Everything is Going According to Plan

I said that the Cubs needed someone to show a little bit of emotion to get this team rolling. We were stuck in a rut and no one seemed to care enough to do anything about it. Having a team meeting shows that you're tired of losing, not that you want to win.

So when Lou got ejected, I was excited. While everyone else was calling his antics deplorable and going on and on about how the Cubs were losing control of their players, I knew exactly what Lou was doing. His ejection coupled with Zambrano attacking Barrett would light a fire under the team.

Since he was suspended, the Cubs went from a 6 game losing streak to winning 3 of their last 4 games. Felix Pie is doing very well, Soriano got five hits in one game against the Brewers, and Zambrano is pitching like, well, Zambrano. All is well with the world. I just hope the team can keep it up when Lou returns, otherwise the Cubs might need to send him on an extended vacation for the rest of the season. Somehow Lou seems to manage best when he's not in the clubhouse.

The Bench Players are Going Down Like Flies

Way back on Friday, Henry Blanco was placed on the DL with a herniated disc in his neck. This injury set off a series of events that either had a very catastrophic or enjoyable effect, depending on how you view the Cubs right now. I personally choose to laugh more than be angry, so this has been a fun weekend.

This series of events has resulted in Sweet Lou being suspended for an undetermined amount of time. Bench coach Alan Tremmel is piloting the ship today, maybe he can be the Barbosa to Lou's Captain Jack antics.

But here comes news that "where's my pinch runner?" Darryle Ward is out with a hip strain. Enter Felix Pie. I don't think my weekend could get any better. I guess maybe if the Cubs win today, but I quit paying attention to that a while ago.

Game starts in 10 minutes. Sean Marshall is pitching. Maybe he'll get some run support for once. I'm just hoping Tremmel gets ejected and Cliff Floyd has to coach the team.

There's a First Time for Everything

Today was a day of firsts:

• First time the Cubs have won a game that was within 2 runs
• First time the Cubs have won back to back games since April 7th against the Brewers
• Felix Pie's first home run as a major leaguer
• First time the Bulls have won an away game in the playoffs since Michael Jordan played
• First time this blog received 100 hits. And 200. And 300. And...let's just go all the way up to 1,000.
• First time the Bulls have advanced to the second round of the playoffs since MJ (I'm assuming this based on the fact that no team has lost a series after going 3-0).

If you watched the Bulls game, good for you. It was exciting. I won't write about it in depth, because that's not what we do here. We're a Cubs blog. So on with the Cubs.

Tonight's game was a lot more tense than it should have been. Marquis had a healthy lead until he gave up a 2 run homer to Yadier Molina, at which point Lou brought in the shaky bullpen to scare everybody watching at home. I plan on sending my medical bills for the near heart attack I suffered directly to Ryan Dempster for being inches away from giving up the game tying home run to Scott Spezio. I still feel that Wednesday was the turning point for this team, but today's performance didn't make me much more confident.

Game Summary for April 27th, 2007

• Score: Cubs defeat the Cardinals, 5-3.
  
• Player of the Game: Felix Pie. Hit a 2 run blast, the first of his major league career. I'm sure there will be many more to come.
• Subject of Lou's Wrath: Ryan Theriot. Lou shows trust in the kid by putting him in the starting lineup for a second day and he responds by going 0-for-4 and making a dumb play at short that should have resulted in everyone being safe and us not winning this game so easily. Starting The Riot is not supposed to be this stressful.
  
• Comments: Marquis pitched another relatively solid game, at least up until the 7th inning when he gave up that home run. His ERA is still very low at 2.35, but he's starting to look a little shaky. Lock it down Marquis. Pie and Aramis each had a home run, showing that maybe the power is returning to the Cubs. And I swear Soriano is taking batting tips from Sammy Sosa. He swung at two straight pitches that hit the dirt about 5 feet in front of him. He should not be our leadoff man.
  
• Magic Number: 146. Still got a lot of work ahead of us.
  

"We will not go quietly into the night!..."

"...We will not vanish without a fight! We're going to live on! We're going to survive! Today we celebrate our Independence Day!"


