Final Thoughts on Chicago Sports

Sox Even the Series with Sweep over Cubs

What is this, soccer?  The Sox, having been swept by the Cubs at Wrigley last weekend, got their revenge and swept the Cubs this at the Cell weekend.  The season series ends up tied, 3-3, and you know what they say about ties, right?  It's like kissing your sister.  (Not that there's much kissing going on between the north and south sides.)  I think we need a tiebreaker, perhaps in October.  What do ya think?  On to the gory details:

• The Cubs had their chances in the last two games of this series, they just didn't get the big hit when they needed it.  LOTS of double plays, not to mention a few shoddy calls by the umps that all went against the Cubs.  Not that I'm complaining, mind you.  The Sox won, and two of the games were pretty convincing.  I'm just pulling a Hawk and mentioning that the good guys got hosed on a few. 
• Marshall and Gallagher both did all right this weekend, and I can't pin the losses on either guy.  Gallagher, in particular, showed some good stuff in his Saturday effort.  So what's the deal, should the Cubs trade those two (along with a few others) to try and pry Sabathia away from the tribe?  I've got two words for you.  Hell and yeah. 
• Aramis Ramirez blew chunks this weekend.  He's still better than Crede, though, and its not even close.
• Alexei Ramirez is pretty freaking great.  He reminds me of Hanley Ramirez, only skinnier.  Great pickup by Kenny.
• Speaking of great pickups by Kenny, Carlos Quentin.  He's got an awful lot of Canseco in him.  I don't know if that means he's juiced or what, I just know he's hitting a ton. 
• The FireJoeMorgan guys got it right.  The guy simply doesn't watch much baseball, which is fine unless you're the lead color analyst on the prime time game of the week.  Every week he goes off on a tangent that's either a) painfully obvious, or b) completely mis-informed based off his shoddy memory or small viewing habits.  For example, tonight he said the White Sox have one of the best bullpens he's ever seen.  Jon Miller's jaw dropped when he said that and he did a double take.  While they are pretty good this year, and they certainly looked dominant on Saturday, Joe is basing his entire opinion on that one day.  Linebrink came in today and threw a few strikes and Morgan said to Jon, "see what I mean?"  Like a 1-2 count proves anything.  Then last week there was the whole "Banks Boulevard" thing, which was an outright fabrication; preceded the previous week by him engaging Miller in a bit of "trivia".  Great player, but his commentary is ridiculous.

There's not much more I can say about this series.  The Cubs are simply banged up a bit and struggling right now.  Once they get healthy, I think they can get rolling again and easily take the division.  Then again, with the Cards playing out of their minds, so it's not exactly going to be easy.  Till next time....

Bulls take Rose

The Bulls, as expected, took Derrick Rose with the first pick in the 2008 NBA Draft.  There's not much I can say about the pick that I haven't said before.   Downey, today, said it best:  Paxson can take the hometown kid, Rose, and not be skewered if the pick is a bust.  But if Paxson picks Beasley and he's a bust, well then Paxson might as well reserve his flight out of town right now.  Rose is a nice, safe pick, and now they just need to move Hinrich or Gordon.  Period.

As the first pick in the draft, Rose has a lot to live up to.  I don't expect a whole lot from him this season, as Guards rarely come in and make an immediate splash.  Look at Deron Williams and Chris Paul.  They were up and down their rookie seasons.  By the last month of their rookie years, though, they seemed to catch on.  Now, they're All-Stars. 

Eventually, this pick will be like the Beer of the Month.  A gift that keeps on giving.  In the meantime, let's just keep him away from motorcycles and hope for the best.  And hey, at least this one wasn't dressed like Lloyd Christmas on draft day.  Right?

