Before we begin, take some time to cast your vote in the Cubs Confidence Survey Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within dvdrip . It’s five questions designed to gauge everyone’s confidence in each member of the 25 man roster. The more people who vote, the better the results will be.
I just have a random bunch of thoughts on my mind as the Cubs pulled off a nice sweep saving win on Sunday. Indulge me as I bullet my thoughts, and as always, I welcome yours.
-
Alfonso Soriano played really well out of the leadoff spot today. He took a lot of pitches, including two separate at bats in which he saw 10. He also hit a homer with a man on base, something he’s had difficulty with in the past. Coming into the game with RISP, Sori was hitting .080 in 33 plate appearances. With men on base in general, just .154. Nice to see him come through today with the long homer to CF and quality plate appearances. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for his lackadaisical play in the 2nd that allowed Jason Kendall to get a triple. The official scorer should have probably scored it a double and a mental error on Soriano, but instead Kendall got himself closer to 2000 career hits. In case you didn’t see the play, Kendall hit a ball down the line that Soriano kicked a bit. When he picked the ball up, rather than getting it in quickly, he loafed and then realized Kendall was charging out of the box Pete Rose style (minus the gambling of course). Thankfully Marshall was able to strand him there.
-
When Kosuke Fukudome hit his single in the 3rd after tripling in the 1st, my mind immediately thought cycle. Did anyone else have that thought? Would that have been the final piece needed to completely win back the skeptics?
-
Angel Guzman has pitched pretty well the last two outings, despite giving up a HR Friday night. In those two innings, if you take away the HR, he’s held the opposition scoreless and has struck out 6. I’d really like to see him take that role by the horns and be the bridge to the late innings we need.
-
Appaloosa film As Good as It Gets buy I didn’t write about it yesterday, but more than likely, Chad Fox has pitched his last game. Getting hurt last night will probably end his career. My thinking is that at least he got to make to the Majors one more time. That gives Jose Ascanio a chance and I think he’s going to be step one in the remake of the bullpen. If Jeff Samardzija can get things figured out in AAA, which didn’t go too well yesterday, he would make a nice step two.
-
I was a little disappointed in Milton Bradley for not bringing home the runner on third with two outs in the 1st, but he redeemed himself with a single in the 3rd to bring home a run. He’s starting to look better at the plate, which means we’ll probably start to see that average creep above the interstate level. Then again, I predicted big things for Derrek Lee and he hasn’t played since.
-
Say what you want about Sean Marshall, whether you like the guy or not, he gives you a chance to win the game. He went five innings today, but got out of jams and only allowed runs in the first two innings. I like him a lot. He’s not going to be a frontline starter, but he can be the kind of backend guy that allows you to win a division, the same kind of guy Jason Marquis was the past two years.
Organizational Notes
-
Iowa Cubs (AAA) - Jake Fox hasn’t played since Friday. I don’t know if it has anything to do with him being hit by a pitch in the bottom of the 5th in Friday night’s win over Memphis, but it’s something to keep an eye on. Doug Deeds got the start at 1B in his absence on Sunday and had a pair of doubles. Christopher Robinson continues his hot start to the season. He had a 3-for-4 day with three RBI and a triple. On the year, he’s now hitting .394. Mitch Atkins picked up his second win on the year with a nice start. He went seven innings, only allowing two runs and striking out six. The bullpen sent out Jason Waddell and Vince Perkins to close it out and both delivered a scoreless frame. -
Peoria Chiefs (A)
– Junior Lake had a nice day at the plate, going 3-for-4 with a double to raise his average to .250 on the season. Starter Aaron Schafer notched his fourth win of the year with a 5 inning, 1 ER, 3 K, 3 BB performance. Chris Huseby picked up his fourth hold with a 1.2 IP scoreless outing in the 6th and 7th. Ryan Buchter, who I don’t think I’ve heard of until now, notched a scoreless inning but made it interesting by walking two and striking out three. On the year, Buchter now has an ERA of 0.68 in 13.1 IP. The Chiefs went 7-5 on the 12-game road trip as the offense hit .295 (130-for-441) and scored 74 runs. The pitching staff recorded five saves and posted a 3.56 ERA while holding the opposition to a .228 average. Chiefs hitters collected 46 extra base hits with 32 doubles, 12 homers and two triples while striking out just 71 times. The Chiefs collected at least 10 hits in eight of the 12 games and scored seven or more runs six times.
Photo of the Week Two Mules for Sister Sara
Credit: Andrew Woolley – MiLB.com
Jarrett Hoffpauir (No Relation, but it fit the Cubs theme anyway because of the name) makes a great play
First, I did not see the whole game today, only the 3rd and 4th innings due to the necessity of jumping through the normal Mother’s Day hoops and needing to get some work done. The one thing that jumped out at me, especially after reading Strickler and Beato’s comments yesterday on fundementals was that the Cubs have several selfish and, in my opinion, foolish hitters. Bear with me on this. In the 3rd, after the homerun to Soriano, and back to back well hit balls by Miles and Fuko, Bradley works himself a 3-0 count. At this point, it is clear that Suppan is scuffling. Bradley then takes a yack at a 3-0 breaking ball. I realize that he eventually got a hit, but come on…I could see dialing in on a 3-0 fastball cock-shot…but a low and inside deuce? Then, 2 batters later, as if to prove that Gerald Perry is worthless during games, Soto, who’d have been standing right next to Perry when Bradley does it, does the exact same thing…hacking away at a 3-0 curve ball, likely out of the strike zone. Even if it worked for Bradley and Soto (who walked on the next pitch) this is not the sign of a well coached team, or a team of guys that are looking to be smart or patient hitters. Suppan is not the kind of pitcher that you need to swing 3-0 against when he is going good…and when he is scuffling its just stupid. With big run producers on the shelf, the team needs to get a lot smarter and less selfish in these situations. Just my opinion. I don’t think Rothschild is worth a darn either…but we can argue that all summer.
