The Padres Series

The Cubs/Padres series was a delight to watch for fans who enjoy well-pitched, closely contested games that hinge more or less on one or two special efforts or just plain luck. In this series, whether it was because the Padres were pressing with their backs to the wall after a dreadful September, or because it is just about impossible to score runs against good pitching in their ballpark, or because the Cubs pitching right now is just a little bit better or a combination of all these things, it was the Cubs who looked like the contenders, not vice-versa.

Zambrano set the tone on Monday night, and Dempster continued the dominance the following evening. The Cubs managed only six runs in those two games, but they looked to be in complete control. On Wednesday, Wells pitched a really good game. He allowed two earned runs in the loss, and the game might have been closer were it not for the great defense the Padres displayed. Venable actually pulled back home runs by Soriano and Ramirez on spectacular plays.

Wells has not had the greatest sophomore year, but I think he is underrated. He had some awful starts, but so did Dempster. He finished the year with 18 quality starts in 32 tries, which is not half-bad. It is the same number he had in his rookie season in five fewer attempts. He also pitched almost 200 innings. Dempster, the only other pitcher on the staff with a comparable number of starts, 33, had 22 quality outings.

Gorzelanny, I think, and people are free to disagree, is rather overrated. He pitched well-enough in the final game of the series, but he seemed to be just teetering on the brink of disaster most of the way, mainly because he walks too many people and pitches behind in the count. In any case, he pitched well enough to beat the Padres, although he did not pick up the win as the Cubs were forced to dip into the bullpen after six innings of a scoreless tie.

The Cubs bullpen was dominant throughout the series and I cannot recall them allowing a single run. Which brings up an interesting point, and probably one of the keys to Quade's success as contrasted with Piniella's failure. I would argue the Cubs had consistently good starting pitching through most of the year, certainly good enough to win more games than they did. But what Quade has done, whether because some of the kids have improved, or because he has managed to evaluate their particular skills better, or whatever intangibles he brings, he has proved that it is possible to manage a young and relatively weak bullpen successfully, something I have argued for a long while is definitely a thing that can be done. It is a thing that baffled Lou Piniella through most of the year even though he had arguably one of the best finishing tandems in the entire league in the person of Marshall and Marmol.

The Cardinals Series

Well, just when I had pronounced the Cubs pitching the principal reason for their recent success, they proceed to go out and lose three of the next four, all the result of really bad pitching. I suppose in a back-handed way, it demonstrates my point.

Anyway, Dempster had nothing in the final game against the Giants, and Gorzelanny had pretty much the same luck against the Cardinals on Friday. Dempster, who has been a consistent starter through most of the season has thrown up three or four atrocious outings toward the end of the year. Maybe he is just running out of gas. Along with Zambrano and Wells, I would have to regard him as a lock in the starting rotation unless the Cubs do something really stupid in the off-season.

Gorzelanny, I'm not so sure about. To me he is and always will be a #5 kind of guy. He throws too many balls and, as a consequence, he will rarely get you into the seventh inning. Granted he was coming off a long layoff, and he will probably get another start before the season ends, but I could easily see him failing to make the rotation next year, and I could easily see the Cubs dealing him in the off-season as well.

Coleman pitched the only decent game in this stretch. The more I see of Coleman, the more I think he may have a future. He is not a flashy pitcher, more a professional type in the style of Wells, but he has good stuff, he pitches, and he throws strikes.

Samardzija's outing on Sunday proves in my book that this guy has no future. I actually went out to the park to honor the last home game of the year and frankly I wish I had not. I sat right behind home plate, and believe me, Samardzija had nothing and except for the pitch he grooved to Pujols in the first inning, he showed once again his aversion to throwing strikes of any kind. The game was agony, not only because it was maybe 50 degrees in the stands with the wind blowing constantly in your face, but also because just watching this guy pitch was unbearable. He was lucky to make it into the fifth inning, when he completely lost it, leaving with the score 8-0. It might as easily have been 12 or 13-0.

The Cubs did make it interesting, surprisingly so based on their complete lack of attention through the first five innings whilst they were being no-hit by Jeff Westbrook of all people. Perhaps roused from their slumbers by the belated departure of their starting pitcher, they made a game of it, ultimately falling 8-7. They had a chance to tie or go ahead in the bottom of the eighth against the Cards closer Ryan Franklin, but, for reasons known only to him, Xavier Nady chose to pop up harmlessly on the first pitch after Franklin had walked two of the three previous batters. So it goes.

I think the picture above shows Brad Snyder hitting a single to drive in a run, though I'm not entirely sure about the snapshot.

