Home Stand

The Cubs won six of seven on the home stand and looked really good doing so.  Arrieta was a little unlucky to lose the pitchers' duel Sunday afternoon.  The run he gave up to the Pirates was mainly the result of a fluke popup double.  The Cubs ran themselves out of some chances with bad base running and, in general, just could not collect that big hit.  I've got to say the one impressive thing about the Pirates is their outfield, the Polanco flop notwithstanding.  They ran down a bunch of potential extra-base hits all weekend and kept the Pirates in the game.

Rumor is the Cubs will bring up Wada to take Travis Wood's spot in the rotation.  Actually not so much rumor, as Maddon announced he will start on Wednesday.  This is really a needed change.  Whenever the Cubs have to remove their starter in the sixth inning or earlier, it spells trouble, and Wood, at his best, was good for only six innings.  A move to the pen might help him out.  His stuff is just not that good and he has to work hard to get outs, which usually means his pitch count gets up there pretty fast.

That bullpen is a mess right now.  An off-day and the rest achieved Saturday and Sunday for the main players will help, but there is just no way they can carry fourteen pitchers and remain competitive, especially with three catchers.  No doubt Schlitter will hit the road to allow Wada's promotion, but it is an open question who else will need to be sent down.  Maddon loves Rosscup, but he may be the only guy left with options, and they need to bring up another position player, presumably Lake or Denorfia if he has healed.  LaStella got hurt again yesterday during his rehab assignment, so he is out of the picture.  Otherwise, they are going to have to DFA one of the veterans.  Coke and Motte have not exactly lit things up all year and probably are pretty marginal to the Cubs long term plans, so it could be one of them.

I saw a piece on MLB Trade Rumors that the Cubs were thinking about bringing up Baez again.  Apparently he is hot down at Iowa.  I rather think this is a big mistake.  First off, twenty at-bats at AAA isn't much of sample and he is still striking out a third of the time.  The other question is where would he play.  The speculation was he would be moved to third base, with Bryant going to the outfield.  The problem is that Bryant is playing really well defensively at third and Baez has, to my knowledge, never played there.