Cubs Sweep Sox

The Cubs brought out the brooms this weekend on the North Side, pretty much destroying the White Sox.  If you're a Cubs fan, there was a lot to like about this series.  To note:

• Back-to-back jacks in the 7th on Friday by Aramis and Lee, followed by Aramis' game winner in the bottom of the ninth off Linebrink brought down the house at my local (shitty) watering hole downtown.  After watching the Cubs batter Linebrink last year, I thought the White Sox were crazy to give him such a huge contract.  I still think they're crazy, but thus far nobody's giving Kenny any grief for the move on the South Side.  Too bad (for the Sox) that the National League ballpark awoke his inner stinky.  Same goes for Dotel, for that matter.  Oh, and thanks, Ozzie, for getting Denks out of there.  Smooth.
• Speaking of Aramis, I wonder if Phil Rogers wants to change his pick for "best Chicago third baseman" after this weekend?  Crede's pretty solid, but picking him over Aramis was RIDICULOUS.  Most of these position-by-position breakdowns are pure column fodder in order to get a rise out of the readers, but going with Crede was just stupid.  Crede plays better D (though not that much better these days - note Crede's league-leading 14 errors), but Aramis just blows him away with the bat.  His last five years dwarf Crede's.  It's not even close.  The only thing Crede's really got on Aramis is the postseason heroics, and a dozen games does not a career make, no matter how great they were.  Otherwise Scott Brosius would be going to the Hall of Fame.
• I can't look at Eric Patterson without thinking of the royal-suckitude of his older brother, Corey.  Pretty great series for Patterson the Younger, though.  Here's a perfect example on why the Cubs won't miss Soriano that much over the next four weeks.  Sure, Soriano would most definitely outperform Patterson/Murton/Hoffpauir by quite a bit over the course of a season.  But how many big hits or days will they miss over a short term?  And how conceivable is it for the Cubs to have someone in the lineup that has a reasonable chance of having a big day himself?  It's not like nobody's going to be playing Left Field.  Somebody will play, and that somebody will get gets.  Minus Soriano, you're just missing a few hits here, a few homers there.  Maybe 2 or 3 games in the standings, at the absolute most.  It's not like every Soriano homer was a game winner (though his 8 GW-RBI this year would attest). 
• Second hottest hitter on the team after the scorching Aramis?  D-Lee.  I knew that slump wouldn't last long.  Coldest hitter?  Soto.  His last four weeks are not pretty.  Hopefully he'll start heating up again now that his finger is healing.
• Now I gotta say something bad about Mark DeRosa.  Every time I criticize him, he goes on a tear and hits a ton.  Everytime I sing his praises, he goes cold.  Because of that, I can now state with absolute certainty that I control the universe -- though there's quite a bit of bizarro going on with Mark.  Message to Mark: you're mediocre at best.  (There.  That ought to do it.)

The Orioles are in town next and the Cubs are due for a letdown.  Those two facts are mutually exclusive, though, so I'm expecting the good times to last all week.  Hopefully they're still rolling when the hit the Cell next weekend.  Till next time...

Cubs Swept by Tampa

I forgot what it feels like to watch your team get swept.  After all, the Cubs hadn't lost three games in a row all year.  You know, it's exactly how I remembered it.  It pretty much sucks. 

I don't want to read too much into it because, after all, it's just 3 games in a 162 game season and all good teams have bad stretches.  That said, this series was particularly painful because of all the injuries.  To witness:

• Carlos Zambrano is having a MRI on his shoulder, and he'll miss at least one start.  Of course I want Carlos to remain healthy, start 35 games, and win 20.  But the reality is this team is deeper than most and they can afford to miss a few starts by Carlos.  Let's say, worst case scenario, he misses 12 starts.  In that stretch, he'd go something like 8-4 (provided it was one of his "good" stretches).  Marshall or Hill or Lieber steps in to the rotation and what do they go....4-8?  Maybe even a bit better.  So you're only talking 2-4 games in the standings at most -- and that's if he's out 2 months.  The bigger problem would be the tax on the bullpen.  A few more innings from the "good before tonight" middle relief.
• Edmonds and Johnson are both banged up.  It doesn't sound like anything serious, but to lose them both at once causes havoc on the defense.  They had three guys playing out of position tonight in the outfield, and it showed.

Hey, what the flying fig happened to Carlos Marmol tonight?  Is he hurt?  Does he have Rick Ankiel disease?  Is he worn out?  Was he rusty from not pitching in 5 days?  Was it just a fluke bad game?  All I know is the Cubs can't afford for him to be hurt, crazy, or wild.  He's far too valuable.

