Bleed Cubbie Blue

Go Cubs!

mrtobby - April 26, 2009 reply

Gag me.

This lineup is absolutely atrocious without Aramis and GameBoard.

Soriano
Riot
Dome
Lee
Reed
LBR
Soto
Miles
Harden

With Lee & Soto sucking, Miles with a negative OPS+ (how is that even possible?!!), and Reed & LBR below average, I almost prefer Micah to be starting…at least he provides some pop. For a team that’s scored 6 runs in its last 4 games, this isn’t promising run support for Rich.

Dan

I agree about Ramirez

but disagree about Bradley being out of the lineup. He produced all of one hit while he was in there. That’s not to say he won’t hit if he ever comes back; he probably will. But to this point, he has essentially been worthless. Having Aramis out is a huge blow. He has really been the only consistent RBI guy we’ve had in the middle of the order. Hopefully Soriano will get back on track back in the leadoff spot. He looked so bad yesterday it was almost comical.

qccub - April 26, 2009 reply

GameBoard needs to be there because although he has uno hit, he gets on base quite a bit and brings both the lefty bat and a bat that has to be respected by the pitchers. Instead, we have Lee @ cleanup and Reed @ 5. That’s weird.

If he gets

a walk right now, who is going to drive him in? In my opinion, we aren’t looking for walks from the number 4 hitter. Things are going to get better, this team is too good to keep playing like this. But they sure haven’t been much fun to watch recently.

qccub - April 26, 2009 reply

Dusty? Is that you?

Don’t prefer men getting on base? I think I do.

If he gets a walk right now, who is going to drive him in?

This is a valid question. In the series so far, we have left 30 men on base. Clearly we haven’t had a problem getting men on, it’s getting them home that seems to be the problem.

Goodie1969 - April 26, 2009 reply

the problem

is that if Bradley doesn’t get consistent chances to hit, it’s that much harder to hit when he comes back.

Part of the reason for Lee's struggles

could be attributed to the porous hitters directly behind him. While he hasn’t hit for the most part, he’s not getting much protection from the likes of Hoffpauir, Fontenot and Johnson.

Correct.

In that lineup, I might hit Soto fourth.

Me too.

But then you’re putting two guys who haven’t hit (for the most part) together in the lineup, which I’m sure would bother some, too.

Maybe that would get one or both of them hitting.

It’s more worth a try than dropping someone who was hitting well in the leadoff slot out of the leadoff slot.

Bradley was not hitting, but was being respected and pitched around

leading to walks, and DLee was not exactly hitting then either.

I think opposing pitchers respect a slumping MB more than DLee with how they are pitching DLee

I agree

Moving Soriano, to me, seemed a little desperate. However, maybe the acceleration of Soto up in the order does need to happen to get him going a bit.

With Harden keeping the ball out of play

I’d have been interested to see Hoffpauir in LF and Sori at 2B for a day.

Interesting point.

Normally, that defensive alignment would have Theriot and Johnson out of breath from running after all the baseballs those two butcher. But with Harden throwing, that’s not as much of an issue. Too late now, but it might have been worth a try.

how close to game time can you make changes to the line up

without the player being unavailable?

First pitch.

to the Lou-Phone!

Ted Simmons Speed Camp - April 26, 2009 reply

Start the turnaround

There just hasn't been much of anything to cheer about the last four games. We haven't had a lead since Tuesday. I was at the game Thursday with two of my sons, and even when it was close early, it just never felt like they were in the game. They have to start hitting the ball sometime, why not today?

qccub - April 26, 2009 reply

I could be wrong,

but I think Al might be unhappy with the way the Cubs structured their bench.

your totally wrong....

Al’s hasn’t been so excited for the Cubs bench in years…..

Sioux City Cubs Fan - April 26, 2009 reply

We don't have a bench.

More like placeholders.

In even funnier news

I think Twittermeyer said something about Z taking grounders at 3B along with Hill.

gwood - April 26, 2009 reply

thought that was yesterday

I wonder why they don’t switch Soto and Miles in the lineup.

We could use his bat.

Rick B - April 26, 2009 reply

My dogs and I really want a Cub victory today.

The alternative, which is to go 5 games down to the RedBirds, is a very unpleasant thought. We either leave the armpit of the Midwest down 3 or down 5. I like the first alternative.

