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.

Lou Piniella is Who We Thought He Was

As you've probably already heard, Lou finally went overboard today. I didn't watch the ejection as it happened, but luckily for all of us the Cubs have a video of it up on their website.

As you can see in the video, Angel Pagan was thrown out at third base and Lou was not happy with that call. So he went through all the usual motions, throwing his hat to the ground, kicking dirt on the umpire's shoes, kicking more dirt on the umpire's shoes, screaming in his face while shaking his head back and forth in a silly way, more dirt, kicking the hat, more dirt, lather, rinse, repeat. It made it a lot funnier that the umpire was about half a foot shorter than he was.

But kicking dirt on an umpire's shoes is a very serious offense, as crew chief Bruce Froemming pointed out:

"He made physical contact with the third-base umpire," Froemming told a pool reporter. "He made physical contact with his foot, and he kicked dirt on [Wegner] several times, and the rest was show-and-tell.

"The whole world saw what he did," Froemming said. "It was a terrible display of disrespect and [the MLB office in] New York will be called immediately, and we'll take it from there."

*gasp*. Go ahead and call New York then. People in NY understand the difference between kicking an umpire and kicking towards the umpire. If "physical contact" is all that needs to be made to get someone in trouble, then I am violating my couch right now. Go ahead and call New York about that, ya pansy.

Obviously Lou just needed to release some of his pent up rage about managing one of the most embarrassing teams in baseball. We've had much worse calls this year that he didn't even talk to the umpires for. He was just trying to show the team that he cares about winning as much as Big Z, hoping they would put together a decent effort. Not happening. Therefore I propose a plan. Piniella gets himself ejected every game until we win three games in a row. He gets some stress relief, the fans will love it, and the umpires can complain some more to get their names in the paper. Everybody wins!

It just keeps getting worse

6 in a row isn't bad...wait...yes it is.

Congrats to Lou on his first ejection as a Cub. Hopefully there's more where that came from.

Ryno is Off to a Good Start

There are a number of different ways you can measure a person's success as a manager. Some people look at their win-loss record, success in the playoffs, year by year improvement, or how well the players like them. I consider most of those to be useless, especially the player popularity (Dusty Baker anyone?). I think what's most important for a manager is having passion for the game, which is why my favorite statistic for a manager is the number of ejections they have incurred.

This season marks the beginning of Ryne Sandberg's foray into the baseball managing world. He is managing the Cub's Class A minor league team, the Peoria Chiefs. At this level of the game the focus is more on developing talent than winning ballgames. That combined with the cheap accommodations and long bus trips makes it hard to understand why this Hall of Fame player would waste his time here. It seems as if it would be hard for anyone to get emotionally involved in this low level of baseball, which is why I'm pleasantly surprised that Ryno was ejected from a game last night.

It was actually Peoria's pitching coach David Rosario that impressed me the most. Angry with the home plate umpire's selective strike zone, he was ejected while arguing from the dugout and proceeded to walk out on the field and cover home plate with dirt. A classic angry coach move. Never mind that the umpire only has to take a few seconds to brush it off, and he actually has a brush for that exact purpose.

After this incident the home plate umpire came over to talk to Ryne and ejected him as well. Nothing flashy here, but I'm assuming Ryne insulted his mother or something along those lines to get tossed that quickly. Stealthy yet effective. The team, inspired by the passion of their manager, went on to win the game 10-4. Hey Lou Piniella, this upstart manager is beating you at your own game. You've been harsh on your team and with the media, but you have yet to lash out at the umpires. I want to see it tonight sir, or else by my standards Ryne is doing a better job than you are. Get out there, punt first base into the crowd, and defend your legacy.

Sorting the infield...out

Ok, so there really isn't much to sort out here. Derek's got first, Aramis owns third.

BUT WAIT.

Sources close to RTWF.com (Len and Bob on WGN) have confirmed that Lou had both Theriot and DeRosa taking grounders at shortstop today before the game.

