Patience is the key
As a team last year the Cubs struck out 1,236 times, good for fourth in MLB. Unacceptable.
Below is a graph of current Cub players, I am excluding Lee who was second on the team last year in strike outs with 100, but adding Pena instead.
|
PLAYER |
STRIKE OUTS |
PLATE APPARENCES |
|
Soto |
83 |
387 |
|
Castro |
71 |
506 |
|
Ramirez |
90 |
507 |
|
Soriano |
123 |
548 |
|
Byrd |
98 |
630 |
|
Fukodome |
67 |
429 |
|
Colvin |
100 |
394 |
|
Baker |
50 |
224 |
|
Dewitt |
37 |
204 |
|
Pena |
158 |
582 |
Chicago is going to have to realize the following during at bats:
1. Whats the situation? Do they need to lay a bunt down, get a sac fly, a hit and run, etc. instead of going up there and just hacking away.
2. Who’s pitching? What kind of pitches does this pitcher have?
3. Look for a hitters pitch. Something where they could get good contact on.
I thought when the Cubs hired Rudy Jaramillo he was supposed to be the elite hitting coach out there. Looking at the amount of strike outs the Cubs had last year it looks like I could have done a better job being a hitting coach.
I’m not really worried so much about Castro striking out as much as he did due to his .300 avg. last season, plus he was just a rookie learning the league. However, Colvin was just a rookie too and struck out an alarming 100 times in just under 400 times. If I was Quade I would be more than willing to start Fukodome over Colvin. You would be sacrificing power from the Right Field position, but you get more consistency from that position with Fukodome.
What most worries me is Ramirez, Pena, and Soriano hitting back to back to back. Based off of last season’s numbers the fans will be feeling a good breeze behind home plate during the hot summer games.
Soriano trade idea
I’m not one to make up some kind of trade rumor or come up with some kind of weird trade, if I do it’s always just usually benefitting the Cubs and my friends ususally shoot it down right away.
However, I think I may have finally came upon one that makes sense. I was watching MLBNetwork last night and the station said that the Texas Rangers may trade Michael Young this season. I put two and two together, Chicago does need a second basemen, instead of a platoon situation between Barney and DeWitt. Young is a career .300 hitter and consistently drives in 100 runs a season.
Texas needs a DH, and Soriano would be a perfect fit. His defense lacks in Left Field for the Cubs and maybe just being a DH would give him more opporutinity to just focus on hitting. Ever since he’s been with the Cubs he has been a let down, and he has excelled with the Rangers before.
Lets take a look at the contracts:
Young is owed 16 million for the next three seasons.
Soriano is owed 18 million for the next four seasons.
If the Cubs did this trade I think they should pay 9 million for the fourth season on Sorianos contract, it would be a win-win situation for both ball clubs. The Rangers would get the DH they’re looking for, and the Cubs would get a consistent bat in the lineup.
Guess who’s back…
Hold the applause please. At least let me give a two year mini recap first (oh, i’m not typing in MS Word, forgive me for any typos):
First and foremost I am recently engaged. She’s pretty cool, she lets me have a Cubs mancave.
Uhm, secondly, I recently relocated to Charlotte, North Carolina. It isn’t Chicago though, everything is so slow paced here.
Thirdly, Mr. Ricketts has bought the Cubs since I abandoned my blog (more on him later, you’ll be in for a treat, pessimism will def. be back).
Fourthly. This is a sad one. RIP Mr. Santo, I had the pleasure of meeting him twice.
Fifth (this list is getting too long), I met Ernie Banks this past summer while getting lunch at Navy Pier.
Okay, I’m done with the list. Going into the 2011 season I am fine with Mark Quade as going in as the skipper. I’m really excited that Larry Rothschild is no longer the pitching coach. I’m super excited that Kerry Wood is back as a Cub, the only way he should retire.
