Yeah That One Hurt
“We had a plethora of wasted opportunities.”You don't say. Before we play the blame game, let's look at a few positives: - Ted Lilly threw yet another quality start and on a night when it seemed he didn't have his best stuff. At least early on he seemed to be missing his locations by quite a bit and getting hit hard, a cruddy Pirate offense certainly a contributing factor. - The top two spots in the order continued to produce going 6 for 13 with a run, three RBI's and two stolen bases. Unfortunately the middle of the order decided to take the night off. - Some nice defensive plays to keep the game going by Soriano and Theriot, although both looked like they were umpire-aided calls. The umps owed us a few from earlier in the year so file it under baseball karma. - Will Ohman performed his LOOGY duties to perfection and has only allowed one hit to a lefty all season on top of four walks in 19 plate appearances. It's the righties that have been giving him more trouble than usual. - Scott Eyre's three shutout innings lowered his ERA to 8.47. - Lou Piniella actually had a relief pitcher left for the 15th inning and a pinch-hitter for the 14th. Baby steps. Oh but much went wrong, beginning with the eight inning: - Lou brings Felix Pie into the game in the top of the 8th as a defensive upgrade over Cliff Floyd. One-run lead, a flyball pitcher and the middle of the Pirates lineup due up, seems like a smart move. But Lou negates all that in the bottom of the inning. Lee and Ramirez reach to start the inning and the Pirates bring in a lefty to face Pie. Lou, going for the kill, brings in Murton to counter and he pops out rather unceremoniously. If you're playing for defense in the top of the inning, why change your mind in the bottom half? With zero outs and runners on second and third, it would have been a good time to try the squeeze with Pie for that insurance run. If it fails, the team should still have a runner on third with less than two outs and you would have set yourself up with a better defensive outfield for the 9th even with a groundball pitcher coming to the mound. And of course... - Ryan Dempster issues a one-out walk to Nate McClouth although I didn't think it was a bad 3-2 pitch. Tailing two-seamer that just missed the plate that most lefties will chase thinking it's going to be a strike. A single later and Jack Wilson hits a flyball to right field. Jones should be out there if not for Lou's substituting in the eighth and while he may have just thrown it ten feet to either side of the plate or in front of him, he does have a stronger arm that would have had a better shot to nail McClouth. - More adventures on the basepaths that I could do without. Soriano gets thrown out at third when a ball doesn't get far away enough from the catcher. Theriot gets doubled off second when a liner by Murton that is in FRONT of him gets caught and Barrett gets thrown out at second base on a missed hit and run by Jacque Jones. - Neil Cotts is no longer invulnerable giving up his first run of the year. I'll pass out equal shares of blame on the offensive ineptitude in the eight to add insurance runs when we had two runners in scoring position and zero outs and Ryan Dempster for blowing his first save of the year against the bottom of the Pirates lineup. And of course Lou for some more questionable decision-making which of course would have been less questionable had Dempster, Murton or Jones done their jobs. While I wasn't nearly as up in arms about Sunday's game as some were, I did understand the concern. The concern was for games like today. Using up bench guys when you're losing to gain just the slightest advantage has a sort of Old West nobility about it. Better to go down with no bullets in the chamber than be left with a loaded gun and a bloody corpse. But when you're ahead or tied, I think the roster shuffling has to be more controlled. That's the time to save those bullets until you have an absolute clear shot and make sure that bloody corpse is in the opposing team's dugout. Well last time we blew a win against the Pirates we reeled off five straight, I'll take that trade-off.
Recent comments
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jdrnym 1 hour 30 min ago (view)
Hey AZPhil, when a player is released with money/years still remaining on his contract, does his next team *have* to give him the prorated major league minimum or can they offer more (meaning the original club owes less) to "outbid" other teams that may have had interest? I'm assuming that's what happened with Brad Brach, where the Mets signed him for 2020 at $850,000.
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crunch 2 hours 13 min ago (view)
jeremy jeffress agrees.
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Rob Richardson 5 hours 55 min ago (view)
It's high time if you ask me.
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crunch 6 hours 11 min ago (view)
as awesome as bryant is, it would probably be good for the cubs to find him a new home before his play at 3rd turns him into a corner OF'r...which seems inevitable sooner than later.
i'm still impressed how much his D improved since he was drafted, but he's already losing a step at the position early in his career.
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crunch 6 hours 17 min ago (view)
minor league ballplayers will no longer have to worry about getting suspended for testing positive for weed...it's off the prohibited substances list.
about time.
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Arizona Phil 16 hours 29 min ago (view)
3B Alec Bohm and RHSP Spencer Howard would likely be the Cubs asking price and the Phils probably say no, but if they don't say no, that could be a deal.
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crunch 19 hours 52 min ago (view)
Bruce Levine @MLBBruceLevine
Cubs have had talks with Phils on Bryant. Nothing there at the moment. Service time grievance still an issue. -
bradsbeard 20 hours 28 min ago (view)
Humerous 30 minutes this morning when both Mark Gonzalez and Gordon Wittenmyer tweeted out that the Cubs would be receiving Conor Lillis-White as the PTBNL in the Tommy La Stella trade as if it were just now happening.