This is an intriguing idea. Both of these guys give a boost to the offense when they are in the lineup, but at what cost could it be if MarkyMark or The Riot can't handle arguably the hardest position on the field?

Then again, Izturis has yet to live up to his gold glove reputation and Ronny still hasn't fulfilled the potential that the Cubs always rave about, so why not give it a shot sometime?

Lou has seemed content with coloring outside the lines thus far with the lineup, so if our current shortstops don't get their acts together soon...

Bittersweet Victory

That game was incredible. It was cold, and I was tired, but we got to see some great baseball on the offensive and pitching side. And when Lou came out to discuss that fly ball that Soriano trapped, the crowd went nuts. I've never been so excited to see a manager. It's just too bad he kept his cool.

The reason the game was bittersweet was that Soriano strained his hamstring on that very play. The Cubs have him listed as day-to-day, but that could mean anything. Prior and Wood have been listed day-to-day for a combined 6 years or so.

The ump could have at least called it a catch out of pity.

The lineup today was strange to say the least. Murton and Jacque Jones were flipped in the outfield, with Murton playing right and Jones playing left. Theriot was at 2nd base and DeRosa was at 3rd, with Aramis still out with tendinitis. Murton was batting cleanup for some inconceivable reason, and though he did hit fairly well I still can't figure out why Lou put him where the home run hitters go.

When Soriano went out with the injury, Floyd came in to play left field, shifting Jones over to center and further confusing everyone in the stadium. I'm not sure if all this changing around was the cause of it, but there were a couple near collisions out there. Soriano and Jones hit gloves once as Soriano made the catch somehow. Not a big confidence booster with regards to fielding.

There was hitting aplenty though as the Cubs ran up the scoreboard to a 12-1 lead. DeRosa, Barrett, and Floyd all had home runs spread out over the 5th and 6th innings. Murton legged out a ground ball and beat the DP throw in one inning, allowing Floyd to score. Jason Marquis even had two hits to help himself.

Some other random notes from the game:

• It was cold. I'm starting to think that baseball in Chicago in April is a bad idea.
• I was sitting behind someone who I thought must be the most white trash Cubs fan at Wrigley. The he opened his mouth and I learned that he thought Juan Pierre sucked last year, he can't stand Ronnie Woo-Woo, and he's from the south side. And then I knew that my suspicions were true.
• I high fived Ronnie Woo-Woo again. Always fun to do. Later I saw him go for a high five while walking past some girl and she just kept walking like she had no idea who he was. Stupid Trixies.
• There's a lot of things you can yell at a Padres outfielder, but my favorite is: "Hey! You throw like Jacque Jones!"
  

Alright enough with the jibber-jabber. Here's your game summary.

Game Summary for April 16th, 2007

• Score: Cubs dominate the Padres, 12-4.
  
• Player of the Game: Cliff Floyd. Went 2-for-3 with 4 RBIs and a 3 run blast to right field. Would have given this to Jason Marquis, but with the run production we had today his performance was really just an afterthought.
  
• Subject of Lou's Wrath: Hamstrings. Who said they were allowed to go and get strained? Also Will Ohman, because when you give up a 3-run homer with 2 outs in the 9th it's always bad, even when we're up by 11.
  
• Comments: Great pitching, great hitting, great game. If it wasn't for the Soriano injury it would have been nearly perfect. And I'm still trying to figure out what Lou was doing when he chose the lineup and positions for today. Whatever it was, it worked.
  
• Magic Number: 153. Milwaukee sits alone atop the division, but they will fall soon enough.

Wade Miller faces off against Greg Maddux tomorrow. Excuse me while I go cry now and get it out of the way ahead of time.

FINALLY! Volcano Lou Erupts!

I'm usually a big advocate of the Number 13. It happens to be my favorite number. I think part of the fact that everyone else thinks of it as unlucky attracted me to it. It was like, if it was my favorite number, then it wouldn't be unlucky for me, and that would make me different from everyone else. Yeah, maybe that was it.