Series Recaps: Marlins, Giants

Well, there isn't much to say. The Cubs continue to dominate teams, at least teams that have relatively weak offenses. Through the Wednesday game, the Cubs are 18-8 under Mike Quade. Since the start of the road trip on which they went 8-1, Cubs starting pitching has been completely dominant. Wells, Zambrano, and Dempster have been lights out, and they have even gotten respectable performances from Coleman and Samardzija.

The pitching really has been the story. With starters going long, Quade has been able to spot some of the youngsters in the bullpen into positions where they can get outs without a lot of pressure. Scott Maine, in particular, has looked good, and Cashner seems much more consistent. This has taken some pressure off Marshall and Marmol and they have responded in kind.

Lots of folks keep saying that Quade has been successful by playing the youngsters, but I don't know what games they are watching because, with the exception of the Sunday game against the Marlins, they have not used young players unless they had to do so and they have not brought up their best prospects anyway. These guys are at AA. Barney is the only real exception to this statement, and he got most of his ABs when Ramirez was hurt. Nor has Quade been especially experimental with the youth. The much heralded experiment of playing Colvin at 1B never materialized, and his batting orders are pretty conventional as well. Not that he has a lot of choices, but it should be obvious the Marlon Byrd is not a #3 hitter, nor is Blake DeWitt a leadoff man.

The only area where Quade has been relatively imaginative has been in his management of the bullpen and his employment of the young players there. I give him full credit for this turnaround and for the patience he has shown.

As for the hitting, well, during the 9 out of 11 streak, the team is hitting something like .230 though they have a better average with runner on base. I've been watching baseball for a long time, and I don't remember a team turning around like this with a change of manager based on just one aspect of the game. Seems a mystery and I'd be happy to see someone come up with a theory to explain it. It must have something to do with Piniella, though, either the way he managed his pitchers or his relationship with Rothschild. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I recollect reading that Piniella hated pitchers. Possibly they sensed this disaffection. Who knows?

Soriano Speaks (Again)

Alfonso Soriano has once again shared his thoughts about this season and his hopes for the next. Maybe his agent should just tell him to keep his thoughts to himself. Anyway, he has met his modest goals for the season, which, apparently, consisted only in staying off the DL and had nothing to do with performing well or winning ball games. Who knew?

One hopes no one in Cubs management pays any attention to this blather. Or maybe they should. If they did, they would be looking to dump this hopeless mope on some unsuspecting AL team that needs a DH. Otherwise we are stuck with not only his miserable performance, but his "thoughts" as well for four more years at $18 million per. Four more years!

For what it is worth, you have to wonder whether Alfonso is actually paying any attention to the games he is playing in right now. According to him, the Cubs offense is OK and they can build around him, Ramirez, and Byrd. They need to go out and get some pitchers. Now I guess the observation that the Cubs starters had allowed only three earned runs on the road trip until tonight (and only six including tonight) was lost on him like a flyball in the twilight.

The Cubs are 7-1 on the trip, largely due to the pitching. They are not exactly blasting the ball all over the field, but maybe they are learning that you don't need to do this to win consistently. It's nice, sure, but if you get a few guys on base every now and again and get a few hits and actually catch the ball more often than not, well, you start to win more games than you lose.

As old Lou would say, look in the mirror. Not only is Soriano a genuinely wretched outfielder, but since the glory days of spring, his monthly numbers for BA, OBP, and SLG are .234/.310/.268, .225/.271/.450, .245/.273/.457, and .205/.311/.333 respectively. These numbers also do not take into account that a great many of his hits that are not home runs are weakly hit bloopers or the result of misplays by the opposition. So, honestly, if we are relying on Alfonso for next year, God help us.

Soriano confides that we can also count on Ramirez and Byrd to carry the load along with him. I won't say anything against Ramirez, who, since recovering from his thumb injury and whatever other funk he was in, has returned to form. Ramirez is a consistent and exceptional hitter who is and has been the foundation of the Cubs offense since he was acquired in 2003.

Byrd is actually another story. He has had a pretty good year for sure, better than I expected, but he is starting to show signs of returning to his career form, which is a pretty solid .280 hitter who doesn't walk a lot and doesn't work the count, hustles on the bases, and plays above his natural talents in center field. His numbers this season are so skewed in his favor against lefties that they almost suggest his role as he plays out his contract may become more that of a platoon player. A nice guy to have around, but compare his numbers to the numbers put up by the platoon of Edmunds and Johnson in 2008, and you will see what I mean.

