Sweeping the Bleachers: Sun. July 1 - Rebounding

Cubs take series from Brewers after yesterday’s blowout

After Friday’s impressive walkoff victory after being down 5-0 after the top of the first inning, the Cubs suffered one of their worst defeats of the year yesterday. Rich Hill allowed four runs in the first inning, and though the Cubs were able to respond with two of their own immediately, no one could stop the Brewers’ bats. The game was over quickly; Lee, Ramirez, and Soriano were all given a rest after 5 innings, and every Cub pitcher gave up a run.

So not only was today’s game important because it’s the rubber match against the division leaders with the Cubs finally making a charge in the last few weeks, but their ability to bounce back from yesterday would give some good insight on both teams, even if it’s just one game.

And they produced. Not giving four-plus runs in the first inning definitely helped, as did Theriot and Lee scoring two runs apiece in the first and third innings. Jason Marquis, surrendering only one run in 7 innings, took that lead and never looked back.

Now its on to the pitiful Nationals and Pirates, whose fans tried to organize a mass walkout on Saturday. 6 of 7 is not too much to ask for, and gaining momentum heading into the break is reachable and almost expected at this point. The Cubs are rolling; they’re playing bad teams. It’s time to get some wins.

Here’s some more evidence from Rick Morissey of the Trib on why today’s game was so important. It’s part of Cub tradition to doubt the team after any setback whatsoever, but it’s not like we haven’t got cause. And Pinella’s Punchers haven’t exactly been the most consistent group of players this year, either.

The bullpen is stretched to the max. It’s time to deal Jones and Izturis. If there’s nothing in place by the end of the break, we should just designate them for assignment. There’s no reason we should be wasting $9 Million on these guys, let alone two roster spots.

Rocky Cherry called up, Rocky Cherry to the DL. And Billy Petrick’s back. I’m sure Petrick’s not complaining, but he was here for like 5 days, got sent back, was in Iowa for two, and is back on the club. Des Moines isn’t really right across Addison. There’s also some discussion about Derrek Lee’s power outage. And more here.

Um… no comment.

And, finally, from the AP:

What a wild month it was for the Cubs with Carlos Zambrano and former catcher Michael Barrett getting into a fight and manager Lou Piniella getting suspended after a dirt-kicking tirade against an umpire. ``It wasn't wild for me. It may have been wild for Cubland, but it wasn't wild for me,'' Piniella said. ``(Compared to) the teams that I played with the Yankees, it was very tranquil.''

Okay, Lou, whatever you say.

Sweeping the Bleachers: Wed. June 27 – Don’t look now…

Cubs break out the brooms for the second time in a row

Don’t look now, but the Cubs are just one game below .500 after this six-game winning streak. Led by Zambrano, Soriano, and Fontenot (huh?), the team is finally hitting stride, playing 16-10 ball after the fight between Zambrano and Barrett.

Too bad the Brewers are playing just as well right now. They’ve won eight of their last nine and the Cubs are still 7.5 back, although they’ve separated themselves a little from the rest of the riff-raff in that division. Right now, the Cubs are actually closer to the Wild Card than they are to the Central lead; they’re just 6 games back for that spot. Unfortunately, they’re behind 4 teams: San Diego or Arizona, the LA Dodgers, Philadelphia, and Atlanta.

I think the Cubs’ best path to the postseason lies within the division, and Lynn Henning from the Detroit News hopes there’s an exciting race between them and the Brewers. I’m a little surprised by the show of confidence in this current team, but just as surprised that Prior and Wood were mentioned. Haven’t we moved past that? I can’t even understand what that paragraph is trying to say.

Unlike previous reports, it appears Kerry Wood did get his throwing session in on Tuesday. He threw 18 pitches and there were no problems. If only everything were that easy.

That same article also talks a little about Bobby Petrick, the new relief pitcher from AA, and Carlos Marmol’s first save. Marmol’s always had good stuff; if he can get enough control for one inning he could be a pretty good closer in a year or two.

Rob Neyer does not approve of Jim Hendry’s trades.

