Well That Was Short Lived

The Cubs grabbed the outright division lead for a solid 39 minutes before matching the Brewer's shoddy performance and earning a loss of their own. Tomorrow, the two teams switch opponents yet again as they've been doing for the past two months or so. If anyone knows why their schedules are set up like this, could you let me know? It's getting kind of weird and I'm not sure how much I like it.

Again, technically the Cubs still have a slight edge over the Brewers. But technically Carmen Electra has never told me she doesn't want to date me. A victory in both cases, yes, albeit a rather small one.

NL Pitcher of the Month Zambrano takes the mound against the Mighty Mets, one of the few teams in the NL that worries me. Zambrano had a 5-1 record in July with a 1.83 ERA, which is pretty incredible. Then you realize that Ted Lilly, who I until recently may or may not have hated, also pulled off a 5-1 record with a slightly worse 2.52 ERA in that same month. With pitchers like these, I'm kind of disappointed we're not actually ahead of the Brewers.

You Stay Classy, San Diego

San Diego is a pretty good team. Much better than we are at this point. This is why we dropped two out of three against them, which wasn't much of a surprise. On Wednesday night, Sean Marshall was absolutely stellar. Pitched 6 scoreless innings, and had one bad pitch in the 7th for a two run homer. Sadly, that was all the Padres needed as the Cubs decided that Marshall apparently doesn't deserve any run support. After all, that's the way it has always been, right? Len mentioned a statistic late in the game that I can't remember exactly, but I think it was that in Marshall's 10 major league losses, he has only received 10 runs of support from the offense. If he can hold the Padres to only two runs, we should win this game. No question.

Jason Marquis on Thursday gave up one run over 7 innings and still didn't get a win, though at least the Cubs did. This was due to a 9th inning rally that was started by DLee, and ended with the Cubs scoring 2 runs. Which is more than they scored all of the previous game. Sad. Howry was credited with the win in that one and Dempster received his 10th save of the season.

Tonight is a late late game, starting at 9:40 PM Central Time against the Dodgers. Ted Lilly is taking the mound for the Cubs, so we should have a decent shot at this. Just one question for everyone on the West Coast. Is it this bad for you when we have a 12:20 PM day game against a team like the Dodgers? Do you realize how hard it is to stay up until almost 1 in the AM to watch a baseball game. This one had better be exciting.

Ted Lilly to the Rescue!

Let's face it, the Cubs have been bad as of late. I mean really, exceptionally bad. Lost three games in a row, two out of three to the Pirates and Phillies successively, and our bullpen was acting like, well, our bullpen. Today was like a little shot in the arm for the Cubs, as Ted Lilly showed us why the only way we'll get to the playoffs at the rate we're going is to only let him and Jason Marquis pitch. No relievers, no Zambrano, no anything. Since that won't happen, we'll have to try and make something else work. Maybe Zambrano will remember he's in a contract year and get off his butt and pitch well. Maybe.

Game Summary for May 13th, 2007

• Score: Cubs avoid the sweep against the Phillies, 4-1.
  
• Player of the Game: Ted Lilly. Eight innings, only one run given up, 3 hits and 4 K's. A beacon of hope in a dark, dark team.
• Subject of Lou's Wrath: Neck spasms. Derrek Lee was taken out of the game because of them, and when the Yahoo box score said he was out with a neck injury I thought our season was over. Once I found out it was neck spasms I felt better, but any game without Lee is not a good game.
  
• Comments: Lilly continued to pitch extremely well in this game, and Dempster was able to hold down the fort for the save. The offense for the Cubs was decent, especially Thunder Matt Murton who went 3-for-5 with an RBI. Also of note was that Soriano's 20 game hitting streak was broken, as he went 0-for-4.
  
• Magic Number: 134. The Brewers lost two out of three to the Mets, showing that they are in fact human.

Speaking of which, red-hot Jason Marquis pitches tomorrow against the legend Tom Glavine and the Mets. At the same time the Brewers face off against the Phillies. We seem to be trading opponents a fair amount which gives us little to no excuse as to why we can't keep up with them at all.

