Month: May 2007

White Sox 21-19
Cubs 20-22

POTG: 3B A Ram (3 R HR, 2H)
Runner Up: 2B Ryan Theriot (H, BB, R), CF Angel Pagan (2 BB, 2 R), LF Alfonso Soriano (BB, H, R)

I’m exhausted and waking up in – oh, 6 and half hours. I must stop doing this.

This game screwed me up and good. We spent much of it in total befuddlement of the freak weather pattern that had made a one, and only one, day special appearance in Chicago on Sunday. It was 70s on Saturday, and it’ll be 70s on Monday, but it was Late November on Sunday – not the time to be sitting outside watching baseball. I was smartened up to the situation and dressed for 55 degree weather…sadly, it turned out to be 45 degree weather with the wind gusting at us and cold rain making an appearance late. I feel like the life has been drained from my mind and generally wish I had 24 uninterrupted hours of sleep coming up.

(so so glad I didn’t consider trying to make the lucha show)

Anyway, the cold and the rain messed with my head, and by reading the post game quotes and related antics, it’s also completely screwed with Lou’s mind. I have no idea what he’s thinking right, and I don’t believe he’s got any idea what he’s thinking either. I do have some advice for him:

– if you’re planning a surprise, don’t tell everyone “we’ve got a SURPRISE! coming”, because than it’s not so much of one, you know?
– when you tease news about what’s going on, don’t be shocked/annoyed if everyone wants to know what the news is until you give it up.

(sidenote: Lou generally sees overwhelmed and unprepared for Chicago’s media on a regular basis. This is discouraging – it’s quite obvious he had no clue what he was getting himself in for here, which reflects badly on him, his hiring, and the lack of prep work doing by the staff after he’s been hired. Or maybe the new media relation person isn’t very good, I dunno.)

– if you tell a player you’re going with Plan A, and than change to Plan B, you probably should tell him of the change, before Dempster announces to his return to the rotation only to embarrassingly rescind a half hour later.
– ask someone how Dempster’s last stint in the rotation went, note Dempster started his career as a starter and ended up as a closer, and reflect on what events must’ve happened to cause that change.

I really have no clue what Lou is going to pull out in San Diego. He could announce a four man rotation or a 15 man pitching squad, and I would not be shocked. Based on all the comments, guessing, and insanity, I think the long term plan is to groom Marmol and/or Guzman as fireball throwin’ closer types. Dempster would be moved back in the rotation as conciliation prize – except neither Carlos or Angel is near ready for such a role, so they’re going to keep Ryan back there. In the meantime, Mrashall comes up, taking either Cotts (Iowa?) or Eyre (DL?)’s spot, because they never really needed three lefties and two ineffective ones at that. I don’t see this as the return of Miller – he’s done and not changing anyone’s mind about that – and guess they’re reshuffling things to try and break up the lefties as best as possible (not much, when you’ve got three of them.) It could be something completely else for all I know.

Today’s game sucked, though it was amusing when it looked like the Cubs might make the greatest comeback in the history of man with only 12 people left in the ball park. Maybe the Sox pitch a little btter without an 8 run lead, but you’ve got to wonder how things play out if Cotts ends the 7th right after the grand slam, instead of making things even worse. We were thinking Z was either left in too long – Marmol taking his place much sooner – or not long enough (why not give him a shot against AJ, since it was his game to win or lose at that point.) At least the hitting was nice, on a not so nice day to do it.

This road trip comes at a perfect time for me, since I won’t be back around these parts till about 9:05 Tuesday anyway. I’m not so sure it’s the best thing for the club, but it’s not as though they have much control of that.

Cubs 20-21
White Sox 20-20

POTG: PH D Lee (Grand Slam [3/219])
Runner Ups: SS/2B The Riot (2 H, 3B, R), 3B A Ram (3B, 2 H, 2 R, RBI), C Michael Barrett (2 H, HR, 2 R), SP Jason Marquis (only as a hitter, for the 2 R HR)

I need to leave for Sunday’s game in, let’s see, 7 hours, and I’m still not asleep, so it’s best that I keep this short.

After the pregame talk, I was sure I pegged Derek’s actual status yesterday. From all the comments, the Cubs were just going to wait till Monday to see how he was doing, and DL him if he wasn’t marketedly better. I think the neck injury is still serious – in the Tribune’s story, Ryan Theriot mentions Derek was unable to move his head for five days, which is a bit more than “neck pain” the Cubs had been claiming – and that makes that home run even bigger. I think they’re going to need someone who can come in and play defense at first, because Ward didn’t look capable of that today, and I’m not sure how they handle that and their wish to change the rotation.

