The Cubs had Kerry Wood on a 75 pitch limit last night in Des Moines against the Albequerque Isotopes (you have to love a team named after the one on The Simpsons) and so I figured that’d get him through the first two innings. Instead, Kerry went five innings and had only thrown 59 pitches. Larry Rothschild called Iowa manager Mike Quade for a status report and decided five innings was enough. Larry then told Wood to get in his car and hurry over to Miller Park where the other prodigal Cub was at 92 pitches after only four innings.
You know it’s a bad night when Kerry is the model of efficiency.
For those of you wondering why the Cubs can handle the former AL Central leading White Sox and struggle against the mighty Milwaukee Brewers, you might want to check out the records of the two teams.
The White Sox are 42-37, that’s pretty good. The Brewers are 43-38. While we weren’t paying attention, the Brewers became the third best team in the division. OK, fine, they’re not that good. Any team that has to play Ben Grieve, Craig Counsell, Wes Helms and Keith Ginter every day is a little shaky. We’ll also pretend that three of those four haven’t gotten big hits against the Cubs in the last two days. It’s not like Cubs shouldn’t be handling them, though.
Unusual wildness plagued Mark Prior last night and he threw way too many pitches in the first and third innings and though he struck out eight guys in four innings he was already at 92 pitches when he got pulled out of the game. He was pissed, which was nice to see, but watching him get a win would have been nicer.
Brendan Harris got his first start as a Cub and made an error on the first ball hit to him. He now joins 158 other Cubs who debuted with an error. Included in that illustrious group are legendary names like Brian Dayett, Candy Maldonado, Kevin Orie, Roy Smalley, Todd Hundley, Curtis Wilkerson, Scot Thompson and Lenny F. Harris. OK, I made that list up.
Harris atoned for his error by making a diving stop on the third ball hit to him, and to be fair to Brendan, Prior looked pretty resolved to giving up four runs in that first inning no matter what he had to do to make it happen.
Harris would double in a run to make it 4-2 later in the game, making him the 143rd Cub to get a hit in his first game. That illustrious list includes Jim Bullinger (a homer), Mark Prior, Ron Santo, Shawon Dunston and Paul Noce. OK, at least three of those are right.
Dusty’s decision to pull Prior had no effect on the outcome, because the Ice Man came in to throw two shutout innings and even Kent Mercker and Mike Wuertz managed to get some guys out. What are the odds that both Mercker and Wuertz could pitch in the same inning without the other team scoring at least nine runs?
For the third straight day the Cubs bats were largely silent. The epitome of the Cubs struggles since Sunday occurred when Corey Patterson led off the fourth with a triple and didn’t score. Derrek Lee (it’s July now, remember?) struck out, Michael Barrett hit it hard but right at Ginter and then Ramon flew out deep enough to score a run…if there had been an out or two left.
The task before the break is still pretty simple. The Cubs need to win today and then take a couple in St. Louis to put a chink in the Cardinals lead before the made-for-TV events Monday and Tuesday nights. A five game lead is nothing to ignore, but nobody’s pulling things out of their asses right now quite like the Cardinals are. So many Jim Edmonds jokes…so little time.
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Before we get to the rest of today’s Dose, I’m going to go a little NPR on you for a moment. Back in April we made a plea that if you enjoy Desipio and wanted to help keep it around that you could contribute in one of two ways. You could click on the ads or you could send a few bucks to us. That helped, and for a while it looked like the ad money would easily fund us for the rest of the year. Then Google got mad and pulled the ads. We have a new ad company and to be honest, it’s not nearly as good as Google was. It’s not bad, I’m not saying that. Please visit those who advertise and we’ll keep working to improve them.
We are in the process of changing the plan that we use to host the site, and the new one will give us a fixed cost every month and unlimited bandwidth, so you can type “test” as much as you want in the discussion threads (note to you funny guys…we don’t have it yet). Now, the fixed cost is a lot more than what we were paying as recently as March, so we would still appreciate any support you can give us.
