Winning and Losing Ugly

The last two games before the break at Pittsburgh provided examples of both. On Saturday, the Cubs put together a nice game, timely hitting, good defense by and large, and good relief pitching. Ryan Dempster made his first start since his mystery illness/injury/whatever. He pitched badly for five innings. He was throwing batting practice pitches in the first inning and was bailed out by some good defense in the form of Fukudome's throw home to prevent a second run.

After that he settled down a little in terms of throwing major league pitches, but he was wild and in trouble the whole day. Only the Pirates lack of patience saved him. After the 5th inning Quade had seen enough and pulled him for a pinch hitter, prompting a juvenile temper tantrum by the alleged ace.

Everybody just laughed the whole thing off, of course, because for some reason it is thought that Dempster is a fiery gamer and Zambrano is a nut. It would be interesting to see if the roles had been reversed and Carlos was the guilty party. Marlon Byrd, in his blog, hints at the same thought expressed here and rather hints at other dissatisfaction among the players while toeing the party line.

If it had been Zambrano, it would’ve been blown up and blown out of proportion. The camera stays on Carlos. They’re waiting for him to have his next blow up. Dempster’s had blow ups, but you just haven’t seen them or hear about them. I’ve had my blow ups and you never hear about them. It happens to everybody. I guess it’s a Catch-22. If it’s Dempster, he gets a pass. If it’s Carlos Zambrano, it gets talked about more because he’s Big Z.

Anyway, I was disheartened to see Mike Quade, whom I don't think much of as a manager, taken to task in the press and on the bulletin boards for making one of the few sensible decisions handling his starters that he has made all season.

As for Sunday, well, it was the same old thing with the fifth starter syndrome. Obviously, Ramon Ortiz is not the answer. Expect him to be released or sent down when Zambrano is activated.

On a minor note, it was good to see the Cubs promote Flaherty and Jackson to AAA, as they seem to be the best prospects as far as position players go in the system right now. Perhaps some moves are afoot that will lead to their being called up. One can only hope.