A Rough Start

Gold-numbered jerseys?  Check.  Gold-logo emblazoned hats?
Check.  Mandatory around-the-neck gold bling?  None (yet).

Inconsistent offense, shoddy bullpen work highlight first 10 games


It wasn't surprising that many assumed that the 2012 Cubs would struggle on the field.  It probably was surprising, however, that they got off to such an early start at that.  The first homestand, which saw the Cubs host the Nationals for three games and the Brewers for four, started 1-5 for the Cubs as they struggled to find a winning formula.

The Monday night game was not without its highlights, such as Bryan LaHair's monster home run onto Sheffield Avenue early on, but Chris Volstad's shaky start and Shawn Camp's atrocious relief appearance (three earned runs in one inning) spelled doom in a 7-5 loss.  It was a competitive ballgame, however, as Starlin Castro batted in the bottom of the ninth with the tying and winning runs on base.  A John Axford slider then ended all hopes of a comeback.

Tuesday night was a different story.  Paul Maholm, who has now been torched in both of his starts, had allowed six runs by the third inning.  Even the platoon catcher, Jonathan Lucroy, hit a home run. This game left little chance for the Cubs.

Yovani Gallardo and Ryan Dempster had a surprisingly intense pitcher's duel in the Wednesday game.  Gallardo allowed only a first-inning sacrifice fly to Castro, while Dempster held the 1-0 lead until a two-run homer by the other platoon catcher, George Kottaras, gave the Brewers the lead for good in the seventh.

And just like that, the Cubs had lost the first three games of a four-game series and started the season 1-5.  Pretty depressing stuff.  But this, my friends, is the wonder of rebuilding.  The team will be bad, but there are sure to be signs of life.  One such sign came Thursday as the Cubs shut out the Brewers 8-0, a real team effort as six different Cubs knocked in runs.  Matt Garza was even one pitch away from a shutout.  In fact, he got his pitch - an easily-fielded comebacker to the mound - and he promptly fired it into the stands instead of making the easy, 45-foot throw to first base.  Manager Dale Sveum yanked him unnecessarily, and Garza was robbed of the Cubs' first complete game of the season.

Bryan LaHair gets a round of high-fives after hitting the first
Cubs grand slam since October 2010.

The Cubs even broke out the bats for the second straight day in a row, and at a great time.  Those St. Louis Cardinals, decked out in gold-logo'd hats and gold-lettered jerseys just in case anybody forgot that they won the championship last season, were looking for an easy win over this weak Cubs team on their Opening Day.  They didn't get it.  First, rain rained on their parade.  Then, the Cubs rained on their parade.  After a lengthy rain delay of nearly two hours, any Cards fans that stayed looked foolish after a three-run homer by Ian Stewart and a grand slam by LaHair helped give the Cubs a 9-0 lead by the third inning.


Who gave up all these runs?  Why, it was Adam Wainwright.  That's the same Wainwright who, after nearly being the team's ace the last half-decade, missed the entire 2011 season due to injury.  This means he did nothing to contribute to their World Series run even though he is on the team.  So how ironic it was that he was the man to start the game in which they got their World Series rings, wore the glittery gear, and flaunted around pregame in celebratory fashion in front of the second-largest Busch Stadium II crowd ever.  But I digress.


Anyway, the point is that the Cubs did show the ability to score runs.  I like LaHair's power potential; he has two homers so far, one of which went opposite field and the other which left the stadium entirely.  I don't think strength will be an issue with this guy.

The Saturday and Sunday games were a mess.  Volstad imploded in the fourth inning of an otherwise sharp-looking start on Saturday, but the Cubs could never come back from the four allowed in the fourth.  The Cardinals did salvage one win in those odd-looking gold-numbered jerseys.  They had the wit to wear those things for a second game.  Who do they think they are, the New Orleans Saints?  While we're on the topic, is new manager Mike Matheny paying his pitchers to throw at opposing batters (in "kill the head" fashion)?  Probably not, but a concussion did end Matheny's playing career....  Also, in other weird-coincidence news, the Giants wore a similar gold-lettered jersey at their home opener last season as well to celebrate their 2010 World Series championship.  Which team did they host in their home opener?  The Cardinals.

Back to the Sunday game.  That second torching at the hands of Maholm took place on Sunday as Matt Carpenter, some kid who has made a lot of headlines so far, ended up five RBIs for the Cardinals.  The Cubs never really got to Cards starter Jake Westbrook, and the series ended with Friday being the lone Cubs win.  The series started off promisingly, but the end looked like the Cubs team we were expecting to see.