Any amount is fine, and those who send us money through PayPal get a little surprise. And no, it won’t be Karry Ling stopping by to give you a hug. The restraining order is still in effect, you have nothing to fear. Maybe we can BC to offer to mow your lawn, though? Hey, it’s a thought. Seriously, you’ll get something of dubious value. Any amount is welcome. Especially big ones.
Thanks. I hate asking for cash. It just seems so wrong. Back to the Dose…
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Speaking of Karry he’s in Milwaukee with the Cubs and we assigned him to follow Carlos Zambrano around from the time the game ended last night until the first pitch tonight to make sure that Carlos stays properly hydrated. We don’t want any more of those unseemly cramps returning.
Hello again, everybody. It’s your old pal Karry Ling here from the bratwurst capital of the world, Milwaukee! I haven’t seen this much tubed beef since that Chippendale’s club closed over on Halsted. I’m here to give you a status report on the Carlos Zambrano Hydration Situation. Thanks to Andy’s close personal relationship with Cubs’ PR maven Sharon Panozzo, I got unlimited access to Carlos from the time the game ended last night. Carlos and I went to Mama Mia’s, a fine Italian establishment just minutes from Miller Park for dinner. It was Carlos, Francis Beltran, myself and Rey Ordonez. Carlos said he wanted to do some “carbo loading” and I told him I was up for it as long as I had ample time this morning to do some “carbo unloading” if you know what I mean. I think you do. Hah!
Carlos ordered Mama Mia’s famous baked ravioli and a nice red wine. I reminded him that alcohol dehydrates the body and Carlos thanked me and changed his order to lemonade. Ravioli and lemonade? That didn’t seem right, and I told him, and he said that he likes lemonade and that I should shut up before he and Francis decided to have a “punch Karry in the face hardest” contest. I shut up.
I felt bad though that Carlos didn’t get to have his wine. I mean was one glass really going to hurt him? He weighs 260 pounds. So I went to the bar and changed his lemonade order to vodka and lemonade.
As I got back, Rey Ordonez and Carlos were arguing over which one of them has more hits this year. Carlos knew he had six and he was pretty sure Rey didn’t have that many. Rey bragged that not only did he have seven hits, but that he had a better batting average than Carlos. I tried to interject how sad it was that a Gold Glove shortstop was barely a better hitter than an All-Star pitcher and Francis decided to start the contest.
When I came to, Carlos was on his ninth lemonade and seemed very happy. He also had Tribune sportswriter Paul Sullivan sitting on his lap so Paul could reach the table and they were looking at the most recent stats sheet which showed that indeed, Carlos has six hits to Rey’s seven, but that Carlos’ .162 batting average is higher than Rey’s .146. Rey became infuriated and told Carlos, “You’d better hope Dusty starts the kid with the mullet at third again tomorrow night and uses Ramon at short, because if I play, I’m going to make sure you don’t have ten wins at the All-Star Break.” Then, Francis saw that I was awake and finished the contest. He won.
I lost track of the guys after that. But on one hand it’s good to see that Carlos drank plenty of lemonade. I just hope they weren’t all vodka-lemonades. Well, I’ll guess you’ll find out in the fourth inning tonight, if Carlos’ fingers curl shut again.
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Mark Prior had a rough first inning and for the second game in a row, that was enough for the Brewers.
Sammy’s going to be in the Home Run Derby on Monday night. Will his bat have a big C on it? Would it be illegal if it did?
The Cubs are set to call up another chump pitcher from Iowa. I hope this Wood kid is good.
What the hell? Alex Gonzalez hopes to be back by July 19. Don’t hurry or anything, pretty boy.
Maybe Karry should have read this before he went out with Carlos, Frank and Rey.
The Knicks are obsessed with Jamal Crawford. Why?
Freddy Garcia signed with the Sox before he ever pitched a home game at The Cell. That seems rash.
Phil Rogers hands out some midseason awards. He gives one to The Genius. Whatever.
Mariotti puts down the doughnut to spend Jerry Reinsdorf’s money.
Kerry had his control. He’s impossible to hit when that happens.
The Wizard of Roz starts with some boring hockey stuff, then talks about real sports.
Mike Imrem gives Magglio the ultimate insult. He says the Sox should trade him for Paul Bako.
