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Apres Le Deluge, Cubs Go For Two In A Row: Cubs vs. Pirates, Wednesday 5/27, 1:20 CT

Jake Fox (who will wear uniform #5) has been called up from Iowa, as first posted here by a friend of Fox's brother. (Yes, really!) As also posted here earlier today, Andres Blanco (uniform #13) and Jason Waddell (uniform #43) have been added to the 25-man (and 40-man, which now stands at 38) roster. Neal Cotts and Bobby Scales were sent to Iowa and Aaron Miles was placed on the 15-day DL (really? When did he get hurt?).

Meanwhile, Reed Johnson had words of wisdom for Milton Bradley:

"I told him, if you get behind in the count 0-1, you've got to believe in yourself that you're a good enough player to overcome one bad call in an at-bat," Johnson said. "If you fall behind because an umpire, you think, makes a bad call, that doesn't mean you have to shut down your at-bat and that at-bat is over."

You'd think this would be obvious, but Johnson explained why he felt he had to say that:

"You'd really be surprised," Johnson said. "Some of the 20 greatest players in the game, when they go through struggles, and this game is so humbling, that no matter how talented these guys are, that they have thoughts and doubts. They might not wear it on their sleeves."

Smart guy. That's what I'm talking about when I speak at times of "good clubhouse guys" or intangibles. Chris DeLuca summarizes the point:

Maybe Bradley is improving at the plate. But the Cubs need Bradley to improve his attitude. They need him to stop worrying about everyone from the umpires to the media to the fans being out to get him. They need him to focus on the game -- and only the game.

There's a little war of words going on between umpire Bob Davidson and Ted Lilly over Lilly's ejection from Monday's game:

Davidson said Lilly lied to the media afterward when discussing the incident. Did Davidson ever make contact with Lilly, as Lilly said Monday?

"There was no contact," Davidson said. "We never came close, on his part or mine. And everything he said to [the media] was bull. Everything I read in the paper that he said was untrue. He never said one of those words. What he said to me, you couldn't print in the paper."

Lilly said Monday he told Davidson to "concentrate."

Since there was no contact, Lilly is likely to be fined, but not suspended. What's most interesting in that article is this:

MLB umpiring supervisors grade umpires on a daily basis after reviewing videotapes.

Davidson said out of 215 pitches Monday, he was told he'd missed 10.

"Eight of them were pitches I called strikes that shouldn't have been," he said. "The other two, one went against Pittsburgh and one went against Chicago. My concentration was excellent."

So an umpire admits publicly that he missed the call on 4.7% of the pitches in a game? That seems like a large number to me -- any one of those could have changed the complexion of the game.

Finally, here are some fun facts about rain-shortened games: they are, as you might guess, relatively rare. The Cubs have now played two of them this year and won both. That's even rarer. Since divisional play began in 1969 the Cubs have played two or more rain-shortened games only eight times (1969, 1970, 1976, 1978, 1990, 1993, 1999 and 2006), and won two in one year only twice (1978, 1990). The last time the Cubs won two rain-shortened games at Wrigley Field in one season was 50 years ago, in 1959, when they won three of them.

Today's Starting Pitchers
Carlos Zambrano
Carlos Zambrano
Cubs
vs. Zach Duke
Zach Duke
Pirates
3-2 W-L 5-4
4.64 ERA 2.77
40 SO 39
18 BB 15
4 HR 4
vs. Pit -- vs. Cubs

W-L G GS CG SHO SV BS IP H R ER HR BB K ERA WHIP
2009 - Carlos Zambrano 3-2 11 7 0 0 0 0 42.2 43 23 22 4 18 40 4.64 1.43


W-L G GS CG SHO SV BS IP H R ER HR BB K ERA WHIP
2009 - Zach Duke 5-4 9 9 2 1 0 0 65.0 55 22 20 4 15 39 2.77 1.08

Zach Duke is having a fine year -- his best since his rookie season of 2005, during which he threw eight scoreless innings against the Cubs in his third major league start on July 16. However, this is a very different Cub team, and two of them in particular -- Alfonso Soriano (14-for-25, .560, 3 doubles, 2 HR) and Reed Johnson (6-for-14, .429, 2 doubles) hit him exceptionally well. Expect Johnson to start in CF today.

