Treading Water

After the first two and a half weeks of baseball, the Cubs seem to be putting forth about the amount of success as last year's group.  With today's loss to the Rockies, the Cubs fall back under .500 again to 7-8, but now return home for a nice nine-game homestand.  Pitching has not been a great strength of the Cubs, and the rotation especially has underperformed quite a bit.  Carlos Zambrano, Matt Garza, and Ryan Dempster have all not pitched well really at all this season.  The injuries to Randy Wells and Andrew Cashner have hurt as well as James Russell was slammed his first start and Casey Coleman has had mixed results.

The bullpen, not including today's performance by Marcos Mateo, has been very good in general.  Carlos Marmol thankfully hasn't thrown out his shoulder yet (knock on wood), which is a concern I have for him just about every time he throws the baseball.  But the rotation has the Cubs playing more high-scoring games than usual.  The Cubs offense has scored 4.5 runs per game this season, and that should be enough to win with the rotation we have.  But Dempster, Zambrano, and Garza have ERAs of 6.30, 6.11, and 6.27, respectively.  Come on now guys, that's no way to run a railroad.

But the offense cannot go unnoticed.  Although they are averaging 4.5 runs a game which is near league average and only a bit above the 4.2 from last year, the Cubs are fourth in MLB in batting average, and fifth in hits.  We can owe plenty of those hits to a certain Starlin Castro, who as of Sunday night led baseball in hits with 28.  In my wanna-be highly-educated fan opinion, Castro is unbelievable.  Watching him out there is like watching a 12-year-old in park district game.  He just comes to play the game and nothing else, just trying to have fun.  It almost seems like he doesn't even feel the pressures and expectations of playing in the bigs, not to mention with all of the hype around him and the Cubs as a franchise and Chicago as a city.  Today watching the Cubs-Rockies game, I watched him bend over the plate to go get a ball well off the plate and ground it to Todd Helton at first base.  Len Kasper picked up on his anger with himself over becoming overanxious on the broadcast.  And after the inning ended and the camera was on him right before commercial, he swung up his helmet as if he was about to slam it in frustration.  This from a guy with a .418 batting average, four hits just the night before, and Chicago status as a fan favorite.

Although fielding has been an issue with this team so far as well, there's been an improvement over last year's performance and Castro has gotten much better so far, making better plays quicker despite two errors.  Basically, this team is waiting on the starting pitching.  It's not time to sound the alarm on the Garza trade yet, but he should know that that is exactly what will happen unless he starts putting up numbers and soon.  The poor performances from Zambrano and Dempster are surprising, to be honest, despite all the Zambrano haters who may have correctly pegged his successful comeback last season as a fluke.  Dempster's success seemed too easy last season, and it's finally catching up to him.  So far I've seen a whole bunch of - to use a Bob Brenly term here meaning a slider that spins but doesn't move hardly at all - cement mixers in the low 80s left high in the zone, right where hitters can get at them.  Hopefully he'll improve, because we need it.

NOTE: There's been some confusion on the results of the quiz giveaway from a few weeks ago.  I apologize for not making this clearer, but if you did win the free app then they would have replied in an email with the code to get the app free.  If you did not get this email, unfortunately you didn't win.  Thanks to all participants, I have deemed this partnership a success.  There may be future similar opportunities, so stay tuned.

"Oh, Boy"

"Ronnie will forever be the heart and soul of Cubs fans," said Cubs chairman Tom Ricketts Friday.  The passing of Ron Santo late last week means so much more than the death of a radio broadcaster.  It means so much more than a former Cubs player.  It means more than even his fantastic career and retired jersey flag flying among the retired numbers on the foul pole.  It means the loss of the spirit and character that embodies the franchise unlike any other in sports, the Chicago Cubs.  Ron Santo was, undisputedly, the world's biggest Cub fan.  The legendary Ernie Banks, Mr. Cub, doesn't even have that title.  This embodying spirit could be heard on WGN Radio between 1990 and 2010, and while he wasn't going to win any broadcasting excellence awards, this is exactly what made him so popular with Cub fans.  After a big home run or big play late in a game, Ron would often simply call out, "YES!  YES!  Alright!"  These words flowed into the heart of the listening Cub fans, and soon enough Ronnie became their voice as a fan.  After a bad play or important homer for the opposing team, Ronnie might go, "Oh, boy.  Oh, man."  And that would be it, leaving an undeniable signature silence on the air until play-by-play man Pat Hughes broke the silence.  Sometimes, Santo would provide the background fan commentary while Hughes was calling a play.  For example, Hughes would say something like this, "The 2-2.  And there's a high fly ball, at the track is Soriano and this ball is gone, a home run for Albert Pujols and the Cardinals have the lead," and Ronnie would repeat his line at the same time, like a heartbroken kid, "Oh no, Pat.  Oh, boy.  Not good. Not good."  One of Santo's most famous calls, in a crucial game down the 1998 stretch for the playoffs at Milwaukee, Cubs left fielder Brant Brown dropped a routine fly ball that cost the Cubs the game, a game they needed to have which prompted Ronnie to scream, "NO!!! NO!!!" Santo took losses harder than the players.

