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:
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.