Through these first three series, the Cubs never really showed what their strengths are.  The last guy to make the rotation, Jeff Samardzija, is the only one with more than one win.  The offense scored 18 runs in the first six games then put up 17 runs in the next two.  Kerry Wood's bullpen failures from the first weekend were forgotten in place of a hodgepodge of dismal 'pen work from Camp, Lendy Castillo, and Carlos Marmol namely.  Not to mention Maholm's efforts, which have taken the Cubs out of games practically before they've started.  So far, not so good.  3-7 isn't the end of the world, however, and Sveum has the team playing hard.  The errors are down and the stolen bases are up.  The team certainly has a good swagger, too.

The Cubbies are down in Miami to check out the Marlins' new digs tomorrow night.  Ozzie Guillen will return from his five-game suspension to manage the game.  Just in case the game turns into a Marlins blowout, go online and count as many articles as you can find that mention both Guillen and Fidel Castro written within the last seven days.  Hopefully, though, we can just watch some winning baseball.        

Compensated? Not Really

Theo Epstein

The lengthy discussion over compensation for Theo Epstein's move from the Red Sox to the Cubs ended as the two teams agreed that 26-year-old right-hander Chris Carpenter would be enough to 'compensate' the Red Sox.  The Cubs lose their third-round pick in the 2008 draft who made his MLB debut in 2011, pitching in 10 games with a strong 2.79 ERA.

Carpenter has floated around the Cubs' system in recent years, quickly making his way up to AAA Iowa in 2010.  He split 2011 in the minors between AA Tennessee and AAA Iowa and again struggled in Iowa, with an ERA over 6.00 and a ballooning WHIP over 1.8.  He fared well in his major league trial last summer, but it may not have been as good as the ERA would suggest, as he walked seven in those nine and two-thirds innings.  The only national attention he received was serving up a monster home run ball to Yankees right fielder Nick Swisher in a nationally televised Sunday night game on ESPN.

Despite his struggles, this man has tremendous potential.  Not necessarily the same potential that his St. Louis counterpart, also a starter in Chris Carpenter, had, but still this younger version has promising talent.  Most notably there's the 100 mph fastball which has blown away more than a few hitters in his career.  Following that is his average slider, which he throws about one-fourth of the time.

Chris Carpenter

He prefers to work inside and definitely doesn't use the outside part of the plate enough to neither righties nor lefties, but there is a bigger problem in his repertoire.  He needs another pitch.  Carpenter switched to being a reliever this season in the minors and majors but before had been a starter for nearly his entire career.  This season his play suffered out of the bullpen, and his fastball and slider are basically his only two legitimate pitches.  It's awfully hard to keep major league hitters off-balance when you throw a fastball 75% of the time, no matter how fast it is.  If he develops a quality changeup, he'll thrive in either role.

As you've heard here, this dude has potential with the fastball.  A hittable slider and lack of a tertiary pitch have hurt him thus far, however.  That and the tendency of hard-throwers to have shoulder injuries, this makes him a definite high-risk, high-reward type.  Does this sound like fair compensation for executive Theo Epstein?  I do not know.  This compensation process just seems foolish.  Boston's GM swaps teams, and Boston gets to choose one highly-touted Chicago prospect?  Does this make this entire transaction a 'trade'?  If so, we just traded a jersey for a suit.

I don't think executives and players can be measured in team value along the same parameters in which they could be 'traded' for each other.  If Epstein left the Red Sox for the Cubs while under contract, which may have been the case, then the Cubs should have given up a draft pick.  Giving up one volatile prospect is not fair compensation for either side really.  Carpenter isn't a huge loss, but that fact that we lost him is wrong.

Wild Card Wednesday!

Evan Longoria rounds the bases after hitting his
walk-off homer that won the AL Wild Card Wednesday.

