June 2009
After embarrassing game with the White Sox, time for some to face the firing squad
With today’s loss to the Chicago White Sox, the Cubs have once again proved what I said my last time out. This ball club is just simply not that good. Today’s game is just another example of how far away they are from being a respectable team, which is capable of competing for the World Series championship, let along the division title that most of the people in the media thought was a certainty. Fans throughout the city are pointing fingers at everyone from General Manager Jim Hendry and Manager Lou Piniella, all the way down to the players on the field. They are well within their right to do so, as each and every one of them deserve to be taken to task for the garbage that we watch.
Lets start at the top, as Hendry is the main man responsible for building this team. Hats off to him for trying, something we can honestly say no other General Manager has done in any of our lifetimes. He has gone above and beyond, and constructed the teams that brought us back to back playoff appearances; which is something that this team hasn’t don’t since they last won the World Series in 1908. However, with as much praise as he got for those two division crowns, he must also get the blame for building the current ball club. He gets nothing but credit for trading away busts in Hee Sop Choi and Bobby Hill to bring us veterans like Derrek Lee and Aramis Ramirez. But if you get credit for the good things, you must also sit back and take the blame when things don’t go right. Over the past three years, he signed three free agents who are now apparently more trouble then they are worth. Alfonso Soriano, Kosuke Fukudome and Milton Bradley are all turning into massive busts, though some of them were there long before this season.
The first big free agent Hendry signed, was also the “biggest fish” on the market coming into 2007. When you are talking about Soriano, he is an all or nothing hitter who has been showing that he is more of a nothing this season then ever before. To make matters worse, his defense seems to be getting worse and worse as the days go by. Losing balls in the sun, making late breaks on what should be routine fly balls is completely unacceptable. I know that left field is not his natural position, but come on, you have been out there for three years now, learn to run a proper route to catch a damn ball. While you are working on things, how about taking some more swings in batting practice or the in the cages. Stop trying to hit home runs every damn time, and just try to get on base. With his albatross of a contract, and ever declining skills, he is just about unmovable, so get used to seeing him in the Cubs everyday lineup until his contract is up.
After the Cubs failed to even win a game in the playoffs that year, Hendry went out and once again reeled in one of the “biggest fish” on the market in Fukudome. In his defense, just about every team was going after him, and just about every Cub fan was thrilled when he was finally signed. No one could have predicted he would have turned into as impressive of a bust as he has. Even though he has been an amazing player in April and good in May, once the calendar turns to June, he turns into a pumpkin. While everyone in baseball thought that Fukudome would be a great addition when he was being scouted, Hendry deserves to get blamed for signing the biggest bust in recent memory. Much like Soriano, the Japanese Import has a contract which will make him rather hard to trade. Who would want a player who cant put a full season together? Sure, he has above average defensive skills, but when it comes to the bat, he is irreverent. Again, like Soriano, he will be here until his contract is up. The bright side? His contract isn’t nearly as long as Soriano’s.
Again, the Cubs failed to win a playoff game, so Hendry got desperate. He traded away fan favorite Mark DeRosa, non-tenured Kerry Wood and signed a slew of switch hitters including this years bust of a free agent Bradley. I will be the first to admit that I was fully wrong about him. I defended him left and right, but I have had enough of this team, so I am taking the gloves off and giving him what he deserves. He is a complete waste of talent, and a man that should never have been brought here. The whole idea of bringing him here was to get more left handed, and to bring a power bat that could hit from the left side, but Bradley has been nonexistent from the left side of the plate. He has been so bad, that Piniella has admitted he is thinking about working a platoon with Micah Hoffpauir, who because he is a natural lefty bat, would get most of the at bats. Way to waste $30 million Hendry. I have not been one of those Cub fans who have been lamenting the trade of DeRosa, but I have to admit we would likely be better off with him. He would be hitting better then any of the men who replaced him in Bradley, Mike Fontenot or Aaron Miles. All three have been very impressive in their failures. Much like both of his outfield counterparts, Bradley will be impossible to move thanks to his contract. Unless someone thinks they can solve the puzzle that is Bradley, he will be a Cub for another two years.
Our outfield situation has got to be the worst combination of bats in all of baseball. Three seasons, three outfield busts. For this, Hendry you deserve to be degraded and raked across the coals. As much as I would have to agree with the current statements of most Cub fans that Hendry should be fired, as I stated in another post, I don’t think he should be. Not because he deserves more time, but because handing over an unfixable mess to a new General Manager would not be fair to him. He did earn some leeway with three division titles in six years, this mess of a team is making everything he did, a distant memory.
With Piniella, who you can make the argument that he is clearly on his final year of the “Lou Piniella Retirement Tour”, as he seems completely uninterested in anything that is going on during the course of a ball game. Even in the post game press conferences, he looks like a lost little boy putting on a shame of a press conference which makes him look more like a rookie manager then the grizzled old veteran manager that he is supposed to be. While he can only play the players that Hendry gives him, and he cant not swing the bat for the players or field the ball when they are on defense, he still gets a lot of blame for the mess we are in. After the sweep in the 2008 playoffs, Piniella wanted changes made. He wanted more left handed bats, and according to some reports, he was not happy with DeRosa who said the Cubs had their backs against the wall. He wanted DeRosa traded, and being a good General Manager, Hendry gave his manager the ball club he wanted. They both deserve to stew in their own juices, as they are both responsible for this mess. On the bright side of things, neither man will be around much longer. The sooner we can move on the better. I just feel bad for whatever General Manager has to inherit this mess of a ball club.