I’m also okay with the Cubs signing Carlos Pena to a one year contract. I think Pena could raise his crappy batting avg. and still hit for power. If he doesn’t pan out then he’s off the books. Also coming off the books after this season would be third basemen Aramis Ramirez. That’ll free up about 25 mil going into 2012, hopefully letting the Cubs go after Puljos if the Cardinals dont resign him.
I’m okay with too much going into this year, so much for being pessimistic.
Ha, who am I kidding, being pessimistic is the reason why you’re reading this! That Garza trade was awful! The Cubs have to make a decision, are we rebuilding or competing for a championship? Looking at the NL Central this year, it is going to be really tough to compete with the Cardinals and the Reds, even the Brewers. So giving up four minor leaguers, (two of which I’m okay on leaving: Sam Fuld and whoever that catcher was), but that pitching prospect, which I’m too lazy to look up his name because I forgot it, and that Asian guy who plays short stop who is too long to spell, love the run on sentence there. Either way we could have used those propsects as trade bait for somebody who isn’t so much like Zambrano.
I really don’t know what the point of this season is going to be. On paper the Cubs look decent, but deep down I know that they’ll finish fourth in the NL Central.
I guess I’ll put out my projected batting order even though spring training hasn’t started yet:
SS- Castro
2B- Dewitt
CF- Byrd
3B- Ramirez
1B- Pena
LF- Soriano
C- Soto
RF- Fuko/Colvin
SP
Hmmm…what if Soriano starts leading off again?
Wow
Is this thing on? I forgot I had it. A lot
has happened within the Cubs organization since I last posted
in April 2009. Hmmm, should I get back to
writing?
The perfect solution
Ever since yesterdays 10-0 loss to the Diamondbacks I’ve been thinking, and thinking what needs to happen for the Cubs to wake up and actually play some baseball. Well I’ve came up with the perfect solution.
You see it goes back to the playoffs of 2007, a sweep by the D-Backs, and goes back to the playoffs of 2008, another sweep this time by the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Before I get into the perfect solution to the answer to the Cubs problems I’ll spit out some of the team stats from both leagues:
-19th in run scored with only 95 runs on the season
-23rd in batting average with only .251
-16th in on base percentage .339
-22nd in slugging percentage at .401
So where am I going with these poor offensive numbers?
The Cubs hitting coach Gerald Perry needs to be FIRED. And I mean fired, now, this very moment he needs to be gone.
With the potent Cubs lineup there is no excuse for them not to be scoring runs and scraping a few base hits. The firing of Perry should wake the team up.
Hopefully they get back to winning ways today as they play the Florida Marlins tonight.
A week recap, Soriano calls out team
I wish I had my dedication to my blog like others who have them. Work is starting to get busy; I guess that’s a good sign considering the economy. I guess I’ll do a week in review.
The Cubs have been sucking, that basically sums it up. 10-9 is intolerable.
I’ll start with the Cardinals series at St. Louis this past weekend. The Cards destroyed us, and proved that they are the better team so far this season. If they keep it up they’ll steal the division from the Cubs. It’s kind of pointless to say what happened in each game since anybody could easily look up box scores; however I have great thoughts of the game. As a Cub fan I’ll tend to use words like “great” “excellent” “outstanding” for stuff that really isn’t so “great” “excellent” “outstanding” but just good.
So, on Saturday’s game Sean Marshall curveball looked great, excellent, and outstanding. No, really it had some drop. What bothered me was I think he could have been more dominant. Here is an example:
Marshall had a 0-2 count on Pujols. Now instead of using the third pitch as a set up pitch, he started to work off the plate. Back the piece off. What Marshall should have done was throw some heat up and in, he crowds the plate, which is one of the many reasons why Pujols is so dominant. So Marshall should have thrown up and in, and then his curveball that was working effectively should have been his fourth pitch. Marshall ended up getting him out, but still, it showed me that Marshall has fear.
What else, what else. Fukodome is still being dominant, had an awesome game on Sunday helping us pick up the victory in St. Louis, unfortunately the Cardinals took the series. He went 3-5 with 5 rbi.