It's like the Cubs are the world, see? And Derrek Lee is Will Smith, the hotshot who everyone loves that gets a chance to show he's got what it takes to go into space. And Ryan Theriot is Jeff Goldblum, the guy that no one gave quite enough credit to when he deserved it. Papa Lou is Bill Pullman cause he runs everything, and when you're sucking at protecting your world he'll rally the troops. The aliens are the Brewers, who have been beating the pants off of the Cubs, blowing up their White Houses and Taj Mahals. And then Derrek Lee and Ryan Theriot combine their powers to tag team it up and take out those mo-fos. And Ted Lilly? Ummmmm he's just some overpaid pitcher that's lucky Will Smith is there to save his butt again. He can be Jeff Golblum's dad, the crazy jewish guy. Yeah, that'll work.

Game Summary for April 25th, 2007

• Score: Cubs save some dignity by beating the Brewers, 9-3.
  
• Player of the Game: Will Smith, a.k.a. Derrek Lee. Went 4-for-5 with 2 RBIs, 2 Runs, and his first homer of the year. Fitting stats for someone who has saved the earth from aliens at least three times.
• Subject of Lou's Wrath: Jacque Jones. Went 0-for-4, and made some horrible plays in the outfield. I didn't actually watch the game, but it's Jacque Jones we're talking about, it must be true.
  
• Comments: I honestly believe this game will be a turning point for the team. Today's lineup should be it permanently. Theriot deserves the spot at short, it's not like Cesar's defense has been that good anyways. Derrek Lee finally got that first homer, Pie has 5 hits in the last 3 games, and the Cubs offense did pretty much everything right. Get Soriano back out there in left field and we should be good to go. And I still think Jacque Jones needs to go. He gives me dirty looks.
  
• Magic Number: 147 baby. So close to the division title I can taste it.

Cubs have the day off tomorrow. Friday they start a three game series against the Redbirds, with the comeback kid Jason Marquis looking for a second game of revenge. Do I sense a two game winning streak coming on?

Bill Hall Sucks! Bill Hall Sucks! Bill Hall.....well, you get the idea.

During tonight's game I discovered the true power of the left-center field bleachers. The drunk gentlemen behind me held an impassioned hatred for Bill Hall, and they did everything they could to make this known. They began with "F--- you Bill Hall! Hey Bill, your mother's a @$%*#!", and whatever else they could come up with. After the security guy who doesn't actually get to watch the game told them that profanity and insulting immediate family was not allowed, they reverted to "Bill Hall sucks!", "Hey Bill, you're a moron!", and "Hey Bill, you suck!". They couldn't come up with much else. As it turns out, a couple hundred of drunk bleacher bums chanting that you suck really has an effect on your self esteem. Mr. Hall went 0-for-6, something we reminded him of every time he came back to the outfield.

We are not only a force for evil, however. Jacque Jones spent the majority of the game in center field for some unexplained reason, and once he moved over to right field he did something remarkable. First of all, he made a great diving catch. But more importantly, he threw the ball on the was to 3rd base on one bounce! That was unprecedented.

Once Felix Pie came into the game in center field our attention turned to him, and he churned out two hits in the late innings that ending up not helping our team win at all. It's more than he had been doing lately on offense though.

Some other highlights of the Wrigley experience:

• The college kid sitting two seats over from me caught a ball tossed to him by a Brewer outfielder, and a home run hit during batting practice. I caught nothing.
• Showing up two and a half hours early to a game that wasn't even close to sold out meant that I had a chance to get a good picture of the Harry Caray statue without anyone in the way for once.

• Showing up early also meant that front row in the bleachers was available, which allowed us to partake in the constant heckling of the aforementioned Bill Hall.
• Having beer spilled on my sweatshirt an hour before the game started. That was fun.
• Saw Ronnie Woo Woo again, didn't get a high five this time though. He didn't come down to our part of the bleachers.
• I yelled at Jacque Jones once asking how many outs there were. He flashed me the two sign, which was awesome. About an inning later I told him that he threw like my sister.

So that was my game. A lot of fun, but any 12 inning game where you lose is depressing at the end of it all.

Game Summary for April 23rd, 2007

• Score: Cubs lose to the Brew Crew, 5-4 in 12 innings.
  