To top things all off for Piniella, he crossed the line with his comments at Bradley the other day. While his actions are inexcusable, Piniella had no right to call him a “piece of ****”. In Bradley’s defense, he was the one with the cooler head, and did not respond in similar fashion. There have been many other Cubs who have thrown tantrums which did not draw the fire of Piniella. Even Carlos Marmol who threw his own cry baby tantrum a few innings later escaped Pineilla’s wrath. If he is going to call out one player for his antics, he should be calling them all out. They are all acting like little leaguers on the field, and behaving like immature children because they are underperforming. Yeah, I want them to be upset because they are sucking up the place, but they have all gone overboard with their actions.
Another player who is becoming a thorn in my side is our supposed Ace, Carlos Zambrano. His antics on and off the field are getting frustrating to watch. He loses his cool far too easily, and that hurts him when he is on the mound. Classic examples are in his last game, when he corrected predicted a suicide squeeze, but on the pitchout, he threw the ball away. The next pitch, he drilled the batter. From there, everything went down hill for him. I have been calling him out since his explosion on an umpire which got him suspended. Zambrano needs to grow up, or move on. Sure, he is very talented, but his temper costs him far too many games. He allows himself to be taken over by his emotions, and that limit’s his ability to be as great as he could be.
With Ramirez coming back in about two weeks, things could possibly be on their way up. Currently, the Cubs are in fourth place, only three and a half games back of the Milwaukee Brewers. They are also only one and a half games out of last place. With 90 games left, they can still realistically make the playoffs, especially in this very weak division. However, with the way they have played as of late, they are not giving off much confidence that they will be able to climb the hill back to the top of the division, or to do anything in the playoffs. I don’t know about you, but things are looking bleaker as every game passes.
Bradley’s attitude could lead to big problems
The sad story that is Milton Bradley has taken yet another turn, and as is the usual case, the turn has been for the worse. On a day when Chicago Cub fans should be celebrating a win over their south side counterparts, the Chicago White Sox, and off the field issue takes center stage. With the Cubs this year, that shouldn’t come as much as a surprise, as we have seen a few Cubs put on a show with their antics in the Cubs dugout, as well as a very animated display by Cubs ace pitcher Carlos Zambrano. However, yesterday was Bradley’s turn to put on an over the top display of frustration, though this time we have to trust what we hear as his display was not caught on camera. At least not on the Comcast feed which was hosting the Cubs broadcasters yesterday. There was no video of anything he may have done to upset Cubs Manager Lou Piniella the way he did.
According to all reports, after Bradley’s at bat in the top of the 7th inning, Bradley took his temper out of the Gatorade cooler in the dugout. This shouldn’t be anything new, as Zambrano as well as Ryan Dempster each took several swings at the dearly departed Gatorade machine that once sat in the dugout. During his post game press conference, Piniella stated that he had had enough of this, but no one knows if he meant enough of Bradley’s antics, or the teams as a whole. Either way, after the incident took place, Piniella told Bradley to take his uniform off and go home. Thankfully, Piniella told the media that he had sent Bradley home, or we would have a whole other mess on our hands with a player leaving the game early. That was my initial thought when Len Kasper and Bob Brenley reported that Bradley had left the stadium. That makes things that much easier to take then when Sammy Sosa left the game early a few years ago, as well as Zambrano’s reported departures from games as well. In this case, Bradley was only doing as he was told.
I am not excusing his antics, whatever they were, but should we not be surprised by them? There have been others, as well as Carlos Marmol who threw his glove at the Gatorade cooler after he threw up an embarrassing third of an inning. Makes you wonder if Piniella had said something to him about his tantrum, or if Bradley as his only target. After Zambrano’s highly animated altercation with the umpire, Piniella laughed the situation off. He didn’t make too many comments about the various players who assaulted the Gatorade machine. Whatever Bradley did, which we will likely never know as there as no television coverage of the incident, must have been bad enough to get Piniella to throw him out of the stadium. Whatever happened went unnoticed by everyone, including Kasper and Brenley who immediately thought of an injury when they noticed Ryan Freel playing right field in place of Bradley.
We don’t know the whole story, and likely never will. One thing we do know, or at least have a better idea of, is that this relationship with the Cubs is not working out, at least not with Piniella. The Cubs manager has stated that he will likely start a platoon between Bradley and Micah Hoffpauir, with Bradley facing only left handed pitchers. Not exactly what you want to see out of your $30 million athlete. This is a relationship that I can not see lasting much longer. Whether Piniella steps down at the end of the season, or Bradley is somehow traded, I don’t see this lasting past this year. Bradley’s actions, whatever they were, are in no ay excusable; nor are the tantrums of anyone else. Sadly, this will likely not be where this ends.
In a tribune article, Alfonso Soriano had some un kind words about Bradley. He stated “I have no problem with him, I think he’s a great guy. The only problem with him is his [combative] attitude sometimes in the game. A lot of people don’t like that, but that’s him.” That’s not where his thoughts ended though, he also stated that if Bradley “is not 100 percent to help the team, we don’t need him.” Those could be fighting words, and we could see an altercation between our corner outfielders, much like we saw between Zambrano and former Cubs catcher Michael Barrett in 2007. Maybe I am wrong, but I don’t know if Bradley will take these comments too lightly, and sparks may fly between the two of them, which could lead to one of them being traded away. Or, maybe this could light a fire under one or both of them. Players don’t need to get along to make a team successful. If you need an example, look at the 1970 Oakland Athletics, they hated one another but went on to in three straight World Series championships. Regardless, you never want to see teammates fighting. Something has to be done, and fast.