Carlos Zambrano's career mark vs. Pittsburgh isn't that great -- 10-6, 4.12 in 24 appearances (22 starts). However, none of the Pirates who could play in today's game have hit him well. The last time Z faced Pittsburgh, last August 26, he got cuffed around pretty good, but the Cubs won anyway -- Z had three no-decisions and a win in four starts vs. the Pirates last year.

The Cubs are back on WGN today; also on FSN Pittsburgh, which should be carried via EI. For today's other games see the MLB.com Mediacenter.

MLB.com Gameday

Baseball-reference.com game preview

SB Nation game preview

Overflow comment threads will post today at 2:15 pm, 3:15 pm and 4 pm CDT.

Discuss amongst yourselves.

0 recs  |  143 comments

Comments

1st

Go cubbies!!!

If anybody can find video of Zambrano attempting to "fix" the broken Gatorade dispenser, please share.

I was cracking up watching that the other day. I actually feel good about today’s game; the last two games we have scored runs and actually been decent to watch. Keep it flowin’, Big Z.

That was hilarious

Wish I had a video of it.

Hooray! Aaron Miles WILL NOT PLAY IN THIS GAME!

 Now if we can just get him off the roster for good. I live in anticipation.

OMG that is

hilarious, and so wrong at the same time.

Muskat with the Cubs Lineup

No Fox today.

LF Soriano, SS Theriot, RF Bradley, 1B Lee, CF Johnson, C Soto, 3B Freel, 2B Blanco and P Zambrano

http://muskat.mlblogs.com/archives/2009/05/527_roster_moves_update_lineup.html

Also, Marmol is back today after his daughter Caroline was born and is doing well.

Z should be batting

7th in this order

Riot at 2B and Blanco at SS as well
Who is this guy Freel that you speak of? Is he imaginary?
He is friend of Farney
Agreed

Blanco has 31 games in the majors at 2nd base, and even fewer (12) in the minors. I guess most shortstops could play 2nd, but he probably is not too comfortable there.

Props for Lee at cleanup

It’s about time.

Wow, Andy White thrown immediately into the fire.

I guess Lou doesn’t want Fontenot facing a tough lefty like Duke.

And given Fox's inability (perceived or otherwise) to stay back on breaking balls

Duke might not be the best matchup for Fox to see out of the gate. Though if he’s hitting .423 in Triple-A, he’s got to be hitting some of the soft-tossing guys down there.

Hope he gets an AB today...
.

10 out of 215 is probably a good job.

If it was a bad job, why would he even mention it?

You don’t brag to the media about doing things incorrectly.

So if a judge convicts 10 innocent people out of 215

Is he also doing a good job? What if he lets 10 guilty people off…? I think that level of error is unacceptable for a major league umpire. There should not be more than 1 or 2 bad calls in a game. I have noticed much more varied strike zones this year, especially at Wrigley… it’s as if the umps have free reign to call whatever they want, on any player… especially on checked swings… no offense to any ump, but checked swing calls really need to go down the bases… that really grinds my gears.

So....

In your reality you’re comparing convicts to baseballs? Is the umpire able to hear both sides after a pitch is thrown? Does he ask the catcher to state his defense as to why it is a strike and the batter as to why it is a ball?

I think you’re taking this over the edge a little. You missed the point and took it to an absolute extreme here.

Or

just to make my point.

Point

4.7% is much better than the average of 16.8%.

Case closed.

I don't think the MLB review team uses pitch f/x

thus your “point” is invalid because video review is unlikely to corroborate pitch fx absolutely.

Do you

have any better statistics we can use? Or would it be better to stay in denial and keep complaining about pitching that happened days ago?

It's not about pitching that happened days ago

it’s about the umpires consistently not doing their job properly.

and again

I ask, where and when have you ever seen perfect umpiring? If it’s out there then it should be used.