As time passed, especially in the 2000s, Santo's declining health became a factor in his job, or at least it should have.  Eventually he lost both his legs but didn't want to stop following the Cubs.  Santo never complained to anybody about his injuries, not until a certain announcement from his doctor.  Ron was told, sometime in the late 2000s, that he should not be traveling with the Cubs on each road trip, and that for some he should stay home.  Trying to separate the Cubs and Santo was like trying to separate a positive and negative end of a magnet, possible but very resisting.  Cubs TV play-by-play announcer Len Kasper told the media he was often wondering, with all the traumatic and disabling diseases he suffered over the years, "How does he do it?  How does he do it?"  In 2010, Santo was asked if he planned on returning for radio broadcasting in 2011.  He replied, "What else am I going to do?  Doing the Cubs games is like therapy for me."

Ron Santo wasn't elected to the Hall of Fame.  He is not a member of it, and never will be by the rules of induction to the Hall.  However, he's not taking it too hard.  In his speech in 2003 when his jersey was retired by the Cubs, he made something clear to Cub fans.  I thought you had to be in the Hall of Fame to get that done, Santo explained pointing at his flag on the foul pole.  He went on to explain that he didn't care about the Hall of Fame as much as having his jersey retired by the Cubs and that meant that much more to him.

Unfortunately, Santo wasn't able to see the day when the Cubs will break their well-publicized streak of championship-less seasons come to an end, but who knows when that will be.  It's entirely possible that no one reading this right now will see the Cubs do it.  It's even possible that your grandchildren won't see that day.  But for Santo and Cub fans, that's not what is most important.  The Chicago Cubs, a team like no other, would not be everything that it is today without Ronnie.  Ron Santo, without debate in my mind, is the most important person in the history of the Cubs, the eternal face of the franchise.  Without Santo, there would've been less identity to putting on the Cubbie pinstripes.  Without Santo, the Cubs would be missing a huge, heart-warming peace of their history.  Most importantly, they'd be missing an excellent guy who always put others first, but above all wanted to see nothing more than his beloved team win.  Thanks, Ron.        

Why Bob Brenly Should Be the Next Cubs Manager

Bob Brenly was hired as the Cubs TV Color Commentator prior to the 2005 season and the most impressive spot on his resume that included stints as a player and manager was his 2001 World Series Champioship with the Arizona Diamondbacks.  He was a lifetime .247 hitter as a catcher in a nine year Major League career.  In his prime years, between 1984 and 1987, he hit .257 with 73 HR, 249 RBI, and 27 SB.  He was hired as a baseball analyst for Fox between 1996 and 2000, when he replaced Buck Showalter as Diamondbacks manager.  He went 303-262 as manager with two postseason appearances in three and a half years (he was fired after a 29-50 start to 2004).  After being replaced by Al Pedrique, he was hired the next season as Cubs TV color commentator to work with Len Kasper who had also just been hired.  Since then, Brenly has done a fantastic job in the broadcast booth speaking like a true baseball person.