After looking unbeatable, the Cubs slide back into their old ways
This is probably the hardest thing that I have had to write so far this season, but the time has come to do so. While I am a very optimistic fan of the Chicago Cubs, and always believe that they still have a shot, I am having a harder time believing that with every game that passes. The expectations all throughout Spring Training said, that this was the team to beat in the National League. However, as more and more games pass, those expectations are looking to be well over what the team really and truly is turning out to be. Time to start facing what could very well be fact, the Cubs just are not that good.
You can point to any number of reasons why the ball club has failed miserably up to this point, but none of them are all too realistic. I know people are going to point fingers at Cubs General Manager Jim Hendry who traded a good club house guys in Mark DeRosa and non-tendered long time Cub, and another good clubhouse guy Kerry Wood. But come on, DeRosa being in the lineup would not help Alfonso Soriano who is hitting in the low .200s, or Kosuke Fukudome who is continuing his annual slide into baseball obscurity. DeRosa being on the team would not be the difference maker in Geovany Soto who, while he is starting to hit again, has seemingly forgotten what he did to make him the rookie of the year last season. While DeRosa as a good club house guy, he would not be the difference maker that everyone thinks he is. Sure, he would have been nice playing third base with Aramis Ramirez out of action (and I will get to this in a bit), but he would not make that big of a difference.
As far as Wood goes, if he was in the bullpen for the Cubs this year, his presence would not be a magical solution to Carlos Marmol who cant seem to find the plate anymore on a consistent game to game basis. He would not have helped out Neal Cotts when he was here, nor would he have a positive effect on Aaron Heilman or David Patton. His presence on the ball club wouldn’t keep Rich Harden healthy, or Carlos Zambrano sane. Whether he was in the bull pen or not, would not be the difference in this team having a good bullpen, or a bad bullpen. He is only one man, and can not change how good others are.
Another mistake Hendry made, was not having a legitimate backup for Ramirez, who has now missed close to two months. I wont lie, I was worried about him not signing someone that could play third base. Ramirez has missed time every year, so having a backup should have been a priority for the club, yet nothing as done to protect the ball club for just this instance. But at the same time, you can not point to his absence as being the sole reason the club is dying a slow death. As good of a hitter Ramirez is (and he is the Cubs best hitter), one player should not make this much of a difference. Look at what is going on with the Los Angeles Dodgers, they lost Manny Ramirez for 50 games, and they have not skipped a beat. He is their best hitter, yet they are still going strong and are looking like the best team in all of baseball. The Cubs losing Ramirez was a big blow, don’t get me wrong, but the Cubs have players who are too good to allow this team to look so bad.
Speaking of Ramirez, I don’t think that he should be brought back this season. Not with the way the team is playing now. I think this way for a few reasons, and here they are, all lined up for you. No one knows what condition he will be in when he returns. No one knows how close he will be to full power, and if he will be able to give us anything close to what he normally could. If the Cubs are playing this poorly when he gets back, even if he is at full strength, he may not give the Cubs enough of a boost to make any noise in the second half. Finally, he is likely going to need shoulder surgery in the off season to help correct the damage which has been done to his shoulder. I say, sit him out and allow him to get that surgery now. Give him as much healing time as possible so he can return next year as close to 100% as he can get. This year is just about a lost cause anyway, start looking forward to the 2010 season.
I don’t want to hear that the Cubs are only 3.5 games out of first, they are nothing more then a .500 ball club. I know that in 2006 the St. Louis Cardinals were a .500 team and that they went on to win the World Series. But they are the exception, not the rule. This team does not look like they have anything going for them right now. They win four straight games, then they go out and lose four straight by doing the same exact thing they have done all season; fail to hit with runners in scoring position. The Cubs lead the league in runners stranded in scoring position, and that’s not a stat you want to brag about.
The time has come to say goodbye to this season, time to play Steve Goodman’s classic song “A Dying Cub fan’s last request”. Who knows, maybe the Cubs sweep the Chicago White Sox this weekend, and go on a lengthy winning streak. However, with the way this team has inconsistently played, I don’t see anything in the cards that tells me they will.
I wont go anywhere, I will still follow the Cubs and root them on. I will still post my thoughts on a regular basis, and I would love to be proven wrong in the end.
A Few Cub’s Tidbits, Some Complaints and Grievances
Last night, the Cubs lost to the Braves in a makeup game from an earlier rainout. This is the kind of baseball that we have seen from the team for most of the season, at least before the recent four game winning streak occurred. The Cubs were able to collect 10 hits in the ballgame, and yet they failed to score a single run. They simply just could not advance the runners the entire game. Yeah, you could say that the main cause for that was because we were facing a pretty good pitcher, but that’s the problem. Good pitching tends to shut down this lineup, and if we do earn a playoff slot, we will see nothing but good pitching.
