A blog dedicated to coverage and analysis of the Cubs and Bears, along with observations on other teams and random nonsense. Warning: Coverage is incomplete, analysis poor, and predictions typically wrong.
But love for the Boys in Blue and the Monsters of the Midway? You can count on that.
And, clearly, the Cubs are going to lose. A lot. They already have lost a lot, and they're going to keep losing a lot. But I really don't mind it as much when it helps the Reds keep pace with those dastardly Cardinals. Unfortunately, the Cubs' 1-5 week means they're not even keeping pace with the Astros. Or the Nationals. They do have the same record as the Royals, though. You can't pull away from us, Royals! NEVER!
Yeah, it's sad. It's a sad, sad season, and the main thing that's made fans want to grab a Kleenex (or a fork to simply gouge the eyes right out) has been the bullpen. 28th in the league with a 4.91 relief ERA. That ain't right. But at least Zambrano's coming back tonight, and he can definitely go, what, five innings? So that's good.
Ryno of the Week: Despite going hitless Friday and Sunday, Starlin Castro went 9-for-25 this week with three doubles, a triple, four runs and an RBI. His OBP since July 1 is over .400. He did make some poor defensive plays and needs to work on his focus in the field, in my opinion, but the range is there and he obviously has an arm--he just needs to harness it.
Honorable mentions: Blake DeWitt, Ryan Dempster
Goat of the Week: After hitting .250 in June and .253 in July, Tyler Colvin is just 2-for-22 in August (2-for-18 this week). He can smash a mistake fastball, but right now he can't hit much else.
Dishonorable mentions: Brian Schlitter, Casey Coleman, Randy Wells
The Cubs have hit 24 home runs since the All-Star break, tied for most in the NL.
(Phil Velasquez, Chicago Tribune)
I can't resist the temptation to write about the Cubs after a rare win, and a blowout one at that. The Cubs dished out a tiny bit of revenge yesterday, scoring 14 runs in a three-inning span and slamming three three-run homers en route to a 15-3 win that gave the Brewers a small taste of their own medicine after their 18-1 shellacking of the Cubs on Monday. The Cubs still, you know, suck, and they remain in fifth place in the division, but nevertheless: Take that, Brewers!
Though both Tyler Colvin and Starlin Castro remain just shy of the necessary number of plate appearances to qualify for things such as the race for the batting title, here are some interesting stats put up by the Cubs' youngsters:
Colvin leads all rookies with 17 home runs.
Among rookies with at least 200 at-bats, Castro has the second-highest average (.318), behind only Buster Posey.
Castro's average would rank him third in the NL if he qualified.
Castro's OPS (.823) is third-highest among rookies.
Castro has five triples, the most for a Cub since Juan Pierre had 13 in 2006.
You can never really assume anything in sports; just because Colvin and Castro have displayed impressive potential does not mean they're guaranteed to improve every year and serve as the team's offensive backbone for years to come. But isn't it nice to see a couple of rookies actually showing their stuff rather than being forced to rely on scouts in order to have hope for the future?
There was another youngster who continued to impress yesterday as well: Geovany Soto. His poor 2009 season was an example of that last point--even being the Rookie of the Year doesn't guarantee consistent success. But here in 2010, Soto is proving that 2008 wasn't an illusion: among NL catchers, he is first in home runs, slugging and OPS, second in OBP and third in RBI. Not too shabby.
The average age of Soto, Castro and Colvin? Twenty-four.
Oh, Blake DeWitt hit a home run yesterday as well--he too is 24.
Yesterday's turd of a game notwithstanding, the Cubs seemed to be playing a better brand of baseball this week. I speak mostly of the offense, which put up 39 runs in the week's first six games. They drew walks, came through with runners in scoring position and generally enabled us viewers to refrain from expecting the worst for at least a few days.
The pitching was middling, however, and cost them two losses including Friday's in which Ted Lilly took the Cubs out of the game early even though the Cubs would eventually score seven runs. Lilly has not exactly boosted his trade value in the last couple weeks, but the deadline remains nearly three weeks away. Speaking of a possible Lilly trade, word is that the Mets would hope to take on much of his remaining salary so that they could part with lesser talent. I hope Hendry wouldn't go this route--Lilly's salary comes off the payroll after this season anyways, so what good does a trade do if it doesn't net some decent prospects?
Ryno of the Week: Who was that man blasting home run after home run, looking generally comfortable at the plate and enjoying the long-overdue opportunity to look up at the scoreboard and see a batting average starting with a "2"? Aramis Ramirez had at least one hit and one run in every game this week except yesterday's, and clubbed at least one extra-base hit in five different games. He was 12-for-28 with four home runs and nine RBI. It was utterly fantastic.
