So the Cubs break out with an 11-7 windblown victory Monday. Today, however, they face a mediocre left-handed pitcher, which, of course, means the right-handed lineup of doom.
We noted yesterday the results of this lineup, but some guys can't figure this out, can they? There is some sort of truism linking the repetition of the same action in the expectation of different results as a form of mental illness.
It's the fifth inning now and the Cubs are down 1-0. The wind is howling out, but short of the Cubs knocking out Eric Stultz and turning over the lineup, this game is probably out of reach already. Hope I'm wrong.
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Monday, May 28, 2012
Twelve
By now, pretty much everyone agrees the recent skid is due to the perennial Cubs problem, not scoring runs. Which, of course, is due to their whole approach at the plate which is characterized, in the main, by terminal impatience and dumbness.
Not to belabor the obvious, but this is really a dumb team and has been for years. Lets take Garza, who in addition to not being able to throw the ball to first base, has now become afflicted with ideas. Apparently, Garza thought that he could fool the Pirates by sneaking in a couple of change-ups, his fourth best pitch, when he was throwing upwards of 95 mph all day. All of them got deposited in the seats, resulting in seven unanswered runs.
But not to worry, Garza is now aware of this and thinks, on balance, these pitches were not a good idea. The thing that is bothersome, however, is how he was even allowed to throw these pitches in the first place. I had always supposed that the catcher was in control of the game, kind of like in Bull Durham when Crash Davis comes out and tells Nuke that he is doing the thinking, not Nuke.
The point here is not to just make a joke, but to note that the Cubs decline is coincidental to the spate of injuries to all the Cubs legitimate catchers. Not that Soto, Castillo, and Clevinger are in Yadier Molina's league, but the catcher is so important in controlling the game, and it just seems the Cubs are sadly deficient in this respect. For example, the Marmol situation. Sure, he doesn't like to throw his fastball, but somebody has to make him do it, and that duty, I'm afraid, belongs to the catcher.
The other instance of terminal dumbness has to do with the lineup. I had some hopes when Epstein and Hoyer took over that we would see some change of philosophy here, but unfortunately we got Dale Sveum at the helm. Sveum seems sadly out of step with what one supposed was to be the prevailing approach of the front office.
I don't want to beat this to death, but somebody is supposed to be looking at numbers. Here's an interesting set of numbers. The Cubs have one of the worst batting averages against left-handed pitching in all of baseball. They invariably start a right-handed hitting lineup against lefties. Their record this year is 1-9. Draw your own conclusions.
The thing is that when he explains all this, Sveum sounds like a replay of Quade who sounded like a replay of Lou Piniella. I don't expect this team to contend, but you can at least pretend you are able to think your way out of a paper bag. Right-handed hitters are supposed to have an advantage against left-handed pitching. Cubs right-handed hitters, however, clearly do not. Time to stop pretending that a superficial generalization has anything to do with real world performance and maybe dig a little deeper.
Not to belabor the obvious, but this is really a dumb team and has been for years. Lets take Garza, who in addition to not being able to throw the ball to first base, has now become afflicted with ideas. Apparently, Garza thought that he could fool the Pirates by sneaking in a couple of change-ups, his fourth best pitch, when he was throwing upwards of 95 mph all day. All of them got deposited in the seats, resulting in seven unanswered runs.
But not to worry, Garza is now aware of this and thinks, on balance, these pitches were not a good idea. The thing that is bothersome, however, is how he was even allowed to throw these pitches in the first place. I had always supposed that the catcher was in control of the game, kind of like in Bull Durham when Crash Davis comes out and tells Nuke that he is doing the thinking, not Nuke.
The point here is not to just make a joke, but to note that the Cubs decline is coincidental to the spate of injuries to all the Cubs legitimate catchers. Not that Soto, Castillo, and Clevinger are in Yadier Molina's league, but the catcher is so important in controlling the game, and it just seems the Cubs are sadly deficient in this respect. For example, the Marmol situation. Sure, he doesn't like to throw his fastball, but somebody has to make him do it, and that duty, I'm afraid, belongs to the catcher.
