2007 Cubs: Observations from the First Road Trip
The Cubs come home from their first road trip of the year with a 3-3 record. Not bad, really. The goal is to win two-thirds of your home games and finish .500 on the road. Do that, and you're in excellent position to make the postseason. Not to mention that these first six games were tough intra-divisional games. So I'll take it. Here's what I saw, both good and bad:
The Good:
- All in all, good starting pitching. After Z's sub-par opening day, the starters ran off four straight quality starts before Wade Miller shat himself today. And with the Milwaukee series already won, I wasn't expecting a whole lot out of Miller against Cub Killer Capuano. But Lilly, Marquis, Hill, and Zambrano were all good if not great. The Cubs will win a lot of games this year if they keep it up. Obviously.
- A solid opening week for Lou Piniella. I can't really argue with his pitching moves, and the starting lineups have been pretty good (other than Izturis batting in the two hole on Friday.) I especially liked seeing Jones sit against lefty Capuano with Theriot taking his spot in the field. Theriot didn't do much in the game and the team lost, but I like the fact that he's actually thinking when filling out the lineup card.
- One other note about Lou, I absolutely LOVED him bitching out the nibbling Ryan Dempster on Wednesday. Throw strikes. It's 35 freakin' degrees out, they aren't hittin Home Runs tonight. So he did.
- Mark DeRosa. Four strikeout game today aside, I like what I've seen so far. We all know one hot week doesn't mean anything; I remember Cedeno started out last season hot before sinking to a sub .220 line for the rest of the season. But I like DeRosa's defense and who doesn't like his bat in those first five games. He's been hitting with authority. (Again, except for today.)
- Cesar Izturis hasn't been bad either. Him, DeRosa and Marquis have been doing their best to give me and Cub Nation a Coke and a Smile.
The Bad:
- Zambrano's mouth. He's gotta get one of those Cokes, man. You don't say that stuff about any other team, let alone a team in your division.
- Yes, the pitching was overall pretty great, but how much of it can be attributed to the weather? I know Lilly would have given up at least two bombs at the GAB had it been a hot summer day. Let's just say he was pitching to the conditions and be happy with the win.
- The first two losses could have been completely avoided with a little more clutch hitting. There was also some base-running gaffes. No one individual is to blame, but it was really starting to look like 2006 all over again for a second. And what's with all the failed attempted steals? I was under the impression that only Soriano had a green light every time. Is Lou calling for all the swiping? Time will tell.
- Soriano's had a few hits, but I haven't seen no $126 million dollar's worth yet. Pretty solid on D, though, so no complaints there.
- Barrett's been pretty awful, too. And Scott Eyre looks worse than Mike Remlinger did the week he got cut. It's way too early, though, to really give it much thought.
And that's that. Home opener's tomorrow, and I'll be there in spirit via the magic of the Internet. Man, what did people do before TCP/IP? Work? Pshaw....
Go Cubs!