So there's this other sport I follow religiously: baseball. Unfortunately I've had a lapse in my faith as I've hardly paid attention to the MLB season at all. I can attribute this to three main reasons: 1) I was following hockey until mid-June. The above picture was taken at my second of four Cubs games I'm going to this season, and I didn't even bother to post about it here - cut me some slack, it was the day after we closed out the Vancouver series. 2) the Blackhawks' season culminating in their Stanley Cup victory was, well, a religious experience for me. Any other sport right now doesn't even come close to comparing. I was focused on hockey from October to June, and watching baseball right now is downright boring to me. Don't give me wrong, I love the sport. But becoming obsessed with the NHL again has made me have ADD with sports in general. 3) The Cubs Are Terrible. I mean even worse than I can remember them in at least five years. I think the only games I've seen in their entirety this season were the two games I've attended - they won both (a miracle!). I will always love the Cubs and will admit to that and defend them to anyone at anytime. But I just can't deal with them at the moment. It's as if I fear their bad luck will rub off on any other sports team I follow. Regardless, I'll make a lame attempt at analyzing the lame excuse of a season the Cubs as of the All Star Break.
[Perhaps if the damn wind would stop blowing in, we might have won like two more this season]
As we stand right now, the Cubs record is a glorious 39-50, a mere 9.5 games behind the Reds (Bite me Dusty Baker!) for first place in the NL Central. Hitting for the Cubs this year has been atrocious. The team is 5th from last in the NL with a paltry .254 average and third from the bottom in runs scored (359). Before the season started, I stated the team would need their offensive weapons to perform well in order to have a chance at the post season. Well, that hasn't exactly happened:
Aramis Ramirez .209 10HR 32RBI
Derrek Lee .233 10HR 36RBI
Alfonso Soriano .269 15HR 44RBI
Ryan Theriot .278 0HR 18RBI
The top three are our power hitters - apparently there is a big power outage here. I don't even care about the home runs at this point. They are not hitting and they are not driving anybody in. Theriot was supposed to be an excellent lead off man - that average and his .317 OBP (he only has 18 walks) is just not cutting it. Here is a very telling stat: the Cubs are 11-20 in one run games. That is the most losses in the majors and nearly half of the games they've played in (44%) have been decided by one run. A far cry from the 2008 season where the Cubs seemed to win in a blowout at least once a series.
That's not to say all of our hitting has been terrible. Marlon Byrd has proved to be a great pickup with his .317 average and was awarded with the team's only All Star nod. Rookie Starlin Castro has shown promise and should be a stud in a season or two. Really, that's all I have to say about the hitting. The team needs to start hitting, getting on base, and scoring runs. Simple, right?
Because of the team's tepid bats, the team's pitching stats have suffered. The Cubs have a team ERA of 3.96 and is fourth in the NL with 695 Ks. Carlos Silva has more than proved he is a much better player than Milton Bradley who we "gave up" (more like pleaded for someone to take) for him. He leads the team with 9 wins and a 3.45 ERA. Ryan Dempster has 120K and Carlos Marmol has 78Ks in 41.2 innings pitched. Marmol gives me heart palpitations - I listened to the end of one game on WGN Radio and he faced six batters in the ninth - he walked three and struck out three to earn the save. So while the pitching staff isn't lighting the world on fire, they have done their job. If the team would have been able to hit more consistently, I think we'd be a .500 team right now.
And now my top three annoyances this season...
Carlos Zambrano
What more can be said about this man-baby? Everyone put up with his shit because he had been performing as a #1. I was in attendance at his no-hit game - his performance was incredible. He has steadly regressed since then. I'm sure his shuffling between starting and the bullpen hasn't helped things. But when you go after a well respected and well liked veteran in Lee in the dugout, that's where I draw the line. Talk is he probably won't be seen again in Cubs uniform until the end of the month. I'd be happy if he didn't wear Cubbie Blue again.
Contracts
Speaking of Zambrano, as much as I'd like to see him go away, with his albatross of a contract, that's wishful thinking. Every time I think about the Hawks' bloated contracts to Huet and Campbell, all I need to do is chew on these: Soriano 8yrs/136M, Zambrano 5yrs/91.5M, Ramirez 5yrs/75M, Fukudome 4yrs/48M. No one in their right mind is going to take on any of these contracts for players that are currently performing well below their peaks. Sadly, two players I like, Derrek Lee and Ted Lilly, both have managable contracts. If the Cubs' downward spiral continues, one or both of them may be gone by the trade deadline. Great.
Lou Pinella
Don't get me wrong - I love Lou. At least I loved the Lou that gave a shit. Look at him now - he's aged, tired and looks like he doesn't give a damn. If I were in his shoes, I'm not sure I would either, but it is his job. He joked when he got hired about "Cubbie Occurrences." He now realizes that really wasn't a joke - it's reality. I'll eat my Cubs hat if he's back next year. Which probably means that Ryne Sandberg will be the next skipper. I wholeheartedly support that, but I wish he could get another year or two of experience in Iowa.
Coincidentally, I'm going to the Sunday night game vs. the Phillies. Amy's folks are in town this weekend and they always like to go to a game or two in the summer. I'm sure I'll have fun, as baseball is a sport that is meant to be watched in person. But damn if I'm not going to wish there was a bodycheck or two thrown in there to liven things up a bit!
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