Turns out that was a load of BS. Today was Friday the 13th, what should be one of my favorite days of the year, and it was on this day that the Cubs had the greatest collapse of the season thus far. So why, you may be wondering, does the title of this post have excited exclamation points in it?

Because Friday the 13th is the day that Papa Lou finally blew his top.

The Priors and Woods of the world are trembling in fear.

You may remember what Dusty Baker would say after Zambrano and Ohman made blowing a 5 run lead look easy. He would be apologetic and protective of the pitchers, saying these things happen sometime, and he'll get his stuff together. Not Lou Piniella, my friend. He's starting to sound like first base throwing, umpire face spitting, getting ejected from the game, 1990 World Series winning Lou.

"What the [heck] do you think isn't working? You see the [darn] game," he said.

"This guy's your ace," Cubs manager Lou Piniella said of Zambrano. "You've got a 5-0 lead with the eighth and ninth hitters coming up. You feel pretty good about that inning. All of a sudden, it turns into a six-run inning. What do I do? I pitch [Zambrano] when it's his turn again. What else can I do?

"Then I bring in a reliever who's throwing 30-40-foot curveballs to boot," Piniella said of Ohman. "I can start to see some of the ways this team lost ballgames. I can see it. We've got to correct it, obviously."

"Look, when you've got a five-run lead, whether a guy misses a ball, makes an error, or what, you should be able to pitch through it," Piniella said.

Zambrano, however, seems to be channeling his inner Dusty Baker.

"When I came in [to the clubhouse] in the fifth inning, I told someone, 'Man, that happened so quick,'" Zambrano said. "I won't be frustrated. I feel good, I feel I'm throwing the ball the way I want to. I have to mix the pitches more and be more aggressive. That's it."

We'll see what Captain Lou has to say about that, Big Z.

Game Summary for April 13th, 2007

• Score: Cubs lose to the Reds, again, 6-5.
  
• Player of the Game: Michael Wuertz. Came in during the 5th inning to strike out three straight batters and clean up Zambrano's mess. We should call him The Janitor.
  
• Subject of Lou's Wrath: Carlos Zambrano / Will Ohman. Zambrano loaded the bases with no outs and gave up 4 runs, Ohman then walked two batters to seal the loss. Lou finally made it obvious that he's sick and tired of managing a crappy team.
  
• Comments: We had this game made until the 5th inning. I actually quit listening after the Reds scored their first run, thinking even Zambrano can't blow this thing. Wasn't too surprised when he did though. On the bright side, the Cubs were decent on offense for a change. Zambrano began his push for the Silver Slugger award early this year with a solo home run. He now has as many homers as Soriano, Lee, and Aramis combined. Sometimes I wish the NL used a DH.
  
• Magic Number: Still 156. Reds are first in the division, this number is going nowhere if we keep losing to them.

Tomorrow's game features the only Cubs pitcher that hasn't had a bad game, Rich Hill, against the only Reds pitcher we've beaten all season, Bronson Arroyo. If we can't win this one, I'm fully expecting Lou to start sacrificing young players, Old Testament style. I nominate Angel Guzman and Ronny Cedeno for the first round.

Cubs Win!

Stuck should be along later to give the recap for those of you who missed out on this one, but I just wanted to congratulate the Cubbies on their first win of the season. Thank God it didn't take too long to get it.

TigerLilly sure looked worth the money tonight. I only hope for his sake that he keeps it up, cause we all saw how pissed Louie got with Dempster and his lack of control in the 9th.

Here's the transcript from that mound visit after Ryan's first pitch to Griffey missed by 3 feet:

Lou storms out of the dugout with the rage of a thousand Spartans.
Barrett (hiding a smile with his mitt): "Oh Sh*t."
Pinella steps to the mound (his head about to explode) : "Throw a f***ing strike!"
Dempster nods his head, cowering in fear.
Lou spins around and walks back.

Demp was lucky Lou didn't get back to the dugout in time to see his next ball.

But it all worked out, we got the win. And so we say:

"Raise the W Flag."

-rfs