“The point is that [Barrett]'s a good player, and all Hendry got for him is another team's backup. You can make the occasional deal like this, and still win….Hendry's made far too many of them.”

I agree. Now let’s watch as the same thing happens with Jacque Jones. He hit .285 with 27 HR last year and I think we’d be lucky to get a major leaguer at this point with our lack of leverage.

Sweeping the Bleachers: Tuesday, June 26 - Execution

Cubs get an 8-3 lead, don’t blow it this time

This is the team we’ve been waiting for all year. We’ve seen flashes, and this may have been just another one of those, but a solid performance all-around last night by the Cubs. Ted Lilly didn’t bring his A-game, and his control was pretty bad, but he managed to not be horrible and the defense and batting delivered. The Cubs were never built to win with pitching, even though it looked that way in April, and Lilly’s ERA of 4.03 isn’t as worrisome as it may seem. This team should score more than that.

And once again, the defense was great. It seems like every day they’re either exceptional or horrendous, but considering the recent history of the franchise (where it was either mediocre or horrendous), I’ll take it. Another great day for the rookies playing (Fontenot and Hill) where they both hit balls to the outfield wall for doubles. Showing power is very important for these guys to be able to keep up their stellar play this year, and I’ll have more on that tomorrow.

Zambrano takes the hill this afternoon for the second sweep in a row. That would be great.

Elsewhere…

Dempster officially went to the DL yesterday. Billy Petrick, a right-hander from AA, was brought up. I’m going to defer judgment on the Dempster issue, and I know nothing about Petrick. But we’ve called up several different bullpen guys from AAA this year and sent them back… any chance we’ll see any of them again?

The fan who rushed Bob Howry is going to court. It’s bad enough when “fans” do reckless and stupid things like this… but why do people insist on trying to damage their own team?

Interestingly enough, the guy should be lucky he didn’t touch Howry. As it is, he’s probably looking at a serious misdemeanor, but had he even laid a finger on the pitcher; it’s a felony.

Jacque Jones is leaving soon… but he’s not going to the Marlins. Fine with me. I’d rather have the Cubs tough it out a few days than to get less value than they could.

Here’s a great piece of Ryne Sandberg’s short, but successful career as a minor-league manager. Ryno was one of my favorite players as a kid (even though he was on the very tail-end of his career), and if he’s the real deal as a manager, I’d love to see him in the dugout in a few years when Pinella’s gone.

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And finally, this isn’t about baseball, but it’s not worth a full post. This ongoing mock draft with Bill Simmons and Chad Ford is one of the greatest things I’ve read on the Internet in a long while. Plenty of heated banter going back and forth between the two, but Ford is pretty much delivering the smackdown to Simmons right now.

Spooked.

I was going to write up my own mock draft, detailing what I think every lottery team should do, and then John Hollinger came out with this brilliant article, rating every collegiate player and showing how the system is much more reliable at predicting success than draft order. I now have no confidence in what I thought were my own thoughts.

Interestingly enough, according to Hollinger, the Bulls got the best player in 2004 and 2006 with Deng and Thomas, respectively. Thomas, in particular, was far and away the best choice. Hooray.

More importantly, the article shone some light on players whose success I and many others assumed was a given. Corey Brewer, Nick Young, Acie Law, and Julian Wright were all said to be way overrated. But the most overrated? None other than our man Spencer Hawes, who Hollinger calls a second-round prospect. I’ve been teetering on this for months now, but I think this column may have made up my mind. He writes:

“Hawes has an unimpressive rebound rate, which is a huge red flag considering he was bigger than everyone he played against. And for all the talk of his great post skills, he had a run-of-the-mill 55.0 true shooting percentage and didn't even have the best PER on his mediocre team (that belonged to Jon Brockman). A lot of folks think he can become a quality pro post player; based on his numbers, I just don't see it.”

This terrifies me. Hollinger isn’t wrong often, and when he is, it’s not by much. So I’ve made up my mind: The Bulls didn’t finally get out of the NBA cellar by taking 7-foot prospects. we did it by taking established college players who were assumed somewhat more flawed than they actually were just because of the higher degree of exposure (Hinrich, Gordon, Deng, even Duhon to a degree). We haven’t missed with a pick since ’02 (and even that was due to a tragic off-the-field accident). Let’s dance with the girl that brought us here get the best, most proven player we can.