However, I cant sit here and just blame a lack of hitting, even though that was a main cause of the loss. There is more to blame then just the silent bats, Cubs Manager Lou Piniella’s decisions were also a key factor in the loss. One thing which made me scratch my head, was the mistake of sitting both Alfonso Soriano and Milton Bradley on the same night. I understand that you need to get your everyday players a day off when you can, I just feel that last night was not the time to rest them both. Soriano, I am fine with him sitting out. Maybe the rest will do him some good, and let him get his head on straight. So far so good, as he led of tonight’s game with a single. But why sit Bradley when he is finally starting to hit the ball? Taking him out of the lineup was a mistake, because you don’t want to sit a player in the middle of a hitting streak, of which he is close to the 10 game mark. A short streak, but a streak all the same. Putting Micah Hoffpauir and Jake Fox into the corner outfield slots was also a mistake I feel. Yeah, you want to get them at bats, but not both in the same night please. Especially when you have Fox starting his first game at the Major League level in left field.
While I think that was a big mistake by Piniella, that was not the biggest. For that mistake, you have to fast forward all the way to the top of the seventh inning. After struggling in the bottom of the sixth inning, and laboring hard to close things out without a run scoring, Ryan Dempster was set to lead off. What a better time to use either Bradley or Soriano to pinch hit for him. While you can never be sure that Soriano or Bradley would have gotten a hit, you would have to like either of their chances to succeed more then that of Dempster’s, even with his recent slump. One thing Piniella has got to stop doing, is allowing his players to talk him into things, such as letting him try to pitch another inning after clearly struggling. One factor that may have played into his being convinced, was the availability of the bullpen, which has been heavily used the past few games. However, if you have an opportunity to pinch hit for your pitcher in a much needed spot, you roll the dice and take your chances.
Enough of last nights game, lets talk Cubs players, more specifically Derrek Lee. I remember many Cub fans calling for his head after his slow start to the season. Fans were calling into sports talk stations saying that he should be traded, or benched so that Hoffpauir could get his shot at first base, and give the Cubs some offense. People seem to forget, that Lee has been a slow starter for his whole career, and then he goes out and puts up his normal numbers for the year. The problem that I see, is everyone fell in love with Lee when he went wild putting up monster numbers in 2005. That year was a career year for him, and those numbers will never be met again. The way fans turned on him at the start of this year reminds me of his first year with the club in 2004 when fans were chanting Hee Sop Choi’s name at him every time he came up to bat. Now, Lee is our hottest hitter, and he is carrying our club on his back. Would you still rather see Hoffpauir at first base instead of Lee? I sincerely hope not.
Another player which has faced a lot of the Cub fan’s wrath since his arrival, is closer Kevin Gregg. The fans want nothing to do with him, and want him to go away as quickly as possible. My question is why? Gregg has not done a bad job at all this year for the team, in fact, I commend him on how well he has pitched this year. What more can he do, then he has already done? He has gone 10 of 12 in save opportunities, with a 3.66 ERA and a 1.38 WHIP (Walks and Hits per Innings pitched. Despite one bad outing, where he allowed four runs without recording an out, he has been fantastic on the mound for the Cubs. If you take out that one bad game, he has an ERA of 2.84 and a WHIP of 1.25, which while not great, that’s not a bad stat. Most fans likely hate Gregg, because he is not Wood. They are holding a grudge and taking our their anger at General Manager Jim Hendry for letting Woody walk away on Gregg. That’s not fair in my books. Let the man do his job, and judge him on the job he does.
That actually brings up a big problem that I have with Cub fans, which rose up over the weekend with the series against the Cleveland Indians. I know that everyone loved DeRosa, and were pretty mad when he was traded, but I can not understand how a man who spent a total of two years with the team got a better ovation then a man who as with the team for 10 years. The way the fans were cheering DeRosa, you would think that he was the second coming of Ernie Banks. Yeah, I get the picture, DeRosa was a fan favorite who always went above and beyond. He did whatever was asked of him, played six different positions and was considered to be the most valuable player of the team last year. I understand all of that, but Wood has been a face of this franchise for a decade, and he played second fiddle to DeRosa. Kid K deserved a better welcome then the one DeRosa got, and while he got a nice welcome back from the crowds, there is no comparison. To give the fans at Wrigley Field a little credit, perhaps they were a bit subdued because they were afraid he was about to slam the door on the Cubs, saving another game for a team that wasn’t the Cubs. That may very well be the case, but when he started to walk to the mound, he still should have gotten a bigger and better ovation then DeRosa. Just my opinion, feel free to disagree all you want.
The Cubs are playing game two of a very long 10 game road trip, and tied 1-1 in the top of the 5th, much like last night the offense is being held in check. Hopefully the bats will come to life as they did when we were playing the lesser teams of the American League Central last week. Lets just wait and see, we have four innings of baseball left to play tonight.
The Big Blue Train is starting to roll again
Today is the type of day Chicago Cub fans have been waiting to see out of their offense. Instead of having to depend on the comeback win as they have done the previous three days, the Cubs scored early and often to help give Randy Wells the first win of his Major League career. The entire team contributed again to help insure a sweep of the Cleveland Indians, which was the first time the Cubs have swept a team since a series against the San Diego Padres that concluded May 14. That is an ugly statistic, but one that could very possibly help catapult the team back to where they should be in the National League Central standings.
