenot and Baker. Blanco deserves to play over both of these clowns.

The Cubs are off today and they need their rest, they start a 4-game weekend series with the Cardinals tomorrow. This is a huge series, if the Cubs do well, they'll be right back in the division race. The Cubs are back to .500, again, at 41-41.

I did go to the game yesterday, it was fun, and cheap. My friend Nick and I scored Standing Room Only Seats for $15 and snuck in a flask of Vodka which we mixed with Tropicana Lemonade. We were easily able to sneak down to seats in section 231 and enjoy the game. Also, the Italian Beef Sandwiches at Wrigley are pretty tight. It is rare that I go to a game, have a good time, and spend less than $40, which in these economic times, is a really good deal.

My personal 2009 Cubs record: 6 and 3.
The next game I am going to as of right now: Sunday July 12th at 12:05pm vs St. Louis.
*There is a possibility I will be going to both games of the double-header on Sunday. As of right now I have bleacher tickets for the morning game so I will be waiting in line early on Sunday morning with an alcoholic beverage in hand.

Cubs Win again, other thoughts

2009-07-07T09:28:00.005-05:00

Last night the Cubs hung in there and defeated the Braves 4-2 against a very tough pitcher, Jair Jurrjens. We were lucky to avoid Jurrjens when we went to Atlanta, he has been one of the best pitchers in the league this season. Last night however was not one of his best days and the Cubs made him pay for it. It seemed as if Jurrjens was having control problems, although you could sense he was not too happy with the home-plate umpire. From what I could tell, the umpire did miss a few calls, but it was even for both teams, he was not calling low pitches for strikes either way. Jurrjens was just a little bit off last night and the Cubs took advantage scoring 4 runs off of him.

Our new lead-off guy, Fukudome got things started last night with a nicely hit single to left, and was then sacrificed over to second base by Ryan Theriot (I loved this play, playing for the one run against a good pitcher is never a bad idea!). Then Derrek Lee hit yet another HR to left field to make 2-0. That was Lee's 5th HR in the last 6 games and his 16th this season, he also has 53 RBIs, both lead the team. Lee is hitting as well as I have seen him hit since his monster season in 2005, no joke, I do not remember the last time Lee looked so confident at the plate, or hit with this kind of power. If Lee keeps this up, 30HR and 100 RBI is within reach, something I never thought he could do before the season started, or even after May. Seriously though, if this team is going to go anywhere this season, Lee needs to hit the baseball.

The Cubs then added two insurance runs in the second inning, all with two outs. Mike Fontenot (who I thought could have been sent down) got the rally started with a single, which was followed by a Randy Wells single. Fontenot would then score on a Fukudome double (a very hard hit ball). Wells would later score on a Theriot infield single to make it 4-0 and that was all the Cubs would need.

Four runs was plenty last night, especially with Randy Wells pitching for the Cubs: 6IP, 2ER, 7H, 4K, BB, just another typical Wells start, he improved to 4-3, 2.48 ERA. Wells probably did not have his best stuff last night, but he battled. He got into a big jam in the 4th after Fontenot could not get to a grounder and a high-line-drive that hit his glove (Andres Blanco makes at least one of those plays if not both). Then Wells himself made a rare error, his first, to load the bases with one out. Wells was able to escape allowing only one run. Wells also allowed a solo-HR to Nate McLouth in the 5th. Wells did his job last night, his team spotted him a few runs early (something they seem to rarely do for Wells), and he gave them a chance to win the ballgame with yet another quality start. Eventually when Wells has enough innings pitched to qualify, he will be among the league leaders in ERA. He is flying so far under the radar it is ridiculous, seriously! This guy should be a lock for N.L. Rookie of the Year, but I am sure he will continue to go unnoticed. Example: Head SI.com Baseball Writer, Jon Heyman (Big-time East Coast Bias) wrote his Mid-Season Awards article yesterday and listed his top-five ROY candidates in each league, and he failed to mention Wells. His list was ridiculous and sad, here it is, with my comments on each player:
1.) Colby Rasmus, St. Louis: .282 avg, 13HR, 32 RBI, not that impressive, not enough run production, despite playing in a hitters park.
2.) Tommy Hanson, Atlanta: 4-0, 2.26 ERA in 6 starts. Very comparable to Wells and has only made six starts, this kid is supposed to be the real deal though.
3.) Casey McGehee, Milwaukee: .343 avg, 6HR, 27 RBI. Seriously Jon? MLB generally does not vote older journeyman rookies as ROY. Also, I would be shocked if McGehee continues to hit, unless he faces Jeff Samardzija every time.
4.) Andrew McCutchen, Pittsburgh: .295 avg, HR, 20RBI in 31 games. McCutchen was not called up until the Pirates dealt McLouth. He looks pretty good, but I would need to see more, he may not have the numbers at the end of the season, expect the average to fall slightly, plus he plays for the Pirates.
5. Ronald Belisario, Los Angeles: 1-3, 2.42 ERA. Has anyone ever heard of this guy? Has very similar numbers to Angel Guzman (is he still considered a rookie?). When I saw his name, I thought we were talking about Donald P. Bellisario, creator and producer of Magnum P.I. It seems like Heyman was really reaching on this one.

Heyman's list looks like it was lifted from some pre-season list of candidates, based purely on numbers, I do not understand how he could not have included Wells?

Finally back to the Cubs... I really like the roster moves they made yesterday. I had no problem sending down Sam Fuld or Kevin Hart. David Patton going to the DL seems a little fishy to me, I know they can not send him down because he was a Rule-5 pick, but what ever it takes to keep him I guess. It was good to see Aramis Ramirez, who was 0-4 and was the only Cub starter to not reach base, back in action last night, our line-up missed him dearly. I like the Cubs decision to only have 11 pitchers on the staff right now, especially considering how well our rotation has pitched all season, here's to us not playing a bunch of extra-inning games before the All-Star Break! I also really like Lou Piniella's decision to drop Alfonso Soriano in the order and moving Fukudome to lead-off, well played. Soriano was killing this team, let him figure things out lower in the order, and he did get a double last night. Fukudome has looked great leading off, it looks like he is comfortable there, and that his work with Von Joshua has paid off. The only question I have for Lou is who bats lead-off against lefties? Reed Johnson? And lastly, Congrats to Ted Lilly on making the All-Star team! He deserves to go more than any other Cub, well maybe I could argue for Theriot or Wells.

Up Next: The Cubs and Braves play game two of a three game series tonight at 7 pm on WGN. Ryan Dempster (5-5, 4.09 ERA) faces off against Javier Vazquez (5-7, 3.05 ERA). Dempster is coming off of a win over the weekend, although he allowed 5 runs. Vazquez has been solid all season, but is just not getting enough run support, let me get my violin. I would think this game has the makings of another low scoring game, especially considering the Cubs never hit Vazquez all that well, but who knows. Luckily the Braves are not playing very well right now, so there is a chance Dempster can shut them down, not to mention the Cubs are on a roll at home right now. But I am not getting too excited, the Cubs are under .500 this season when playing on WGN. The Cardinals and Brewers are playing each other, lets see if we can make up some ground!

Cubs Roster Move

2009-07-02T12:10:00.002-05:00

The Cubs made a trade with the Colorado Rockies today sending P Alberto Alburquerque to the Rockies and getting IF Jeff Baker in return. Baker is a second baseman who can also play at 3B or 1B if needed, he bats right, and throws right. This season in 12 games, Baker is hitting .130 with 3RBI, he sounds like he will fit in just fine with the Cubs. Baker has been on the DL since late April, he is set to join the team today. The Cubs have not said if he will remain on the DL, start his rehab stint, or join them immediately. He is coming off of his best season in 2008 with 12HR and 48 RBI and he will be a bench player for the Cubs. The Cubs will have to make a corresponding roster move to make room for Baker, my guess is that Aaron Miles or Ryan Freel is finished (YES!). I do not know anything about Alburquerque other than that he was a pitcher for us at A- Daytona.

So we took care of the Pirates, big deal

2009-07-02T10:51:00.004-05:00

The Cubs took 2 of 3 games from the Pirates in Pittsburgh to finish up 3-7 on their road trip. This was a terrible road trip for the Cubs, losing to Atlanta in a make-up game, getting swept by Detroit, and losing 2 of 3 to the White Sox. The Pirates are not a very good team (as evidenced by their recent trades) so we were supposed to beat them. Now the Cubs are back in Chicago for an 11-game home stand which includes a 4 games vs Milwaukee, 3 vs Atlanta, and 4 vs St. Louis. This is their most important stretch of games so far this season, if the Cubs are going to make any noise in the Division, now is the time to make a move.

Last night the Cubs beat the Pirates 4-1 behind a strong pitching performance by Randy Wells: 7IP, ER, 6H, BB, 4K, his record is now 3-3 with a 2.43 ERA. Wells has been very consistent since being called up from AAA, in his 10 starts only one could be considered bad. It feels like every time he goes out there, the Cubs have a very good chance of winning. Wells is quietly building up quite the case for Rookie of the Year. Carlos Marmol pitched a scoreless 8th, he beaned the lead-off hitter, but got out of the inning unscathed. Kevin Gregg pitched an efficient 9th for his 14th save.

Offensively the Cubs looked good, and why shouldn't they, I mean they were facing Virgil Vasquez. Sam Fuld, who started in place of Alfonso Soriano, and lead-off, got the game started with a double down the line. Fuld looked like a real lead-off man! This is what your lead-off hitter is supposed to do, not swing at anything, and always look for homers. Fuld would come around to score on Derrek Lee's towering HR to center, his 12th of the season, he is also the first Cub to reach 40 RBI this season, so he is kinda like a dwarf among midgets. But the HR was great to see, Lee seems to be back on track for good, I hope he can keep it going on this upcoming home stand. The Cubs did not score again until the 6th when Fukudome hit a solo-HR to right, he hit the ball hard 3 times off of Vasquez, and looked like he was really seeing the ball clearly. Then in the 8th Geovany Soto hit a clutch single with RISP to score Milton Bradley from second, he was safe by a split-second at the plate. Four runs was enough to win the game easily, considering how well Wells pitched. Generally when the Cubs score at least 4 runs they are very successful.

Sam Fuld had a very good night 2-4, 2B, BB, R. He collected his first MLB hit and made a great throw to the plate to prevent a would-be Pirates run from scoring. I am by no means suggesting we sit Soriano (unless they wanna put him on the DL) but Fuld looked like a real lead-off hitter last night, which was nice to see. Fuld plays a little bit like Scott Podsednik, but is a better fielder, with a better arm. I would not be surprised at all if Fuld played again tonight. Ryan Theriot, Fukudome, and Soto each had two hits apiece, Soto had a 3B, the third of his career. Theriot and Lee both grounded into double plays, Theriot has done that a lot this season, I would not be surprised if he leads the team, for Lee it was only his 3rd of the season. Lee has improved greatly in that category from last season, the reason: he is hitting more fly-balls. Len Kasper said Lee hit a career high 240 ground balls last season and this season Lee made an effort to hit the ball in the air more often.

Furthermore, how could I forget Lou Piniella! Lou treated us with his first outburst/ejection of the season in the 6th inning of last night's game. He was arguing a play at first where Wells was called out but appeared to be safe on a close play. Earlier in that sequence Wells hit a ball right down the third base line that was ruled foul, it seemed as if Lou thought it was fair. Lou went out to argue these calls to stand up for his rookie pitcher. Wells responded nicely throwing a scoreless 6th and 7th innings where he looked very sharp. It was not one of Lou's best or funniest blow-ups, but he had to go out there, those were questionable calls at best.

Up Next: Cubs vs Brewers @ 7:05 on CSN and MLB Network (its the Thursday Night Baseball Game with Matt Vasgersian and Dan Plesac calling the game). Ryan Dempster (4-5, 4.09 ERA) is pitching agains Seth McClung (3-1, 3.55 ERA). You know how I feel about Dempster, so I will not bash him here, but he needs to start performing. I really do not expect much out of Dempster anymore these days, I would take a quality start, but I do not expect one. The Cubs have seen a lot of McClung the past few seasons, but as a reliever, not a starter. I am not exactly sure why they converted him to a starter anyway? But anywho, the Cubs should be able to score a few runs off of him, he is not that good of a pitcher. This is the first game of a four game series, the Cubs come in at 37-38 and 3.5 games behind the first-place Brewers who are 42-36. Now would be an ideal time for the Cubs to start playing well and get back in this Division race. Beware though, the Brewers are a good road-team with a 20-18 road record this season. The Cubs will not have to face the Brewers' ace, Yovani Gallardo in this series.

Cubs TCB at PNC

2009-06-30T08:48:00.004-05:00

The cure to any bad road trip (the Cubs started 1-6) is a stop in Pittsburgh to play the always rebuilding Pirates. The Cubs needed to take game one of this three game series last night and that is exactly what they did. They did a rare thing last night: combined good pitching with timely hitting(although they were only 1-9 w/ RISP) , most of the season it has been one or the other for this Cubs team.
Rich Harden had one of his better starts of the season and looked like the Harden of last season: 7IP, ER, 9H, 9K, BB. Harden scattered those 9 hits and only one of them was for extra bases. This was Harden's first win since May 12 he is now 5-4 on the season with a still too high 4.57 ERA. The team really needed this start from Harden it was good to see him step-up and deliver. The Cubs better hope Harden can keep this up, if they get back in the division race we'll need him, if we fall out of contention we can trade him. The bullpen did its job last night as well as Carlos Marmol worked a perfect 8th only throwing 8 pitches, 7 of which were for strikes. Kevin Gregg picked up his 13th save with a scoreless 9th.
The offense got things going in the second inning with men at first and second with two outs Andres Blanco came up with a big RBI single, scoring Jake Fox, and giving the Cubs the lead 1-0. In the third Ryan Theriot hit a solo-HR to left, his 7th of the season. If you would have told me before the season that Theriot would even hit 5HRs this season, I would have said you are crazy! This guy might hit 10-12, which would be a huge bonus, I hope he still tries to drive the ball the other way however, since that is his bread & butter.
Also, when is Lou Piniella going to wake up and realize that Theriot is the perfect lead-off man for this team? Alfonso Soriano had another bad night 0-4, he is dead-weight on this team right now. If he is injured put him on the DL or hide him in the line-up, the Cubs can not afford to have a gimpy lead-off man who is not producing, especially since we are having so much trouble scoring runs as it stands.
Next, in the 4ht inning, Milton Bradley hit a rocket double to left scoring Geovany Soto, this would be the last run the Cubs would score and it would be enough to win as the Cubs held on to win 3-1. Bradley had a nice game going 2-4, 2B, RBI. It is too bad he can only hit from the right side right now, he is hitting over .300 as a righty, while he is hitting about .195 as a lefty. According to reports, Piniella is going to give Milton the next two games off so that he can work on his lefty swing with hitting coach Von Joshua. I really hope they can get him going from the left side, since that was the whole reason he was brought here in the first place. Jake Fox also had a good game going 2-3, BB, R and is showing that he can play every day at third base. I have said this before but when Aramis Ramirez comes back, Fox needs to stay up with the team, and either Mike Fontenot, Ryan Freel, or Aaron Miles needs to go back to AAA. Fox is hitting .347 and is a true power threat who can play 3B or OF, he can be our Mark DeRosa for the rest of the season, occasionally spelling Ramirez at 3B or Soriano in LF. Fox also happens to be our best pinch-hitter.
Speaking of Aaron Miles, he was placed on the 15-Day DL again (thank you!) and was replaced on the roster by OF Sam Fuld. This is awesome, I hope Miles buys a horse and moves to the mountains where he can't bother anybody. Fuld is a light hitting speed guy with solid defensive skills. Supposedly he is going to start this evening vs the Pirates in place of Bradley who is being benched vs right handed pitching.
Up Next: Cubs vs Pirates at 6:05pm on CSN+ or CLTV as most of us know it. Ted Lilly (7-5, 3.41 ERA) vs Ross Ohlendorf (6-6, 4.75 ERA). Lilly is due for a good start since he has had a few bad ones of late, I expect him to win tonight, and start a little winning streak for himself just in time to pitch in the all-star game. I have never heard of Ohlendorf, he is a big right hander who lefties can hit (they're hitting .327 against him). Since Milton is out of the line-up, I would at least expect to see Micah Hoffpauir play tonight, maybe Lou will give Derrek Lee the night off? I am also not sure if the Cubs have ever faced Ohlendorf, they usually struggle against new faces. I think they can manage a few runs off of Ohlendorf though and Lilly should pick up his 8th win tonight. If the Cubs win tonight they're back at .500, again.

Thank Goodness Inter-League play is over

2009-06-29T11:11:00.005-05:00

I wrote a few weeks ago that the Cubs inter-league schedule could either make or break their season. I mean c'mon they were scheduled to play the AL Central, which is not exactly too impressive (it currently boasts two teams at .500 or better, and the Twins are only one game over), and 6 games with the lowly White Sox (I know they have a make-up game in Sept.). The Cubs should have had an advantage at home, where they play decently (21-13 record), but got out-NL'd by the Twins and could only split two games with the Sox. I know they did sweep Cleveland, but doesn't everyone sweep Cleveland? Plus, we can accredit two of those wins to Kerry Wood's lack of control. Then we go to Detroit and get swept easily by a better team who understands how to hit with RISP. And finally to top it off the Cubs went into the Cell for a weekend series take game one, blow game two (thanks Ryan Dempster, Carlos Marmol, and Lou Piniella), and lose their cool in game three ( thank you Carlos Zambrano). At the end of it all, the Cubs are 6-8 in inter-league play, with one game left to play. The Cubs poor showing in inter-league play may have just broken their season.

Good teams beat bad teams and for the Cubs to lose 2 of 3 to the Sox over the weekend is not acceptable. Maybe the Cubs are in reality just not a good team? Here are a few things I know about the Cubs right now:
1.) In response to Chicago Tribune Sports Writer Phil Rogers' article today: Do not trade Zambrano! I realize he is an ass, but our pitching staff is not as deep as we think it is.
Which leads me to 2.) Ryan Dempster sucks. He is 4-5 with a 4.09 ERA, over a full run higher than last season. He does lead the team in innings pitched with 99, but that is because Lou generally leaves him out there one inning too long each start, take the 5th inning on Saturday for example. Dempster also leads the team in earned runs, hits allowed, and walks. Not to mention he has allowed the third most home runs on the team. Last year Demp was a ground-ball pitcher this year he is not. He has been pitching poorly all season and I really do not see much improvement on the way. Demp had a great season in his free-agent year and the Cubs were dumb enough to believe he could sustain that kind of success. He is being paid to be the ace he pretends to be, if the Cubs have any chance of winning their division, he needs to step it up.
3.) If the Cubs are going to trade somebody it should be Rich Harden or Kevin Gregg.
4.) Ryan Freel is washed up, who did not see this coming? I mean we got this guy in a trade for Joey Gathright.
5.) Carlos Marmol is the new "Wild Thing".
6. I like Ozzie Guillen, I appreciate his candor and honesty. But he said: "Our fans are not stupid like Cubs fans, they don't know (expletive), Wrigley Field is just a bar." OK, so maybe Wrigley Field is just a bar, but I'd rather party at that bar everyday, then spend any time at that Trailer Park known as U.S. Cellular Field. Ozzie really needs to think before he speaks sometimes, at least us Cub fans do not get loaded, run on the field, and attack opposing coaches and umpires.
7. John Danks is a very good pitcher and he owns the Cubs.
8. Ken "Hawk" Harrelson is an idiot. I do not know how anyone in their right mind could listen to him call a baseball game. His whining about "bad calls" and near misses is unbearable.

Cubs lose 6-5, get swept by Tigers

2009-06-25T14:42:00.003-05:00

The Cubs got off to a good start today as Alfonso Soriano doubled down the line to lead things off, Ryan Theriot walked, and Jake Fox hit his first career Major League home run. Little did we know that the offense was basically done for the rest of the game. The Tigers made the game close in the third when Ted Lilly allowed a home run to light hitting Ramon Santiago, a mistake to say the least. The Cubs added what I thought would be an insurance run in the 4th when Fukudome hit a triple to score Mike Fontenot (who reached on a fielder's choice).

Later in the bottom of the 4th the wheels came off for Ted Lilly. He allowed a double to Marcus Thames and then to new Cub-Killer Ryan Raburn to make it 4-3 Cubs. Then with Raburn on second Lilly gave up a home run to Magglio Ordonez, only Ordonez's 3rd of the year and first in a long time. The score was 5-4 and Detroit would not look back. Ordonez has been in a funk all season, comparable to Milton Bradley and David Ortiz. Lilly simply did not have it today: 6IP, 6ER, 10H, 6K, BB, 2HR allowed. It just was not his day, for as long as Lilly has been a Cub he has gone 3-5 good starts followed by one or two bad ones, this was a bad one, he will bounce back. Kevin Hart pitched a scoreless 7th followed by a troublesome 8th in which he allowed two hits and walked one (a questionable call on the 3-2 pitch, it looked good). He was also not helped when Andres Blanco made a rare defensive mistake and dropped a double play ball earlier in the inning. Sean Marshall bailed Hart out of the jam in the 8th striking out Curtis Granderson.

The Cubs were OK offensively today, at least they were better than they had been all series, but the pitching will not always be there to bail them out. Congrats to Jake Fox on his first ML HR, he had a nice game going 3-4, 2B, HR, 3 RBI, K. This guy is going to play against the White Sox, likely in all three games. I would play him at 3rd in game one with Micah Hoffpauir at DH against the right handed pitcher. Then I would DH Fox for Saturday and Sunday against the Sox's lefties. He has been hitting since he has been called up and the power is starting to come, he could replace Mark DeRosa in this line-up (Power, plays 3B, plays OF), and his defense has been better than expected. Soriano had a good game 2-4 2B, R, although his single was a blooper down in no-man's land. Fukudome also had a nice ball game going 2-4 2B, 3B, RBI. Dome had been slumping lately, so this was nice to see. Last but not least Micah Hoffpauir continues to rake as he had an opposite-field HR in the 9th off of closer Fernando Rodney, not any easy thing to do. The rally Hoff started in the 9th was not enough as Geovany Soto struck out to end the game with Fukudome standing on second.

Derrek Lee's career-high 21 game hitting streak came to an end today, he almost legged out an infield single to end the 8th. Apparently this was the second longest Cubs hitting streak of all time, only trailing Jerome Walton's 30 from 1989, when he won ROY. Congrats to Lee on the streak and his comeback this season, I did not expect it, I really hope he continues hitting this well the rest of the way. Also, can Lou Piniella please give Mike Fontenot a day off, he looks like he needs it, he did not look good today (again). At least we did not lose any ground in the division as the Mets defeated the Cardinals today, we remain 3.5 GB, manageable, but the Cubs need to get back over .500 and have 6 more road games on this trip.

Up Next: The Cubs head back to Chicago, but to the South Side, for a 3-game series with the White Sox. Tomorrow's matchup is at 3:05 and can be seen on both WGN and CSN depending on who you want to listen to. Randy Wells (1-3, 2.57 ERA) vs Jose Contreras (2-6, 5.23 ERA) is the pitching match-up. Wells is coming off of his first win, let's see if he can follow it with another one. Contreras has been pitching well of late, but I feel as if the Cubs never hit him like they should. It is going to be hot this weekend in Chicago, with temperatures in the 90s, which means the Cell should be a band-box. Hopefully the rain stays away, we already had one cross-town game postponed this season, which is one too many.

I am going out of town for the weekend, so no posts until Monday, I am sure there will be plenty to talk about after this weekend.

Cubs fail to come through in clutch, lose to Tigers 5-3

2009-06-25T09:41:00.005-05:00

The Cubs just can not seem to hit with RISP. Last night as a team they left 13 men on base and were 1-15 with RISP. I wish this was a new phenomenon with our Cubs, but it is not, it is same-old same-old, and sure enough their right back where they belong at .500. If this team ever wants get to get over .500 for good, some changes need to be made.

Here are a few of my ideas:
1. Drop Alfonso Soriano out of the lead-off spot. I know he had two hits last night, but they were both bloopers. His batting average is a pathetic .227 and his OBP is .291, both are unacceptable for an "All-Star", let alone a lead-off hitter for a .500 team. The Cubs go as he goes, and he is not going anywhere. Lou Piniella needs to face reality and drop Soriano to 5th, 6th, or 7th in the order. Ryan Theriot is much better suited to bat lead-off for this team, he gets on base, and can steal bases.

2. Do not start Mike Fontenot anymore. I like Fontenot, I really do, but right now he sucks. His average is at .228 and has been there since early April. He is showing no signs of improvement and looks like he's taking hitting tips from Aaron Miles with all the ground ball outs he is making. Keep Fontenot around while Aramis Ramirez is out, then send him back down to AAA to straighten things out with his bat. Right now he is less valuable than Jake Fox and Andres Blanco, so he figures to be the odd man out when Ramirez returns. Especially considering both Fox and Ryan Freel can also play third base.

