Cubs Commentary

- I like Lou. I think he does far more good than harm as baseball managers go. Yeah, he'll make some questionable decisions as all managers do, but he's been more right than wrong in his 2 years with the Cubs. Of course, no one ever notices the right decisions, they're just taken for granted as the way it's suppose to happen.

That all being said, STOP USING BOB "HOME RUN" HOWRY. Just knock it the fuck off. You're not turning him around, you're not gonna get him going before the playoffs. He's a lost cause and needs to be banished Scott Eyre style.

Lou says he's trying to figure out the middle innings and seems to not trust the youngsters. But how the hell do you trust a guy with a 5.43 ERA?

Another day, another disappointing Cubs loss....

One of the many sad parts of this run of losing is that the Cubs have been competitive in all but one of these games. Scores of 5-2, 5-3, 3-0, 9-7 (11 innings), 3-0, 10-2, a 14-9 win, then back to back 4-3 losses. The pitching hasn't been great, but good enough to win a couple of those games. The bats though have certainly struggled since August 30th:

A few of our regulars are performing adequately, but no one is really on much of a hot streak. The only one that screams to be benched is Fukudome and we have seen his playing time dwindle lately. Out of the bench guys, Fontenot has a .771 OPS and Cedeno 1.303 out of anyone that has gotten some AB's. 

And while every Chicken Little sports reporter out there is just dying for another Cubs collapse so they can wax poetic about the 1969 and 2008 Cubs, the magic numbers have continued to go down over the last week for the 2008 team. The same can't be said for the 1969 club who watched the Mets bullrush past them in the standings when they lost 12 of 13 including 9 straight at one point and a five game lead turned into a 4.5 game deficit. The 2008 team has lost all of one game in the standings thanks to the Brewers suffering their own, far more worrisome, meltdown.

That isn't to say there's nothing to worry about, but it is to say that the baseball gods seem to be showing some restraint on our poor, fragile Cubs hearts. 

I was in beatiful Fresno, CA this weekend for a baptism and was forced to follow the Cubs through cell phone updates. First, hanging out in 96 degree weather is not fun, I don't care how damn dry the heat is. And driving up to Fresno has all the charm of driving through the nine circles of hell. I can't tell you how many wonderful smells we discovered along the way.

What also sucks is checking updates on the game to see the Cubs go up 3-1 heading into the bottom of the ninth with the Brewers getting shellacked and thinking all will be well with the world, only to check an hour later and have my heart drop when I saw the 4-3 Reds win. I quickly checked the play-by-play info and when I saw "Two runs score on a double to shorstop Ronny Cedeno", I knew this wasn't your garden variety 9th inning blown save. This was one to chalk up with the many legendary Cubs meltdown games.

Sigh. That sure makes for a miserable off day.

I thought it was time to start looking just how alarming this September swoon is compared to some past World Series winners. Is losing seven of eight something that happens to the best of them or are the Cubs approaching epic failure status?

Blasphemy!!!!

I'm not really advocating this strategy, but hear me out. The current NL standings after the jump.