Two Chances, Two Chokes

The game-tying runs allowed in the 8th inning
of the first two games of the season
were allowed by a frustrated Kerry Wood.

Is this the new "Cubs Way" of playing baseball?!  Let's hope not.

You've heard about it all winter.  'Sustained success', 'the right way', 'development', and 'building from within' are just a few phrases that have highlighted a winter of change for the Chicago Cubs.  It may all just be empty talk, but the new Cubs brass even put it in writing with their fundamentals manual, The Cubs Way, which is being distributed throughout the Cubs minor league system.  The effort looks to standardize the way in which prospects are being taught the game throughout all levels of the Cubs system to maximize potential of all prospects and maintaining disciplinary consistency.  However, if the young prospects want to see for their own eyes how the game is played correctly, they ought to stay away from Wrigley Field.  If the first two days are any indication, the major league Cubs will struggle to avoid lines of hypocrisy in 2012.  

Hopefully this will not be the case.  Clearly Dale Sveum was more equipped with the leadership and motivation tools to start his full-time managerial career than Mike Quade was a year ago, and these qualities showed in Spring Training.  So far he has gotten the team much more involved in working on simple yet overlooked fundamentals, including baserunning drills which declared exactly which part of the base the Cubs are supposed to hit when rounding them.  He also got some competition going on to get players more involved. 

Casey Coleman and David DeJesus may not win an award of any type during the rest of either of their careers, but the two gained immediate team respect as they faced off in the final round of the 64-participant bunting tournament in camp.  Coleman swept his way through the pitchers' bracket, while DeJesus did the same in the position players' bracket.  DeJesus ended up winning, but the major reward from this exercise was a sense of accomplishment coming from a fundamental the Cubs needed work on.  

"You're already making me look bad out here.
Vamonos ahora."

After all, these are athletes; they appreciate any added competition to spice things up.  Before it all got started, Tony Campana proclaimed himself as a favorite to win the entire tournament.  He was eliminated in the first round.

The added concentration paid off, as the Cubs brought a winning Spring Training record home with them.  However, the results did not show at all in the first two games of the regular season.  

In the home opener Thursday against the Washington Nationals, Ryan Dempster was finishing up a gem of a performance when he was abruptly yanked with one out to get in the 8th and Ian Desmond on first base.  Enter fan favorite Kerry Wood to hold the 1-0 lead.  A host of problems followed.  Desmond stole second.  Wood walked the next batter, Ryan Zimmerman.  A wild pitch moved Desmond to third and Zimmerman to second.  Wood walks another batter, Adam LaRoche.  After a mound visit, Wood loses another batter in Jayson Werth, whose base on balls forced in the tying run.  

Three consecutive walks spelled doom in the form of lost momentum in this ball game.  Dempster had been living dangerously all day by using the homer-unfriendly winds in his favor, but at least he had controlled the base on balls.  Wood lost it.  Not surprisingly, Carlos Marmol didn't make things any better.  After getting two quick outs in a now-tied ball game in 9th, Marmol allowed a double to Chad Tracy and a go-ahead single to Desmond, scoring Tracy's pinch-runner.  The Nationals took the lead for good.

Don't let the hollering fool you.  The Cubs beat
themselves more than the Nationals beat the Cubs.

A day off on Friday gave the team an entire day to stew about blowing the Opening Day not only of 2012, but of the Theo era.  Apparently it got in their heads, because Saturday's game was hardly any better.  The Cubs again held the Nationals down for most of the game until the 8th in a 4-2 game, when Mr. Wood got the first two outs before allowing a solo homer to Danny Espinosa, bringing the deficit down to one.  Then Zimmerman singled, then LaRoche singled, and then Wood was yanked to avoid further damage.  Who was brought in to replace him?  Marmol.  Remember, this is still all with two outs.  Marmol walks Werth, loading the bases.  Finally, Tracy puts the Cubs out of their misery and sucks the life out of the stadium with a two-run go-ahead single.  