The Lakers went after Roy Williams. Roy said, “I don’t give a @#$% about the Lakers!” (Insert Bonnie Bernstein shot, here)
Eyes up, Bonnie!
Tim Kurklj;lkjljljl says that the Braves want to win. How novel!
Peter Gammons loves Omar Minaya.
Marty Burns’ NBA free agent scorecard.
It’s pretty clear the Knicks think more of Jamal than the Bulls do. Then again, that’s not hard.
I’m amazed anybody in Florida cares enough about the Magic to do this.
Everybody’s having fun with the NY Post screwup yesterday. Even Ron Burgundy.
Macy Gray got naked in concert. Guh. Would anybody want to see that?
America’s finest news source on the top foreign policy blunders of the US government.
Ah good, finally, a place to buy my panama hats — direct!
This post is for sale, E-Mail me for details.
Andy how bad is it when Gabor Bako was on deck last night when the final out was made? Was the situation that dire that Gabor Bako had to hit. Is it really that bad for the pitcher to hit in that situation.
I got beaten :(
When Chippy alerted us to the fact that Bako was on deck, my exact words were "Just let Zambrano bat."
Spooky.
Did anybody catch Prior’s gesture after he was pinch-hit for in the top of the fifth last night? I know there was some speculation by Murph this morning that he was pissed at Dusty, while others think he was gesturing that the ump had a small zone and he had to groove it down the middle.
This team is getting to the stages where it may be in trouble. Tonight may be the biggest game of the year. They’ve been playing with the tight ass all season, particularly after the first weekend home series against Cincinnati when all of the Wrigley fans were acting like it was an extension of NLCS Game 7. Their offensive approach continues to be awful. The sweep of the Sox was nice, but that all gets blown away if they get swept in Milwaukee.
Generally, Mike Imrem phones in his articles, but I think he’s absolutely right. Mags is a fine player, but he’s not Vlad. Mariotti was going on and on about how the Sox owe it to him to give him a five year 70 million deal. Shut up, fat Jay! Mags isn’t Vlad, and he won’t be close to Vlad at 35 (the fifth year). So cheers to Mike, he got one right.
If you looking for me, Aramis left me at 3rd in Wrigley.
No, that was his ball bag he left at third.
I don’t remember if it was Sportcenter or ESPNews but they did an entire segment on that Duke kid’s e-mail last night, and it was one of the most pathetic, vomit inducing things I have ever seen in my life.
I think that Zambrano will jump start the offense by fear. Do you think Derrek Lee will want to go back into the dugout after striking out with a man on 3rd knowing that an angry Carlos is waiting there for him?
Hey Andy, are there problems with the site? It took a long time to load the page…
Prior was NOT gesturing at Dusty, he was in fact telling the umpire how small the strike zone appeared to be. It did, kind of, look like the "Suck It" gesture popularized by some WWF wrestlers a few years back.
Anytime Sosa and/or Alou want to get another hit, fine by me.
Sloth, I agree that it looked like Prioe was gesturing toward the umpire, but I thought it was one of the "least-squeezed" games the Cubs have had lately. There were no borderline pitches in the first inng, when Prior was all over the place and eventually grooved one down the cock to Ginter.
By the way, Steve Stone was blabbing about how they should pitch around Ben Grieve in the first inning to get to Ginter (who happened to homer). Stone ought to check Ginter’s numbers against Prior, which turned out to be pretty good.
Any word on whether I’m able to play tonight?
It’s not your imagination, the site is loading slowly. I’ll get tech on it right away. (snickers)
Dave B, I missed the gesture, but also heard about it on Murph & Fred this morning. I didn’t pay much attention to that though, and I was too busy being disgusted by the callers who were outraged that Derrek Lee didn’t BUNT with Patterson on 3rd and nobody out? Are these Don Baylor’s relatives calling? Whoever is helping these idiots dial their phones, cut it out.
Great, I’m going to have to get out the lawnmower?!?!?!?
