Chicago Cubs Baseball

Over the past nine games, I don't know what happened but this team has lost the ability to put teams away.  Out of the last nine games, six of those were quality starts from our starting pitchers...that's a pretty good problem to have and none of those Q.S. came at the hands of either Big Z or Harden.  Who would've thought?  If you had told me that our pitching would still be mosing along without either of those guys; I would've slapped the tar feathers out of you.  Marshall looked great.  Marquis has brought his A-game in this stretch.

The real crime hasn't been the pitching, but just the simple fact that the club hasn't deliveried the killer blow when we have the chance.  We find ourselves in great situations too, bases loaded nobody out, runners on first and third less than two outs, leadoff man gets on, but the boys continue to find new ways to strand runners.  If I hear the phrase, "6-4-3 double play," courtesy of D-Lee again; we'll need to find the a guy a new priest or something, because this man is obviously cursed.  Balls that normally would be homerunds dying at the warning track.  Hitting rocket liners right at fielders.  Making non-productive outs.  Etc.   During this stretch, this club has stranded an average of eight men on base per game.  As great as Brett Meyer pitched, we still left nine men on.  As effective as Jamie Moyer pitched we left ten men on base.  Even when Big Z left in the fifth with his shoulder problem and Bob Howry tried his best to give the game to Houston, we still left 12 men on base against Brandon Backe.  Randy Wolf one of this year's worst road pitchers managed to strand 6 Cubs.  We left 9, 9, and 10 on in the Cincy series.  And last night, we let the Cardinals off the hook by stranding eight men.  If at any time we managed to come up with a walk, wild pitch, texas leaguer, anything in those run scoring situations; we would be looking at an incredible lead in the division instead we find ourselves listening to the same ol' crap from naysayers...oh, "It's the Cubs, 101 years, Bartman, etc."

Is this team really this bad?  No, because we're still getting great pitching from the likes of Lilly, Marquis, Marshall, and Demp.  Poor Demp, the man should be seeking his 19th win and among the Cy Young talks if it wasn't for the missed opportunities of our offense.  Our bullpen even though they've struggled a tad here and there, they continue to battle.  Even with all the problems that the offense has had late in games, this core group is still pretty solid...I mean, we're putting dudes on at an alarming rate.  I still feel strongly that this team will turn it around sometime this week and the hits will start to fall as they may.

Right now, these opposing pitchers keep allowing us to put men on at an alarming rate...I can't wait to see the look on their faces when this Cubs offense once again starts regaining their stroke.  It's going to be ugly because this team should be pi$$ed.  Lets go Cubs!!!!!

Category: MLB

Quick update (and really one of the few updates I could find) on Ramirez and his injury from last night.

From the KFFL.com website:

Thu, 14 Aug 2008 21:44:44 -0700

The Associated Press' Charles Odum reports Chicago Cubs 3B Aramis Ramirez (hip) left the game Thursday, Aug. 14, in the fifth inning due to a bruised left hip. He injured himself while sliding headfirst into home plate, but was able to walk off the field after a momentary delay. "It's all right," said Ramirez, who said he had the air knocked out of him on the play and that he expects to play Friday, Aug. 15.

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Looks like A-Ram should be in the line-up tonight against the Fishies.  Hopefully he didn't wake up feeling too sore today.  Good news for the Cubs though and looks like we potentially dodged a bullet with this.  Not sure if Lou will still opt to rest him for precautionary reasons.

Even if A-Ram is out for a short time (granted there would be some drop off) you would still have DeRosa filling in at 3B which gives Little Babe Ruth some additional ABs as he moves to 2B.  That really goes to show the value of DeRosa to this ballclub.  Many clubs lose a corner infielder and are forced to bring up someone from the AAA club to fill in which requires having to send someone from the bullpen down to make room.  From now to the end of the season - a short staffed bullpen is an issue you definitely do not want to be dealing with.

Category: MLB

Well the boys took another series from the Braves which will make my Dad a very unhappy camper this weekend.  I'm trying to figure out the proper email to send to him regarding the fact that the Cubs will finish the '08 season 6-0 against his beloved Braves.  So lets take a look at the series now that's it complete. 

First, it's nice to see the offense take advantage of a "weaker" opponent on the road.  I believe alot of Cub fans knew this team was a lot better than they displayed in the first half on the road.  Granted, it was against the Braves, but an eight winning streak is very impressive regardless of who you are and who you play not to mention the boys beat two aces in that stretch.  Also, it's nice to see the offense jump out to early leads in each of the three game which takes a lot of pressure off of your pitching staff and puts pressure on their offense.  It was nice to see the boys string together hits, take some walks, run the bases well, and occasionally hit the long ball.  And I like the fact that we made their pitchers and defense pay for the walks and errors.  Lets hope it continues

Secondly, the starting pitching has been moving along smoothly.  The walks were a bit higher than I like, but the boys (Marquis, Harden, Lilly) managed to come up with the big pitch when they needed too.  Marquis continues to impress me on the road.  I'm truly starting to believe the guy has a complex in Wrigley, but as long as he continues to perform admirably on the road then I guess I can live with that.  I'm not gonna pretend that I was a Marquis supporter from the get-go, but after his efforts in the home series against Florida, I've really eased up on him this season.  Harden looked somewhat sharp, but if the Braves were a better offensive team they may have made him pay for his momentary lack of control .  In his last two starts he hasn't been nearly as sharp as he was prior to the Astros series, I'm assuming it's more of a funk and nothing more; we'll see how he throws the ball out in his next start.  As for Lilly, he continues to throw the ball well, and he's keeping the homers to solo shots which is very important for him at being successful.  Because we all know he's going to give up the long ball.

Thirdly, Fukudome has started to swing the bat well.  I'm not expecting to see the Fukudome from April and May, and I don't think it's realistic to expect that .  But he's a much better hitter than he's showed recently.  It's good to see him hitting more line drives, and the bloops and seeing-eye singles are starting to go his way.  I feel there were a few outs where he hit the ball hard but right at the fielder, so lets hope he gets his second wind and gets hot going into the final month of the season.

Also, I know they never get any attention, but outside of Bob Howry, the bullpen was great in this series.  I'm still not ready to give up Howry just yet; I know it's sad.  But I can't turn my back on him just yet.

Any thoughts?

Category: MLB

So, the purpose of this "group" is for Cubs from across the globe to discuss the Chicago Cubs without the useless comments from trolls, fair-weathers, anti-Cubs, etc.  If you want to discuss what's wrong with Bob Howry then so be it, this is the place? If you want to talk about recent moves by Lou then this is the place.  Just keep it smooth and the egos in check, and this group will hopefully flourish.  Name calling is frowned up unless it's in a joking manner or in a sarcastic manner.  Also, this group isn't just solely for Cubs fans; it's open to pretty much all baseball fans who don't mind Cubs fans.  If you want to discuss the recent trend of the Brewers, Cardinals, Red Soxs, etc. then so be it, but remember this is a Cubs group so homerism might be a tad high.  All forms of baseball are welcome....

--Duckturtle79

Category: MLB