Human error must equate for something.

I can see exactly why this place blows up every time the cubs lose a couple games. They expect perfection, which is why they’re constantly being let down.

no

but there have been some very very bad instances of pitch calling this year. It’s gotten to the point where I trust Milton Bradley’s ball calling over the umpires.

That, combined with their increasing aggressive desire to be part of the game, as opposed to umpiring the game makes me feel that the umpires need a shake-up.

We're still not coming to a consensus here.

We have an umpire that missed less than 5% of the pitches called.

An average umpire misses almost 17% of pitches called.

You’re all complaining that this particular umpire sucks and should make fewer mistakes.

1+ 2 +3 is not adding up.

Obviously, some umpires do need to be dealt with. In this case, Davidson did his job more adequately than his average peer does.

no

we have an umpire who CLAIMS to have missed less than 5% of the pitches he called.

Without knowing what the measuring system is, we cannot take his word at face value, especially with the level of antagonism he is displaying.

Exactly

I don’t think Davidson used Pitch f/x to grade his game calling. He probably used video replay which has a human error factor to it as well.

So, comparing a 5% error, as judged by video replay, to a 17% error as judged by pitch f/x is not accurate. I would be interested to see what pitch f/x has to say about Davidson’s accuracy from the other night.

the calls missed

do they include a foul ball called fair, a missed tag, or strictly pitches called ball and strike. if that is the case, do they only count those which there was no swing, or do they include those that the batter swings at (which the ump doesnt need to call, its pretty much a gimme). The % i would want to know, is the pitchers that the ump has to make a decision on (i.e. no swing on the pitch) and the margin should be no more than 3 1/2 % IMO.

Well..

there were 244 pitches in that game.

It’s probably safe to say that doesn’t include the 13 hits. 244- 13 = 231

Leaving us with 16 pitches unaccounted for. Fouls? Swinging strikes? There were probably more than 16 of them.

Who knows which ones they count and don’t count. But I’d say you’d count all the non-swinging pitches at least.

The human error factor

I can deal with because it will generally even out over the course of a game.

It’s the aggressiveness of the umpires that gets to me as well. They are supposed to remain nameless, call balls, strikes and outs. It’s when they start ripping off their masks, approaching the players, inviting further confrontation that it becomes too much and, like Drew said, a shake-up is needed.

Agreed

on the personality part. Umpires should be dealt with appropriately for their actions and interactions.

+1

and Rec’d.

Let's just not wildly overstate the value of our statistics.

Pitch f/x is not the same method employed by the MLB head of umpires and we’ll never know how the systems compare to each other. They probably differ to a high degree because one is created by supervisory umpires and the other one by bloggers.

Yes instead let's just ignorantly claim things without backing them up

Pitch F/X was not created by bloggers, it was created by MLB. It is distinctly possible that the umpires are using this system as well because it’s more accurate than anything else out there.

The article

said

MLB umpiring supervisors grade umpires on a daily basis after reviewing videotapes.
No

I’m comparing the jobs of each, to act as an impartial mediator, and to enact pre-established rules or laws. An umpire is very much like the “judge” of the baseball field, and as such is responsible for making accurate, and proper judgement of establish MLB rules. The strikezone is in he rule book, and is not up for interpertation. The ability to accurately call balls and strikes based upon the predefined zone is a part of their job, and if they’re not doing their job, than someone else who can do it should be brought in. That’s all.

To Quote

It is better to see 100 guilty men go free than 1 innocent man convicted

A judge has more than a second to mull over a legal question

The 10 out of 215 seemed pretty bad to me too, but these are decisions that have to be made essentially instantaneously.

sure

but an ump doesn’t have 250 years of judicial precedence to consider either.

Is it over the plate?

Yes?

Is it above the knees and below the shoulders?

No?

Then it’s a strike. Otherwise, it’s a ball. Unless the player swings, then even a ball is a strike. Unless it’s a foul-tip.