Baseball players aren't always the brightest bulbs, so it is not surprising that they don't always know why it is they win or lose. Even if Soriano were right in supposing the Cubs could rely on these three bats next season, the problem is that these guys are all aggressive, really overly aggressive, right-handed hitters who attack the ball early in the count and share some of the same weaknesses. Coupled with Lee before he was traded they usually batted in tandem. That was and is really the problem. Forget about pitching unless you are going to make a play for Cliff Lee. This team will never produce a solid consistent offense until they get more left-handed.

Actually, I am beginning to think they will never become a really good team until they either dump Soriano or just make him a platoon player. He does kill mediocre left-handed pitching.

Cubs Sweep Cards

I've got to say the Cubs looked good again, sweeping the Cardinals in St. Louis and pretty much eliminating them from the NL Central Division race even though the Reds managed only a split in their four game series with the Diamondbacks. One question you have to ask is whether this is just a late season, pressure off illusion, or whether the deceptive part was their performance before Piniella quit.

Granted the Cubs have nothing to lose and can play the enviable role of spoiler against arch-rivals like the Cardinals, but the Cards had everything to gain and they played like the mopes the Cubs were earlier on. Also, as noted before, the Cubs are not playing rookies, but pretty much their regular veteran lineup.

Anyway, they swept the team that was supposed to be their major rival at the start of the year and they looked good doing so. They are 5-1 on the road trip, mainly on the strength of their starting pitching. I think the starters have yielded only three or four runs in the whole stretch. Against the Cardinals, Samardzija pitched surprisingly well, Wells pitched back to his 2009 form, and Zambrano continued to impress. Z did not have his best stuff, but he still gave up only one earned run and pitched out of trouble all night long.

Should we be waiting for next year? More on this in a later post, but at least they are an interesting team to watch lately.

Astros and Brewers Series

Things have come down a little to Earth for Mike Quade. His team has played .500 ball for the last week, losing two of three to the Astros and taking two of three from the Brewers. The slight letdown has not been due to the pitching, which has been pretty decent, especially against the Brewers where it was outstanding.

The problem really has been the offense, which has been in a pretty steady funk since Ramirez was hurt. I read where Ramirez was undecided about exercising his player option for 2011. The Cubs are in deep trouble if he doesn't come back, but then again so is he because nobody is going to pay him $14.5 million after the last two seasons. Ramirez has become over time something of a fragile player. Assuming he comes back next year, and there is no reason to suppose he will not, the Cubs would do well to find a backup 3B. that backup isn't, by the way, the totally one-dimensional Jeff Baker, no matter how well he hits left-handers.

But back to the recap, Coleman was very good in his Sunday start and OK in his previous start, a game the Cubs were lucky to win on the Soto homer in a sloppily played game. Actually, play was sloppy for both sides throughout the series. Silva was pretty shaky in his start, but he had not pitched in a while. Wells was mediocre.

The Cubs continued their offensive funk throughout the Brewers series. They had the game in hand Friday night mainly due to Zambrano's dominance, but they were the beneficiaries of some really dreadful defense by Milwaukee, as well as some solid clutch hitting by Zambrano who had three hits as well.

The best news was the Zambrano and Dempster starts. Both pitched very well, and Zambrano was absolutely dominant on Friday night. I thought that Ken Macha, the Brewers manager, rather confirmed an earlier observation in this blog that Z has changed his style, becoming more of a pitcher, since his return to the rotation.

"You know what? I thought earlier in the year, [Zambrano] threw harder," said Milwaukee manager Ken Macha. "Tonight, I thought he had more movement and he didn't throw the ball as hard. He threw 90-91 [mph], but he was cutting the ball, he was sinking it. He threw several curveballs 70 mph. I talk a lot about having that slowness, being able to control the bat speed, and he did that."

I recall that when Sweet Lou banished the guy to the bullpen it was so that he could recover his velocity. Could he have been wrong again? No way, fans. Piniella was always right. Well, if only they had fired him when they should have, there might have been a more interesting and promising finish to the season than there is now.

People are still mumbling about trading Z, but, to my mind, the guy for all his faults is just capable of being so good, you cannot give that away. Arguably, Zambrano has been the best pitcher in the NL since his return. Maybe they should send the whole team to a shrink.

More Statues and Some Modest Proposals

I see where Crane Kenney is quoted as saying we are to expect more statues of Cubs greats to surround Wrigley Field. It is easy to be flippant about this, but I, for one, think that once again Kenney has hit the nail on the head. He has found a genuine, low-cost, low-maintenance solution to some of the Cubs woes.