Sox series starts today, and I'm not feeling very confident right now.  Sure, this team is awesome at home and on paper you'd think they'd win at least 2 out of 3.  But you can throw the paper out the window during the Crosstown Classic.  How the teams are playing has precious little to do with the outcome of the series.  In fact, losing this series is often the turning point for the losing team's season.  Let's hope, for the sake of both teams, that this isn't the case this year. 

Still, I'm going to make a pointless prediction.  Why?  That's what I do.  Cubs win, 2-1. 

Side note.  ESPN has a huge feature on the Cubs this weekend on the home page, and I was fully expecting to hate this.  Surprisingly, its not that bad.  Check it out.  And while I fundamentally agree with this, I'm having a hard time looking into October with this team.  Yes, they should win the division, but getting swept out of Tampa threw all my warm fuzzies out the window.  Till next time...

Go Cubs Go!

An Email thread on the Cubbies

Here's a couple of emails from Friday, when I was supposed to be working.  Once again, the other half of this thread will be played by my cousin, Jim.

MJ: Good morning.  I'm bored.  Any thoughts on Soriano and the Cubs?

Jim: I think they'll miss Soriano, obviously, but it shouldn't have too much of an effect.  I was remembering when he was on the DL the first time this year and I was making the absurd argument that they were better without him.  What a schmuck.  He's basically been mashing since he come off that first DL trip.  Overall, probably their best offensive player. 

But this team is so deep everywhere, that they should be able to at least keep themselves afloat if not continue to kick ass.  Piniella is so good at just continuing to move guys around until something works.  They can ride the combination of Johnson & DeRosa and be fine.  My question is why didn't they bring up Murton.  This situation screams for him.  As decent of a player as he's been in the past, I think he could really do well in this lineup.  We'll see, I wouldn't be surprised to see him up at some point. 

It's amazing to be talking about a Cubs team being good enough to absorb the loss of a superstar player without much repercussion.  I've never seen a Cubs team so deep.  It's June 13th, so I won't talk about it at length, but this team appears to be the most capable in my lifetime of actually going to and winning the WS.  Was it '88 that Sandberg got hurt and how bad they were without him (well, they were bad all the time back then, but you know what I mean).  2006, they went from probably being a .500/slightly sub.500 team to being the worst team in the NL after Lee went down. 

On the other hand, think about the good Cubs teams of your lifetime and think how long it takes you to name the MVP of that year.  84, Sandberg, '89, harder but you take Maddux off that team and they aren't a playoff team, '98, easy Wood & Sosa, '03, easy Wood & Prior, '07, harder. 

2008 you can make the case for probably 9 different guys - Marmol, Zambrano, Dempster, Fukudome, Soto, Ramirez, Lee, Soriano, Wood, shoot even Theriot you could make a case for.  It's just strange because every good Cubs team I have seen before has been carried by a few guys and this one is carried by like 10.

MJ: Yeah, I had some pretty harsh words for Soriano, too.  I do recall saying that they'd miss him during his DL stint, but I also remember calling him a "bust" on the blog.  The fact still remains that 18 million per year over 8 years is too much money for such a limited player.  Horrible defense (outside of his arm), no patience to speak of, sore legs (though he's been running better of late -- and the silver lining of this "break" is that it will also give his legs further rest).  That said, he's been shutting me up quite considerably since then.  Tons of clutch hits, as evidenced by his 40 RBIs out of the leadoff spot, despite missing 15 games.  Ridiculously good, even if his head doesn't always appear in the game.
 
I have to actually disagree with the choice of Murton.  Some of my friends here at work joke that I'm related to him, for as much as I've sung his praises in the past.  But after his last stint here, I've changed my tune.  Dude didn't hit one ball out of the infield, and all of his singles were of the swinging-bunt variety.  It was sick.  Ok, that's one bad week, but then I looked at his numbers in AAA this year.  Sure, he's hitting .311 with a .410 OBP, but he only has one HR, and his slugging is less than .350.  That's basically what Theriot is doing this year, which is fine and dandy for a shortstop.  But you need more power than that from a Left Fielder.  Murton's defense and speed are nill, too, so all you'd be getting from him is a potentially solid OBP, at best.  I'm afraid there's no room for Murton on this team unless (knock on wood - but not Kerry, please) Fukudome joins Alfonso on the DL.
 
