Giants at Cubs July 19th

Has anyone else felt a little let down that Mr. Bonds has not started any of the games in Chicago?  I imagine, Bonds won’t be playing in most away games coming up.  I think he wants to hit the record at home.  I really think Bonds is blowing his chance to make peace with the public.  Chicago is one of the biggest markets in baseball, the 3rd largest city in the United States.  If Bonds plays a few games, smiles a few times and maybe conducts an interview or two, it might make a difference.  I know he is booed pretty much everywhere he goes, but people like to boo.  People want to see Bonds play, people want to see him hit his historic homeruns.  When Bonds is at the plate, all eyes are focused on the at bat and the flashbulbs of cameras are going off everywhere.  There is an anxiety that if one blinks they will miss something they will always regret.  That excitement is good for baseball, and if Bonds was smart it could be good for him as well.

Enough of that babbling.  Derrek Lee has elected to serve his suspension over the next 5 days.  He fouled a ball off his ankle and was in some discomfort.  He has decided just to serve the suspension now and let the injury heal.  This really isn’t a bad time for the Cubs.  The Cubs will be playing all out of division games and Lee will be back just in time for the important St. Louis series. 

In other news, the Cubs traded Cesar Izturis and cash to the Pittsburg Pirates for a player to named later.  Izturis was deemed expendable after the strong play from Ryan Theriot and Mike Fontenot.  Jake Fox was called up to take the roster spot.  Fox is a catcher who can also play the outfield.  Fox has been tearing the cover off the ball in AA and had a great spring with the Cubs.  So far in AA, his slash stats are as follows: .284/.327/504.  It appears he is not the most patient hitter but he will add some power off the bench and will likely get a spot start or two behind the plate.  If Fox gets off to a hot start I expect Koyie Hill to be dropped.

I mentioned the Kendall trade earlier.  Unfortunately, I have not had time to fully breakdown the deal.  So here goes…  I like this deal for the Cubs.  Kendall really struggled in April and May.  He turned it around and started hitting close to his career marks in June.  Kendall will never be the player he once was but he still should do a pretty good job behind the plate.  By all accounts he his a great club house guy and plays decent defense behind the plate.  The Cubs didn’t really give up much for him.  They traded Rob Bowen (a career .230 something hitter in the minors) and a Lefty prospect who is too old for the league he is playing in.  The Pirates and the As will be paying the majority of Kendall’s salary.  If he continues to struggle he is a free agent after this year and there is no real damage done.  If the trade inspires Kendall and he plays well it could be one of the steals of the year.

In other News, Kerry Wood threw another inning for the Class A rookie league team in Mesa.  His numbers for the game were not nearly as impressive but Wood says he felt better than the game before.  He said he was locating his fastball and his shoulder felt good.  Before I get too excited, I should point out we have heard this before.  However, I can’t help feel excited with the prospect of both Wood and Marmol in the bullpen.

Mark Cuban Submits application to buy Cubs

Thanks to the All-star game news has been pretty slow lately, but this bit of news is particularly exciting.  Mark Cuban has applied to become the owner of the Cubs.  This guy is the polar opposite of the Tribune Company in management style.  His primary concern is winning.  He’s not afraid to be fined for ripping the umps and is not afraid to get his hands wet in the day to day operation of the club.  (Which probably makes Joe Giradi’s chances at managing the Cubs a long shot at best in the future).  We’ve all seen his name pop up over the years as being interested in buying the Cubs.  Ever since the Cubs were actually put up for sale, I’ve been very excited about prospect of a new owner especially if that new owner is Mark Cuban.  I truly believe that Mark Cuban is the type of owner than could break the longest championship drought in modern sports.

In other news, Wrigley field was apparently torn up pretty bad during the Police concert over the break.  I wouldn’t be surprised to see some funny hops in the outfield over the next few days.

The Cubs have Optioned Felix Pie back to AAA and called up prospect catcher Geovany Soto.  For the most part I agree with this move.  Soto has been hitting cover off the ball in AAA (.341/412/.584.  The Cubs have really benefited this year from bringing up players who are hot in the minors.  Just look at the accomplishments Mike Fontenot (.356/.376/.577) has put up. year.  I don’t see the needs to keep 3 catchers on the roster, especially when two are weak hitting all fielding types.  Koyie Hill or Rob Bowen should be sent down. 