The other instance of terminal dumbness has to do with the lineup. I had some hopes when Epstein and Hoyer took over that we would see some change of philosophy here, but unfortunately we got Dale Sveum at the helm. Sveum seems sadly out of step with what one supposed was to be the prevailing approach of the front office.
I don't want to beat this to death, but somebody is supposed to be looking at numbers. Here's an interesting set of numbers. The Cubs have one of the worst batting averages against left-handed pitching in all of baseball. They invariably start a right-handed hitting lineup against lefties. Their record this year is 1-9. Draw your own conclusions.
The thing is that when he explains all this, Sveum sounds like a replay of Quade who sounded like a replay of Lou Piniella. I don't expect this team to contend, but you can at least pretend you are able to think your way out of a paper bag. Right-handed hitters are supposed to have an advantage against left-handed pitching. Cubs right-handed hitters, however, clearly do not. Time to stop pretending that a superficial generalization has anything to do with real world performance and maybe dig a little deeper.
Sunday, May 27, 2012
Has Sveum Lost the Team Already?
Listening to some post-game analysis and browsing through some blogs and on-line sites, it is apparent some people are wondering whether the Cubs manager has just lost the team this early in his career. He has certainly lost the fans, and I have to say it is just possible he has lost the team as well. If so, it is something of an achievement. It took Lou Piniella two and one-half years, and Quade three months or so if you count his audition in 2010. Two months might be some kind of record.
The Cubs lost their twelfth in a row today at Pittsburgh and there were precious signs of life on the bench, in the field, and in Sveum's head. Once again, the anemic right-handed lineup that cannot hit left-handed pitching. With predicable results. Another great throw by Matt Garza on the second play of the game. OK, I could go on and on.
Here's the thing, though, this team was approaching respectability when the wheels came off in St. Louis on May 17. Paul Maholm pitched badly in this start, but the Cubs came back to tie the game at 6 going to the bottom of the ninth. The Cubs put Rafael Dolis, who had then for some unaccountable reason been designated the closer, in to pitch.
Matt Holliday singled. After Dolis struck out Craig, Freese grounded out to Stewart, but Holliday advanced to second base. Sveum could have and should have walked Molina intentionally. Instead he decided to pitch to him. He moved the second baseman Barney over toward the middle of the infield. Molina hit a sharp grounder directly to the spot that Barney had vacated. Barney got a glove on it but it got by him and the game was over.
They haven't won since, nor have they shown much interest in winning. Sveum has avowed that he would have made the same move again, that he wasn't going to think about the what-ifs, and so on. He didn't linger on about thinking and analyzing decisions. What happened, happened.
OK, I can see the positioning move being unlucky. What I can't see is pitching to Molina, which even Brenly avowed at the time was dumb. I don't have any evidence of this, but the players can see this stuff too and it is not too far-fetched for them to make the logical conclusion that their leader is more or less brainless. That and the fact that this team is built to lose and you get a twelve game losing streak.
The Cubs lost their twelfth in a row today at Pittsburgh and there were precious signs of life on the bench, in the field, and in Sveum's head. Once again, the anemic right-handed lineup that cannot hit left-handed pitching. With predicable results. Another great throw by Matt Garza on the second play of the game. OK, I could go on and on.
Here's the thing, though, this team was approaching respectability when the wheels came off in St. Louis on May 17. Paul Maholm pitched badly in this start, but the Cubs came back to tie the game at 6 going to the bottom of the ninth. The Cubs put Rafael Dolis, who had then for some unaccountable reason been designated the closer, in to pitch.
Matt Holliday singled. After Dolis struck out Craig, Freese grounded out to Stewart, but Holliday advanced to second base. Sveum could have and should have walked Molina intentionally. Instead he decided to pitch to him. He moved the second baseman Barney over toward the middle of the infield. Molina hit a sharp grounder directly to the spot that Barney had vacated. Barney got a glove on it but it got by him and the game was over.
