Category: chicago national league ball club

SFG --- 18 OFF
CHC 1.0 22 Maddux v PIT Brooks
HOU 1.0 18 OFF
FLA 2.5 23 Beckett n MON Kim @ the Cell
SDP 2.5 19 Wells @ LAD Perez
PHI 4.5 19 Floyd @ CIN Wilson

Didn’t watch yesterday’s game. Thanks. Cabera totally got intentionally plunked for mocking Alou and I guess we can add the Marlins to another team the Cubs are due for a brawl with it (Cardinals just because, Astros and it may even happen if they meet in a playoff game).

I was hoping the Cubs would split with the Marlins; it’s not taking series from the good teams that’s as important/expected to me as beating the bad teams. This is the week to show if they can do that; while the Cubs have two dead teams (PIT, @CIN), everyone else has playoff teams or playoff contenders (SF has a series against SD, HOU against STL, FLA against ATL, SD against SF and LA which is a possible killer week). If the Cubs can take both series and go 5-2 while other teams go 3-3, they’re back in the lead.

What a sad excuse of a baseball team are the Philadelphia Phillies. Yea, they’ve squeezed back into the outreaches of the race in September, but that only points how much they’ve failed – they should be at the top of this race, not just hanging in. If they actually could beat the Marlins, if they actually made a manager change before the season, if they could play the Mets all the time, they’d be up top. The thing you worry about is they get close enough at the end where they think it was just bad luck and major changes do not need to be made, because then I’ll be saying the same thing in 2005.

Do you realize the Mets are only one game ahead of the Expos for second worst record in the NL? They really really suck. I don’t believe I’ve ever seen a team fall completely apart as bad as they’ve done in the last couple months: 16-38 since the All Star Break. And it’s not like they were a good team to begin with, but that’s horrid. Sounds like Howe is the one taking the fall.

So we’ve got the Expos, the worst drawing team in the major leagues, the team without a home. And they’re facing the Marlins, who just two years ago only finished ahead of the Expos in attendance because of some last minute chicanery involving mysterious benefactors buying out massive amounts of tickets. And it’s happening in the home park of the White Sox, with a hugely apathetic and fair weather fan base.

10000? Not a chance. Surely under 5000. I’ll guess…3453.

Ichiro’s going to get the hits record, but your current ML AVG leader is once again Barry Bonds at .3746. (All he needs is 15 hits in his next 15 at bats, and he’s .400.)

He’ll get 700 tonight, why not.

HOU --- HOU Munro @ PIT Van Benschoten
SFG --- SFG Tomko @ ARZ Johnson
CHC 0.5 G1: CHC Wood v FLA Pavano
FLA 2.0 G2: CHC Prior v FLA Kensing
SDP 2.5 SDP Lawrence @ COL Estes

Continue reading “suburban cougar”

HOU --- 23 G1: Hernandez @ PIT Perez
G2: Redding @ PIT Fogg
SFG --- 21 OFF
CHC 0.5 26 OFF
FLA 1.5 28 Valdez v NYM Benson
SDP 2.0 23 Germano @ COL Jennings

Continue reading “picture”

CHC ---  27 Maddux v MON Downs
HOU 0.5  24 Clemens v CIN Acevedo
SFG 0.5  22 Rueter @ COL Kennedy
FLA 2.0  29 Beckett v NYM Seo
SDP 2.0* 24 Wells v STL Morris

* – in progress as I post, not staying up to watch finish

The Astros will win because they’re the hot team at the right time. No one’s playing better baseball right now, and it’s all clicked in. Roger Clemens can win his first NL Cy Young award if they make it, and I’m sure he’d love it. Even with Pettite and Miller, their pitching is plenty enough. Carlos Beltran is the scariest guy people will actually pitch to.

The Giants will win because if any one single hitter can possibly carry a team, it’s Barry Bonds, and he’s done it this season. They may be a one hitter and one pitcher team, but it’s gotten this far, and all they need is a hot streak from someone else to carry them into the playoffs.

The Padres will win because they’ve got the pitching to carry them through, Mark Loretta is having a great season quietly, Phil Nevin’s doing pretty good too, and they’re going to figure out their home park before it’s over. They’ve got the surest closer in the bunch.