Kerry Wood is scheduled to start pitching for the Cubs Rookie League team in Mesa.  Keep your fingers crossed, a healthy Kerry would could really solidify bullpen.

Cubs at Pirates July 7th

Happy Live Earth day.  There is nothing like listening to some good music especially for a good cause.  The bad news is the Cubs lost to the Pirates yesterday and the Brewers won dropping the Cubbies back to 5.5 games back.  The Cubs also lost Dempster for an extended period of time.  He was unable to throw off the mound without pain and will not be able to complete a rehab assignment over the break as previously planned.  The Cubs bullpen has turned around it’s luck lately and has pitched fairly well the last few weeks.  The Cubs are 6 out 7 in save game attempts without Dempster and have posted a 3.30 era in the time span.  The Cubs have won 11 out of their last 14 and find themselves only 4 games out of the National League Wild Card.

Cubs Vs Pirates

The Pirates and the Cubs both enter the game on runs of 7-3.  However, the Cubs have gone 19-11 over their last 30 and the Pirates in the same time period are 15-15.  The Pirates have had the Cub’s number the last two years.  The Cubs in 2006 and 2007 are currently 9-13 against the Pirates.  Tonight the Cubs Ted Lilly will be taking on the Pirates John Van Benschoten.

Ted Lilly (7-4, 3.84)

After struggling in June (5.40 ERA), Lilly rebounded and pitched a great game against the the Nationals in his last start.  He threw 7 innings allowed 3 hits and a run.  Ted Lilly is slightly less effective against righties (.696)  than lefties (.559).  Lilly has been struggling lately limiting the walk.  He has walked 8 batters over his last 2 starts.  However, this trend will likely not continue.  Lilly has struck out 92 while only walking 26 in 105.1 innings pitched this year.  In 4 games against the Pirates, the Bucs have had his number.  He has allowed 9 earned runs in 14.2 innings pitched.  Lilly has 4 hits in 34 tries this year.  He also has 2 sacrifices on the year.

John Van Benschoten (0-2, 4.35)

Van Benschoten was called up June 15th from AAA Indianapolis and will be making his 4th start of his year and the 9th of his career.  He made his major league debut August 18th, 2004.  Over his career he is 1-5 with a 5.84 era in 50 innings pitched.  So far this year, righties (.726 OPS) have given him much more trouble than lefties (.482 OPS).  Van Benschoten has been lights out in the first inning this year.  He has yet to give up a hit or a walk in the 1st inning.  At the plate, Van Benschoten has 1 hit in 13 at bats and 2 sacrifices.  His one hit was homerun back in 2004.

Today’s Lineups:

Cubs (Career Vs Van Benschoten)

Alfonso Soriano LF  (No History)
Ryan Theriot SS  (No History)
Derrek Lee 1B  (No History)
Aramis Ramirez 3B  (No History)
Daryle Ward RF  (No History)
Mark DeRosa 2B  (No History)
Jacque Jones CF  (No History)
Koyie Hill C  (No History)
Ted Lilly P

Pirates (Career Vs Ted Lilly)

Jose Bautista 3B  (.143, 1-7, 1 RBI)
Freddy Sanchez 2B  (.333, 2-6)
Xavier Nady CF  (.667, 2-3)
Jason Bay LF  (.167, 1-6)
Josh Phelps 1B  (.333, 3-9)
Ryan Doumit RF  (.500, 1-2, 1 RBI)
Ronny Paulino C  (.600, 3-5, 1 homerun, 3 RBIs)
Jack Wilson SS (.333, 2-6, 1 RBI)
John Van Benschoten P

Brewers at Cubs June 30th

What a game…  Rich Hill struggled early and didn’t even make it to the 4th inning.  The Bullpen picked him up and shut out the good hitting Brewers the rest of the way.  A big kudos to Billy Petrick, Michael Wuertz, Carlos Marmol and Bob Howry for keeping the game close and giving the Cubs a chance to come back.  If the Brewers are able to tack on a few more runs the Cubbies might have given up.  Instead, the Cubs were able to pick away at the Brewers and thanks to walk off homerun by Ramirez made it 7 wins in a row. 

