Posted by: SouvenirCity | April 21, 2010

El Toro Moved to the Bullpen

Carlos Zambrano?  The same guy making $90M?  The one that has had six straight opening day starts?  He’s our new setup guy… We’re not going to rant and rave about this but just say it’s an irrational move made by a panicked team two weeks into the season.  The Cubs have scored four runs in six games and we detailed the offensive woes earlier.  Somehow, we don’t think moving a guy that is still easily one of your five best starting pitchers to bullpen is the answer for winning ballgames.

This is a head scratcher at best.  Z thinks it’s temporary.  Lou could be convinced otherwise.  At least the big guy isn’t throwing a fit.  He seems to be taking it well for now.  We’re not endorsing it and we don’t think it will end well.  But it doesn’t change our focus from the impotent offense.

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Posted by: SouvenirCity | April 21, 2010

What to do About the Cubs Offense?

vis ESPN

We’re way behind on recaps, we know.  But the Blackhawks playoffs have taken ownership of our sports television viewing.  We have a new schedule during the week now so we should be able to resume watching both.  The way they’ve played lately though, it’s hard to watch.

The Cubs offensively are one of the worst teams in all of baseball after two weeks.  They’re 15th in runs scored, 10th in team average, 11th in team slugging and first in strikeouts.  Not exactly lighting up the scoreboard right now.  There’s lots of fingers being pointed at new hitting instructor Rudy Jaramillo, but let’s be fair… it’s going to take at least a month or two for his instruction to really have an effect.

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Posted by: SouvenirCity | April 14, 2010

8 of 162: First Regular Season Comeback

Cubs 8 – Brewers 7: We had to listen to pretty much this entire game on the radio since we were at work.  It couldn’t have worked out any better.  Santo nearly had a grabber in the booth during the 8th inning rally when the Cubs put four runs on the board… all with two outs.  It all started with Jeff Baker and didn’t stop until Kosuke Fukudome continued his torrid start and drove in two with a clutch hit off of LaTroy Hawkins.

That last part makes it all the sweeter.

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Posted by: SouvenirCity | April 13, 2010

7 of 162: Opening Day at Wrigley

Cubs 9 – Brewers 5: We’re going to officially sound like a fan, but, that’s what we are so… Opening Day was AWESOME.  Just a spectacular atmosphere in the ballpark and an outstanding pregame for the day.  We started our day by going to YakZies on Clark, that’s what you’re seeing to the right there.  The XRT broadcast was outstanding and the area just felt like a giant tailgate-block-party.  All of this comes with being a Cubs fan.

As it said right outside the stadium, it’s a way of life.

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Posted by: SouvenirCity | April 11, 2010

6 of 162: Caridad Closer to a Bus Ticket

Reds 3 – Cubs 1: Esmailin Caridad is doing very little to inspire confidence from his manager.  While John Grabow came in and created half a mess for the Cubs in the 8th inning, Caridad came in and refused to throw strikes to compound the problem.  Tom Gorzelanny had a wonderful start, the third quality start that the Cubs bullpen has blown this season.  We know the problem is the bullpen.  However, we’re not sure that there’s a much more frustrating problem to have.

The only Cubs run came from Derrek Lee’s RBI single but the Cubs squandered many chances including a first inning bases loaded, no outs one.  They left 12 men on base.  After a perfectly played game on Saturday, the Cubs did little right outside of Gorzelanny on Sunday.

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Posted by: SouvenirCity | April 11, 2010

5 of 162: Big Z, Bullpen Rebounds

Messed up and didn’t publish this earlier.  It’s something like the bottom of the 5th when I noticed.  Whoops.  At Hawks/Scum today.

Cubs 4 – Reds 3: Been waiting to write a recap like this.  Five games wasn’t too bad of a wait, though.

Just a well managed game from Lou Piniella and a well played game by the players.  Big Z got off to a shaky start giving up three runs in the first three innings, but he wasn’t dominant thereafter.  Zambrano went 7 strong giving up just the 3 ERs while striking out nine.  It was a marked improvement from his first outing in Atlanta.  John Grabow managed the 8th and Carlos Marmol was absolutely dominant in the ninth inning.

The Cubs may have relied on a the longball a bit too much here, but in Cincinnati, it’s hard not to.

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Posted by: SouvenirCity | April 10, 2010

4 of 162: Bullpen Blows Another

Reds 5 – Cubs 3: That’s two now that we can squarely place on the bullpen in the loss column.  Ryan Dempster pitched a gem on Wednesday and we got a rare sparkling performance from Carlos Silva last night only to have Caridad give up a grand slam to Drew Stubbs in the 8th inning.  He did not record an out prior to giving up the slam.  It took 30 pitches to eventually get out of the inning which was nearly have as many as Silva threw in 6 innings of work.

We won’t point the finger at the umpires last night, but we would like to discuss the call made in the 9th inning that may have cost the Cubs a shot at extra innings.

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Posted by: SouvenirCity | April 9, 2010

Cubs vs Reds: Homer Ball

Best moment in Cubs/Reds historyThe Cubs start a 3 game series this weekend in the Queen City.  The opener is tonight at 6:00 p.m. on WGN.  MLB MediaCenter also has you covered.  Homer Bailey will face Carlos Silva tonight in the opener.  Silva pitches to contact and in the Great American Ballpark, that’s something that could cause trouble for the Cubs.  We’d say the goal tonight is to have Silva go 6 innings just to give the bullpen a little break.  If he can make it into 7, we’d be thrilled.  With the Cubs shorthanded for starters, it wouldn’t surprise if Silva got blown out and Lou left him in.  He’s a horse and the Cubs don’t have an off day until next Tuesday.  Carlos Zambrano is also scheduled to go on regular rest tomorrow.

The Cubs have had pretty good success against Bailey in the past but the Cubs current hottest hitter, Marlon Byrd, has yet to face him.  Soriano will likely get the start in left tonight as he’s crushed Bailey (3 for 3 with a homer).

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Posted by: SouvenirCity | April 9, 2010

3 of 162: Come Back From the Ledge, Cubs Fans

Cubs 2 – Braves 0: Randy Wells appears to have picked up right where he left off in 2009… minus the pink backpack.  The Cubs current number three starter had a great line going six innings, scattering six hits and only allowing two walks.  Wells has pitched to contact pretty much since he’s been in the bigs so the one lone strikeout isn’t a big surprise.  The Cub bullpen also had a shining performance as Caridad and Grabow threw two solid innings.

Then, Carlos Marmol came in…

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Posted by: SouvenirCity | April 7, 2010

1 of 162: PANIC!!!

No.  Actually, please don’t.

Sure Big Z looked like he was throwing BP out there (1.1 IP, 8 ER). The Braves did have some bloop hits that weren’t helped out by the Cubs defense.  Soriano had a… well, Soriano moment in left field as well.  If there’s one common theme with Chicago baseball on both sides of town this year, it’s bad defense.

But we’ll try and keep you off the cliff heading into Wednesday’s night game at the Ted.

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