Brewers 13-8
Cubs 8-13
POTG: SP Ted Lilly (7 IP, 6 H, ER, 3 K, QS; W [2, 61])
Runner Up: SS! El Alboroto (2 H, 2 R, 2 RBI, baserunning follows), LF Cliff Floyd (2B, 4 H, R, 2 RBI), C Michael Barrett (2 H, 2 RBI), CF Felix Pie (2 H, 2B, R), 1B D Lee (2 2B, HR, H, 2 R, 2 RBI)
I started to write this on Wednesday – some claptrap about the Cubs needing this win and ME needing this win and blah blah blah no one cares. The one thing I agree with me of two days ago was this was an entirely meaningless game. Any rainy game on an April getaway day after losing the first two of a series does not really tell you much about a team’s fortune.
It’s two days later, and I still don’t have much to say about the game itself. The Cubs scored a lot of runs for once, but had Sheets not gotten hurt, I don’t know if they would’ve. This is a bad team right now, and they need to string together some wins before you can really be too optimistic about things.
The big point worth making
Cubs, 2006 after 20 games: 12-8
Cubs, 2007 after 20 games: 8-12
There lot of games to play, and the ones played so far don’t make too much big of a difference.
The point of this Game By Game review blog is to get all the excess thought about the game I have off my head after the game is over. Somehow, I just had no thoughts about this game. (It’s also apparently a mechanism to get me random radio appearances, but that’s next week.)
Outside the game, I’m kinda glad it’s over for the Cubs and Prior. Everyone seems convinced he’ll be non-tendered in the offseason, rather than paying him move for being a year older, and that Prior will be able to find a sweeter deal with another team. This is quite like what happened with Wade Miler, and we’ve seen how that turned out, but I don’t think that’ll be a determent. He was so good when he was good, Prior will be getting plenty of offers – 1 year deals with a option for a second year if he’s back in shape, like Dempster and Lieber got, I figure.
Prior will do fine, and I think the Cubs will do fine. I don’t know how much a distraction he and Wood can still be at this point. It’s like living next to the El – after three years, you do get used to the noise, and that’s all this is. Still, it’s good to break out of the cycle of Prior returning/Prior injured. We’ll only hear about him again on the non-tender date, and maybe it’ll be similar for Prior.
What I meant to do last year, and what I may remember again to do this year, is take all the POTG and actually total them up and see who wins one in April and I’m tottaly shocked those guy existed exist by September. So far, it’s looking like this:
7 – D Lee: 20, 19, 14, 8, 6, 5, 1
4 – Rich Hill: 21, 15, 10, 4
3 – Jason Marquis: 17, 12, 3
3 – Ted Lilly: 16, 11, 2
1 – Michael Barrett: 18
1 – Ryan Dempster: 13
1 – Michael Wuertz: 9
1 – Alfonso Soriano: 7
I think all those guys will still be on the team come September, so perhaps I need new goals for this.
If you told me Marquis would have 3 more POTG than Z before the season, I’d wonder if Z hurt his arm or something. (Did Z hurt his arm or something?)
Derek’s HR stats aren’t there, but he’s killed the ball for a month: 393/474/560. Yea, we need the long ball, but go bug someone who’s not getting on base nearly 1 out of 2 times. BP’s VORP has him as the 8th best player in the league, which is good enough for me.
and tonight: I don’t the Cardinals are great this year and, like I keep saying, it’s too soon to make definite opinions, but I’d feel a ton better if they could do something in St. Louis this series. Saturday’s the critical game, but it’ll be interesting to see if Marquis has actually been fixed, or if going back home will break him back apart.