The Cubs will have their work cut out for them today.  They will be facing Ben Sheets who is one, if not they most elite pitcher in the central division.  The Cubs will be sending up the tall lefty Sean Marshall.  The Cubs so far in 2007 have won 6 games and lost 4 against the Brewers.  They will play the brewers 5 more times this year including today.  The Cubs need to win these games.  According to www.sportsclubstats.com, each game will increase or decrease the cub’s chance of making the playoffs by about 3.5%.  The site calcualtes this percentage by simulating the rest of the season millions of times.  It uses a basic coin-flip method to decide winners but I think it still provides an accurate estimate at how well the team needs to play in order to make the playoffs. There is lots of data on the site as well.  For example it lists a large number of possible record outcome from 84-0 the last 84 games to 0-84 and their respective chances of making the playoffs.  For example, if the Cubs go 49-35 the rest of the way, the Cubs will have a 87% chance of making the playoffs.  As of today, Ken Roberts data suggests the Cubs have a 19.4 chance of making the playoffs.  I really do encourage you to check out the site.  There is a lot of information and he can explain the data much better than I can.

Sean Marshall (4-2, 2.44)

Marshall has pitched really well since his call-up this year.  The only exception is one start in Texas where he was knocked out in the 4th inning.  Marshall is quite a bit tougher on lefties than righties this year.  In his last start, he went 6.1 innings allowing 5 hits, 1 BB and no runs while striking out 3.  Sean has made one start against the Brewers.  He through a quality start (6 innings pitched, 3 runs allowed) and won the game.  At the plate Marshall has yet to get a hit this year in 11 at-bats.  He does have 2 sacrifices though.

Ben Sheets (9-3, 3.09)

As always Sheets has been spectacular this year.  Don’t let his 70-72 record fool you, he is not a .500 pitcher.  Wins are way too dependent on team performance to be much use to evaluating pitchers.  Sheets played on some bad Brewer teams and has been high tier pitcher for a long time.  Sheets has pitched much better at home (6-1, 2.64, 9 starts) this year than away (3-2, 3.76).  Hopefully, that continues today and the Cubs hit him hard.  The good news is, the Cubs have always hit him hard at Wrigley.  At Wrigley he is 3-4 with a 4.43 era in 10 starts. 

Today’s Lineups:

Brewers (Career Vs Marshall)

Corey Hart RF  (1.000, 1-1)
J.J. Hardy SS  (No History)
Ryan Braun 3B  (No History)
Prince Fielder 1B  (.000, 0-3)
Bill Hall CF  (1.000, 2-2, 1 HR, 1 RBI)
Johnny Estrada (No History)
Kevin Mench LF  (.000, 0-3)
Rickie Weeks 2B  (No History)
Ben Sheets P

Cubs (Career vs Sheets)

Alfonso Soriano LF  (.333, 1-3)
Mike Fontenot SS  (No History)
Derrek Lee 1B  (.359, 14-39, 5 HRs, 11 RBIs)
Aramis Ramirez 3B  (.196, 9-46, 1 HR, 6 RBIs)
Cliff Floyd RF  (.333, 5-15, 2 RBIs)
Mark DeRosa 2B  (.273, 3-11, 1 RBI)
Angel Pagan CF  (No History)
Koyie Hill C  (No History)
Marshall P 

Rockies at Cubs June 27th

The Cubs will be going for win number 6 tonight against the Rockies.  It really seems like the Cubs can do no wrong at the moment.  I’m still in shock the Cubs gave up 6 runs in the 9th two days ago and still can back and won.  I think the Cubs are starting to show that cubbie swagger.  I can’t help but think the fighting and brawls the Cubs have been involved in the last few weeks has lit a fire under this team.  The team is really hustling on the bases and everyone is picking each other up.  If you have access to mlb.tv watch a game in may and compare the effort to the games recently.  The team has a completely different attitude.  I think a lot of credit should go to Lou Piniella.  In my opinion, a manager’s primary job is to motivate his troops.  Lou isn’t afraid to go with the hot hand.  Mike Fontenot was called up and has been on a tear and has been rewarded with a major increase in playing time.  I love the play hard or sit mentality Lou has brought to this team.  He doesn’t play favorites at all like Dusty.