Season in Review: the 7/54ths Mark (Pitching)

As you probably don't know, cause there's a good chance you've never read this blog before, this was supposed to be a 1/9th season in review. That would have been after 18 games. However, I went to two Cubs games this week and didn't have time to do anything. So it's only fitting that the day when I finally have free time is the day that the Cubs have off, so it's not like there's anything else to write about anyways. I guess I could write about how my old high school principal is terrible, completely overreacts to everything, and does not deserve a job, but that wouldn't be very baseball oriented would it?

So far this year, the theme of the Cubs pitching staff has been...unpredictability. Good pitchers have been bad. Mediocre pitchers have been amazing. And bad pitchers, well they're still pretty bad. Here's a rundown of the way things have been.

Carlos Zambrano

• Current Stats: 1-2 W-L, 6.91 ERA, 27.1 IP, 23 K
  
• Projected Stats: 8-15 W-L, 6.91 ERA, 211 IP, 177 K
  
• Thoughts: It is a well documented fact that Carlos is like a freight train, he takes a little time to get going. After a very rough opening day he's settled down a bit. In his last game he left with the lead, but he left early enough that the relievers were doomed to fall apart. His numbers will improve as the season goes on. More wins, lower ERA, more IP, and definitely more strikeouts. Nowhere to go from here but up.

Ted Lilly

• Current Stats: 2-2 W-L, 2.18 ERA, 33 IP, 33 K
  
• Projected Stats: 15-15 W-L, 2.18 ERA, 255 K, 255 IP
  
• Thoughts: Lilly has been a pleasant surprise. An impressive ERA combined with a lot of strikeouts means that right now he is making a push to be the ace of the team. He has strict competition though, and right now he sits 3rd of the bunch. He probably won't keep up that frantic ERA pace, but I can see his wins staying around 15, especially if the Cubs can produce some run support.

Jason Marquis

• Current Stats: 2-1 W-L, 1.88 ERA, 24 IP, 14 K
  
• Projected Stats: 15-8 W-L, 1.88 ERA, 185 IP, 108 K
  
• Thoughts: While Marquis is posting a ridiculously low ERA, his innings pitched are low as well. He needs to go longer if this bullpen is ever going to get a break. He has been another surprise for the team, even performing well against his former team, the Cardinals. Let's hope he can keep that up tomorrow.

Rich Hill

• Current Stats: 3-1 W-L, 1.57 ERA, 28.2 IP, 23 K
• Projected Stats: 23-8 W-L, 1.57 ERA, 221 IP, 177 K
  
• Thoughts: Rich Hill is the undisputed ace of the staff at the moment. And it's no fluke, I said before the season began that he was going to be great. I'm not sure if I thought he was going to be this great, but I should have. Continuing where he left off at the end of last year, Hill has decimated the opposition in every game but one. The Brewers game was a fluke, he'll be back on track next week. On a side note, if I had done this 3 days ago like I was supposed to, I would have given Hill projected stats of a 27-0 W-L and a 0.41 ERA. Just goes to show how inaccurate these will be.

Wade Miller

• Current Stats: 0-1 W-L, 10.54 ERA, 13.2 IP, 6 K
• Projected Stats: 0-1 W-L, 10.54 ERA, 13.2 IP, 6 K
• Thoughts: Wade Miller will not pitch a game for the Cubs again. I'm in the process of writing a petition to see to that. Expect that to be up later today or sometime tomorrow.

The Relievers:

• Bob Howry: Has returned to almost last years form, posting a decent 3.65 ERA. Has already compiled 2 losses though, which means his talent is coming in spurts. Needs to regain some of that consistency and he'll be fine.
• Scott Eyre: Has pitched 7 innings, given up 10 runs, and posted a whopping 12.86 ERA. Worse than Wade Miller. We know he has talent though, but if he doesn't find it soon I don't know how much longer we can let him pitch.
• Michael Wuertz: The best reliever on this staff, has given up only one run in 12 innings of work. I call him the janitor cause he cleans up other people's crap. I don't see why he isn't the closer, or at least the setup man.
• Ryan Dempster: Hasn't blown any saves yet, which is promising. Keeping things calm with a 2.45 ERA, but I still cringe whenever he comes into a close game.
• Neal Cotts: Has been flawless so far with no runs given up in 8.2 innings pitched. I don't know why we haven't used him more often. Have him and Wuertz teaming up as the setup men and we're golden.
• Angel Guzman: Was doing much better than last year's shoddy performace until he was sent down to the minors to make room for Pie. Now that Pie is staying, and Miller is hopefully off the team, the Cubs need to find a way to bring him up as the fifth starter. I think a trade is in order, but not for any pitchers because Lou demands 12 of them, and 12 he shall have.
• Will Ohman: Another reliever who is struggling this year, Ohman needs to lock it down. The only reason that Cubs fans everywhere aren't crying out against him is that no one has any energy left after complaining about Eyre.
• Rocky Cherry: Brought up a couple days ago after Miller suffered his "back spasms", I'm still not sure what to make of Cherry. He's done fairly well so far, and I'm not even mad at him for losing the game a couple of days ago because I really wanted to go home anyways. Twelve innings is way too many for a baseball game.
  

