I think even the biggest pessimists in these parts have to acknowledge that the Cubs are a pretty good baseball team. But even the most optimistic of us have to wonder if a good team has ever been shut out as often as the Cubs. They’ve been shut out EIGHT times already this year.
Yesterday’s lineup was just begging to be shut out, though. You take a good pitcher like Ben Sheets and match up studs like Rey Ordonez, Ramon Martinez and Jose Macias in the lineup and it’s going to be ugly. Hell, with the day game after a night game, it was surprising we didn’t get the Ordonez-Martinez-Macias-Bako quartet.
The lineup immediately reminded me of this infamous lineup that Dusty pulled out on the Cubs first west coast road trip.
Tom Goodwin, cf
Jose Macias, 2b
Moises Alou, lf
E-ramis Ramirez, 3b
Todd Hollandsworth, rf
Derrek Lee, 1b
Ramon Martinez, ss
Gabor Bako, c
Carlos Zambrano, p
Incredibly, that was in a 7-3 win over the Dodgers on May 13 and those Cubs scored six runs in the second inning. Yesterday’s Cubs are still waiting to score.
Jose Macias’ career may have flashed before his eyes when he fouled an 0-1 pitch with two outs in the ninth into the Cubs dugout and smoked Dusty Baker in the ribs. When you stink, like Jose does, and only the blind devotion of the manager keeps you employed, you don’t want to nearly kill him with a line drive. Just a tip.
—
The schedule, and Ben Sheets conspired to take the buzz off the Cubs three game sweep over the White Sox a little prematurely. The nice thing was that the Sox had the day off and so they got an extra day to dwell on being pantsed by Carlos Zambrano, Greg Maddux and Glendon Rusch over the weekend. Not only that but a Twins win last night also knocked the Sox out of first place. A Sox fan posted here over the weekend that the Mets proved with their sweep over the Yankees that “Yep, the better team always wins.”
Whoever that was, was exactly right. Last weekend. When the Sox took two of three. As hard as this might be for Sox fans to get their minds around, the Cubs play in a tougher division and have a better record and won the season series from the Sox and if the playoffs started today (which, like we always say would screw everything up because nobody’d be ready) the Cubs would be in them and the Sox wouldn’t.
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The All-Star teams have been picked and the city of Chicago has four guys on the two teams and most of the world thinks three of them don’t belong there. You know what we say to that?
Shut up.
Sammy Sosa is on the team because he’s Sammy Sosa. He missed a month of the season and he still has a good shot at extending his 100 RBI season streak to an MLB record ten, and his 40 homer season streak to an MLB record seven.
Sammy got voted in by the fans who want to see an outfield of Barry Bonds, Junior Griffey and Sammy. That outfield only has 1700 career homers.
Moises Alou got voted in by the National League players and while guys like Bobby Abreu and JD Drew are having huge years, too, Moises’ .286, 19 homers and 49 RBI make his selection defensible.
Carlos Zambrano also got picked by the players and nobody has any problem with Carlos being on the team. Let’s just hope he doubles up his Midol dosage before he takes the mound in Houston. We don’t want anymore unsightly cramping. Carlos is 9-3 with a 2.41 ERA and is one of the best pitchers in all of baseball.
Stevie Loiaza was added to the team by Yankees’ manager Joe Torre because the Sox had to have an All-Star. Loiaza? He’s 8-4 which is pretty good, but the 4.37 ERA isn’t that great and his ERA by month has gone:
April – 3.71
May – 3.68
June – 5.35
July – 6.00
He’s probably the seventh most deserving Sox, behind Paul Konerko, Frank Thomas, Carlos Lee, Mark Buehrle, Shingo and even Magglio Ordonez.
How snubbed was E-ramis? Buster Olney of ESPN.com tried to make a case for him being on the All-Star team and shaved 40 points off E-ramis’ batting average. Uh, he’s hitting .326 Buster, not .287.
You can still add E-ramis and Thomas or Konerko to the team by voting for them at mlb.com. E-ramis has a chance because of the Cubs worldwide fandom, but the Sox duo is screwed for two reasons. One, they’re going to split the vote, and two, Hideki Matsui is on the ballot and there are lots of computers in the far east. Lots.