The Cubs bullpen made the game interesting in the ninth inning, with Jose Ascanio recording an out before walking the next two batters. That was enough to get Cubs Manager out of the dugout and summon Cubs closer Kevin Gregg to the mound. The start of his day didn’t give fans any hope as he threw a wild pitch which allowed the two Indian base runners to advance, but he rebounded nicely to strike out the batter and retire the next on a grounder to second, earning the save and making sure that Wells got his win. This series with the Indians has been very good for Gregg who collected a pair of wins after pitching two scoreless innings to go along with today’s save. He is showing that he has what it takes to be the closer to a contending team.
While all the focus could be on Wells finally getting his much deserved first win of his major league career, a win which he should not have had to wait as long as he did, the focus is squarely on the offense which, for the fourth straight game, has scored at least six runs. With the way the offense is finally starting to come together, the Cubs look as though they are ready to start steam rolling the competition as they did throughout the 2008 campaign. While there are still a few players who can not seem to get their season going in a positive direction, a few players are starting to play the way you have been expecting them to.
Several Cub players have gotten hot as of late, especially Derrek Lee who has starting hitting the homeruns that we have been waiting for, with five in his last four games. Lee isn’t the only Cub to hit a couple of long shots, Geovany Soto has also joined in the fun with a pair in the four game winning streak. Even Milton Bradley is getting going in the right direction as he picked up a pair of doubles in his three at bats raising his average to .248. While the average is still low, he is getting the job done, though without the power that has been expected out of him. Everyone in the starting lineup tallied a hit today, except for Kosuke Fukudome who had a four hit game the day before. The Cubs offense is blazing hot, and don’t look like they will be cooling off anytime soon.
Perhaps I was being too hasty when I called for the firing of Piniella, but there are still things I do not like while watching the game. He still seems to be lacking the emotion and the fire that help make him the great manager in years past. With Alfonso Soriano continuing to struggle, I still believe that he needs to be moved out of the leadoff slot. His offensive struggles aside, while the Cubs are playing baseball like this, I would not change a thing. Why fix what isn’t broken? Right now, the Cubs are looking better then they have in a long time. Perhaps Piniella sitting Soriano tomorrow when the Cubs travel to Atlanta to play the Braves in a makeup game from earlier in the month will give him a chance to clear his head. Maybe all he needs is a rest to help get him back on track, which if he does will make this offense even more lethal then they have looked these past few days.
The Cubs now head onto the road for 10 straight games, three of which will be against the cross-town rival White Sox. After the 10 straight road games, the Cubs come home for 11 home games including eight against division rivals, Milwaukee Brewers and St. Louis Cardinals. Without having another day off until July 9, which will be their last day off until the All Star break, the Cubs are going to have to dig deep to get through this long stretch of baseball. But if they are able to weather the storm until then, they should be getting a big piece of their offense back when Aramis Ramirez comes back after nearly two months on the shelf with a dislocated shoulder. What he is able to give us after his return, is another story for another day.
Comeback Cubs strike again, Wood bitten by the hand that once fed him
With the Cleveland Indians coming into town, everyone thought the biggest story of the weekend would be the return of two of the most popular Chicago Cubs in recent memory, in Mark DeRosa and Kerry Wood. That was the story coming into the weekend, however as the weekend nears the close, the stories of the weekend are the amazing comebacks in three straight games, as well as Wood blowing the save on consecutive days to the team he spend the first 10 years of his career with. The last four wins for the Cubs have come in walk off fashion, with the last three consecutive games being come from behind wins. Granted today’s comeback wasn’t as big as the previous two games, the Cubs are showing that never say die attitude that you love to see from your ball club.
I will freely admit that when Wood was not resigned by the Cubs this off-season, I was disappointed, I felt the same way when DeRosa was traded to the Indians. Cub fans let their displeasure known from the moment both moves were made, demanding explanation for such a move. Even today, fans are still upset that neither man is with the club still, and they showed as much when DeRosa came to the plate. Could the Cubs have used one or both of them on the club this season? No doubt they could have, but what is done is done, and the time has come to move on. I wished them both the best in their future careers, and dreaded this series when they would return in visiting uniforms. With Wood, I was hoping that he would never take the mound against us, for a few reasons. First one being, if he was pitching, that would mean we were losing. Second, I never wanted to root against him. Both happened this series in both games. While I love Woody, and wish him the best, I was rooting like mad for the Cubs to hand him a beating. That’s exactly what happened, as for the second straight game, Wood was hung with the blown save, doubling his total for the season.
The Cubs scored early today, instead of waiting until the eighth inning to do the damage. Starting pitcher Ted Lilly pitched well enough to get the win, but the bullpen faltered today to hand Lilly a no decision. The two runs the bullpen gave up were thanks to Carlos Marmol walking in the tying run, and David Patton allowing the go ahead homerun. While they gave up those two runs, they did not pitch poorly as a whole, only giving up those two runs to go along with four hits. The down side, along with the runs, was the seven free passes they issued. However, the Cubs once again fought tooth and nail to win the game, and throwing up some late inning heroics to not only insure the game would not be lost in the 13th inning, but to make sure they got yet another walk off win.
The Cubs have found new life this season, and continue to impress as of late. Things are not perfect, as some players are continuing to struggle, but others are heating up. Derrek Lee continues his hot streak, hitting yet another home run today, and Milton Bradley’s hitting streak stayed alive with a hit as well as Kosuke Fukudome going wild collecting his first four hits in quite a few games. On the other hand, Alfonso Soriano’s struggles continue to plague him as he had yet another hitless game. All in all, this was a total team win that saw everyone contribute in one form or another. Hats off to the Comeback Cubs, who are giving their fans renewed hope with every passing game.