The Cubs now hold a 65-61 advantage over the Rockies all-time.

Today’s Starters:

Jason Hirsh (3-6, 5.06)  VS  Carlos Zambrano  (8-6, 4.27)

Jason Hirsh:

Hirsh was not able to pitch out of the 5th inning in both of his previous starts.  He allowed 10 runs on 11 hits in those 8.2 innings pitched.  Hirsh appears to pitch to contact as his low strikeout totals indicate.  Hirsh seems to be equally effective against right handers (.251/.308/.480 in 179 at bats) and left handers (.255/.351/.441) in 161 at bats).  Not surprisingly, Hirsh has pitched better on the road (2-2, 4.39) than he does at Coors (1-4, 5.62).  Jason Hirsh has never faced the Cubs.  Hirsh is 1-24 at the plate with 1 sac bunt and 16 strikeouts.

Carlos Zambrano:

Carlos has gone 8 plus innings his last 3 starts winning 2 out of the 3.  He tied his career high of 12 strikeouts his last time out.    It looks like we may finally be seeing the Carlos of old.  Zambrano has been lights out against right handers this year (.178/.261/.325).  However, left handed hitters have given him a bit of trouble (.314/.401/521).  Lefties have historically hit Zambrano better (.616 OPS for right handers compared to .735 for left handers), but the split has never been this extreme.  This is likely just the result of the small sample size but may also be due to Carlos Zambranos lower arm angle this year.  Perhaps the lower angle is allowing hitters to see the ball better.  The lower arm angle also changes the plane on his pitches and this may also contribute.  Zambrano has made 7 starts against the Rockies.  He is 1-4 with a 3.14 era in 48.2 innings pitched.  He made one start against them last year.  He went 7 innings allowing 2 runs in losing effort.  At the plate this year Carlos has been outstanding for a pitcher.  He owns a .273 batting average (9-33) with 2 homeruns, 1 2B and 4 RBIs. 

There has been a lot made of Zambrano supposedly not pitching well with Barrett.  This list is the opponents slash stats (BA,OBP and SLG) with the the top 4 catchers with most games caught with Zambrano.

1.  Barrett (.224/.317/.364) in 77 games
2.  Blanco  (.222/.310/.350) in 29 games
3.  Miller  (.269/.366/.366) in 17 games
4.  Bako  (..206/.283/.285) in 17 games

As you can see, it doesn’t matter who is behind the plate.  A pitcher controls his destiny out there.  I don’t want to hear any more about how Barrett was holding Zambrano back or that Barrett was the reason for Carlos’ struggles.

Today’s Lineups:

Rockies (Career Vs Zambrano)

Cory Sullivan  CF (No History)
Kaz Matsui  2B  (.250, 1-4)
Matt Holliday LF  (.200, 2-10)
Todd Helton 1B  (.167, 3-18)
Garrett Atkins 3B  (.400, 2-5, 1 RBI)
Brad Hawpe RF  (.000, 0-8)
Troy Tulowitzki SS  (.000, 0-2, 1 RBI)
Yoruit Torrealba C  (.250, 2-8, 1 RBI)
Jason Hirsh P

Cubs (Career vs Hirsh)

Alfonso Soriano LF  (No History)
Mike Fontenot 2B  (No History)
Derrek Lee 1B  (No History)
Cliff Floyd RF  (.000, 0-2, 1 RBI)
Angel Pagan CF  (No History)
Mark DeRosa 3B  (No History)
Koyie Hill C  (No History)
Ryan Theriot SS (No History)
Carlos Zambrano P

Mariners at Cubs June 13th/ Umpires

I wanted to post this yesterday but I was unable to log onto wordpress.  All problems have worked out and I’m happy posting again. 