3. Stop bringing in Aaron Heilman with a lead. Do I really need to explain this one? Seriously every time this joker comes in with runners on base they score. I wish I had the stats to show that over 50% of his inherited runners score. Last night in 1.2IP he allowed 3H and walked one, not good. He came in to relieve Rich Harden in the 6th and did not get the job done. I am tired of Heilman's act, at this point Lou ought to give David Patton more opportunities. Heilman complains that he wants to be a starter, how in the world could this guy start a game? He is terrible.

4. I was originally against trading Harden because I thought we could use him down the stretch in a pennant race. Right now however, I am not sure if this team can even make the playoffs. I am not even sure how good Harden is anymore, his line from last night: 5.1IP, 4R, 2ER, 4H, 4BB, 3K, 2HR allowed. He is not the same power pitcher he was last year and he is no longer striking guys out. Last night his pitch count got up to 109 in a little over 5 innings, which is not very good. I am not saying the Cubs have to trade him, but they should entertain the idea, and see what they can get in return. Harden is 4-4 with a 4.95 ERA this season, his best days could be behind him. Also the Cubs happen to be deep in regards to starting pitching, Sean Marshall or Jeff Samardzija could step in to replace Harden right away.

Now back to last night's game. The Cubs had plenty of men on base and everyone got a hit except Milton Bradley (who did walk 3 times) and Fontenot. Soriano, Theriot, Micah Hoffpauir, and Geovany Soto each had two base hits. Soto had a double and a HR which was very encouraging. Hoffpauir who got the start at first base made some nice plays in the field as well. Derrek Lee managed to extend his career-long hitting streak to 21 games, he also walked 3 times, he also started at DH. Besides Soto's solo-HR, the Cubs runs came when Fontenot grounded into a Fielder's Choice, and Fox hit a Sac-Fly. Fox had a lot of opportunities last night, he was 0-3 with RISP, and almost grounded into a triple play early in the game. I like Fox though and I would keep playing him, I chalk up his lack of production yesterday as inexperience. This guy will hit and drive in runs if Lou keeps playing him. The Cubs are getting their opportunities with RISP, they are just not taking advantage, eventually this has to change. Despite falling back to .500, the Cubs did not lose any ground in the division, as the Cardinals lost to the Mets.

Up next: The Cubs and Tigers end their 3-game set with a 12:05pm game on WGN. How exciting I love lunchtime baseball! Today's match-up is Ted Lilly (7-4, 3.04 ERA) vs Armando Galarraga (3-7, 5.62 ERA). All season Lilly has been our stopper (the guy who ends losing streaks) we need him to end this losing streak today. Comerica Park is perfect for a fly-ball pitcher like Lilly, I think if he is on, he will have a great start, and pick up his 8th win. I do not know much about Galarraga, but his numbers are awful, the Cubs should hit this guy, HARD! It is hot in Detroit so I would expect Lou to rest some guys from last night, such as Bradley (who could DH today), Soto, and Theriot. I expect to see Blanco, Freel, Miles, or Koyie Hill playing today. The Cubs need a victory today to stay above .500 in inter-league play and .500 overall. Not to mention it would be nice to roll into the Cell tomorrow after a win today.

Cubs get a taste of their own medicine, fall to Tigers 5-4 in walk-off fashion

2009-06-24T10:13:00.003-05:00

The Cubs had their opportunities last night, they just did not finish the job. In the first inning, they loaded the bases, but only managed to get one run. Derrek Lee grounded into what should have been a double play, but he beat it out, and Alfonso Soriano scored, we did not get any more runs in the first. Then sure enough Carlos Zambrano relinquished the lead in the bottom of the first after allowing a triple to Placido Polanco (who was on the DL and was supposed to miss the series).

The game remained tied until the 6th, the Cubs had second and third with no one out, all we got was a Geovany Soto Sac-Fly to put us ahead 2-1. The Cubs would not be ahead for long however as Zambrano beaned the light hitting Don Kelly to lead off the 7th. The HBP was then followed by a Brandon Inge go-ahead HR. It is dumb mental mistakes like this HBP that prevent Zambrano from being one of the best pitchers in the league. Walking or beaning the lead-off hitter late in games almost always seems to burn pitchers, Zambrano knows better. Overall he had a pretty good start: 7IP, 3ER, 5H, 4K, 2BB. This was a quality start, but was not good enough to win. Zambrano had the chance to leave this game with a lead but could not get the job done.

Next in the top of the 8th the Cubs came storming back, Lee got things started with a single off of hard throwing Joel Zumaya. Zumaya by the way struck out Milton Bradley with a 104 mph fastball according to WGN's speed gun, impressive. Next, my boy Micah Hoffpauir got a hold of a Zumaya off speed pitch and hit a HR to deep right field to give the Cubs a 4-3 lead, and that also shut up the loser Tigers fans at the bar. Lee had another good day at the plate going 2-3 with a walk. He extended his career-long hitting streak to 20 games, his BA is at .292 and his OBP is .367. I am very excited that Lee is finally coming around, these are the kind of numbers that I have always expected out of him, this is great to see!

On to the bottom of the 9th and enter "closer" Kevin Gregg, who promptly walked a batter and gave up a two-run game winning HR to Ryan Rayburn, a .235 hitter. Way to go Gregg! He committed the cardinal sin of closers, do not walk the lead-off hitter (who again happened to be Kelly). This was a game the Cubs came back in and should have been wrapped up, instead Gregg pulled a Kerry Wood and blew it. Before the game I was commenting on how well Gregg has pitched recently, but it has really been a lot of smoke and mirrors. He is not a real closer, mainly because he can not over-power hitters or strike them out consistently. This was Gregg's 3rd blown save of the season and his 4.18 ERA is not good. If Marmol can find any kind of consistency with his location and Angel Guzman can come back from the DL and stay healthy, then I would move Marmol to closer, and use Gregg as a set-up man.

The Cubs had their opportunities early last night, but could not take advantage. Ultimately after a clutch HR, it was the pitching that let them down. Losses like last night's can be demoralizing, I am curious to see how the Cubs come out and play tonight. The Cubs are 34-33 and are now 3.5 GB thanks to a Cardinals win. No matter how many games we win in a row, we always seem to find a way back to .500, I have said it before, but this team looks a lot like a team that could finish .500.

Up next: Tonight Cubs vs Tigers at 6:05 on CSN. Rich Harden (4-3, 5.27 ERA) vs Rick Porcello (8-4, 3.54 ERA). Harden is coming off of his worst start as a Cub last Friday. He needs to rebound and come up with his best start of the season, why? Because the Cubs are facing whiz-kid Rick Porcello who was drafted out of high school in 2007, and he looks like the real deal. Porcello is a big reason why the Tigers are in first place. Hopefully he has an off night and the Cubs can get back to winning ball games.

Cubs revert to old ways, get shut out by Braves

2009-06-23T09:29:00.003-05:00

Last night the Cubs were shut out by the Atlanta Braves, 2-0. The Cubs and Braves played this game as a make up for a rained out game from their series in early June. Ryan Dempster pitched last night and he did OK: 6.2IP, 2ER, 8H, 6K, 4BB. Dempster just can not seem to do anything good, he really hurt himself last night. In the third inning he walked the lead-off man, Diory Hernandez (who was hitting .129) on 4 pitches, Hernandez would later come around to score. I could not believe Dempster walked this guy, it would be like an opposing pitcher walking Aaron Miles. Lead-off walks are killers, they always seem to lead to runs. Dempster had 4 walks overall which is not good, until he cuts down on the walks this season, he will not win games consistently. Sean Marshall got Dempster out of a jam in the 7th and the recently called up Kevin Hart pitched a scoreless 9th. By the way, Dempster should have been taken out of the game after 6 innings. For some reason he was allowed to bat for himself in the top of the 7th despite already throwing over 100 pitches and getting in and out of multiple jams. Lou Piniella inexplicably allowed Dempster to bat for himself to lead-off an inning, trailing by one run. I am sorry Lou, but Dempster is hitting .094 and was not really all that sharp through 6 innings, why would you allow him to talk you into another inning? Dempster always manages to weasel into another inning that he does not deserve to pitch, sure enough he allowed another run in the 7th. Great managing Lou!

Furthermore, I can not believe the Cubs were shut out last night. I mean come on, they had 10 hits, but unfortunately they were all singles. They could have scored in the first inning after Ryan Theriot reached on a single, but Fukudome (who really sucks again by the way) grounded into a double-play. Sure enough, Jake Fox and Derrek Lee followed with two more singles, only to be stranded by Micah Hoffpauir. The Cubs hitters just could not get anything going against Javier Vazquez. The Cubs did load the bases in the 6th, but Lou allowed Andres Blanco to bat for himself in that spot with two outs. Bob Brenly said the likely reason why Lou let Blanco bat here was that neither Alfonso Soriano nor Milton Bradley had hit Vazquez well in the past. Blanco managed to hit the ball hard, but right at the center fielder. Lou decided to rest Soriano and Bradley before the upcoming road-trip.

On a positive note each of the Cubs' position players had a base-hit last night, with the exception of Fukudome who was 0-3. While Theriot, Fox, and Blanco each had two base-hits apiece. The bottom line though: The Cubs left 12 men on base and were 0-6 with RISP. Last night's game looked like the Cubs were still in early June, they did not look like the team fresh off of a 4-game winning streak. Derrek Lee did extend his career-long hitting streak to 19 games. For as much as I have ripped him this season, he is finally playing like I have expected him to play the last year and a half, hopefully he can stay hot. At least the Cubs did not lose any ground in the division last night, as the Mets defeated the Cardinals, keeping the Cubs at 2.5 GB at 34-32.

Also, last Friday I attended the Cubs vs Indians game. I sat on a rooftop owned by Wrigleyville Rooftops, located at 1032 Waveland. It was quite key. We were unsure if the weather would allow the game to be played, but we lucked out. They allowed us into the rooftop 30 mins before game time which was scheduled to be 1:20pm, so we went in at 1pm. The game did not get started until 2:45pm which means we were able to capitalize on the all you can drink beer deal which ran until the end of the 7th inning. This was the second best game I have ever been to (#1 was last year against the Rockies on a Friday too, when we won 10-9) coming back from 7-0 is very cool. I just had a feeling as the game went on that we were going to win. When Derrek Lee hit the game-tying HR off of Kerry Wood the place went nuts. What made it even better was that I was sitting with a group of Indians fans, poor bastards. I really do feel as if I am Lee's good-luck charm, he always comes up big when I am at the game, ironic.

My personal 2009 Cubs record: 6 and 2.
Next game I am going to as of right now: TBD.

Up Next: Cubs at Tigers at 6:05pm on WGN TV and Radio. Carlos Zambrano (4-2, 3.44 ERA) vs Edwin Jackson (6-4, 2.39 ERA). This is the first time this season the Cubs will play with a DH. Given that Jackson is a righty, I expect to see Hoffpauir start as our DH. Zambrano has been very good recently, I look for him to continue pitching well, I assume most of the Tigers' hitters have not seen much of Big Z. Jackson has been a huge surprise for the Tigers this season, if his 2.39 ERA is any indicator, the Cubs will struggle to score off of him in this game. I would expect to see a pitcher's duel tonight. I do not know much about the Tigers other than the fact that Magglio Ordonez is struggling worse than Geovany Soto or Bradley combined, and has been benched. Zambrano also needs to be wary of fellow countryman Miguel Cabrera, who is hitting .333 with 14HR, 44RBI. If the Cubs can keep Cabrera in check, they can win this series. Also, not having to face Justin Verlander in this series is a huge plus. The Cubs are 4-1 in inter-league games this season, I hope they keep it up! Go Cubs!

Cubs beat Sox 6-5 in dramatic fashion

2009-06-18T16:09:00.004-05:00

I can not believe the Cubs won this game today. The offense looked terrible all day until they got a rally going in the 8th inning. Micah Hoffpauir got things started with a rocket line drive that bounced off of Chris Getz, it was ruled an error. Alfonso Soriano followed this up with a single. I could feel a comeback, I was watching the game with a friend, we could sense something big was gonna happen. I had a hunch that Milton Bradley would come up with a big hit, but he did not, he struck out swinging. It was Derrek Lee who stepped up with an opposite field 3-run HR. This was Lee's biggest hit of the season and I was at the game where he it a grand-slam. The next hitter, Geovany Soto, followed Lee with a line-drive HR to left, tying the game at 5 apiece.

The stage was set for the 9th inning. Soriano made a heck of a catch in foul territory in the 9th. It was one of the few times I have really seen him hustle in the field this season. In the bottom of the 9th Reed Johnson got things started with a single up the middle. He was then sac-bunted over to second by Andres Blanco. Blanco by the way is a solid bunter, it is good to see him execute when the whole stadium knows what he is going to do. After Aaron Miles did nothing up came Soriano. Sure enough Soriano hung in there and hit a bloop single in short right-center to win the game. As bad as he has been at times this season, Soriano stepped up big in the last two innings of today's game.

The Cubs pitching was good today, Carlos Zambrano looked good again, but was probably left out there too long. Zambrano's line: 7IP, 3ER, 6H, 3K, 3BB 117 Pitches. Zambrano was not trying to strike everyone out, there were a lot of ground ball outs today. It was good to see Z get a no decision, he did not deserve a loss. Carlos Marmol pitched in the 8th and looked bad, allowing 2ER on 3 hits, at least he did not walk anyone. I am sure this was nothing too worry about either, Marmol rarely gets hit. Sean Marshall got out of Marmol's jam in the 8th and Kevin Gregg pitched a scorless 9th inning to pick up his first Cubs win.

The Cubs were lucky Ozzie Guillen pulled Gavin Floyd after 7 innings of one-run baseball and only 90 pitches. Floyd was dominant today and apparently has been on a role recently, I hope the Cubs do not have to face him next weekend. Scott Linebrink looked awful, the Cubs hit him hard for 4 runs. Then in the 9th, the Cubs got a run off of Matt Thornton who is said to be a "left-handed Marmol". Today I finally saw the old Cubs! The team that came back from down 5-1 in the 8th to win the game looked a lot like the 2008 team, who was never out of any game. D-Lee had a monster game going 1-4 with 4 RBIs. His opposite field 3-R HR in the 8th was a sight for sore eyes. Soto's HR to tie the game was his biggest hit of the season, easily. I hope this is a sign of good things to come.

Next up: The Cubs begin a 3 game series with the Cleveland Indians, weather permitting. The forecast for tomorrow: hot with temps in the mid-80s and Thunderstorms. I really hope this game does not get rained out, I have rooftop tickets. Tomorrow's pitching match-up should be a good one though. Rich Harden (4-3, 4.53 ERA) vs Cliff Lee (4-6, 2.88 ERA). Harden was good on Saturday in his first start since coming off of the DL. Lee had a slow start to the season but has been hot lately, how do you lose 6 games with a 2.88 ERA? The Cubs have been hit or miss against lefties this season, tomorrow's game should be a pitchers duel. Hopefully the Cubs can get Lee out of the game early and blast off against the Indians bullpen.

Cubs lose to Sox 4-1

2009-06-18T09:24:00.003-05:00

The Cubs are embarrassing. It was not that John Danks was that good yesterday, it was that the Cubs hitters were that bad! I'm talking about the usual suspects: Alfonso Soriano, Geovany Soto, Mike Fontenot, Derrek Lee, Aaron Miles. Soriano got the lone Cubs RBI of the day on a ground-out. As a team they squandered multiple opportunities to score runs.

Lou Piniella made a big mistake early, when Lee and Soto were at first and second with no one out, and down two runs. Reed Johnson was the batter, and Lou let him swing away? Why? Johnson has been one of our better hitters this season yes, but he has been slumping lately, and is not a real run producer, sure enough he grounded into a double play. I was yelling at the TV before he swung to Sac-Bunt!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The Cubs would have gotten one run minimum in that inning had Lou called for the bunt, poor managing. What else is poor managing? Allowing Aaron Miles and Alfonso Soriano to play. Especially while Jake Fox, who hit the hardest ball of the day on a Sac-Fly, sits on the bench. I am tired of watching losers like Soriano and Miles, when guys like Fox and Micah Hoffpauir sit on the bench. Lou needs to start acting like a real manager and make some changes.

Lou got out-managed by Ozzie Guillen yesterday, its that simple. The suicide squeeze was pure genius by Ozzie, he likely did that to show-up Lou, but Ozzie is the better manager by a mile. Ozzie is willing to play small ball, Lou still thinks his team can hit for power (they can't), but in reality he should be more willing to play small ball. I would suggest moving Soriano down to 5th in the order or to the DL and letting either Fukudome or Ryan Theriot bad lead-off.

Ryan Dempster did his usual act allowing two early runs and deserving to lose. To give up a home-run to Alexi Ramirez is unbelievable, what a clown. Ramirez is a Soriano clone, all you need to throw him is sliders away, and he will swing.

Thank goodness Carlos Zambrano is starting today, I would love to see him get aggressive and shut down the Sox. Gavin Floyd is starting for the Sox, he has been solid lately, but garbage overall this season. If I see Soriano or Miles in the line-up today I am going to scream and then turn the channel over to the U.S. Open (I am big golf fan).

Let's try this again...

2009-06-17T10:02:00.004-05:00

Last night's game was postponed with no set make-up date. I still do not understand why they could not just do a day-night double-header today? Today the Cubs and White Sox are set to renew their annual cross-town series, weather permitting. Today however, there is no rain the forecast. This afternoon, Ryan Dempster (4-3, 3.87 ERA) will face John Danks (4-5, 4.81 ERA). Carlos Zambrano, who was slated to start last night has been moved back to Thursday, and will face Gavin Floyd.

I have been critical of Dempster's pitching at times this season. He has been inconsistent at best. Control has been a big issue for Dempster, especially early in games. It seems he always gives up runs early and then settles down as the game goes along. Dempster has been pitching well of late (although his record does not show it) his ERA has dropped below 4.00 for the first time this season. I do expect a good start from him tonight, if he allows 3 runs or less, I will be happy. Hopefully, he can avoid being scored upon early, and get into a groove.

Other thoughts: I have heard a rumor that the make-up for last night's game could be on September 3rd, a Thursday, when I assume both the Cubs and the Sox will be in town. How awesome would it be if either team were in the hunt at that point of the season? The game would mean that much more, plus the Cubs would presumably have Aramis Ramirez back. Furthermore I walked through Wrigleyville this morning around 9:15 am and there was already a buzz around the park. ESPN 1000 personalities Waddle & Silvy were doing a live show from Bernie's, which was actually open, but were they serving alcohol? I do not know. Then I saw Carlos Quentin pulling into the parking lot in a black Tahoe with his entourage, I am glad he is not playing. Also, today is my birthday, and every year I am lucky enough to have a Cubs vs. Sox game on this day, I am a lucky guy.

Cubs Roster Move

2009-06-16T17:35:00.005-05:00

Today the Chicago Cubs placed LHP Jason Waddell on the DL and recalled slugger Jake Fox from Iowa. Waddell apparently has an non-baseball injury of some sort, whatever that means, it could be anything. Hopefully he did not get drunk and fall into a dumpster like Chad Gaudin last season. Waddell was used sparingly after being called up to replace the disappointing, Neal Cotts. In 3 appearances spanning 1.2IP, Waddell allowed one run for an ERA of 5.40. I was actually impressed with how Waddell pitched during his few outings. Hopefully the injury is nothing too serious and he will re-join the team soon. Waddell's departure leaves Sean Marshall as the lone lefty out of the Cubs' bullpen. Although I prefer to see Marshall as a long-reliever or starter, I have no problem with Lou Piniella using him as a lefty specialist, Marshall is a better option than Cotts, and has pitched well all season.

This also means that Jake Fox is back, which is good news, the guy can really hit. I do not expect to see Fox starting, but weirder things have happened, like Aaron Miles starting all weekend. Fox could get some playing time at third, or in the outfield. I would not be too surprised if Lou started Fox in left-field against a lefty starter, especially to give the slumping Alfonso Soriano a day off. If tonight's game gets played I would not be shocked if Fox actually got into the line-up against Sox P John Danks. At the very least Fox returns as one of the Cubs' better pinch-hitters, if not the best.

Cubs vs White Sox Preview

2009-06-16T12:11:00.003-05:00

Tonight the Cubs and White Sox begin their first Crosstown series of 2009, this one being played at Wrigley. The Cubs are at .500 and the White Sox come in at 30-34, both teams are currently in 3rd place in their respective divisions. The Sox come in having just won 2 of 3 games in Milwaukee this past weekend. The Cubs come in having just lost 2 of 3 to the Twins. Both teams are not very good, I really do not know what to expect in this series.

Tonight's match-up is Carlos Zambrano (4-2, 3.39 ERA) vs. John Danks (4-5, 4.81 ERA). Zambrano has been pitching VERY well lately, his last time out, he was as good as I have ever seen him. I look for Z to stay hot and have another good outing tonight, the Cubs need him to pitch well. Danks is a good pitcher, who the Cubs have not seen a lot of, but I believe he beat us last year. Danks is 4-5, but the Sox do not always score runs, similar to the Cubs. His 4.81 ERA is more a product of the AL. Anywho, I think tonight's game will be a low scoring affair, but my pick is that the Cubs take game one. The stadium should be electric for a rare night game in the Crosstown series.

Twins Games Recaps

2009-06-16T11:27:00.003-05:00

On Saturday I was lucky enough to score a free ticket and the game did not get rained out. The Cubs however, did manage to get shut-out. Rich Harden started for the Cubs and put up exactly what I thought he would (I predicted this line in an earlier post): 6IP, 2ER, 5H, 9Ks, OK, so I was off by one K. Nevertheless, Harden pitched well enough to win, and looked very sharp in his return from the DL. The bullpen: Jose Ascanio, Sean Marshall, and Kevin Gregg each pitched a scoreless and hitless inning of relief.

The problem on Saturday was the Cubs hitting, or lack there of. Only 5 hits, Derrek Lee had two singles, and Milton Bradley was the only other player who hit the ball hard. The Cubs were mystified by Twins starter, Anthony Swarzak, who shut them out on 4 hits over 7 innings. Swarzak was so good, the Twins sent him to AAA after the game. I am still unsure if this was a case of good pitching or really bad hitting. The Cubs had an opportunity in the 9th, but with men at second and third with one out, Fukudome and Ryan Theriot could not drive in the runs. Not surprising that neither of those clowns could get a base hit. Theriot is swinging for the fences on every swing and Fukudome is still spinning. Actually, I had already done something I never do, I left the game after the 8th inning to get a table at a bar down the street. I just never had the feeling that the Cubs were capable of coming back in this game.

Additionally, I was lucky enough to go to the Cubs game on Sunday. This one was planned, as my girlfriend and I took our Dad's for Father's Day. It was a perfect day for a game, sunny and about 75 degrees. We sat 8 rows behind home plate. My man, Ted Lilly came up big, again (he is currently the ace of this staff): 7.2IP, 9H, 2ER, 6K, 0BB, HR allowed. Lilly did not have his best stuff, but he kept the Twins hitters off balance all day, and gave his team a chance to win. Carlos Marmol finished the game in relief, he did not allow a run or a hit, he did walk two.

The Cubs finally did some hitting on Sunday. They got things going in the second inning when Ryan Theriot hit a Sac-Fly to right scoring Lee and tying the game at one. In the fourth inning, Geovany Soto hit a double to score Milton Bradley, giving the Cubs the lead 2-1. Lilly allowed a solo-HR to Chris Gomez in the sixth inning tying the game at two. Finally in the 9th, Theriot came up with one out and the bases loaded and delivered a clutch walk-off single to right, scoring Lee to win the game. This was such an exciting finish and a must win for the Cubs, who looked awful most of the weekend leading up to this point. Theriot had really been slumping before this game as well. I did not mind hearing "Go, Cubs, Go" after this game.

I do have a couple of questions regarding the Cubs. Why was Aaron Miles in either game? He was a combined 1-6. He is now hitting .200 with an OBP of .240. Miles has had his fair share of chances, now it is time for him to go, injured or not. I complained about him constantly during these two games and fans sitting around me did not seem to be too fond of him either. To top it off, he dropped a line-drive on Sunday that hit him in the chest. How could he not catch that one? I could have made the play. I know Andres Blanco does not really hit either, but he is a far superior fielder, and deserves to play over Miles, whose time is running out I would think. Also, Gerald Perry was fired as hitting coach. Not surprising since our hitters all suck. But it is not entirely his fault, Jim Hendry and Lou Piniella are just as much to blame. The Cubs just are not as good as people think they are. Von Joshua is our new hitting coach, he used to be on the White Sox staff from 1998-2001. He has worked at Iowa with many of our younger players like: Theriot, Mike Fontenot, Soto, and Koyie Hill. I would like to think that Joshua can help the Cubs, but I just do not see this group of hitters getting much better, with the exception of Bradley and Soto. The return of Aramis Ramirez should help, but he is going to be rusty. Also, where has Alfonso Soriano gone? .229 BA and .296 OBP, unacceptable.