The Marlins will win because they’re almost as hot as the Astros, just peaking a little bit later, which may work out wonders against the Cubs. They know they OWN the late season runs, the last few innings of a game, and the Chicago Cubs. They’ve got the most balanced offensive attack, and their youth should allow them to tolerate a schedule that’d cause other teams to wilt.

(That Clemens v Acevedo game is totally revenge for blowing #300, right?)

CHC --- 29 Postponed @ FLA (makeup TBD)
SFG 1.5 26 Hennessey v ARZ Randolph
SDP 2.0 29 Wells v COL Jennings
FLA 2.5 30 Postponed v CHC (makeup TBD)
HOU 3.0 29 Clemens v PIT Perez

That certainly is becoming quite a bunch.

Friday’s CHC @ FLA is officially off due to Hurricane Frances. Saturday and Sunday are just about officially off.

I have no idea what I’ll do with myself with four days without Cubs baseball. I expect heavily withdrawal symptoms by Saturday night. Cold shakes. Weird cravings. Strong desires to kick fans. Inability to remember how many outs there out on a flyout.

This leads to a whole bunch of bad, worse, and worst scheduling scenerios. No idea what they’ll actually go with at this point, so I’ll skip ’em till they decide. Too bad they couldn’t find a way to keep all the teams playing, because which (or both) of the Cubs and Marlins who don’t make the playoffs are going to be ruefully pointing back towards this Hurricane for the next ten years or so.

The good part is the Giants and San Diego falling apart over the last few games, so they can’t pass the Cubs while they’re waiting. Guess I was wrong about last night – Peavy’s inability to go long is what killed the Padres, and Jason Schmidt got worked over for a lot of pitches in the first two innings

The bad part is the beat writers have nothing new to talk about, which means warmed over season subplots good: (Corey’s really good this year) and bad: (the Cubs don’t get along with the TV guys). Baseball – well, more the people covering baseball – has to have something to talk about each day, and if it isn’t an outcome, it’s the same old things.

Early clubhouse leader on most over talked subject: Cubs to add their own LCD banner behind the plate. I bet they were hoping to drop this when Cub fans were paying attention to the Marlins and not when the media has nothing better to do than to kill this for a weekend.

Immediate reaction to the Mercker suspension: Uh, okay, fine. Three games without Dusty being able to use the third best lefty in the pen, I think they can manage.

I can’t believe a real paid person at a real paper got paid for this Daily Herald semi-column.

CHC --- 29 OFF
SFG --- 27 Schmidt v COL Kennedy
SDP 0.5 30 Peavy @ STL Suppan
FLA 3.0 31 Pavano @ NYM Seo
HOU 3.0 29 OFF

I have 52 minutes to do this before the games start. I like to do this in a more leisurely pace. You…don’t care.

This was Kerry’s best game of the season, and it came at a time when the club needed (gotta win this series) and he needed it (didn’t make it out of the 5th last two times out, gave up 8 runs last time out.)

It’s also one of those times where I can’t believe anyone who watches baseball on a regular basis takes pitcher wins and loses seriously.

Highly unlikely the Cubs are alone and in first place at the end of the night. Cardinals have owned the Padres this series, thus the (panic) short rest start for Jake Peavy. Peavy’d be ERA leader if he had enough innings (2.25 ERA in 120 – I believe it’s an 1 IP/G, so he could catch up by the end of the season.) Peavy’s only had one game where he’s given 4 runs, though he has a relatively low QS rate because he hasn’t made it thru the sixth a fair bit. The IP is the reason he’s not getting Cy talk

BPro doesn’t have a VORP/IP metric – it’d be really biased towards closers and situational guys – but my quick excel math says among starters with 50IP, the top 10 guys are

Orlando Hernandez	NYA	0.382
Jake Peavy		SDN	0.377
Ryan Madson		PHI	0.359
Johan Santana		MIN	0.337
Freddy Garcia		SEA	0.329
Al Leiter		NYN	0.329
Tim Hudson		OAK	0.322
Jason Schmidt		SFN	0.313
Curt Schilling		BOS	0.306

Ryan Madson had one start and good bullpen work to make the list, in case you were wondering. I know I was. RJ isn’t on here despite having a nice huge VORP because he pitches so many innings. That’s kind of the reason I suppose this metric isn’t used; for batting, we theorize that a .200 VORP/PA guy is going to get around that number (plus or minus luck – environment is factored out), regardless of the at bats. Doesn’t work with pitching; Shingo the Frisbee Man’s VORP/IP is going to drop the more he pitches, just because more people will have shots at his wacky pitch.