I'm OK with Patterson, though personally I'd maybe give Hoffpauir an extended look or perhaps sneak Cedeno in there some with DeRosa shifting to left.  Personally, I think the Cubs are fine with any of those options.  I think Patterson has a future as a major leaguer, though I don't think he's good enough to supplant DeRosa for the starting job or Fontenot as a bench guy.  Maybe he's better than Fontenot, because he's not that special, but still, Patterson's no star.  I'm thinking Patterson will have a productive career starting with someone like Pittsburgh or Kansas City.  (Hoffpauir and Murton will probably end up the same way, for that matter.)  Did you see the Cubs recently re-signed Jason Dubois?  He's hitting the ball hard in AAA, of course.

Yes, this team has decent depth.  I'd say the most valuable Cubs in terms of what kind of downgrade they'd see with his backup in the lineup is as follows:
 
Soto - Blanco and some AAA guy like Koyie Hill.  Massive, massive loss.
Lee - his bat would be replaced by Hoffpauir/DeRosa/Ward, his D would be replaced by nobody
Fukudome - his D would be a huge loss, his left-handedness as well.  Murton would get the call.
Zambrano - you can't replace an ace with Sean Marshall.  You'd miss his bat, too.
Ramirez - despite the fact that he's probably the best hitter on the team, his loss would not be quite as bad as the others because DeRosa would shift to third and Cedeno into the lineup.  He seems quite competent these days.
Marmol - Wuertz would be next in line, and he's not so hot and I suspect leads would start getting blown a lot more frequently.  Though I'm really starting to like Cotts in the role.
Wood - Marmol's in line, which would be fine, but who would then take Marmol's spot?
Dempster/Lilly - go on down the line with Marshall/Lieber, etc. 
 
Like you said, it's hard picking a MVP.  I might go with Marmol, though.  You know how often he takes a game from the 7th to the 9th?  An average bullpen will blow a few leads, and a bad one will blow it every time.  He's so, so clutch.  Woodie hasn't been bad, either, except in those few high profile screwups.  But only in those screwups, otherwise he's lights out.  After him I'd go with Soriano or Soto.  Soriano for all the game-winning hits (he has something like 8 or 9 while the guy with the next most on the team has 3 or 4).  Soto because he's such a massive boost to the offense.  Look at this team.  We've got corner-outfielder type of production from a spot that's traditionally a lousy stick at best.  And his defense/arm is great, too.  It's such a huge bonus to have a catcher that can hit like that.

Jim:  They do need to find out what they have with Patterson, but, if he sucks like his brother they should bring up Murton and give him another shot.  He had some power in 2005.  I think he has the ability to hit home runs, he just hasn't gotten much of a shot since 2006.  He'll never have ideal corner outfielder power, but he's a competent major league hitter that they should use once they've exhausted the Patterson/Hoffpauir options. 

I put Marmol #1 on the MVP list, because I truly believe he is the MVP.  They would have probably, at least, 5 losses more at this point without him.  Maybe more, even much more.  He's been the definition of clutch.  And, I'd agree that Soto & Fuku would probably be next on the list just because the replacement drop off would be huge.  And, Fuku has been almost as clutch hitting as Marmol pitching. 

<insert weekend here>

MJ:  Nice road trip in Toronto.  Some thoughts:

• Nice game from Marquis on Saturday.  He's in one of his hot streaks where he's getting the ball down and thus buying himself another half-dozen turns in the rotation.  When he's on, he's on.  He's not striking people out, though, which means that this will never last.  We knew that, though.  But I'm not going to complain till he starts sucking again, and by my calculations he has 1 or 2 more good starts to go before bad Marquis rears his ugly head.
• Lilly was effectively wild for six scoreless innings today.  He either walked a guy or struck him out.  Nothing in between.  Gallagher on Friday wasn't horrible, he just had the one bad inning and the offense just failed repeatedly on their dozen chances.   Oh well.
• The reaction Reed Johnson in Toronto got just kills me.  Loud standing ovations, signs everywhere, ladies giving him the "Professor Indiana Jones in Raiders I love you" markings on the face (seriously).   He's pretty good.  Gives 100% on every play.  He had a few real nice seasons there.  But I can't fathom any current Cub leaving and getting that sort of response on his first trip back to Wrigley.  Not while he's is playing for another team.  The only guy I can think of that came even close to that reaction in the past 20 years is Mark Grace.  Maddux still gets an awful lot of respect, too, on his trips back after his second stint with the Cubs.  But I don't remember signs.  And those guys were Wrigley legends.  Maddux's first trip back in '93 wasn't very heartwarming.  He was booed mercilessly, and I even remember him hitting a foul ball in his first at-bat and having it thrown back on the field.  To quote Richard Gere, of all people, "That's Chicago!"
• Derrek Lee is taking walks again, and he's starting to get big hits, too.  Perfect timing with Soriano out.
• I hate how David Eckstein chokes up on his bat, and I hate Scott Rolen's squinty eyes.  Almost as much as I used to hate Jim Edmonds.  (He ain't so bad lately.)
• I like watching Matt Stairs homer.  The quintessential softball-league player looks like a fun guy to have a Molsen with.
• It was pretty cool watching the dome close during today's broadcast.  Watching the shadow creep across the field during the inning was like watching The Ten Commandments.  It was, perhaps not so oddly, like "night and day" between the top half and bottom half of the third inning.  Very cool.  We should have built a retractable dome for the Bears.  It's too late now, but it would have been so much more useful for the city.  We could have had a Super Bowl, a Final Four, you name it.  Now all we get is maybe a dozen NFL games per year and three or four of them are in craptastic conditions.  Yippee.

And that's it.  The Hall of Fame game today sounds interesting, even though it doesn't mean anything.  Cooperstown is a great place to visit.  If you have the means, I highly recommend taking a trip out there.  Till next time...

Bears Backfield: Who's Next?

Unless you've been living in a cave, you may have heard that the Bears cut Cedric Benson on Monday.  There's not much to say about this move, other than:

1. Benson's performance on the field wasn't worth all the distractions.  You can bet your ass that he wouldn't have been cut had he rushed for 1,500 yards last year.
2. Benson officially ranks number 5 on this list.  I put him after Salaam because a) he was a productive member of a backfield tandem that went to the Super Bowl, and b) he did score a TD in a NFC championship game.  You expect a heckuva lot more from the 4th overall pick in the draft, to be sure.  But believe it or not, he could have been worse.

So now what?  Well, they've got 2nd round pick Matt Forte, appendix-boy Adrian Peterson, and the tiny Garrett Wolfe.  I like what I've heard about Forte, but I wouldn't bet the farm that he could carry the load himself coming out of Tulane.  Peterson is a career third stringer who is, while great on special teams, barely acceptable for a spot start.  And it is unknown whether the skills Wolfe flashed at NIU will ever amount to much more than him being a 3rd down back in the NFL.  So the Bears desperately need to sign someone.

The names floating about are Kevin Jones, Shawn Alexander, and Travis Henry.  Forget I mentioned Henry right now, as his problems make Benson look like a choir boy.  And Alexander frankly didn't look like he wanted to play football last year.  Or, if he did, he was simply too old to get the job done.  That leaves Kevin Jones.

Jones is a bust-out for the Lions and coming off an injury.  But people are saying that he's an excellent worker that really wants to do well in the NFL (unlike Benson), and when healthy he did do all right behind a shaky Detroit line.  Plus, if the Bears sign him, he'll get two chances per year to stick it to his old team.  He's holding a workout at the end of the month for NFL scouts.  If he's healthy, the Bears should definitely sign him.  Everyone else out there is a retread at best.

Vinny, Benny. Benny, Vinny.

