Final Thoughts on Chicago Sports

A Little Mike & Mike on the Cubs

With apologies to the real Mike & Mike, my friend Mike and I engaged in a little email exchange on the Cubs the last few days that sum up the feelings of typical Cubs fans.  It started Monday (after the Cubs swept the Indians) with an email from MikeB:

MB: Boy, I thought we had problems until they came to town and redefined the term “struggling.”  Have you ever seen a bullpen that made you half as eager to pick up a bat and join the fun?  That was a feel-good three days, but I’m not buying it. 

You hit on some good points in your blog, but one thing I haven’t seen mentioned enough, in my opinion, is how much the Cubs have flailed against staggeringly mediocre, and even poor, pitching.  As soon as I see a guy waltz to the mound looking for his first win of the season or sporting a 5+ ERA, I head straight for the booze cabinet.  A few of my most favoritest, very special examples: 

May 23 – The immortal Josh Greer, who now owns a 5.98 ERA for the season, has only one win in 10 starts this season, which he earned by holding the Cubs to one run over 6 2/3.

June 13 – The magnificent Anthony Swarzak stymies the Cubs, blanking them for seven innings.  The Twins immediately ship him to the minors, demonstrating just how impressive the feat is.

June 20 – Rafael Perez strides to the mound sporting an 11.36 ERA, having given up 32 hits in 18 innings.  Result?  A 1-2-3 inning of course – two of them on K’s.

It is truly remarkable that they are still in the hunt for anything given how utterly unwatchable they’ve been for the past month.  If the games I’ve seen are an accurate representation, they’re hitting about .060 with runners in scoring position.  I bet the following joke is making it around National League bullpens right now: 

Q: What the best way to keep the Cubs from scoring?
A: Load the bases with nobody out.

You really can’t say enough about the starting pitching, but even with a healthy Ramirez back in the lineup, Bradley returning to form, and Soto shaking off his sophomore slump, it looks to me like the upside for this team is a first-round sweep at the hands of…whoever.

Before I responded, the Cubs were shut out by the Braves on Monday.

MJ:  Yeah, the team really isn't good at all.  I think they have problems with all pitching, though, not just the crappy guys.  They simply have a problem in the clutch, as seen tonight by 10 hits and 0 runs.  I mean, who does that?  Well, the Cubs do.  All the time it seems.
 
I'm not completely down on their prospects for the season, however.  The division really does suck, and all you have to do is get in.  The rest, as Billy Beane says, is fucking luck.  Ever since the Cardinals won in '06, I can't help but think the regular season is meaningless.  All you have to do is get in.  That's why I wasn't overly excited last fall.  I mean, even with the best record in the NL, I thought they had maybe a 20% chance of winning it all.  They sneak in this year with a 85-77 record, and I'd give them a 10% chance.  It just doesn't matter until October.  And then its simply a matter of how the ball bounces. 
 
Then again, it IS possible to freaking choke.  4 errors in one inning?  7 walks? 

After this email, Gregg served up the walkoff to Detroit on Tuesday.

MB:  Well, that was kind of my point – if they can’t hit the crappy guys…
 
Oh, and we forgot to mention they have a tier 3 closer.

The regular season is still meaningful in that only 25% of the teams get in, unlike some sports.  But I don’t see how this team can do anything beyond maybe win our crappy division, unless they start showing something that’s been conspicuously absent to date.

Another day, another loss.  This time via a Bradley 2-run error and a Marmol bases loaded walk.

MJ:  Man, I wish we had a tier 3 closer.  Yesterday was absolutely brutal.
 
Then tonight, more of the same.  The good news is they're getting hits.  The bad news is they can't bring them home.  At this point, I think I might start advocating some small ball.  Typically, I'm not in favor of wasting outs on sac bunts.  But you watch the leadoff man get on board and end up stranded 20 times in a span of four games makes you rethink your strategy quick.  Get at least one run on the board.

MB:  First off, the Bradley signing was a disaster.  That guy is a loser.  Yes, it was a tough catch, but that ball hit the heel of his glove.  A major league outfielder should catch that ball.  Cost them two runs = ballgame.  How many bonehead plays does he need to make?  I can’t for the life of me figure out why we wouldn’t be better off with DeRosa and an extra $8M to spend.  They should release him to send a message.