Schmidt should beat these Rockies in SF nine times out of ten, with the tenth time perhaps being a reoccurrence of his groin injury. (Actual line is SFG -260) I kinda think he’ll be okay and kinda hope he won’t.

Cubs went home last night, instead of going to Miami for the series. If by some miracle, the hurricane misses land, they’d fly down Friday morning. No one really thinks they will. The Marlins game notes made it sound like they were going home, which was kind of a surprise to me until I realized they were a day game and had no real choice.

Weather.com says: “Present thinking puts landfall on the central or southern portion of the east coast of Florida, possibly as early as late Friday”. That’s a problem. If it was going to hit Saturday afternoon, you have the Cubs fly in tonight, play a doubleheader (starting at 9AM if they’d let you), and get them out of town before the hurricane hits. If it was going to hit Friday afternoon, you have the Cubs wait it out in Chicago, come in Saturday to play a late game, and do the doubleheader on Sunday.

In between Friday and Saturday’s really bad, because you can’t play Friday (no sense flying people into the path of a hurricane) and you probably can’t play Saturday (too many things shut down to get a team to the ballpark, and about 5 people will be in the stands.) You may not even be able to play Sunday, if the airport gets messed up or the storm is slow to pass.

I feel sorry for whoever’s got to figure this out. I’d bet heavily on the Cubs working out the stadium tomorrow, because there won’t be a game.

Done with seconds to spare.

CHC --- 30 (Wood @ MON Armas)
SFG --- 28 (Rueter v COL Wright) 
SDP 0.5 31 (Eaton @ STL Carpenter)
FLA 3.0 32 (Valdez @ NYM Glavine)
HOU 3.0 30 (Oswalt @ CIN Wilson)

I kinda figured yesterday’s outcome.

I’m not sure if it’s more painful to continually be down early or to continually blow it late. If you blow it late, you’ve got the feeling of dread hanging over the game, but at least you get eight good innings of happy baseball before hand. If you give up multiple runs in the first inning as the Cubs have done, it’s pretty much an unwatchable game from there on.

Your new Chicago Cubs

Neifi Perez: 232/279/295 He should exist only to be a defense replacement (because Ramon doesn’t have the range) and to kill time on the bench with Jose Macias making up wacky rally caps. He’ll actually bat too much and his fielding will be overrated.

Ben Grieve: Not quite the prospect people thought he was. So maybe he’s the young Todd Hollandsworth. 261/366/415, all below his career numbers.

He’s here to take Todd’s spot, who can’t be expected to come back in playing shape by the end of this season. It’s not as strong a bat as I’d hope, the Cubs needed something to prop up the bench a little bit. I think this will also benefit Todd Walker, because it’s felt like he’s been kept on the bench to give Dusty a left handed option late in the game, and Grieve replaces that. If you want options, it’s actually better to start to start Walker and leave yourself a decent righty (Grudz) and a decent lefty (Grieve) for matchups. Don’t know he’ll actually do that.

There was talk about him joining the team maybe today, and if he got there soon enough, I’d expect to see him get a spot start for Alou or Sosa. They’re both looking worn down.

I’d rather they’d given Dubois or Kelton a shot to earn this slot before grabbing someone mediocre from another team. That’s not how Dusty operates, and this is better than adding Kelton and Dubois to the roster and Dusty never using them. At least he’ll get something out of the roster spot.

Rumor has Marlins wanted Grieve, though people are telling the story multiple ways so it’s hard to gauge their interest.

Mike Difelice: ML Numbers: 136/240/227. Bad numbers for a pitcher. Sadly not a pitcher.