Let’s make the best of this bad (21 1/2 players) situation!

Who's the 1/2?

I thought it was obvious: Gathright.

The fastest man in baseball from 2rd to home. The problem is getting him there.

After he got picked off first yesterday, the 1/2 might be too generous.

i disagree

MIles+Gathright+Cotts = 1 1/5 players worth

So we actually only have 20 1/2

your math is off, but your point is well made, nonetheless.

Derrek Lee

is the Cubs winning todays game. We need him to swing very well today and be the leader of this team. Now is the time more than ever.

Prove the naysayers wrong Derrek.

Unique - April 26, 2009 reply

+1

Not to beat a dead horse but I must remind everyone that

Wellemeyer was drafted by the Cubs as their fourth draft pick in 2000, and never got too much respect with our illustrious pitching coach or coaching staff. He is right-handed, though, which is not good if you are a Cubs prospect. Anyway, after the Cubs threw him in the trash, he’s doin’ fine nowadays. Seems to be a competent pitcher…..Just sayin’….

He's average.

BR has his most similar score to be…none other than Chad Gaudin! As usual, he’s had his best years with the Cardinals.

Right.

He got released by the Royals and Marlins. Obviously, Duncan worked wonders with him, as he did with Lohse.

Duncan works wonders with many pitchers.

Just like our…

…never mind.

This woe-is-me crap

really gets old.

Don't criticize the Cubs

never ever ever. They can do no wrong and everything is sunny and fun. CUBS AWESOME, NEVER BAD.

Why is there no middle ground?

I wish there was

But the thought of being critical of the team is horrifying to some people.

Absolutely, there's middle ground

But whining like a baby about Dave Duncan and “Waaah! Why can’t we have one?” is ridiculous.

There are plenty of critical posts here. Most are deserved. Some are ridiculous and aren’t germane to anything.

Interesting. Both nj and NBF thought I was taking the other side

Full disclosure — I thought nj was reacting a little harshly to NBF, who I happen to agree with on this count.

I’ve certainly been critical of the Cubs on this board and I think he has, too.

Unfortunately, whether it’s a tough stretch, a lot of newbies or a comination of the two, a lot of these discussions are becoming a lot more reactionary instead of thoughtful discourse. And that’s not meant to indict either of you.

I guess this mean's you're a true diplomat

“More reactionary instead of thoughtful discourse” is the perfect way to put it.

Thanks

Maybe a career change is in order . . .

Lotta people pondering career changes these days

Should Rothschild be among them? I don’t think so. You look at how Dempster and Marmol have performed under him, and you wonder why he doesn’t get more credit.

If Duncan were in the same situation, people would be falling all over themselves in praise. (And that’s nothing against Duncan; I think he’s the real genius on that bench, as opposed to “The Genius.”)

It's easy to take shots at coaches, not necessarily fair

People are frustrated, which is part of the problem. Some yokel called WGN a couple of days ago demanding that Perry and Rothschild be let go because the team was underperforming.

It seems like all the people calling WGN these days

are yokels, unfortunately.

Yep

And shame on me for listening expecting something else…

Hope springs eternal

did Carlos Zambrano

Sean Marshal, Kerry Wood, etc, simply spring from the ground fully formed and ready to play?

I’m no fan of Larry Rothschild, but cmon.

I’m 4 hours straight west on 70 of St. Louis…and last night just west of KC here we had a tornado touch down and a guy die after getting hit by lightning. More tornado storms today, I dunno if St. Louis is supposed to get any of this junk.

There is rain expected in StL...

… but not till later tonight & tomorrow. They should get the game in with no problems.

Ah, sweet game threads

After a 10-day vacation, I’ve finally made it back. So, I’ll take the blame for the Cubs struggles of late.

You need to get permission in writing from us before you take your next vacation. Please.

I'll have my wife run dates by everyone next time.

Though I did get to spend the whole time reading Baseball Between the Numbers, which was an excellent read.

or just do it

after november.