It’s not THAT complicated. It’s hard because of how fast they have to move, but we’re not talking rocket science here.

Not trying to rip on the poster...

…but this judge analogy just isn’t doing it for me. Kinda like Lou’s Burger King Whopper analogy.

especially is over 100 are pitches that the batter swings at

that wold double or more the error margin

When your name is Bob Davidson you do.

He seems to think he’s the attraction at the game; on Monday night, Dempster asked where a pitch was (probably in more colorful language) and Davidson ripped off his mask and started hollering at him.

Brenly was on his case about it, saying that Davidson doesn’t allow for much dialogue, often escalating matters instead of letting a pitcher plead his case.

Brenly was also

ripping into Davidson about the erratic strike zone. I find it hard to believe that he only got 10 pitches wrong.

I just find it funny

that you’d brag about incorrectly calling 8 strikes. I don’t brag about my press release that has 1 typo in it.

Anyone

Can sit there and cry about umpiring, but there are no perfectly called games in any sport. Nothing in life is perfect.

You can live in the past and pout or you can move on and play the next game.

If he’s calling only 4.7% of pitches incorrectly when the average is 16.8%, then consider yourself lucky.

Right, but it's out of place to brag about it.

What happened to the phrase “the best umpires are the ones you never notice.”?

5%

I’m willing to give an ump a 5% margin for error. That’s the same probability of rolling a 1 in D&D. That’s a comparison I can live with!

not on

1×4d
1×6d
1×8d! :P

5%

I was a reporter for a major national publication for 9 years. We were allowed a 5% error rate. That means 1 in every 20 facts in my articles may have been wrong, and that was OK. Basically, we were allowed one correction for every 20 articles. If it went above that, you could get into trouble.

Of course, there are mistakes, and there are mistakes. In journalism, spelling a name wrong is a frustrating mistake, but it happens to every reporter. Getting a story so seriously wrong that the paper gets sued – that’s on another level.

Typical type 1 error rate in the social sciences is .05

or 5/100 chances will you find a false positive.

I know someone who was flunked out of J-grad school for misspelling Daley's name

so your ex-publication was very lenient.

Hmmm

I went to J-grad school and that wouldn’t have been enough to flunk out. Maybe there were other factors as well and that was the last straw.

Man, can the damn game start already?

This isn’t the NBA, our refs are much, much better than those no-talent ass-clowns.

Yeah really

the MLB doesn’t have to really worry about the refs giving Pujols or Manny bail out pitches.

technical balks?
well of course there are those

everybody knows about technical balks, just part of the game.

That is true
I like the fact that someone finally got it that something had to be done with Cotts and

Miles. I woulda thought Heilman would also have gotten a chance to have a “15 day mental health vacation”.

I told myself

I’d pay no mind to baseball for at least a week. That was Sunday. Today, I’m once again, breaking my promises. At this rate, I’ll never be able to quit smoking.

However, the Champions League final will always trump any other sporting event. I’m looking forward to a nice 1-1 draw and a big financial windfall if Xavi and CR7 score.

I <3 today’s moves. Especially Erin Inches’ “demotion.” Maybe the Nats wanna take him.

Missed [most of] you the last few days. Hope you all are doing fine, and for a Cubs win today.

2-0 Manchester United, book it!
LOL Soccer?

I think a Pujols picture puts this one to shame, does it not?
Ahahahaha, so awesome.
Why do grown men wear silk shorts and knee high socks?
You gotta love ignorant folks like this
I's are a Illinios Hi Skool Grad-u-ate!
i gots me an

Chikago Publick Skool Edumajacation

The big citi

I’s from the contree. Sckool marm wont let’s us du to much redding and riting

Too late to book it now

I don’t want Barça to win—ever—but I’m riding a few C notes on a tie and overtime.

Ill take a Man United win via pk's. certainly would be exciting!
That's my ideal outcome

I’m not too fond of them either, but Barça is one of my top-hated teams, along with the Packers and White Sux.

força barça!!!
Booo!