MJ:  At first, I wanted no part of Bradley, mostly because of his injury history.  Dude only played even 100 games twice in his career.  And of course, I wasn't looking forward to his lovely personality either, but that was a distant second to his fragility.  But then the more and more I looked at his stats from last year, I talked myself into the signing.  "The Cubs need someone to add an edge, to disrupt the clubhouse."  What a joke.  At least the 3rd year is not guaranteed.  But you're right - thus far its a major bust.
 
I don't know if keeping DeRosa would have prevented all this.  But I do know he would have played every day at Second, Right, or Third, and the team wouldn't have been overexposed with Fontenot and Miles playing every day.  I assumed Fontenot wouldn't be able to keep up last year's pace, but I didn't think he'd fall this far either.  And Miles for $4M?  Are you kidding?

MB:  No doubt!  Miles is a poor man’s Augie Ojeda.

During Thursday's loss...

MJ:  And Who the hell is Ray Raburn?  I saw his stats the other day and knew he was going deep on Gregg.  .225 BA, 4 HRs, 14 RBI.  He's killing them today, too.

MB:  That’s Ryan Raburn.  He’s a journeyman’s journeyman, but the 2009 Cubs are making stars all around the league.

A few parting shots:

Both Sean Marshall and Rich Harden currently have better batting averages than not one, not two, but THREE everyday players.  And that’s not because they’re capturing lightning in a bottle – they’re hitting .235 and .231 respectively. 

In eight starts Randy Wells has compiled a sterling 2.57 ERA…and has been rewarded with one win.

Perhaps worst of all, Neal Cotts has been trotted out to the mound 19 times this season despite his complete inability to retire major league hitters.  How many times do you have to smack your head on the same doorway before you start ducking?

MJ:  At least Cotts is gone.  We still have to deal with Miles every other day.  I'm probably wasting too much energy talking about Miles, though, as he's just a part-time player.  But I can't help it.  He sucks.

I kinda liked Marshall in the rotation, but it seems he can't get the job done in the bullpen.  He always struggles in his first inning, and that won't work for a reliever.  And that said, Wells has looked far better than I could have possibly imagined.  I still don't know if he's for real or not but who cares?  He's doing the job right now just fine.

Anyways, swept by the Tigers.  White Sox are next.  How long till Training Camp?

Random Cubs Notes and what I think of Sammy

Ok, it's been far too long and there's a lot on my mind.  Man, do the 2009 Cubs suck.  Yeah, they won today...yippee!  But frankly, I'm more surprised that they scored 6 runs in a single game than I am that they beat the equally execrable White Sox.  This offense is bad.  Based on their offseason moves, I figured the Cubs might shave three or four wins off last season's 97-win mark.  I didn't think they'd fall this far, though.  Amazingly, they're not even close to being out of the race.  Thank God for crappy divisions.  If they can simply get healthy and have Sori/Soto/Bradley start hitting close to what we expected, they'd be in solid shape to still take the crown.  Lousy bullpen or no.  Now, for the particulars of this bad, bad team:

• Soriano.  I'm to the point where I can't fathom the Cubs winning a world series with Sori hitting leadoff.  Yeah, he looks like a MVP at times, but his cold spells just suck the life out of the whole team, and I firmly believe the back-to-back playoff sweeps can be largely attributed to him alone.  I'm almost to the point where I think a Fox-Hoffpauir platoon would be more productive (and consistent) in Left than Sori. 
• Fukudome.  He's back to his old corkscrew self.  What is it about the first six weeks that make him so awesome?  What is it about the rest of the season that makes him so terrible?  He looks like he couldn't even hit single-A pitching at this point.  Forty million wasted.
• Lee.  Now, for a change of pace, something positive.  Lee's been tearing the cover off the ball for a month now.  Not at his 2005 MVP-caliber pace, but more than solid enough.  If he only had people on base in front of him, then maybe we'd get somewhere.  Oh, and sorry about all that "Hoffpauir should start" talk. 
• Bradley.  He's been a massive bust, but I'm not counting him out just yet.  Seems every free agent the Cubs sign struggles with the day games for a while.  He's showed some signs of snapping out of it a few times, but every time he does he tweaks a groin or something.  If he could.  just. stay. healthy.
• Miles.  Ugh, this guy needs to be DFA'd ASAP.  He's less than worthless.  He can't hit, he can barely field.  I'd just start Andres Blanco every day until Aramis gets back and be done with it.  At least he plays stellar defense. 
• Rotation.  Awesome.  I shudder to think where we'd be without the stellar starting pitching.  And I like the Randy Wells story, but something tells me he'll be coming back to earth and heading back to Iowa before he gets his first win.
• Perry out; Joshua in.  Pure BS-PR move to placate the fan base.  Gotta show the fans that we're doing something.  Number one offense in the league last year.  The veterans should get fingered for this one.  Can't fire them, though.