The Come Back Cubs come back for the second straight game… Is this for real?
This is the type of baseball we have been expecting all season from the Chicago Cubs. In back to back games, the Cubs showed that they still have some life in them. On Thursday, with two outs in the eighth inning, the Cubs came back from a 5-1 deficit to the Chicago White Sox, scoring four runs to tie the game. Then in the bottom of the ninth inning, they scored the winning run off the bat of Alfonso Soriano. Then for the second day in a row, the Cubs score four runs in the eight inning to bring the team within a single run, which meant that former Cub Kerry Wood was going to step on the mound for the first time wearing a different uniform to get the save. While I love Wood, and wish him nothing but the best, I was hoping the Cubs would deal him a fatal blow, which they would when Derrek Lee would blast his second homerun of the game, tying the ball game. The game that once seemed like a sure loss, was heading into extra innings .
Where this offense has come from is anyone’s guess. They have woken up and started to score late inning runs like we thought they would be doing all season. With the way they had been playing this season, no one could have imagined one late inning rally, let alone two in back to back games. With these two outstanding comebacks, I am reminded of the unbelievable comeback the Cubs had last year against the Colorado Rockies. Many Cub fans pointed to that comeback, which was led by the bench players, as the turning point in the Cubs season a they took off, leaving the rest of the National League Central in the dust. Could these two monster comebacks in back to back days have a similar effect? Your guess is as good as mine, but this sudden explosion couldn’t hurt. The Cubs are showing life like we have not seen yet this season, and they are giving their fans something to get excited about again.
While Harden laid an egg on the mound today, allowing seven earned runs in his five innings of work, the bullpen picked him up, pitching five scoreless innings in relief. Cubs closer Kevin Gregg, picked up his second win in a row by pitching a scoreless inning keeping the game tied for the team to win in walk off fashion again.
The newly tagged “Come Back Cubs” are playing ball better then they have in a long time, but are making you sweat out the final decision. You would love to see them score runs like this throughout the game, instead of just waiting to the eighth inning, but a win is a win, and I will take whatever I can get at this point. Lets hope that this is only the beginning, because if they continue to hit like this, and get the pitching we have been getting for the past few weeks, then we are in for a lot of fun.
One chance to save the Cubs, Fire Lou Piniella
I have never been one of those guys who have openly called for the firing of anyone on the Chicago Cubs. When the Cubs fans were sitting through the ever growing list of bad managers that sat in that home dugout for my team, I had nothing but the utmost confidence in them, that they could get the job done, and do whatever was in their power to do, in order to get the Cubs to play to the best of their ability. However, here I am, today, calling for the firing of Cubs Manager Lou Piniella, effective immediately. The time has come where I feel that the ties have got to be cut.
Don’t get me wrong, I was thrilled to death when Cubs General Manager Jim Hendry hired him to lead this ball club. I felt that he was the man who could take this group of, so called, “Loveable Losers” to the next level and give the fans that long waited World Series title. For the first two years, Piniella led this team almost perfectly, bringing us to the post season in back to back years. That was the first time in 100 years the Cubs made the post season in consecutive seasons. Last year, under his guidance, the Cubs had the second best record, and second best offense in the Major Leagues, and this team seemed destined for a championship. However, when the regular season ended, that’s when everything fell apart for Piniella and the Cubs.
That brings us to this year, and all of the hype and expectations that were laid at the feet of the ball club. Going into this season, we had five all stars from 2008 on this team that we could run out there every day, six if you count Derrek Lee who was an All Star in a previous year. The team struggled out of the gate, and the offense never fully got started, losing Aramis Ramirez only added to the painful to watch offense. From there, the season started to nosedive into the complete and utter mess that we find ourselves in now.
We have an offense which is not able to knock in the runners who are on base, no matter how many outs we have left, and too many hitters in the order who are trying to hit homeruns, when all we need is a clutch base hit. To top things all off, we have a manager in Piniella who is seemingly sitting on his hands and waiting for everything to get better. I hate to break this to you captain, but things will not get better. At least, they will not get better on their own. Something has got to be done in order to send a message to this ball club, something more then firing a hitting coach.
If you ask Piniella, he will shrug his shoulders and give you the tired old line, “what can I do?” Wasn’t there a certain Chicago Bulls coach fired last December for basically saying the same thing? There are still plenty of ideas that you can throw out there in order to try to shake things up. How about benching players who are not playing up to their abilities? Here is another idea for the captain of the sinking S.S. Cubbies, why not send Alfonso Soriano down in the order and try someone who is actually hitting like a major leaguer? If you have to, move Soriano back to his original position of second base so you can get a fresh bat in the order in Jake Fox? I don’t want to see Soriano at second, but if that means getting someone who can hit into the order, I am all for the change.
But no, we get “what else can I do”. After yesterday’s game, Piniella promised us changes to try and help this struggling offense. What change do we get? We get Geovany Soto being elevated to the fifth spot in the order, and Andres Blanco taking over at second. Are you freaking kidding me? These are the “big changes” you have up your sleeve? Give me a break Piniella, show that you are at least trying to do something to spark this team. Hell, I will even take one of your patented staged arguments with an umpire, just do something to show that you are still alive over there on the Cubs bench. If your manager basically says that he doesn’t know if there is anything that he can do to make things better, you need to find a man who can.