Joe, just a quick question on the Confidence Survey. Do we see where it stands as we take it, or will you post the results sometime down the road?
I’m going to run it all week and post the results on Friday.
Fukudome-san has really impressed me, he came into the season being my probable goat of the year. But he’s staying in on the outside pitches and showing real desire in the outfield. A great contribution to the team thusfar, my hat’s off to him.
Guzman has been surprising me too. See how Soto’s handling him? Angel comes in and tries to be a little too cute – Geo is micro-managing him when that is really what he needs. Guzman then dials in and does the job. Right now he’s got to be an odds-on favorite for seventh inning duty; hopefully Ascaino will enter the mix in this respect as well. Best of luck to Chad Fox in his future endeavors, he’s really proven to be a gamer and I hope the injuries don’t take a bite out of his quality of life as he gets older.
Marshall has also proven to be a gamer, he doesn’t get shook up when he gets behind and seems to settle in after the first couple of innings.
I was a bit disappointed by Freel’s throw-out, it’s good to see his enthusiasm but he has to use his head more when he’s inserted into a close game. No excuse for being thrown out at second, sorry Ryan that ain’t gonna cut it.
Onwards and upwards, time to go home to Wrigley and chop up San Diego piecemeal. No reason why we shouldn’t excommunicate the Padres from the Friendly Confines!
Fox is fine other than the five stitches he had in his leg Friday night after being speared by a broken bat. For those that think he can’t field, he made the play at first after being speared.
Joe,
The survey is a little flawed.
I didn’t choose anybody from the bullpen and it wouldn’t let me complete the survey until I did. Reluctantly I chose Kevin Gregg as the best of that bunch.
That should be fixed Doug….Thanks for letting me know. Spread the word on the survey.
Sample size alert!!
Wouldn’t Kendall have gotten himself closer to 2000 career hits whether Soriano hustled on that play or not, and whether the scorer called it a double or triple?
I actually really like Kosuke, but I am still not completely sold. Or, more accurately, I am still not completely sure what kind of player he really is, or what level of production we should expect. The encouraging thing, to me, is that in recent weeks he has “struggled” but has still been able to draw walks. Last year, in the second half, when he was really struggling, his walks also went down. If he can continue to be patient and draw walks, even when he isn’t getting hits, that will be a very encouraging sign.
One play doesn’t mean he can field. He is somewhere between awful and pathetic defensively, even if he made a play after getting speared with a bat.
At this point we are swiss cheese, a pretty solid ballclub with some obvious holes.
The key to success will be the young talent. If the farm can fill the holes we will succeed. If we are going to rely on Dlee and Bradly to supply production I think we will be dissapointed. Micah needs to have a good season, which he is so far, and we need more of the same from Fuko, RJ and now Freel.
The bullpen needs to improve.
Is it sad, or awesome, that I had the exact same thought?
I wouldn’t want Sample size to get in the way of my argument on Soriano.
Career in those situations (Plate Appearances in Parenthesis)
RISP (1282) – .251
Men on base (2112) – .266
No Men On (3368) – .291
It’s a visible difference
This was Hendry’s biggest mistake during the offseason. I said months ago it was going to be a problem, and thus far they’ve proven me right.
Bradley will come around. I don’t think he’s going to put up numbers like he did last year, but they’ll be respectable. With DLee and A-Ram down, this is a perfect time for him to batten down the hatches and show everyone he can be the man. Or the goat.
Definitely awesome.
Not sure if you meant to imply that those three were young. But I do know that I don’t want more of the same from RJ and Freel. RJ (with a major sample size caveat) is currently hitting .224/.316/.265 – I am not interested in more of the same from him. Freel, while also getting limited plate appearances this year, has also been pretty awful (though has at least gotten on base).
Sure… but that isn’t what you said. I agree that Soriano has always been better with the bases empty than with runners on, but his 33 pa’s in those situations this season isn’t very meaningful.
Not sure why you are just looking at batting average though. OPS in those situations are as follows:
RISP (1282) – .789
Men on base (2112) – .809
No Men On (3368) – .871
Still a drop off, but that 789 ops isn’t terrible. Definitely not good, by any means, but not terrible.
By the way… I think these types of numbers are somewhat meaningless also, and last year was a perfect example (another sample size caveat):
RISP (142) – .975
Men on base (199) – .860
No Men On (304) – .885
So I guess Soriano magically learned to become clutch with RISP last year, and then forgot again? Any stat that has such fluctuation from year to year is a questionable one. Clutch stats are notoriously unreliable, and have significant fluctuations.
Oh no. Not the clutch argument again.
That’s why Soriano is more comfortable leading off, he doesn’t like hitting with RISP, pitchers tend not to throw as many fastballs. They tend to throw sliders which he tends to swing at and miss.
I think RJ had a productive 2008 and Freel has always been a catalyst when he plays against us. I wasn’t referring to there current stats when I said more of the same.