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.

Today is Opposite Day

My preseason predictions went like so: our offense will be amazing with the high-powered group of Soriano, Lee, Ramirez, Jones, and Barrett, and our pitching will be disappointing considering how much we paid for it.

Forget everything I said before the season started. It was all a pack of lies.

Ted Lilly pitched a great game today, only giving up one run and two hits in six innings. My first question is, why did he only pitch six innings? I mean I understand that Lou is trying to be the opposite of Dusty Baker, but that seems a little extreme.

Our offense, on the other hand, looked horrible. The only bright spot was Ryan Theriot who went 3-for-4 while filling in for Aramis while he's fulfilling his obligatory stint on the bench with an injury. This time, it's tendinitis. The only other Cub to get a hit was Soriano, with a double. In the 6th inning Soriano led off with that double, and then Theriot got a single, advancing the speedy Soriano all the way to 3rd base. Lohse then managed to strike out Jock Jones, DLee, and he made Barrett fly out to end the inning. If we can't get a run with men on first and third with not outs, then there is no hope for our offense.

Game Summary for April 15th, 2007

• Score: Cubs lose to the Reds, 1-0.
  
• Player of the Game: Ted Lilly. Great pitching, not sure why Lou pulled him so early but the bullpen held up very well. Too bad he had zero run support.
  
• Subject of Lou's Wrath: Batters number 3-8 in the order. None of them had a hit. Neither did Lilly in the 9 spot, but he's a pitcher, that's not his job. Everyone else is paid to get hits, and I give them all an F on their performance reviews.
  
• Comments: Lilly pitched extremely well, the offense didn't produce. Lather, rinse, repeat.
  
• Magic Number: 154. Milwaukee, St. Louis, and Cincy all have 5 losses. The Cubs don't even have 5 wins yet.
  

Just call me Skilling

Tom Skilling, that is. You know, the friendly, bald, brother of a corrupt Enron executive, meteoroligist for WGN? Me and Tom, we're alot alike. We both wear glasses (sometimes), we both talk about the weather alot (There's a 20° wind chill out right now. In April. Ridiculous), and we both make predictions based on trends that can be completely off at any time. The difference is, he gets paid good money for his predictions and never has to apologize. Me, well so far this a "just for fun" endeavor. And I'm willing to admit when I was wrong. So here goes.

Ted Lilly, I'm sorry for doubting you. I'm sorry I called you underachieving and overpaid, so far it looks like you're not an underachiever. One good game does not make you worth $10 million a year though, no matter how phenomenal it was. Keep it up and maybe I'll retract the overpaid tag too.

To the other new players I've been harassing, Cliff Floyd and Mark DeRosa, I was pleasantly surprised. Maybe Jim Hendry does know a thing or two about baseball after all. In fact the only one of the new guys who sucked tonight was Soriano. Ouch.


Game Summary for April 4th, 2007

• Score: Cubs defeat the Reds 4-1
• Player of the Game: Ted Lilly. Amazing pitching, took a no hitter into the 5th inning, got 9 K's, started off the year with a 1.29 ERA, and even got himself an RBI.
• Subject of Lou's wrath: Ryan Dempster. I didn't actually get to watch the game, but apparently he was all over the place and Lou was not happy. For a full transcript of that conversation, check out the post by RFS below this.
• Comments: Again, my apologies to Lilly and DeRosa, both performed better than expected. Ramirez is staying strong too which is a nice change from last year. Lee is performing well as always, and the others.....well they need some work. But just remember, this was only the second game of the season. We'll have a better idea of how everyone's doing a couple of weeks in. Also, no home runs yet for the Cubs. Mildly disappointing given the power we have in the lineup, but a win is a win.
• Magic Number: 162