• Player of the Game: Aramis Ramirez. Hit his 200th career home run, a solo shot that gave the Cubs a fairly solid lead.
• Subject of Lou's Wrath: The umpires. The last out was made on a ridiculous called third strike where the ball nearly landed in the dirt. Lou had some words for them in the tunnel after the game.

Piniella was not available to the media after the game. He and Perry exchanged some words with the umpires as everyone was headed to their respective clubhouses through the same tunnel, and Perry had to be pulled away. None of the words can be made available either. This is a family Web site.

• Comments: Zambrano failed to get a win again, continuing his April struggles. This time it was not his fault, however, as he left the game with a 4-2 lead. Scott Eyre came in and did what he does best, giving up two runs to dissolve the lead. The Cubs had trouble stringing together hits and failed to score after the third inning. Rocky Cherry made his Major League debut, giving up a solo home run to Prince Fielder and picking up the loss.
• Magic Number: 149. Can't gain any ground when you lose to the division leaders.

I will be at the game again tomorrow, and since Rich Hill is pitching I am hoping for a better outcome. On a side note, Wade Miller was placed on the disabled list with 'back spasms', which I believe is medical speak for having a 10.54 ERA. In the meantime I'm going to try and find out exactly what Lou said to those umps.

Season in Review: The 1/9th Mark (Offense)

Who came up with a 162 game season? Doesn't that seem like a really strange number to settle on? Why not just stop at 160, or better yet, 150? No they went with 162, a number that you can't divide by 10. So I'm going with a better number, 9. Every 18 games, or 1/9th of the season, I will be reviewing how the Cubs are doing so far.

Today was game number 18, and the Cubs have already been through their star player getting injured and recovering. Now that he is back, starting tomorrow, there is a logjam of people wanting to play in right field. Assuming that Pie performs well enough to stay up in the big leagues, Hendry really does need to deal someone or else this presents a bit of a problem.

As for the team's progress so far, we're 7-11. Not exactly where we had hoped to be. However, considering we've endured Zambrano's horrible April and Soriano's injury, I think things could be worse. The offense will get things moving, and Lou will get a little angrier with each passing day. If you look at the stats, you can see where those numbers are going to improve and how much of a difference that will make on the offensive side. I've outlined those below. Pitching review comes tomorrow, or when I have some free time, whichever comes first.

Hitting:

Alfonso Soriano

• Was injured in the 12th game of the season with a strained hamstring. Replaced by the much anticipated Felix Pie. Has no home runs, a disappointing average, and is generally underperforming.
• Current Stats: .260 AVG, 6 R, 1 RBI, 0 HR, .302 OBP.
• Projected Stats: .260 AVG, 78 R, 13 RBI, 0 HR, .302 OBP.
• Thoughts: Those are not leadoff man numbers. Those aren't even little league numbers. We know that he'll pick up the slack but wow, looks like a waste of time and money right now.

Matt Murton

• Sharing playing time with Cliff Floyd, which isn't helping his numbers. Will play even less if he's sharing right field with Floyd and Jones. Hendry needs to deal someone quickly.
• Current Stats: .278 AVG, .333 OBP, 6 R, 2 RBI, 0 HR.
• Projected Stats: .278 AVG, .333 OBP, 64 R, 18 RBI, 0 HR.
• Thoughts: Again, I'm sure these numbers will go up. Maybe not the average part, but the RBIs and runs will catch up once he gets back into some sort of groove. A couple of the Cubs just haven't gotten into the swing of things yet. Which brings me to...

Derrek Lee

• Current Stats: .348 AVG, .451 OBP, 14 R, 11 RBI, 0 HR.
• Projected Stats: .348 AVG, .451 OBP, 126 R, 99 RBI, 0 HR.
• Thoughts: Lee is putting up batting title numbers right now, he just hasn't gotten that first home run yet. The RBIs should be a little higher too, but that's probably coming from Alfonso's inability to get on. Lee will be incredible this year.