They haven't won since, nor have they shown much interest in winning. Sveum has avowed that he would have made the same move again, that he wasn't going to think about the what-ifs, and so on. He didn't linger on about thinking and analyzing decisions. What happened, happened.
OK, I can see the positioning move being unlucky. What I can't see is pitching to Molina, which even Brenly avowed at the time was dumb. I don't have any evidence of this, but the players can see this stuff too and it is not too far-fetched for them to make the logical conclusion that their leader is more or less brainless. That and the fact that this team is built to lose and you get a twelve game losing streak.
Saturday, May 26, 2012
Ten and Counting
The Cubs losing streak hit ten yesterday night. The Pirates, who make rather a specialty of not scoring runs at all, managed one run off Ryan Dempster. Actually, the run scored early in the game rather fittingly off a muffed double play grounder straight at Ryan Dempster, which, of course, he messed up, managing finally to get one out on the play.
There are three things that have characterized this latest streak. One is the fact that Cubs pitchers simply cannot field their position and make routine plays when they count. I don't know what it is, but it is getting a little tiresome to watch Matt Garza throw wildly to first or Ryan Dempster get the ball stuck in his glove every time he fields a ground ball.
The Cubs tried desperately to give the Pirates more chances, including two errors by the seemingly useless Adrian Cardenas, but their opponents resolutely refused to take advantage.
The second trend here is, of course, the lack of timely hitting. For a while, when LaHair was not mired in a terrible slump, the Cubs could count on getting an intelligent at-bat from at least one player. It is not that the Cubs don't get men on base, although they could get more men on base if they were more patient. They had twelve base-runners last night and left eleven on base. The other, Joe Mather, was picked off.
What happens is this. Once they get a runner on base, they change their whole approach. The result is consistent failure. Last night, they were 0 for 12 with runners in scoring position. The thing is that this seems to be something of a Cubs trademark. No matter who is on the team and who is playing, sooner or later, you get the same result. Are these guys just dumb or what? Anyway, go figure. It's just there and it seems to be contagious.
The third consistent feature of the streak is strategy. This obviously has to do with what happens when men get on base. The obvious solution, for Sveum, is to give up an out. What you are saying there is that you do not trust your hitter to put the ball in play as either a base hit or a well-directed grounder. The obvious question and the obvious message is, why, then, is this guy batting?
Last night, the Cubs got a runner on base in the top of the ninth. Unfortunately, Koyie Hill was due up. Hill, is, of course, an automatic out. So Sveum has Hill bunt into a force play. Johnson, then, comes up and delivers a hit to right field. Now the question arises, why wasn't Johnson pinch-hitting for Hill with the Pirates closer on the ropes? Not that it mattered, as DeJesus and Castro struck out to end the game.
It goes a little deeper than just inning management, though. At another level, there simply is very little thought given to the batting order. I won't even mention the infamous all right-handed lineup that is guaranteed not to score runs ever. But last night, we got the long-awaited shuffle that moved Castro out of the #3 spot. Castro hit second, Mather third. Why Mather would hit third is a matter of some conjecture, but I suppose it beats a blank. Campana, who is a threat if he manages to get on base - and he actually gets on base more often than Castro - was promptly benched. This is probably because Stewart is hurt and Cardenas, not Mather, was slotted to play third.
Having Campana in the lineup would have exceeded the unwritten Sveum rule that, if possible, everyone playing against a lefty should bat right-handed, whereas, one can never have more than four left-handed hitters in the lineup against a right-hander, presumably to assure balance.
Now I know it is hard to fill out a lineup card with placeholders, which is essentially what the Cubs team is right now. And that is especially hard when all three of your major league catchers are hurt. But there needs to be some thought involved. One suggestion might be to hit Campana first on the odd chance he can get on base. DeJesus is patient enough to give him a chance to steal. I suppose you could have Mather hit third if you wanted, but Castro should drop down to sixth where he might relax and also provide some protection for Soriano when he doesn't make the third out. Barney could bat seventh, after which it is pretty much nothing until one of the regular catchers can come back. Just a thought, in any case.