Late Wedneday night, the Tampa Bay Rays had 278 million-to-one odds to win the AL Wild Card.  And yet, the Rays are the 2011 AL Wild Card Champions.  The Rays made it to the postseason in a most unlikely fashion; it took a month-long colossal collapse from the Red Sox and a bullpen meltdown from the Yankees to sneak in.  This month-long swoon by the Red Sox and surge by the Rays grew in excitement and controversy nearly every day, culminating in an impossibly hopeless comeback attempt on the season's final day.  It, along with the results of the Red Sox-Orioles, Braves-Phillies, and Cardinals-Astros games, resulted in the most exciting day in the 100+ year history of the Major League Baseball regular season.  Four games completely flipped the postseason landscape within just a handful of hours:

Cardinals at Astros

The first game of the four to finish (although the last one to start), this was also the least exciting.  Coming into the evening, the Braves and Cardinals were tied in the NL Wild Card race, this after the Braves led said race by 8.5 games on September 5.  The Cardinals wrecked Brett Myers early and the Astros didn't stand a chance against a dominating Chris Carpenter, who threw a complete-game shutout, allowing only two hits.  This gave the Cardinals a half-game lead in the Wild Card at the moment, meaning the Braves had to win to force a one-game tiebreaker to be played at Busch Stadium the night after.  The Braves were hosting their division rival Phillies in this must-win.



Phillies at Braves

A two-run homer by Dan Uggla gave the Braves an early lead, but their young closer couldn't hold on in the 9th.  Craig Kimbrel, who struck out 14.8 batters per nine innings on the season, holding a 2.00 ERA and leading the National League with 46 saves, allowed the Phillies to rally in the 9th to score the tying run.  An intense, nerve-wracking extra inning battle pursued.  The Braves were forced to bring in Scott Linebrink in the 13th and Linebrink gave up the go-ahead and winning run on a single to Hunter Pence.  The Braves got a man on base in the bottom half, but rookie sensation Freddie Freeman grounded into a season-ending double play.  I think the slam of his helmet upon grounding out was an emotional reaction that spoke for the entire team.

Red Sox at Orioles

On September 6, the Sox were a full 8.0 games ahead of Tampa for the wild card, a lead which has disappeared as both teams entered the night tied as well.  The Red Sox were also in major panic mode Wednesday, but they came out in the game as cool and composed.  They fell behind early, but Josh Beckett calmed down and Dustin Pedroia and the others rallied to tie the game 3-3, then take the lead.  A rain delay slowed the game time considerably, but the game resumed with the Red Sox jumping on the O's for more runs.  A great throw to the plate, however, would ensure the Orioles stayed within one.  In the bottom of the 9th, it was up to a cast of unsung heroes to take down The Nation.  Nolan Reimold doubled in the tying run and Robert Andino knocked in the winning run, giving Jonathan Papelbon just his third blown save of the entire season!  In fact, it was just two years ago that a dominating Papelbon blew the save in Game 3 of the ALDS to allow the Angels to sweep the Red Sox.  Papelbon does well under pressure, but evidently not under playoff pressure.  The win really didn't mean anything for the well-out-of-contention Orioles, but they celebrated like they had just won the wild card.

Yankees at Rays

The stars seemed to be aligned for the Rays to at least force a tiebreaker with Boston as the Rays started their stud David Price to go against a rookie Yankee who wasn't expected to pitch very long.  Not even an unrealistic, overexaggerated Hollywood script could push through the plot that would unfold after that.  Price couldn't have had a worse start, giving up a grand slam to Mark Teixeira in the 2nd inning as part of a 7-0 Yankees lead.  With that early lead for the Red Sox in Baltimore, all seemed to be well for the Sox.  The Rays scrapped together a few runs before Evan Longoria hit a three-run homer to bring the Rays within one and fans all around the nation were shocked.  With two strikes and two outs in the 9th on Dan Johnson, he hit a most improbable game-tying home run that, at the time, appeared to save the Rays from elimination.  The game would drag on to the 12th, when the game in Baltimore went final.  Fans at the Tropicana Dome erupted into cheer when the scoreboard displayed the score.  Then, of course, they cheered for Evan Longoria's walk-off homer to win the AL Wild Card just three minutes later!  And just like that, the underdog Rays had completed the impossible.

What a great night for baseball.  I thought the ending of the NL Wild Card race was exciting enough; I had no idea what was in store in the AL.  Incredibly, the NL results were totally overshadowed by the epic Rays-Red Sox battle that went late into the night thanks to extra innings and rain delays.  The combination of the two races finishing on the same day, with both underdogs completing the impossible, makes this the best day in MLB regular season history.

I actually came up with a cheesy moniker for this string of unbelievable occurrences, Moneyball 2.0.  It fits perfectly with that movie being the talk of the entertainment world this week.  But it actually does make sense, in that the $161 million Boston Red Sox and their fan 'nation' and their disproportionate ESPN coverage were beaten by the $41 million Tampa Bay Rays and their...domed stadium....  This comeback is great for baseball everywhere.  No matter how ESPN frames the Red Sox on a daily basis, the fact is that most of the country was yearning to watch them fall.  This is further evidence (as if I need any more) that America roots for the underdog.  Don't believe me?  See: Miami Heat.   