On a positive note, 3 Cubs hitters had multi-hit games on Sunday. Lee was 2-4 2R. Soto was 3-4, 2 2B, RBI; Theriot was 2-3, 2B, 2RBI. I was very impressed with Soto, he hit the ball hard a few times, maybe he is finally coming around? The Cubs are now 30-30 this season 3.5 games behind first-place Milwaukee.

My personal 2009 Cubs record: 5 and 2.
The next game I am going to as of right now: Friday, June 19th vs Cleveland.

Game Time, other thoughts

2009-06-13T09:49:00.004-05:00

I once again fell ass-backwards into a free ticket today. I hope the game does not get rained out. If it does I already have tickets for tomorrow's game, so I guess I would be attending a double-header. If today's game does not get rained out, who is going to start for the Cubs? I do not think it would be wise to send Rich Harden out there considering he just came off the DL. With the potential for an interrupted game, I would expect the Cubs to move Ted Lilly up a day, or start Sean Marshall instead.

Also, rumor has it that the Cubs have been scouting free-agent P Pedro Martinez in the Dominican Republic. I am not sure as to why they would be interested? Maybe as insurance if Harden breaks down and if Randy Wells comes back to reality. Or possibly they could be considering him as a reliever, he could not be much worse than Aaron Heilman. It remains to be seen if the Cubs could even sign Martinez given the current ownership situation.

The Cubs stink, lose to Twins 7-4

2009-06-12T18:23:00.002-05:00

The Cubs looked terrible today, enough said. Randy Wells who has been outstanding all season, decided to have his worst career start: 3.2IP 4ER, 7H, 2K, BB on 78 pitches. I missed the first 5 innings of this game so I have no comments on Wells' performance, but is seems as if he sucked. The Cubs bullpen was not very sharp either, as Jason Waddell, Aaron Heilman, and David Patton each allowed one run apiece in relief. Patton gets a pass however because he only pitches once every three weeks, because Lou Piniella forgets he is on the roster.

The offense was once again awful. In the bottom of the sixth the Cubs finally got something going and with the bases loaded Milton Bradley hit a rocket off the right field wall, driving in two runs. Derrek Lee then hit a grounder to third and Bradley was caught in no-man's land and tagged out, an inexcusable base running error. The Cubs as a team seem to make these errors frequently. Bradley in the next half inning lost a ball in the sun which allowed another Twins run to score. In the 8th inning, Bradley caught a Joe Mauer (who is the man) sac-fly and thought it was the end of the inning, and then threw the ball into the right field bleachers. This was unbelievable, how could Uncle Milty not known that was only the second out? Nevertheless it did not cost us any runs. Despite his blunders in the outfield today, Bradley was the best hitter we had out there, he was 2-4 2B, 2RBIs. He would have had another hit in the 8th if it were not for a diving Delmon Young catch to rob him of an RBI single. Derrek Lee was the only other Cub who did anything at the plate also going 2-4 with 2 RBIs. Geovany Soto (who is a real problem), Ryan Theriot, and Fukudome combined to go 0-12.

People are jumping all over Milton Bradley for his performance today, but without him, the Cubs probably would not have scored any runs. My buddy, Dan, said "We should throw him into Lake Michigan". Others like Bleedcubbieblue.com's Al Yellon, say he is not the bat we needed and that he prefered Adam Dunn. Well, hindsight is 20-20 my friend. Yes, Dunn is having a much better year offensively, but he is a butcher in the outfield (and at any position for that matter) and would have made the same mistakes in the field that Bradley is making. Say what you will about Bradley, but he looked good at the plate today. Lou said two days ago, that he thought he figured out what was wrong with Bradley's swing, Bradley looked locked in at the plate today. Bradley had a bad day in the field, deal with it, he also was the only player on our team who hit a ball hard today! I am still confident that he can turn this season around, if only to stick it to all the nay-sayers out there! What we really need is a new infielder. At times this team looks so bad, I am not even sure if the return of Aramis Ramirez will save us.

What really upsets me about this team is Lou. He continues to play Aaron Miles, who is incapable of hitting anything but ground-outs and soft fly outs. It is seriously time to get rid of Miles, he can blame it on his shoulder, but the fact remains, he is lousy. I like the fact that Lou did have the stones to play Alfonso Soriano at second in the 9th and Micah Hoffpauir in left. Hell with defense, we need the offense at this point. I never want to see Miles in the line-up again. The Cubs' lack of focus should fall on Lou, this team looks lacadasical, often. Lou does not even seem to care, he should have taken Bradley out of the game after throwing the ball in the stands just to send a message. This team lacks discipline and here they sit at .500. Maybe this is just an overpaid .500 baseball team?

Up next: Early game tomorrow, at 12:05pm. I was actually offered tickets but had to decline. Rich Harden (4-2, 4.74 ERA) vs Anthony Swarzak (1-2, 5.23). I do not know what to expect from Harden he has been out for awhile, but he is rested. I expect to get about 6IP and 2ER with 8Ks from him, which should be good enough for a win. Especially since we are facing Swarzak, who sounds like a character from A Few Good Men. Looking at Swarzak's numbers he looks like a bum, either we crush him or he shuts us out, we will see tomorrow.

Cubs lose to Astros 2-1 in 13 innings

2009-06-12T10:16:00.003-05:00

The Cubs did not look good yesterday, in fact they looked pathetic. Ryan Dempster got off to a bad start per usual and allowed a run in the first inning, which with our offense, is good enough to lose. Dempster managed to get out of the jam in the first and pitched well the rest of the game: 7IP, ER, 7H, 4K, 0BB.

The offense was the problem for the Cubs yesterday and will continue to be the problem all season. This line-up is a joke! Derrek Lee is the most feared hitter in this line-up and that is sad. There is not a single player hitting .300 on this team. I kept waiting for the Cubs to break through yesterday but I felt it would never happen. Finally, in the 9th with one out, Lee hit an opposite field home-run to tie the game at 1-1, thank you LaTroy Hawkins. It was nice to see Lee hitting the ball the other way with authority. He needs to do this more often, most pitchers tend to pitch him away. The rest of the Cubs offense did not show up to play yesterday. I mean, we were facing Russ Ortiz for goodness sake! The only hard hit ball was Micah Hoffpauir's fly-out to the stupid hill in center field, in any other park that was a home-run. Ryan Theriot looks lost at the plate and seems to have forgotten that he is a contact hitter who should hit the ball the other way, his 6HR have gotten to his head. Alfonso Soriano as usual did nothing. Fukudome was 0-5 and looked foolish at the plate. Andres Blanco did manage to lay down a nice sac-bunt, but it was all for nothing because Aaron Miles and Theriot could not get the job done after that and drive in Milton Bradley from second base in the 10th inning. I bet Lou Piniella wishes he had kept Jake Fox on the roster after this, he is a solid pinch hitter who could have won us the game, instead we got to see Miles tap out to third, and Theriot do nothing. Way to go Lou! Poor roster management is killing this team, Miles has no business what so ever being on the roster. He should be given his outright release or at least be placed on waivers today.

One bright spot yesterday was the fact that the bullpen pitched well again. Carlos Marmol and Kevin Gregg each pitched 2 scoreless innings. Marmol was very efficient and threw strikes, hopefully he figured out what was wrong. Jose Ascanio took the loss, he pitched 1.2 innings, and walks finally got the best of him. He walked the lead-off hitter (a big no-no) Hunter Pence, to lead off the 13th. It looks as if the umpire was squeezing Ascanio in that at-bat, Pence did not want to swing, and was given the benefit of the doubt. I am not really sure why Pence is so respected by the umpires. He is allowed to walk down to first on every questionable three-ball pitch, which is showing up the umpires, but they do not seem to care. Pence eventually came around to score on yet another Geoff Blum game winning single. Seriously, I was thinking to myself before the game even started, that the Cubs should look into acquiring Blum. He can play third-base, he can hit, he is a veteran, and he bats left-handed. He seems like he would be an ideal fit on a Lou Piniella roster. Jim Hendry should definitely look into what it would take to trade for Blum. At the very least he would be an upgrade over our sorry bench and would be a solid addition to a team in a division race.

Up Next: The Cubs start their Inter-League season with a 1:20pm game against the Minnesota Twins. Randy Wells (0-2, 1.86 ERA) vs Kevin Slowey (8-2, 4.21 ERA). Wells is still looking for his first Major League win and Slowey is looking for his 9th this season. I am not familiar with Slowey, but if he has 8 wins at this point, he is probably a solid pitcher. This is the beauty of Inter-League play, the unknown. I am expecting to see a low scoring pitchers duel (if the wind is blowing in). Neither team is good offensively. The Twins come into Chicago at 30-32. The Cubs sit at 29-28. This stretch of Inter-League games will make or break the Cubs' season. After the Twins, the Cubs host the White Sox and Indians. Then they go to Detroit and to the South Side for a rematch with the Sox. The AL Central is weak sauce, the Cubs need to take care of business. If they do, they can ressurect their season, if not they can forget about winning the division. The next two weeks will tell us a lot about the 2009 Cubs.

Cubs waste brilliant effort from Zambrano, lose to Astros 2-1

2009-06-10T22:33:00.003-05:00

There was not a lot of action in tonight's game. Carlos Zambrano was dominant: 8IP, ER, 3H, 3K, 2BB. He was cruising along until the 7th inning when he had some control issues and the Astros managed to score a run. Tonight was Zambrano's best start of the season. It was a shame he could not have come away with a victory.

The Cubs offense was only able to score one run off of Houston starter, Wandy Rodriguez. Rodriguez had to throw a lot of pitches, but he was effective. The Cubs scored their lone run on a Geovany Soto solo-HR. I had a hunch Soto would hit in Houston. The rest of the Cubs' hitters did not have good nights. Ryan Theriot did have two hits. Derrek Lee and Milton Bradley had one hit apiece, but neither looked particularly impressive tonight. Bradley also grounded into a double play. Alfonso Soriano continues to disappoint going 0-3, lowering his BA to .237. Finally in the bottom of the ninth Angel Guzman finally lost one. In 0.1IP, Guzman allowed two hits and two walks, and allowed the game winning run on a Geoff Blum single. In fairness, Guzman has been solid all season, and was due for a bump-in-the-road. Hopefully he can rebound his next time out. It would have been nice to see the Cubs score more runs tonight, they left 7 men on base, and were 0-3 w/RISP. At least the Brewers also lost, to the red-hot Rockies, so we did not lose any ground in the division. Additionally Aaron Miles got the start at second-base (and why should he?) and was a surprising 1-4, the clock is ticking Aaron!

Up Next: The Cubs finish their three game set and 9 game road-trip with a 1:05pm game with Houston. Ryan Dempster (4-3, 4.12 ERA) is going for the Cubs and either Mike Hampton or Russ Ortiz is going for the Astros. Neither Astros pitcher is very good so I hope the Cubs can face either one, apparently the Astros are considering moving Roy Oswalt up a day in the rotation. If it is all the same, I would like to see the Cubs face Ortiz, who they rocked the last time they faced him. Also, I am not really sure what to expect from Dempster. He has been pitching well lately and I expect him (like the other Cubs starters) to keep it going and give his team a chance to win. The Cubs should win tomorrow afternoon and head home for Interleague games on a high note.

Cubs Draft and other roster moves

2009-06-10T12:13:00.005-05:00

Last night with their first-round pick in the MLB Draft, the Cubs selected OF Brett Jackson from Cal. Jackson is listed at 6'2 and 210 lbs. He bats left-handed, has speed, and is allegedly a good defender. Jackson is projected to be a center-fielder. His career collegiate numbers: .303 Avg, 12HR, 25 2B, 11 3B, 85 RBI over 152 games. The primary concern with Jackson is his strikeouts, he struck out 58 times in 206 AB this past season. Jackson because he was a college player could be on a faster track than most to reach the majors, he likely will play in short-season Boise, but do not be surprised to see him playing in Peoria this year.

In other news, my dream of Aaron Miles being released did not come true. He was apparently activated from the disabled list after last night's game and Jake Fox was sent back down to Iowa. This move really upsets me, Fox was becoming our best pinch-hitter. Miles is useless and has been all season. Additionally we have Andres Blanco and Bobby Scales, both of whom are middle infielders. Both have also played considerably better than Miles and Blanco is a superior fielder. Hopefully Lou Piniella will only keep all three of these guys on the roster for a short time and weed out the weak link (likely Miles or Scales). I expect to see Fox back on the roster when we go to Detroit and Chicago White Sox, he would be an ideal DH.

Cubs take care of business in Houston, defeat Astros 7-1

2009-06-10T11:13:00.005-05:00

The Cubs were supposed to win last night's game and they did win last night's game. Ted Lilly was sharp once again: 6.2IP, 3H, 0R, 4K; 1-4 3B, R. Lilly improved to 7-4 overall and 3-0 against the Astros this season. I have said it before, but Lilly has been pitching like the ace of this staff, this is great to see, considering how inconsistent some of our other starters have been this season. Lilly even got a triple! He swings like a girl, so this was quite shocking. The Cubs gave Lilly a big lead to work with and he shut down the Astros for an easy victory. The bullpen did their job as well, Aaron Heilman pitched 1.1IP and allowed no runs and no walks. Sean Marshall pitched the 9th, likely just to keep his arm fresh, he threw strikes, and allowed a meaningless solo-HR.

I thought the Cubs should hit Brian Moehler hard, and that is exactly what they did, scoring 5 runs on him in the first three innings. The Cubs got three runs in the first inning. Alfonso Soriano led the game off with a double (his only hit of the game) and came around to score on a Fukudome ground-rule double. Derrek Lee then hit an RBI single scoring Fukudome. Finally, Geovany Soto, who has been slumping all season, drove in Lee with a single. In the second inning, Lilly got things started with a triple, he then came around to score, when Fukudome reached second base on a throwing error. In the third inning, Mike Fontenot hit a solo-HR. Moehler only lasted these three innings. The Cubs offense looked as good as it has all season in the first three innings of this game, everyone knew it was over. The Cubs eventually tacked on two more insurance runs in the 6th inning when Andres Blanco hit a ground-rule double scoring Lee and Fontenot.

Furthermore, multiple Cubs had strong nights at the plate. Fontenot was 4-5, HR, 2R, he is now second on the team in RBI with 26. Derrek Lee had a very good night and is continuing his "hot streak", he was 2-3, RBI, 2R, 3BB, his Avg is up to .269. Although Lee is not hitting for much power right now, he is hitting, which is more than one can say about the rest of the Cubs' hitters. As much as I hate to say it, he needs to stay in the line-up while he is hitting like this, not to mention the fact he has been playing stellar defense of late. Fukudome had a good night as well going 2-4 2B, 2RBI, 2BB. He was very patient at the plate all night, when he is patient good things happen. Yesterday I wrote that Soto should start because he should be able to hit Houston's pitching and they play in a hitters park. Soto did not hit any homers, but he did go 3-5 (all singles) with an RBI. Yes he hit all singles, but at least he made contact, heck he even drove in a run, a rare feat for Soto this season. Even Andres Blanco got into the action going 2-4 2B, 2RBI, and is now hitting .250 this season. This may just be the end of Aaron Miles. Blanco is only hitting .250, but that is a heck of a lot better than Miles. Additionally, Blanco has proven to be a very good infielder. It is time for Jim Hendry to release Miles or at least see if some sucker will trade for him.

Finally, there were a a few negatives from last nights game.
1) Milton Bradley: 0-6 3K, GIDP. He broke a bat after one strikeout and struck out looking with the bases loaded in the 9th on a fastball right down the middle of the plate. I know it was his first start in a week and he was probably rusty, but he is always rusty! Nevertheless he looked terrible at the plate last night. At least he did not carry his offensive struggles into the field, he made a fine diving catch down the right-field line late in the game. His Avg fell to a Soto-like .208, which is completely unacceptable on June 10th.

2) The Cubs left 16 men on base. Yes, I realize they scored 7 runs, which is great, and we won the game. But still, 16 is a lot of men to leave on base, they could have scored 10 or 12 runs in this game easily. As a team, the Cubs have been struggling all season with RISP. Hopefully things are starting to change.

Up next: Tonight the Cubs play the Astros at 7:05pm on WGN. Carlos Zambrano (4-2, 3.72 ERA) vs Wandy Rodriguez (5-5, 2.97 ERA). Zambrano has pitched well his last couple of outings, I expect him to pitch well again tonight. Rodriguez got off to a hot start this season, but has cooled off as of late. He does however seem to always pitch well against the Cubs. He is a soft-tossing lefty, so I expect to see a lot of righties in the line-up for the Cubs, and maybe even Jake Fox at third base or in the outfield. I know Fontenot has been hot, but I would give Fox the start at third, at least just to see if he can play a whole game there.

Cubs vs Astros Preview, thoughts

2009-06-09T14:27:00.003-05:00

Tonight the Cubs start a three game series with the Houston Astros. The Cubs come into the series at 28-26 and 3.5GB. The Astros are currently last in the N.L. Central at 25-30 and 7GB, but they have been playing well as of late, winning 7 of their last 10. The Astros also have two of the best hitters in baseball right now: Miguel Tejada (.354 Avg) and Hunter Pence (.342 Avg). Not to mention the fact that Pence is a Cub-Killer. The Cubs have also been playing better baseball of late, taking 2 0f 3 from Cincinnati over the weekend, and winning 6 of their last 10 overall. The Cubs did not score a lot of runs in the series against the Reds and did not hit at all with runners in scoring position. If the Cubs want to win this series in Houston, they will need to start hitting. I expect them to hit a little bit better in the Astros band-box of a stadium.

Tonight Ted Lilly (6-4, 3.28 ERA) is pitching for the Cubs and Brian Moehler (2-3, 6.37 ERA). Moehler is nothing special and the Cubs should hit him hard, they have faced him twice already this season. Lilly is 2-0 this year against the Astros, he has had problems giving up home runs to them. Recently however, Lilly has been very sharp, I expect him to pitch well tonight. The Cubs should win tonight's game.

Other thoughts: Alfonso Soriano has been terrible on this road trip and is currently hitting .241 with an OBP of .305, not good enough for a highly paid lead-off hitter, and alleged All-Star. Soriano did hit the game winning-HR on Sunday and has hit well in Houston this season, hopefully he can get hot, and get out of this funk that he has been in since mid-May. Also, I would play Geovany Soto in this series, at least for the first two games since we are facing Moehler and lefty, Wandy Rodriguez on Wednesday. With the short porch in left field, maybe Soto can get a hold of one. However if he does not perform in this series, bench him for the upcoming Inter-League games. Rich Harden made a rehab appearance at AAA-Iowa last night and allowed no runs over 4+ innings with 6Ks and 2BBs. He should be set to return to the Cubs by this weekend to pitch against the Twins, most likely on Saturday.

Lou Piniella says he is sticking with Carlos Marmol as his main set-up man, despite being uncharacteristically wild all season, and blowing leads as of late. People have been asking Lou if he would consider switching Marmol and Angel Guzman's roles recently. This is mostly due to the fact that Guzman has been our best reliever for awhile (2-0, 2.28 ERA in 27.2 IP). The biggest difference between Marmol and Guzman has been the walks issued: Marmol has allowed 27BB vs 29Ks in 27IP, which is not very good, the only reason his ERA is not higher (its 3.67) is that he does not give up any hits (14). Guzman on the other hand, has only issued 8BB in his 27.2IP and has 25Ks. He has gotten on Lou's good side by not walking batters. For now, I feel Lou should stick with Marmol, who should be given the benefit of the doubt that he can fix his problems. Marmol went through a similar rough stretch last June and then was an All-Star, and the was un-hittable down the stretch for the Cubs. Marmol should be kept on a short leash in games though, once he walks one batter, someone else should begin throwing in the bullpen.

Furthermore, tonight is the MLB Draft which will be telecast on MLB Network, beginning at 5:05 pm CT. The Cubs hold the 31st overall pick in the draft. They also have the 79th, 109th, and the 140th in the first 4 rounds. The Cubs have not had a lot of success in the early rounds of the draft this past decade. Only Mark Prior (2001) was a first-round pick that panned out for the Cubs, albeit briefly, before injuries ruined his career. The jury is still out on 2007 #1 pick 3B Josh Vitters, who is 19 years old, and playing at Class-A Peoria. This season Vitters is hitting .343 with 13HR and 35 RBI, with an OPS of .986. He is projected to take over at third-base for Aramis Ramirez after Ramirez's contract is up after 2012. I still think Vitters can be on the team by Opening Day 2011. With Derrek Lee departing after his contract ends after 2010 we will need a first-baseman, the Cubs should think about moving Ramirez over to first to finish his career, therefore opening up third-base for Vitters. Ramirez could be a good first-baseman, he is big, and has a good arm. In addition, playing first should limit Ramirez's exposure to injuries and prolong his career.

Hopefully tonight the Cubs can find a few nice players in the draft. I would like to see them address: Outfield, Catcher, Starting Pitching, Shortstop, and First Base.

Cubs end road losing streak, beat Braves 3-2 in 11 innings

2009-06-04T10:45:00.005-05:00

The Cubs finally ended their 7 game road losing streak last night, defeating the Atlanta Braves 3-2 in 11 innings. This was their second extra innings game in as many nights, this time the Cubs came away with the victory. I did not think the Cubs would do much against Atlanta's Derek Lowe and I was right, they only got two runs off of him in the 4th inning and they could have gotten more. Ted Lilly pitched very well once again: 7IP, ER, 2R, 6H, 7K, BB. Lilly's problem all year has been allowing home-runs. Fortunately for him, the Braves have very little power in their line-up, and Turner Field is a pitcher's park. Actually, Turner Field is taylor-made for Lilly's pitching style. Lilly got a no-decision, but he held the Braves line-up in check, and gave his team a very good chance to win, he has been pitching like our ace most of the season. Lou may have left him in there a little too long last night, he gave up one run in the 6th, and was clearly tired. Inexplicably, Lou Piniella left him out there for the 7th inning too, and he allowed another run, although un-earned. However, it was Lilly who made the error, his fourth this season. Lilly left the game with the score tied 2-2. Lou had no problem leaving Lilly out there for one inning too many, he always seems to do this, whether its Ryan Dempster or Carlos Zambrano. Too bad Lou did not leave Randy Wells out to at least finish the 8th inning on Tuesday night.

Offensively, the Cubs did just enough to win last night. It was going to be tough for them to score anything on Lowe, but they managed to push two runs across in the 4th inning. With the bases loaded, Mike Fontenot hit a double to deep left-center, scoring Ryan Theriot and Fukudome. Unfortunately the Cubs could not get any more runs in the 4th or off of Lowe. Derrek Lee had one of his better games of the season going 2-3 2BB, R. D-Lee was on base 4 times last night and had two singles, he also scored what turned out to be the game winning run on a Micah Hoffpauir pinch-hit opposite field single in the 11th inning (off of a left-handed pitcher too!). Lee got into scoring position on a real heads-up play, tagging up from first base on a Foul-Out to deep left-field. It was great to see Lee hustling and leading by example. Reed Johnson singled to left, advancing Lee (who had to hold up) to third base. Then Hoffpauir came up with a clutch pinch-hit. This was also very good to see, Hoffpuir has not seen a lot of action lately, especially against left-handers. What was even better was that Hoffpuir did not try to do too much with his at-bat, he hung in there against the lefty, and just flipped a blooper the other way into left, scoring Lee easily. I know how valuable Fukudome is in right field, but I would really like to Hoffpauir getting more regular at-bats.

Additionally the bullpen pitched well last night. Carlos Marmol recovered from his disasterous outing on Tuesday and pitched an efficient/perfect 8th inning. Angel Guzman pitched the next two innings allowing only one hit and walking nobody, his ERA is down to 2.49, he also picked up his second win of the season, improving his record to 2-0. Guzman is becoming one the better set-up men in the league, hopefully he can keep up the good work. This is good to see, Guzman has been a top-prospect in the Cubs' system for the better part of this decade, and has always had great stuff. Injuries unfortunately have set him back greatly, it is nice to see him finally having some success. Finally, Kevin Gregg pitched a perfect 9th inning for his 9th save of the season.

