Phillies Series

The Cubs played pretty well against the Phils and gained a split.  They might have come back to win the final game, but, as usual, Volstad managed to dig himself a hole the team found it hard to overcome.  Volstad was a little unlucky in the first inning, some cheap infield hits, some lucky hits.

Here's the problem with Volstad, though, he is always around the plate and his stuff looks good enough to induce swings and grounders when he is on his game, but it is not quite good enough to induce outs when he needs them, not good enough to reach back for something extra or to shut a team down.

Volstad is in his fifth major league season.  He's been the same pitcher virtually throughout his career.  It is hard to see much space for improvement despite his relative youth, so it is hard for me to see him as anything but a placeholder, and a pricey one at that, given he is really being paid $19MM when you consider the terms of the Zambrano deal.

Anyway, the Cubs won two of the other three games in Philadelphia, coasting behind two fine performances by Paul Maholm, who finally faced a free-swinging team that couldn't hit his off-speed stuff, and Matt Garza, who was dominant again on Sunday.

The Cubs have looked a lot better in the past week against the Cardinals and Phillies than they did at the very beginning of the season.  Much of this modest resurgence has been due to two players on the offensive side, namely, Bryan LaHair who has provided many clutch hits and good power, and Tony Campana, who has been hot since his recall from Iowa.

Campana is definitely a factor in the game when he can get on base.  This kid is really fast and an excellent base-stealer.  He is batting nearly .400 since coming up, so you know this is not going to last.  All the more, since he has virtually no plate discipline whatsoever.  It is a shame no one has been able to teach him how to use his speed and stature to get on base consistently, as, were someone to take an interest, he could be a very useful player.

As it is, the Cubs would be wise to ride out this streak as long as it lasts.  Which makes it all the more surprising that Campana was not in the lineup on Saturday, sitting in favor of the veteran Reed Johnson.

Dale Sveum has declared himself pleased or relatively happy with the team's performance so far, which is kind of weird since they are 8-15 and sitting in last place.  Of course, one of the issues I have with this team - and I know it is a rebuilding year and they are experimenting and all that - is with Sveum.

I can't help but compare his lineups and some of his decisions to those of Mike Quade, and damned if they do not look similar.  I'm not sure he is the dunce that Quade often appeared to be, but maybe it is just that baseball guys all tend to behave alike when they are managing teams that are challenged by gaps in talent and habits of play, teams like the Cubs.

In some respects, the front office is equally to blame.  Guys like Sveum are going to play their veterans and prefer them to younger players as long as they are on the team.  They are also going to prefer players who at one time or another showed some proficiency in a given role even if they no longer possess that proficiency.  So sometimes the only thing a front office can do to help matters is not to sign guys like this in the first place, or, if they are on the team, get rid of them.

To their credit, Epstein/Hoyer did dump Marlon Byrd.  However, the team still carries Reed Johnson, Jeff Baker, Alfonso Soriano, and Kerry Wood.  These are veteran players who will have nothing at all to do with building a winning team for the future, and who would likely have nothing to do with winning now based on their performance so far.

So the question in my mind, and the real heart of evaluating Sveum as a manager, is how he uses them.  So far, the record is pretty bad.  Soriano, who is as useless and ineffectual a player as one is likely to find, plays everyday in LF and bats fifth.  His average and production has plummeted in recent days.  The Cubs, in effect, released Byrd and Zambrano.  The question is, if nobody wants him, why don't they do the same with Soriano?

With respect to Baker and Johnson, it is legitimate to question why they play regularly against lefties and sometimes righties as well when they produce so little in contrast to Joe Mather, who has produced quite well on the few occasions he has been in the lineup. Mather plays all the positions Baker and Johnson play equally or a little better than they do, and he has an upside.

The reason, I can only surmise, is this is how lifers like Sveum think, and this is especially the case when they are still learning the craft and have something to prove.  So you can also always assume that managers will use their bullpen guys in their accustomed roles whether it makes any sense of not.

Sveum has not disappointed in this respect.  He always uses Marmol as the closer whether he stinks or not and he will leave him in pretty much until the game is irretrievably lost.  Wood is his eighth inning guy.  Wood's signing was irrational in the first place.  Again, Wood is not a piece of the puzzle, so why is he positioned to fail with such regularity.

James Russell, on the other hand, was once considered to have starter's stuff.  He has been consistently effective out of the bullpen.  When the Cubs traded Marshall, I had supposed they felt he could be dealt because Russell was ready to step into his role.  Instead, he is used almost exclusively in the left-handed specialist role, even though his ERA is 0.00 through 7+ innings of work.

Hopefully, with Sveum, these are growing pains.  When you hear his post-game analyses, though, you kind of wonder.