There are three things that have characterized this latest streak. One is the fact that Cubs pitchers simply cannot field their position and make routine plays when they count. I don't know what it is, but it is getting a little tiresome to watch Matt Garza throw wildly to first or Ryan Dempster get the ball stuck in his glove every time he fields a ground ball.
The Cubs tried desperately to give the Pirates more chances, including two errors by the seemingly useless Adrian Cardenas, but their opponents resolutely refused to take advantage.
The second trend here is, of course, the lack of timely hitting. For a while, when LaHair was not mired in a terrible slump, the Cubs could count on getting an intelligent at-bat from at least one player. It is not that the Cubs don't get men on base, although they could get more men on base if they were more patient. They had twelve base-runners last night and left eleven on base. The other, Joe Mather, was picked off.
What happens is this. Once they get a runner on base, they change their whole approach. The result is consistent failure. Last night, they were 0 for 12 with runners in scoring position. The thing is that this seems to be something of a Cubs trademark. No matter who is on the team and who is playing, sooner or later, you get the same result. Are these guys just dumb or what? Anyway, go figure. It's just there and it seems to be contagious.
The third consistent feature of the streak is strategy. This obviously has to do with what happens when men get on base. The obvious solution, for Sveum, is to give up an out. What you are saying there is that you do not trust your hitter to put the ball in play as either a base hit or a well-directed grounder. The obvious question and the obvious message is, why, then, is this guy batting?
Last night, the Cubs got a runner on base in the top of the ninth. Unfortunately, Koyie Hill was due up. Hill, is, of course, an automatic out. So Sveum has Hill bunt into a force play. Johnson, then, comes up and delivers a hit to right field. Now the question arises, why wasn't Johnson pinch-hitting for Hill with the Pirates closer on the ropes? Not that it mattered, as DeJesus and Castro struck out to end the game.
It goes a little deeper than just inning management, though. At another level, there simply is very little thought given to the batting order. I won't even mention the infamous all right-handed lineup that is guaranteed not to score runs ever. But last night, we got the long-awaited shuffle that moved Castro out of the #3 spot. Castro hit second, Mather third. Why Mather would hit third is a matter of some conjecture, but I suppose it beats a blank. Campana, who is a threat if he manages to get on base - and he actually gets on base more often than Castro - was promptly benched. This is probably because Stewart is hurt and Cardenas, not Mather, was slotted to play third.
Having Campana in the lineup would have exceeded the unwritten Sveum rule that, if possible, everyone playing against a lefty should bat right-handed, whereas, one can never have more than four left-handed hitters in the lineup against a right-hander, presumably to assure balance.
Now I know it is hard to fill out a lineup card with placeholders, which is essentially what the Cubs team is right now. And that is especially hard when all three of your major league catchers are hurt. But there needs to be some thought involved. One suggestion might be to hit Campana first on the odd chance he can get on base. DeJesus is patient enough to give him a chance to steal. I suppose you could have Mather hit third if you wanted, but Castro should drop down to sixth where he might relax and also provide some protection for Soriano when he doesn't make the third out. Barney could bat seventh, after which it is pretty much nothing until one of the regular catchers can come back. Just a thought, in any case.
Monday, May 21, 2012
A Really Bad Homestand
The Cubs lost all five games at home last week, as well as the finale of a two-game set in St. Louis. What's wrong?
Well, first off, their pitching came down to Earth and their defense disintegrated. And their bullpen is just a shambles in need of a total makeover. But really what's wrong is they don't score runs. They don't score runs because they are, by and large, an impatient team at the plate that swings at pitcher's pitches.
This isn't likely to change until there are more personnel changes. It is also unlikely to change so long as Rudy Jaramillo is their hitting coach. Look at the record. Their run production has steadily declined since he was hired. Also, the Rangers run production and OBP has steadily increased since he left the team. This guy is sadly overrated.