Right handed catcher who’s existence is less to play, but allow Dusty to use Michael Barrett in every game. Barrett should be starting every non-Maddux game and getting in late on the Maddux ones. Dusty has been better than most about not holding a catcher back “just in case”, so this is just a safeguard unless someone gets hurt.

I suspect the PTBNL we gave up are meaningless, if they even result in being players.

The Cubs @ Marlins series over the weekend is critically important and hanging by a thread because of the Hurricane possibly hitting land around that time. They’ve talked about swapping this series with the Cubs home series, but that’s too much trouble apparently. They have a common off day to make up one of the games, but that’d give the Cubs an 23 game stretch without an off day to close the season, and they’d like to avoid that.

The idea that’s floating around is to turn Friday into a doubleheader to replace the second game, get out of town before the Hurricane hits land on Saturday, and make up the Sunday game when the Marlins come to Wrigley next week. I wonder if the Marlins would get to bat second for the makeup game?

Whatever they’re doing, I’d presume they need to make a decision by tonight to get everything in order for Friday.

CHC --- 31 (Prior @ MON Hernandez)
SDP 0.5 32 (Lawrence @ STL Williams)
SFG 1.0 29 (Tomko v COL Francis)
FLA 4.0 33 (Beckett @ NYM Trachsel)
HOU 4.0 31 (Backe @ CIN Harang)

That’s much more like it.

I don’t even know if I’m busy today. I was, then I wasn’t, then I will be. It was pretty funny, I opened up a message in Outlook, and it gets to “the meeting will be at” before freezing. Then it unfroze and I was less happy.

Triple Quotes

Dusty Baker on the Cubs TV crew: “I said, ‘Don’t listen to the TV. Just watch it.'” (Daily Herald)

The Cubs are upset with the media reaction to their tirades against umpires, broadcasters and opposing players. They’re upset Kent Mercker’s phone call to the press box to complain about the broadcasters was leaked. They’re upset that Berkman faked being hit in the head. Remlinger even joked Monday that the media should just buy the Cubs some pacifiers, before adding it was probably too expensive for them to afford. (ChiTrib)

Like the devalued dollar, the turbulence of Cubs emotions also doesn’t fare well in the exchange rate when crossing the Canadian border. (ChiSunTimes)

Neifi Perez joins the club tomorrow.

Greg Maddux needs 2 wins to get 15. He’s got 5 starts.

I’m semi surprised more Cub fans didn’t travel up to Montreal. They’ve been everywhere else.

Prior has pitched three straight QS. He hasn’t had four in a row this season.

That’s all I got for you. I wanted to drop Livan’s S/N record, but BP’s not coming up on this computer since the downtime (server switch?).

CHC --- 32 (Maddux @ MON Biddle)
SDP --- 32 OFF
SFG --- 30 (Lowry @ ATL Thomson)
FLA 4.0 34 (Willis @ NYM Leiter)
HOU 4.0 32 (Munro @ CIN Hudson)

Oh. Great. Well, at least it’s not staying this way for long.

What we learned this weekend:

– There will be no point in his remaining Cubs tenure where anyone will feel safe with Kyle Farnsworth on the mound. Assuming he ever takes the mound again for them; on Sunday, it sounded like he was going to be other for something close to 3-4 weeks, instead of the cursory 15 day DL.

– Dusty still trusted him going into the inning, and then hoped he’d figure it out on his own. It was the first close inning since they started using him again, and there were plenty of other options. A halfway decent inning, and he’s back to the setup role.

– I have no proof, but there’s something more going on with Kyle than anyone outside of the club and the beat reporters know, and the beat reporters aren’t saying. There are traces of another story around the edges. Who knows. Probably come out eventually.

– Ryan Dempster can not yet pitch effectively three days in a row.

– Dusty Baker thinks it’s a fine idea to use Ryan three days in a row before using Todd W once. Anyway, I’m pretty happy if Ryan Dempster can pitch effectively one day in a row.

– Cubs starters, for all the hype, have not lived up to it down the stretch. The 5 game winning streak was as more fueled by the bats killing (bad) pitching, and the last three games were lost early by bad starting performances. It’s a great five man staff on paper, but they haven’t run people over by turning over good start after good start.