There is lots of competition for this job, and yes I will get around all of them.  The list includes: Joe Girardi, Ryne Sandberg, Fredi Gonzalez, Joe Torre, and Brenly.  Girardi won NL Manager of the Year honors with the 2006 Marlins only to be fired the offseason following.  He became Yankees manager in 2008 and won the World Series his second year, leading those Yankees to yet another title.  Sandberg, a Hall of Famer for his amazing play at Wrigley in the 1980s and 90s, is currently managing the AAA Iowa Cubs after managing the Peoria Chiefs.  Just like the minor leaguers on his team, he is hoping for the call up to the show once again.  Gonzalez, highly respected in the baseball world for his admirable job managing the perennially underrated Marlins squad, has gone somewhat under the radar in this search.  While Lou Piniella retires likely to remain at 14th on the all-time wins leaderboard among managers, Torre ranks 4th all-time with 2,299 including 1,173 with the Yankees where he won six AL pennants and four World Series titles.  Currently managing the Dodgers, he has decided not to return to LA for 2011.

First, before I knock everyone else out, I need to sneak in a note about Ryne Sandberg.  Sandberg would be a fantastic Cubs manager.  His managing down on the farm is reportedly very good and not just a courtesy to a former great who wanted a shot at managing.  He is a hard-nosed baseball dude, and he played here and understands what that means as a member of the organization.  This is no small market club, and he truly believes he is capable of handling and succeeding at this job (http://sports.espn.go.com/chicago/mlb/news/story?id=5398569), and Cub fans should believe in him.  If Bob Brenly isn't the Cubs manager for 2011, Ryne Sandberg is.  At least in my mind.

Brenly is my choice.  And here is why.  To become a great manager right away, instead of getting yourself settled for an entire year and figuring out everything on the job, you need to be familiar with everyone involved.  Brenly has been a part of this organization intensely since 2005, and knows everyone within it.  As a commentator, he is the guy who knows all of the stats about the Cubs strengths and weaknesses.  He knows what the fans are like.  He knows the players.  He knows the staff.  He knows how to manage.  He wears a World Series ring around.  He could make an immediate impact because he knows this club inside and out.  No other candidate can say that.

Lights Out Performance by Tom Gorzelanny

On Wednesday against the Dodgers, Tom Gorzelanny got rocked by the Dodgers who ended up winning 8-5, their only win and only runs in the series.  However, Gorzelanny performed lights out.  Literally.  A power outage in the top of the 4th inning delayed play for 18 minutes due to an electrical fire that triggered a shut down of a certain power grid, including Wrigley Field.  The power failure, the third at Wrigley Field during a night game (when it actually matters) before two games against the Brewers in 2003 in separate series, was received with the following call by Len Kasper from the WGN TV booth: "...excellent week weatherwise for this homestand against the Dodgers and Cardinals and...the lights are going out...and they've all gone out!  A power outage here at Wrigley Field.  As DeWitt took the walk some of the lights went out, then pretty much all of them did.  There are about-as I can see-eight or nine lights bulbs that are still actually working.  And we see more light from the cameras taking pictures, I don't ever recall a power outage at Wrigley Field."  Len Kasper and Bob Brenly did great improv work as always with unexpected circumstances.

Blake DeWitt, at the plate with a 3-1 count at the time of the outage, took ball four while the lights were going out.  Gorzelanny was disappointed but took what he got.  "The lights went out during the pitch," Gorzelanny said. "It's kind of brutal. You're in the middle of a pitch. The guy ends up walking. There's nothing you can do about it. I begged for the pitch back, but they wouldn't give it to me.  The good thing about that was I actually did well the rest of the inning," he said. "It's one of the uncontrollable things that ballparks do to you."

DeWitt couldn't see the ball after seeing some flash of light and took his eye off it, luckily it was ball four.  "Thinking back, I wish I had hit a pop up," DeWitt said. "It would've been a good time. I would've had an inside the park home run in the dark."  However, the Cubs players were a little worried and confused.  An inside-the-park home run pop up might have been too hard to deal with for some of the players.  Ryan Theriot was asked what he was thinking at the time of the outage.

"Get the heck out and get off the field as soon as I could," Theriot said. "That was a little scary. I didn't know what was going on."

"It was a little crazy," Alfonso Soriano stated.  The Cubs went on to lose 8-5, but shut out the Dodgers in the other two games of the series in impressive fashion 3-0 and 1-0.  Randy Wells didn't record an out through six batters against the Cardinals on Friday, and was promptly yanked after giving up five runs.  James Russell pitched four impressive scoreless innings after that, but the offense could only muster a pinch-hit solo shot from Tyler Colvin, losing 7-1.  Carlos Silva looks to go 7-0 against new guy Adam Ottavino at 3:10 this afternoon on FOX.