You know we are going through hell this season when Chicago White Sox Manager Ozzie Guillen is trying to calm the nerves and frustrations of the Cub fans. In case you missed what he said, he was basically stating that the Cubs will be fine, and the fans should worry about other things that are more important. He claims that the Cubs will win the division by 10 games. While I don’t have the exact quote on hand, you know you are going through hell when the opposing manage is talking your team up. Whether that was all tongue in cheek is unknown.
I honestly think that Piniella has taken us as far as he can, and the time has come to set him free. Hendry should stay, only because I don’t want to bring in another General Manager whose hands will be tied thanks to the mess that was left by the previous one. Hendry should be forced to ride this mess out until the bitter end. He must go down with the ship, but cut ties with his first mate first.
Cubs week going from bad to worse
This has been quite a week for your Chicago Cubs, but not exactly one that you would want to write home about. Frankly, for Cub fans, this has come close to being completely unwatchable as they continue to struggle offensively, while wasting quality pitching. To make matters worse, off the field the Cubs are making headlines as well. Again, these are not headlines that anyone should be proud of, as they fire hitting coach Gerald Perry, and Sammy Sosa gets exposed as the steroid user we all knew he was.
Let me start off with the recently disgraced and ousted Sosa, who if you have been following my blogs I defended him as much as I could without saying he was 100% clean. In case you missed things, I wrote up a blog stating how I believed he was worthy of the Hall of Fame, and listed off a bunch of stats. I also, however, mentioned how he has never tested positive (that we knew of at the time) and was never connected to any drug factory like so many others have been. Well, yesterday the walls came crashing down on Sosa as he was reported to have been among the 104 players who tested positive in 2003 for performance enhancing drugs. Ironically, the news came out around a week after he made reference to his hall of fame worthy career in his retirement announcement. Let me clear something up, if you did miss my last blog, I always thought that he was a steroid user. I just was giving him as much of a benefit of the doubt as I could. Now, all those stats that do make him worthy, they wont mean anything as he will join Barry Bonds, Rafael Palmeiro, Mark McGuire, Alex Rogriguez and all others who have tested positive ( or will) in a group of players who will never get voted into the Hall of Fame. Their numbers make them all worthy of the honor, but none of them will ever be voted in because they have been caught cheating the game. Much like Pete Rose and Shoeless Joe Jackson, they will all be on the outside looking in for the rest of their lives.
That’s just one of the off the field stories for the Cubs. As I mentioned, the Cubs relieved Perry from his duties with the ball club. Am I the only one who sees this as a complete farce? Not just Perry’s firing, but hitting coaches being fired at all. They are not the ones who go to the plate and swing the bats, yet they get blamed when the offense falters. In fact, you could make the argument that the only reason they have hitting coaches is to work with the younger players who are still making the adjustments to the major leagues. By the time the players become veterans, they don’t need the hitting coaches, as they are already used to the majors and know how to watch video and detect flaws in their swings. However, Perry as given his walking papers, and had the blame placed squarely on his shoulders.
The firing of Perry was the one and only “big move” the Cubs are able to make this year. They can not add any payroll, so making a trade to bring in a star player to shake things up wont happen. While we are talking about trades, you can all but count out trading away some of our older veterans at this point in time. No one will want to trade for a high priced player who is struggling, at least not for the price tag they come with. Even if the Cubs were able to find a way to trade a player, they would be asked to eat a good chunk of the salary, which again the Cubs cant afford to do. Even if those roadblocks didn’t exist, there is still the little matter of the no trade clause they all have. This is the team the Cubs ill be forced to play with for the rest of the year. The firing of Perry was the only “big move” they could make, before firing Cubs Manager Lou Piniella which might very well happen if the team continues to play like a bunch of lollygaggers. Before you say that Perry was a bad hitting coach, keep in mind he held the same position with last years team, which you could argue was the best offense in all of baseball. As is all too typical, the coaches always get too much of the blame, and not enough of the credit..
Having to admit that this team is a joke makes me sick to my stomach. No one is coming up with clutch hits at all. Sure, some of the players are hitting, but they are not coming through with runners in scoring position. There have been far too many bases loaded or men at second and third, or men at the corners with less then to outs where the Cubs walk away with no runs scoring. Sure, there are players who are coming up with hits, like Derrek Lee and finally Milton Bradley, but they are not hitting for power. They are not coming through in the clutch. This team is next to last in the National League in scoring, a season after they led the league in that very same statistic. I am sick of hearing that the trade of Mark DeRosa or the injury to Aramis Ramirez is why this team is struggling this bad. They have four, count them four players running out there everyday who were all stars last year. Count them off with me, Alfonso Soriano, Bradley, Geovany Soto and Kosuke Fukudome. When Ramirez gets back, that will bring the total to five. They should not be struggling this badly, they look like a triple A team. To top things off, they just lost the first of a now to game series to the Chicago White Sox 4-1.
This has been a horrible week for the Cubs and their fans. The sad part is, this week is barley even half over. There is still plenty of time for things to get much worse.
Stick a fork in them, the Cubs may just be done
Today, I am going to cut straight to my thoughts, because lets face facts. The 2009 version of the Chicago Cubs, at least right now, are completely pathetic. Just about everyone on the 25 man rosters, save for the pitchers and one or two of the batters, are looking absolutely pathetic. The way they are swinging the bats, they are looking as though they do not even belong in the major leagues. Sure, there are a few hitters who are able to hold their own, but for the most part this team has got to be the worst offensive team I have seen on the north side of Chicago in a very long time.