And now, some thoughts on Sammy Sosa.  Wow.  Shocker.  Ok, so we were only 95%-99% sure he was guilty of using roids, and now we're 100% sure.  Its a shame, really.  But I don't blame Sosa.  It was par-for-the-course in all of MLB and I'm now convinced that at least 60% or 70% of all players were on something.  Baseball not only looked the other way, but they flat-out encouraged it.  You'd be stupid not to do roids.  Seriously.  Millions at stake, everyone else is doing it.  Why wouldn't you?

Now, as for the Hall of Fame.  Sosa is now very, very questionable.  I will say that he shouldn't get in before Bonds or Clemens, two other massive cheaters.  But those guys were undoubtedly the very best of their generation, possibly even without performance enhancers.  Still, 600 homers is an awful lot of homers, and its not like hitting 60 homers three times was exactly commonplace.  If it was, you'd have seen dozens of cheaters doing it.  There was definitely a certain amount of talent that had to be harnessed, plus he had to stay in the lineup (while some cheaters couldn't).  Did steroids teach Sosa how to be patient and take a pitch?  That was really the eye-opener at the time of his ascent.  He always had the massive power, he just couldn't harness it.  Really, though, I don't know if any of these guys belongs in the Hall, but I do think that if you let in known cheats then Sammy should at the very least be considered.  Too many cheaters haven't been caught to leave out the red-handed ones.

And that's that.  Woodie and DeRosa come to town with the Indians next.  Ah, what could have been. j/k.

You'd think I would have learned by now

Randy Wells pitched BRILLIANTLY tonight.  No hitter through 6 2/3, supremely efficient in getting outs, and he left in the 8th leading 5-1.  A Marmol/Gregg meltdown later, it's 5-5 going into extras.  I swear, I called the Gregg Meltdown before he even came into the game.  Alfon-frickin-seca the second.  El Pulpo Dos.  In fact, I like that. I think I'll call him Papadeux from here on out.  Son of a bitch.

This Cubs team gives frustrating a new name.   I think they'd be OK if everyone just pulled their heads out of their asses and played the way they're "supposed" to play.  I'm thinking Bradley, Soto, Lee, Soriano and even Fontenot.  I'm not sure if I like the new Theriot, the one that hits for power.  I like the old one that hit .310 with a .380 OBP and no pop better.  At least at the top of the lineup.  The new one pops up or hits into DPs before you can say boo. 
 
I'm probably most upset with Soto and Bradley, who of course came up lame tonight.  Lee's decline we saw coming for a while, and Soriano's mind-numbing slumps are to be expected.  Not too shocking that Fontenot hasn't kept up his excellent pace as a starter, either.  What is shocking is Soto turning into Rick Wilkins overnight.  I mean, what the hell?  Could he really be a one-year flameout like Wilkins?  His arm is garbage, too. And I figured Bradley would miss a bunch of games to injury or suspension, but I also figured he'd rake when he was in the lineup to a tune of .300/.400/.500, at a minimum (which, even that, is worse than what he did in all three categories in the AL last year).  And don't give me the "it's early" crap.  It's freaking June.
 
What to do to "fix" them?  Well, first off, I'd say get Aramis healthy. Not much they can do about that now, though, as I guess that won't happen until July.  Then I'd say give Soriano a day or two off to clear his head.  Throw Hoff or Fox out there and maybe Sori can shake the stink off and come back hot.  He's less than useless right now.  Lee has showed some signs, so keep trotting him out there.  If he reverts to April form, though, give Hoff some starts at first. 
 
There's also the option of trying Sori at second and going with Fox/Hoff in left to boost the lineup.  No doubt the lineup would be much stronger, but the Sori's D and Fox's D would be so horrible as to probably offset any gain with the bat.  Worth a look, though.
 
Is there anything out there that they can trade for?  I'm not so sure.  I will say this, though.  I wish they signed Orlando Hudson in the offseason, who I was interested in.  Or kept DeRosa, of course.  He would have made the Aramis loss sting a lot less.

Again, why do I bother?