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Did anybody think that Coach K was really going to go coach the Lakers? I’m not so sure that even if things had been great in LA if the Polish Johnny Cash would have left Duke for the Lakers, but when you add in the fact that Kobe’s a free agent and on trial for rape and Shaq wants out of town and the rest of the roster behind those two looks like Wednesday night at the YMCA, I would have literally fallen out of my chair if the news was that Coach K was leaving Duke to get into that mess. Sure, he’s probably sweating out the additions of Miami, Virginia Tech and Boston College to the ACC (snicker, snicker) and sure he’s like every other coach in college basketball now who loses players early to the NBA, but Duke’s still a great job. Even if you’re not into having Dickie V constantly puckering up behind your hiney.
The Lakers will most likely do the uninspired thing and hire Rudy Tomjanovich. Rudy’s a good coach, even if he looks like Doug Buffone. But Kobe is clearly not excited about Rudy, and that was why Mitch Kupchak flew to Durham, NC last week to try and woo Coach K. The Lakers are worried that if they can’t trade Shaq that Kobe will do the unthinkable and sign with the Clippers. I’d be more worried that if they do trade Shaq and don’t get what Kobe thinks is enough in return, that Kobe would then leave for the Clips and the Lakers would end up losing both guys. Of course, that would only be possible if the Lakers fired Mitch Kupchak and hired Ed Lynch to run the team this summer.
—
Who is this woman, and why is she running for president?
If you turn on the TV today you’ll be inundated with news about Kerry Edwards and the presidential campaign. In fact, look at the size of this sign…
—
Ben Sheets is now 7-2 in his career against the Cubs.
Kerry Wood (no relation to Ms. Edwards) gets a start in Iowa tonight. If all goes well, he takes on the Satanic Red Fowl next Sunday night.
The Cubs were 7-0 at Wrigley North last year. They’ll have to settle for 9-1 this year.
Mike Downey says that the only thing wrong with the Cubs and Sox are their whiny fans.
Jose Macias might not get off the bench for a while.
Mariotti puts down the doughnut to wonder why we don’t love Coach K in Chicago like we love Coach Ditka. Gee, could it be because he coaches at some cracker liberal arts college in the sticks? Nah.
Baseball lightweight Chris DeLuca on Kenny Williams’ past trades. DeLuca says that Kenny’s made some shrewd moves like getting Ross Gload! I know we Cubs fans appreciate the contributions that Gload made in his starts against us this year.
Steve Lavin is ineligible for the OSU job because there’s a city ordinance that Kirk Herbstreit have the best hair in town at all times.
Admit it, on Sunday night you saw a jersey in the Cubs dugout that said “Harris 19” and you freaked out. You weren’t alone.
John Donovan on the All-Star snubs.
The Red Sox and Marlins might try and do a Nomar trade. It could involve Hee Seop Choi and Derek Lowe and one of the Marlins’ stud pitchers. But it’s not going to happen.
Josh Beckett nearly stayed off the DL for an entire day!
Richard Justice seems to think that if the Astros continue to fade they’ll not only trade Carlos Beltran, but Jeff Pornstache and this will be the end of The Beege in Houston, too.
This poor dumb Arizona columnist not only thinks Mark Grace will manage the Diamondbacks next year, but that it’s a good idea, too.
I always thought Ron Karkovice looked like a guy who could make a mean sandwich.
Frank Thomas was complaining that the Indians had too many All-Stars. Let’s see, Frank.
Victor Martinez, c, .299. 12 HR, 61 RBI — He’s only 25, he’s a catcher and he’s got a better average and more RBI than you.
CC Sabathia — 5-4, 3.23 ERA — At the time of his selection, Sunday afternoon his ERA was 2.74.
Matt Lawton — .312, 14, 48, 15 SB — Looks like a solid pick to me.
Ronnie Belliard — .311, 5, 34 — OK, Frank’s right. They should have three not four.
Lawrence Rocca thinks this trade could happen: Edgar Renteria and Matt Morris for Derek Lowe and Nomar. Yeah, sure. Whatever.