– Carlos’ non-catch at first base on Saturday, costing three ones on one play, is one of the biggest plays in the season. He catches the ball and makes the out and the Cubs score like they did, they win the game. Astros move Kent to A’s (as was expected all weekend if they didn’t sweep the last 3), Marlins think about moving their guys, and the wild card races on both sides are affected. Kent’s not going anywhere now.

– You can fake taking a pitch to the head. I had no idea.

– People are getting nailed next time the Astros and Cubs meet. Next season or tiebreaker game, both teams will meet on the field. It’s inevitable.

– The six games with the Marlins loom over everything. The Mets have this habit of losing to anyone close to the playoff hunt, so things are looking up for the fish.

– As much as I don’t have faith in this bench and think they need one more hitter (because Hollandsworth isn’t going to be the same this season), they’re getting their jobs done much better than last year.

– As much as it’d help, the Cubs are never going to have a good bullpen this year. I can’t see it turning into anything better than a coin toss each day. They’ve got to take advantage of Rusch being good as long as they can and move him into a better slot, but I don’t see LaTroy settling down or anyone else emerging as a solid 1 inning guy. Every day brings a polar opposite report on the status of Joe Borowski, but the common denominator is he’s pitching in the 80s, not the low 90s where he was successful. Cubs can’t expect him to pull them off the tracks.

– Which means the starters have to be better, and go longer. And this weekend, they were worse in both.

Saturday’s game was the first time I thought they didn’t have it this year. FWIW. It’s not as publicly as bad as the St. Louis series, but it’s just as low.

This is the first Cubs trip to Montreal in two years. They went to Puerto Rico for the series last year. Nomar’s going to sit a lot in this series, while Grudz is going to play with the same injury. Dusty likes to say it’s because Grudz is used to their AstroTurf. I like to say it’s because Walker could play second and we’d be fine, but we can’t lose Nomar. I suspect Alou will get at least one day off as well, and maybe Sammy if they can convince him.

Cubs really need a win today to turn around some of the negative energy.

John Thomson, ATL’s starting pitcher, has a record of 10-8 with a 4.20 ERA this season. I have no idea who this guy is. I didn’t know he existed till I look up the matchup. I don’t believe you could be run away with a division more under the radar than the Braves have.

Today’s PHI/CWS – a make up of a 06/10 rainout during Interleague season – is semi-important. You can’t really write out even the Phillies (6.0 out) at this point, though it’s going to be tough for them make up ground on so many teams at once. (And if they somehow did win, would Bowa keep his job?) It’s also the last Interleague game of the season, and the AL’s up by 1 game, 126 to 125, on the year. NL’s won two years, Al’s won one year, so either it’s a tie for the season or it’s a tie overall.

No one cares, though. What a shame.

CHC --- 35 W5 (Wood v HOU Oswalt)
SFG 1.0 33 W2 (Rueter @ ATL Wright)
SDP 2.0 35 W4 (Tankersley @ MON Downs)

Busy busy busy.

I’d really like someone to break away (as long as that’s the Cubs.)

I’m declaring the Marlins dead. Thanks a lot, Marlins. Astros lose today, they’re done. Which makes about 500 plots lines in this game.

Psychic prediction: Kerry will hit someone and not get thrown out today.

Prior’s win yesterday was his first win at home since last year, which means it’s an occasion for people to bring up Game 6. You know, there was never a Game 7. Kerry never hit a dramatic 3 run home run. The Cubs were eliminating from the playoffs when Alou didn’t catch the ball. It was in all the papers.

The other fun make believe story is “Is Dusty only using THE FARNS in blowout situations”, which would almost be a story if there had been more than 1 inning of close relief work in the last five games. I’m sure Dusty will give Kyle another chance, because that’s what Dusty tends to do, and it’s not like there’s a plethora of options here.

Carlos Beltran had had quite the up and down season

APR .316 .434 .696
MAY .222 .280 .407
JUN .333 .421 .586
JUL .235 .322 .578
AUG .229 .350 .542

It’s not quite the monster level I thought we’d see out of him when they faced the Cubs in June. Those are some nice walk percentages, though.