These three rallies - two of them when the Nationals were batting with two outs - are pretty much the trademark of the last year's team.  The bullpen was a strength last year, but the hovering frustration of a lack of focus was the most bothersome aspect of last year's team.  Wood immediately took the blame for blowing Opening Day and cited zero excuses, but then it happened again.  We love ya, Kerry, but that's not gonna get 'er done.  Whether it was keeping their eyes on the ball or throwing to the right base, the Cubs lacked in baseball mental fitness last year.  The new management regime made this their primary goal in the offseason, but the early results have disappointed.  Let's hope this doesn't become a trend.

    

Homestand Wrapup: Pittsburgh, Cincinnati

Record: 2-5
Final Record: 35-47
Games Behind First: 11.5 GB

Wrigley Field isn't an advantage for anything these days.  The Cubs' home record fell to 20-23 after a very poor homestand.  The Cubs should've won two of three against the Pirates and two of four against the Reds, but they can never beat the teams they're supposed to and also can't beat the teams better than them.  The evil Pirates who probably now have destroying the Cubs as their only achievement this season, came to Wrigley Monday night.  Alfonso Soriano hit a home run for the Cubs only scoring, and Jose Tabata hit a go-ahead double in the top of the 9th to win it 2-1.  Soriano went deep two more times the next day but the Cubs only managed three runs.  Luckily, Ted Lilly was on his game and the Cubs snuck out a 3-1 win.  Wednesday was a game we would've had if it wasn't our defense failing us for the millionth time.  This time it was Aramis Ramirez in the top of the 8th, after a pitching duel between Tom Gorzelanny and Brad Lincoln in a 0-0 game.  An error putting on Andy LaRoche haunted the Cubs after Garrett Jones doubled to center to score him and later Sean Marshall walked in a run.  2-0.

The Cincinnati Reds came to town feeling pretty confident.  Behind the young superstars Joey Votto, Jay Bruce, Mike Leake and Drew Stubbs as well as the veterans Orlando Cabrera, Scott Rolen, and Bronson Arroyo, they were in first place heading into this series.  Soriano said before the series, "If we lose three, it could get ugly."  It's going to get ugly now, as the Cubs only put up a fight in two of the games and only won one.  On Thursday Tyler Colvin hit a clutch two-run single in the 8th to tie the game at two, but Drew Stubbs knocked in the go-ahead run in the 10th and the Reds won it in extras.  The Reds also won Saturday, 12-0 and for the Cubs there was literally nothing to report.  Brian Schlitter gave up five.  Yay.  Soriano hit an RBI single and Geovany Soto hit a two-run double in a three-run sixth in a 3-1 win Saturday, with Randy Wells pitching maybe his best game of the year.  It's been a struggle for the guy this season, so it was nice to see him pitch well and against a good team.  There were nine homers hit on Sunday.  Nine!  The Cubs' two were both from impressive Tyler Colvin, but the Cubs were blown out badly 14-3 from the Reds homers by Jonny Gomes, Paul Janish, Corky Miller, Brandon Phillips, Drew Stubbs, Drew Stubbs, and Drew Stubbs.  Stubbs surprisingly hit three homers although he is not necessarily known for his power.

Because of my busy week the last week, I didn't watch an out in a game of this homestand.  The week long drought was the longest since I became a Cubs fan on a day-to-day basis in mid 2006.  If you have something else to do with your spare time, right now I suggest you do so.  Watching this stuff is depressing.  Monday's game was promising in Arizona, but that doesn't mean anything anymore.  The problem I have with this team is that there are no strong spots.  We are bad against lefties, bad against righties.  Bad at home, bad on the road.  Bad in April, bad in May, bad in June, bad in July.  We aren't constantly getting swept and then sweeping other teams, but rather we are consistently bad against all.  We lose so many series that you wonder if there is ever a bright spot for this team.  I would feel that we are much stronger if we were streaky and won five in a row to lose five in a row right after because there is a good chance that sometime they could continue the winning formula over the rest of the season.  But no, this year we are just boring and losing.