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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Arizona Phil 13 min 44 sec ago (view)
Bryant got $19.5M
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crunch 2 hours 24 min ago (view)
bryant 9.5m, contreras 6.65m, baez 11.65m, z.davies 8.63m
looks like happ is going to arbitration.
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Arizona Phil 23 hours 35 min ago (view)
RHP Edward Vasquez (2017 IFA - Dominican Republic) has retired.
E. Vasquez was one of the top SP on DSL Cubs Red in 2019 and was expected to be a SP on one of the Cubs AZL teams in 2020 if the minor league season hadn't been canceled.
He would have been first-time Rule 5 Draft eligible post-2021.
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K Dub 1 day 2 hours ago (view)
Thanks Phil!
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crunch 1 day 4 hours ago (view)
danny hultzen retires and joins the cubs as a "pitching development assistant"
shame the comeback story didn't last longer...but hey, at least he got to taste the bigs after his body failed him for so many years.
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crunch 1 day 6 hours ago (view)
theo joining the commish's front office operation as a "consultant reguarding on field matters"...basically weighing in on the possible impact of rules changes.
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Arizona Phil 1 day 9 hours ago (view)
https://www.thecubreporter.com/comment/266505#comm...
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K Dub 1 day 10 hours ago (view)
Yeah, to my calculation that suspension should be over by now unless he got caught again...
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Wrigley Rat 1 day 13 hours ago (view)
(Not Phil) - Last I saw, he was on the restricted list.
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K Dub 1 day 15 hours ago (view)
PHIL: Did the Cubs release Saul Vazquez?
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Sonicwind75 5 days 8 hours ago (view)
The 2021 guaranteed amount is $7 + $3 million mutual option buyout. 10>8. Most media reports summarizes it as a $10 million deal.
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CubbyBlue 5 days 8 hours ago (view)
Thanks Eric. After I put it up I thought.. damn I'm old. I wonder if people even remember back that far. I still think about that day. Uggh. Sorry.
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Charlie 5 days 9 hours ago (view)
I'm always confused by this. They also could have tendered him and then boosted his value by trading him with a million or two in cash considerations. Obviously, that's a million or two more expensive than simply non-tendering--but couldn't you at least get an interesting prospect in return from one of these teams? They obviosuly thought it was worth their return to toss in a few million in the Darvish trade.
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tim815 5 days 10 hours ago (view)
The 2021 amount is 7.
The buyout is 3.
8>7
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crunch 5 days 23 hours ago (view)
chase strumpf is quickly emerging as a "trendy" organizational hot prospect, even among non-cubs fans. amaya is having a decent winter league showing so far...taking a lot of walks, too.
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Arizona Phil 6 days 2 hours ago (view)
SONICWIND: No question the Cubs farm system is not set-up to deliver postion-player prospects to MLB anytime soon, although the arrival of pitching will likely be much sooner (2022 or maybe even 2021).
Of course there is no way to know for sure in advance who will and who will not make it to The Show, and there is always the possibility that some lesser prospect will unexpectedly develop into a big leaguer, but as things stand now, if they develop as hoped, these would be the likely ETA for the Cubs better position-player prospects:
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