Now it is time to lose and keep losing in order to guarantee a high draft choice. Or so it would appear were we to follow the dictates of guys like Dave Kaplan and company who continually blare out this mantra on sports radio.
The Cubs have been only too happy to comply. After an encouraging road trip where they compiled a 6-4 record primarily on the strength of their starting pitching, they have won only one game on the current home stand, much of which has taken place after the trade deadline when everyone can relax and just play baseball, Cubbie style.
Dale Sveum finally snapped after Friday's game. Down 6-2 in the bottom of the ninth against Carlos Marmol, Julio Borbon doubled to lead off the inning, then managed to get thrown out at third trying to advance on a ball in the dirt. Of course, this was a really dumb play given the game situation - no outs, down four runs, Marmol pitching - but, hey, it wasn't atypical for the Cubs. Stalwarts like Soriano, when he was here, Castro, and Rizzo seem to make bonehead mistakes like this every day with little notice.
However, Borbon's mistake was the last straw for our savvy manager, who promptly launched into a vituperative diatribe about the incident, after which Borbon, who was hardly used anyway, was designated for assignment. So it goes.
The Cubs brought up the perennial second rate utility infielder Donnie Murphy. Kind of a poor man's Cody Ransom. The Brewers and the Dodgers seem to have rediscovered the old formula for beating the Cubs, namely, keep those lefties coming and keep the right-handed platoon on the field.
Incidentally, the Cubs have been pretty boastful of the apparent success of some of their platoons, but lately the numbers have been coming down to earth. The aforementioned Ransom is batting .059 in the second half with a .309 OPS. Luis Valbuena is hitting .159 over roughly the same span. Valbuena is headed for the DL with an oblique strain, so he is out until at least September and maybe for the season.
The rest of the platoons are not faring much better. With the departure of Soriano, the Cubs are essentially platooning Cole Gillespie and DeJesus and playing Schierholtz every day. Gillespie's numbers as a Cub are OK. The odd thing is his BA against righties is 100 points worse than against lefties. Schierholtz has never been up to much against left-handed pitching, .189 this year, so the results have been predictable. However, given the prior platoons in right field that involved Hairston and Sappelt, he is not doing appreciably worse.
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