It's Opening Day; I'm Going to Throw Out the First Hurricane Ike Reference

The Astros hate the Cubs. Everyone who is not a Cubs fan hates Carlos Zambrano. And the Houstons are opening the season at home with the best pitcher in team history on the mound. You'd think that would be enough to activate their adrenal glands. But of course, there's that other business left over from 2008:

After surging back into the wild-card race with the best record in the National League after the All-Star break, the Astros saw their season stalled for two days because of Hurricane Ike. With downtown a mess and most of Houston without electricity, the Astros were dispatched to Milwaukee to play two “home games” against the Cubs.

Several in the pro-Chicago crowd held up signs thanking Ike for shifting the series to Miller Park. Even worse, Zambrano no-hit the Astros in the first game, beginning the five-game losing streak that put an end to their postseason hopes.

Hurricane Ike hangover or not, tonight's matchup, on the road, against a great pitcher, looks like a tough one for the Cubs, who have gone 2-2 in Zambrano's previous Opening Day assignments. But regardless, how much fun is it knowing that in just a few hours, regular season baseball will be back?

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crunch 04/17/2024 - 04:19 pm (view)

he's a low-level cubs star in the modern history of the cubs (c.zambrano, k.wood, r.dempster, etc), but that star has dimmed...and has been dimming since 2021.

2024 has been ugly the whole way and we're only in mid-april. homers aside (even though there's been 7 in 17ip) he gave up 29 hits in 20 spring innings and 31 in 17 regular season innings.

he's pretty much only got 2 pitches at this point in his career and the mix isn't fooling anyone. he threw a noticable amount more curves in his last start to add to the mix and it didn't help his issues. he don't have many moves left to break out.
Eric S 04/17/2024 - 04:40 pm (view)

Definitely needs a 10 day stint for the hangnail - have to nip those things in the bud or suffer the consequences (ie, more opponent home run derby, etc)
Eric S 04/17/2024 - 04:35 pm (view)

Thanks for checking and yeah, that’s a double ouch
Sonicwind75 04/17/2024 - 04:01 pm (view)

Believe you are correct, checked and appears Cubs have a $2.51 million obligation to Barnhart this season per Cot's Contracts. Also paying Trey Mancini $7mil this season. Ouch.
crunch 04/17/2024 - 04:27 pm (view)

m.busch had 0hr and 2 doubles when he was last at wrigley.

we'll probably see a few more of his jerseys in the seats when they return tomorrow.

wonder who will go down for taillon. hey hendricks, you got a hangnail or something?
Eric S 04/17/2024 - 04:15 pm (view)

Nice work by Wesneski with some solid defense behind him and the late tack on runs were welcome. Gladly take a 5-4 West Coast swing, particularly down two key starting pitchers … Now just don’t get swept by the Marlins for Pete’s sake.
crunch 04/17/2024 - 04:13 pm (view)

dansby takes the team lead in SB today after a SB with 2 SB total. the team has 3. madrigal has the other one.

cubs also have 7 triples, 7 players each.
crunch 04/17/2024 - 04:58 pm (view)

sure am ready for p.wisdom and m.masterboney to swap roster spots.
Eric S 04/17/2024 - 04:04 pm (view)

The fifth inning has not been kind to Wicks this season. Giving up leadoff doubles to Tucker Barnhart is also not good for business. IIRC, the Cubs are on the hook for the majority of Barnhart’s salary this season to add insult to injury (could definitely be wrong here).
Cubster 04/17/2024 - 04:11 pm (view)

Kris Bryant to IL with low back strain. He’s keeping the Rockies docs busy.

Cubs MLB Roster

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