Crosstown Showdown: White Sox 4, Cubs 3

Alfonso Soriano steals his first base of the season,
beating the tag from shorstop Alexei Ramirez

Peavy returns from DL, wins despite ineffective start

CWS leads 2-1

It was yet another one-run loss for the Cubs, who have lost in this fashion in three of their last four losses.  A comeback attempt for the third straight game fell short and the Cubs dropped their second in a row.

The Sox got their first two runs off Doug Davis in the fourth when A.J. Pierzynski tripled home two runs.  The Sox also got a third run in the inning from a squeeze play by utility man Brent Lillibridge.  This play represents the Sox' best attempt to play smallball.  But the truth is that such a play wasn't even necessary in that situation, especially considering Lillibridge's knack for clutch plays this season.

A Starlin Castro RBI single put the Cubs on the board, but the Sox got an insurance run just a half-inning later thanks to an error by trippin' second baseman Blake DeWitt.  Of course, Davis could have prevented the run from scoring by not hitting Lillibridge with a pitch, but the bottom line is the inning should have already been over.

Incredibly, Carlos Pena hit his third homer in as many days, as if competing head-on with counterpart Paul Konerko, who actually didn't homer in this game to end his consecutive-game-with-homer streak at five.  Pena has gathered respect from all of his teammates as the calming influence as well as the defensive leader of this team, and it's great to see him catch fire offensively, too.

Jeff Baker redeemed himself for his big strikeout last night and singled home a run in the rally that knocked Peavy out of the game in the 6th.  Unlike the night before, the Cubs were very patient with Peavy, who had serious trouble locating his breaking pitches and gave Pierzynski a workout behind the plate.  His slider was all over the place, including bouncing in the dirt.  Much of Peavy's success in his career can be attributed to the fact that everything he throws, from his running fastball to his changeup to his slider, is hard, hard, and harder.  He's got a 'hot' heater and a power slider, a lethal and winning combination.  But when he loses control, everything kind of flies off the end.  The result: 104 pitches and 10 baserunners allowed through only 5.1 innings.

The Cubs bullpen was absolutely perfect on this night, throwing three innings and striking out four while allowing no baserunners between rookie Chris Carpenter, Jeff Samardzija, and Sean Marshall.  Unfortunately, the Sox bullpen almost equally as good.  Sox closer Sergio Santos has a save in each of the last two games; he has thrown a total of 26 pitches between the two games, including only three balls, no baserunners, and five strikeouts.  This, this is the definition of dominance out of the 'pen.

Overall, this was a very entertaining series, with intriguing battles between the first basemen and Ozzie Guillen and Geovany Soto's catcher's mask.  The Cubs lost two of three but now head to Kansas City for a weekend series against the Royals who are only one game better than the Cubs record-wise.  They're also only 20-21 at Kauffman Stadium and have the bottom end of their starting rotation going, so the Cubs could capitalize.  After all, the Cubs will finally be playing someone at their own level.


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Homestand Analysis: Milwaukee, NY Yankees

Record: 4-3Final Record:  29-42

Although the Yankees slowed down the Cubs in the last two games of this homestand, the Cubs overall played much better baseball, even in the losses.  Fans also arrived in sellout or near-sellout fashion on this homestand and the Cubs definitely benefited from it.  The Cubs are still only 16-22 at home, but their play at Wrigley could heat up with the weather and fans.  

A pumped Carlos Marmol pumps his fist
after getting the save Friday against the Yankees

Against Milwaukee, team chemistry was evident as the team came through with two clutch wins in a row.  Ryan Dempster shut down one of the top offenses in baseball in the Brewers' offense, and Darwin Barney scored the only run of the game in the first game and the Cubs won 1-0.  On Tuesday night, the Cubs trailed late but rallied and won 5-4 on Starlin Castro's walk-off single.  Although the Brewers took one on Wednesday, the Cubs offense came back and put on a show Thursday, scoring 12 including homers from Carlos Pena, Kosuke Fukudome, and Alfonso Soriano.  These three wins sent the first place Brewers to Boston having barely hung on to first, and shocked at these losses.

The Yankees came to town on Friday for the first time since 2003 and second since the 1938 World Series.  The rare matchup attracted national attention, just like the Cubs-Red Sox series in May.  And the series couldn't have begun any better for the Cubs, who put together their most complete win of the season in the opener with Doug Davis surprising everyone including himself in limiting the most powerful offense in the league to just one run over seven plus innings.  Early runs were put on the board, and Reed Johnson saved the day with an amazing diving catch robbing Robinson Cano of extra bases late.

