Dean Wormer checks in

4 comments May 24th, 2008

“Kerry Wood … four blown saves and a loss. Congratulations, Wood, you’re at the top of the NL Central closer pledge class.”

I did not know that

Add comment May 23rd, 2008

It’s great to quote Johnny Carson.

But back to my point. Thanks to the hitting abilities of Carlos Zambrano on Friday night during the Cubs’ 12-3 dismissal of the Pittsburgh Pirates, I was able to find out that the Cubs had actually acquired two former 20-game winners from the St. Louis Cardinals in June 1964.

To quote Inigo Montoya, “Let me ’splain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up.” Zambrano went4-for-5 to become the first Cubs pitcher since Lew Burdette on July 23, 1964, to have a four-hit game.

I didn’t even know Burdette, a World Series hero for the Milwaukee Braves, had even been a Cub.

Yet he was, dealt to the North Side by the St. Louis Cardinals for the immortal Glen Hobbie, about two weeks before the infamous Brock-for-Broglio trade.

The Right Stuff

Add comment May 23rd, 2008

Cubs give Kosuke Fukudome a night off and throw Mark DeRosa in RF. Lou Piniella gives Pirates lefty Zach Duke an all right-handed hitting lineup, including switch-hitting P Carlos Zambrano.

I’ve heard lefties can better find their rhythm when they’re not worried about going back between LH and RH hitters. We shall see.

History: Just repeat it now

Add comment May 22nd, 2008

Can Chicago Cubs GM Jim Hendry just cut to the chase and trade Felix Pie to the St. Louis Cardinals for whatever sore-armed former 20-game winner they want to deal?

Chris Carpenter (21-5 for the 2005 Redbirds) or Mark Mulder (21-8 with the 2001 Oakland A’s) can easily fill the Ernie Broglio role. Pie, of course, couldn’t wear No. 20 for St. Louis since it’s been retired for the CF dealt there in 1964.

Well, at least if 1964 is repeating itself, the Beatles should be around any minute.

So far, so bad

Add comment May 22nd, 2008

Tony Garcia and I expressed our concerns about the Cubs signing Jim Edmonds and so far Edmonds has done little to relieve our concerns.

As a Cub, he’s hitting .133 (2 for 15) to bring his season’s average to .171.

Sure, he made a nice catch in Houston the other night, but Reed Johnson and Felix Pie have made catches just as good if not better this season.

Edmonds came cheap and perhaps the Cubs are getting what they paid for. How patient do you think the Cubs should be when Andres Torres is hitting .326 with an on-base percentage of .424 for Triple-A Iowa? The team could give Torres a shot while Pie tries to work out his hitting problems in the minors. He’s only 1-for-23- since being sent down.

No. 2 for No. 1

Add comment May 21st, 2008

Kosuke Fukudome is moved to the second spot in the lineup for Wednesday’s game vs. the Astros as Soriano gets the night off.

Some say this is the ideal spot for Kosuke in the Cubs lineup.

Cubs the best, Part II

Add comment May 20th, 2008

 The Cubs have been, far and away, the most impressive team in the National League. Chicago (28-17) is one-half game behind Arizona (28-16) for the best record in baseball, but has played a far tougher schedule. A fan who disagrees said Arizona’s 20-5 division record against the pathetically weak NL West is more important because “the goal is to win your division.” Well, yes, but the argument here isn’t who is more likely to win their division; that would be Arizona because of the aforementioned pathetically weak NL West. The question is who is better? Think of it like the Associated Press college football poll. An 11-0 team from the Big Ten will get more votes than an 11-0 team from the MAC. Arizona is 8-11 against teams outside its division — including 0-3 against the Cubs. That .421 winning percentage would put Arizona dead LAST in the NL Central. The Cubs, you may have heard, are FIRST in that division. The Cubs are 16-11 in their division and 12-6 against everyone else. In other words, the Cubs beat everybody; the Diamondbacks pick only on the weak.

More proof of the Cubs’ dominance: Chicago has outscored its foes by a Major League-high 84 runs. Arizona is next, at plus-56 runs. The Red Sox are a distant third at plus-37 runs. And, again, the Cubs are doing this against the best teams in the National League. The NL Central, as a whole, is a plus 46 in runs scored. The NL West is minus-93 runs. Yes, I said, a minus-93 runs. The NL West is on its way to being just about the worst division in baseball history. Arizona is the Rutgers or Boise State of baseball right now: Talk to me when you beat somebody good. Until then, all hail the Cubs! 

Why bring up another right-hander?

Add comment May 20th, 2008

If I could ask Jim Hendry or Lou Piniella a question today, it would be why they’re bringing up right-handed Jose Ascanio from Triple-A Iowa to replace the injured Chad Fox instead of a lefty like Neal Cotts.

The Cubs have only one lefty in the bullpen, Scott Eyre, and only one in the rotation, Ted Lilly. Cotts is 2-0, has one save and has an ERA of 2.22. Cotts has major league experience and was a key pitcher during the White Sox championship run.