The simple point of the last two days is this: We are in deep trouble. Not only has our offense disappeared, but the Cardinals continue to win on shear luck and other teams’ inability to know simple baseball managerial tactics. Want to know what I’m talking about? Here goes…
First, Jim Edmonds makes a great catch on what would have been a home run from Adam Dunn, saving at least a run for St. Louis.
Then, the Cards are down 3-2 in the bottom of the 7th (How do I know? I don’t get Fox Sports Chicago so I had to watch the Cardinal game for score updates. Guh.) against the Reds. To start the inning, the Reds take out Acevado (Who had been pinch hit for in the top of the inning), who had struck out the last three batters he faced, and bring in Gabe White. Gabe White is essentially the 2003 Mark Guthrie or the 2004 Kent Mercker, so this on the surface looked bad.
So, in response, the Cardinals pinch-hit with Reggie Sanders (Which they probably would have done anyway no matter who the Reds brought in since he had the day off), and he hits a double into left. Not a good start for our buddy Gabe. Next comes up Tony Womack, who Gabe was probably brought in for. But Womack bunts, and he’s out at first while Sanders moves up to third.
So, now, there’s a runner at third and one out. With Renteria and Pujols coming up, there should be two possibilities: Walk Renteria to face Pujols with White with the chance of getting a double play to end the inning, or replace White with a right-hander to face the two righties coming up.
BUT NEITHER IS DONE!
White is left in the game to face Renteria, which was basically the Reds begging Renteria to score the run himself. Renteria not only brought in Sanders but himself as he hit a homer. The Cardinals added a run later in the game, but the game was over when White was left in to face Renteria.
I know managers occasionally like to manage outside the book. But this was managing outside the accepted bounds of sanity last night, in my opinion.
We’re going to lost two in a row to the Tigers! We are in deep trouble! Nobody ever loses two games in a row! Ahhhhhhhhhh!
Calm down.
Dammit BC, don’t you pay attention? I’m a candidate for manager of the year! Don’t question my moves!
Dave, there’s a reason you were only in Triple-A all those years…
The site should be running smoothly now…ok, I suppose that’s relative.
It may be smooth, but is it rich and thick enough?
![]("http://subanggrocer.safeshopper.com/images/ba0bruu3.jpg"/)
What is with the daily freakout and meltdown regarding the Cubs? Is it some right of passage to post on this board that you need to fly into panic mode if they lose two in a row? Yeah, it would be nice to only be 3 back of the Cardinals heading into the weekend at the Busch Urinal Cake, but it didn’t happen. Pick up the pieces and come hard at the opposition the next time (tonight). To stand around and do the gibberish ravings of one of the Indians from the Go-Go Gophers is just a waste of efforts. There are 79 games left and lots of time for the Cardinals to fall on hard times and lose 12 of 20 or something. Give it time.
If Wood is ready to throw Sunday, Dusty should have a plan where Kerry will throw the first five innings, and have Prior ready to throw the last four.
The 3DBB knows all!
It says that Cub fans would SHUT THE PHUCK UP if Jim Hendry would actually get a guy to be a table setter for the lumber in the middle of the order.
I would also guess that Rusch will be ready to clean up any Maddux shellings. What is the pattern at? Let’s see, it usually holds to poor, so-so, awesome, shellacked, good enough… So, are we due for a good Maddux outing or ???
Tuxedo, what in the name of Chumley makes you think that a team that has sucked milk for three games now is going to come out "hard" tonight?
Fool me once, shame on you.
Fool me twice, shame on me.
Fool me three or more times, we’re talking about a freaking TREND here, buddy.
BTW…you LOOK like a nun. Are you a NUN? C’mere a little closer, so I can see you good in the light. You look like Sr. Mary Mark Pantelone to me, with your little chin whiskers and your sour breath, and your heaving chest…
Not so fast #17, we haven’t folded the tent yet.
You all KNOW what I do with Nuns…
Duuhhh, gee, Tennessee, it would seem we need to have the lumber swinging well to get those table setters across the plate. I think we already have table setters named Walker/Grud and Barrett/Patterson/Lee. If only Dusty would put some combination of these five at the top of the order, we’d be up to our neck in walrus chips (and runs).