However, the Cubs would lose tight games in the late innings on both Saturday and Sunday.  Perhaps the lack of being able to close these games is due to the fundamental difference between these teams.  The Yankees were just teetering on the edge of breaking the game wide open pretty much the entirety of Sunday night, it seemed.  Putting in rookie Chris Carpenter to face Nick Swisher with two men on in the 8th was just what the Yanks needed to finally come through.  Not the greatest call on Mike Quade's part.  Swisher homered for the first three of six runs that allowed the Yankees to pull away in the 8th and 9th inning on national TV.

Curtis Granderson follows through on an
extra-base hit late Sunday at Wrigley.

Overall, signs of progress have to be looked for from this homestand.  Although the Cubs should have won six instead of just four games, the last two games against the Yankees were no pieces of cake, either.  So the fact that the Cubs played competitively for most of the game is a good sign.

Attendance for the three game series totaled over 126,000, which set an all-time Wrigley record for attendance in a three game set, beating the previous record of almost 125,000 set in July 2007 against the Astros.  Friday and Saturday's attendance both were over 42,000, a mark that hasn't been reached since the 2007 and 2008 playoffs.  But Saturday's attendance, 42,236, surpasses all three of the home playoff games from those two seasons.  Because the bleacher expansion of 2006 added about 3,000 seats to the ballpark, that number also surpasses all of the 2003 playoff games.  This means that Saturday's attendance could be the largest in decades, although I don't know how many.

The improved play came just in time for the series with those evil White Sox, who lost the first game last night 6-3.  Watch for the next couple weeks to decide the season for the Cubs, who will need to determine trade deadline status soon.

Derrek Lee Postgame Video

Found this interesting postgame video with FOX interviewing Derrek Lee.  Why is it interesting?  This video is from the mid August trip to St. Louis, and this Saturday game was the second to last game Lee ever played for the Cubs.  He hit four homers on the weekend series in St. Louis including one off Chris Carpenter the day of this video.  He also hit two homers in his last Cubs game, as if he knew his days were numbered.

Opening Day Aces

13 games, 26 teams, 26 aces.  Those are some stats, but I have some much better: 1,922.  That is the total number of wins from today's Opening Day starters combined.  2,430 is the number of games in a season.  If 1,922 is about 4/5 of 2,430, imagine every game of last season excluding September.  All of those games have been won by one of these starters.  The leader of the group is Roy Halladay, whose 148 wins beats Derek Lowe's 141.  John Lannan of the Nationals has only 20 career wins, lowest on the list narrowly beating Yovani Gallardo's 22, Shawn Marcum's 24 and Scott Feldman's 24.

A few notable starters:
-Jon Garland, now the ace in San Diego, makes the Opening Day start.
-The A's hand the ball to Ben Sheets who hasn't pitched since 2008.
-The Indians give the start to Jake Westbrook who hasn't pitched since May 2008.
-Vicente Padilla starts for the ace-less Dodgers.

The matchups for today (bold games are the matchups I suggest watching):
All times CT, TV listings for Chicago area (if applicable)

Indians (Jake Westbrook)
at White Sox (Mark Buehrle)
1:05 PM  ESPN2, CSN

Phillies (Roy Halladay)
at Nationals (John Lannan)
12:05 PM

Marlins (Josh Johnson)
at Mets (Johan Santana)
12:10 PM

Cardinals (Chris Carpenter)
at Reds (Aaron Harang)
12:10 PM  ESPN

Dodgers (Vicente Padilla)
at Pirates (Zach Duke)
12:35 PM

Blue Jays (Shawn Marcum)
at Rangers (Scott Feldman)
1:05 PM

Tigers (Justin Verlander)
at Royals (Zack Greinke)
3:10 PM

Rockies (Ubaldo Jimenez)
at Brewers (Yovani Gallardo)
1:10 PM

Cubs (Carlos Zambrano)
at Braves (Derek Lowe)
3:10 PM  ESPN, WCIU

Padres (Jon Garland)
at D-Backs (Dan Haren)
4:10 PM

Giants (Tim Lincecum)
at Astros (Roy Oswalt)
6:05 PM  ESPN2

Twins (Scott Baker)
at Angels (Jered Weaver)
9:05 PM  ESPN2

Mariners (Felix Hernandez)
at A's (Ben Sheets)
9:05 PM