What one victory will do
The mood was certainly light in the clubhouse this morning. Henry Blanco stuffed a clubhouse attendant in laundry cart and wheeled him, bound and blindfolded, out onto the playing field. Big Z rode a bicycle around the clubhouse and, yes, he managed to stay upright. The six-game losing streak is over.
"Sori took a lot of the weight off," Mark DeRosa said, referring to Alfonso Soriano's 3 homers last night. "It's unbelievable what that guy's capable of. It really is. Guys don't do that stuff, ever. He just loosened everyone up to go and have fun. We were playing so tight. I know the guys were saying we weren't panicking. We really weren't panicking. But it was like, 'flat,' I would say, was the word, not going out there and taking it to the opposition and looking to win. It was more like playing the game and seeing what happens."
DeRosa also was happy because he says he doesn't have to make any spring-training trips to Tucson next March. Lou told DeRosa this past spring that if he hit 20 homers and knocked in 80 he wouldn't have to go to Tucson, except for maybe once. "I'm not going at all," DeRosa said. "I told Lou that for two years, it's been me and Theriot and Soto. All the big dogs were getting to stay back (in Mesa). I told him we had to have a bet or whatever because I'm tired of covering for D-Lee and Aramis and Soriano. I think the people of Tucson would very much like to see them play."
Other random notes:
--Pitcher Jon Lieber has gone home after telling the Cubs he still was in pain. GM Jim Hendry says Lieber is welcome back to be with the team in October, if the Cubs make it.
--Jason Marquis' ERA (4.36) is lower than that of Ted Lilly (4.43)
--It'll be Dempster, Lilly and Harden in St. Louis this week. If Big Z is OK, it'll be Marquis, Z and Dempster over the weekend in Houston. If you're going to carry a five-man rotation out through the rest of the season, it would line up as Z, Dempster and Lilly in the first three games of the playoffs.
Lineup
Soriano, LF
Hoffpauir, RF
Lee, 1B
Ramirez, 3B
Soto, C
DeRosa, 2B
Edmonds, CF
Theriot, SS
Marshall, P
Bruce,
Do you have access to the stats that show how often the Cubs leave runners on 2nd base with no outs or 3rd base with less than 2 outs. For a team that people say has a great offense, I disagree. They might lead the league in run differential, but I think it is much more important to get runners in when you have them on 2nd base with no outs and/or on 3rd base with less than 2 outs. I know that you can't get those runners in all of the time, but I would think that a team that some claim is a world series contender should do it a lot more than they have. My guess is that they are in the bottom half of the league in getting those runs home. If you have stats like that I would love to see them.
I think they are a poor fundamental team when it comes to moving runners over and hitting a fly ball when needed. Today's game is a perfect example. Ramirez leads off the 8th with a double and he dies there. That run would have made a difference in how the bottom of the 9th played out. There are countless examples of this, especially lately.
With RISP and two outs this year, the Cubs are hitting .212. They're at .331 with RISP and less than two outs and .279 overall with RISP. I'll see if I can look up more specifics. No question lack of production has killed them of late.
I am most interested in finding out what the percentage is of runners left on 2nd base with no outs and on 3rd base with less than 1 out. I know the Cubs leave a lot of runners on base, but I am trying to get a feel on how the Cubs compare to the other potential play off teams in this category. This is a more specific stat than just BA with RISP, but the percentage of runners left on when they are on 2nd base with no outs and on 3rd base with less than 2 outs. I don't even know if it is a stat, but I figure in this day and age, somebody might have access to it.
Thanks I appreciate your great coverage of the cubs!
What was Wood b*itching about?? Cabrera had every reason to celebrate his walk-off! We blew it with Cedeno's error and Wood couldn't find the strike zone to save his life.
Clearly frustration has set in and now we lose Theriot to injury.
Yes Lou, "when it rain, it pours".
I think Len and Bob said he just wasn't feeling good. Don't think his departure was injury related.
I think it was just frustration on Woody's part when he was jawing at Cabrera. My guess is that was along the lines of the ol' "act like you've been there before".
Alex Gonzales..ERRRRRRR...Cedeno, killed them with that error.
Give Dickerson a double now. Bad scoring change. No, Wood didn't like the excessive celebration, but there was no 15-yard penalty for it. Theriot had "light-headedness."
..because I think he makes that play and at least gets the force at second.
"Hit" my **s.
The excessive celebration, and labeling it as such, is all speculative (I thought it was, but that's just me).
What I did like, if you can "like" anything about that situation, is that at least Woody showed some fire instead just lowering his head and walking off the field.
You know, he seems like he'd be a likeable person...certainly doesn't have a "pretty boy" face, that's for sure, but I think he's the new poster child for "Dusty pitcher abuse points" given the season he's had.
Same with Arroyo. (The Brewers lead the world in PAP this year, it seems - Sabathia and Sheets are both WAY up there.)
I think what blew Harrang up was a long, extra inning game earlier this year when Dusty summoned him on only two days rest and he wound up throwing something like 60+ pitches.
...because I think teams should do more with their starting pitchers on their throw days (they're throwing anyway, why not get some use out of them?) and Harang's poor season is probably going to scare a lot of managers away from that.
Greg is a big fan of throwing. He says pitchers don't do enough of it today. He's probably right.
...having them take the mound, so it's not like you're introducing that much additional strain on the pitcher. And most of the guys in your rotation are better than your back-of-the-bullpen options. And that way maybe you could even carry around an additional benchplayer as well.
But you're going to have a hard time changing the thinking in the game on this, what with teams babying arms and managers wanting 12 and 13 pitchers and getting them. An option I'd like would be the four-man rotation. It doesn't really put any addition strain on arms. It's the workload during games that needs to be monitored more so than the days between starts.
Their RAs are almost identical; as a ground ball pitcher Marquis is more likely to allow unearned runs (more errors occur on ground balls). One of those little quirks.
lets hope they get the offense going, I gotta go mow , something Bears/Cub proablly doesnt have to worry about at his palacial estate in Houston. Heard a rumor Bruce was driving to St. Louis with Lou and Sonatro, I hope Bruce is driving..
...I think I need a new mower as mine is on its last legs.
As for Bruce, he may be driving to St. Louis, but I hear he's charter a jet on the Houston leg as his arrival and Ike out in the Gulf may coincide. This way, he can escape quickly if Ike decides to come ashore on the upper Texas gulf.
...You know we're getting there. Would love to have been part of that whole deal the other day. Can you see the gas-station guy when Lou walks in to buy a map? "Let's see, you managed in Cincinnati for three years and you want to know how to get there?"
..."Planes, Trains, and Automobiles" comes to mind. It's very easy to envision Lou doing the Steve Martin tantrum in, ironically enough, St. Louis.
four runs in the top of the third off Parra, lead 4-0.
Capt. Optimism.
moving into the top of the 6th. Brewers w/o a hit.
Dont learn, Soriano may butcher plays in the outfield at times but to run on his arm when he comes up with the ball is crazy, and he double clutched as well...Lets see if he can come through here..
..I got concerned for split second when he double-clutched that he wouldn't get him.
To see if the Cubs can come back with the bats, I hope they dont think all the homeruns hit last night will be there again, what did they see in the first, 5 pitches ? DeRosa was right on "flat", I wouldve said complacent, you cant just expect to win...
"not going out there and taking it to the opposition and looking to win. It was more like playing the game and seeing what happens."
Lets hope they play looking to win this game, they can cut down on some panic on us fans end.