Dale Sveum is thinking about shuffling the lineup. Good luck with that if he isn't willing to face some unpleasant truths. One is that you have to stop playing for one run and start playing for a big inning. This means taking pitches and not bunting.
A couple of changes they could make right now. Get Campana out of the #2 spot. He never takes pitches and he seems to bunt every other time at bat. This is good if he is bunting for a hit, but he is not very good at it. Even if he gets on - and he is almost a sure thing to steal - he always runs and everybody knows it. If he is in the lineup, he needs a patient hitter behind him who will give him the opportunity to steal. That hitter is not Starlin Castro who almost never takes a pitch with a runner on base. Campana, to my mind, doesn't get on base enough to bat high up in the order. However, if you are going to hit him up there, he should be flipped with DeJesus who will take pitches.
I was of two minds about the experiment of batting Castro third. Now I'm convinced it is a big mistake. Castro is not learning in the position. I'm afraid the pressure of hitting third is just aggravating his already over-aggressive tendencies. As of today, Castro is batting .311 with an OBP of .324. That OBP is just terrible. He has four walks all year, which means he is on a pace to walk fewer than twenty times all season.
Castro has 25 RBI, but that doesn't mean that much simply because he has had a lot of opportunities to hit with men on base, and also, because he has shown very limited power so far this season, his style right now is not at all suited to the #3 hole. Another telling factor is how often he makes the final out of the inning and forces LaHair, a legitimate power threat, to lead off an inning.
After the #4 slot, the Cubs have pretty much a series of automatic outs, at least until they get back one or two of their injured catchers. Stewart and Barney can sometimes be tough outs with men on base, but they haven't really consistently produced down in the order.
There probably isn't a solution to these problems until the Cubs feel their best prospects, Rizzo and Jackson, are ready. I'd like to see more of Joe Mather either at 3B or in CF. Rizzo would be a natural #3 hitter. Maybe they should move LaHair up and drop Castro down in the order to take some pressure off.
It will be interesting to see if Sveum does shake up the lineup and it will offer some insight into how he is thinking or whether he is thinking at all.
Well, first off, their pitching came down to Earth and their defense disintegrated. And their bullpen is just a shambles in need of a total makeover. But really what's wrong is they don't score runs. They don't score runs because they are, by and large, an impatient team at the plate that swings at pitcher's pitches.
This isn't likely to change until there are more personnel changes. It is also unlikely to change so long as Rudy Jaramillo is their hitting coach. Look at the record. Their run production has steadily declined since he was hired. Also, the Rangers run production and OBP has steadily increased since he left the team. This guy is sadly overrated.
Dale Sveum is thinking about shuffling the lineup. Good luck with that if he isn't willing to face some unpleasant truths. One is that you have to stop playing for one run and start playing for a big inning. This means taking pitches and not bunting.
A couple of changes they could make right now. Get Campana out of the #2 spot. He never takes pitches and he seems to bunt every other time at bat. This is good if he is bunting for a hit, but he is not very good at it. Even if he gets on - and he is almost a sure thing to steal - he always runs and everybody knows it. If he is in the lineup, he needs a patient hitter behind him who will give him the opportunity to steal. That hitter is not Starlin Castro who almost never takes a pitch with a runner on base. Campana, to my mind, doesn't get on base enough to bat high up in the order. However, if you are going to hit him up there, he should be flipped with DeJesus who will take pitches.
I was of two minds about the experiment of batting Castro third. Now I'm convinced it is a big mistake. Castro is not learning in the position. I'm afraid the pressure of hitting third is just aggravating his already over-aggressive tendencies. As of today, Castro is batting .311 with an OBP of .324. That OBP is just terrible. He has four walks all year, which means he is on a pace to walk fewer than twenty times all season.
Castro has 25 RBI, but that doesn't mean that much simply because he has had a lot of opportunities to hit with men on base, and also, because he has shown very limited power so far this season, his style right now is not at all suited to the #3 hole. Another telling factor is how often he makes the final out of the inning and forces LaHair, a legitimate power threat, to lead off an inning.
