May 2006

GAME TWENTY-EIGHT IN-GAME DISCUSSION THREAD [PARACHAT] CHICAGO CUBS (14-13, 5th, 4 GB) AT SAN DIEGO PADRES (13-15, 4th, 2.5 GB) Puppy Park, 9:05 PM CDT Weather: 65 degrees, cloudy TV: CLTV, DirecTV 745 Radio: WGN, XM 189

Chan Ho Park, RHP 1-1, 5.34 ERA, 30.1 IP 24 K, 6 BB, 2 HR	Carlos Zambrano, RHP 0-2, 5.35 ERA, 33.2 IP 38 K, 25 BB, 4 HR
*Juan Pierre, CF *Freddie Bynum, LF *Todd Walker, 1B Aramis Ramirez, 3B Michael Barrett, C *Jacque Jones, RF Jerry Hairston Jr., 2B #Neifi Perez, SS #Carlos Zambrano, P	*Dave Roberts, LF Mike Cameron, CF *Brian Giles, RF #Mark Bellhorn, 1B Khalil Greene, SS Vinny Castilla, 3B Josh Barfield, 2B #Josh Bard, C Chan-Ho Park, P
Cubs vs. Park: Neifi Perez: 14-41 341/391/439 4 BB, 7 K, 4 2B &nbsp&nbsp&nbsp John Mabry: 5-24 208/345/250 8 K Juan Pierre: 12-22 545/583/727 Todd Walker: 5-13 385/467/462 Aramis Ramirez: 4-13 308/308/385 Michael Barrett: 4-13 308/400/385 Jacque Jones: 3-12 250/357/583	Padres vs. Zambrano: Geoff Blum: 5-19 263/300/316 1 BB, 6 K Vinny Castilla: 7-15 467/529/533 2 BB, 1 K

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I promise to never make fun of another team's lineup after the historic futility that the Cubs have managed to reap upon us the last 6 or so games. It's been ugly, almost as ugly as the bulk of Z's starts this year. Here's Zambrano's numbers extrapolated for a full 33 starts so far: 0-11, 5.35 ERA, 185 IP, 33 HR, 137 BB, 209 K It's seems pretty obvious what his problem has been so far and from the games I've watched it appears Z is attempting to strike out every single batter. Go back to serving up groundball after groundball Z, cause this team is in desperate need of a dominant starting pitching performance, especially one where we don't give up any runs early in the game. The Padres offense is pretty sad too, not quite as sad as ours so far, and certainly not as sad as the lineup Dusty decided to pencil in today, but pretty darn close. Normally seeing Chan Ho Park in the rotation would be a welcome sight, but Park's peripheral numbers are actually pretty good and I'm not sure our offense would fare to well if the Padres decided to resurrect Eric Show from the grave. Score some runs...somehow!!!

GAME TWENTY-SEVEN IN-GAME DISCUSSION THREAD [PARACHAT] CHICAGO CUBS (14-12, 5th, 4 GB) AT ARIZONA DIAMONDBACKS (15-13, 2nd, 1 GB) Chase Field, 8:40 PM CDT Weather: Still Hot!!! TV: WCIU Radio: WGN, XM 188

Juan Cruz, RHP 0-0, 2.65 ERA, 17 IP 17 K, 10 BB, 2 HR	Rich Hill, LHP (2006 AAA) 1-0. 1.44 ERA, 25 IP 33 K, 7 BB, 1 HR
*Juan Pierre, CF Ronny Cedeno, SS Aramis Ramirez, 3B *Todd Walker, 1B Matt Murton, LF *Jacque Jones, RF *Freddie Bynum, 2B Henry Blanco, C *Rich Hill, P	Eric Byrnes, CF #Orlando Hudson, 2B *Chad Tracy, 3B Conor Jackson, 1B *Shawn Green, RF Damion Easley, SS #Johnny Estrada, C Andy Green, LF Juan Cruz, P

It'll be a battle for Hill to win over some fans after his disappointing debut last season. "One-pitch" Hill did little to impress as he relied almost exclusively on that 12-6 curveball and straight as can be fastball. He's always had a changeup and cutter, but aparently didn't feel confident enough in them to use them against major league hitters. Things have supposedly changed and he's got a slider in the repertoire as well now and hopefully remains his focused self as he did at the end of spring training and his first month in AAA ball. Personally, I hope Hill has found the way cause the potential of two dominating lefties in our rotation is quite tasty, plus I feel he's gotten a bit of a bum wrap around here as if it's impossible for him to adjust or improve upon his game from his less than stellar debut last year. Hell look at John Koronka, the guy finds a slider to go with his fastball/changeup and he's suddenly mowing down major league batters. On the mound for the D-Backs is ex-Cub Juan Cruz who gets his second start of the season. I'm guessing he's going to be pretty amped up to face his old team and it would be wise for the Cubs to take a few and let the guy get himself into some trouble. Of course that doesn't jive with our offensive game plan of swing early, swing often. The Cubs need to find some offense and find it quick. When things go wrong on the northside, there seems to be an automatic reflex of blame Dusty, but not a manager in baseball is going get runs out of a team who has 3 positions unable to top the new Mendoza line of a 300 OBP and their cleanup hitter not even slugging 400. Dusty can juggle it all you want, these guys just aren't producing right now and it's up to this offense to start hitting. I do like the small switch of Walker behind Ramirez as hopefully Ramirez will actually see some pitches near the strike zone. Of course, that small change is probably negated by having Blanco and Bynum in the lineup. Speaking of lineups, that's an interesting one that Bob Melvin is putting out there today. Andy Green? Is Davanon hurt or something? And Hudson batting second? The guy is hitting 220/277/336 from the right side for his career. I was always curious as to why a hitter who is just horrible from one side of the plate, just doesn't scrap switch-hitting. Of course Hudson does have a 281/343/438 line as a righty this year (in 32 Ab's) versus a 194/280/239 line as a lefty(67 AB's) but I'll guess that those numbers trend towards his career line by the time the year is up. Let's get a win Cubbies and GO HILL!!!