Other thoughts: I like that Koyie Hill got the start for Geovany Soto, I would like to see more of this. What has happened to Ryan Theriot's speed? He was gunned down easily attempting to steal second base on a strike 'em out-throw 'em out to end one inning. He also grounded into TWO double plays! As I recall, Theriot has grounded into quite a few double plays this season, when did he turn into Derrek Lee of 2008? Also, Alfonso Soriano looks awful running the bases and playing the field. Clearly his knee is bothering him and affecting his play more than he is telling people. He led the game off with a single to left, but that should have been an easy double, especially for Soriano. Instead he limped awkwardly around first base and was held to a single and then erased on a double play. Lou likely would have bunted Soriano over to second, but with him running so slowly, he'd likely be thrown out at second. Maybe it is time for Soriano to take a few days off or go to the DL. It is not like he is hitting, .243 AVG, and .301 OBP, which are terrible numbers for a lead-off hitter. I know Soriano is trying to step up with Ramirez out, but lately he is hurting the team more than he is helping the team. Milton Bradley who is out with a calf injury is listed as day-to-day and could return as early as this weekend in Cincinnati. If Bradley does not improve by the weekend, he could be placed on the DL.

Up Next: The Cubs finish their series with Atlanta tonight at 6:10pm. Carlos Zambrano is making his return from his suspension tonight, I am not really sure what to expect from him. He pitched very well before being ejected last week vs Pittsburgh, I would think that given the Braves weak line-up and Turner Field, that he will pitch well tonight. Pitching for Atlanta is Jair Jurrjens (5-2, 2.59 ERA) who I do not know much about, but I hear he is good, and is having his best season. The Cubs will again have to work hard to score runs tonight and capitalize with men in scoring position.

Note: This will be my last post of the week. I will be leaving Chicago for the weekend to attend a wedding. My next post at the earliest will be on Sunday.

Cubs bullpen, manager, blow 5 run lead, lose to Braves 6-5 in 12 innings

2009-06-02T22:30:00.004-05:00

Some Cubs games upset me more than others, tonight's game against the Braves was one of those games. Things started off great for the Cubs as Alfonso Soriano led off the game with a solo-HR, it would be his only hit of the night, he is now hitting .244. The Cubs would then score in the second inning when pitcher Randy Wells helped himself with a 2-out RBI single. In the 6th inning, the Cubs added two more runs on a Derrek Lee RBI 2B and later a Mike Fontenot Sac-Fly. Lee would later add a solo-HR in the 8th to straight away center. It was very nice to see Lee driving the ball with power, VERY NICE! Usually 5 runs is enough for the Cubs to win, but not tonight.

Randy Wells had the best start of his career tonight: 7+IP, 2H, 2R, ER, OBB, 4K. The only run he allowed was a solo-HR to Garrett Anderson to lead of the 8th inning. Wells had a no-hitter going through 6.2IP, but lost it when Chipper Jones singled to left. He would have had a perfect-game going if the umps had not blown a HBP call when Yuniel Escobar pretended to be hit by a pitch, when in fact the ball clearly hit his bat, I called this as it happened live, while eating dinner with my parents. Anyhow, back to the 8th inning, after the Anderson HR, Wells gave up a routine grounder hit toward Ryan Theriot who then made a bad throw, which Lee then dropped. The error was charged to Lee, but could have gone either way. Next, Lou Piniella decided that it was time to take out Wells who had only thrown 83 pitches to this point and was cruising, bad move. It is not Wells' fault that his fielders suck! I just did not understand how Lou could take Wells out at this point. I highly doubt he would take out Ryan Dempster or Carlos Zambrano in the same situation, 83 pitches! C'mon Lou see what the kid is made of and let him try and finish the game, he is a fighter! Enter: Carlos Marmol who promptly loaded the bases with two walks and a HBP. Marmol walked in a run and allowed another on a Sac-Fly. Marmol's lack of control is unbelievable and I am getting sick of it. True he does not give up hits, but he walks a ton of guys, and now has beaned 5 batters. Marmol managed to get out of the jam and the Cubs were up 5-3 going into the 9th.

"Closer" Kevin Gregg came into pitch the 9th and blew his second save of the season, but it was not entirely his fault. Garret Anderson struck out, but fat-ass Geovany Soto could not block a slider in the dirt, and then could not get to the ball quick enough to throw out Anderson at first-base. This is absolutely pathetic! Soto should have blocked the ball first of all, then he was too slow to get to the ball, then he is so dumb he ran into the backstop, and did not even make a throw to first-base! It is not like Anderson is a speedster either, he is pushing 40 years old, how could Soto have not even made a play here? Then wouldn't you know it, Gregg gave up a game-tying HR to Jeff Francouer, his cough, 2nd HR of the season. Francouer has been so bad this season that he makes Milton Bradley look good.

The Cubs hitters could not get anything going against a mediocre Atlanta bullpen in the extra innings. In the bottom of the 12th, Escobar led off with a routine grounder to third-base but it went for a hit. A regular sized third-baseman makes that play, but Fontenot can not, it is not his fault he is playing there. Bottom line: this would cost us the game as Chipper Jones hit a single to left and Escobar scored easily from second. Aaron Heilman took the loss, which is not shocking, because he is terrible. What did bother me on the last play of the game was Soriano's incredible lack of hustle. He barely ran towards the ball and did not even attempt a throw to the plate, this is unacceptable. This was right after he almost threw the ball into right field trying to hold Escobar to a single, because he misplayed that ball as well. Lou needs to send a message to Soriano that this kind of loafing is not acceptable.

Milton Bradley left the game with a leg injury running out a ground-out. If you ask me, Geovany Soto needs to be sent down to Iowa, he sucks. Soto has not hit all season and now his fielding is costing us games, how many chances will he get? Especially since Koyie Hill has been so much better than him in all facets of the game. I fear that Lou has lost control of this team, they do not hustle, and seem absolutely lifeless on the field, and it has been this way all season. I really feel bad for Randy Wells, he pitched as good of a game as any Cub starter this year. Yet his manager and his teammates let him down, again. If Wells keeps pitching this well, he will eventually get his first ML win, and many more. My roommate compared Wells' tough luck to Rich Harden's in his Cubs starts last season.

Next up: Ted Lilly (6-4) vs. Derek Lowe (6-3). Lilly was very sharp his last time out, he will need to be that good again tomorrow night. Lowe is a very good pitcher who owns the Cubs, I expect him to dominate our sorry line-up, and likely pick up his 7th victory. I hope Lou has the sense to start some left-handed hitters tomorrow, i.e. Micah Hoffpauir, Fukudome, Bobby Scales, and Koyie Hill. But doing that would make too much sense for Lou.

Cubs get rocked by Dodgers 8-2, split series

2009-06-01T11:01:00.006-05:00

Sunday night's game was over after the top of the first, when the Dodgers came out swinging, putting up 5 runs off of Sean Marshall. Marshall had by far his worst outing of the season: 4.1IP, 8R, 7ER, 8H, BB, 2K. He allowed 5 runs in the first inning alone and considering the lack of scoring by the Cubs offense, 5 was enough to lose the game. Marshall likely just pitched his way out of the rotation and into the bullpen. With Rich Harden set to come off the DL this week and Randy Wells pitching so well, it would appear that Marshall is the odd man out, and will move to the bullpen.

Offensively, the Cubs were awful once again. The lone bright spot was Reed Johnson who was 3-4, 2 2B, 2 RBIs. Johnson has been red hot lately and is unfortunately our best hitter right now.

The Cubs managed to split their 4 game series with the NL leading L.A. Dodgers and went 4-3 overall on this homestand. Now comes the real challenge as the Cubs head out of town for a 9 game road trip, stopping in Atlanta, Cincinnati, and Houston. The last time the Cubs were on the road, they lost all six games. It is June 1st and this Cubs team does not look very good, they are 25-24 overall and 4.5 GB Milwaukee for first place. The Cubs have a tough June ahead of them and need to start playing better soon.

The Cubs' run production is awful, the team leader is Alfonso Soriano with 25 RBIs, I can not even remember the last time Soriano drove in a run? He also leads the team with 12HR, but has not hit one in awhile, Soriano needs to step up, sore knee or not, he is paid to be a better player than his numbers show. Just how bad is the Cubs' run production? Ryan Theriot is second on the team with 22 RBIs, no offense to Theriot, but he should not be second on the team in RBIs, not to mention HR (5). Aramis Ramirez is still going to be out for another month, at least. This means that Derrek Lee, Milton Bradley, and Geovany Soto need to step up their games. Lee needs to hit for power: i.e. doubles and home-runs, his .248 AVG, 5 HR, 19 RBI over two months is not enough. I realize he has had injuries, but it is time to get things rolling. Lou Piniella refuses to sit Lee, so we're stuck with him, he needs to start producing. Milton Bradley has also been a disappointment this season: .224 avg 5 HR, 14 RBI, and only 9 extra-base hits. He has shown signs recently of coming out of his slump, but the bottom line is it is time for him to put up or shut up. Geovany Soto has been the biggest disappointment of all and it is looking like his ROY season was a fluke. Soto is hitting .216 HR, 12 RBI, and has only 5 extra-base hits this season. Not to mention he does not throw out base-stealers as well as he has in the past. If Soto does not improve soon, I would bench him. Koyie Hill is not the best option at catcher, but he is out-performing Soto: .289AVG, 2HR, 7RBI in only 45 AB vs Soto's 125 AB. Additionally, Hill is a better defensive catcher than Soto. Soto has looked lost and over-weight all season. He can no longer hit a breaking ball and has no power all of the sudden. It is time for Soto to step up or move aside, the Cubs can no longer to afford to have him in the line-up every day, given his lack of production.

The Cubs have the day off today before a three game series with the Atlanta Braves. Randy Wells (0-2, 1.80 ERA) vs Kenshin Kawakami (3-6, 4.73 ERA) on Tuesday night. Wells has been solid in every start, it will be interesting to see if he can keep it going. I have never heard of Kawakami, but judging by his numbers, he is not all that great. Hopefully the Cubs can get a few runs off of him early and give Wells a lead to pitch with, something they have not really been able to do yet this season.

Cubs come back to win 2-1, to even series with L.A.

2009-05-30T10:58:00.006-05:00

Friday afternoon there was a pitcher's duel at Wrigley Field. The wind was blowing straight in, so runs were at a premium. Ted Lilly was masterful: 7IP, ER, 4H, 5K and a rare 3BB. The lone run he allowed was a solo-HR to Matt Kemp in the 7th inning. Cubs announcer, Bob Brenly, was very surprised the ball left the yard, as it barely cleared the basket in left-center. Overall, Lilly (6-4) did a great job keeping the Dodgers' hitters off balance and got them to ground into three double plays.

The Dodgers starter, Chad Billingsley, was equally impressive yesterday: 7IP, 2ER, 8H, 7K. Billingsley got into a few jams early like in the second inning, when Derrek Lee and Micah Hoffpauir led off the inning with a single and a double respectively. However he was able to strand them at second and third base. The Cubs had multiple opportunities with men in scoring position, but were unable to get anything done. Mostly because Andres Blanco left 4 runners on in scoring position with two outs. I did not think the Cubs would score a run in this game. Then the Cubs offense finally broke through in the bottom of the 7th when Koyie Hill belted a solo-HR to right field. Later in the inning, Jake Fox singled to center-field, and would later score on a Sac-Fly by Fukudome. Unfortunately for me, I did not get to see the Cubs score these runs, I was on a bike ride with my girlfriend. We did stop by a great dive, The Corner Bar, and did manage to catch the 8th and 9th innings.

The Cubs bullpen did there job yesterday. Carlos Marmol pitched a scoreless 8th, despite walking two batters. Kevin Gregg pitched a scoreless 9th to earn his 8th save of the season. Things did get interesting with two outs in the 9th however, Gregg allowed a bloop single to Andre Eithier. Then Cubs third-baseman, Bobby Scales, booted what should have been a game ending ground ball. Gregg recovered nicely though, getting pinch-hitter extraordinaire Mark Lorretta to ground into a fielder's choice to end the game.

In other news, Micah Hoffpauir was 2-4 2B, and seems to have broken out of his "slump". Derrek Lee and Andres Blanco were each 0-3, but more than made up for it with some flashy defensive plays. Blanco can not hit a lick, but he can really field. Fukudome had a nice game as well, with a 2B (in which he reached 3rd on an error) and a Sac-Fly.

This afternoon the Cubs and Dodgers play at 3:05 and will be televised nationally on Fox. Ryan Dempster (3-3, 4.99 ERA) is pitching for the Cubs. Eric Stults (4-1, 4.29 ERA) is pitching for the Dodgers. I have never heard of Eric Stults, I thought we were facing Eric Stoltz, the actor (see Mask, Pulp Fiction, The Butterfly Effect, and The Rules of Attraction). Nevertheless, Dempster needs to pitch well today, he has sucked as of late, example: Monday night vs Pittsburgh. Dempster needs to step up and pitch like the ace the Cubs are paying him to be! Maybe today is the day he finally shows up to play?

Cubs waste opportunities, fall to Dodgers 2-1

2009-05-29T10:14:00.004-05:00

Some nights the Cubs really upset me, last night was one of those nights. First, they wasted yet another strong outing from Randy Wells: 7IP, 2ER, 8H, 7K. Wells actually got better as the game went on, his record is a tough luck 0-2 on the season. Wells just simply got out pitched by the wily-veteran and Cub killer, Randy Wolf, who pitched into the 8th inning, and was removed only after allowing his first run. Aaron Heilman pitched a perfect 8th inning. And Jose Ascanio pitched into a jam in the 9th, only to have Angel Guzman come in and bail him out. Guzman is becoming quite the story, his ERA is down to 2.95, after a shaky start to the season. He has become a solid set-up man. Hopefully Lou Piniella realizes this and stops using Heilman when were ahead late in games. Back to Wells for a second, I do not care what his record is, but once Rich Harden comes back, Wells stays in the rotation. He is a gamer, throws strikes, and can go deep into games, something Sean Marshall has been unable to do.

The Cubs hit the baseball last night, they had nine hits, which was one more than the Dodgers. Unfortunately the Cubs did not have any timely hits. The only run the Cubs got was a solo-HR by Bobby Scales in the 8th, when he pinch-hit for Mike Fontenot. I am happy for Scales who just got called up again from Iowa a day after he was sent down, he does not take anything for granted, and is making the most of his opportunities in the big leagues. Derrek Lee also had a fine game going 2-4 2B, he also had a single in the 9th. The Cubs had their chances in the 9th inning against relief pitcher, Ramon Troncoso, Milton Bradley got things going with a surprise bunt single that dropped in between the Troncoso and Orlando Hudson, it was a nice heads-up play by Bradley. Lee then followed with a single. Reed Johnson then advanced both runners with a ground-out. Geovany Soto was intentionally walked to load the bases. Unfortunately neither Scales nor Jake Fox (who did have a hit earlier in the game) could get the job done and the Cubs lost the game. Fox also saw action at third base and almost started a double play in the 9th inning. I would like to see more of him at third, because of his bat, and when the Cubs are facing a left-handed starter.

Three things really upset me in this game:
1) The Cubs grounded into FOUR double plays! Ryan Theriot grounded into two! He is too fast to be doing this. Bradley and Soto were responsible for the other two. The Cubs ended 3 innings with double plays, I believe they were the 6th, 7th, and 8th. The double plays squandered multiple scoring opportunities last night.

2) Juan Pierre getting two hits, also not acceptable. Pierre got things going early and was a pest on the bases, he scored the games first run. Pierre beat out a throw by Andres Blanco that would have gotten any other player out, it was a fine play by Blanco to even get to that ball. While I am on Blanco, how about we keep this kid around for the rest of the season, he can really flash some leather. He has not shown that he is much of a hitter, but his fielding alone makes him more valuable than Aaron Miles.

3) Dodgers' Catcher, Russel Martin's dirty slide into Cubs second-baseman Bobby Scales in the 9th. I am all about hustle, but this was a dirty play. Martin went to the inside part of the bag and slid into Scales, but he did not stop there. He continued to whip his legs around Scales' (Scales was a few feet behind the base mind you) and trip Scales. The Cubs better retaliate today, because this B.S. is not cool. It just so happens the Cubs have the perfect guy starting today to plunk this fat bastard, my man Ted Lilly. Bank on it, Martin will get plunked.

The Cubs and Dodgers play today at 1:20 with Ted Lilly (5-4, 3.77 ERA) vs Chad Billingsley (6-2, 2.82 ERA). From what I have heard, Billingsley has been very good this season, and dominant at times. The Cubs will have their work cut out for them today.

Report: MLB to suspend Carlos Zambrano

2009-05-28T14:55:00.005-05:00

SI.com is reporting that MLB is set to suspend Cubs P Carlos Zambrano for his tirade, antics, and ejection from Wednesday's game against the Pirates. The suspension is most likely due to the fact that he made contact with home-plate umpire, and giant tool, Mark Carlson. Zambrano was upset that Nyjer Morgan was ruled safe on a close play at the plate. Replays have been inconclusive as to whether or not Morgan was actually safe. Players are not allowed to make contact with umpires, Milton Bradley was suspended for one game earlier in the season for making contact with an umpire. But yesterday, it was clear that Carlson walked towards Zambrano causing the contact, Zambrano even signaled that he was throwing Carlson out of the game for making contact with him. I can not imagine Z getting more than six games for this, six games would only cause him to miss one start, which I think would be fair. Anything more than that would be ridiculous. MLB if they have a pair (of balls) should also fine or suspend that little-shit Carlson who instigated the whole thing to begin with by walking into Zambrano. Umpires are supposed to represent MLB on the field and act professionally at all times. If this is the case, then Carlson should have just walked away from Zambrano, not towards him. Do not get me wrong here, Zambrano acted like an ass, and likely deserves a suspension. However, if he misses more than one start, MLB will have some explaining to do. Not to mention the fact that umpires are completely out of control, Bud Selig needs to make an example of Carlson to further prevent umpires from acting like out of control tyrants. This is twice in the last month that umpires have initiated contact with players (some other douche "ushered" Magglio Ordonez out of the batter's box). Umpires need to be put in their place, NOW! Before things get even worse.

Cubs Win 5-2, take 2 of 3 from the Pirates

2009-05-27T18:19:00.003-05:00

The Cubs won again today, defeating the Pirates 5 to 2. Carlos Zambrano was very effective today: 6.1IP, ER, 7H, 6Ks. He even got ejected in the 7th inning while arguing a call at home plate when Nyjer Morgan was ruled safe on a bang-bang play on a wild pitch. I could not see the play because a beer vendor was blocking my view, but Zambrano acted as if Morgan was out. His ejection was one for the ages as he bumped into the umpire then acted like he was throwing the ump out of the game. On his way to the dugout, Zambrano launched the baseball into deep left field, threw his glove into the dugout, and beat the hell out of the Gatorade machine. Hopefully Zambrano does not get suspended, but I have a feeling he will miss at least one start, for me it was worth it!

Offensively the Cubs were solid once again. They got things going early when Milton Bradley tripled to right to score Ryan Theriot in the first inning. Then Reed Johnson grounded into what should have been a double play, only the Pirates' shortstop made a throwing error and he was safe, allowing Bradley to score the second run. The game was tied going into the bottom of the 8th when Johnson hit a solo-HR to left (this was immediately after he made a catch at the wall in CF), his HR was the game winner. The Cubs tacked on two more runs in the 8th when Andres Blanco and Jake Fox each doubled. Fox's double was more impressive, since he pinch-hit (Blanco started), and he worked his way to a full count after being down 1 and 2. This was great to see, Fox showed some composure at the plate, and provided some much needed power for the Cubs.

Additionally, the bullpen was great. Angel Guzman, Carlos Marmol, and Kevin Gregg combined for 3 scoreless innings to end the game. These three guys should end every possible game for the Cubs when they have a lead. Also, Derrek Lee grounded into his first double play of the year. I feel bad because I jinxed him, when I said to my roomate (as he came to the plate) "He has not grounded into any you know what's yet this year" and sure enough he then grounded into a double play. Milton Bradley seemed pumped up today, he showed a lot of emotion after his RBI Triple and after he drew a walk later in the game.

I was lucky enough to fall into a free ticket today, my roomate, Peter, had an extra ticket at the last minute, and I took advantage. We sat in the upper deck and had a great view of the action. When I have sit in the actual stadium this season, I have not been to a loss.

My personal 2009 Cubs record: 4 and 1.
The next game I am attending as of right now: 6/14 vs Minnesota.

Cubs Win rain shortened game to end 8 game losing streak

2009-05-27T09:43:00.002-05:00

The Cubs finally won a game! Last night the Cubs bats were hot, Sean Marshall was effective, and we got a little help from mother nature. Marshall was having one of his better outings before the umpires stopped the game in the top of the 6th due to rain: 5IP, ER, 4H, 6K. Marshall did walk two men in the 4th, but was able to escape, only allowing one run to score. This was a big win for Marshall and his confidence.

The Cubs offense was at it again scoring 6 runs, after scoring 8 on Monday night. Fukudome got things started with a solo-HR to right in the first inning. In the second inning, Marshall even helped his own cause with an RBI single. Alfonso Soriano, Ryan Theriot, and Fukudome (the top three hitters in our line-up) each had at one hit and scored runs. As the top of the order goes, the Cubs go! Micah Hoffpauir got out of his "slump" going 2 for 3, 2B 2RBIs, he hit the ball hard twice, which is encouraging. For the record: I was never worried about Hoffpauir. All hitters have little slumps once in awhile. He even said after the game that he just made a few adjustments, like all professionals do. Maybe this will shut up all of the Anti-Hoff, Derrek Lee backers out there. Mike Fontenot also had a big game going 2 for 3 with an RBI and a run scored. The Cubs' bats might just have gotten back on track, over the last two games, everyone has been hitting.

In other news: I love Ted Lilly. Apparently he was tossed for arguing the strike zone during Monday night's game. This guy is great! Who gets tossed from a game they are not even playing in? Hopefully he does not get suspended. My Dad texted me this morning, telling me the Cubs have called up slugger Jake Fox (you heard it hear first!) from AAA Iowa. The Cubs have sent down Neal Cotts and a player to be named. They also called up LHP Jason Waddell and somebody named Blanco? Aaron Miles has been placed on the 15-Day DL. If this is true, I would expect to see Fox in the line-up somewhere, today. Lou Piniella loves getting new guys into the action right away. Also, the Cubs are facing a left-handed pitcher today, Zach Duke, Fox I would assume crushes lefties. Starting for the Cubs today is Carlos Zambrano, who looks to bounce back after a sub-par start last week.

Furthermore, weather permitting, I will be attending this afternoon's game. I was lucky enough to stumble into a free ticket.

Cubs pitching takes the night off, Pirates win 10-8

2009-05-26T08:28:00.005-05:00

Last night the Cubs lost their 8th straight game, falling to the lowly Pittsburgh Pirates 10-8. This game was painful to watch, the Cubs pitching staff gave up 18 hits, and blew multiple leads. The wind was blowing in too, which makes it even more unbelievable that they allowed 10 runs. I have to tip my cap to the Pirates though, former Batting Champion, Freddy Sanchez, had a career night going 6 for 6 with 3RBIs.

The main reason the Cubs lost last night was Ryan Dempster: 4IP, 6ER, 7H, 3BB, 3K, WP, HBP, Errror. What a jackass, Dumpster is seriously the worst! His ERA is now at 4.99 and I only expect it to get higher. Dempster is not the same pitcher we saw last year, probably becuase he got paid, and the fact that last year was a career-year for him. The Cubs drastically overpaid this bozo, I would rather see the Cubs sending Les Walrond out there to start games. The fact that I have to watch this Canadian ponce pitch for the next few years is depressing.

Jose Ascanio pitched the 5th inning, allowing 3 hits, but thankfully no runs. Then Lou Piniella inexplicably allowed Ascanio to bat for himself in the bottom half of the inning only to yank him for Neal Cotts. This blew my mind! I did not realize however that Derrek Lee was sent home with the flu. Still, somebody else should have hit for Ascanio, like: Koyie Hill or Fukudome? Now back to Cotts, who should be released, here is what he treated us with last night: IP, 3ER, 4H, K. Cotts also took the loss in this game, but why was he brought into the game to protect a lead in the first place? Cotts might actually be worse than Dempster, except he is not paid like a Cy Young Winner. Cotts' ERA is up to 7.36, it is time for him to go, Lou showed nowhere near this much patience last season with Scott Eyre. After Cotts came Aaron Heilman who allowed his usual one run in one inning of work. By the way, when did Heilman turn into Bob Howry? The lone bright-spot from our pitching staff last night was David Patton, who was released from the Witness Protection Program, he pitched the final two innings, and allowed no runs. Seriously though, Patton should be sent back to the Rockies, the Cubs have no use for him, and he is taking up a valuable roster spot. The Cubs really could have used an extra position player last night, I just do not understand how Jake Fox is not on the team. Why were both Angel Guzman and Kevin Gregg not used last night? Guzman is our best reliever when the Cubs are Sans-Carlos Marmol and Gregg has not pitched in a week.

