Back Spasms Anyone?

After today's game, I've come to the conclusion that Ryan Dempster needs to go the way of Wade Miller and come down with a sudden case of back spasms for the rest of the season. I know Ryan has his good moments, but it seems like every time I see him take the mound he puts two men on base and makes me shout angry things at my television. Put in Carlos Marmol, he could be twice the closer that Dempster ever was. With the addition of Kerry Wood to the 'pen we can use Marmol to close, Wood can be our setup guy with Howry helping out, and the rest of the relievers can fill in as needed. Either way, Dempster cannot be allowed to close games if I'm expecting to live past 50.

Cubs are a game back from the Brewers now. That was a lot shorter than I expected.

Questions for Ryan Dempster

What are you doing pitching in the 8th inning? Did you ever think that maybe wild pitches are bad for you? Have you ever seen yourself in the mirror and broken down crying because even you hate Ryan Dempster? You can send your answers to these questions to the e-mail on the right. Thank you.


Alright so maybe that's a little extreme. I know it's still a early to be freaking out, and we're making progress and all that, but what the heck? Two straight come from ahead losses against the Braves? What is wrong with you people?

If we can't take the one game series from the Astros tomorrow I'm gonna have to start throwing things.

Rich Hill is Starting to Look Like, Well, Rich Hill

The Cubs are playing on the West Coast this week, meaning that their games will be ending somewhere in the vicinity of midnight, and I can do a write-up when I'm normally sitting at the computer anyways. Joy. Speaking of write-ups, there will be no more official Game Summary outline as their has been in the past. It was nice at first, but I got bored with it quickly and coming up with some of the items were a stretch. So I'm making an executive decision, the after game posts shall have no order at all. And I might even miss a few of them. Awesome.

So anyways, about the game. Rich Hill in May has posted a 5.87 ERA with a 1-3 record. In May of last year he had a 9.31 ERA with a 0-4 record. At least he's improving. As for tonight, he gave up 5 earned runs in 6 innings, including 4 homers. Not a pretty game. The Cubs played ugly baseball on the offensive side as well, as a Cliff Floyd RBI in the first was all they had in them.

On the upside though, Angel Guzman and Ryan Dempster both pitched, and neither gave up a run! Exciting! Even more so when you realize that Dempster is grooming Guzman to be his replacement. Dempster seems to think this will happen when he is moved to the rotation. I'm thinking it will be when Lou throws him out the door. We'll see who's right fairly soon I imagine.

Tomorrow is another late one at 9:05 PM, when Sean Marshall will make his 2007 debut. He shouldn't have too rough of a time, as the opposing pitcher is David Wells, who is but a shell of his former self. Marshall is the 7th starting pitcher the Cubs have used this year, compared to 8 they had used last year at this point. These uncanny similarities are not a good thing. Do us all a favor Sean, and keep the starting job this time around. And whatever you do, just keep Wade Miller away. Please.

This is Not How Things Were Supposed to Go Down

I've been saying for a while now that Ryan Dempster is bad. We all know that, we saw how he pitched at the end of last year. But this year he had been decent, so when Angel Guzman pitches a great game, giving up only one run in 5 innings of work, Lou of course thought let's put in the closer to make sure Guzman gets his first win. Big. Mistake.

Dempster loaded the bases, walked in a run, and gave up a single for another run. This put the score at 5-3, still a decent lead. So Lou finally wised up and brought in Scott Eyre to try for the save with only one out. Scott always seems to fail to live up to expectations, and this time was no different as he allowed all three runners on base to score, bringing the score to 5-6 and losing a thoroughly embarrassing game for the Cubs. I think Lou was right on the money when he discussed calling up people from Iowa, which is where Eyre and Dempster need to go.

Game Summary for May 16th, 2007

• Score: Cubs lose an embarrassing game to the Mets again, 6-5.
  
• Player of the Game: Angel Guzman. The kid only gave up one run in five innings of pitching and deserved the win.
• Subject of Lou's Wrath: The abomination that is Ryan Dempster/Scott Eyre. Combined to give up 5 runs on 5 hits and 2 walks in the 9th inning, while only getting one out. They are not going to have a happy flight home.
  
• Comments: All you need to know about this game is what happened in the 9th inning. That huge display of sucking wiped out the great inning the Cubs had in the 6th, when Pagan and Ramirez both had 2 run homers to left field.
  
• Magic Number: Still 130. Milwaukee finally won a game today.

This weekend is going to be insane. I'm going to all three of the Cubs-Sox games. That's right, I'll be there Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. So posting will be sporadic, and I might get into some fights, but after it's all said and done I will try to recount what it was like. It may very well be that words will not be able to describe it, but I'll try. The first game is tomorrow at 1:20, with Ted Lilly pitching against Mark Buehrle. Let the madness begin.

Baseball is a Marathon, Even the Games

The Cubs played in the longest game ever tonight, and they couldn't hold things together against the Pittsburgh Pirates. Errors mounted, pitching fell apart, and the offense couldn't get anything going. A five game winning streak was snapped, and the Milwaukee Brewers once again refuse to lose. This was the kind of game that drives people to drugs and depression. Lou could have at least gotten himself ejected to spice things up a bit.

Game Summary for May 8th, 2007

• Score: Cubs lose a four and a half hour ordeal to the Pirates, 4-3.
  
• Player of the Game: Ryan Theriot. Went 3-for-7 and made an impressive double play to prevent a run from scoring in the earlier innings. It was all a waste though.
• Subject of Lou's Wrath: Ryan frickin' Dempster. Could have saved us all an hour and a half if he would have just finished the inning like he was supposed to. Or at least have given up another run to end it sooner.
  
• Comments: I'm tired and I don't have much to say about this game. Once again Lou used every position player and every relief pitcher. Jason Marquis being used as a pinch hitter meant that we only had three men left on the bench: Zambrano, Guzman, and Hill. I really don't like this trend.
  
• Magic Number: Still 138. I absolutely hated this game.

Marquis pitches tomorrow against someone with a name I cannot pronounce or spell. I don't care what happens as long as it ends in 9 innings.