GAME TWENTY-SIX IN-GAME DISCUSSION THREAD [PARACHAT] CHICAGO CUBS (14-11, 4th, 4 GB) AT ARIZONA DIAMONDBACKS (14-13, 2nd, 1 GB) Chase Field, 8:40 PM CDT Weather: Damn Hot!!! TV: CSN, DirecTV 746 Radio: WGN, XM 188

Miguel Batista, RHP 2-1, 6.33 ERA, 27 IP 24 K, 11 BB, 2 HR	Greg Maddux, RHP 5-0. 1.35 ERA, 33.1 IP 24 K, 6 BB, 1 HR
*Juan Pierre, CF Ronny Cedeno, SS *Todd Walker, 1B Aramis Ramirez, 3B Matt Murton, LF Michael Barrett, C *Jacque Jones, RF #Neifi Perez, 2B Greg Maddux, P	Craig Counsell, SS Eric Byrnes, CF *Chad Tracy, 3B *Luis Gonzalez, LF Conor Jackson, 1B *Shawn Green, RF #Johnny Estrada, C #Orlando Hudson, 2B Miguel Batista, P
Cubs vs. Batista Neifi Perez: 9-21, 429/500/619, 3 BB Juan Pierre: 4-16, 250/368/250, 3 BB, 1 K Aramis Ramirez: 1-11 091/231/091, 2BB, 0 K	D'Backs vs. Maddux Luis Gonzalez: 31-98, 316/362/673, 10 HR, 7 BB, 10 K Craig Counsell: 11-45 244/261/289, 1 XBH Shawn Green: 12-28, 429/529/857, 3 HR, 6 BB, 7 K

Maddog Maddux to the mound tonight and he'll have to face-off against some fellas who've gotten the better of him through the years. Luis Gonzalez and Shawn Green haven't been fooled too often by Maddux and we'll see how The Master handles those two tonight. Nice of Bob Melvin to put Conor Jackson between them whom I assume Maddux will go after if he ever gets in trouble. Neifi appears to have taken the role of Maddux's personal second basemen and he's actually had some good at-bats versus Batista throughout his career, so more than a justifiable start for Rubby's brother. We'll see if Maddux can continue the golden touch he had in April and if the Cubs bats can find some runs. GO CUBS!!!

GAME 24 REVIEW

CUBS 2, PIRATES 1 W: Bob Howry (2-0) L: John Grabow (0-1) S: Ryan Dempster (7) Wrapup | Box Score

Sounds like it was a nail-biter last night, as the stoppable force (the Cubs' offense) came up against the moveable object (the Pirates). Our boys in blue (well, actually, white with blue stripes) prevailed, with some timely hitting from Matt Murton overcoming some bad baserunning by Jacque "It's A Dumb Decision" Jones. Sean Marshall was very efficient -- it looks like's he's learning how to pitch at the big league level and it's a good thing, considering he's currently the Cubs' #2 starter. Of course, I didn't get to see it, because of the arcane MLB blackout rules. In case you're wondering, yes, I am going to mention this every time it comes up, which means every time the Cubs and Pirates play each other. In case you didn't read my post the lat time I wrote about this (and I don't blame you), I live in an area where Pirates games are blacked out under MLB rules, as are Phillies, Orioles, and Nationals games. That means none of those teams' games are available to me on DirecTV Extra Innings. The Phillies, Orioles, and Nationals have a number of games broadcast either over the air or on the local Fox or Comcast sports channel, and I get those games. But, because I am outside of the Pittsburgh area as far as DirecTV is concerned, I cannot get Fox Sports Pennsylvania (or whatever it's called), which broadcasts Pirates games. So, there is no way for me to watch a Pirates games. Now obviously that's not that big of a deal, except for the 15 TIMES A YEAR the Pirates play the Cubs. It's a stupid, arcane set of rules that MLB and DirecTV need to work together to change.

Mike Kiley reports in the Sun-Times that Rich Hill has apparently been recalled from Iowa (presumably to replace Glendon Rusch in the starting rotation), and that David Aardsma has been optioned out, with Rusch transferred to the bullpen effective immediately. No word yet on whether Michael Wuertz will be recalled, too, but if he is recalled prior to Thursday, Wuertz will not burn a minor league option and will accrue MLB service time for his time spent in AAA the last couple of weeks. (If a player spends less than 20 days on option to the minors in any given season, no minor league option is used, and the player continues to accrue MLB service time for the entire period of time spent in the minors). If Will Ohman is next to go down, the Cubs might want to keep him around for a while longer (at least through Thursday), because the Diamondbacks are loaded with left-handed hitters. Ohman is at his best when he is used just as a LOOGY. On the other hand, Rusch is not effective against left-handed hitters, and he also gives up too many walks, hits, and home runs to be an effective relief pitcher.