Curly Haired Boyfriend says the Red Sox should trade Nomar.
Oops! The NY Post ran a front page today that said Dick Gephart was Kerry’s running mate. Who does their fact checking, Peter Vecsey?
They were just as wrong as Matt Drudge.
America’s finest news source says that the Reagan Pyramid is almost done.
Buddy, the reason we were shut out was because on the only scoring opportunity, I couldn’t make contact with 1 out and Walker on third. Sorry! I’ll do better today maybe!
Well, I struck out twice with runners in scoring position (see photo at top of page) so you’re not alone, Sam.
Exhale….
Did Mitch Kupchak ever get kicked out of college for night-putting with the 15-year old daughter of the dean?
Well, see, I’m Dusty’s RBI guy, so no RBI without me in the lineup!
Bitches, this is my revenge for coming in THIRD in the All-Star vote, behind second place Morgan "The Accountant" Ensberg. Seriously, wtf?
I’ve been waiting to exhale!
That’s how I get my groove back.
I’m still boggled about the fact that Dusty Baker supposedly favors ham and pepperoni sandwiches. Christ, Dusty, lay off the Bay Area weed for awhile.
I am a set-up man, not a closer. Get me Everyday Eddie…now THAT’s a closer!
I’m not Everyday Eric anymore …
For the record: nice job this weekend, Cubs. Conversely, way to lay down, Sox. As always, the question to ask is whether the winners played well, or the losers stunk. Or both.
I think the tone for the whole weekend series was set by Gload’s non-grand non-slam. The other umps were correct to reverse the call, but it still sucked for my Sox. If I was more of a believer in things like momentum, I’d say that the wind was taken out of our sails there and then, even with us scoring our only two runs of the game in the same at-bat. Saturday was silly all around, and I was surprised that the umps let the game go as long as it did, but they made it official and the Cubs won fairly. And Sunday, well, the brooms knocked the Sox back 71 city blocks south. I say it again: nice job this weekend, Cubs. Your fans should be proud.
So what did we learn? We learnt that both teams play to their respective leagues, with the Sox gettin’ kilt for want of the DH. We learned that even with Freddy Garcia on-board, the Sox still need a fifth starter. And we learned that someone in the Sox organization should be slapped for playing reserve outfields everyday in Magglio’s absence, especially when Joe Borchard is looking good in AAA and gives you elements that guys named Timo and Gload do not.
I know Moises is old and an injury waiting to happen, but how is it that you give him an off day when A) Todd Hollandsworth is on the dl and B) Aramis is unable to play? That lineup yesterday was bad. Couldn’t Moises wait until Aramis was back or couldn’t Dusty have had the foresight to do this with Hollandsworth available? Way too many holes in yesterday’s lineup.
Over six weeks ago, Andy posted the following regarding the brutal 38-game stretch facing the Cubs:
"May 24, 25 at Houston (24-20)
May 28-30 (four games) at Pittsburgh (19-21)
May 31-June 2 v. Houston (24-20)
June 4-6 v. Pittsburgh (19-21)
June 7-10 v. St. Louis (23-21)
June 11-13 at Anaheim (29-16)
June 14-17 at Houston (24-20)
June 18-20 v. Oakland (25-18)
June 22-24 at St. Louis (23-21)
June 25-27 at White Sox (25-18)
June 29-July 1 v. Houston (24-20)
July 2-4 v. White Sox (25-18)
Gulp.
38 games in six weeks against some of the the best teams in baseball
(and the Pirates). It could get ugly, especially with guys like Macias,
Jackson, and Goodwin playing. If the Cubs have modest success,
say, 21-17, I think they’re in great shape for the last three months."
Well, 21-17 is what went down. Well done Andy — props to you. And not too shabby for the Cubs considering that they started this 38 game set with a 0-5 start and were 2-8 after ten games.
Better days ahead as the Cubs are this close to fielding the lineup that we were all imaging in the off-season (when Kerry and Gonz return).