Aramis Ramirez

• Current Stats: .339 AVG, .371 OBP, 9 R, 12 RBI, 3 HR.
• Projected Stats: .339 AVG, .371 OBP, 81 R, 108 RBI, 27 HR.
• Thoughts: Aramis is another player whose power numbers should pick up the pace as time goes on. It won't be as drastic, but I would be surprised if his home runs weren't in the 35-40 range at least. His average is great though, keep that up A-Ram.

Michael Barrett

• Current Stats: .281 AVG, .348 OBP, 7 R, 15 RBI, 4 HR.
• Projected Stats: .281 AVG, .348 OBP, 63 R, 135 RBI, 36 HR.
• Thoughts: In this case, Barrett's numbers will go down slightly. His numbers are a little inflated because he has had 3 home runs in the past three games. So if I had done this review two games ago, I would have been projecting 20 home runs for him. Either way, he's doing a great job as a hitting catcher.
  

Mark DeRosa

• Current Stats: .259 AVG, .310 OBP, 6 R, 13 RBI, 4 HR.
  
• Projected Stats: .259 AVG, .310 OBP, 54 R, 117 RBI, 36 HR
  
• Thoughts: DeRosa has been pleasantly surprising. Put up good power numbers from the start, showing that maybe last year wasn't a fluke. Has been fairly versatile in the field as well, playing infield and outfield as needed.
  

Jacque Jones

• Current Stats: .292 AVG, .361 OBP, 7 R, 3 RBI, 0 HR.
  
• Projected Stats: .292 AVG, .361 OBP, 63 R, 27 RBI, 0 HR.
  
• Thoughts: This is yet another example of getting off to a slow start. Like the others, his average is good put the power numbers just aren't there. May come in time, or we may trade him. I hope it's the latter.
  

Cesar Izturis

• Current Stats: .182 AVG, .250 OBP, 3 R, 2 RBI, 0 HR.
  
• Projected Stats: .182 AVG, .250 OBP, 27 R, 18 RBI, 0 HR.
  
• Thoughts: Cesar isn't supposed to be a great hitter, we know that. But a .182 average? That's not gonna fly. And he's not being the gold glove shortstop we're paying for either, considering he had 3 errors in one game. Bad form Cesar. Bad form.
  

Felix Pie

• Current Stats: .136 AVG, .174 OBP, 3 R, 1 RBI, 0 HR.
  
• Projected Stats: .136 AVG, .174 OBP, 89 R, 30 RBI, 0 HR.
  
• Thoughts: These numbers have been adjusted to assume that Felix will play every game for the rest of the season. He's only played in 5 so far so these projections will be completely off. The average will pick up, the power will pick up, and at the rate he's going he'll finish the year with about 162 spectacular plays in center field.
  

Ryan Theriot

• Current Stats: .347 AVG, .373 OBP, 8 R, 4 RBI, 0 HR
  
• Projected Stats: .347 AVG, .373 OBP, 72 R, 36 RBI, 0 HR
• Thoughts: Despite not having a spot in the lineup to begin the year, Theriot has managed to play in all but one game. And he has been on a tear, especially in the last few. There's no room in the lineup for him though, whether in the outfield or infield. He deserves a spot, but there are none left. Yet another reason why Jones needs to go.
  

Cliff Floyd

• Current Stats: .261 AVG, .277 OBP, 6 R, 6 RBI, 1 HR
• Projected Stats: .261 AVG, .277 OBP, 54 R, 54 RBI, 9 HR
• Thoughts: Floyd is getting more playing time than Murton, most likely because he is a lefty and Murton is a righty. Usually in a veteran-youngster platoon it's the other way around. He hasn't had any issues related to his injury which is very promising. And he's yet another reason why Hendry needs to deal some players, this makes Floyd, Murton, Jones, and Theriot who all deserve a spot in the outfield, and we only have room for one of them.
  

Honorable Mention:

• Zambrano and Marquis are both batting .300+, and Zambrano is technically on pace to hit 12 home runs, or more than Derrek Lee in 1/5th of the games.
• Henry Blanco is batting .125 and he's awful. I love the guy but come on, learn to hit man. How can you be that much worse than 2 of our pitchers?
• Ronny Cedeno is hitting .107 and is even worse than Blanco.
• Daryle Ward has found his way into 14 games and hasn't done much of anything notable. And apparently he's so slow that Jason Marquis gets to pinch hit for him, even if it means we have no one to play first base the next inning.