How are you?

alright

but my boss is gone today! so i’m heading across the street around 1:20 to try and set myself up so I can watch both the cubs and champions league..

y tu?
Tambien bien, gracias

I “got scheduled for an MRI for my herniated disc at 2 p.m. And Northwestern always flubs the scheduling, and the study takes about an hour to complete. I don’t know if I’ll make it back to the office today.”

That’s my plausible excuse.

So Fukudome...

just never plays against LHP I guess.

RJ hits lefties really well, careerwise.
it was stated very early on that centerfield would be a platoon

this is what a platoon is. By the way, Fuku had a nice homer yesterday, but he’s still just 3 for his last 18. It’s not like we’re taking a super hot bat out of the lineup

Johnson should always play against left handed pitching

That’s his main asset to this team.

He's also...

3 for his last 13 with 4 walks.

He hasn't exactly gotten off to a slambang start...

…but, IIRC, Lou has used him vs. RHP several times. Plus, Reed still has less than 100 PAs, so I think the jury is still out on him.

1-0 Cardinals
OT: Dave Matthews' classic new album

DMB’s best album since Before These Crowded Streets. Listen @ Pandora now, free. Can’t wait for release next Tuesday and my super deluxe edition to arrive. RIP LeRoi.

Is

a good album. Listened to it twice now, sitting in the CD player in the car.

Monday June 1st on Fuse they are airing a live concert. Cant wait
My buddy's gonna be there.

Only something like 3k seats, and he got one from the Warehouse, lucky bastard.

That's illlllllegallllllll.
Nice!

Is that thing going all day, do you know? I don’t have audio at work, but definitely want to check it out.

Who’d they replace LeRoi with?

It's been online for a week or so.

It won’t work in Firefox, so try IE. LeRoi was replaced by Jeff Coffin, who previously worked with Bela Fleck & the Flecktones. Both him and Rashawn Ross appear on their first DMB album with Big Whiskey.

Interesting

Thx. Heard the single on itunes and was intrigued. Will have to check this out myself…

Reminds me a lot of

Under the Table and Dreaming, Crash, Before these Crowded Streets…all their old stuff that everybody loves and spanned generations. LeRoi’s death really lit a fire under the guys.

I'm thinking we see a Z bomb today

Also I think we see Soriano get one, its been a while.

Note that Davidson

gives the breakdown on the strikes called for balls (1 for each team), but not on the balls called for strikes (8 total—guess who benefitted?). He sucked and sounds defensive about it.

Have I mentioned lately that I love Ted Lilly?

"MLB umpiring supervisors grade umpires on a daily basis after reviewing videotapes"

Wait a minute…hold the flipping phone!

As I understand it, they got rid of questec because the umps didn’t like it. Now they review the balls and strikes with videotape? How do they manage that? Dugout cams? CF camera? Overhead camera? The main view we get on TV suffers from a perspective issue due to the angle over the pitchers shoulder, is that corrected for the review commitee? Is this related to Pitch F/X in any way? For that matter how exactly does pitch f/x work? Why is Bob Davidson telling us his missed strikes were impartial if he offers no account of the benefactors of the 8 missed balls?

So. Many. Questions.

which is why I think he will get a talk from his bosses

saying shut up about our secret system.

ixnay

on the ufoay…

Probably Pitch F/X.

They got rid of Questec because they had the Sportsvision/Pitch F/X system, which is better anyway.

Howdy, Colin, long time no talk.
I've been around.

Mostly in FanPosts. It’s tiring, though, performing sabermagic all the time. (Plus, I have this “job” that they keep insisting I do more of.)

we've missed you
Yeah, it's always good to read your take on things.
I've started reading Beyond the Boxscore a bit more.

I don’t feel comfortable posting about much yet, but after my multivariate class this semester, I’m starting to learn some things.

Life has just improved

for me as a Cub Fan without Neil Cotts haunting me.

How wonderful!

OH! JOY!

BLISS!!!

All is well until the games begin.