Option A should be Zach Randolph. The guy’s a voracious low-post scorer, and that’s the one thing that the Bulls need to put them over the top. He’s a proven All-Star who’s just reaching his prime, and his minor character issues should hardly be an issue on this pristine Bulls team.

If we can’t trade the pick for Randolph, I say we draft Joakim Noah. He does all of the things P.J. Brown does except much, much better, and frankly, no one the Bulls can get in this draft is going to make near as much of a difference as improvements made by Gordon, Deng, Sefolosha, and especially, Thomas.

I would take Brandon Wright as well. He impressed me in the tourney with his athleticism, and if Skiles can’t get him to hustle, no one will.

There’s a pretty good chance one of the two will be available when the Bulls pick (it means only two of Yi, Jeff Green, Julian Wright, Corey Brewer, or even Hawes have been picked, because I’m assuming there’s no way Conley or Horford fall to the Bulls), so I’m optimistic. But taking Hawes would be a huge mistake. No matter what the situation is, wasting a lottery pick when there are more qualified candidates is devastating. We probably wouldn’t even find it necessary to discuss the Bulls’ championship aspirations if the Pistons had Carmelo, Bosh, or Wade right now.

Sweeping the Bleachers: Mon. June 25 - What a game!

Cubs endure massive Rockies comeback, respond with one of their own

To think, after Angel Pagan’s first inning shot that put the Cubs up by 3, it looks like the Cubs were going to ride out an uneventful win. Sure enough, that’s what happened for the first eight innings, as the Cubs stretched the lead to 8-3.

It was easy to tell the Cubs had started packing it in; after Scott Eyre’s comical at-bat in the 7^th (with runners on base!) and leaving him in to pitch the ninth. But Eyre didn’t even record a single out in the top of that inning. The first 6 Rockies to come to the plate all eventually scored, giving the Rockies a massive 6-run comeback. It was looking pretty bleak even after Bob Howry retired the next three batters to end the inning; a fan ran on the field and nearly got to the mound before receiving a smackdown from security.

But thanks to an inconceivable error by Kaz Matsui that would have ended the game and clutch hits by Koyie Hill (I have no idea why our worst batter and backup catcher was in a pinch-hit situation when there were others on the bench, but it worked) and Alfonso Soriano, the Cubs came back to win this wild one, 10-9. The Cubbies had 18 hits in this game, their most of the season.

Alan Trammell says the Cubs should resurface Wrigley. There is a considerable slope from the outfield to the infield dirt, and this sizable ridge where the two meet. Last night, a ground ball skimmed along the infield until it hit that ridge, where it popped right into the air. I'm not against stadium quirks at Wrigley, but this one should definitely get a hard look because it seems like it could be an injury hazard to the players.

The Cubs are "teetering" with this shorthanded staff, says Lou. This means either Dempster should be sent to the DL or Jacque Jones should be traded or designated for assignment within the next few days. Maybe both. But the team could definitely use some bullpen help. Maybe call up our old pals, the Padres, again? However, its mentioned that Ryan Theriot could be a candidate for demotion. That would be a HUGE mistake. More on that later.

Mark Simon of ESPN's Diamond Daily says this streak could turn the Cubs' season around. I'm not so sure if this streak is enough, because the Cubs seem to be just as likely to lose four straight as they are to win four in a row, but things are definitely looking up. We're just three games under .500 and most of the team seems to be clicking (bullpen... grumble grumble). Also, check out what they have to say about the bullpen on the bottom of the page. Yeah, it sure was ugly.

Page 2's Jonah Keri says the Michael Barrett trade will end up in the Padres' favor. I wish Barrett the best, but the Padres are living and dying with their arms right now, and I wouldn't be surprised to see Peavy, Young, and co's. ERAs rise a little (Peavy's already has). Unfortunately, Barrett's offense isn't up to snuff this year, making his defense and game calling not worth it. Yes, it's hard to tell how much of an impact a catcher is making defensively, but I feel much more confident with Bowen behind the plate than Barrett if they're hitting for the same average.

