NL Wild Card Standings: A Daily (weekday) Service of TheCubsFan.Com until the season is over or the season drives me mad
CHC --- (OFF) SDP --- (Hitchcock v ATL Hampton) SFG --- (Rueter @ MON Patterson PHI 4.5 (OFF) FLA 4.5 (Pavano @ LAD Weaver)
Oh great. Just who I really wanted to see on the edge of this race again.
That also means it’s unlikely the Cubs are still in the lead at the end of the night. It’s two weeks more killed off the season – they were last tied on August 3rd – with the added bonus of everyone else being back in this.
Yesterday was really LaTroy Hawkins’ shining moment, wasn’t it? I don’t know if we win the game with him around – mostly because I don’t know if they go to him instead of Kyle – but it sure did make him look better by not being there when they need him to be. (Strange how there’s not going to be remembered it’s his fault he wasn’t there when they need him to be there.)
Developing Dusty Trend: Sticking with cold/struggling reliever far after everyone else has given up on him.
Kyle The Farns by month
MON G IP ERA WHIP APR 12 10.0 5.40 1.30 MAY 14 12.0 2.25 1.58 JUN 16 15.0 3.60 1.07 JUL 12 14.0 1.93 1.43 AUG 7 3.0 24.00 5.00
You don’t even really need the ERA for August; only getting 9 outs in 7 apperances is a clue enough that something’s wrong. It actually started slightly before August.
Game Log
DATE IP H BB R evaluation 07/27 MIL 1.0 0 0 0 great 07/29 MIL 1.0 1 1 0 below average 07/30 PHI 1.0 0 3 0 bad 08/01 PHI 0.1 2 0 0 bad 08/04 COL 0.1 2 0 2 bad (but he gets the W!) 08/07 SFG 1.0 1 1 0 below average 08/08 SFG 0.0 1 1 2 horrible 08/12 SDP 1.0 2 0 1 below average 08/13 LAD 0.0 3 0 3 horrible 08/15 LAD 0.1 0 1 2 bad (L)
He looked even worse than the line yesterday shows, getting just 3 of 10 pitches for strikes, but he really shouldn’t have been put in that situation after having trouble for the last two weeks. Even though the other bullpen guys didn’t have any more luck, it was the wrong guy to put in the situation given his last two weeks.
I have a feeling that Kyle might be put on the DL, for a real injury or imagined, just to give him a break and allow them to call back up Todd W. I don’t think the Big Reliever Ace is coming, and I’m pretty sure I’d rather keep Todd around rather than get most of them.
For all the misdirection about not using Rusch in case Wood was suspended Saturday, it did occur to me that the suspensions were promised not to be concurrent, so Wood couldn’t have missed his start while Hawkins was out. The problem now is they still haven’t ruled on the appeal. If they announce it today or tomorrow and it’s shortened to 4 games, the rotation can use today’s off day to stay on their days and Kerry won’t miss a spot. After that, with no offdays for a few weeks, it’s going to be quite a crunch to accommodate a suspension unless it falls on the right day.
Besides being 2 games played ahead and playing Monday, the Giants are also making up a rained up San Juan date with Montreal Wednesday (extra game at SF), which means there’ll be quite an artificial gulf for a while.
I think the Pavano/Weaver game might be the pitching matchup of the night. Scary.