Cubs Take Division Lead

With today's exciting win, the Cubs have finally taken the NL Central Division lead for what I believe is the first time all season. So I might have been off with my prediction by 3 days, but I say that's close enough to be right. And I'm sure many of you out there are looking at the standings and thinking hold the phone, we're still tied with Milwaukee. NOT.

Yes, technically the Cubs and Brewers are both 8 games over .500 at this point, but we've played two less games. This gives us an all important .001 lead in winning percentage, which places us squarely at the top of the standings.

The team had a lot of help getting there tonight, with Thunder Matt's heads-up baserunning and Brett Myers control problems at the end helping secure the W and the Mets taking care of the Brewers for us. I don't need to spell it out for you though: this team is hot. I think I'm perfectly justified in getting overly excited about today considering this is the best position we've been in since 2004.



And in case you were wondering, Minnesota was hot and dry this past week, contrary to popular belief that there is always snow on the ground. It's nice to be back to a place where I can watch the Cubbies every day. Here's hoping Marshall can lock it up for tomorrow and we can start to increase this lead.

Thunder Matt Gets on the Bus to Iowa

Well, you knew something had to happen soon. The Cubs outfield was way too overcrowded and with the emergence of Felix Pie as the everyday center fielder there was only right field open each game, with four players looking for playing time. They either had to send down Pagan or Murton, and it looks like the fiery redhead chose the short straw.

We were expecting this move to happen once Aramis rejoined the lineup, but with the recent sub-2 inning starts by Lilly and Marquis, it looks like Lou decided he needed another arm in the 'pen, and quickly. So the Cubs called up left-hander Clay Rapada, a reliever that I've never heard of. Hopefully he can help us keep the momentum that the team has had over the past week or so.

So with this development, new questions arise. Does Clay stay when Aramis gets back, or do we just send him right back to Iowa? How hard will it be to dump off Jacque Jones on an unsuspecting team? Any chance we can get Farnsworth back so he can get in a fight with Barrett and put him out of commission? Hopefully we'll get most of these answered soon enough, and if we could manage to trade Jones straight up for Farnsie that would answer all three. Brilliant.

If you wish to pay your respects to the memory of Matt Murton in the Majors, head on over to Thunder Matt's Saloon. They're acting tough about all of this, but I'm sure they could use some comforting.

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.

This can only end in tears

Didn't watch the game today, I had other things going on. Which I'm actually happy about, because from the looks of things the entire 9 innings would have been frustrating. Marquis gave up three runs early on and we never recovered. I'm not even going to completely blame the pitching here, our hitting has been lackluster and we just can't produce any runs. I'm about to start lobbying for Felix Pie to get called up just to shake things up a bit.

On a side note, Soriano will not get exactly one hit every game this year. He was 0-for-3 today. Marvelous.

Game Summary for April 10th, 2007

• Score: Cubs lose to the Astros, 4-2
  
• Player of the Game: Derrek Lee. Went 2-4 with an RBI. Not much else to get excited about in this game
  
• Subject of Lou's Wrath: Cesar Izturis. The Gold Glove winning shortstop committed three errors in one game today, the first Cubs shortstop to do so since Shawon Dunston back in 1997. Not even Alex Gonzalez or Ronny Cedeno could pull off such an incredible feat in their terms of service with the team. And do you remember Cedeno's problems with throwing the ball early on last year? Everytime he got it to Lee in time was a miracle.
  
• Comments: The Astros went up early in the first inning and we never came back. That's what it all comes down to. We got something going in the 9th inning, but after scoring two runs Murton popped up to end the inning. He would have been the subject of Lou's wrath today except that Cesar's errors were very uncharacteristic of his reputation as a fielder. Plus I like Murton better, plain and simple. As for pitching, Marquis didn't do that badly, just made some mistakes in the first and that was enough.
  
• Magic Number: Still 157, pending the results of the Pirates and Reds games today. Kind of sad that those are the teams we are chasing at the moment.

Feel Good Moment of the Day (part 2)

I know. Today flat out sucked. There really wasn't much in the way of a "feel good moment" at Wrigley this afternoon.

Which is why (after some feverish searching) I'm posting this up here:



If Matt Murton ruining a crack-head's first major league at bat doesn't lift your spirits, I don't know what will.

Bookmark this for day's like today.

If he pitched for the Reds, we'd still be in the first inning

One of the highlights of yesterdays game, actually probably the only highlight other than Murton's diving catch, was the opening pitch thrown out by Cincinnati mayor, Mark Mallory. Found a video of it today, and an amusing description of it over at With Leather.





The sad thing is, he didn't look much worse than Carlos Zambrano yesterday.

Feel Good Moment of the Day

If there is any glimmer of light that we can take from such a disheartening day, it's the story of Red's reserve Josh Hamilton.

Originally the overall number 1 draft pick in 1999 by the D-Rays, Josh was actually picked up by the Cubs before being immediately sold off to the Reds.

But several early injuries forced Hamilton away from the game before he got really got going in the minors. And what happens when baseball players get bored?

They start drinking heavily and doing crack.

Yes, what is truly amazing about this story is the utter praise that the ESPN commentators had for the ex-drug addict and former alcoholic during today's game.

And so it was no surprise that when Hamilton was called on to pinch-hit in the eighth, ESPN decided not to go to commercial. Rather, they glorified this ex-junkie and his 3 minute standing-ovation, calling it a tremendous display of character and saying that he had overcome all odds.

Needless to say I was sick of all this bullshit. "Yay, lets all hear it for the rehabbed." No one ever gives Robert Downey Jr. (who touched so many hearts in The Shaggy Dog, with fellow abuser Tim Allen) a standing-o.

And as every heart in Cincinnati skipped a beat when Josh connected on a pitch from Will Ohman, one man -- one drug-free, self-respecting man -- finally put his foot down.

Matt Murton made a beeline for the liner, diving to rob Hamilton of his first Major League hit.

And that felt great.