Derrek Lee update

That looks weird.

It's not a good one, unless you were hoping he would fail in Atlanta. After hitting four home runs in his last three games played as a Cub, Lee has yet to go deep in 17 games as a Brave. While in his first 10 games he had nine hits, seven RBI and three runs scored (and the Braves went 5-5), he is just 4-for-20 with one run scored and nary an RBI in his last seven (and the Braves are 2-5).

While they lead the Wild Card race, the Braves fell out of first for the the first time since May after a second straight loss to the Pirates yesterday.

Cubs chop Braves in 11, end road woes

Let's take a look at some more ex-Cubs, NL West style:

Matt Murton, Rockies

Murton, who topped my "favorite Cubs" list during his tenure in Chicago, was traded to the A's last July in the Rich Harden deal. He played nine games for the A's and was just 3-for-30. He was then traded to Colorado this February, and has appeared in 20 games. He's batting .275 with a home run and four RBI, and because I like him so much, I'm even going to link to the video of him jacking one out of Coors Field.

Chad Gaudin, Padres

Gaudin and his beard were released in April and signed by San Diego later that month. Chad has made seven starts for the Padres, and is 2-3 with a 4.77 ERA. Oddly, six of his seven starts have been on the road this year, and his one start at Petco was a strong six-inning outing against the Giants.

Henry Blanco, Padres

Blanco is another guy that the Padres signed off the Cubs' scrapheap. Some, including myself, were surprised the Cubs didn't try to retain him, as he had a career year with a .292 average while throwing out 45% of potential base stealers. He's played in 21 games as a backup this year, and is struggling with a .194 average. On the bright side, three of his 12 hits have left the yard.

Bob Howry, Giants


Signed in December as a free agent, Howry has made the second-most appearances out of the 'pen for San Fran. His ERA is up there, though, at 5.12.




Wednesday: Cubs 3, Braves 2, 11 inn.

The Cubs bullpen showed some moxie, and the result was the team's first road win since May 10. Ted Lilly had another quality start (that's seven out of 10 for him), and Marmol, Guzman and Gregg combined for four innings with just one hit allowed and no walks. But the best moment of the game was when Micah Hoffpauir had a pinch-hit RBI single to put the Cubs ahead in the 11th--and the hit came off a lefty. Hoffpauir is batting just .154 on the season against southpaws.

The worst thing from Wednesday's game: Fontenot and Theriot combined to have three at-bats in the late innings with the goal of bunting a runner to second, and they failed all three times. When even your tiny players can't bunt, it's tough to play small ball.

After surviving Derek Lowe, the Cubs will face another tough pitcher Thursday in Jair Jurrjens. The 23-year-old is 5-2 with a 2.59 ERA, and has never faced the Cubs.

Why?

This movie's going to be terrible.

Prospectus Projections

Baseball Prospectus unloaded their 2009 predictions today (click post title to visit projected standings). For the record, BP predicted 4 of 8 playoff teams correctly in '08, so, like all sports predictions, they're completely worthless.

For '09, they have the Cubs racking up 95 victories and winning the NL Central by 12 games over the Brewers (me likey). BP had the Cubs winning 89 games last year, while they actually won 97. Therefore, we can add eight victories to their projections, and safely assume the Cubs will win 103 games in 2009.

Also according to BP, the Mets and D'Backs win their respective divisions (which they also predicted in '08, incorrectly), while the Braves sneak in there to win the wild card.

In the AL, it's Boston, Cleveland, and a surprising Oakland team, along with the Yankees winning the Wild Card by five games over the Rays.

I'll address these and some of the other projections in the coming days and weeks, and make my own boldly inaccurate predictions as the season approaches. For now, let's just bask in the glory of baseball projections in general, along with the thought of a third straight NL Central title for the Cubs.