Reed has a new blog post, with a calm voice of reason and sensibility:

Which can be found here. Can I post the entire thing? Here’s one paragraph of it:

We’ve got some guys in the middle of the order who are big production guys who are out of the lineup, and that makes it tough. To say we’re not going to miss guys like Ramy and Milton, you’re just kidding yourself. You’re going to miss them. At the same time, this team has pride in how deep we are off the bench. Over a 162-game schedule, you’re going to have injuries and guys off the bench will need to step up and fill in those spots and hold down the fort until they get back. That’s what we’ll try to do in this situation. Hopefully, none of the injuries are that serious. We’ll have those guys back and hopefully Marmol back ASAP because we’re going to need all of them.

I might get a Reed jersey this year, the guy just is becoming my favorite more and more.

Dan

I love Reed. I just think that our roster doesn't have a lot of depth with Miles and Gathright

…and we seem to have issues with Lee and Soto and Gameboard so far. Maybe things will right themselves. Dunno.

Eventually, water finds its own level

so the Cardinals will come back to Earth and the Cubs will find their offense (well, as long as players return to health).

Nice perspective from Reed

I think he’s replaced DeRosa as the fan favorite.

some of the comments there

are HIGH-LARIOUS!

Actually with Gathright, it's a 21 man roster.

lemon20pie - April 26, 2009 reply

And with Lee not hitting

It is really a 20-man roster!

CubFanSince1970 - April 26, 2009 reply

Jim Edmonds?

You want to sign Edmonds again? Gee maybe we can pick up Gary Gaetti as well.

No offense, but Edmonds was done by the end of last season. Worse for the Cubs, the only write-up (on MLBTR) I saw said he will need 2-3 weeks to get ready. That isn’t going to help right now.

Geoff Jenkins is available, and taking grounders at first as well (again, MLBTR). But he is a clone of Hoffpauir at this point.

There just isn’t a lot out there that can help the Cubs at this point that isn’t going to cost something significant. They’re just going to have to suck it up and overcome these challenges

Ross - April 26, 2009 reply

Edmonds...

… hit .250/.354/.575 in September — that doesn’t scream “done” to me. He went 2-for-10 in the NLDS, not great, but then, a lot of Cubs didn’t hit in the NLDS.

If he needs 2-3 weeks, sign him now and give it to him.

I know what I'm getting from Edmonds.

Declining defense, a left-handed bat that produces above average hitting (last year was a .353 wOBA), 15-20 homers, and half-cut off t-shirts. I’ll take it, where do I sign!

Rec'd

The Cubs simply have no need for Gathright, and no need for Edmonds. Fukudome is doing fine, and when Bradley comes back, Edmonds won’t have a place to play. Get a real infielder instead.

cubzfan - April 26, 2009 reply

Today's a beautiful day....

….for a Lou Piniella eruption. I’m saying 5th inning….

carmen_fanzone - April 26, 2009 reply

Good call...

if the Cubs get down early, I wouldn’t be surprised at all to see him get tossed

kanderber - April 26, 2009 reply

Well, for a change

I’d like to see the Cubs

S C O R E F I R S T.

JFCubFan - April 26, 2009 reply

First base winds up in shallow left-center....

znohitter - April 26, 2009 reply

+1

Awesome, I like the idea.

This needs to happen

Light a fire under these guys.

Or release the tension that has been building

Shades of 2007.

I almost want to see Zambrano take grounders @ 3B in a real game.

I know, I know, he’s a pitcher, could get hurt, yada yada, but I would laugh my ass off.

I have this image of him racing down the line on a bunt,

scooping up the ball, and then intimidating the batter into the dugout before he ever throws to first.

And going five-for-five with 4 RBI’s.

znohitter - April 26, 2009 reply

If he misses a hot grounder to 3rd, would he take the bat and hit it over the batter's knee?

or throw third base into LF

I could see him trying to make every play and cutting off all the grounders to SS!

JB 23 - April 26, 2009 reply

Bobby Scales lack of experience

doesn’t bother me. What bothers me about him is whether he can play anywhere other than second base, a position where we already have two (three, really) healthy players in Fontenot, Miles and Theriot, who’s really a second baseman. I notice he’s playing some third for the I-Cubs—the reports I’ve been getting aren’t good.

For outfielders, and lord I can’t believe I’m saying this, our best option is probably Sam Fuld. For third base, I’m stumped. You probably have to bring up Scales and hope he can handle the position. There’s also Matt Camp down in AA who could be an all-around utility player in the mold of Ryan Freel or Jeff Keppinger. The problem is that except for his hot start this season, there’s nothing to indicate that Camp can hit major league pitching. (Of course, the same can be said for Sam Fuld.)