Who doesn't remember the famous Billy Williams catch in the Holtzman no-hitter of days gone by? The image of the savvy Hall-of-Famer waiting for Hank Aaron's drive to blow back into the well is soldered in our brains. And who doesn't think we have a bit of a problem in left field? Well, lets do something about it. We don't need another pricey free agent. Lets just put up a statue of Billy in the same spot, over there in the well. This is a cheap and permanent solution. The statue would have about the same range as our current regular and at a fraction of the cost.

While we are at it, don't we have a problem at first base? What's wrong with a statue of Ernie over there? Or better yet, lets move Aramis Ramirez to first and erect a statue of Ron Santo at third. Again, about the same range and maybe the better solution because Castro has tons of range and could probably handle both positions himself.

Now what's the other hole we have? Manager, of course, and the solution here is again obvious: Lou Piniella. Not the real one, but another statue, probably in one of his natural poses, stoically slumped in the corner of the dugout with a permanent scowl, or else just taking a nap. And how about Lee Elia, permanently seated at the interview dais, screaming obscenities at those lazy fans?

This idea has legs! Maybe wings! If only Cubs fans would get behind genuine innovations instead of carping about big contracts and high ticket prices and what not, wouldn't we all be better off? Think about the money this could free up to finance Ricketts' quest to buy up the rest of Wrigleyville? Maybe if he is successful, we could soon see a statue of Hack Wilson staggering out the door of the Cubbie Bear, arm in arm with Babe Ruth. We can dream, can't we?

Quade's Macho Moment

For some reason or other, Chicago sports columnists love the macho moment, the time when the boss stomps out of the dugout and just virtually bops an under-performing player or takes him out like in the famous Bobby Cox incident with Andruw Jones that commentators are always gushing over. Anyway, Quade benched Starlin Castro for two days and according to Paul Sullivan, this is sure to win him points with Jim Hendry as a stand-up guy.

Now I have no idea what transpires in a major league dugout in the way of mentoring or instruction, especially having watched the Cubs most closely for so many years. In the case of Piniella, it seemed almost everyone was asleep or smashing up the Gatorade dispenser until Carlos got pissed off and then all hell would break loose. I would, however, imagine that when a player messed up, someone would have occasion to mention it, but maybe in Cubdom this is considered bad form.

I've got nothing against giving Castro a breather to slow things down and get his bearings. Maybe it will work. The kid has a lot of talent, but in the field he plays out of control. Forgetting how many outs there were was rather an uncharacteristic blunder on his part, but maybe Quade saw it as an indicator of a deeper lapse of concentration. It should certainly not require two entire ballgames to learn to count to three, though, and one wonders if this kind of public humiliation is always the right action.

I suppose it depends on the player. One thing you do not want to do to a young player is destroy his confidence. Castro went 1 for 4 in his return to the lineup, made an error in the first inning when he hurried a play, but otherwise he made several excellent plays in the field. Not a whole lot of difference. Castro's problem is that he plays out of control and probably needs to relax more and to figure out who is running and so on. These things will come in time. He might benefit from spending some time in winter ball with a really good infield coach.

Some other interviewers talked about whether the same sort of treatment might be usefully employed with veteran players, but it was hard to figure out what Quade's answer to them really meant. One would like to think they had in mind some of the more obvious candidates on the roster known for their casual lack of hustle or baseball intelligence or both. Alfonso Soriano comes to mind as an example on both counts, but whenever he sees the lineup card, his name is still there. In the Mets series he hit a three run homer, but he botched up a flyball to the warning track that he played into a two-run double that ultimately resulted in three runs scoring in the inning and he let a perfectly routine single bounce through his legs in the Dempster game, opening the floodgates for three more runs. And these were just the most obvious misplays. None of them mattered to the outcome, but the accumulation of bad play takes its toll. I'll be impressed with Quade's macho when he takes on a bigger fish.

Actually, Quade had the opportunity to do so very early in his managerial stint, when Alfonso watched a couple of balls fail to reach the seats and in the infamous case in Washington when he watched the RF miss a popup and knock his own breath out. Anyone else would have had an inside the park home run. Steve Stone and some of the other commentators called Quade out on not taking any action in this case. I hate to harp on Soriano all the time, but I just watch this guy and even on TV, you can see that he rarely makes the right decision in the outfield both in his route to the ball, his handling of the ball, the base he chooses to throw to, the accuracy of his throw, etc. And this criticism does not even take into account his atrocious situational hitting.