The Umpires in baseball are really getting out of control.  This is not in direct response to Ted Lilly getting throw out (although I’d be liar if I didn’t admit it was inspired by it.)  It seems umpires the last few years prefer to make a scene any chance they have.  At lot of times you won’t even know an argument is happening and the home plate umpire will rip off his mask and yell at the pitcher and thus making a scene.  The less we notice umpires during the game the better.  It seems today’s umpires are trying to get themselves in the game more and more.  In all fairness, I think umpires have done a wonderful job on calls.  They usually make the right call.  For the most part they are willing to get together to discuss a play if they didn’t get a good look at it. 

Lets look at the Led Lilly encounter a few days ago.  Lilly-gate was preceded by Soriano hitting three homeruns and then getting drilled on the first pitch the next day.  Soriano was hit near the head and it was pretty obvious the pitch was intentional (although I don’t think he wanted to hit him in the head).  This is where the umpires really messed up.  They warned both benches immediately and did not give the Cub’s a chance to even the score.  If the umpires don’t warn the benches immediate the Cubs likely drill someone later that evening and this whole thing is over with.  Instead, we fast forward to the next game.  Ted Lilly strikes out the first two batters and then throws one high and inside to Renteria.  I have no idea if it was intentional we’ll assume for the moment it is.  The umpires then throw Ted Lilly out of the game for hitting Renteria.  Once again the Cubs are denied a chance to handle the situation on the field and move on.  To make matters worse, Renteria than stole second and slide in hard (spikes up and late) into Cub’s rookie Mike Fontenot while also giving him a forarm to nose.  Renteria is not ejected or thrown out of the game for an obvious attempt to injure.  I found this to be the most cowardly part of the whole ordeal.  Renteria knew that if the Cubs were to throw at him again for his slide they would be ejected.  Now, normally I would not have had a problem with Renteria’s slide.  However, it is a little unfair to let Renteria give forarm shivers on the field and yet eject a Cub’s pitcher when he hits a batter without warning.  The umpires have to either let both teams settle it on the field or be consistant and give Renteria the boot for his actions as well.

The Bottomline is, if the umpires let the Cubs plunk a hitter after Soriano was pegged this whole thing is over.  Instead, the umpires got involved when they shouldn’t and made a situation much worse.

I must say I really gained a lot of respect for a few players during this ordeal.  I gained a lot of respect for Mike Fontenot for taking the forarm shivers and not making a big fuss out of it.  He could have gone after Renteria and made a big scene, but he didn’t.  I also gained respect for Alfonso Soriano.  After he was hit, he just walked to first.  Unlike some players, he didn’t make a scene he just took his base.  I know he had some words for Hudson, but if the commentators didn’t mention it, we would have never known.  I lost a lot of respect for Renteria.  One, he made a huge scene when he was hit.  He claims he didn’t charge the mound because Barrett told him it wasn’t intentional.  Yet, he still slides in and gives Fontenot a cheap shot.  I would have had a lot more respect for him if he charged the mound.  Instead, he took the coward’s way and sucker punched a guy who had nothing to do with anything.  Classy.. 

 Tonights Lineups

Miguel Batista (6-4, 5.56) VS Sean Marshall (2-2, 2.08)

Mariners (Vs Marshall)

Ichiro Suzuki CF (No History)
Jose Lopez 2B  (No History)
Jose Guillen RF (.000, 0-1)
Raul Ibanez LF (No History)
Richie Sexson 1B  (No History)
Kenji Johjima C  (No Hisory)
Yuniesky Betancourt SS  (No History)
Willie Bloomquist 3B  (No History
Miguel Batista P

Cubs (Vs Batista)

Alfonso Soriano LF  (.105, 2-19, 1 RBI)
Felix Pie CF  (No History)
Derrek Lee 1B  (.250, 4-16, 2 RBIs)
Cliff Floyd RF  (.400, 8-20, 1 HR, 1 RBI)
Mark DeRosa 3B  (.200, 1-5)
Ryan Theriot SS  (No History)
Mike Fontenot 2B  (No History)
Koyie Hill C  (No History)
Sean Marshall (No History)