Josh Timmers - April 26, 2009 reply

Scales did play 3B in a few spring training games.

… and not very well.

And further...

… I’d much rather have Fuld on the roster than Gathright. Fuld can run, too, and play decent defense.

They are similar

in what they can and cannot do. Neither one can hit. Gathright’s a bit faster than Fuld, but his defense isn’t as good.

Josh Timmers - April 26, 2009 reply

I think Fuld would...

… over the course of a full season in the same role as Gathright, hit better.

I know that’s not saying much.

I never thought we'd been discussing Fuld, Jake Fox, Gathright, and Miles so much this

year. I never thought Cotts would see so much action.

I’m getting depressed :-)

Trevor Hoffman comes off the DL.

Watch out for the BrewCrew, chooo chooooooo.

I love their choices for closer.

You can't be serious.

Hoffman was mediocre last year. I don’t expect him to be much better this year. Plus, the rest of the Brewers bullpen is horrendous.

For all the good work Doug Melvin has done

I don’t get why he’d sign Gagne and Hoffman in consecutive seasons. And in Gagne’s case, Melvin gave away a pretty fair chunk of change, at least for that franchise.

Not-so-fun fact

I imagine this will surprise a few people: over the past 10 games, Derrek Lee’s OPS has been .130 points higher than Ryan Theriot’s.

OPS measures a player's offensive worth. So does that mean that Theriot is as great as DLee

or DLee is as scrappy as the Riot.

Wait. I see what you did there.

Today we have a chance to win if good Harden shows up

Even this bunch of non-hitting merry men should be able to get 3 or 4 runs off of Wellemeyer.

Soriano batting anywhere other than lead-off

Lou has got to have the nerve to stick with Soriano batting 3rd for two weeks if he’s going to try it. Every year, though, he tries it for two games and Soriano goes cold and he panics and changes back, and then because he knows two games could have just been coincidental slumping, he tries it again. We have this guy under contract for another 40 years, so it’s time to try this for an extended period of time or never try it again.

I vote for "Never try it again".

The difference is

There is a track record of Soriano hitting better in the lead-off position than in other ones.

Right, but almost all of that track record comes from the AL

In the NL, no manager has been willing to leave Soriano at 3rd and stick with it for an extended time period. I’m not against never trying it again, but I can also see the Cubs thinking that eventually in this contract Soriano will be ineffective as a lead-off man because of slowed speed and low OBP – so, I’m also not against leaving him at 3rd for 3 weeks and seeing if he comes around eventually, because he’s a streaky hitter and no NL manager has waited to see if he can hit a hot streak in the 3-spot.

It’s this stupid 2-4 game experiment nonsense which does nothing but throw off his routine, only to change things before he can get into a different routine.

"Almost all"?

What about the last two years as a Cub? That, plus early this year, is almost 1200 PA. Oh, and there’s that year in Washington, where he hit .294/.368/.588 in the #1 spot, and .198 elsewhere. That was 728 PA.

So the 2000 National League PA doesn’t give him much of a track record?

How many of those PA's were in the #3 in the NL?

Right - that's my point.

Alfonso has a very small # of PAs not hitting first. I think the last time it was tried for any length of time he was in TX.

Umm except that Soriano's value is at leadoff

When we are hitting like we should (Its hard to remember I know, but at one point we were good at scoring) Soriano drives in the guys who are on base, rather than Theriot GIDP with the bases loaded.

Friday night was a good example

It was uncanny how many times Theriot came to bat with men on base. I like Theriot, but who would you rather have in that situation?

Ramirez

LOL

Touche. Between Soriano and Theriot, I’ll take the former. Unless Ramirez can bat 1 through 9.

Theriot

should be hitting 8th. Period.

Although because of Erin Inches the Cubs cant put him there.

Hammer - April 26, 2009 reply

In all seriousness, yes, I agree

But there is no guarantee what spot in the lineup will be faced with that situation.

And, of course . . . say it with me, “small sample size”

True, that

But last year, the bottom of the Cubs’ order was pretty formidable. So there were a lot of opportunities for the lead-off man.

I suspect, eventually, this year will be the same.

Hope so

Fontenot has got to start hitting.

