More Bad Baseball

Since my last post, the Cubs lost two of the remaining three games to the Padres and the first game of the Reds series.  It may be time to rethink the premise of this blog, in that it is getting pretty tiresome to say the same things over and over again.

The Wood game is a case in point, a game the team should certainly have won were it not for a total defensive collapse in the eighth inning, one of numerous total defensive collapses this season.  Lost in the shuffle was the key Sveum move of replacing Wood with Camp, who promptly threw a wild pitch and walked the only hitter he faced.

The Cubs had used no relief pitchers in Wednesday's game when Feldman went the distance, so they had Marmol, Russell, and Gregg available on Thursday.  I questioned the wisdom of signing Camp after he had a decent year in 2012.  These journeymen guys in the twilight of their careers rarely bounce back the next season after 70 or more appearances.  Sveum seems to have a peculiar affection for Camp which is a little hard to fathom.

Yesterday was one of the worst performances by the Cubs all year.  Fifteen hits and three walks, but they could manage only five runs, three of which scored in the bottom of the ninth when they decided belatedly to start actually working the count (two of the walks came in the ninth and one drove in a run).

One observation on the bullpen management by Sveum.  They were losing 4-2 after six innings, but they decided to use Bowden and Loe in relief.  These are the guys you use in lost games.  The result was the Reds managed to add two more runs to effectively put the game out of reach.

Now no one expected the Cubs to contend.  The worrisome part, though, is that they still show the same tendencies they have shown through the past lean seasons.  There is no improvement here.  They still fall apart defensively after any kind of tough break.  They still consistently miss the cutoff man on nearly every outfield throw no matter who is playing.  They still fail to deliver with men on base.

Starting pitching has improved, but the worry here is that as the season wears on, pitching under the constant pressure of close games without run support will take its toll and this aspect of the Cubs game will deteriorate as well.

Maybe next time we will discuss what the Cubs need to do to improve, which has nothing to do with threatening to move to Rosemont or building a new scoreboard.