(Speaking of the Tribune, they suggest a DL stint for Eyre, which is a bit surprising to me. I have no idea what this roster will like in San Diego.)

I’m not sold on the rotation change, though I don’t want to dwell on a disagreement today. Angel as a succesful guy in the rotation is still possible and more valuable than a 7th/8th inning guy, but it’s he going to be Juan Cruz 2007 and incapable of going more than 5 innings, than maybe this is the right move to make.

Once again, this is about the Jason Marquis I thought we were getting. Well, not the home run, but 6 IP, 5 ER is about right. It was good while it lasted, and the hitting’s fun.

Sunday’s game is so huge. It seems like the White Sox are on their way down regardless of this series – it’s a bad sign when every broadcast crew does the “they can’t hit AT ALL, but somehow they still have a good record”, because those things equal out and usually badly. Being 500 before heading on a West Coast swing is much better than being under 500 and chasing it two time zones over. Not to mention the usual Z subplot.

What To Watch: With the White Sox going back to Massat, and loudly noting they’ll only go about 4 IP, that negates much of a platoon edge. Normally, Jacque would sure be in a starting lineup against a righty, but maybe they leave him on the bench as to not get burned later? I got a feeling at least one of these teams will end up playing 17-18 players.

White Sox 20-18
Cubs 19-21

POTG: CF Angel Pagan (3B, 3 H, 2 RBI, R)
Runner Up: 3B A Ram (3 H, 2B), SP Ted Lilly (7 IP, 6 H, 3 ER, 2 BB, 6 K, QS [8], W [4/63])

This is what baseball is: your team has a crushing loss, you go to sleep, you wake up the next day, your team has an uplifting win, you go to sleep, you wake up the next day, you keep playing. You try to avoid the mistakes of turning each game into an ultimate event in itself – Dempster’s not worthless because of his performance Thursday, just like Angel Pagan is not an All-Star in the making because of his performance Friday. They’re just single games, and only mean much when you start stacking them on top of each other.

Which, as I note every time I write something like that, makes doing a daily game post really dumb.

Pagan should have the bench outfield/platoon for Jacque spot for the rest of Jacque’s stint in CF with the Cubs, unless another option magically appears. He’s not going to be ever more than what he is now, a 4th outfielder, but he’s perfectly acceptable for that.

Lilly is exactly what we figured he’d be – reliable if not dominating, keeping the team in just about every game he starts. You’d like a little bit more for $10mil, but it is a marketed improvement over we had been getting. (Welcome back, Carlos Marmol.)

In the post game, Lou said “it wouldn’t be impossible, but it’d be improbable” for Derek to play on Saturday, which means something is seriously quite wrong here. Under a normal situation, he would’ve logically pinch hit for Cliff in the 8th to face Boon Logan. It didn’t matter, because the Sox were playing like a bunch of goofs, but that would seem to indicate the idea of putting Lee on the DL is still being considered, especially if they keep it retroactive to last weekend. Lee must be well enough that they didn’t just put him on the DL today (instead of sending someone down.) They’re keeping their options open, which probably means they have no clue, which means this is the same Cubs injury management as always.

You know, if the Cubs sweep, they’re at 500 and the Sox are at 500. I think the teams would feel slightly different about that set of events.

Cubs 18-21
Mets 26-14

POTG: CF Angel Pagan (HR, 2 H, 2 R, 2 RBI, SB)
Runner Up: 3B A Ram (HR, 2 H, 3 RBI), SP Angel Guzman (5 IP, 6 H, R, 2 BB, 4 K – gotta get more than 5 innings though), RP Michael Wuertz (1.1 IP, BB, 0 R), RP Will Ohman (1.2 IP, 4 K, 0 R)

So…they’re a below average team which will need a few breaks to be in the playoff race. They’re not as bad as this game was bad, but they’re not great either. There will surely be a trade for a bullpen guy, and we can only hope his baseball card numbers connect with actual performance, and a great lot is not given up for the reliever.

I couldn’t believe they went to Eyre, but then I remembered Ohman had been used and Cotts got blown up the night before.

Angel STILL has no wins.

I think everyone is starting to get the suspicion Derek is hurt far more hurt than they’re letting on, and the club is not going to be honest about it, like just about every major injury. If he’s not in the lineup on Friday and they don’t give a definite date of return, there’s trouble here.

Congrats to Angel Pagan for probably clinching a longer stint on the bench.