After the #4 slot, the Cubs have pretty much a series of automatic outs, at least until they get back one or two of their injured catchers. Stewart and Barney can sometimes be tough outs with men on base, but they haven't really consistently produced down in the order.
There probably isn't a solution to these problems until the Cubs feel their best prospects, Rizzo and Jackson, are ready. I'd like to see more of Joe Mather either at 3B or in CF. Rizzo would be a natural #3 hitter. Maybe they should move LaHair up and drop Castro down in the order to take some pressure off.
It will be interesting to see if Sveum does shake up the lineup and it will offer some insight into how he is thinking or whether he is thinking at all.
Saturday, May 19, 2012
Kerry Wood
I have to confess that I have never understood the Kerry Wood phenomenon among Cubs fans. I mean, Wood seems like a nice guy and a talented pitcher who, largely because of injuries and colossal mismanagement of his career by the Cubs organization, never really fulfilled his potential.
Some of the idolatry was no doubt the result of Wood's abbreviated rookie year, especially the Kid-K game where he struck out 20 Astros in a single game. That year Wood was hurt toward mid-season. One of the dumbest things the Cubs and Wood did was to try to come back at the end of the season and for the playoffs. He aggravated his injuries and had to have reconstructive elbow surgery. As a result, he missed all of the 1999 season.
After that, the magic was really gone. He came back to pitch pretty well for bad teams in 2001 and 2002, then very well for a good team in 2003. After that, he was hurt again, tried to come back again, etc. This time, after numerous tentative diagnoses, it turned out to be his shoulder. He made another comeback, this time as a reliever and had a decent season in 2008 as the Cubs closer.
For what he accomplished - and I grant you that he had to overcome a lot of adversity - Wood was overpaid for most of his career. He cashed in on a free agent deal with Cleveland in 2009, but he was plagued by injuries again. In his career away from Chicago, he had about a month with the Yankees in 2010 when he was a dominant setup guy. That's about it. Unfortunately in his Yankees stint, he fell in love with the cut fastball and never stopped throwing it to the detriment of his live fastball and excellent curve.
He came back to the Cubs on a discount deal for 2011. You cannot really say he was anywhere near consistently effective, on and off the DL, finally knee surgery in September.
This year, for reasons known only to Ricketts and Epstein, Wood was brought back to town in a blatant PR stunt at the Cubs convention. Once the season started, Wood was just awful.
I have to say I was a little surprised that Wood threw in the towel. Maybe there was a quid pro quo that if things didn't work, the team would provide him some kind of sinecure if he agreed to leave graciously. Whatever it was, he decided to call it quits.
His departure, to my mind, smacked of the blatant PR mania that has dominated his career since his 2011 return. I don't know what the point was in pitching to one more hitter in one more game. It says more about the Cubs organization and the Cubs fans than it does about Wood's character or career.
Though maybe it does. It smacks not a little of ego to do a final curtain call. After his morning announcement, it was obvious that the only person who had his head in the game they incidentally played against the White Sox was Jeff Samardzija. The Cubs saw all of 93 pitches all afternoon from four White Sox pitchers. Everybody was itching to get into the media room for the post-game.
Wood, though, has always been lionized by the Chicago media and Cubs fans. As I noted earlier, this says something more about that media and those fans than it does about their fallen heroes. What it mainly says is that personality, sometimes an undeserved reputation, and effort count for more in their eyes than results.
The Cubs had the most dominant starting pitching in a long time in 2003. Wood pitched really well, maybe not as well as he did in 1998, but he was good. Mark Prior had a totally dominant season, and Carlos Zambrano was just starting to flash signs of his future stardom. Plus they had Matt Clement as their #4 starter.
Of course, it all went awry. For Cubs fans and media, Mark Prior became a selfish wuss when he complained about arm and shoulder trouble. His career was essentially over the next year and he got precious sympathy for it. Zambrano became a dominant force through several seasons, but, for the fans and media, his considerable abilities were always overshadowed by his temperament. Arguably, he was a better pitcher than the other two members of that indomitable trio. Sadly, he was pretty much run out of town.