When you have player like Alfonso Soriano, who more less demands to bat leadoff because that is the only place he can hit, batting in the low .200s, your offense is already starting behind the “eight ball”. I have defended him in the past when the discussion comes to the leadoff situation, but no more. He says he cant hit anyplace but leadoff, but guess what, he isn’t hitting there either. Who care about previous declarations about him staying in the leadoff slot, he needs to be dropped immediately. If he isn’t going to hit, I would rather see him not hitting in the seven or eight slot. The problem that comes up with that, is which of the under performing scrubs do you throw in to that slot? None of the players are playing well at all, and would still likely leave us with an early hole to dig out of.
The heart of out order is barely beating at all, but at least they are showing signs of a pulse. Derrek Lee has been on a tear as of late, one of the few Cubs to actually show that he cares. Granted, he is hitting only .273, but he brought his average up to a half way respectable level in this current stretch. Then you have Milton Bradley, who like Lee is showing signs of life with his bat. However, with his offense starting to wake up, his defense completely fell off the face of the planet as we all saw yesterday. Bradley is still in the pathetic zone of the .220s, but his hits are starting to trickle in. Though not fast enough to make fans forget about his ineptitude. Yesterday, he made several defensive and offensive mistakes that have occurred many times in many players careers. His problem was they all took place in the same game. Losing a ball in the sun, losing track of the number of outs and making a costly base running error overshadowed his great day at the plate.
How about “Cajun Connection” of Mike Fontenot and Ryan Theriot? Theriot’s “power bat” has gone to his head, and he has seen his average take a massive dip. He has struggled so mightily that he has been dropped down in the order, only to be replaced by his LSU team mate Fontenot who is also looking rather pathetic at the plate. Watching him play baseball these past two months makes me miss Mark DeRosa even more then I thought was ever possible. While Fontenot has improved his play at third, DeRosa wouldn’t have taken so long to look like a half way legitimate third baseman. Hell, his offense would have been a massive upgrade as well, as we can now see that Fontenot is not, I repeat NOT, an everyday player.
How do you say bust in Japanese? Once again, after a great start to the season, Kosuke Fukudome is starting to look like the world biggest bust to ever play the game of baseball. Sure, he looked great in April and the first part of May, but since then he has looked like a lost little puppy dog, just as he did last year at this same time. His average is still a respectable .270, but he wont stay that way for long. We are likely watching him take another ride on the super slide. Unlike last year, our offense is not good enough to continuously run him out onto the field in hopes that he will “figure things out”. He needs to be benched, or sent down to the minors. Whatever the case is, get him out of our lineup, and throw Reed Johnson in.
Speaking of busts, how about one year wonder Geovany Soto. He has reverted back to his early days in the minor leagues, and has forgotten what he did to improve his game to make the majors and win the rookie of the year award. Scratch that, he has either forgotten, or decided not to. Nowadays, he has turned into a fat blob behind home plate who cant hit for a decent average with warning track power. His reverting back into what he was is a devastating blow to this ball club as he was being leaned on hard to put up similar numbers to his rookie year. Instead, he is looking to join Jerome Walton on the wall as players who win the award, then retire without telling anyone.
The only saving grace to this season, is the pitching. The starting pitching has been outstanding, and they have either been hung with an undeserving no decision, or an even more undeserving loss to show for their efforts. The bullpen has even stepped things up, helping the Cubs starters keep this lackluster offense in the game. However, their efforts have also gone to waste with the offense in their deep slumber. The pitchers get a complete pass from me right now, as they are doing everything they can do to keep the Cubs in the game. When you close to the Major League lead in quality starts, there is no way you can blame them for the losses which keep piling up. Short of throwing a shutout every time out of the gate, there is nothing else they can do to help this team actually win a game.
That brings me to Cubs General Manager Jim Hendry and Manager Lou Piniella. How excited were we when Piniella came here, and Hendry started spending money. My how those days have started looking really sour right now. Piniella looks to have turned into Dusty Baker on that bench, with the “deer in the headlights” look. He is at a loss with this team right now, and I cant say that I can blame him. But when a manager starts saying, “I don’t know what else I can do”, maybe, just maybe, the time has come to cut him free. While I do not think that firing Piniella will do this ball club any good, perhaps that’s just what needs to be done. As far as Hendry goes, all credit for actually spending money the past few years, he actually landed some big fish that people wanted in Fukudome and Soriano. But they have turned into two of the biggest busters we have seen in a while. I would say that the time has come to blow this team up, but I fear that will not be as easy as one would think. With all these longer term, high dollar contracts with no trade clauses, they are almost immovable. Sad to say, that basically means we are stuck with these guys. Every last one of them will more then likely finish off their contracts here. So get used to these bums, as there is very little Hendry can do, unless he finds a trade where he can match contracts dollar for dollar. Congrats Hendry, you got some top names in free agency, but you screwed yourself over in the long run. Thanks for trying though.
Who would have thought the loss of Aramis Ramirez would hurt this club this much. While losing your best offensive player is always painful to the offensive production, you should not see this much of a decline. When he comes back, I fear the Cubs will be too far out for him to matter. At the same time, you have to wonder how much of an impact he will actually have. As much as this pains me to say, the Cubs season may be a week or two away from realistically being over.
Anno Catuli
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