POTG: Cliff Floyd (H, RBI, BB)
Runner up: SS Cesar Izturis (H, R, BB)

It rained, rained, rained some more, everyone sat around for while, and no one ever quite woke up – at least on the visiting team. Hill wasn’t good this night, but it was really Cotts blowing up again that made this out of reach. Rich didn’t pitch good, but sometimes you win these games if you’ve got some support. None to be found here. This seemed to be getaway day level performance a day early, which makes me wonder what they could possibly have left this morning.

I thought they were going to push back today’s game because last night’s went so long, but apparently not so much.

Much like the Cubs not showing up for a game, Fire Ron Santo is nothing new – someone just spent the 7 dollars to put up comments that have been made on message boards and talk shows anywhere.

Santo is unarguable flawed as a color commentator – I think it was Saturday where I heard him explain a play by watching the replay, making no effort to describe it, and than groan when he realized the call was correct (or not); thankfully Pat jumped in, but it was classic Santo. I don’t think Santo would claim he’s even a good analyst – he’s just talking the same as he would on the bench (with a cough button to cover up some of those things.) He’s not going to break the game down for you, but he’s the exact familiar sound WGN wants, and he’s not leaving any time soon.

Besides, someone spent a lot more time putting together Heavy The Hawk, and that’s had zero effect.

POTG: Z! (8 IP, 6 H, ER, 3 BB, 3 K, W [4/68]; + H, RBI)
Runner Up: 2B/3B The Riot (3 BB, H, 2 R), RF Cliff Floyd (3 H, R, RBI), 3B A Ram (Grand Slam HR [9/205]}, 1B Daryle Ward (2B, 2H, RBI, R), C Michael Barrett (2 2B, 2 RBI, R), CF/RF Jacque Jones (2B, 2 H, R, RBI)

I love strikeouts. Strikeouts are great. Always good to have strikeouts. The thing is, when Z is really truly rolling, it’s not because of the strikeouts, it’s because he’s getting an insane number of ground balls.

05/04: 7 Groundball outs, 7 Flyball outs
05/10: 6 Groundball outs, 6 Flyball outs
05/15: 16 Groundball outs, 4 Flyball outs

The walks are a huge deal as well. Carlos’ line says 3, but those last two were in the 8th inning, when he was just taking it easy to try and sneak thru another inning. When it mattered, he was getting strikes and double plays. Z was just about five feet on that foul grand slam away from having an all time night.

~~~~~

Seeing a guy repeatedly gun down baserunners is really cool. Like, not $17 million a year cool, but fun nonetheless.

It’s great to see Fontenot finally get a hit, years after his stint of getting an appearance every three days and walking half the time. He got buried, because the Cubs had about a dozen second baseman ahead of him, but it was amusing to see someone getting bases on balls when no one else was in ’05. (Perhaps that didn’t help him get another shot.)

If Ryan is going to walk three times, he’s sorta going to have to be the leadoff hitter, right? I think Soriano would really rather be leadoff, but if The Riot gives him more RBI chances, he might get over it.

I thought there might be issues after Ram’s grand slam, because he was in no hurry out of the batters box. I think he figured it either was gone or it was foul, so there was no hurry to anywhere, but I’m not sure the Mets would see it the same way.

Cubs 17-18
Phillies 17-20, win series 2-1

POTG: SP Ted Lilly (8 IP, 3 H, ER, BB, 5 K, W [3/62]
Runners Up: RF Matt Murton (3 H, RBI), SS Cesar Izturis (3 H, R, RBI)

That’s a nice pick me up. I saw most of this game, except for a bit of the last inning checking in on the Bulls game. Lilly was looking great thru the game, and really has only had that one bad start in Pittsburgh. He should be better than 3 and 2 right now, but all the more reason not to take individual pitcher records seriously.

Both Murton and Izturis have taken advantage of their chances to get in the lineup, which I guess may get them more in the immediate future. I’m not sure how things will exactly shake out with Lee out. I didn’t really think of DeRosa as a first baseman – he’s played 3 games there his career – but judging from today, they could move him there, put The Riot at second, and put Cesar at first. I was thinking perhaps they could put Cliff at first and Murton in RF, but only after looking at his stats do I realize that Floyd hasn’t played 1B regularly since he was an Expo.

I guess it might be Darryl, which isn’t such a great idea but better than nothing. I just hope the “we’d really like to play Ward more” in non-injury situations is just talk, because he’s fine as a bench guy and shouldn’t be given more than that.

I’m not taking this Lee injury serious, and I hope I’m right about that.

Enough with people getting thrown out at home. People getting thrown out at second to end the game is fine.