Maybe I’ve missed the discussion on the topic, but who do we want the team to get? Vizquel? O. Cabrera? Steve Finley? Thoughts (he’s not a player)?
Convert ’em?
Or just feed them kosher pickles?
…well, Chuck, I don’t think Sister Mary Mark, or Tennessee, or…whatever she’s calling herself these days, ain’t gonna be quacking very loud anymore.
God, I love me some physically underdeveloped nuns.
That Tennessee Guy looks familiar…
Waa!! Waa!! Waa!!
![]("http://www.toontracker.com/totaltv/tentux-2.jpg"/)
So three games is a trend? That would make the Sox sweep a trend, too, and look how they came out of that trend. Trends come and go, Sloth. That’s an expression, like coming out "hard" against a team. We may have lost two, but we’ll clean up double.
That Tennessee Guy looks familiar…
Waa!! Waa!! Waa!!
![]("http://www4.netmart.com/filmonline/41/notas/Batman/penguin1.jpg"/)
Tennessee? What’s with the "we" shite? Unless you are Ron Cey, "you" have no ties to the Cubs.
Hooray, a nitpicker! I love when each of you shows up to tell me how to type goodly… Keep your spats, monacle, and top hat in fine shape by pointing out offhanded coloquialisms. It makes you feel like a big man, I am sure.
Well, I hope "we" do good tonight. Maybe I ought to start it off by not going 0 for 5 again.
How did we get mad, Andy?
What’s with all the penguins?!? It’s too damn hot for a penguin!
The "trend" that can be concluded from the White Sox series is that the Sox are not a very good team.
What can be concluded about the Cubs from that series is that they can’t hit and need another arm in the pen.
Anybody see the Whine Sox and the Cardinals as parallel teams? It seems they both have good offensive production, but a suspect pitching staff that is getting by on luck, charm, wiles, and the prodigious output of the offense.
So a chick got hit twice by foul balls at a Cards game. Jeez! I thought the only person to get hit by two balls at a Cards game was me in my rear sphincter by Lassie!
http://www.local6.com/sports/3502545/detail.html
The Cubs have their problems, but again, they are one of the four best teams in the NL, and when they play the Rockies on Aug. 3, it will be the first losing team they’ll play in nearly two months.
In fact, of their 162 games, only 36 of them are against teams that as of July 7 have losing records.
Yes, being in the NL Central means you’re going to play a bunch of games against winning teams, but do you ever remember the Cubs ever having this brutal a schedule?
And to think, they’re a playoff team as of now.
The Rockies are a losing team?
I submit:
1) Cubs can wait two more weeks until Schuerholz & Co. face reality, and deal Furcal and Smoltz for Captain poopy Pants, Todd Wellemeyer, Dave Kelton and Bobby Brownlie. Voila, we’ve got a shortstop AND a legit hitter. Mark Grudzielwalker will bat second.
2) The 2004 Cardinals= 2001 Cubs. Good team, playing over their head, and eventually will just run out of gas, like the Cubs did. Chris Carpenter, meet Jason Bere.
Well, if we’re going to be the 2001 AssTrolls, I guess Moises Alou can play Moises Alou.
Actually, I see myself as Julian Tavarez, with Jeff Suppan as Jason Bere, and Julian Tavarez as Jeff Fassero.
And me? I’ll play the veterean pitcher with an undistinguished career before hitting a nice little peak and then flaming out.
Okay, so that was Jon Lieber 2002, not 2001; I can stretch it out a little.
I was going to draw the same comparison between the Cubs and Cardinals in 2001. But retrosheet is down and I can’t get the info I want.
I seem to remember the Cubs pantsing the Cardinals in either late July or early August that year (it was the series when Julio Zuleta hit the pinch hit grand slam) and the Cubs were at least five games ahead of the Cardinals. It looked like it was going to be the Cubs and Astros claiming the Central and Wild Card in some order. The Cubs never played truly badly the rest of the way, but they couldn’t keep playing over their heads and the Cardinals went on a couple of modest winning streaks, caught up and then ended up tied with Houston five games ahead of the Cubs. My Cardinals fan brother-in-law overreacts to everything and he conceded the playoffs in July that year, only to see the Cardinals get in them anyway.