(waiting for other shoe to drop)
I don’t think the fans love Ditka as much as Ivory Tower Jay thinks. Remember, Jay’s too deathly afraid of the citizenry of Chicago to actually go out there and understand what real Chicagoans think and feel, so he relies on caricaturized "SNL" skits to assist him.
Any Chicagoan who is also Bears fan will tell you that they like Ditka because he played his ass off as a player, and he took no BS as a coach. He bullied reporters, which is always great sport. He was entertaining. On the other hand, the same fans, if they’re true fans, will also tell you that Ditka was a lousy game coach who dominated a weak NFC Central division in the mid-80’s and would consistently get his ass handed to him by Joe Gibbs/Bill Walsh/Bill Parcells in the playoffs.
I thought the guy was a hoot. But he also screwed the pooch for some talented Bears teams because he was busy selling everything in sight.
Ditka was the perfect coach for the -85 Bears. They were a team loaded with talent that just needed somebody to yell at them. He had snuck up on Gibbs and the Redskins in ’84, and got the Bears close, and then followed through on the mission the following year. Of course Gibbs made sure that Caveman Ditka wouldn’t do that to his genius ass again, and so Gibbs’ teams went into Soldier Field in back-to-back years and pantsed the Bears in the playoffs in ’87 and ’88. And then Bill Walsh took HIS turn coming into Chicago and knocking Ditka’s Bears out of the playoffs. Then, three years later, Jimmy Johnson knocked the Bears out of the playoffs in Chicago.
I think most people know where I’m coming from. We’re not Chris Farley or Bob Smigel in funny nose and glasses. Mike North plays up the stereotype because it puts money his pocket. But most everyone else has a grip on reality. The truth is, NOBODY is more obsessed about Ditka than Jay Mariotti is.
Why was Macias batting in the ninth instead of me. Dusty deserved that line drive from that slap bitch. Noticed that it missed me by inches. I didn’t move til it hit Dusty. My reaction time is slower than my running ability.
I was night putting with the 15 year old daughter of the dean.
Re: #11
The reason you give Alou a day off is because he’s been sucking. Not Korey Patterson sucking. More like Marilyn-Chambers-Monica-Lewinsky big time sucking.
192/.263/.375 with 5 HR and 12 RBI in July sucking.
If this team won’t replace Korey, then it might be time to replace Alou. He’s leaving in 3 months anyway.
If Moises has five homers and 12 RBI in July, I’d say that’s not sucking. Of course, that’s not the case.
The reason he got his day off yesterday was because Dusty wanted to give him one, and apparently Dusty forgot there’s a day off for everybody on Thursday.
I guess we have Andy on board for hitting below the Mendoza line for in excess of 30 days as not sucking.
And while a 30 homer season would be a non-sukcing year, a 72 RBI pace for Alou is sucking.
RBI, AVG, SLG, OBP, and OPS all sucked in June. Ok, homers didn’t. One outta 6 ain’t bad.
Come to think of it, 1 outta 6 was Alou’s batting average, too. Gotta love being consistent.
By the way, math master…..I’m on pace for 38HR’s and 99 RBI’s.
Why didn’t Dusty just put me in left and Grud at 2nd? I can play left, 1st and 3rd. Definitely not on a regular basis, but once in a while, why not? It seems like the lesser evil to Ordonez and Macias batting back-to-back.
Here’s a math lesson. 12 RBI in 27 games. Take the 12, divide by 27 to figure runs per game. That’s .4444
Multiply times 162 to estimate runs per season. That’s 71.9999999992
Ergo! 72 RBI season pace set in a suck filled July.
I just got here. Stop analyzing me already!
Hey Ike Newton, July is only 6 days old. I believe that was Andy’s point in #17. Freakin’ amateur.
Can we please get our fingers off the shotgun trigger? Now we need to jettison Alou? Who’s next, Michael Barrett? If there wasn’t some new calamity to hit this team for your all to freak out about and hack at your wrists with razor blades, how would you ever spend your days at the office? Thank God for these bumps in the road or we’d all have to actually, you know, work.
Relax — Mo will come around and do his usual .280, 30 HR, 90 RBIs. Enter head-long "trade" death plunge if he takes a foul of his in-step (that’ll be his death knell). Until that happens, calm down and chant his name.