Now for some good news: the Cubs scored 8 runs! Seven of the runs came off of Pirates starter Paul Maholm, who actually pitched worse than Dempster. Ryan Theriot had 3 doubles off of Maholm, driving in two runs, and scoring twice. Alfonso Soriano, although he did not have a hit, actually showed some patience at the plate, taking two walks, and scoring twice. Milton Bradley had a big game going 2 for 5 2B, HR, 4 RBIs. Bradley's HR was an absolute rocket hit out to deep left field, the wind had no chance of knocking that ball down, it also would have been a game winner if not for Cotts. Hopefully this means Bradley is starting to come out of his slump. Geovany Soto had a nice game as well, with two hits.

Two more things I had a problem with/ Jackass Calls of the Day:
1) Why was Carlos Zambrano used to Pinch Hit for Heilman in the bottom of the 7th with two men on, with a chance to at least tie the game, or possibly take the lead? I know Z is a decent hitter, but c'mon Lou! What are you thinking here? I know Lee was not available and that Bobby Scales was used in the 4th, but Fukudome should have been used to pinch hit in that spot, period. This is unacceptable and some very poor managing.

2) Carlos Marmol, our best relief pitcher was given two days off to go to New York, to be with his wife while she gives birth to their second child. Do not get me wrong, he should be with his wife in this situation, but why the hell do they live in New York?!! Seriously, had Marmol and his family lived here in Chicago, he could have been available to pitch after the kid was born.

Last night, I was lucky enough to be at the game. My friend Justin hooked us up with discounted rooftop tickets at Wrigley Done Right, it was tight. The view was great and I got my money's worth in beer (10+) and Italian Beef Sandwiches (3). If you have the means, I highly recommend the rooftop experience, it is quite choice. My personal winning streak came to an end last night, but at least the Cubs bats came back to life. Maybe I am their version of Joboo from Major League.

My personal record at Cubs games in 2009: 3 and 1. The next game I am attending as of right now: Sunday, June 14th vs Minnesota, where I will have my family's bomb-ass seats.

One more thing, last night we were discussing how terrible of a hitter Aaron Miles is and how he is worthless as a player. I leave you with this question:

Who would you rather have on your roster?
A) Aaron Miles
B) Cesar Izturis
C) Neifi Perez
D) Jose Macias
E) Tony Womack

7's Up: Cubs lose to Padres 7-2, lose 7th straight game

2009-05-24T18:39:00.006-05:00

The Cubs finally scored some runs today, unfortunately they only scored two. Today the Cubs were swept by the San Diego Padres, who have won 9 straight games. After being swept earlier in the week by the Cardinals, the Cubs ran into a buzz-saw in San Diego. The Padres hitting is not great, but it was good enough against the Cubs. It was the Padres pitching however that won them this series. Today, Chris Young made the Cubs hitters look foolish allowing only 2 runs on 4 hits over 7 innings. Young does not throw hard (Mid-80's) but our hitters looked as if they were not picking up the ball clearly out of his hand today.

Ted Lilly started for the Cubs today and was off to a good start, unfortunately he got into trouble in the 5th, 6th, and 7th innings. Lilly's line: 6.1IP, 5ER, 8H, 2BB, 4K. He also made a couple of bad plays in the field, he could not field a bunt, and later threw a suicide-bunted ball over Geovany Soto. Lilly's fielding has been awful all season and last season even, this is not acceptable. Aaron Heilman came into the game in the 7th with a man on third-base and one out. He got a strikeout, then intentionally walked Adrian Gonzalez (and rightfully so), only to then give up a 3R-HR to Kevin Kouzmanoff. Heilman is a joke, everytime he comes in he allows runs. I thought I heard Len Kasper say that Heilman has come in with 14 men on base this season and that 8 of them had scored, not including the inherited runner who scored today. Maybe Heilman needed the work, but if I were Lou Piniella, I would stick with Angel Guzman as my bridge guy from here on. Kouzmanoff has been slumping all season, but not today, he was 2-4 2B, HR, 4RBI. Phil Rogers of the Chicago Tribune wrote that Kouzmanoff, a third baseman, was on the trading block. From what I saw today, the Cubs should look to trade for this guy.

The Cubs offense was absent again today combining for only 4 hits and two runs. The two runs came when Reed Johnson hit a 2R-HR in the 7th inning. This was good to see from Reed, he had been struggling lately at the plate and has not shown much power this season. Johnson started in Center-field in place of Fukudome who had the day off. The only other Cub hits were from Milton Bradley, Mike Fontenot, and Bobby Scales, all singles. The lack of power from the Cubs hitters is a serious problem. The last time I remember the Cubs offense looking this bad was in 2006 when Derrek Lee was out for the season and we had clowns like Phil Nevin playing first-base. By the way, the Cubs missed the playoffs in 2006. Today Lee was a late scratch from the line-up because he was sick. This was too bad for the Cubs, he has been their hottest hitter of late, he even hit a long home run on Saturday. Micah Hoffpauir played in place of Lee and was 0-4 and fouled out on a 3-0 pitch. Hoffpauir looks like he has been pressing lately and has been hitting a lot of shallow pop-ups, I hope he finds his stroke again soon. Hoffpauir looked bad today, but Alfonso Soriano has looked bad all week, today he was 0-4 and watched his average drop to .257. Soriano was incredibly impatient at the plate today, swinging at the first pitch at least two times, and making outs. He needs to get hot soon, usually the Cubs offense goes, as Soriano goes.

The Cubs have now lost 7 straight and are back to .500 at 21-21. They return home for a three-game series with the Pittsburgh Pirates, starting at 7:05 pm Monday night. Ryan Dempster, who has been improving as of late, is pitching for the Cubs. Left-hander, Paul Maholm is pitching for the Pirates. Maholm is 3-1 this season with a 5.91 ERA. The Cubs hitters should hit this guy, hard. Unfortunately the Cubs have not hit anybody hard in over a week, hopefully returning home will get them back on track. I expect to see more righties in the starting line-up tomorrow, hopefully Lee is ready to play, and Lou will likely ride Johnson's hot bat. Plus the Cubs have a secret weapon tomorrow: ME! I am going to the game and am 3-0 on the season. Not to mention that Lee has homered in two of the games I have attended this year. Hopefully I can continue my winning streak and the Cubs can start one.

Cubs get shut out by Padres 4-0, lose 5th straight

2009-05-23T12:21:00.002-05:00

Hopefully the Cubs have hit rock bottom. Last night they got shut out by Jake Peavy and the Padres, which is embarrassing. The Cubs again managed only 5 hits and no extra-base hits. Peavy struck out 10 Cubs hitters in only 6 innings. Micah Hoffpauir had his worst game as a Cub, with a "Golden Sombrero" 0-4 4Ks. I guess he was pretending he was Milton Bradley for one night. Alfonso Soriano is in free-fall and can no longer hit apparently. I am still wondering why Aaron Miles was even in the line-up? He should be released. This team has no power! No extra-base hits, this is getting pathetic.

Carlos Zambrano was less than good in his return from the DL: 4.2IP, 3ER, 3H, 4BB, 7K. He walked too many batters for my liking and then gave up hits when men were on base. A bad outing for Z. This guy is supposed to be the best pitcher on our team, it is about time he started acting like it! I am tired of Zambrano underachieving, he makes too much money to be this average of a pitcher. With Rich Harden going to the DL (retroactive to May 18th) we need someone to step up in our rotation, but do not count on Zambrano, he never pitches well under pressure.

Tonight the Cubs are starting Randy Wells, who still has a 0.00 ERA. Hopefully Wells can continue pitching well, we need him. The Padres are starting a guy named Josh Geer, besides the fact that his name sounds made-up, I have never heard of this guy. He has a 5.61 ERA, we should crush this guy. Seriously, if the Cubs do not score 5 runs off of this clown, changes need to be made.

Cubs lose to Cards 3-1, get swept out of St. Louis

2009-05-22T10:46:00.004-05:00

Last night the Cubs offense was horrible. Again scoring only one run while combining for 5 hits. Just like I said Adam Wainwright dominated for the Cardinals: 8.2IP, ER, 5H, 7K. He was pulled in the 9th when he allowed a Derrek Lee single. Ryan Franklin, who is apparently untouchable (at least for the Cubs hitters), recorded the final out. Sean Marshall started last night for the Cubs and was not great: 5IP, 3R, 2ER, 4H, 3K. He was not bad either, but the two home runs he allowed to Albert Pujols and Brian Barden, were enough to lose the game. In my opinion, Marshall should be moved to the bullpen and Randy Wells should join the rotation. Wells is the hot pitcher right now and Marshall just is not that good. At least the Cubs bullpen was solid last night as Jose Ascanio, Neal Cotts, and Angel Guzman combined for three scoreless innings to end the game.

There is not much to talk about offensively from last night. Lou Piniella, after saying he needed to get Micah Hoffpauir and Koyie Hill some at-bats during last night's press conference, played neither. Instead he went with basically the same line-up as the last two nights, except he started Ryan Freel at third-base and Mike Fontenot at second-base. Without Hoffpauir in the line-up we had no pop last night. Freel was 0-3 and is hitting .100, he also made a costly throwing error that led to an un-earned run for Marshall. However, later in the game Freel made one of the best plays I have seen by a Cubs third-baseman in awhile, so I feel that the jury is still out on him being a regular at third-base. Bobby Scales scored the Cubs only run, when he walked while pinch-hitting for Marshall. Fukudome drove in Scales with an RBI single with two outs in the 6th inning, he was 1-4 on the night. Derrek Lee was the only Cub with two hits, both singles. I like to see Lee hitting, it is just that he is hitting only singles. As a clean-up hitter he needs to drive the ball more. The Cubs do not have a need for another singles hitter, they have plenty already, they need power in the middle of the order. Geovany Soto had the teams only extra-base hit, a double. It is pathetic that the Cubs are only getting one extra-base hit a game, we can not win like this, we do not have enough speed. The fifth Cubs hit was a single by Marshall, maybe he can bat clean-up too?. Meanwhile, neither Hoffpauir nor Hill even got an at-bat. Milton Bradley hit the ball hard three times, but had nothing to show for it, going 0-4, and watching his batting average slip to .184. Fontenot also had another poor game, 0-3, and now has a BA of .195.

Tonight the Cubs go to San Diego to face the Padres and P Jake Peavy. Note to Lou: Play Hoffpauir, I do not care how you fit him in the line-up, just play him! Especially against a tough right-hander like Peavy. Tonight I would sit Lee, despite his "hot streak", because he does not hit right-handers well. Also, Hoffpauir is not good enough defensively to play right field in spacious Petco Park. I also expect to see either Hill or Scales in the line-up as well. Carlos Zambrano will make his first start since injuring himself while running out a bunt on May 3rd. Hopefully he will be a spark to this zombie-like Cubs team, heck we could really use his bat right now. Zambrano was not particularly sharp in his minor league outing, but the Padres line-up is incredibly weak (as we saw last week), and Petco Park is a real pitcher's park. Then again, maybe Peavy will shut the Cubs out, and show Jim Hendry why we need to acquire him.

Note: This is the only non-interleague series in MLB this weekend. I am OK with this, the Cubs would get smoked by just about any AL team right about now (except the White Sox, Mariners, A's, and Orioles), given they can not score any runs.

Jake Peavy to the White Sox?

2009-05-21T11:59:00.004-05:00

This is the FIRST time I have written about the Chicago White Sox. All of the buzz this morning has been about the Sox trading for San Diego Padres P Jake Peavy. Peavy is owed $60M through 2013. The deal is basically done, Peavy just has to OK the trade (he has a full no trade clause). The Sox would send pitchers Clayton Richard and Aaron Poreda to the Padres, they are the two top pitching prospects in the Sox's system. I would think they would have to include a few more prospects. My question is: Why are the Sox doing this? The Sox have pitching, despite how bad Gavin Floyd, Jose Contreras, and Bartlolo Colon have been. The Sox are also an aging offense, who look like they only have a few good seasons left in them. This move would not make the Sox a World Series contender, let alone a playoff team. They still can not hit (sounds familiar see Cubs).

In the end, I do not expect this deal to get done. Here are my reasons:
1) Peavy wants to pitch in the NL, he enjoys hitting, and facing weaker line-ups.
2) The Sox would have to give up more, like SS Prospect Gordon Beckham.
3) The Padres should be suspicious of Sox GM Ken Williams, who has a history of fleecing other teams for good players. Examples: the Carlos Quentin trade with the Diamondbacks and the John Danks trade with the Rangers, just to name two.

Furthermore, if this deal were to be completed, it would not be the end of the world. The Sox are not going to be a realistic contender over the next few years anyways. I would rather see Peavy go to the Sox than the Brewers (the team other than the Cubs, he said he would waive his no trade clause for). In the end, I still hope Peavy comes to Chicago as a Cub. I just do not think we have the prospects to get the deal done, I would be willing to part with Jeff Samardzija and Jake Fox, but not 3B Josh Vitters, who is the heir apparent to Aramis Ramirez and supposedly the guy the Padres really want from the Cubs farm system.

Cubs offense again pathetic, fall to Cards 2 - 1

2009-05-21T11:33:00.003-05:00

Last night the Cubs bats were again nowhere to be found, they managed only 6 hits, and one run. Meanwhile they wasted a stellar effort from starter Ryan Dempster: 7IP, 2ER, 6H, 3K. Dempster was not at this best, but he was effective, throwing strikes, and keeping the ball down in the strike zone. This was good to see from him, considering he has had location issues this season, and teams have been hitting him hard when he leaves the ball up in the zone. Carlos Marmol threw a scoreless 8th inning allowing no hits and no walks. For the Cardinals, Chris Carpenter made his return from the DL, and was dominant: 5IP, 0ER, 3H. The Cubs hitters had no answer for his big curve ball. We were lucky he only went 5 innings, but we could only muster up one run off of the Cards weak bullpen.

The Cubs offense was terrible, again. The only extra-base hits they had were doubles by Ryan Theriot and Milton Bradley. Bradley, who did score the Cubs' only run, was foolishly doubled off at first early in the game. For the first 8 innings of this game the Cubs offense was in hiding. I have said it before and I will say it again, you can not expect to win (and score runs consistently) with Derrek Lee batting clean-up. Lee did have a hit, but it was a single, and he struck out twice, once while looking with a man on second. Micah Hoffpauir should have been in the line-up last night. Whether in place of Lee or Bradley, he should have been in there! Hoffpauir got one at-bat, in the ninth inning, with two outs, and hit a hard RBI single. I am fairly certain he leads the team in batting average with men in scoring position with two outs. Lou Piniella can not justify not playing him any longer, especially with Lee and Bradley struggling so much to drive in runs. No other team in the league has their best power hitter on the bench. Additionally, Alfonso Soriano had a bad game as well, 0-4 3K's, but we have to live with his streaky hitting. Nevertheless, he looked foolish at times swinging at sliders way out of the zone last night.

Tonight the Cubs look to avoid being swept by the Cards. The Cubs start Sean Marshall and the Cards are starting Adam Wainwright. Wainwright is a superior pitcher and very similar to Carpenter. Barring a miracle: either Marshall pitching really well or the Cubs actually scoring more than 3 runs, I see us losing tonight. I expect to see Hoffpauir in the line-up tonight as well. Also I would sit Lee since he has not been hitting right-handed pitching along with Geovany Soto, who can not hit a breaking ball, and Wainwright has a great curve.

Chris Carpenter returns, Trade Thoughts

2009-05-20T13:33:00.004-05:00

Last night I wrote that Adam Wainwright would be starting tonight for the Cardinals, I was mistaken. Chris Carpenter is set to make his return from the DL tonight versus the Cubs, while Wainwright will start on Thursday. They are actually similar pitchers who feature hard fastballs with big-breaking curveballs. The only difference is that Carpenter also features another offspeed pitch, some sort of change-up, splitter, or sinker. He should be pumped up making his return, he was effective before he got hurt (while batting). Luckily for the Cubs, Carpenter is on a pitch count of 80 pitches, so hopefully the Cubs can get to him early, and limit his innings.

With Carlos Delgado out until at least July, the New York Mets could be looking for a first-baseman to replace him in the line-up. I have yet to hear his name mentioned, but Derrek Lee could be a possibility. He has one more year left on his deal and would be good insurance for the often-injured Delgado. Although Lee hits right-handed he would fit nicely into the Mets line-up. The Mets would also have be willing to eat most of Lee's remaining contract after this season, about $13M. We would probably have to send them cash in return for a pitching prospect. This trade would allow the Cubs to play a platoon of Micah Hoffpauir and Jake Fox at first base. For those who do not know who Jake Fox is: he is 26 and is a former Catcher who was a liability defensively. He has played most of the last two seasons at first base and outfield, primarily at first-base, he hits right-handed. This season Fox is hitting .431, 17HR, 50RBI in 35 games. He also has an OBP of .513. This guy can hit a ton and Lou Piniella is fan of his bat. A platoon of Fox and Hoffpauir at first would give the Cubs an instant upgrade offensively at the position. They would lose a lot defensively however. But, by clearing Lee's contract from the books, the Cubs would have a little bit of money available for Jake Peavy, if they are still interested in trading for him. Peavy would be a nice addition to our sometimes inconsistent rotation. I am not even sure if the Mets would be interested in Lee, but I think it is worth asking.

Cubs manage only 3 hits, fall to Cardinals 3-0

2009-05-19T22:56:00.002-05:00

The Cubs offense was pathetic tonight, they managed only three hits off of Joel Pineiro. Even more disturbing was that Pineiro only had to throw 92 pitches in 9 innings. Alfonso Soriano led the game off with a single only to be picked off at first. Derrek Lee would later single (his average is up to .229 by the way) only to have Milton Bradley ground into a double play. Later in the game, Mike Fontenot had the only Cubs extra base hit with an opposite field double, but Geovany Soto could not knock him in with 2 outs. Simply put, this was a terrible effort from the Cubs offense. Pineiro even pitched a four-pitch inning! He walked nobody! The Cubs were overly aggressive throughout the game. Bradley is finally starting to worry me, his .188 AVG at this point in the season is unacceptable and he needs to step it up. Also, Micah Hoffpauir has been one of our best run producers this season, he needs to get more at-bats. Especially against right-handed fastball throwing/control pitchers like Pineiro (who did strike him out in his only at-bat). Either sit Bradley or Lee for Hoffpauir in one of the two remaining games in this series.

Cubs starter, Ted Lilly (5-3) gave the team a quality start: 7IP, 3ER, 4H, 5K, 3BB. His lead-off walk in the bottom of the first led to the game winning run for the Cards. He also allowed a 2R-HR to Colby Rasmus in the bottom of the fifth. All three runs for the Cards were scored with two outs. Ted Lilly did not have a bad game, the Cubs hitters did, and Pineiro was very effective. Thank goodness I had the Blackhawks game, which was a heart-breaker, to distract me from watching most of this yawner tonight.

Tomorrow night Ryan Dempster faces Adam Wainright. Wainright is a tough customer, he has a power fastball, and a big curve ball. I would expect Lou Piniella to insert some lefties into the lineup, especially Hoffpauir, who is capable of driving in runs. Also, Soto appears to be unable to hit a breaking ball, perhaps Koyie Hill should start at Catcher in his place? Hopefully for the Cubs, Dempster will pitch like he did in his last outing, when he dominated the Padres over 7 innings. The Cubs will need him too if they hit like they did tonight.

Cubs vs Cards Preview

2009-05-19T13:32:00.004-05:00

The Cubs are down in St. Louis for a three game series with the suddenly struggling Cardinals. The Cards lost three straight games to the now first-place Milwaukee Brewers over the weekend, and have now lost seven of their last ten games overall. The Cards have been hurt recently by injuries (but who has not in this division) to Chris Carpenter, Ryan Ludwick, and Rick Ankiel. Carpenter is set to return to the rotation on Wednesday night and Ankiel is expected to be available tonight. Carpenter scares me as a Cubs fan. He is arguably, when healthy, the best pitcher in our division. He has just not been able to stay healthy over the last few seasons. With him back in the rotation for the rest of the season, I expect the Cards to stay in the division race. On a side note: The Milwaukee Brewers after sweeping the Cards over the weekend have taken over first-place in the Division. They did however lose starting 2B Rickie Weeks for the season. Weeks was off to the best start of his young career and will be a major loss for their lineup, especially since he was their lead-off hitter, and every day second-baseman. Fiinally, other teams in our division are having to deal with major injuries to their key players.

Now to the Cubs. They split their weekend series with the Astros after Friday's game was rained out. I was unable to see most of their two games over the weekend since I had to attend my sister's graduation ceremonies at The University of Notre Dame, from Friday through Monday. But here is what I do know from the weekend: Randy Wells can pitch, he gave us 6 scoreless innings in his start on Saturday, he may just replace Sean Marshall in the rotation. I did see the final innings of Saturday's game and could not believe what I saw. Kevin Gregg looked awful (similar to Chad Fox) and almost cost us the game, luckily ND-guy Aaron Heilman came in to bail him out of a bases-loaded nobody out jam (I said a prayer while watching this). After Bobby Scales led off the bottom of the 9th with a walk (nice), Alfonso Soriano did what he was paid to do and drove him in to score the game winner (after a nice sac-bunt from Ryan Theriot). Also from that game: I was impressed to see Derrek Lee come up with a clutch RBI single and then my boy, Micah Hoffpauir, launched a 2R-HR to deep left field.

I did not see any of Sunday's game. What I do know is that Lee had a monster game with a HR, single, and a double. Way to go Lee! He has been hot over the last two games going 5-8 and raising his average up over the Mendoza Line to .226. I still expect more from him over the next few months, hopefully this is a sign of good things to come, and hopefully what we saw from him in the San Diego series last week was just an anomaly.

Tonight: Ted Lilly (5-2, 3.27 ERA) faces off against RHP Joel Pineiro (4-3, 4.17 ERA). Lilly is off to a good start this season and has been keeping damages to a minimum. He has given up a lot of HRs (9 which is good for 4th most in the NL). Lilly has given up few walks and has not had a lot of men on base for any of those HRs. He also has pitched a few games at Wrigley with the wind howling out this season. Lilly needs to be careful tonight against this Cards team, they can hit, but are hitting only .227 against lefties this season. Regardless, new Busch Stadium is a band-box/hitters park, where HRs are easy to come by, so Lilly will need his best stuff if he wants to win. As for Pineiro, I do not know much about him, except that he used to play for the Seattle Mariners, and his career has been saved by Cards Pitching Coach, Dave Duncan. Pineiro throws in the low 90s and is an average-at-best pitcher. The Cubs should be able to score a few runs against him tonight.

The Cubs have won seven of their last ten games and are 21-15 overall, which is the exact same record the 2008 Cubs had at this point last season. This shocks me. Mostly because of how impressed I was with last year's team and how un-impressed (at times) I have been with this year's team. Despite all of the injuries and poor play out of Lee, Milton Bradley, and Geovany Soto we are still in good shape and only two games out of first-place.

Cubs rout Padres 11-3, sweep series

2009-05-14T16:22:00.006-05:00

This afternoon the Cubs pounded the San Diego Padres. The game got off to a boring start and was tied 1-1 going in to the bottom of the fifth inning. It was in the bottom of the fifth that the Cubs offense exploded for 6 runs. The Cubs would add 4 more runs in the next inning and that was all she wrote for the Padres.

Today was interesting because Lou Piniella sat a few regulars and went with a new line-up. Today it was the bottom of the order stepping up and driving in the runs. Geovany Soto was 0-2 but did hit a Sac-Fly and had two RBIs for the game. Reed Johnson got the start in center-field and went 2-5, 2B, 2RBI, 2R. Even Aaron Miles (who I still think is a joke) was 2-5, 2B, RBI. But on this afternoon, Bobby Scales was the star of the game going 2-4, 2 2B, 4RBIs and did not strike out. He also started at third base and did not commit any errors. I really like Scales, he appreciates that he is getting his chance, and he is making the most of it (he is hitting .444). Although Mike Fontenot is slumping, I still feel as if Miles should be the one to sit, and that Scales should be getting more playing time while Aramis Ramirez is on the DL. Regulars Milton Bradley, Derrek Lee, and Fontenot had the day off.

I said that Ryan Dempster was due for a good start and today he finally had one: 7IP, 2ER, 3H, 5Ks. Today Dempster looked like he did last year, or maybe its just that the Padres line-up is terrible. Nevertheless, this was a big win for Dempster who improved to 3-2 for the season. The Dempster we saw today is the Dempster we need to see all summer. With Ted Lilly and Rich Harden clicking, and Carlos Zambrano due back soon, our starting rotation could dominate in the next few months. Recent call-up, Jose Ascanio, made his Cubs debut. Ascanio pitched 2 innings in mop-up duty allowing a solo HR to Drew Macias, not to be confused with Cubs-Legend, Jose Macias. I was impressed with Ascanio. He throws strikes and throws hard with a fastball touching 93-94. He had three strikeouts and no walks, something I am sure Lou noticed. Former Cub, Chad Gaudin, whom Ron Santo refers to as "Chad Go-Dad" was not impressive today: 4.1 IP, H, 4ER, 7BB, 3K. I can see why Lou Piniella wanted him out of town.