Oh, on Sunday the Cardinals drilled Soriano in the head, so obviously it was Pujols turn to take one, and he did take one. It was a perfect way to handle the situation without the umpires getting involved and issuing warnings after Soriano was intentionally drilled. Let the players handle the situations themselves.
Currently the Cubs are in the rubber match today with the Diamondbacks. Fell asleep in like the sixth inning during Monday night’s game, oops, damn west coast games. Chicago wound up losing that one anyway.
I caught last night’s game at the bar with some buddies. Zambrano almost hit a cycle! Big Z is the definition of helping his own cause when he pitches. I don’t know why Lou doesn’t move him up in the batting order when he pitches. Come on, the Cubs could sure use his bat.
A funny note about Zambrano:
He was taking some groundballs to shortstop the other day. With the Cubs as banged up as they are and their lack of depth on the bench it’s sad to see the ace of your staff get some fielding practice in at shortstop.
Look at that, a perfect way into a rant about the Cubs injuries.
Marmol, Ramirez, Bradley, Lee, what do all these names have in common?
ALL OUR INJURED.
Is this a reflection of the athletic trainer? If so, maybe its time to be finding a new trainer. These players are all vital to the Cubs success this year. Well, all except for Lee. Bradley actually came back last night and managed to scrape together two hits, leaving him a ******** three on the season, woo hoo. But in all seriousness the Cubs have to take a look on why these key players are hurt, excluding Bradley from his injury plagued career.
Oh by the way, Rookie of the Year, Geovany Soto his having an awful season. Somebody has to get this kid going. I wonder if the World Baseball Classic has anything to do with this. I heard this scouting report says to run all day on him.
In today’s Chicago Sun-Times a usually quiet Soriano actually called out his team. Heres the link: http://www.suntimes.com/sports/baseball/cubs/1549148,CST-SPT-cub29.article
Some key quotes that I liked from Soriano:
“We’ve got to go out and fight. We’ve been giving the ‘W’ to the other teams, because from what I see we’re not fighting to win. We just play nine innings, and what happens, happens. We don’t play nine innings and try to get wins. The last two years, I saw more hunger to win.”
It’s great to see a star and key player who is having a hell of a season to call out his team. I’m glad he sees a sense of urgency to this horrible start by Chicago.
Well this went longer than expected; hopefully Dempster comes through today and get the Cubs back on roll with a series victory. Sad thing is I could keep going on, looks like I wont miss nearly a week again!
Neil Cotts Watch:
Still on the team. :/
1 run in 18 innings, Reds take the series
Well once again the Cubs looked like crap as they fell to the Reds 7-1. The Cubs managed to leave 16 runners on base, which is awful. So 16 runners on base and just earning one run…theres a playoff team. They proved that they are undeserving of winning the division this year.
One of the reasons the Cubs lost yesterday was because of outfielder Micah Hoffpauir. Because of him the Reds scored three runs. Two runs came off an error and another one came off of a catch he should have made.
Hoffpauir, Aramis Ramirez, and Geovany Soto all sucked. Ten of the 16 runners came from them. In one inning the Cubs had a runner on second and all three freakin popped out in the infield!
Oh by the way, there’s a reason why Hoffpauir is almost 30 years old. He’s a freakin career minor leaguer. You don’t belong in the big leagues old man. Congrats Micah, you just made my sh*t list along with Neil Cotts and Derrek Lee
I don’t even know the reason the Cubs called up Jeff Samardija, he came in yesterdays game and got shelled giving up 4 hits and 2 runs in the ninth.
Looking towards to tonight’s game against the St. Louis Cardinals I’m looking for Hoffpauir to ride the bench, hopefully for the rest of the season until Milton Bradley is healthy enough to start.
I’m looking for Kosuke Fukodome to start in Right Field and Reed Johnson to get the start in Center.
Cotts Watch: Day Three
Gave up a homerun in the eighth inning to Reds First Basemen Joey Votto.
Still on the Cubs payroll.