If you look at the teams behind the Cubs in the Wild Card race, too, there’s not much to fear. It’s probably going to come down to the Cardinals, Cubs, Philles and Marlins for three playoff spots and I’ll take that competition.
Andy,
Cubs swept the Deadbirds in early June. It was the culmination of a long winning streak, which came on the heels of a 7-game losing streak. After that series, they went on to lose two of three to the Black Sox.
They did take two of three from the Cards in August, Juan Cruz cruising inthe Sunday finale.
Three games sunk them that year:
First of August. Bere was cruising against San Diego. Cubs up 3-0. He had, like 40 pitches through 6 innings. But push-button Baylor went to Fassero for the 108th time. Fassero loaded the bases and gave up a granny to Klesko. Cubs lose 4-3.
First of September. Tom Gordon has two run lead, but gives up a two-out, three run opposite field walk-off home run to Preston Wilson. A-hole Gordon didn’t pitch again that year. Thanks a lot "Flash".
The first game after September 11th. Captain Poopy Pants, in the same situation as Gordon, one strike away from a Save in Cincinnati, gives up a two-run, game-ending single to Brady Clark–Brady Friggin’ Clark– to basically end the season.
Of course, upon further review, the Cubs simply weren’t good enough.
And the Deadbirds will prove the same fate this year.
P.S. That was kind of painful re-living that BS. Sorry for anybody whose wounds I re-opened.
Don’t forget the Fred McGriff Hostage Crisis! And the outfield comedy stylings of Damon Buford, Todd Dunwoody and Roosevelt Brown. And of course, the double ear-flapped batting helmet of Delino DeShields. What a year that was…
I think this year’s Cardinals are a little better than the 01 cubs. The pitching staffs are similar, but that was Sammy’s best year, and he had no help on offense whatsoever. He was the cubs offense that year. I think that was the year where no other cub was within 100 RBI’s of Sammy. The only reason the Cubs hung around as long as they did was that the central was especially weak that year.
Andy’s right, I overreact to everything. Andy never overreacts to anything, not even one baseball game, let alone one play in one baseball game. He’s the rock of the family.
Put both Walker and Grud in there if Aramis is not going to play tonight. Just try it.
Aramis for All-star. I voted about 20 times. Hope it helps. He deserves it.
What’s up with SJ.com?
I should not be batting third when I’m striking out after getting ahead to a 2-0 count. Buddy. I’m saving it all for the All-Star game, whoo!
Well, I am the greatest player the franchise has ever known.
And I’ve "known" a lot of Chicago fans.
Well, known in the biblical sense.
You can fill the park with Cub fans, but you can’t make them hit. You can, however, line Bud Selig’s pockets….
Yeah, we’re the All-Star-est of them all!
Hey, Cubs, you’re not alone. We suck now, too. 12-0 Anaheim.
Now I can’t even see myself.
I, too, have a great grasp of sarcasm.
Aramis,
I’d pack an extra bag to Houston just in case my knee keeps hurting, or in case I collide with Rey Ordonez on the basepaths this weekend, which could result in the end of my storied career.
If the playoffs started today, we’d probably have been shut out yesterday in a 1-game playoff with San Diego to decide the wildcard.
Take your pick on the pantser: Fat Dave Wells, Peavy, Eaton. Maybe even Ismael Valdez would shut us down in the 1-gamer if it was played right now.
Actually, since I’m the only consistent hitter the Cubs have, Dave Groeschner has ordered me to spend the All-Star break in a hyperberic chamber to heal my injured groin.
The playoffs don’t start today. They don’t start in August, or even mid September. The Cubs are going to have to play the season through to the end, good or bad. So give the "if the playoffs started today" crap a rest.
So I didn’t make the all star team. But look at my team when I am not playing and tell me I dont make that much of a difference.
Hi, E-Ram. I think Sosa & Alou were using me in #60. Because, you know, they sucked a big fat one this series so it’s ironic that they’re off to the All-Star game. Anyway, we all love you, and please hurry back.
Aye Aye, Cap-i-tain #69!