In other news, MLB announced after the game that Milton Bradley's suspension has been reduced to one game and will be served tomorrow. Too bad they could not have announced this yesterday after the Cubs gave Bradley the day off today. I have believed all along that Bradley did not deserve this suspension and I appreciate that he made a stand against MLB and stuck to his guns. I still say that the umpire who he "bumped" is full of bologna. Hopefully this incident will motivate Bradley who I still think is going to have a big summer for the Cubs.

Up next for the Cubs are the Houston Astros. Randy Wells will make his second start as a Cub and Brian Moehler (who is washed up) will start for the visiting Astros. By the way Moehler has an ERA of 8.44 and was on the DL recently. I expect the Cubs to stay hot and hit Moehler hard. We have now won four games in a row, let's go for five!

What is the deal with Pat Hughes?

2009-05-14T14:30:00.002-05:00

First of all let me start by saying that I think Pat Hughes is a terrific play-by-play announcer and is one of the best in the history of the Cubs. Today I was listening to the Cubs broadcast on WGN 720 AM in my kitchen. In the bottom of the third, Micah Hoffpauir hit a ball to deep left, and Hughes was yelling and saying "that ball is........caught at the wall." Hughes gets over excited for everyball hit to the warning track, it is misleading to listeners, and just annoying. He did this again later in the inning when Reed Johnson hit one to the warning track. Then in the top of the fourth, Adrian Gonzalez hit one out and he just acted as if it is was no big deal. Please Pat stop freaking out every time someone hits a fly ball to the outfield! Only call a HR if it is actually going to leave the park, I am tired of being fooled.

Cubs defeat Padres 6-4 in rain shortened game

2009-05-14T10:33:00.003-05:00

Last night the wind was howling out of Wrigley Field, it had been for hours, I had been walking around the stadium before the game with my girlfriend trying to find the Jones Soda Guy giving out free sodas, he was a no show, I will never drink that soda again!

As for the game itself Cubs starter, Ted Lilly, got off to a slow start in the first inning allowing a single and a wind-assisted HR to Adrian Gonzalez to left field. Lilly would recover nicely only allowing one more run, his line: 6.1IP, 3ER, 8H, 7K's. He kept hitters off balance all night and did a great job keeping the ball in the park, despite the windy conditions. He was probably lucky he was facing such a soft lineup. The third run he allowed was a solo-HR to Adrian Gonzalez, again. Lilly got his team-high 5th win of the season improving to 5-2.

The Cubs bats got off to a hot start in the bottom of the first, starting with a Alfonso Soriano lead-off HR to Waveland Ave. The next batter, Ryan Theriot then hit a HR to left-center, this one was clearly aided by the wind, but I will take it! Later in the inning, Geovany Soto knocked in Milton Bradley with a RBI single to give the Cubs the lead. The Cubs would lead the rest of the way in this game. In the third inning, Soto finally hit his first HR of the season, scoring Bradley again. In the fourth inning, Theriot hit his second HR of the game, a solo shot to left.

Even our bullpen did a decent job last night. Angel Guzman, who is improving by the day, relieved Lilly in the 7th, and allowed no runs in 0.2IP. Carlos Marmol earned his 3rd save of the season by pitching the 8th, he allowed one run on a fluke Jody Gerut single, he did have two walks as well, and looked less than stellar. It was after this half inning that the game was sent into Rain Delay and subsequently called a final.

My thoughts on this game: Kudos to Geovany Soto, who I have been quite critical of this season. He was 2-3, HR 3RBI's (all 3 RBI's came with two outs). This was by far his best game of the season. Hopefully he has found his hitting stroke, we could really use his bat (especially when he is hot) with Aramis Ramirez out of the line-up. Derrek Lee had another bad night going 0-4, he is hitting .194 on the season. His .194 batting average ties him with Bradley. I have a lot of friends who have been critical of Bradley all season for his poor average, so hopefully they will be just as critical of Lee. I would hope Lou Piniella has the sense to play Micah Hoffpauir today. Lee has been consistently horrible at the plate and is even booting plays in the field: he allowed a ball to drop in behind him on what should have been an easy play down the right field line. Lee can no longer hit, he does not belong in the 3 spot. Lou dropped Bradley to six, now he needs to switch them back or just do the smart thing and bench Lee.

This afternoon the Cubs look for a sweep of the Padres. Ryan Dempster is pitching for us and is due for a good start, he has been awful lately. This Padres line-up is a joke, if Dempster is for real, he needs to shut these guys down. Former Cub, Chad Gaudin, is starting for the Padres. I am assuming he would like to stick it to Lou.

Cubs defeat Peavy, Padres 6-2 to start homestand

2009-05-13T12:46:00.004-05:00

The Cubs got off to a good start on their six game homestand vs the lowly San Diego Padres. Rich Harden gave the Cubs another strong outing: 6IP, 2ER, 4H, 5Ks to improve his record to 4-1. Harden has been the ace of this staff so far this season, he has been the rock in this rotation without Carlos Zambrano. Harden is off to a great start this season and his arm appears to be healthy, Harden could be the key for the Cubs post-season hopes this season. If he keeps pitching this well and stays healthy, he should win a lot of games for the Cubs.

The Cubs were able to score six runs off of Future-Cub, Jake Peavy. Peavy was cruising along until the 5th inning when Alfonso Soriano hit an RBI double to score Geovany Soto (who was actually on base!). In the bottom of the 6th, Milton Bradley hit a very long 2R-HR to straight away center field, clearing the bottom part of the center field bleachers. This was after he was booed in the 4th inning. Bradley stuck it to all the clowns at Wrigley who thinks he sucks. I have been confident all along that he will hit eventually and the fans will love him when he does. Bradley is just too good of a hitter to stay in this slump to long. Bradley's HR put the Cubs ahead for good.

We added insurance runs in the 7th when pinch-hitter, Bobby Scales, hit his first Major League HR, good for you Bobby! This guy continues to produce: he is hitting .429! I ask Lou Piniella this question: How in the world can you continue to play that loser Aaron Miles, who is hitting .208 every day? The guy flat out can not hit. Lou continues to play Miles despite having a hungry lefty who can actually hit, sitting on the bench. This just does not make any sense.

Soriano drove in another run in the 8th inning, he was 3 for 5 on the day with 2 2B and 2 RBI's. The last run we scored was when Micah Hoffpauir scored on a wild pitch, after reaching base on a pinch-hit single. Which brings me to my next question: Why wasn't Hoffpauir in the starting line-up? He played much better than Derrek Lee while Lee was injured, heck he even got base hits! Last night we faced a right-handed pitcher in Peavy, so why would Lou not play the lefty, especially since Lou is obsessed with lefties! By the way Peavy dominated Lee who was 0-3 BB, 3K's and was one strikeout away from the "Golden Sombrero" (going 0-4 with 4Ks). I'm really not sure what Lee was doing in the line-up last night. Maybe it was to get him back on track, but what track are we talking about here? The guy is hitting a woeful .202 and has an equally bad .280 OBP. These numbers are unacceptable for our #3 hitter. The only regular on the Cubs with a lower OBP is Miles, who sucks. By comparison Bradley is at .329 and Soto is at .305, despite both of them having a batting average under .200 most of the season, they at least draw walks. Lee is striking out way too much. He should not have been in the line-up last night and his numbers reflect this. I'm still waiting for the Cubs brain-trust to figure out he does not belong in the starting line-up. If you look really close at the stats Hoffpauir has equalled Lee this season in all important categories in 30 less at-bats and is hitting more than 100 points higher. The Padres starter tonight is Chris Young, maybe he can bean Lee again, and these two can fight again. That seemed to light a spark under Lee a couple of years ago and at the very least he could be suspended for a few games.

In other news, the Cubs bullpen was effective, with Aaron Heilman, Carlos Marmol, and Kevin Gregg combining for three scoreless innings to finish the game. This was good to see, especially after Heilman's efforts last weekend in Milwaukee. Ted Lilly starts for the Cubs tonight for the Cubs.

Cubs- Brewers Series Recap, thoughts

2009-05-11T14:25:00.005-05:00

I was busy all weekend with partying and family obligations, so this is my first chance to write about the Cubs series up in Milwaukee this weekend.

Game One: This game was moving along quite nicely until the bottom of the third when Aramis Ramirez made a nice diving stop only to dislocate his left shoulder. I do not care what other fans say, Ramirez is the best hitter and best clutch hitter on our team. He is irreplaceable. He is the guy you can always count on to step up and get a clutch hit when the team needs one.

The Cubs got a nice outing from recent call-up Randy Wells:5IP, 5H, OER, 5K. It seems like Wells was pitching in and out of trouble all night, yet he kept escaping. I was impressed with his velocity at times he was overpowering. Wells belongs on the big league roster. Wells left the game with a 1-0 lead after my boy Milton Bradley hit a towering solo-HR to right field. Alfonso Soriano added a Sac-Fly in the 6th. The Cubs were done scoring, Milwaukee was not. Angel Guzman gave up a run in the 6th and Aaron Heilman choked again walking Corey Hart and giving up a HR to Ryan "Lloyd" Braun in the bottom of the 8th. I have a question for Heilman, how do you walk Hart? He swings at everything! The Cubs looked demoralized after losing Ramirez to a serious injury and then blowing the save in the late innings. I seriously felt as if the season could be over at this point. In all fairness, I did not get to see all of the end of this game because my friend Eric was more concerned with watching an episode of The Cougar on TV Land, weak.

Game Two: I really do not even want to write about this game, it upset me in so many ways. The lone bright spot for me was to see Micah Hoffpauir, who is better than Derrek Lee, hit a double and a 2R-HR. Hoffpauir has been filling in nicely for the injured Lee, who is set for a MRI today. We could really use Lee's defense at the very least, maybe even his leadership with Ramirez out. But again I ask, how can you sit Hoffpauir for Lee when one hits and the other does not?

What bothered me most in this game: 1. Ryan Dempster/Lou Piniella: I am not sure whose idea it was to send Dempster out to start the 7th, but he had 111 pitches to that point, and sure enough he imploded giving up two solo-HR's and basically putting the game out of reach. Leaving Dempster out there so long, was Lou's fault. He keeps on doing this with everyone, Marshall, Rich Harden, and now Dempster. Lou needs to stop doing this, no matter how pathetic our bullpen. Also, Dempster has sucked this season: 2-2 4.98 ERA, I am sorry but this is not the same guy as last year. He no longer has consistent control and seems prone to allowing the "big inning", a lot! This guy is certainly not deserving of the fat contract he got from the Cubs, now we get to watch him lose games for the next four years, sweet. Dempster is showing no signs of improvement, I expect him to lose at least 10 to 12 games this season. On a serious note however, I do hope that his baby daughter is ok and gets better, she is very ill, and I'm sure this is seriously weighing on him. 2. Geovany Soto: Yeah he had two hits, both singles. But this guy is a joke. I keep saying he's fat and out of shape because he is! His offense is atrocious (.169 avg, 0HR, 4RBI, 2Extra Base Hits, for the season!) and so is his defense (he had an error in this game and almost everyone steals on him now). Soto needs to figure things out fast to get back on track and to be honest I do not think he will. I would send him down to the minors and play Koyie Hill and anybody else every day, until Soto shows improvement in the minors. And 3. The Bullpen enough said here, they were terrible, but this game was over when Dempster came out to pitch in the 7th inning. Thank goodness the Blackhawks were on TV Saturday night and won. Watching this Cubs game was like getting punched in the stomach over and over again.

Game Three: Going into this game, I thought this was a must win, and the most important game for the Cubs this season. Also I had the pleasure of listening to most of the game on the radio, since I was driving to South Bend and back, Pat Hughes is the man!

Cubs starter, Sean Marshall, got off to a rocky start allowing a lead-off HR to the impressive Rickie Weeks. I have seen a lot of Weeks in the past few years (I used to live in Milwacky) and he has improved a great deal, even since last year, and this is not good news for our Cubs. Any who, Marshall allowed another run in the 2nd inning after former-Cub Jason Kendall (deep breath) Tripled! To score Bill Hall, who had doubled, and is the greatest Mother's Day hitter of all-time (Seriously, ESPN ran a segment on this last night). Kendall played well all series and always tries to stick it to his former teams and I like it. He is a hard worker and a real pro. Can we trade Geovany Soto for him? Just joking. After the 2nd, Marshall and the Cubs did not allow another run. Marshall's line: 5IP, 5H, 2ER, 3BB, 4K, he did not have his best stuff (no curve) or control yet he got the win. It looked like Marshall took a page out of Ted Lilly's book in this outing.

The Cubs got all of their runs in the top of the 3rd inning. Bobby Scales got things started with a single (he's hitting .385) and Soriano knocked him in with a LONG 2R-HR to tie the game. Bradley had an RBI single and Fukudome scored on a Jeff Suppan Wild Pitch. The Cubs were done scoring and it was enough to hang on for a 4 to 2 win. Angel Guzman was impressive in his two scoreless innings. Carlos Marmol made things interesting, loading the bases, and getting out of the jam. Kevin Gregg got his sixth save, despite allowing a walk, he made up for it by striking out Braun to end the game (although he was aided by the sun, which was obstructing the hitter's view). The Cubs had a big inning going in the 9th, until newly acquired Ryan Freel was picked off 2nd base by Kendall. This happens to Cubs players way too often, where is our focus and intensity?

Thoughts: Lou thinks he may have finally found his 7th inning set-up guy or bridge guy in Angel Guzman, I still am not sold, he has not been very consistent, ever. Mike Fontenot made a lot of nice plays at 3rd base over the weekend and is improving quickly. This is exactly what we need. Although I still think he is too short to play 3B, he does hit well enough, and has a solid arm. The Cubs have had short 3rd Basemen before, just look at Ron Cey. If the line-up were up to me: I would have Fontenot playing 3B every day with Scales playing 2nd against right handed starters, allowing Aaron Miles to play 2nd against lefties. Lou also now has Freel to play at 3rd base as well, but he will likely see some time in the outfield. Chad Fox's career is over... again. The Cubs called up minor league starter Jose Ascanio who had a 1.01 ERA at Iowa and will pitch out of the bullpen for the Cubs. The Cubs have the day off today after playing in 20 straight. The Cubs return to action against the visiting San Diego Padres and (future Cub) Jake Peavy on Tuesday night at 7:05pm. Also, is it possible the Indians would trade us back Mark DeRosa? No offense to Fontenot, Miles, Freel, and Scales, but all of you combined (maybe except Fontenot) are not as good as DeRosa.

Good-bye Joey Gathright

2009-05-08T18:42:00.003-05:00

I wrote this morning that after last night's performance, Joey Gathright had to go. This afternoon, the Cubs sent him down to AAA Iowa in order to make room for tonight's starter Randy Wells. Then the Cubs sent Gathright to the Baltimore Orioles for veteran outfielder/infielder Ryan Freel. The Orioles agreed to pay $2.7M of Freel's $3.3M contract, as well as the remaining money on Gathright's contract. I absolutely love this trade! We got rid of the most useless player on our team and got a hard-working, high energy player in return. I can remember seeing countless highlights of Freel making diving catches all over the outfield on a consistent basis. Freel also plays third-base, which means Mike Fontenot can stay at second-base and Aaron Miles ran ride the bench (where he belongs) if Aramis Ramirez were to get injured again. Not to mention we just got Freel for free. I am a little concerned as to why Baltimore was so eager to get rid of this guy? Apparently he was unhappy about playing time, but c'mon Baltimore, you should have gotten more than Gathright in return, but thanks, seriously. Freel is a career .271 hitter with a .357 OBP.

Insurance runs prove big, as Cubs hang on to beat Astros 8-5

2009-05-08T09:21:00.004-05:00

The Cubs were supposed to win this game. We had Ted Lilly pitching and the Astros had Russ Ortiz pitching, enough said. Seriously, Ortiz was washed up after the 2003 season, I did not even know he was still in baseball. The Cubs jumped all over Ortiz with one run in the first and two more in the third. Ortiz left after only retiring one batter in the third inning, unfortunately the Cubs were only able to get three runs off of this clown. Micah Hoffpauir had an RBI single in the first, while Milton Bradley has a bases loaded single in the third (only one run could score because of Hunter Pence's strong arm in right), and Mike Fontenot would add a Sac-Fly in the third as well.

Ted Lilly also got off to a poor start in this game, walking the lead-off hitter, then giving up a HR to Miguel Tejada, his first HR of the season. Fortunately for the Cubs, Lilly gathered himself and shut down the Astros for the remainder of the game: 6IP, 2ER, 4H, 5K. Lilly improved to 4-2 on the season.

Alfonso Soriano was the offensive star of the night for the Cubs, hitting two home runs, and three RBI's. The latter HR came in the 9th inning, which proved to be important. In all thee Cubs scored 4 runs in the 9th inning to give themselves an 8-2 lead. In that inning, Aramis Ramirez (3-4, RBI) drove in another run, and Fontenot was walked with the bases loaded.

Chad Fox made his 2009 Cubs debut and it was a disaster. He walked the first guy he faced on four pitches. Then he gave up a 3B to Ivan Rodriguez, who should be too slow to even hit a 3B, but in all fairness it looked like Joey Gathright misplayed that ball or was afraid of running into the wall. Fox retired one hitter he faced and gave up a second 3B to Darin Erstad. This time the ball should have been caught. Gathright and Soriano were running towards it and it was clearly Gathright's to catch, but he didn't call for it, and the ball hit the warning track. It looked to me as if Gathright was trying to avoid a collision with Soriano, but it also looked that if he tried to catch it, they would not have collided. My question(s): 1. Why was Gathright out there? When we have a guy on the bench, Reed Johnson, who would have caught both of these balls. This is what Johnson is known for, so I just do not understand why Lou Piniella did not have him out there for defense, his strong suit. 2. Why is Gathright on this team? He does not hit (.214 avg, he had a hit last night), he does not steal as many bases as he should, and he plays what appears to be poor defense. He appears to be a less powerful version of Freddie Bynum. Joey Gathright needs to go!

Because of Gathright's poor fielding, Lou was forced to bring Kevin Gregg in to end the game, which he did. The Cubs hung on to win 8-5 and swept the two game series with the Astros. Next up a 3-game weekend series in Milwaukee.

Manny Ramirez suspended 50 games for testing positive for performance-enhancing drugs

2009-05-07T10:57:00.005-05:00

This figures, what a jerk. Manny Ramirez hit like a mad man last summer and fall. Too bad he had to cheat to put up such big numbers. Apologists like ESPN's Peter Gammons are saying its not a big deal because it wasn't necessarily steroids, rather a medication prescribed to help him recover from an injury/illness quickly. I thought that was one of the reasons to take steroids? I once had to take steroids for inflammation of the jaw, and it made me much stronger, seriously. Gammons is douche, I just lost a lot of respect for him. Thank goodness he is suspended though, this will likely slow the LA Dodgers. In fact in the past, their offense has been hapless without him. This is what they get for having a cheater on their team. Who next to be caught using performance enhancing drugs?

I just wish that ESPN and the national media would stop playing this down. I just don't understand why they like Manny so much. Face it, he is an older player putting up huge numbers, hmm, sounds like a guy who was using steroids to me.

May I add that the Cubs have a 4 game series with the Dodgers at the end of May. Let's see how tough the Dodgers are without their steroid-using, fraud, Manny.

Cubs return to form, defeat Astros 6-3

2009-05-06T22:21:00.005-05:00

The Cubs got off to a fast start tonight versus the Astros. Alfonso Soriano and Milton Bradley had first inning hits, Geovany Soto followed with a walk and Reed Johnson knocked them all in with his first extra-base hit of the season, a triple to left-center. Johnson would score soon as well on a passed ball, one of two by Ivan Rodriguez, who looks washed up behind the plate. The game was basically over from here on. Aramis Ramirez looked good at the plate tonight going 2-4, HR, BB. Aaron Miles and Micah Hoffpauir each had a double, with Miles finally crossing the Mendoza Line. Tonight was a solid, balanced effort from our offense, with the exception of Soto, who seems to be lost at the plate. He was 0-3, although he did draw a walk and score in the first inning, he is currently hitting a dismal .159.

Cubs starter Rich Harden came up big tonight, as I expected him to: 7+IP, 3ER, 8H, 4Ks. These numbers are misleading however, since Lou Piniella brought Harden back out to start the 8th inning (he had only given up one run through 7 innings). This was not a good move since he allowed the lead-off man to reach base and then gave up a HR to Lance Berkman. I was watching the game with my roomate and we both agreed that this move made no sense, Harden even batted for himself in the top of the 8th, and he is not a great hitter (although he did have one tonight and is hitting .250). I just don't understand why Lou left him out there, maybe he was testing Harden to see how deep he could go into a game? Maybe it was only because Harden finished with 99 pitches and Lou thought he could handle one more inning? Nevertheless, he should have been taken down for a pinch-hitter in the 8th, and allowed to leave the game after seven strong innings, especially since we had a rested bullpen. But overall, I was very happy with Harden's performance. Carlos Marmol came on in relief and stranded the one runner he inherited. He appeared to look like his old self. Kevin Gregg pitched a 1,2,3 9th inning to get his 5th save of the season, he looked like the pitcher we all expected him to be when the season started.

Also, the Cubs sent pitcher Jeff Samardzija down to AAA Iowa today and called up RP Chad Fox. Fox is a solid veteran who when healthy has always been a reliable set-up man, which is something the team can always use. I am not sure however if he is capable of throwing more than one inning per appearance. Fox's career has been marred in recent years by serious arm injuries. As for Samardzija he will return to the role of a starting pitcher at Iowa. This is something I agree with, he wants to be a starter, let him start! In AAA. Hopefully he can figure out what was wrong, who knows, maybe he could be starting for the Cubs soon as a replacement to Carlos Zambrano, while he is hurt? Although I think that is unlikely.

Jackass Call of the Day : (In my opinion) Lou Piniella bringing Harden out to pitch the 8th inning. He allowed the same thing to happen yesterday with Sean Marshall, which led to us falling way out of that game. Why would Lou allow the Astros to get back in the game tonight? Especially with Harden who has a history of shoulder trouble, I just do not understand what Lou was trying to do here.

Giants end Cubs 4-game win streak

2009-05-06T10:48:00.003-05:00

The game yesterday afternoon was over after the first inning, when Cubs starter Sean Marshall gave up a 3-R HR to Giants C Benji Molina. With the B-Team lineup that Lou Piniella put out there, it was going to be hard for the Cubs to muster up 3 runs, in fact they only scored two. After the first inning however, Marshall settled in nicely, before leaving the game in the 8th inning with two on and nobody out. His final line for the day: 7IP, 5ER, 8H does not do him justice for how well he pitched. Lou probably should not have let him pitch the 8th. Jeff Samardzija was brought in to relieve Marshall and he shit the bed, 0.1IP, 2H, ER, BB. It seems like every time Samardzija comes in with men on base they eventually score. He looked awful and his ERA is up to 8.10. Maybe instead of sending down Bobby Scales to make room for Randy Wells (Big Z's replacement), the Cubs should send down Samardzija, who has looked nothing like the occasionally dominant set-up man he was last year. The Cubs decided to tinker with Samardzija's release point which looks like it did no good. Not only has this made him ineffective, but it also can lead to an injury.

Offensively, the Cubs were not very impressive, but that was assumed given that most of the regulars did not play, and we were facing Tim Lincecum. The Cubs managed to score two runs off of Lincecum, who looked sharp. Unfortunately the Cubs could only put up 5 hits and only Derrek Lee had an extra base hit, a double off the wall in left. Just like I called it, Scales got a hit! Even the pathetic one-two combo of Joey Gathright and Aaron Miles got one hit apiece. Unfortunately, after Gathright got his, Miles grounded into a double play. Overall, a weak effort from the Cubs offense. Mike Fontenot did get his 15th RBI of the season, he is now tied for the team lead.

Tonight the Cubs head to Houston for a short two game series with the Astros. Tonight's match-up is Rich Harden vs Mike Hampton. Harden was not too sharp his last time out, I look for him to have a solid outing tonight. Hampton is a veteran lefty and the Cubs have struggled vs lefties all season. Hopefully, with some regulars back in the line-up, the Cubs can score a few runs tonight, and get back to winning games.

