Maybe it is just me or my impression, but has anyone else noticed that particularly on the last day of a homestand, especially an afternoon game, these guys just go up there and make quick outs. Like they have one foot on the tarmac. Sure, Lynn pitched a great game for the Cardinals, but the Cubs hitters helped a lot.
I watched yesterday's performance, the highlight of which, except for LaHair's 4th HR, was Seinfeld's Jason Alexander singing the 7th inning stretch. Unfortunately, his visit with Bob and Len was exceedingly brief as the Cubs made three quick outs on maybe four or five pitches.
Seriously, the problem with this team for the past four years has been hitting, not pitching. Last year the pitching broke down completely when their fourth and fifth starters were hurt the first week of the season, but, although this needed attention and got some in an odd way from Epstein & co., I still contend it is difficult to evaluate pitching on a team that is always tied or behind early in the game.
These guys do not score runs. They do not score runs because they do not get on base. They do not get on base because they are impatient at the plate and fail to walk or work the count to their advantage. Another factor is they have been and still are overwhelming right-handed. Epstein remarked on this factor in the pre-season, and, of course, the team's best prospects, Rizzo and Jackson, are left-handed hitters, but this aspect of the Cubs game is unlikely to change until their arrival.
Another factor in the failure to produce runs has been the batting order. For quite a while, actually until the last week, LaHair, so far the best hitter, was buried in the seventh spot. Another factor has been Starlin Castro. He may be the #3 hitter of the future, but he isn't now.
Castro seems to be an entirely different hitter with men on base, really anxious and antsy, which is all the more surprising since LaHair is batting behind him and one would expect right-handed pitchers, at least, to give Castro something to hit. The problem is that in key situations, Castro is not giving pitchers much of a chance to make a mistake.
I suppose their are two schools of thought on exposing Castro to the #3 slot, one being that this team is not going anywhere anyway, so why not let him get the pressure experience, the other being that constant exposure to failure is going to sap his confidence in these situations. I'm not sure where I land on this issue, though, if you do not project him as the #3 on the team you are building, it makes little sense to bat him there now.
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