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crunch 1 day 19 hours ago (view)
marvin miller and ted simmons are part of the next HOF class.
long time coming for miller.
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crunch 1 day 23 hours ago (view)
things that are important to good on-field play like buying up all the property around wrigley field, from rooftops to acerage, isn't going to monetize itself.
i know some people would love to have a top tier pitcher, but i'm looking forward to more control of rooftop advertising and an open air beer garden near the team owned hotel and resturant complexes.
i know some people want a solid leadoff man, but i'm looking forward to seeing 10-20 concerts on off-days destroying the playing field so that extra revenue can help a polician in Nebraska or Iowa get some ad buys.
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Hagsag 2 days 56 min ago (view)
Their friend Donald will come through for them.
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crunch 2 days 1 hour ago (view)
remember when the billionaire owners got a huge double digit tax cut?
maybe the city should do them a favor and give them more tax savings help to let them buy and build another 2-3 revenue projects outside of the park. that might help these struggling heroes find some extra loot.
i know this rant isn't fair, but my "dan winkler got a MLB contract fever" is dying down a bit.
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crunch 2 days 1 hour ago (view)
f'real. i don't even know why they're going to bother playing games. i'm over here printing Cubs 2020 World Series Champs banners while others are sleeping on reality.
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Dolorous Jon Lester 2 days 2 hours ago (view)
Just saw a fun report that the Cubs are telling even budget type free agents they can't currently negotiate until they clear some payroll. So that's a fun start to the winter meetings.
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Dolorous Jon Lester 2 days 2 hours ago (view)
I'm with you 100% on that. Minor league retreads are fine and all but we don't need to be paying premiums for middle relief.
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JustSayin' 2 days 4 hours ago (view)
The Cubs have 15-20 extra pitchers in their minor league system due to unbalanced drafting over the last few years. I am ready to see them err on the side of giving the internal guys too many chances as compared to signing AAA players who had short stints in the big leagues which didn't go too well. We don't know it the Cubs organization is just that bad at developing pitching, or has too many guys trying to prove themselves in a fixed number of minor league innings. Bad scouting/development or self-inflicted bottleneck?
Comments
Sick, disgusting game
Soriano not tagging up from
One irony is that a little
*More adventures on the
We wasted opportunities, but
Soriano looked terrible
DLEE - not “The
The Cubs are jumping on the
Oops... forgot to close a
The beer thing... I think
PATHETIC!!!!! That was one
yeah forgot about that tag
But if we can win today, and
You ahve a point Manny, but
For those of you who might
I understand that was a
DAVE: Hmm… not so sure
Source? Are you serious? I
I was more perplexed at the
DAVE: O.K. well, yes, since
"The Cubs are jumping on the
A-Ram RISP 2007: 8/32, 2 HR
DUSTYBAYLOR: RISP 2
DUSTYBAYLOR: A-RAM RISP
Jeez, E-man. In the time
E-man... here are a few
One of the problems the Cubs
btw... Manny wanted to know
Rob G, Great summary of the
Just to clarify
E-Man-Get a life. Take your
One of the problems the Cubs
A home run here or there, a
You could not be more wrong
So let's move DLee to the 7
You could not be more wrong
Sorry for just the sarcasm
dave: "Funny, but it seems
"A 3 hitter HAS TO hit home
Dusty: "You ahve a point
but that still shouldn’t
DUSTY; "E-Man-Get a
For a more recent example,
I wonder what Hendry & Lou
manny... maybe we all read
E-man- I used those splits
Dave- If you look at
dave: "manny… maybe we all
MVN mock
"...and have struggled with
The kid in the mock draft
“A 3 hitter HAS TO hit
"The other guys in clutch
"The other guys in clutch
#51, care to explain?
well at least Milwaukee
it also helps to have your
Way to jinx that one,
Just for the record: (1)At
Rob G., I guess I'm going
I'm not exactly sure what
okay. what is the freaking
along with the "kids"
The pitching will fail. The
I'm just worried the death
Chad: "The pitching will
Lee's 10-12 HR's will be
but I think many thought it
Nah, the Sox clinched on the
thats right.. but my point
dave: "Actually…both teams
Okay... collapsed was a
if you still watch the
anyone care to guess
i would guess that the cf is
I'll crap my pants if the
the brewers obviously aren't
Good Grief, this like trying
Let me just take a moment to
dave: "And while the Sox
Or... how would you say that
cwtp... i don't think that
WSCR: Hill and Guzman will
WSCR - Jones in CF, batting
at least lou knows enough to
other NL averages for
Um, are we really arguing
hahaha
The pitching will fail. The
You guys don't get it! 2 HRs
Beermakers - 14 over, 5
Bah, every team has a place
I'm glad Lou decided to put
Rynox - I think I know where
BTW, since I've given Chad a
"Crest of Chad" just made me
If you arbitrarily assume
"Good Grief, this like
"Crest of Chad" whether this