I'll be at the game tonight and tomorrow. Sometime soon I'll get in a review of the pitching. Let's just say Rich Hill = Cy Young for now. I was going to do it here but it turned out to be really long. I think less detail is needed in the future.

It's All in the Timing

I've figured out why the Cubs are consistently losing. Their timing is way off. I'm not talking about the timing of their swing or anything like that, but the timing of when they score runs. When we win, we tend to score far more runs than we need. When we lose, however, we're usually just a run or two short. We have our big run scoring days when the other team scores hardly anything, and when we only score a few runs they always manage to score a couple more.

The Cubs have not won any 1 or 2 run games. We have lost 3-5, 2-4, 5-6, 0-1, 3-4, 6-8, and now 1-2. That's seven of our ten losses that have been within two runs! So we're close to being great, we're just off with the timing. on days like last Saturday when the Reds score nothing, we don't need to get seven runs. Or when San Diego scored four on Monday, I think us scoring 12 runs might have been a little excessive. Any chance we could have saved any of those for the 14 inning game the next day? Share the love people.

Game Summary for April 20th, 2007

• Score: Cubs lose to the Cards, 2-1.
  
• Player of the Game: Aramis Ramirez. Went 2-for-4 today with the lone RBI for the Cubs, and has a hit in all 12 games he has started.
• Subject of Lou's Wrath: Henry Blanco, as much as it pains me to say it. Popped up a sacrifice bunt attempt with runners on first and second and no outs, and the play would have been a triple play except Lou had to argue that Blanco should have been out on interference cause he ran into the catcher. The umpires succumbed to Lou's anger, and the next two batters proceeded to strike out.
  
• Comments: Ted Lilly continued the pattern of all of our starting pitchers being good except for Miller and Big Z. His only mistake was giving up a Preston Wilson home run in the seventh after walking Jim Edmonds. The Cubs just couldn't get any production today, probably because Felix Pie wasn't in the game. What are you doing Lou? You don't bench the prodigy, are you nuts? He better be back tomorrow.
  
• Magic Number: Still 151. Sitting at the bottom of the division, all alone. I would cry if I wasn't so used to this.

Jason Marquis pitches tomorrow and tries to show the Cardinals what they're missing. They sure didn't miss him last year in the World Series. We need Pie back, and if Derrek Lee could just get a home run for once we should be alright.

The Solution to All Our Problems

Rich Hill pitched another incredible game today. I'm being completely serious when I say that I expect him to be a strong competitor for the Cy Young award. Sure he scared us all a little bit with that awkward stumble off of the mound, but I'm impressed that he was able to overcome that embarrassment and finish the inning strong. We just need to find four more kids like him and the World Series will be a breeze.

Game Summary for April 19th, 2007

• Score: Cubs dispose of the Braves, 3-0.
  
• Player of the Game: Rich Hill. Was lights-out yet again, and he hasn't had a major gaffe yet. Currently leading the league with a 0.41 ERA and a 3-0 record.
  
• Subject of Lou's Wrath: Nobody. This was a stress-free game, the only pitchers we had in there both performed very well. Some hitters had poor games, but nothing worth getting angry about.
  
• Comments: Rich Hill pitched a beautiful game, holding the Braves scoreless in 8 inning. Ryan Dempster picked up his 3rd save of the year, and he surprisingly hasn't given up a run yet. The Cubs scored on two solo home runs, one by Barrett and one by Ramirez, and an RBI double by Mark DeRosa. Not too bad, but it would be nice to see us string some more hits together.
  
• Magic Number: 151. We're currently tied with St. Louis for the last position in the Central, with the Cards being in the midst of a 4 game skid. Probably not how anyone thought the season would start off.

Tomorrow we start a three game series against the Cardinals at Wrigley in a fight for the worst record in the Central Division. Lilly pitches tomorrow against Braden Looper for the Cards. Both pitchers have a 2.37 ERA, so this might turn out to be a tough one. I just hope the Cubs can win a series for once and instill some confidence back it the fans that are tired of the same old stuff. I just don't know if we can win any games without Rich Hill.