Reds pitch a shutout
Short and sweet before I head to the ballgame today.
Pathetic, horrible, sad, and dismal are just some words to describe the Chicago Cubs offense last night. 14 runners were left on base! How do you manage to do that?!?! Let alone to the Cincinnati Reds, Jesus. The Reds shut the Cubs out 3-0.
Chicago left their Starting Pitcher Ted Lilly down last night; he pitched a gem only giving up one run.
It’s obvious that Milton Bradley shouldn’t have been in the starting lineup going 0-4 with three strikeouts. WTF, is this the balance in the lineup that the Cubs organization promised us? Not to mention him gimping around Right Field throughout the night. There were at least two outs he should have made, and didn’t manage to do so. It’s because he can’t freakin run!
LOU BRADLEY IS HURT, PUT IN HOFFPAUIR TODAY.
Oh, I’ll make sure Lou hears me before the game starts, luckily I sit close enough. By the way Neil Cotts will hear me before the game too. Same goes for Bradley.
Oh, Bradley is 1-23 on the season.
God the Cubs suck.
Cotts Watch: Day two
He’s still on the payroll
Cotts Watch: Samardzija called up
Well I was right in my previous entry from today; Tripe A Starting Pitcher Jeff Samardzija is called up. Unfortunately, lefty releiver Neil Cotts isn’t released or demoted, but Luis Vizcaino will get sent down or cut.
I guess Samardzija has been tearing up Triple A, but its rumored that Samardzija will be coming out of the bullpen. I rather have Sean Marshall go to the bullpen, and have Samardzija be a starter.
I was also right about Milton Bradley being back in the lineup tonight.
Cubs/Reds recap, strange happenings, and Neil Cotts Watch
Finally baseball was back on last night as the Cubs pounded the Reds 7-2. They haven’t played since Saturday, I was having serious withdraws.
Looks like Rich Harden maybe falling back into form, much better, and luckily deeper outing then his previous start. Only gave up three hits and two runs. Good strike out to walk ratio at 8:2, man I love his changeup, so deceptive.
I’ve been taking a liking to Micah Hoffpauir at Right Field; he could also play First Base. I have a feeling Milton Bradley will be back in the starting lineup tonight, so it moves Hoffpauirs hitting capabilities back to the bench. At least we know if Milton Bradley isn’t able to play Right or Derrek Lee goes down at First Base, we could count on Hoffpauir to filling in at either position and do a decent job.
I really would like to know if Kosuke Fukodome will continue to his early season dominance. Last year he started off like this, but after each month passed his batting average kept on falling by an average of 30 points. But anyway he didn’t have any hits last night, but walked twice and scored two runs.
Theriot is a pretty good offensive player; I love him batting in the eighth hole. But, I have a bone to pick with him. His defense is atrocious at shortstop. Last night Lee saved Theriot twice and two balls horribly thrown to him. The coaches should really work with him on his defense, if they already aren’t.
Speaking of horrible moments like Theriots throws to first, did anybody catch the cat running onto the field? Shades of ’69. Then immediately following the stupid cat there was foul ball to hit where the Bartman play happened, shades of ’03. I had to leave the room after those back to back incidents.
I’m gonna start a fun segment on my blog called The Neil Cotts Watch. I’m sure my readers know how much I hate this guy. So let’s get it started.
Cotts Watch, Day 1:
Pinella put Cotts in the eighth inning last night, with a very comfortable lead. He basically just had one job to do and that’s get the ball over the plate, something he doesn’t know how to do. In just 0.1 innings last night he struck out one, gave up a base hit, and gave up a walk. Way to get runners on base with a good lead going!
Cubs General Manager Jim Hendry has been at the Cubs Triple A Iowa affiliate, the Iowa Cubs.
Heres what I think will go down:
The Cubs will call up Starting Pitcher Jeff Samardzija, move current Starting Pitcher Sean Marshall to the bullpen to be our left handed specialist, and fade out Cotts by cutting him off the team.
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