Honorable mentions: Geovany Soto, Marlon Byrd
Goat of the Week: As happy as I am to write A-Ram's name above, I'm quite disappointed to be doling out the negative hardware to Tyler Colvin. His production has dipped noticeably in the last month or so, and he struggled to the tune of 2-for-17 this week with five strikeouts. Hopefully he can find his way through this slump and improve upon his .263 average.
I was unfortunate enough to have tickets to Friday's 12-0 blowout at the hands of the Reds, the second time in just over two weeks I attended a 12-0 loss. This means I've seen firsthand the Cubs' two worst losses of the season (didn't it feel great to lose by only 11 on Sunday, which you might recall matched the scoring disparity in their Opening Day 16-5 loss which, it turns out, was a harbinger of the season to come rather than a mere aberration?). The last two times I've been to Wrigley, the other teams have scored 24 runs on 24 hits while the Cubs managed zero runs on five hits. The Cubs sprinkled in three errors to their opponents' none just for good measure.
It's difficult to measure the depths of the Cubs' woes here at the halfway point of the season. Saturday's win put them on pace for a 70-win season. Sunday's 14-3 pounding was a fantastically appropriate way to finish another craptastically awful week in which they managed to lose another series to the Pirates and lose three of four to the first-place Reds while getting outscored by Dusty's squad by 22 runs.
You know, even after the Reds hit line drives and moonshots all over Wrigley, the Cubs' pitching remains the sixth-best in the NL. But their record can of course be traced to an offense that is 14th of 16 in the league, and to their .243 average with runners in scoring position. They left 17 guys on base Saturday in a nine-inning game. Except they didn't even bat in the ninth, so that's over two guys stranded per inning. Their ability to ruin scoring chances would be impressive if it weren't so soul-crushing and painfully boring to watch.
Ryno of the Week: While his average has dipped to .280 in June and July, Tyler Colvin continues to be one of the most productive members of the offense. If you extrapolate his stats to the standard 500 at-bats, he would have 33 home runs and 89 RBI. He needs to be more selective and learn to hit the breaking ball, but this kid's got raw talent and those skills come with time.
Oak Park native Brian Schlitter had a chance to get the award after his major league career began with two scoreless outings against the Pirates. But Schlitter, who was acquired for Scott Eyre back in 2008, allowed five earned runs in just a third of an inning in Friday's disastrous seventh inning, inflating his ERA to 15.00.
Goat of the Week: On Friday morning, Jeff Stevens' ERA was 2.76; now it's 5.71 and he's in the minors.
Tyler Colvin has played in 34 of the Cubs' 41 games and has started just 12 of those. But here's the more interesting number: 19. Colvin has played in 19 games that the Cubs have won. Of course, the Cubs have won 19 games total, which means ... Colvin has played in every Cubs victory this year.
Here are the scores of the games in which he did not appear at all:
Lost to ATL 3-2 Lost to NYM 4-0 Lost to PIT 3-2 Lost to PIT 4-2 Lost to CIN 14-2 Lost to FLA 4-2 Lost to FLA 3-2
Now I'm not suggesting that the Cubs are guaranteed to lose if Colvin doesn't play, but it does seem worth noting that the team is 19-15 when he steps on the field and 0-7 when he doesn't. That's as good an argument as any that he should get more playing time.
As I mentioned, he's had 12 starts through 41 games. When Piniella announced that the 24-year-old would make the team out of spring training, he stated the importance of finding him 2-3 starts per week. We're halfway through week seven, which means he's not even averaging two starts per week.
The problem, of course, is sort of a good one: Fukudome, Byrd and Soriano are all hitting at least .313 (Colvin is hitting .295), so it's been tough to get him into the lineup. But if we look at OPS (on-base percentage plus slugging), it's a little easier to argue that Colvin should be playing more:
Among major league rookies, only Jason Heyward has more home runs than Colvin and only Heyward and the Tigers' Brennan Boesch have a higher OPS.
I grant that Colvin probably can't sustain these numbers--he's never had an OPS over .850 even in the minors. But he's playing well right now and deserves the 2-3 starts per week Lou promised back in March.
It's a strange time to write this post; after all, Lou did in fact start Colvin two of the last three games. But that was on the heels of six straight non-starts despite the fact that he hit a go-ahead home run the game before that. Those two starts also came just after Lou snapped at a reporter for asking whether Colvin should get more playing time. The answer, Lou, is yes.
Three of the Cubs' seven victories in 2010 have come over the Brewers. But there's no need to feel bad about that; after all, Milwaukee is a divisional foe and you have to win games in your division in order to have a good season.
Ryan Dempster had his fourth strong start of the season (out of four), going 7.2 innings for the second straight start. He has left all of his starts with the lead, though he only has two wins to show for his efforts. (Hopefully Carlos Zambrano was able to get a good view of Dempster's efficient outing from his new perch in the bullpen. Speaking of Zambrano, Cubs fans saw a very unfamiliar sight when he warmed up in the bullpen in the eighth inning. No doubt it was a stimulating sight for some fans but a rather agitating one for others.)