Wood, however, endured, ceaselessly reinventing himself and shining like some sort of valorous but doomed knight in the eyes of Cubs faithful. Sadly for him. Sadly for us all.
Some of the idolatry was no doubt the result of Wood's abbreviated rookie year, especially the Kid-K game where he struck out 20 Astros in a single game. That year Wood was hurt toward mid-season. One of the dumbest things the Cubs and Wood did was to try to come back at the end of the season and for the playoffs. He aggravated his injuries and had to have reconstructive elbow surgery. As a result, he missed all of the 1999 season.
After that, the magic was really gone. He came back to pitch pretty well for bad teams in 2001 and 2002, then very well for a good team in 2003. After that, he was hurt again, tried to come back again, etc. This time, after numerous tentative diagnoses, it turned out to be his shoulder. He made another comeback, this time as a reliever and had a decent season in 2008 as the Cubs closer.
For what he accomplished - and I grant you that he had to overcome a lot of adversity - Wood was overpaid for most of his career. He cashed in on a free agent deal with Cleveland in 2009, but he was plagued by injuries again. In his career away from Chicago, he had about a month with the Yankees in 2010 when he was a dominant setup guy. That's about it. Unfortunately in his Yankees stint, he fell in love with the cut fastball and never stopped throwing it to the detriment of his live fastball and excellent curve.
He came back to the Cubs on a discount deal for 2011. You cannot really say he was anywhere near consistently effective, on and off the DL, finally knee surgery in September.
This year, for reasons known only to Ricketts and Epstein, Wood was brought back to town in a blatant PR stunt at the Cubs convention. Once the season started, Wood was just awful.
I have to say I was a little surprised that Wood threw in the towel. Maybe there was a quid pro quo that if things didn't work, the team would provide him some kind of sinecure if he agreed to leave graciously. Whatever it was, he decided to call it quits.
His departure, to my mind, smacked of the blatant PR mania that has dominated his career since his 2011 return. I don't know what the point was in pitching to one more hitter in one more game. It says more about the Cubs organization and the Cubs fans than it does about Wood's character or career.
Though maybe it does. It smacks not a little of ego to do a final curtain call. After his morning announcement, it was obvious that the only person who had his head in the game they incidentally played against the White Sox was Jeff Samardzija. The Cubs saw all of 93 pitches all afternoon from four White Sox pitchers. Everybody was itching to get into the media room for the post-game.
Wood, though, has always been lionized by the Chicago media and Cubs fans. As I noted earlier, this says something more about that media and those fans than it does about their fallen heroes. What it mainly says is that personality, sometimes an undeserved reputation, and effort count for more in their eyes than results.
The Cubs had the most dominant starting pitching in a long time in 2003. Wood pitched really well, maybe not as well as he did in 1998, but he was good. Mark Prior had a totally dominant season, and Carlos Zambrano was just starting to flash signs of his future stardom. Plus they had Matt Clement as their #4 starter.
Of course, it all went awry. For Cubs fans and media, Mark Prior became a selfish wuss when he complained about arm and shoulder trouble. His career was essentially over the next year and he got precious sympathy for it. Zambrano became a dominant force through several seasons, but, for the fans and media, his considerable abilities were always overshadowed by his temperament. Arguably, he was a better pitcher than the other two members of that indomitable trio. Sadly, he was pretty much run out of town.
Wood, however, endured, ceaselessly reinventing himself and shining like some sort of valorous but doomed knight in the eyes of Cubs faithful. Sadly for him. Sadly for us all.
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
What's with the Bunts Already?
I went on a bit of a diatribe in my last post about sacrifices and how useless they generally are in most game situations.
The Cubs have won two of their last three games since that post. One, the final in the Brewers series, was pretty much of a blowout. The other two were tighter games in which managerial strategy played a bigger role.