Cubs to rest regulars today vs Giants

2009-05-05T12:34:00.006-05:00

Cubs Manager, Lou Piniella, said he wanted to give his regulars some rest, and today's line-up is one of the weirder ones I've seen:

1. Joey Gathright, who is hitting .111, and hasn't started a game this season.
2. Aaron Miles, he's been hot lately, but is still only hitting .190.
3. Fukudome
4. Derrek Lee, he too has been swinging a hot bat lately, still only .207.
5. Micah Hoffpauir, but he's playing left-field in place of Alfonso Soriano. This could be ugly.
6. Mike Fontenot, back at Third Base, despite the return of Aramis Ramirez and the call up of...
7. Bobby Scales, who is playing Second Base? I thought he was a Third Baseman?
8. Koyie Hill
9. Sean Marshall, batting .000

Honestly, despite his recent power-surge, Ryan Theriot was overdue for a day off, he had previously started every game at SS for the Cubs this season. I also have no problem with Lou giving Soriano the day off either, we need him rested and healthy for the whole season, and hopefully pennant race. Hill playing for Geovany Soto is fine with me, Soto should be jogging or getting into better shape/ hitting in the cages while not playing today. I also like that Lou is starting Scales, it is nice to see a guy get his chance, especially since he won't likely be around for long. I bet he even gets a hit! Although I have never seen him play nor do I know if he bats left or right. One question I have, where is Milton Bradley? I feel he should be playing today given how many games he's missed recently, he needs the at-bats! I would just assume that the Cubs are being careful with Ramirez's return and are trying not to rush him back, wise move.

Also according to a report on CSN this afternoon, neither Carlos Marmol nor Kevin Gregg are available to pitch today. That leaves Lou with a short bullpen today, especially when they were down a man (Carlos Zambrano) to begin with. Lou better hope Marshall gives them a nice long outing today.

Also, I got into an argument with my roomate yesterday regarding Lee and Bradley. He is a huge fan of Lee. I am not. I am a believer in Bradley. He is not. We were discussing who on the Cubs should bat 3,4,5. He was critical of Bradley and his .130 batting avg. I feel he will get out of this and he still gets on base, with an OBP of .310 to Lee's OBP of .283 (even after being walked 3 times last night!). I just like that even when Bradley is not getting base hits, like now, he still finds a way to get on base. Eventually I think that Lou is going to settle on a middle of the order like: Fukudome, Bradley, Ramirez, and likely move Lee down to the 6-spot, and this is assuming he will keep Theriot in the 2-spot. Does anyone else have any better ideas for the Cubs regular line-up(assuming we ever get healthy)?

Cubs beat Giants 4-2, for 4 straight win

2009-05-05T10:01:00.003-05:00

The Cubs placed pitcher Carlos Zambrano on the Disabled List Monday morning, he will be out for 2-3 weeks with a calf strain. This injury could not have come at a worse time for the Cubs we were just starting to get hot. Ryan Dempster needed to have a strong outing on Monday, and he did: 7IP, 2ER, 5H, 7Ks for his second victory this season. It was good to see Dempster have a good start, he has struggled most of the season with walks and location, last night he only walked two. Carlos Marmol and Kevin Gregg pitched scoreless 8th and 9th innings respectively, Gregg picked up his 4th save. It would be nice if these two could get on a roll and stabilize our bullpen.

Good news: Aramis Ramirez returned to the starting line-up, but he was rusty, going 0-3, and leaving 5 men on base. We need Ramirez, not only to bolster the middle of our line-up, but to play 3rd base. I have nothing against Mike Fontenot, but he is not a 3rd Baseman. As a team the Cubs' bats were pretty quiet last night, they only managed 5 hits as a team. The big play of the day was a 2-R HR by Ryan Theriot in the 2nd inning, which ended up being the game-winner. The HR was Theriot's 3rd this season which tied his career high. Other than this, not a lot happened. Geovany Soto had a 2-out RBI as did Reed Johnson. Aaron Miles also added a double, raising his average to .190. Soto, Johnson, and Miles have all been slow starters this season, it was nice to see them all contribute. Johnson also made a sweet catch in CF to end the game.

Next Up: the Cubs play again this afternoon, Sean Marshall is starting for us and Tim Lincecum is starting for the Giants. Good luck Cubs, you'll need it. But I guess you never know, the Giants offense is terrible, so maybe Marshall can keep us in this game.

Two Cubs Games in Two Days

2009-05-05T09:02:00.004-05:00

This past weekend, I decided to attend not one, but two Cubs games. It was a perfect weekend as far as weather goes and the Cubs bats were heating up.

Game One

Saturday my friends and I had bleacher seats. The game started at 12:05, so we needed to get there early. My friend Justin and I got there at 8:00 am, I packed two Gatorade and vodka's, a PB&J, and some cigs, needless to say I was set for the pre-game. The wait was not so bad, the gates opened at 10 and we ran to get front row seats in the Right Field corner. These seats were worth the wait, we were right up against the outfield wall. The Marlins took batting practice for a solid hour while we sat there, but we got no action, but we did manage to harass a few players.

Ted Lilly was solid: 8IP ER, 5H, 10Ks. He kept the Marlins hitters off balance the whole game. This was his best outing of the season, his record is 3-2. Aaron Heilman pitched a scoreless 9th inning in relief.

At the plate the Cubs had a strong game. Lilly probably had the biggest hit of the day, with a 2-out, 2RBI 2B. I was also holding the Cup (for the Cup game) and won some cash with this hit. Ryan Theriot also had a nice game 2-5 3B, HR. Lou Piniella had both Derrek Lee and Micah Hoffpauir in the line-up (I was disappointed, I wanted to talk to Milton Bradley in RF). Lee did hit a towering HR to left in the second inning, he also struck out 3 times. Hoffpauir was 2-3 before being removed from the game for defensive purposes in the 7th inning. The Cubs went on to win 6-1. I had a few too many Labatt Blue's and not enough food.

Game Two

My friend Nick came home from Mexico and of course he wanted to go to the Cubs game on Sunday afternoon. His plan was to get tickets from a scalper after first pitch, which he did. He did not give us much time to get there, he called about an hour before the game. But we got sweet tickets: Aisle 127, Row 13, Seat 102 for $40, not bad. We were in the sun most of the game, the only thing that was not good, was we were sitting around a bunch of families and had to watch our language. We got to the game by the top of the second inning, despite walking to Wrigley from Western & Roscoe. When we got to the game we picked up some Grilled Chicago Dogs in the concourse (These are worth the extra $1) and picked up beers down there too (for 50 cents less). Later we got a box of "Love Me Tenders" which is basically a box of chicken fingers and french fries, with BBQ sauce, not bad for $5, but not as good as all of the hoopla led me to expect.

As for the game itself, the big news was Carlos Zambrano leaving the game in the bottom of the 5th trying to leg-out an infield single (which he did). Big-Z did get the win, going 5IP, 2ER, 4H. As it turned out, his bunt single was the spark for an ensuing rally. Fukudome hit a fly ball to RF that was dropped by Ross Gload leaving the bases loaded for Lee. Lee then proceeded to hit a towering Grand Slam off the hitters eye in CF and the stadium went crazy. It was perfect irony that Lee hit two HRs in the two games I attended this weekend. But honestly, it was good to see from him, maybe he is not washed up after all? Also this was the second game I have been to since 2007 where Derrek Lee hit a Grand Slam, the other was vs the White Sox in '07. Mike Fontenot added his 5th HR of the season and is on pace to have as good of a season as Mark DeRosa did last year. Geovany Soto and Aaron Miles both had a double, these guys have started slow, so this was also a sight for sore eyes.

The bullpen tried to blow the lead but Angel Guzman and Carlos Marmol only gave up one run apiece. While Kevin Gregg pitched a scoreless 9th for his third save this season. The Cubs held on to win 6-4 and we sneaked out of the stadium without having to hear too much of the "Go, Cubs, Go" song. We topped the day off with a few Old Style 16oz's, free hot-dogs, and Sorry (the board game) at the Full Shilling.

My personal record at Cubs games in 2009: 3 and 0.
Next game I will be attending as of right now: June 14th vs Twins

Bulls win in Triple-OT, send series to Game 7

2009-05-01T12:11:00.004-05:00

Last night's Bulls vs Celtics game was ridiculous. It had 3 OT's, it was 4 hours long, Ray Allen had 51 points, Joakim Noah had a break-away dunk off of a steal, that won the game for the Bulls. For the Bulls, Ben Gordon flopped. He fouled out in the 4th quarter and then received a technical, which cost the Bulls a point in the final minutes of the game, I understand he was upset, but this was stupid of him. John Salmons had his best game as a Bull, on a bad groin, he had 35 pts, played solid defense on Paul Pierce all night, and played all 60 minutes of this game. Derrick Rose had a nice game as well with 28 points, although he did brick 2 free throws in the third overtime, which could have iced the game for us. Even Brad Miller came up big, hitting many clutch free throws, and even scoring 5 straight points to tie the game at 101 in regulation. And I like Kirk Hinrich getting in the face of Rajon Rondo early in the game. Rondo is a punk and has been getting away with a lot of cheap shots in this series. Its about time someone stood up to him. Hinrich set the tone for the Bulls last night, they finally played a physical game, and made it clear they were not going to take any more crap from the Celtics.

I have one question. Where was Kevin Garnett at the end of the game? Garnett is usually jawing at the Bulls' players and coaches, but oh wait, he only does this after the Celtics win, because he's gutless. I did not see him talking any trash down the stretch of this game, he obviously has a lot of confidence in his teammates. I also love how ESPN, neglects to mention Garnett's foul behavior in this series. Anchor Chris McKendry said today, that Noah shouldn't be celebrating with our fans because the series isn't over. Wow Chris, no guff. But had Garnett been doing the same thing, they'd probably be saying what a great guy he is, typical East-Coast Bias bullshit.

And while I'm on Garnett, he is apparently saying he's going to suit up for game 7. ESPN is already comparing him to Hall of Famer Willis Reed, who did the same thing with the Knicks in Game 7 of the 1970 NBA Finals. Sorry, Garnett, but you are no Willis Reed, and this isn't the finals. I hope the Big Tool does suit up, maybe he can finally back up all of the trash he's been talking. Then again maybe Miller or Aaron Gray will throw you to the ground. Garnett is such a jackass, I really can't believe he is this big of a jerk. Few things would make me happier than this clown taking the court and taking a beating, he deserves it.

I just hope that Game 7 is as good as the previous 6 games, I expect a real dog-fight in this one.

Carlos Marmol blows lead, Cubs lose again, 8-2

2009-05-01T10:46:00.004-05:00

The Cubs got an outstanding performance from starter Sean Marshall, in fact it was probably one of the best starts of his young career. Marshall's line: 7IP, 6H, ER, 6Ks. He left the field to a standing ovation. He even left with a lead, thanks to solo-HRs by Milton Bradley and Mike Fontenot. That lead however was not meant to last, Carlos Marmol blew it in the 8th inning. Marmol blew the save without giving up a hit, he walked the first two men he faced, and the run scored on a throwing error. Marmol if he is in fact not actually hurt, needs to get back on track quickly. Aaron Heilman took the loss in extra innings, he did not record an out in the 10th inning and gave up 3H, 6R, 5ER, 2BB. This was just pathetic, coming from Heilman, who to this point this season, had been our most consistent relief pitcher. This bullpen is in complete disarray.

Once again our offense was terrible and the Cubs managed only 5 hits in 10 innings. This is unacceptable. The usual suspects for the Cubs were at it again: Derrek Lee was 0-4, 2Ks and Aaron Miles was 0-4 again. For the season Lee is now hitting .189 and Miles is hitting .178. Niether one of them is showing any signs of coming out of their respective slumps and needs to be on the bench. Especially Lee, who has a younger, power hitting backup, who is off to a much better start this season. Lee had two at-bats with men in scoring position last night and couldn't do anything both times. He even blamed the loss on himself! Lee was quoted after the game, "A lot of [the problem] is I'm batting fourth, and I'm not hitting [or] driving in runs. It makes it hard. So, me being in the middle of the order, I have to find a way to pick it up." Finally Lee is admitting fault, he needs to get things going quickly and he should never be batting clean-up. He then said, "I'm bad right now. Really bad. I have to make some adjustments. I have to figure out what adjustments there are to make, and make 'em." Lee is right, he does have to make some adjustments, quickly. If he doesn't I would expect Micah Hoffpauir, who can hit for power and drive in runs, to take his job, sooner rather than later.

The only good news yesterday for the Cubs was that Aramis Ramirez is not going to the DL. The Cubs expect him back in the line-up this weekend. Thank God! Now we can finally move Fontenot back second base. Which means Miles can no longer torture us with his lack of hitting and return to the bench or retire. The Cubs play again this afternoon, Rich Harden hopefully will give us another strong outing and get us a much needed W.

Inconsistent Cubs manage only 2 hits, fall to D-Backs 10-0

2009-04-29T17:39:00.002-05:00

Hopefully, this is rock bottom for the Cubs in 2009, if it isn't we are in for a long season. Diamondbacks Pitcher, Doug Davis, dominated going 7IP, 2H, 7K, all while throwing nothing over 85 mph. He was the second left-handed starter the Cubs have faced this season and the second one who has completely shut down the Cubs. Actually, as I remember, Davis has always owned the Cubs, going back to his days in Milwaukee.

Ryan Dempster got off to as bad of a start possible against a team that scores few runs. He walked the lead-off man and eventually gave up three runs in the 1st inning. Dempster was done before he knew what hit him, anytime a pitcher throws 30+ pitches in the 1st, you know they are in for a long day. Location appears to be a consistent problem for this over-paid jerk. He has been leaving his mediocre fastball and slider up in the strike-zone and hitters are making him pay for it. So much of Dempster's success last season was due to his control and lack of walks. Overall, he managed to eat some innings but did not pitch like he's being paid to pitch: 6IP, 6H, 5ER, 3BB, 4K. Dempster gave way to Carlos Marmol in the 7th. Marmol looked terrible in his first appearance since injuring his knee in St. Louis. In 0.1IP Marmol gave up 4ER, while giving up no hits, he did walk 4 batters. Hopefully, he was just rusty, not injured. Jeff Samardzija gave up a bases clearing double after relieving Marmol. Kevin Gregg pitched the 8th and retired his first 2 hitters, before walking the bases loaded, walking in a run, and almost getting ejected by the homeplate umpire.

The Cubs hitting was equally bad today. Lou Piniella had a mostly right-handed line-up out there today and he paid dearly for it. First, he sat our hottest hitter, Fukudome, to put Reed Johnson in CF. I love Johnson's hustle and clutch fielding, but as a hitter, he is worthless, and left 3 men on base today. I have not seen Johnson hit a ball hard all season, he is a liability at the plate.

Derrek Lee was back in the line-up today and as usual he was disappointing going 0-3. He did manage to hit 2 balls deep into the outfield and one even reached the warning track. Wooopee!!! Its about time that people realize that this is all he is capable of doing. Lee's power has been consistently declining for the past two seasons. He is washed up. Piniella had Lee batting cleanup today, we lost, I'm pretty sure every time Lee bats cleanup we lose! The guy can not drive in runs anymore. If his neck is really bothering him, then don't play him. Micah Hoffpauir is a better hitter at this point of their careers, its about time Lou figures this out. I understand playing Lee against the lefty, but I expect to see Hoffpauir in the line-up, at first base, in at least one game this weekend. Lee was also bad in the field today, he dropped a pop-up bunt, which helped extend the disastrous 1st inning. This is inexcusable. Lee is supposed to be a gold-glove caliber fielder, this was the one advantage he had over Hoffpauir.

Geovany Soto continued to embarrass himself today, going 0-3 2K (and he struck out looking to end the game), he also allowed to runners to steal second base, and is hitting .111 for the season. He looks completely lost on the field, he is not even close to hitting anything, and his throws seem to have lost some zip. I've been saying for a few weeks now that he looks out of shape. With Koyie Hill hitting well (which never happens) I don't feel that Lou can justify playing Soto full time any longer. At the very least Hill can throw out would-be base stealers. Soto is fat and way behind schedule, he needs to sit for awhile, I hope that his great rookie season was not a fluke.

Many other Cubs were terrible today, we managed only two hits. This team is horribly inconsistent and something needs to change. It might be time for one of Lou's clubhouse rants where he wakes the team up (think May 2007). Alfonso Soriano called the team out before yesterday's game for their lack of effort and desire to win. Lee of course downplayed this. Its time for Lee to start putting his money where his mouth is and hit the ball. I fear that unless Aramis Ramirez comes back soon, we are in for a long weekend with the Florida Marlins (who can score a lot of runs).

Cubs Pre-Game Notes

2009-04-29T14:12:00.004-05:00

Derrek Lee is back in the line-up after sitting out two games with a sore neck. We have a weird lineup out there today, at first glance, but then I realized we're facing a lefty. So today Lou Piniella chose to sit our arguably our hottest hitter, Fukudome. Reed Johnson is getting the start in CF and Geovany Soto is back in the line-up after the night off. Hopefully Soto can regain his hitting stroke.

Additionally, it looks like Aramis Ramirez is going to be out today. The Cubs training staff will try to let him run and test his calf tomorrow, if it does not improve, they will likely have to put him on the DL. The Cubs would need to call somebody up from the minors such as Bobby Scales from AAA Iowa (I've never heard of him either). Hopefully Ramirez's calf feels better after he runs tomorrow and we won't have to call up anyone to take his place. One thing I know for sure: we can not continue to start Mike Fontenot out of position at 3B any longer. His defense is suspect and he is too short to play there. Plus, I am not sure if I can take any more of Aaron Miles at 2B, he is terrible, he hits like Cesar Izturis.

Why is Boston getting all the calls?

2009-04-29T12:10:00.003-05:00

Keep in mind, I am a Bulls fan, who watched the Michael Jordan era teams get every call. But c'mon, the NBA can not be serious with some of the missed calls during this current Bulls vs Celtics series. Last night, John Salmons was hacked every time he went to the basket in the 2nd half, the only foul called: a technical foul, on Salmons. For complaining to the refs. Paul Pierce and Ray Allen complain on every play, and Allen whined like a little brat when he picked up his 5th and 6th fouls. After Allen fouled out, it was like the refs decided, ok no more calls on the Celts.

Rajon Rondo is full of shit! In a post-game news conference he said he's a "clean" player and was going for the ball when he fish-hooked Bulls C Brad Miller with 2 seconds to go in OT. I call bullshit on this one. ESPN douchebag Tim Legler thought it was a clean play and that Rondo was in fact going for the ball, but couldn't reach the ball because Miller was too tall. This is complete crap, if Rondo is as quick as people think, he could've gotten to the ball, instead he smacked Miller in the face, intentionally! Doc Rivers even admitted it after the game, he tried to INTENTIONALLY foul Miller instead of giving him a layup.

Whatever. Pierce did hit some money shots down the stretch. And the Bulls did blow an 11 point lead in the 4th Quarter. There is still a game 6. I feel however that the officiating is killing the Bulls chances to win. Just because Boston is a washed-up bunch of whiners doesn't mean they deserve to get every call down the stretch of every game. Personally I feel the series is over, the Bulls could get blown out in game 6 just as they did in game 3. They have put up a valiant effort this series and over-achieved this season, I never thought they would even make the playoffs back in January.

As for Boston, they suck. If they advance, they'll probably have another tough series in the next round, and possibly advance then. But, ultimately their fate lies in Cleveland. LeBron James will annihilate the Celtics, with or without Kevin Garnett. I have lost a lot of respect for Garnett in this series, he is such a poor sport its ridiculous, what a trash-ball. In game 1, when the Celts were losing in the 4th, he left the court early. Its only when the Celtics win a game that this piece of garbage starts barking at the Bulls players and coaches. What a coward. Not to mention he doesn't even have the balls to play in the series. This is the price this clown is paying for winning a title last year, and it will be his only one. Garnett was never talented enough to win one on his own, example: Minnesota. And this washed up crew has one, maybe two seasons left anyway. I hope LeBron takes a dump at mid-court at the Boston Garden once the Cavs sweep the Celtics. Oh and one more thing, Boston is getting all of the calls now, but once LeBron and Co. come to town, expect that to change.

What to do with Jake Fox?

2009-04-29T10:26:00.003-05:00

Jake Fox is a 26 year old First Baseman/Outfielder for the Cubs AAA affiliate, Iowa. So far this season he has 12 HR and 32 RBIs. What are the Cubs going to do with this guy? Originally Fox was a Catcher, then a 3rd Baseman, then an outfielder, and now a 1st Baseman. Before anyone gets too excited, this guy CAN'T play defense, that is why he's played so many positions in the minors. He can however hit the baseball. Unfortunately he is buried on the roster behind Derrek Lee, Micah Hoffpauir, Alfonso Soriano, Milton Bradley, all of of our outfielders, etc... Plus he is right-handed which means Lou Piniella probably likes him even less. Nevertheless, Fox could hit for the Triple-Crown in AAA, if he gets enough at-bats.

Honestly, the Cubs could probably use his bat on the bench. But due to his lack of fielding ability, this is unlikely. The only way I can see him playing in the majors before September is if Lee or Hoffpauir suffer a serious injury. For now let him get his at-bats in the minors. If he keeps this up, we may be able to include him in a package of players at the trade deadline, say for Jake Peavy or a top of the line set-up man (preferably a lefty). Speaking of which, we should keep an eye on Scott Schoeneweis, he pitched for the D-Backs against us last night. This guy is one of the best lefty specialists in baseball and is tops among lefties in appearances since 2005. If Arizona keeps playing poorly this season, the Cubs should see what it would take to acquire him.

Everybody hits, Cubs cruise to 11-3 win over D-Backs

2009-04-29T09:14:00.005-05:00

The Cubs hit on Tuesday night, in fact everybody in the starting lineup got at least one hit. But Tuesday night was the Carlos Zambrano show. At the plate he was 3-4 2B, HR, 2RBIs and was a 3B away from the cycle. On the mound he was dominant: 7IP, 8H, 3ER. Lou Piniella probably left him out there a little too long as Zambrano gave up two runs on 3 hits in the 7th inning and appeared to be tired (he threw 111 pitches). The only reason Lou left him in was so he could have a chance to hit for the cycle in the 8th inning. This was exactly the kind of outing the Cubs needed from Zambrano, hopefully he can keep this up, and at least for last night, it appeared to re-energize the whole team.

Offensively, the Cubs were as good as they have been all season. Alfonso Soriano got things started with a 3-R HR in the 3rd inning, his 7th of the season. If he stays healthy he looks like an early MVP candidate. Mike Fontenot added a 2-R HR in the 4th, his second HR in two days. This was good to see, Fontenot had been slumping a little bit lately, and struggling in the field (at 3rd). It is assuring to know that he doesn't allow his struggles in the field affect his hitting. I have been saying Lou needs to rest Geovany Soto for over a week now and he finally did. Last night he started backup Koyie Hill and got great results: 3-5 2R, RBI, Hill is now hitting .370 on the year. I'm not saying Lou should bench Soto, but Soto has looked awful so far, and maybe Lou should consider starting Hill one out of every five games. Since he had so much success with Zambrano, maybe Lou should make Hill Z's personal catcher? Even Milton Bradley played well last night, he went 2-4, BB, R. Say what you will about Bradley, but he gets on base. Also, apparently he is a better right-handed hitter, than left-handed hitter. Last night he raised his average up to triple digits, .107.

Hopefully the Cubs' bats can stay hot, they wrap up their series with the Diamondbacks this afternoon at 2:40pm. Ryan Dempster goes to the mound for the Cubs. He has been unimpressive so far this season and today I'm expecting a great (not good) start out of him, its time to start earning that new contract! Lefty Doug Davis goes for the D-Backs. The Cubs have faced only one lefty starter so far this season, so lets see how they do. Look for Bradley batting from the right side, apparently this is his true power side. Aramis Ramirez and Carlos Marmol could play today as well.

Blackhawks defeat Flames 4-1, win series 4-2

2009-04-27T23:30:00.003-05:00

Congratulations to the Chicago Blackhawks! They just defeated the Calgary Flames by a score of 4-1 to take the series in 6 games. This marks the first playoff series victory for the Hawks in over a decade (13 years, I think). This team has come a long way the last few years and this was good to see. Nikolai Khabibulin or "The Bulin Wall" had a monster Game 6, which was close until the final minutes. If he keeps this up, the Hawks can make a run, especially if we get Anaheim instead of San Jose in Round Two. I'll admit, I'm not a huge fan of the nickname, but tonight he earned it!

Thanks Blackhawks! Now I can look forward to drinking during more of your games.

Cubs lineup was pathetic, lose to Diamondbacks 7-2

2009-04-27T23:12:00.005-05:00

I know most people weren't watching the Cubs game tonight and that was probably a good thing. Manager Lou Piniella put together one of the worst lineups I have ever seen. I know we have a number of injuries, but come on! Reed Johnson batting cleanup? This is not a good idea, ever. Piniella batted him there to break up left-handed hitters: Fukudome and Micah Hoffpauir. This was incredibly stupid. First, Johnson can barely hit, and has no power (he went 0-3). Second, the Diamondbacks have only one lefty in their bullpen, so why worry? As is happened, we only got to face one of their pitchers, Dan Haren, who threw a gem: 9.0 IP, 3H, 2ER, 10Ks. The lone bright spots for the Cubs tonight were Alfonso Soriano and Mike Fontenot who both hit rather meaningless solo homers.