The Cubs brought a balanced offensive attack to Miller Park--they've now scored at least six runs in all four of their games against the Brewers this season; they've only scored that many in two others games this year! Every starter had at least one hit, and Dempster joined the party with two sacrifice bunts. Chad Tracy was just barely able to make his first start of the season before Ted Lilly did, and he had a single and played very well defensively at third. Also, Tyler Colvin hit a ball 10,000 feet.
This is the second time the Cubs have roughed up Jeff Suppan in less than two weeks, and they'll have the chance to do the same to lefty Doug Davis tomorrow (he was touched up for six runs in just 3.1 innings in the Cubs' home opener). Soriano, Soto and Ramirez should all be fresh after having a day off on Friday.
Perhaps the Cubs benefited from the favorable road crowd--Brian Brennan attended Friday's game and said it was at least a 50/50 split in terms of Cubs/Brewers fans in attendance, and he said it felt like 75/25 in Chicago's favor as the Cubs fans were able to cheer unabated given that the team scored early and dominated throughout. Hopefully Miller Park will be transformed into Wrigley North over the weekend as well.
♪ And while I know, based on my track record,
I might not seem like the safest bet
All I'm asking you is don't write me off, just yet ♪
So sang Hugh Grant in the movie "Music and Lyrics," a movie which I've never seen and one that I would almost assuredly hate since Drew Barrymore is in it. But nevertheless, these lyrics seem fitting when discussing Derrek Lee's season.
With a home run and a run-scoring double in Tuesday's 7-2 win over the Brewers, Derrek Lee set a new career high with 109 RBI. He ranks fourth in the National League in RBI, seventh in HR, 10th in batting average, 13th in OBP, second in slugging, and third in OPS. The only guys having hands down better seasons than Lee are some guy named Albert Pujols and half man/half beast Prince Fielder. Lee will probably get very few votes for MVP because the Cubs are 10 games out of first, but based on statistics alone, he deserves to be about third or fourth in the voting.
What has made this season even more impressive is that on May 16, Lee was batting .194 with three home runs and 15 RBI. I, and many others, pretty much wrote him off at that point. But then Lee went off, putting up a .333/32/94 line since mid-May. That's a good season, and Lee has compiled those numbers in just four months. Very good news for the Cubs as they look forward to 2010.
Moving from a veteran to a rookie, congratulations to Tyler Colvin, who drove in a run in his first ever major league plate appearance with a sacrifice fly on Monday. After a year of absolutely awful fundamentals by the Cubs, a sac fly is even more impressive than a base hit! But since he wasn't sure I would feel that way, he got himself his first big league hit in his next plate appearance. He added his first major league run last night, and robbed a home run for good measure.
I don't know how many times I've asked this, but it's enough that I can now be reasonably sure Lou Piniella doesn't read my blog:
CAN ANYONE TELL ME WHY JAKE FOX ISN'T PLAYING MORE?
"Maybe he's slumping?"
Nope, he's had at least one hit in four of his last six games.
"Maybe there's a veteran standing in his way?"
Nope, Bobby Scales has gotten the lion's share of the playing time in left field recently.
"His power numbers must be down."
No sir. His 11 HR and 41 RBI translate to 26 and 98 over 450 at-bats.
"His defense must really be hurting the team."
Eh, not really. His .953 fielding percentage is below average, but after three years of Alfonso Soriano, it's hard to complain. And Bobby Scales is a career infielder (he played 93 games in the infield at Triple-A this year) who had a ball bounce off his glove for a home run in Saturday's game.
If the Cubs are worried about Fox's potential to play defense every day in 2010, isn't this the time to figure out exactly how bad he is with the glove?
And even if they don't think he's a legitimate everyday option, shouldn't he at least be auditioning for a potential trade to an AL team where he could DH? This roster has been mismanaged worse than a certain office in Scranton, Penn.
Fox did play last night, but even that was a last-second lineup change.
Tyler Colvin, shown here celebrating a home run by Jake Fox in Spring Training 2007. In a rare display of self-restraint, Cesar Izturis is nearby but NOT ringing Colvin's bell.
2006 first-round draft pick Tyler Colvin has been called up by the Cubs, and could start tonight vs. the Brewers. The 24-year-old lefty batted .300 with 14 HR and 50 RBI at Double-A Tennessee this season. He can play all three outfield positions.
The Cubs didn't want to throw Colvin to the wolves this year, but with the suspension of Milton Bradley (more on that tomorrow) and injuries to Alfonso Soriano and Sam Fuld, they needed an extra body.
I grew up in Wadsworth, Ill., a northeast suburb of Chicago, and have been a die hard (and we do die hard, every year) Cubs fan ever since my mom took me away from a day of preschool to bring me to Wrigley Field. I follow them--and sports in general--way more closely than can be considered healthy, and I'm sharing my obsession with you.
