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Christian Ruzich's Archives
2008 Ex-Cub Factor Update
Here is this year's Ex-Cub Factor update:
Philadelphia Phillies: 3 -- Scott Eyre, Jamie Moyer, Matt Stairs
Milwaukee Brewers: 1 -- Jason Kendall
Chicago Cubs: None
Los Angeles Dodgers: 3 -- Nomar Garciaparra, Greg Maddux, Juan Pierre
Chicago White Sox: None
Tampa Bay Rays: 1 -- Cliff Floyd
Boston Red Sox: None
Los Angeles Angels Etc.: 2 -- Gary Matthews Jr., Justin Speier
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Living On a What, Now?
After yesterday's heart-ripper-outer of a game, the Cubs have lost seven of
eight for the first time since last June. They still have a four-game division
lead and an 84.5% chance
of winning the division, thanks to the Brewers losing five of their
last seven, so things are not actually as bleak as they may seem.
(And yes, the chances of them missing the playoffs entirely are very, very small. But we're not discussing that. Yet.).
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Chicago Re-Acquires Aging Writer
In a move that will surely change the landscape of Cubs blogging, one-time TCR writer Christian Ruzich announced that he was moving back to Chicago. A new job has necessitated a call-up from the minor leagues (Harrisburg, PA), and Ruzich and his family should be back in the city before the playoff roster deadline.
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Batting Stances
Apologies if this is 3/44 -- Cubs batting stances, past and present:
This guy has a whole series of batting stance videos up. A nice diversion on a day off.
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Don't Quit Your Day Job, Carlos
From a link on the new blog by Paul DePodesta (really), here's Carlos Zambrano helping out "career minor leaguer Ron Stilanovich" and his Hardball video series.
Lesson #19: Taking One For the Team
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Micah Owings In Context
The Cubs catch a break this weekend, as the Diamondbacks come through town and the Cubs don't have to face two of their best pitchers. Brandon Webb pitched last night, and with all due respect to today's starter Danny Haren, the Cubs have to be happy to miss Micah Owings as well.
Even though Owings isn't pitching, though, we still might see him in the series. He's gotten quite a bit of press this year, but unlike Webb it's mostly been for his bat. Last week against the Astros, he hit a home run. To the opposite field. As a pinch hitter. In the sixth inning. After the opposing team brought in a reliever specifically to face him. Using a sawed-off piano leg as a bat.
OK, not that last one, but still. It was quite a feat. ESPN ran a great chart after that game. Here it is updated through today:
Highest Career OPS (min 75 PA):
1. Babe Ruth 1.164
2. Ted Williams1.116
3. Lou Gehrig 1.079
4. Micah Owings 1.056
5. Barry Bonds 1.051
6. Albert Pujols 1.041
7. Jimmie Foxx 1.037
8. Hank Greenberg 1.017
9. Geovanny Soto 1.011
9. Rogers Hornsby 1.011
While this isn't necessarily a candidate for inclusion in the next edition of How to Lie With Statistics, setting the bar at 75 PA is just the tiniest bit misleading. I mean, look who's tied with Hornsby! Still, that's pretty heady company, and there's no denying that Owings is an excellent hitting pitcher. With the help of the amazing BaseballReference.com Play Index, I pulled up a couple of other charts that put Owings' accomplishments in a bit more context:
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The 2007 Ex-Cub Factor
Hi, everyone. What's new? With the Cubs back in the playoffs for the first time in four years I thought it was a good time to dip my toe back in the Cub Reporter writing pool again. Truth be told with the group of guys writing here now, I've been content to sit back and relax, and just read and enjoy.
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Game 103 Thread / Cubs @ Reds (3 of 3)
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Talking Out Of Tampa
"How about Chicago? Is it cold there now or not? Talk me out of Tampa" -- Joe Nichols, "Talk Me Out Of Tampa"Following in the footsteps of Derek Zumsteg's Seattle-based look at Lou Piniella's managerial stylings, I have two links from Tampa Bay Devil Rays bloggers regarding Sweet Lou.
Sweet (Lou) Emotion
Whatever Lou Piniella's strengths and weaknesses are, one sure thing is that he is never boring. Stories of his many and varied umpire arguments and on-field freakouts are legendary, and thanks to YouTube we can watch a few of the best of them over and over.
May 28, 2002: Lou disagrees with a call by John Shulock and covers both home plate and Shulock's feet with infield dirt:
September 18, 2002: Lou disagrees with C.B. Bucknor about a call at first. He ends up tossing the base into the outfield (twice) and injuring his shoulder and hamstring.
Good times...
Open Thread: Schadenfreude Edition
While I continue to plug away on the group predictions for the Cubs players (I really didn't think about how much work this would be when I announced it), here's a new discussion thread for the day.
Maybe we can use this space to talk about the Cardinals being SHUT OUT last night. Or maybe about Albert Pujols saying that Tom Glavine "wasn't good. He wasn't good at all," after Glavine SHUT OUT the Cardinals last night. It's up to you all.
2006 End of the Year Roundtable (Other Bloggers Edition)
Let's finish up our look back at the 2006 season with roundtable responses from Derek Smart of Cub Town, Al Yellon of Bleed Cubbie Blue, and Chuck Gitles of Ivy Chat. Not surprisingly, there are some significant differences among the three of them when it comes to what the Cubs need to do this off-season. But, there are some pretty solid agreements as well.
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1. Dusty, Dusty, Dusty, is there any reasonable scenario that you can see him staying? And if he does go, sum up his tenure in 2 sentences or less.
Derek: Define reasonable? If we're leaving aliens, rips in the space/time continuum, sordid photos of Andy MacPhail with a jar of mayonaise and their ilk out of the discussion, then I can't envision an extension of Dusty's reign.