Burns: "Are they booing me?"
Smithers: "No, sir, they are saying Booo-urns!"
Thanks Albert, that was my point exactly. If he really had five homers and 12 RBI in the five July games, I don’t think we’d say Moises was "sucking."
Has anyone noticed that I lead National League second basemen in home runs and OPS? I should go to the all star game if the pornstache is still hurt.
My pornstache is alive, alert, and well.
Oh. You meant Jeff Kent’s ps. I assume you don’t mean Dave Wannstedt’s ps, or half-ps.
Dear Kurt,
No, the Cubs do not need to launch Alou, per se. They do need to upgrade the offense. Where would you like to do so?
1st? No.
2nd? Perhaps, but whom would you get.
3rd? No.
RF? No.
CF? Sure, but I doubt it.
That leaves SS and LF. Bott positions are manned by high priced free agents to be. If you want to see them add a leadoff hitter, can you do so at LF or SS?
SS is possible with Cabrera and Visquel. But neither are really great options for various reasons.
That leaves LF. Given that Korey and Sosa could be moved around, a ton of options are available.
And with Alou sucking in JUNE (yes, I didn’t mean JULY), the departure of Alou for a leadoff hitter is tennable.
"2nd? Perhaps, but whom would you get."
The Cubs have TWO capable 2nd basemen. There’s really no upgrade necessary.
And I ain’t going nowhere. I’m old and have a big ol’ salary. Plus, people love to yell "Alooooooooooou" at Wrigley.
No pics of hot chicks wearing almost nothing?!?!?!?!
I am playing tonight. Whoo! No Rey!
Wait, I thought "Harris 19" was me, again.
Wait, I wasn’t 19 with the Cubs, was I?
Are you sure, Brendan? You’re playing 3B, not SS.
I’m playing SS today. Dusty’s saving Rey for the game-saving pinch-hitter in the 9th.
Glad to see you linked to that Phoenix media moran who wants Mark Grace as manager. I read that piece this morning and wondered what the hell the guy was on. "Grace did the little things as a player?" This from the same Mark Grace who proclaims in the broadcast booth, "You should never take an extra base because it just wastes energy"? (Energy for some "slumpbuster", no doubt.) I can, though, agree with Genius Boy that Grace is a "baseball man." I’ve learned so much from him watching the games this year-that anyone who boos Richie Sexson is a "yard-ape", that Shea Hillenbrand is a "gorgeous man" (Shea Hillenbrand?),that Chad Tracy is a "dirtbag", and of course more about shilleaighs than I ever cared to know. Oh, and did I mention his announcement on the Fourth of July that he has been wearing a T-shirt around Phoenix some woman gave him that reads "My husband is serving in Iraq"? Incidentally, I also remember this guy for cheering when the Suns traded Jason Kidd because he wasn’t saintly enough for renowned paragon of virtue Stephon "Extreme DUI" Marbury, as if you need any more proof of John Gambodoro’s, or whatever his lame name is, intelligence or lack thereof. Everybody not living on another planet knows how THAT turned out, of course…
Also, I have to rip the Houston moran who trashed Bob Brenly. Last time I checked, Bob Brenly has won more World Series than the Astros ever have. Too bad he didn’t babble on about slumpbusters, shilleaighs, and the alleged "gorgeousness" of Shea Hillenbrand, or Colangelo, and the Phoenix media, would have shown endless loyalty to him too..
Hey Moises,
How ’bout you peein’ on my hands a bit?
I still suck.
Hey, morans, if you’d scored those 2 runs for me, we would’ve won yesterday.
Where am I?
For the seaon, Moises has 49 RBI in 78 Games. 49/78*162=102 RBI’s for a 162 game season. Since Moises has only played in 78 of 83 games (94%) we take his 102 RBI’s and multiply that by .94. Which leaves you 96.
You don’t do a season projection based on one month you monosyllabic mouthbreating mongoloid. Go pump you sister in the back of your flatbed Ford hillbilly.
All Hope, you’re stranded on 3rd base like I was after a lead off triple.
Time to hold the wall.