The Bulls introduced Vinny Del Negro as their new head coach today.  The choice isn't particularly inspiring but I'll take it.  Vinny doesn't have any coaching experience, but he's Italian and he's got great hair.  At least that's what I got from his interview with Mac, Jurko & Harry today.  Not that there was anything wrong with the questions asked, mind you, but those were his responses.  Check out my rough transcript:

Q:  This team was very undisciplined last year.  Players showing up late, taking charters to college games (etc, etc)  What steps do you plan on taking to distill discipline into this organization?

A:  Did I mention I was Italian?  Don't you worry about discipline.

Q:  You seem to have a lot in common with the last coach, Scott Skiles, what key differences will you bring to the organization?

A:  Well, I have a lot more hair, for one.

What's not to like?  I told you they got the best guy.  He's Shecky Del Negro.

Seriously, though, I'll take the young blood over a veteran coach that's never won anything.  I'd take an experienced winner over Del Negro, but when my choices are a retread loser and an unknown like Vinny, I'll go with the unknown.  There's always that teensy weensy chance that he'll be the next Red Auerbach.  (Never minding the excellent chance that he'll be the next Tim Floyd.)

Besides, it's not like this deal will cost the Bulls anything.  Del Negro only has two guaranteed deals on his contract, ridiculously low for a head coach (in any profession.)  This deal screams "you're the best we can get!  but we're still not sure you can handle the job so we're gonna save some money!"  It's no wonder D'Antoni didn't give the Bulls a chance to counter and Collins bolted before the offer was finalized.  They didn't want to embarrass Jerry.

Go Bulls!  I think.

Indecisive Bulls lose out on another head coach

Jerry Reinsdorf is probably the type of guy that goes to McDonalds and looks at the menu for 20 minutes before ordering.  Let's see...what do they have on the menu at this McDonalds....  a Big Mac, a Quarter Pounder, a double Quarter Pounder....so many choices.  That fancy new chicken sandwich sure looks good.  IT'S FLIPPING MCDONALDS!!  YOU KNOW WHAT'S ON THE MENU!! JUST ORDER ALREADY!!

This isn't as bad as when the Bears failed to hire Dave McGinnis nine years ago, but it's pretty bad.  After losing out on Mike D'Antoni (a decent choice) to the Knicks, Doug Collins (a lousy choice) decided that he'd rather not let contract negotiations interfere with his relationship with Reinsdorf.  Ohhhh-kay.  I may not have been a fan of the Collins choice, but at least it was a choice.  This is embarrassing to the organization.  One of three things happened here:

1. John Paxson loved the idea of Doug Collins as coach and Jerry Reinsdorf's hesitance to hire a guy that he fired 20 years ago led to Doug Collins saying "screw it!"  
2. Jerry Reinsdorf stepped in and forced Paxson to hire old friend Collins (like he supposedly forced Paxson to sign Ben Wallace), but ultimately cheapness got in the way of a deal.  (After all, Skiles is already making $5 million from the Bulls to coach the Bucks next year.) 
3. Collins is suggesting that Reinsdorf was too busy this week dealing with the fallout from Ozzie Guillen's comments last week that he didn't have time to meet with him on the coaching job.  So the White Sox' terrible hitting might have caused this.  Great.

In any case, bad times at the Berto Center. 

So what's next?  The names making the rounds are Vinny Del Negro, Tryone Corbin, and Chuck Person.  Any one of them would be better than who's coaching the team now.  (nobody.)  Also, there's a couple of guys who are currently coaching in the playoffs that are qualified choices in Tom Thibodeau and Kurt Rambis.  Hiring one of those guys would save a little face by the fact that the Bulls can then say, "we were just waiting for this guy all along," (as the world rolls its eyes.)

You know what would really save face?  Phil Jackson.  Think the Bulls could pry him away from the Lakers?  Who am I kidding.  Wild horses couldn't drag him back.

The whole thing's a crock. 

Are you kidding me?!?? Benson busted again

Cedric Benson's offseason is getting worse.  After getting charged for boating while intoxicated and resisting arrest a month ago, he was charged with driving while intoxicated last night.  Second-round-pick Matt Forte had this to say about the incident.