Dan LeBatard On Joe Girardi
With the end of the season fast approaching and the Dusty Era (hopefully) coming to a close, Cub fans far and wide have been looking toward next season. One big question on everyone's mind is, "who will the Cubs' manager be in 2007"? Fredi Gonzalez' name has bandied about quite a bit recently (and, actually, since the last time the Cubs were looking for a skipper), and he's Arizona Phil's odds-on choice.
But strange things are afoot in south Florida. Last month saw a strange series of events take place between Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria and manager (and Peoria native, Northwestern grad, ex-Cub) Joe Girardi, leading lots of Cubs fans to get excited about the possibility of Girardi coming to Chicago next year. In order to give us some idea what kind of manager he is for the Marlins and might be for the Cubs, we asked one of the best professional baseball writers out there, Miami Herald/ESPN columnist Dan LeBatard, to answer a few questions about Joe:
Wake Me Up When September Ends
It's hard to believe that only two months ago I reacted to a Dempsterian meltdown by taking the time to figure out what to look forward to for the rest of the year. And that was after actually watching the game! I experienced this week's back-to-back 11th-inning disasters only via the coments here and ESPNews at the gym, and it was still enough for me to write a sentence that I really never thought I'd write:
I'm done with this team for this season.
Seriously, what is to be gained by watching this team over the next month? Jerry Seinfeld has a well-known riff about how rooting for a specific team is just rooting for laundry, and I gotta tell ya, this laundry sucks. I'm gonna torture this metaphor for a little while: the ownership needs to sort through the laundry, throw out a bunch of it, and get some new clothes, preferably a nice pair of flat-front slacks that can hit 30 home runs and plays a passable outfield defense. Maybe a snappy blazer that can play second base, too. Oh, and a new manager.
Until that happens, I can't follow this team. All of my favorite players are either hurt or traded, with the exception of Derrek Lee, and Lee isn't enough to keep me paying attention. There's just too much negativity, too much suckitude, too much "clog-the-bases" anger-making bullshit for me to deal with on a daily basis. It isn't healthy.
I'm working on tabulating the results of the "Wisdom Of Us" contest (remember that?), and I'll be unveiling the results throughout October. Hopefully that month will also bring us a few decent free agent signings and a new manager.
For those of you who aren't as completely burned out on this team as I am, there's a little bit of actual content after the jump:
The Week Ahead: Week Three
I have to admit, I'm feeling the pull of unrealistic hopes and dreams that Trans talked about last night. Maybe that's why I'm on my way toward three posts in one day. Of course, it could also be because The Lovely Wife and (Not So) Tiny Baby are out of town. Whatever the reason, my increased output is your theoretical gain -- before I post the lineups for tonight's game, here's a look at the next seven days.
First up, a trip to Chavez Ravine, home of the mellifluous Vin Scully.
Recent comments
crunch (view)
bellinger "right rib contusion"
Childersb3 (view)
South Bend just lost the lead in the bottom of the 9th on the weirdest scenario, ever.
It's absolutely pouring rain....men on 1st and 2nd, 1out....JPatterson asks for a new ball, but no time out was called....he throws the old ball toward the dugout (not sure if it rolled out of play).....the ump declares the runners get two bases each so one run scores. Then a single up the middle ties the game.
The rain was coming down in buckets at this point.
Just weird
crunch (view)
...and bellinger is gone in the 7th because of that 2nd blown chance and the wall he bounced off of...
hopefully his rib cage/shoulder feels better tomorrow, we just got happ back.
Childersb3 (view)
Phil,
Any thoughts on Y. Rojas' stuff and Y. Melendez's game (I believe I've asked about him before, sorry)?
crunch (view)
wow, things are moving fast. hopefully it continues.
crunch (view)
morel with 4 clean plays in 4 innings...showed off his 100000000mph arm a couple times.
cody bellinger not having a good 4th, though...5 run leads are handy when your CF is making your pitcher have a 5-out inning. 2nd blown chance was ruled a hit even though it went in/out of his glove...1st was lost in the lights, also ruled a hit.
crunch (view)
welcome back happ! double off the wall 1st PA back.
crunch (view)
oh yeah, totally, i was just chiming about why i fan like i fan.
i would like nothing more than hendricks to keep on hendricks'ing. guys with his stuff can throw for a long, long time as long as it works.
he velocity is actually up a minor amount this year. it's really "damn" when a guy like him not only has gas in the tank, but it's looking like it was years ago. he added a curve a few years ago and it helped a little bit, but he's throwing it less and less while the fb/change combo are less effective.
Alexander Dimm (view)
CRUNCH—There is no one person in this community I’m talking about. My remarks were not directed at you or anyone, but at a tone I’ve noticed lately.
You have a great, dry sense of humor and there is thought behind your comments. You and I don’t always agree but I always understand your position.
Lastly, and I’ll be quiet, I agree with you on Hendricks. We can dislike the recent performance but still love the guy. Lots of questions about his future.
crunch (view)
myself, i make a good amount of outrageously unrealistic comments that are sometimes "violent"...like my recent suggestion of "pulling the bandaid off" by having hendricks throw every inning of every game until he's on the IL.
i would hope any athlete that cares about what is written on the internet realizes how casual fans can be about treating their lives like scripted TV characters that don't have real lives. it's not an excuse to do it, but there's a lot of it out there.
but yeah, in real life i'm rooting for guys to have long and healthy careers even if i'm not happy with current performances...except for some guys...and i'm pretty sure i don't leave grey area for those comments...and almost all of them are not good humans whether they're playing baseball or not...
hendricks was getting a good amount of boos in his last game. i would bet a million that he will get a standing O every time he visits wrigley in his post-playing days, or a return with a new team should his career continue...or if he comes back and puts in an oldschool good performance.