10 out of 215

is misleading. If there were 215 pitches, and the batters swumg at, say 145 of them, then the ump truly missed 10 out of 70 which is much worse. To get a true idea of how many he missed (by percent) would need to remove the pitches that the batter took a swing at, and then calculate how many he messed up.

Umps

The late Ron Luciano was one umpire who talked quite openly about the calls he got wrong. He said he always knew immediately that he’d messed up, “But I made sure the whole ballpark knew that I’d gotten it right” with his body language. (He used to point his finger and “shoot” runners when he called them out.)

Reason number 1,109,103 why MLB sucks

They want me to pay 20 bucks to watch in-game highlights on gameday. A service that was free last season, and didn’t work during the “free trial” of gameday earlier this season.

What a joke.

This is why the iPhone application is a steal.

$10 gets you the entire season’s worth of live, streaming audio, anywhere you can use your iPhone and headphones. It’s $15 normally for a computer. This includes in-game highlights. And they’ve just updated it so the previous day’s games have that 10 minute everything-you-could-want-to-see highlight reel. I seriously question why MLB is selling it, because for $10 and their stupidity, I would think they would charge 3 or 5 times that amount.

I'm gonna have to look into that

Do the highlights actually work?

Yes.

It’s YouTube quality, but if Soriano hits a homer, by the next inning it’ll be up on my phone as a 30 or 90 second video clip. The best is like I said, the new 10 minute entire game summary video. Great if you miss something. I have the old, first generation phone (back when they were $700), so I’m certain with a 3G network the load time is drastically decreased. Do you guys have cell phones in Columbia?

Cell phones haven't reached most of Missouri yet

I had to return to Illinois to get mine.

YES, they work.

The iPhone app is simply incredible. My only gripe is with AT&T… unlike US Cellular and Verizion, you can’t use them in the CTA tunnels, so on occasion i’m without the live game feed while on the red or blue lines.

Honestly, i bought the thing not expecting much and have fallen in love. I’d pay $50. Its incredible. And if you have an iPhone, there is no purpose for the traditional computer based options… spend the $10, and use the left over $5 to buy a headphone splitter so you can run your iPhone’s headphone jack directly to your computer or home stero’s speakers.

This is exactly what I do.

Now I literally never miss a game—either watching it or listening to it while at school, working out, etc.

Underrated part of the MLB feeds vs WGN...

… commercial free. Every commercial break you hear nothing but the noise from inside Wrigley. The organ, the announcer… its great.

I thought the same

But something really odd is happening, if you listed thru MLB Mediacenter, you don’t get the full gameday but it let’s you see the highlights….so what I do is I have Gameday and separately the audio thru the Mediacenter link so I can also see the highlights too.

The whole thing is a joke

it should be free, charge for audio and video, but let us watch gameday and the highlights without having to pay.

GREAT picture of Z (now it's back to work)
Fleita says "Fox is putting up Nintendo-like numbers"

on the pregame show. “We’re hot on him.”

At least he didn't say, "We're hot FOR him."
Any line-ups yet? Anyone? Bueller... Bueller...
See

the 6th post above (just easier than reposting)

From Muskat way above.

Be careful, don’t make any women-reporter jokes.

Whattup, Jimmy.

See top of the thread – sixth or seven post.

Thanks fellas... and I won't disparage any women.
JIMMY

if I am correct, somewhere above, it was posted quoted from a reporter of the female gender whom we have been asked to not bash on a personal level, happens to be a post with the line up

SOB! Zambrano's batting average is as good, or better than four of our position players

and .238 aint that good

but he can bunt for hits better
Yet should only be allowed to transport between home and 1st base...

… via teleportation.

is Fox a poor mans Manny

hits HR or bust, with no defense?

Good god I hope so.
Is this Susan Boyle singing the anthem?
CHICAGO CUBS BASEBALL

is ON THE AIR!

and I cant hear it
I'm sorry

I’ll do pbp as much as I can. but I’m actually running my 2pm meeting, so they’ll notice if I drop off the call…

what would be hilarious is if you announced the PBP to the meeting

and starting telling us about cost overruns

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