Yep

The powers that be seem to have an awful lot of faith in him, and I assume they know more than I do. So we’ll see. He certainly was pretty good the first week-10 days.

Yeah, I assume and hope they know better than us, too

Because I wasn’t excited to see the job handed to him

Duh

But Soriano is the guy. Fontenot, Soto, and Theriot (when he hits down there) are good at getting on base. People want Soriano to bat in RBI situations, turns out that leadoff is that position.

4 Mizzou players already taken...

…and 4 Badgers already taken, too. Not sure why the Giants drafted Beckum when they have Boss, but go figure.

Chase Daniel watch continues

If his backup Chase Patton gets picked in the seventh round and Daniel doesn’t go that would be really funny.

Make that Mizzou number 5 to go

RT Colin Brown is now a Chief. Celebration erupts from the Chiefs fans around me.

I'm with you on this one

Everyone wants to baby Soriano, yet people scream to sit/move down Lee. So, the one who can handle adversity should get demoted, but the borderline head case gets babied . . . like Zambrano. Sometimes, the inmates run the asylum.

St. Louis lineup

Schumaker, 2B
Rasmus, LF
Pujols, 1B
Ludwick, RF
Ankiel, CF
Molina, C
Greene, SS
Thurston, 3B
Wellemeyer, P

This paragraph from VEB yesterday sent shivers down me spine:

The key has been the offense, which is leading the league in many different categories. 5 of the 8 starters on offense have an OPS+ greater than 125 plus Rasmus, Barden, and Ryan are over 100.

And it won't last

If it does, God bless them and give ‘em the World Series title. I’m not going to lose sleep over it.

The key to that is...

… how long can any team sustain that? Keep in mind that if the Cubs win today, they will have split six games with the hottest team in the league. That’s not bad for a club (the Cubs) with the injury problems they have.

Unless those guys have career years (which is possible)

I think water will eventually find its level. Though Barden has killed the Cubs thus far and Rasmus is highly touted. Still, I don’t think St. Louis can maintain this offense, while their defense will bite them at some point this year.

Sure it won't.

But I’d rather face ‘em when they’re @ OPS+ of 77, not 8 players over 100.

Gonna change it up

Wellemeyer

Light this mother f###er up!

Hammer - April 26, 2009 reply

Sorry Al, the Edmonds Gathright thing is just silly

We are two weeks into the season. We already had to eat money cutting two pitchers who might actually have been useful and pay them a lot of money we are not cutting a position guy we can use for a vet no one else will sign. Keep in mind Joey played for Lou in Seattle which I suspect was a strong factor in signing him. Lou wanted speed like he wanted left handed hitters so he has to play this out so to speak and I would rather bring up Dubois than bring back
Edmonds. We have wasted enough money which we will need at deadline ( of course we could bring up Sam).

Doggie Stalker - April 26, 2009 reply

I agree

I think Hendry’s undoing will not be the product on the field, but how much money he’s wasted over the years.

salparadise23 - April 26, 2009 reply

I'm sure this is a make-or-break year for him

If there aren’t tangible postseason results, with the new regime coming in, he might be on his way out. Which is too bad, because I think he’s done a very good job. But such is life.

I keep remembering how long the Braves were dominant in the East

and they only won one championship in that stretch.

I'd take 1 over 0

I have to agree

Edmonds = Gaetti. Great for the time, but not this time.

as I keep saying

I would offer him a minor league contract, see what he has while in Iowa for a few weeks, then if it looks good, bring him up and see

Dubois?

The guy who couldn’t hit when he was here?

just for the record

with the bases loaded, you still walk Pujols IMO

No, you plunk him

so TLR will retaliate and we actually get a runner on base.

LOL

Well, you certainly don’t put the ball on a tee for him, which is what Patton appeared to do.

When someone told Don Sutton there were no bases

open if the bases were loaded , he responded sure there was, home plate was available.

Doggie Stalker - April 26, 2009 reply

I think we forgot to note:

Our #5 threw pretty good yesterday. 6 IP, 3 ER, 5 K, 1 BB.

I liked it

but I worried that, once again, the second time through the lineup he was very hittable. I want to see Marshall throw well two times through the lineup.

Nice seeing those hugs on the pitcher's mound.

Cue Van Halen

and Jump!