Benson, as usual, maintains his innocence.  He claims that he only had 2 or 3 beers the whole night, but nevertheless failed the field sobriety test.  Are Austin cops out to get Cedric?  Or are they still just confused by his slow and slurred speech?  I'm telling you, he always talks like that.  Uhhhh, uhhhhh....  In any case, Cedric better stick with the Sun Chips for a while. 

Things I've noticed about the Cubs lately

The Cubs are beating the Padres as I write this, and have I mentioned that I love west coast road trips?  Not so much for the typical outcome, as the Cubs historically do not do well against California teams.  I just love the late baseball.  Kids are in bed, chores are done.  There's time to settle down and watch the game with no interruptions.  I'm a night person, what can I say?

Anyways, I've noticed a few things lately that I thought were interesting.

• Derrek Lee has been pretty bad for the last four weeks.  In that time, he has exactly 3 walks (after having 18 in his first 4+ weeks when he absolutely crushing the ball.)  His overall line in May was .234/.269/.411 for a lousy 681 OPS.  Lee really needs to step it up in June because this month isn't going to be nearly as friendly for the Cubs as the first two months were. 
• Jim Edmonds may not be done after all.  He's hit the ball hard the last few games, and he might be a viable platoon candidate after all.  Who knew?
• Carlos Zambrano pitches better when he's swinging the bat well.  I know it drives Brenly nuts, Carlos overly concerning himself with his hitting, but you take the good with the bad with Carlos. Hopefully he'll put some good wood on the ball so he'll say focused on the mound.  His triple tonight was a rocket.
• Neil Cotts is back and throwing the ball very well.  The Cubs might win the trade of losers with the South Side after all!
• Mark DeRosa still isn't very clutch.  Yes, he had that awesome lead-grabbing home run on Friday (which I must point out would have been a routine fly out had the wind not been gusting out), but I can't tell you how many times I've seen him come up with runners on and he swings out of his shoes.  Bases loaded, close and late, scoring position w/2 out...all sub .200 BA.  Yes, I cherry-picked a bit but still...the numbers don't lie.  He's a good enough player to win with, but he's really just an average second baseman at best, and not a long-term solution. 

Not to belabor the point, but 22 of the next 31 games are on the road.  If they can even play .500 ball in this stretch, I'll be very confident that this team is for real.  Till then, I'll still be waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Till next time...

So What Have I Missed? Bulls to Hire Collins and Cubs Streaking at Home

The other day, in the middle of nowhere, Georgia, I decided to take a second and check out espn.com on my cell.  After all, "nowhere" gets 3G.  My goal was to find out what time the Cubs game was starting, though instead I was greeted with the front page headline, "Bulls to hire Doug Collins as Head Coach".  My first reaction?  Are you f#$%-ing kidding me?  That has got to be a joke.  To say I was furious would be an understatement.  Doug Collins?  The Doug Collins that had two chances to win a title with Michael Jordan and couldn't do it?  The guy who couldn't win with a pre-injury Grant Hill?  Horrible, horrible move.  I thought they were just going to go cheap with a no-name assistant.  Instead, they go scrap-heap retro with Doug Collins, white-man afro and all. 

I'm not going to go into much detail on why I dislike this move.  The paid professionals at the world-wide leader did a great job here, here, and here.  But suffice it to say, about the best thing I can say about Doug Collins is that he's good at taking a team from point A to point B.  He can make an undisciplined team competitive.  He hasn't been able to get the team to point C, though, which is a Championship.  Phil Jackson had to do that for the Bulls.  Larry Brown had to do that for the Pistons.  Even Eddie Jordan got his team further than Collins did in Washington.  What a horrible way to waste the upcoming number one pick.

In far, far, happier news, the Cubs just completed a 7-0 homestand, sweeping the Dodgers and Rockies.  I was able to watch parts of all three Dodger games, thanks to WGN and ESPN.  You can sum up that series with the phrase "right hits at the right time."  Judging by the recaps for the Rockies games, it was more of the same.  Well, except for that awesome comeback on Friday.  Holy Guacamole, I had a Dwight Smith flashback with that one.  The Cubs now own the best record in baseball, the first time they've held that distinction on June 1st in 100 years.  Can't say much than that.  More on the Cubs later this week. 

 Till next time...