The Mets Series

All in all, another good series. Any series is good if you take two of three or three of four. At the All-Star break, I and maybe a hundred other commentators noted the Cubs would have to win two out of three of their remaining games to get back into contention. So far Quade has done just that, 8-4, so you have to wonder what might have happened had the Cubs dumped Piniella then.

As for the Mets series, a nice win on Friday. Soriano finally hit a home run, although in all fairness, this simply made up for his botching up a catchable flyball by Wright that cost two runs. I wonder if the Cubs noticed something in DeWitt's swing that they thought they could work with. He has shown a lot more power since joining the team, four HRs in about 100 ABs since joining the team, as opposed to one in around 250 ABs with the Dodgers.

Zambrano was again dominant on Saturday. It is good to see that more people are coming around to the view that if he continues to pitch well he should be retained. Getting a comparable pitcher in exchange would certainly be difficult and pricey. I also liked the fact that he managed to keep his emotions under control when Castro made a really rookie play that allowed a Mets run to score early in the game.

Sunday's game was a reversion to early season form. Lets hope it is not a sign of the return of Cubs' complacency. Dempster was bad again. He has logged a lot of innings and might benefit from an extra day's rest at this stage of the year. Colvin made a costly and unnecessary error and Castro made a mental mistake by forgetting how many outs there were on a groundout. These are rookie mistakes, I suppose, but you really wonder what sort of preparation any of the Cubs players are getting at the minor league level. Judging by Castro's performance as a hitter, he has not been rushed by any means, nor, it would appear, has Colvin.

The same cannot be said for the young pitchers. These guys, like Russell and Diamond and Berg, are maybe just not very good. I'd say the jury is still out on Coleman and Cashner.

It will be interesting to evaluate Quade's performance in maybe a couple of weeks. How much of his success is do to a post-Piniella bump and how much to his skill? It is apparent that Quade is not playing young players or doing much experimentation to see where all the pieces might fit. He is playing veterans and established youngsters in the main with the exception of some bullpen assignments where he has very little choice. I think there are two reasons for this, one being Quade's desire to win and to impress management with his skills, the other being some desire on the Cubs part to determine whether they actually have something in the basic lineup that will be under their control next year upon which to build. Neither one of these goals is wrong in and of itself, but you have to wonder if it has not become time to be a little more innovative and whether testing some other alternatives might not be best for the team in the long run.

Another Series Win for Quade

It never ceases to amaze me how any team could consistently lose to the Pirates, possibly one of he worst teams of the past decade in most facets of the game. But there it is, the Cubs accomplished this ten times in fifteen tries this season. But at least they took this series, and there were some good things to note sandwiched around the terrible thumping they took in the middle game.

One such grace note is that at least one of the younger bullpen guys seem to be coming around again, namely Cashner, who looks to be regaining his confidence. Another seems to be the resurgence of Carlos Zambrano, who is 3-0 since returning to the rotation and has looked very good in most of these outings. He was throwing a lot harder on Monday night, but since he had something like a fourteen run cushion, he may just have been relying more on his fastball to set up his other pitches. Gorzelanny's injury looked very scary. One hopes it is not a broken bone and that he can come back and pitch before the season is over. I can't recall a pitcher getting hit more often in a single year than Gorzelanny. He should be careful crossing streets.

Among the hitters, Starlin Castro continues to impress and to improve every day. This kid is going to be a super star if he continues to mature and I rather think he will hit for more power when he learns what pitches he can turn on. His fielding will come around in time as well. I wish I could say the same thing about Colvin. He continues to hit for power and now that he has been dropped down in the order by Quade, he gets significant hits. He still strikes out too much, and he still needs to develop more plate discipline. I would be remiss not to mention that Fukudome is pretty much carrying this team every day he plays and that he is really in a groove right now. Somebody on the coaching staff should figure out what he is doing right on these streaks and made sure he sticks with this approach.

Today, like many of these games late in the season when nothing really counts, was an amusing game to watch. Quade seemed determined to set some sort of record for double-switches. Perhaps this was an effort to demonstrate to management that he could both execute the manoeuvre successfully - a feat that often eluded Lou's grasp in the past - and that the moves made some tactical sense.

Today also saw the re-dedication of the truly gruesome Harry Caray statue, this time parked on the corner of Waveland and Sheffield near the entrance to the bleachers. Something about this statue gives me the creeps. He seems like some sort of strange hulk rising from who knows what subterranean region to exhort us to well, I don't know what. Maybe it is just me, but it is a weird piece of art. At least it is no longer exposed at Addison and Sheffield.