And last, but certainly not least, here's a heartwarming story from 2003 of Rod Beck's time in Iowa. The guy literally lived at the stadium when he was there, and he invited all fans to his RV to sit down after games and enjoy a beer. Now that's a true Cub.

Jim Wolf does not tolerate mistakes

Friday, June 8: Alfonso Soriano hits three home runs in his first three at bats as the Cubs stomp the Braves, 9-1.

Saturday: Alfonso Soriano is hit by Tim Hudson in the first at-bat of the game.

Warnings are issued.

Sean Gallagher is hit by Peter Moylan, who is not ejected.

Sunday: No warnings are issued before the game.

With two outs in the first inning, Ted Lilly throws an errant pitch that hits Edgar Renteria in the hand. He is ejected.

Renteria gives rookie Mike Fontenot a forearm shiver to the face while stealing second base without a slide.

The Cubs’ bullpen, stretched for eight innings, gives up the lead. Cubs lose.

The five stages of Cubs grief

Today was a new low point for the 2007 season. After 5 straight losses, the last three of which have been embarrassing blowouts, the Cubs punctuated today’s horrible performance in all facets of the game with a fight between our ace pitcher and our struggling catcher. Fantastic. I’m not about to place blame on either of the two; this situation is everyone’s fault.

So let’s take a look at this Cubs season so far, and where we’re undoubtedly going.

Stage 1: Denial

The Cubbies may be 8 games under .500 now, but this is not the worst winning percentage they’ve had this season. No, in late April, the Cubs were floundering along at 7-13, a terrible record in its own right. At this time, the offense was performing pretty badly, but the Cubs still had a very good run differential that belied their record. Hope was abundant; with this much-improved collection of talent, the ship was going to be righted… right?

Stage 2: Anger

For a while, things were looking pretty good in Wrigleyville. In early May, the Cubs had risen to .500, and were even above it on two separate occasions. But then as a crucial swing of series against two good East teams, the Sox, and two good West teams started, the wheels completely came off for the bullpen. Led by Scott Eyre, the ‘pen completely imploded. Saves were blown, winnable games were lost, and no lead was safe with these guys trying to close the door.

Naturally, the rest of the team followed suit. The offense, yet to reach anything near its potential, hasn’t improved at all. Alfonso Soriano’s got 4 HRs, Derrick Lee 5, and Aramis Ramirez is the only one over 7. Our surprising trifecta of starting pitchers, Jason Marquis, Ted Lilly, and Rich Hill, all picked the same time to regress to their career norms. All this naturally makes for five game losing streaks and a bad team sinking in an even worse division.

Given the talent level on this team, it’s surprising they weren’t punching each other earlier. (If Lou Pinella was alive, none of this would be happening.)

Stage 3: Bargaining

Already, in the wake of this Wrigley Rumble, the blogosphere is buzzing with trade talk. Should the Cubs get rid of Zambrano? Or Barrett? Or everyone? Clearly something has to be done, between this embarrassment, the inept bullpen, and the mess of an outfield, there are trades that could be made. (By ‘clearly,’ I mean that I’m currently oscillating between bargaining and anger and it seems obvious at this time.)

As much as we would like to think so, trades aren’t going to turn around this team. The last three years should have proved that. But the rumors will only intensify, and by July, they’ll most likely be the singular focus of Cub Nation as the team flounders on the field.

Stage 4: Depression

At some point in the summer, Cubs fans will realize that if this team really is a bunch of losers, trades or internal changes are going to fix it. That’s when the booing starts. The destructive, poisonous booing that’s become all too common at Wrigley these days that effectively ensures that many players cannot rebound from the natural ups-and-down of a career while still in a Cubs uniform. (As for Corey Patterson, well, he may never be the same). And while this is increasing, it’s still pales in comparison to a much more popular mentality for the Cubs fan:

Stage 5: Acceptance

Wait ‘til next year.

(By the way, today was Carlos Zambrano’s birthday.)