He hasn’t given up a homer this year and his control looks like it’s been good. He has 28 strikeouts vs. only 9 walks.

Ascanio has pitched well also (1-0, 9 saves, 2,08 ERA), but it seems to me the Cubs would be better off with a lefty than another hard-throwing right-hander.

On Soriano, Ramirez and boos

Add comment May 19th, 2008

It seems ridiculous that only two weeks ago some Cubs fans were saying Chicago would be better without Alfonso Soriano. They were angry about Soriano batting leadoff, angry about him swinging at bad pitches, angry about his defense and angry that he didn’t take more walks. Cubs fans have also vented often at Aramis Ramirez over the years whenever he’s gone into a slump. They even blamed him when he had a career-high 38 HRs and 119 RBIs in 2006 because he played poorly when Derrek Lee first went out with an injury and many fans — and media — said he didn’t step up when he was needed and padded on meaningless stats when the Cubs were out of the race. (Well, the AL MVP that year had an even worse start and so did his team, yet Justin Morneau — whose stats were no better than Ramirez’s  — and the Twins recovered to win 96 games and their division, so if the Twins weren’t out of the race in June, then neither were the Cubs — if someone besides Ramirez had started to hit later on.)

Anyway, the point here is it never — or almost never — seems right to boo Soriano and Ramirez. If you don’t want a wild swinger, you don’t trade for him. Soriano has played this way for 10 years. As long as he continues to hit 35-40 homers, fans need to live with his faults. Ditto for slumps and occasional lack of hustle by Aramis Ramirez. Last year, when the Indians took a 3 games to 1 lead over the Red Sox in the ALCS, a Cleveland-area columnist wrote about how he would never want Manny Ramirez on his team and that the Indians were glad to not have a problem child like Manny and have so many boy scout-types. Well, I’d love to have Manny Ramirez on my team, even with his Manny Being Manny antics. And he showed Boston why, as the Red Sox came back to win their second World Series with Manny. Cleveland, by the way, has been to two World Series in 60 years, both with Manny, zero without. It’s like the Bulls putting up with grief from Dennis Rodman. Or even Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson and Larry Bird over ruling their coaches in timeouts. You have slightly different rules for superstars. Their talent makes it worth it. You can boo a Felix Pie or (on the Southside) a Juan Uribe for swinging at stupid pitches. But not Alfonso Soriano. That’s not a double standard; Soriano has proven his way works. The other two have proven it doesn’t work for them. Or at least haven’t proven that it does.

I don’t believe in booing any player on my own team unless they aren’t very good and it appears they aren’t very good because of their own fault. Call it the Uribe rule. Or the Cade McNown rule. But if Rex Grossman throws an interception, I wouldn’t boo Grossman; at this point, he is what he is. You can’t expect him to be Peyton Manning or Tom Brady. If I did boo, I’d be booing Lovie Smith and Ron Turner for playing the wrong quarterback, not the quarterback for being the wrong guy.

 That said, former Cubs who deserved to be booed were players who complained about Steve Stone, Sammy Sosa during his final self-indulgent season and pouty, swing-from-his-heels Cory Patterson. But this team has no player who acts like a jerk or underperforms because of his own stubborness. Aramis Ramirez has averaged .305 with 33 HRs and 104 RBIs in his four seasons in Chicago and helped the Cubs win the division twice. Soriano set a team record for home runs in September to help the Cubs come from behind and win the NL Central last year. The Cubs have been the best team in the NL Central ever since they signed Soriano. Neither deserves to be booed, with the possible exception of after occasional defensive lapses. But even then, Soriano deserves leeway, because he’s a converted second baseman.

Cubs are the best

Add comment May 19th, 2008

Received a couple of negative e-mails for calling the Cubs the best team in the National League in Sunday’s Quick Shots. Some people seem to think Arizona is better, even though the Cubs swept the Diamondbacks not long ago. Sorry, I like the Cubs better — a lot better. I’d be more worried about the Mets in the long run than the Diamondbacks, who have a couple of dominant pitchers but don’t have the hitting to bang with Chicago. Only three of the eight Arizona hitters with 100 at-bats are batting over .280; six of eight Cubs are above that mark and a seventh — Aramis Ramirez — is at .274 and has averaged .305 the last four years. He’ll be above .280 very soon. Arizona’s No. 2 RBI guy — Mark Reynolds — is hitting .233. And, unlike Ramirez, he doesn’t have a track record; 24 career homers and a .266 career average. Arizona leadoff hitter Chris Young is batting .254 with 49 strikeouts and only three stolen bases. The Cubs have an above-average hitter — often far above average — at ever position except center field, where Reed Johnson is batting .256. I guess that’s why Chicago took a longshot and signed Jim Edmonds. No, Edmonds is unlikely to be the answer, but Felix Pie still might be. Pie has always hit a ton in the minors. And Reed Johnson isn’t horrible; he’s a career .279 hitter. And, even if the Cubs never quite solve center field, they don’t really have to, with seven other sluggers in the lineup. Make that eight whenever Carlos Zambrano pitches.