Cubs starter Ted Lilly was brutal: 5IP, 6H, 5ER. But it was the walks that killed him tonight, he had four. Jeff Samardzija did pitch a scoreless 8th.

As much as I like Fontenot as a hitter and second-baseman, I have to say that he is not a good third-baseman. He just is not tall enough to play there and does not have the arm to make the throws that position demands. Luckily Aramis Ramirez should be back either Tuesday or Wednesday. Carlos Marmol had a throwing session on Tuesday afternoon and Piniella said if his knee responds well to the workout, he could be back in the bullpen by Tuesday. Milton Bradley should also be returning to the lineup by Wednesday.

Two Guys who need to sit on the bench: Geovany Soto (.119) and Aaron Miles (.182). Soto is out of shape and just looks foolish at the plate, not to mention baserunners are running wild on him the last few games. Miles couldn't hit his way out of a paper bag, seriously why is getting so many at-bats?

I'm tired of Boston's Bull-shit

2009-04-27T12:08:00.004-05:00

According to The Boston Globe, two of yesterday's referees for the Bulls vs. Celtics game, were Chicago natives: Danny Crawford and Bill Kennedy. Apparently Kennedy and Celts coach Doc Rivers got into an argument on the Bulls vs Celts game on St. Patrick's Day. Then the families of these two refs were seen leaving the game wearing Bulls jersey's! Oh my God! They root for a team in Chicago. This, according the Globe means that the refs might have favored Chicago in game 4. Guess what Boston? Doc Rivers is from Chicago too! Maybe he's secretly throwing the games so that Boston loses and Chicago wins. Oh, and Bulls Head Coach, Vinny Del Negro, he's from Boston, and I don't see him rooting for the Celtics.

I have watched every game of this series and the Celtics have been getting almost every call. Derrick Rose never gets any calls, while whiners like Paul Pierce and Ray Allen get breathed on wrong, and go to the line. There were numerous calls that were not made against the Celts down the stretch in yesterday's game, like when Allen hacked Kirk Hinrich while he was trying to get a rebound in the final minutes of regulation.

These delusional clowns from Boston need to realize that their team just isn't that good. This is going to be a tough series. Home teams generally get favorable calls in playoff games! This is nothing new, but to suggest that 2 referees have a rooting interest in one team over another is ridiculous. I can't believe that The Boston Globe, a reputable paper, would even publish garbage like this. These people think everything should just be given to their team. Boston has gotten all of the calls in this series and its still tied 2-2. The Celtics sold their souls to win the NBA Championship last year, deal with it Boston!

Cubs end the losing, Fukudome and Harden lead the way to victory over the Cards

2009-04-27T10:49:00.003-05:00

Yesterday, the Cubs finally ended their 4-game losing streak. Just like I said needed to happen, Rich Harden came up with a big start. Harden gave us his typical start: 6IP, 4H, 2ER, 9Ks and it was just what the doctor ordered. This was the kind of outing he consistently gave us last season and it could not have come at a better time this season. Harden is among the early league leaders in strikeouts this season.

Even the offense decided to finally show up! Yesterday I wrote that vets like Alfonso Soriano and Derrek Lee needed to step it up, and they did. Soriano was 2-4 with a 2B, he sparked a big first inning for the Cubs, in which we would score three runs. He later was beaned in the head by an errant Todd Wellemeyer pitch, but remained in the game due to our short bench. Hopefully this beaning has no ill-effects on Soriano (like Sammy Sosa in 2003). Lee had only one at-bat, but it was a good one. He lined a double off the wall in left field to drive in a run in the first inning. This was the hardest ball I have seen him hit this season. Unfortunately he had to leave the game after this with a soar neck, Lee says he has a "bulging disc" and slept funny on it the night before, he is day-to-day. My boy, Micah Hoffpauir did a good job in place of Lee, going 2-3 with a solo-HR and 2 RBIs, raising his AVG to .360. With Hoffpauir hitting this well, I still am not sure how Lou Piniella can justify not playing him more often at first base? This kind of production is exactly what this team needs out of its first-baseman. Hopefully Piniella realizes that this guy deserves to start. And how could I forget about the birthday-boy, Fukudome! He went 3-4: 3-R HR, 5RBIs, BB. Piniella had him batting in the 3-spot and he gave us a great game, maybe this is where he should be in the order all the time. I know its early, but Fukudome is hitting .371 and leads the team with 15 RBIs. He is a true professional and is carrying us when we need it the most.

Even the bullpen was decent, albeit they had huge lead. Neal Cotts continues to suck, going 0.2 IP, H, ER, BB. Aaron Heilman was very impressive getting out of Cotts' jam in the 7th and then followed with a scoreless 8th, he has a solid 0.82 ERA, and seems to be the "New Bob Howry" (and I'm referring to the 2006-07 Bob Howry). Kevin Gregg gave up two hits to start the 9th, but worked out of his own jam, and had impressive stuff.

Also, Carlos Marmol is set to throw a bullpen session this afternoon, in order to test his knee. If he ok, he could be back in the bullpen right in a day or two, if not, he could face arthroscopic surgery, and be placed on the DL, which would suck. And while I'm discussing the DL, they should put Milton Bradley on it, retroactive to when he hurt his groin.

The Cubs are in Big Trouble

2009-04-26T10:47:00.003-05:00

Rich Harden is pitching for the Cubs this afternoon and we've never needed a better effort from him. Somebody needs to end this slide the Cubs are on and I think Harden is just the man to do it. We need him to go deep in the game and try to hold the Cardinals to under 3 runs.

Our offense is a complete joke. With Aramis Ramirez and Milton Bradley both injured, other veterans like Alfonso Soriano and Derrek Lee need to step it up. Lee is hitting a pathetic .197 on the season, with only four extra-base hits. I would give him to the end of April to improve and then either platoon him with Micah Hoffpauir, or simply bench him. I can not remember another player in Chicago who has produced less and gotten away with it. Jacque Jones did not play every day when he struggled like this. Everyone in Chicago is sitting around complaining about Bradley, when is not even playing right now! Lee is the problem, and until Lou Piniella and Jim Hendry get their heads out of their asses and realize this, the Cubs will continue to struggle.

Next, Joey Gathright needs to go! This guy sucks, he can't hit, and he got picked off yesterday in a key spot. I'm sorry, but we need more from this guy. Being Bradley's personal baserunner is not enough of a reason to keep him on the roster. Plus our bench sucks because of guys like Gathright, not to mention Aaron Miles (who looks like a terrible aquisition). The Cubs need to send Gathright down or release him. Then to fill his roster spot call up one of our red-hot minor league outfielders: Jake Fox or Tyler Colvin. I know this may sound crazy, but I think that Hendry needs to place a call to OF Jim Edmonds. You know the guy can still field and at the very least he would be a dangerous left-handed hitter to use off the bench, which is something we don't really have right now (except for Hoffpauir).

With the recent knee injury to Carlos Marmol, I can't help but think it was stupid for Hendry to release Luis Vizcaino. Why did we even trade for Vizcaino? We traded Jason Marquis for him and then had to eat most of Marquis' salary. Then on top of that we absorbed Vizcaino's salary, released him, and basically wasted another $4M. What the hell is Hendry doing with this bullpen? Without Marmol for any amount of time, the Cubs are in big trouble.

Today we need a big start out of Harden, if he does not pitch well, do not expect our offense to bail him out. If our bats do not heat up, we are going to finish April under .500, something we have not done in a month since early 2007, and we could be on our way to missing the post-season. Good luck Cubs!

Another new lineup for the Cubs

2009-04-24T18:05:00.003-05:00

This afternoon I heard that Manager, Lou Piniella, made a few more adjustments to his batting order. This included Ryan Theriot moving to Lead-off, Alfonso Soriano dropping into the 3-spot, Aramis Ramirez moving back to his rightful place, the cleanup spot, and finally Derrek Lee being dropped to the 5-hole.

I love Ramirez in the cleanup spot, this is where he belongs. He is our most clutch hitter and he hits for power. I like Theriot in the lead-off spot, he's hitting over .400, and is fast enough to steal the occasional base. He also takes a lot of pitches. I am not sold on Soriano in the 3-spot. It seems that he has never responded well when Piniella has moved him there before. Hopefully, this time the results will be better. I would expect Milton Bradley, despite how much he's sucked recently, to eventually bat in this spot (due to his high OBP). It was only a matter of time before Lee got dropped in the order. He is no longer powerful enough to bat cleanup and doesn't make enough contact or take enough walks to bat third. Hopefully he responds well to the change. I will be interested to see how long Piniella stays with Lee this season. Especially since Micah Hoffpauir now seems most likely to play first base only. I don't see Piniella making a change anytime soon, he has shown a lot of faith in Lee, for what reason, I do not know.

Cubs bats nowhere to be found, AGAIN! Lose to Reds 7-1

2009-04-23T16:06:00.004-05:00

Lou Piniella's changes to the Cubs lineup did nothing to help our all of the sudden, pathetic offense. The Cubs managed to score only one run on 7 hits and they left 6 men on base. Alfonso Soriano was 2-4 with a double. While Ryan Theriot drove in our only run. Before the game I wrote that this lineup was no good, and I was right. Derrek Lee was completely useless in the cleanup spot, going 0-4, while hitting no balls out of the infield. He did manage to reach base on an error in the 9th, when the Reds' 3rd baseman let a routine double-play ball get through his legs. Geovany Soto continued to struggle going 0-3, he should take a day off, or get into shape (he's hitting .103 on the season).

In the field, the Cubs were woeful. Micah Hoffpauir misplayed multiple balls in RF leading to a few extra runs for the Reds and likely pissing off Carlos Zambrano. Piniella said in a postgame interview that until Bradley is back he will start Reed Johnson in CF and move Fukudome to RF in order to tighten up our defense. In all fairness however, Hoffpauir is not an outfielder, he is a first-baseman, and should get at least 2 or 3 starts per week. Especially considering Lee is hitting .207 and has shown no signs of power (since 2005). I would start Hoffpauir in certain games and bring Lee in as a defensive replacement in the late innings.

On the mound Zambrano was not spectacular, but pitched well enough to win, if he had a real offense: 7IP, 7H 3ER, 7Ks. Neal Cotts pitched the 8th inning and gave up a solo-HR, but then recovered nicely to get out of the inning, and he did not issue a walk. Jeff Samardzija made his 2009 Cubs debut and he sucked 1IP, 4H, 2ER. He could not locate his pitches, everything was up, and the Reds hit him hard. For the Reds Aaron Harang was outstanding (can we trade for him?) and David Weathers continues to own us.

The Cubs fall to 4th place at 8-6 and lost their first series of the season. Next up: 3 games @St. Louis, who is in first place, and red hot offensively. Hopefully the Cubs' bats get on track (Lee better not be batting cleanup) or else they will get their heads flushed down the toilet by the Cardinals.

Jackass Call of the Day

Alfonso Soriano's decision to steal 3rd base in the bottom of the 3rd inning only to get picked off by Harang. I'm not sure what Soriano was thinking here, Theriot was in the box with two strikes, and any base hit would have scored Soriano. There was simply no need to attempt this steal. Soriano is no longer a legitimate base stealer! Not to mention Theriot, who after driving in the only Cubs run of the game, got thrown out by a mile trying to steal 2nd base in the bottom of the 6th inning. Way to kill a rally guys!

Cubs Pre-Game Notes

2009-04-23T13:06:00.003-05:00

Cubs Manager Lou Piniella made some lineup changes today. OF Milton Bradley will sit until he is 100% according to Piniella. He also moved SS Ryan Theriot, who is leading MLB in Batting, up to the 2 spot in the lineup.

Today's Lineup and new batting order?
1. Soriano
2. Theriot
3. Fukudome
4. Lee
5. Ramirez
6. Hoffpauir
7. Soto
8. Fontenot
9. Zambrano

At first glance I would ask why the hell is Derrek Lee batting cleanup, he's not even hitting his weight, and has less power that everyone batting behind him, and that includes Carlos Zambrano. Let's wait and see if this pays off, apparently the wind is blowing out to left, so maybe Lee can get a hold of one. Nevertheless, I'm never a fan of having lee batting 4th. Hopefully this lineup can push across a few runs today against the Reds Aaron Harang, who is off to a good start this season.

Cubs call up Jeff Samardzija

2009-04-23T11:57:00.003-05:00

Today the Cubs are calling up P Jeff Samardzija and intend on pitching him out of the bullpen. In Triple-A, Samardzija had been pitching as a starter. The Cubs however want to use him in the 6th and 7th innings, a place where he was successful after being called up last season. The odd man out is apparently Luis Vizcaino who has made only 4 appearances and has allowed no runs in 3.2 IP. Vizcaino is set to make around $4M this season, if the Cubs release him, it is likely they will have to pay him that money. Vizcaino no longer possesses the velocity he once had and can really only pitch one inning per game. It has become clear that Lou Piniella prefers relievers who can give him more than one inning if needed and Samardzija is that kind of pitcher. If Vizcaino is not released, the only other player who would logically be demoted would be P David Patton. However, since Patton was a Rule-5 selection, if the Cubs were to send him down, the team who lost him over the off-season (Colorado Rockies) would have the rights to re-acquire him.

I have mixed feelings on Samardzija being called up. He has stated in the past that he would like to be a starter at the major league level and has been a starter in the minors. Making him a reliever in the big leagues will not allow him to build up enough arm strength to become a starter. He was extremely effective as a set-up man last season, but is that the role the Cubs want him to be in forever? Piniella is very short-sighted with Samardzija and is clearly trying to win now with this team, even if it means stunting the growth and development of the Cubs top prospects i.e. Samardzija and Micah Hoffpauir. Another reason Samardzija was likely called up, is that he has a major league contract, meaning the Cubs want to see results from him at the major league level, NOW.

Being a big Notre Dame Football Fan, Samardzija is one of my favorite domers of all-time. I wish him the best of luck as a Cubs reliever this season and hope that he stays healthy. I just wish that he would change his number to #83, if only to piss off my roomate.

One last thing on Samardzija: has anyone ever noticed that he looks like the mom from the movie, Uncle Buck?

Cubs bats nowhere to be found, lose to Reds 3-0

2009-04-22T21:54:00.004-05:00

Tonight with the wind blowing in, the Cubs had zero extra-base hits. All the Cubs could come up with tonight was a bunch of singles (6 actually), both Alfonso Soriano and Derrek Lee had 2 apiece. The first problem was the lineup Lou Piniella trotted out there tonight, which featured the struggling Milton Bradley and Geovanny Soto, as well as the light-hitting Aaron Miles. Bradley looked awful at the plate going 0-4 with 3Ks and looked equally crappy in the outfield unable to get to multiple catch-able balls. Soto was hitless in four at-bats and Miles was hitless in 3 at-bats. All three of these clowns is off to a terrible start at the plate. Soto is leading the group with a .115 AVG, while Miles is hitting .105, and Uncle Milty is the worst at .043. Piniella opted to go with the gimpy Bradley in place of arguably our hottest hitter, Micah Hoffpauir. Despite the fact that with the wind blowing in, Hoffpauir was probably the only guy on our team who could hit the ball out of the park. Is it just me, or does Soto look out of shape and/or rusty. Missing Spring Training to play in the WBC (as a 3rd string Catcher) may come back to haunt Soto, who I think should have to split some time with Koyie Hill until his bat is game ready.

On the hill tonight was Ted Lilly who pitched well enough to win: 7IP, 5H, R, 2Ks. However the lone run he gave up, was due to an error on himself (one of 2 errors on Lilly). On a night when runs were at a premium, one run was enough to lose the game. The bullpen was not impressive either, both Angel Guzman and Kevin Gregg pitched one inning apiece, both allowing an opposite field HR. Johnny Cueto got his first victory of the season for the Reds with 7IP, 4H. The Reds bullpen was lights out.

I have two questions after this game:
1) Why do all Cubs fans at the game stand up and cheer for any ball hit in the air to the outfield as if it is going to be a HR? Especially on a night like this when almost nothing will get out. These fans look like a bunch of idiots.

2) Pitchers are allowed to wear jackets on the basepaths. So are just pitchers allowed to wear these jackets? Or can any player wear one? **Note: My roomate has offered a reward for anyone who knows the answer to this question.

Derrick Rose named NBA's Rookie of the Year

2009-04-22T17:18:00.003-05:00

Congrats to Bulls Rookie Guard, Derrick Rose, who was named the NBA's ROY this afternoon. Rose becomes just the third Chicago Bull to win the award, joining Michael Jordan and Elton Brand. I will admit I was against drafting Rose last summer and preferred Forward Michael Beasley, because he was more of a scorer, and allegedly a big-guy. Boy was I wrong! Since joining the Bulls Rose has been a solid contributor and consistently shows flashes of greatness. Myself and Chicago should expect great things from Derrick Rose as he develops and grows into a superstar. As a rookie, he started at point guard for a playoff team and had as good of a game as any rookie ever (in the playoffs) in Game 1 against the Celtics.

Hopefully the Bulls hang onto this ROY. Last time we had one (Brand) our G.M. traded him to the LA Clippers for the draft rights to Tyson Chandler.

Cubs cruise to victory over Reds 7-2

2009-04-22T13:07:00.004-05:00

Last night the Cubs won game 1 of a three game series vs the visiting Cincinnati Reds. Cubs starter, Rich Harden, reverted back to his 2008 form with a strong outing: 6IP, 3H, 2ER, 8 k's. Aramis Ramirez was the offensive star of the night going 3 for 5 with 3 RBIs (all with 2 outs).

Micah Hoffpauir, who got the start in RF, also had a nice game with a solo-HR and a sacrifice fly. With the way he is hitting: .375, HR, 5RBIs; I find it hard for Lou Piniella to keep him out of the lineup, especially with Derrek Lee struggling offensively as always: .200 AVG, HR, 9RBIs in 50 at-bats and only 16 total bases, which essentially means he's hitting few extra-base hits. By comparison, Hoffpauir has 11 total bases in only 16 at-bats. I expect Milton Bradley to come back eventually, especially with the warm weather that is expected this weekend, meaning Hoffpauir will see limited time in the outfield. So why not give Hoffpauir some starts at first base? My opinion is that Piniella should platoon Lee and Hoffpauir. Lee has struggled for over a year, how much longer are the Cubs going to give him chances? At least he has not grounded into any double-plays this season.

In bullpen news, Aaron Heilman threw a scoreless 7th, and appears to be the "bridge guy" (who gets us from the starter to Marmol), he threw strikes, which is good. On the other hand, Neal Cotts was terrible again, in 0.1 IP he gave up a single and walked the next batter on 4 pitches. Something is clearly wrong with Cotts, he can not find the strike-zone consistently, it should only be a matter of time before he is sent down to Triple-A or released. Cotts' poor outing forced Piniella to bring in Carlos Marmol to get out of the jam in the 8th, which he did. I'm sure Piniella would rather not have used Marmol, but he had too, hopefully he does not burn him out this season.

Jackass call of the day

Derrek Lee's decision to hop when he thought he hit a home run to left only to see the ball stay in the park (per usual) only to be dropped by the Reds outfielder. For a guy who hits home runs as frequently as an eclipse, he should probably remove the hop from his routine.

*Also, I forgot to mention this, but the Cubs left 24 runners on base last night. This number has to go down, we are leaving far too many runners on. Right now we are getting away with it, because we are still scoring runs, but what happens when we get shut out and leave that many guys on base? Bottom Line: the Cubs need to do a better job hitting with RISP! Especially Alfonso Soriano, who left 5 on base last night. It seems that everytime he comes up with the bases loaded he strikes out swinging at sliders.

Kevin Garnett is a big tool

2009-04-21T12:09:00.004-05:00

The Bulls lost to the Celtics last night 118-115 after a valiant effort. The Bulls played a sloppy game but got great efforts out of Ben Gordon: 42 points and Brad Miller who had 16 points and 9 rebounds. Both players had a sub-par game 1. The Bulls got off to a bad start in game 2 when both Derrick Rose and Kirk Hinrich got into early foul trouble, forcing coach Vinny Del Negro to insert the little used Lindsey Hunter into the game. Certain Bulls did not have a good game: Ty Thomas, Joakim Noah, Rose, just to name a few. Our forwards were playing so badly in the first half, that my boy Linton Johnson even got into the game and scored!

As bad as we played early, the Bulls hung around, and even held the lead with a few minutes to play in regulation. It took a miraculous 3-pointer from the aging Ray Allen with 2 seconds left to secure the win for the Celtics. Also, the Bulls were unable to stop Rajon Rondo, who finished with a Triple-Double. As well as Glen "Fat Baby" Davis who got lucky as hell and shot the lights out (good luck doing that again!).

Jackass of the Day

As the game ended, the Celtics bench went crazy in celebration. I noticed Kevin Garnett scowling like a thug and shouting at Bulls players as they left the floor. This clown didn't even play and found it necessary to scowl and talk trash to the underdog Bulls as they just lost a close game to the defending champs. Newsflash douchebag: You were supposed to win and you had nothing to do with the victory, so shut up! Garnett is allegedly a professional, but last night he looked like a thug in a lame suit. I think he should change his nickname from the Big Ticket (which is pretty lame to begin with), to the Big Tool.

Check out ESPNChicago.com

2009-04-20T13:25:00.003-05:00

This past week ESPN launched ESPNChicago.com. The site gives a Chicago specific Sportscenter on all major Chicago sports teams. After visiting this site the past few days, I have become a big fan. Anchored by ESPN vet, Steve Berthiaume, and featuring segments from Baseball Tonight and NHL, NBA, and NFL analysts, this site is a must for real Chicago sports fans. It is a major upgrade over ComcastSportsNet's local coverage. Hopefully I will never have to watch Chuck Garfein again!

Saturday Wrap-Up

2009-04-19T03:01:00.003-05:00

First of all, go Bulls, Hawks, and Cubs. Derrick Rose is the shit, 36 points in a playoff game against the defending champs! I'll admit I was pro-Michael Beasley going into last year's draft, needless to say I was wrong. The other Bulls: Ben Gordon, John Salmons, Brad Miller etc... had a bad game. It was Rose who carried us to our win. Joakim Noah and Ty Thomas had nice games as well.

The Cubs game on Saturday was one for the ages. My guy, Aramis Ramirez, hit a walk-off HR in the bottom of the 11th (after D-Lee flied out to the warning track, shocker!). The Cubs played like shit most of the game, but got the W. Actually, our bullpen was fantastic. It was a good effort against a tough St. Louis team. This game was one of the longest I ever remember watching.

Furthermore, the Blackhawks overcame a 2-0 deficit after one period and had a monster 2nd period, scoring 3 goals. Jonathon Toews had 2 goals and Patrick Sharp Dressed Man added another (All in the second period) to give the Hawks a 3-2 win and a 2-0 series lead. Also, there was a heated debate going on concerning Nikolai Khabibulin's nickname, "The Bulin Wall". I think it's a lame nickname, up there with The Matrix, Z-Pac, and The Big Ticket.

On a personal note/change of plans: I will be attending Sunday night's game between the Cubs and the Cardinals, while sitting in the bleachers.

Soriano hits GW 2-R HR to redeem himself and lift the Cubs over the Cardinals 8-7

2009-04-17T16:27:00.005-05:00

The Cubs got off to a good start today against the St. Louis Cardinals. Carlos Zambrano worked an impressive 1-2-3 first inning. While in the bottom half of the first Micah Hoffpauir had and RBI 2B off the right field wall and Aramis Ramirez added and RBI single. Geovanny Soto left two men on to end the inning grounding into a double play.

St.Louis rookie righthander P.J. Walters was making his major league debut and the Cubs had him on the ropes in the 2nd with the bases loaded and nobody out. At this point Alfonso Soriano looks like an ass striking out again! (One of three strikeouts on the day). All we managed was one run off of a Fukudome sac-fly.

In the 3rd inning Zambrano blew up, Derrek Lee botched a play at first, and Ryan Ludwick hit a 3-R HR to take a 4-3 lead. The Cubs evened the score in the bottom of the 5th after Walters left the game. RP Trevor Miller blew the lead giving up an RBI 2B to Ramirez and Soto came to life with an RBI single. In the top of the sixth Zambrano relinquished the lead giving up a HR to Brian Barton. The next inning, Zambrano gave up another HR to Ludwick, I'm not really sure why Z was in the game at this point anyway? In the bottom half of the 7th Ramirez had an RBI 2B with 2 outs.

Soriano redeemed himself hitting a go ahead 2-R HR, he had been 0-4, 3K's before that. In the ninth Carlos Marmol (who was warming up in the 8th) came in and walked the lead-off hitter and then beaned Pujols. Marmol then struck out Ludwick and got Khalil Greene to ground into a double play. Marmol is the man.