The Cubs took two of three from the Astros to finish the season. Once again it was pitching that dominated, even though they scored 8 runs to give Zambrano his 8th consecutive win on Saturday night. Coleman pitched well on Friday night, probably his best outing of the year. He may just have earned himself a place in the rotation next season. Dempster was a little shaky on Sunday, not awful, but not dominating either. The Cub defense broke down a bit early in the game and their hitting, as usual, was absent.
It is hard to know what to make of the turnaround initiated by Piniella's departure. How much of it was Quade's doing and how much of it just being rid of Lou? Quade certainly shined, but the team will need more than that over a long haul next year. One thing they will need is consistent hitting and an everyday lineup that makes sense from the point-of-view of scoring runs and playing defense. Obviously, Quade's options were limited, especially after Soto's and Colvin's seasons ended prematurely, but still I didn't see much offense, nor much of a coherent philosophy in crafting these lineups. I guess the jury is still out here.
You might say the Cubs rode out the season on the coattails of some of their more maligned players, namely Zambrano, Ramirez, and Fukudome. Anyway, I was pleased to see that Hendry officially took Zambrano off the trading block. Maybe this will end the constant drone of now's the time to get rid of this guy and pay half his salary so he can win someone else a pennant.
Mr Ivyman: I think now would be a good time to pick your playoff winners in each league. Ny vs. Twins, Rangers vs. Tampa Bay; Reds vs. Phillies, Atl vs. SF. I like Twins over NY, Tampa over Rangers, Phillies over Cincy, Atl over SF. World Series: Phillies over Tampa.
ReplyDeleteFurthermore...your prediction for next Cub Mgr. (I predict Girardi if the Yankees blow it. Otherwise, Quade is the hombre.) I strongly agree the Z man should stay in the Cub rotation. They need to trade Fuko: altho he's solid defensively, he'll never finish much over .250, and he costs too much to be a mere late inning defensive OF er, plus his presence continues to stifle the development of my main man Colvin.
Your pal. B. Gullman
Dear Mr. Gullman,
ReplyDeleteI had intended to do a post both analyzing the playoffs and the Cubs manager search. Take this as a sneak preview. Whoever wins the NY/Minnesota series will go to the World Series. Right now I think the Yankees will win because their pitching is better than the Twins and pitching tends to dominate in a short series. Even though Texas has Cliff Lee, I think they will probably lose to Tampa. The AL East is still the dominant division in baseball and for these two teams to win 95 or 96 games in that division means something.
As for the NL, they finally have home field for the Series, but there isn't a team in the playoffs without serious flaws. The Phillies are a power, but I'm not so sure they will have an easy time against the Reds. The Braves/Giants series is definitely a matchup of also-rans, but if the Reds top the Phils, Dusty will find a way to lose the championship.
The Cubs manager choice is difficult because of the people making the choice, viz., Jim Hendry at least in the first round. I still think the Cubs will have a hard time denying Sandburg and they will probably be making a big mistake if they do. Quade is hard to evaluate. People forget that Girardi has at least as much of a connection with the Yankees as he had with the Cubs and it has been a more successful one. He was being groomed to replace Torre just as Sandburg appears to have been groomed to replace Piniella.
I don't think the Cubs are going to trade Fukudome and I rather hope they do not. I'll put up a long post on what I think they should do, both with their pitchers and their position players, but the gist of my thinking is this. The strength of your team is pitching. To have good pitching and a team that plays bad fundamental baseball, both at bat (no plate discipline) and in the field means you are not going to win as many games as your pitching would normally allow you to win. (The Cubs were either first or second in quality starts this season, something in the mid-90s, but they won only 75 games). Now I know Fukudome is not worth $13M, but he will hit around .270 and have an OBA around .370 and he will play a superb outfield every day. That's what you might expect from a leadoff man. Soto and Fukudome are the only Cubs to get on base consistently. Look up the stats from 2008 when they scored something like 850 runs. The question you have to ask yourself if you are a GM is can you get an equivalent player in return? I guess my answer is pretty much no.