the Cubs suck again this year, moreso than last, but they suck in a different way. last year, their offense was abysmal, and their strong pitching kept them competitive for most of the season, until that finally dropped out too near the end.
this year, they have the third best batting average in the league, with a lot of guys hitting near .300. however, it's not always translated into an ability to score runs, especially as of late. this discrepancy reminds me a bit of 2005-2007, particularly 2005.
meanwhile, their
pitching, long a strong point, has been in the toilet all year; currently, they have the worst ERA in the league. why'd they get rid of Larry Rothschild again?! and i think getting rid of Carlos Silva was a mistake; i don't care whether he talked smack about management or not. he was their best pitcher last year, until running into health difficulties.
i like what Mike Quade's doing with the lineup. he's not afraid to shuffle it around, based on how well certain hitters have been doing, or on the given matchups for a day. Lou Piniella was way too stagnant on this, by comparison.
i'm also impressed by how many hits are being produced by a group of young guys: Barney, Castro, DeWitt.
Jeff Baker and Reed Johnson were also hitting great before going on the DL, though they're not quite "young". Alfonso Soriano, also injured, was supplying good power. and Marlon Byrd was having another great year before his horrible incident; i hope he recovers.
man, that's a lot of guys on the DL, with 2 pitchers beyond the 4 position players listed above. the young guys are really picking up the slack offensively... which brings me to a longstanding gripe with this team: with some of the freshest legs in MLB, how the hell do you have only 15 steals, the second worst in the entire league?! that's abysmal. and to give it some perspective,
four of those steals came from Tony Campana on May 30, 2011. yes, that's right; over
25% of the entire roster's steals in 59 games have come from a SINGLE player in a SINGLE game.
it's one thing when your roster is dominated by guys around 30 years old, but to continue to be so slow with a bunch of non-obese youths is just mind-boggling. and it's not like Cubs only bring up slow people through their system. look at Sam Fuld and Angel Pagan: mediocre stolen base figures with Chicago, then as soon as they leave the team -- speed demons! there's only one simple explanation for this: the Chicago Cubs, as an organization, do not believe in the stolen base. maybe it's buried in fine print in the club's founding documents somewhere. maybe management adheres to some obscure religion that frowns upon the behavior. who knows. regardless of the reason, shelving weapons like this is unforgivable. the young guys can get on base; they don't have much power; speed doesn't slump, as the saying goes; running in a straight line isn't exactly rocket science. so what exactly are they waiting for?!
Aramis Ramirez is having a strong year, albeit with his home runs in the crapper.. which is understandable when Derrek Lee's no longer in the lineup next to him; pitchers can be more choosy. why'd we dump Derrek Lee and hire Carlos Pena again?! Lee has better career numbers, a better glove, and far more experience facing NL pitchers, as Pena was in the AL his whole career until now. still, absent an "Undo" button for this personnel change, i hope we give Pena a chance to study the NL pitchers, as a first year against them is tough for anybody.
Carlos Zambrano is having yet another good year. Matt Garza's pitched well, even if his Win-Loss total doesn't show it. Kerry Wood, Sean Marshall, and Carlos Marmol have been brilliant out of the bullpen. why'd the Yankees dump Wood after he turned in a miniscule 0.69 ERA for them last year?! eh, their loss.
enough with the rambling and ranting, and onto the truly eerie.
the Cubs played against and lost to the Cincinnati Reds on June 6 and June 7, and the line score totals are identical in the two games. when looking at yesterday's box score on Yahoo Sports this morning, i had a strong sense of d?j? vu. then i had an equally strong sense that the Cubs sucked. :P
Topic: MLB Season (2011) (Read 1740 times)