On Monday night against the Cardinals, Sveum had the Cubs bunting away and, as usual, bad things happened even though the Cubs eventually posted single runs in each inning to put away the game.
In the eighth inning, DeJesus led off with a single. Campana beat out a sacrifice attempt to put runners at first and second. Sveum promptly had his #3 hitter Castro bunt into a double play. Now not only did this strategy result in failure, but it made no sense at all. Had Castro succeeded, there would have been men at second and third and the Cardinals would have walked Bryan LaHair intentionally. Which they did anyway. The Cubs got lucky when Alfonso Soriano managed to single home the lead run.
Not satisfied with the strategy's potentially harmful results in the eighth inning, Sveum went back to the well in the ninth. Soto led off by getting hit by a pitch. Barney then attempted a sacrifice bunt and got lucky when the Cards pitcher messed up the throw. So Mather comes up and also bunts into another potential double play that Freese messes up by throwing wildly to first, plating an insurance run.
The point is that in the late innings, Sveum just seems to be on automatic pilot and his strategy makes no sense whatsoever. On Tuesday, Sveum went to the lifer playbook, choosing to pitch to Yadier Molina with a runner in scoring position and first base open in a tie game. Presumably this was because a left-handed hitter, Carpenter was on deck. OK, Carpenter hit a homer in his previous at-bat, incidentally off a left-handed pitcher, James Russell. But he is a rookie. Molina, on the other hand, is probably one of the best clutch hitters in all of baseball. So naturally the Cubs lose.
I don't mean to pick on Sveum exclusively here, but I had rather expected more from Epstein and co. in choosing him. They know very well that bunts don't make any sense most of the time. The Red Sox bunted only 22 times last year, 19 the year before. The last time they bunted more than 30 times was 2000. In the championship season of 2004, they had only 12 sacrifice bunts, two by pitchers in inter-league games.
So you have got to wonder what's going on here, and when it is going to change.
The Cubs have won two of their last three games since that post. One, the final in the Brewers series, was pretty much of a blowout. The other two were tighter games in which managerial strategy played a bigger role.
On Monday night against the Cardinals, Sveum had the Cubs bunting away and, as usual, bad things happened even though the Cubs eventually posted single runs in each inning to put away the game.
In the eighth inning, DeJesus led off with a single. Campana beat out a sacrifice attempt to put runners at first and second. Sveum promptly had his #3 hitter Castro bunt into a double play. Now not only did this strategy result in failure, but it made no sense at all. Had Castro succeeded, there would have been men at second and third and the Cardinals would have walked Bryan LaHair intentionally. Which they did anyway. The Cubs got lucky when Alfonso Soriano managed to single home the lead run.
Not satisfied with the strategy's potentially harmful results in the eighth inning, Sveum went back to the well in the ninth. Soto led off by getting hit by a pitch. Barney then attempted a sacrifice bunt and got lucky when the Cards pitcher messed up the throw. So Mather comes up and also bunts into another potential double play that Freese messes up by throwing wildly to first, plating an insurance run.
The point is that in the late innings, Sveum just seems to be on automatic pilot and his strategy makes no sense whatsoever. On Tuesday, Sveum went to the lifer playbook, choosing to pitch to Yadier Molina with a runner in scoring position and first base open in a tie game. Presumably this was because a left-handed hitter, Carpenter was on deck. OK, Carpenter hit a homer in his previous at-bat, incidentally off a left-handed pitcher, James Russell. But he is a rookie. Molina, on the other hand, is probably one of the best clutch hitters in all of baseball. So naturally the Cubs lose.
I don't mean to pick on Sveum exclusively here, but I had rather expected more from Epstein and co. in choosing him. They know very well that bunts don't make any sense most of the time. The Red Sox bunted only 22 times last year, 19 the year before. The last time they bunted more than 30 times was 2000. In the championship season of 2004, they had only 12 sacrifice bunts, two by pitchers in inter-league games.
So you have got to wonder what's going on here, and when it is going to change.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)