Month: August 2008

DeRosa, Soriano favor us with corresponding run scoring streaks (twice)

 

Mark DeRosa and Alfonso Soriano had corresponding run-scoring streaks last week, both starting on the same day.  On games,between August 21 and August 26, both scored at least one run in each game.  DeRosa went on to extend his streak one more game. 

Both Soriano and DeRosa have had longer streaks earlier in the season.  Soriano had a 7-game streak in May.  DeRosa, however, has the longest run-scoring game streak on the team when he went 10 games crossing the plate pretty much at the same time. 

Here are the top five run scoring streaks by Cubs in 2008:

                   StreakStart  Streak End Games    
+-----------------+-----------+-----------+-----+--- 
 Mark DeRosa        2008-05-09  2008-05-19    10 
 Derrek Lee         2008-05-18  2008-05-26     8 
 Mark DeRosa        2008-08-21  2008-08-27     7                                          
 Alfonso Soriano    2008-05-10  2008-05-17     7 
 Alfonso Soriano    2008-08-21  2008-08-26     6                                          
Success breeds success, I guess.  
(thanks B-R Play Index!)

Five straight for the Nats

The Washington Nationals have just woken up in time for September.  At the beginning of the season, I thought the Nats might be the the big story of 2008.  I’d be pretty smart if I’d had inserted Tampa Bay in for Washington. 

Washington did win their first three games of they year but it didn’t take long for them to sink to the depths of the NL East. 

Injuries to Ryan Zimmerman, Dmitri Young, Chad Cordero, Wily Mo Pena… well, I could on for a while,  add that to a no-name starting rotation and that isn’t a recipe for a winning team. 

And now, late in August, they start putting it together… for now.  Even with their five game winning streak (and Atlanta dropping two), the Nats are still languishing 24 games back and even eight games behind fourth place Atlanta. 

There’s always next year. 

Who’s questioning Zook’s manhood?

Maybe it’s me but an unintentionally funny photo was on today’s front page of the sports section of the Champaign-Urbana News Gazette.  The photo was of Illinois football coach Ron Zook and Missouri coach Gary Pinkel.

Here’s a scanned image:

zookpointing

A rather unfortunate placement of where Zook’s finger is pointing combined with the headline, "Bigger, Better". 

Again, I thought it was just me but I showed to my wife who has better sensibilities and she almost spit out the food she was eating from laughing.

Go Illini!!

Author: Just one blown call saved worth it

I honestly couldn’t tell if Childs Walker was being sarcastic in his comments about instant replay via The Baltimore Sun.  (emphasis mine)

Instead, commissioner Bud Selig implemented limited replay as soon as he reached agreements with his players and umpires. If the technology saves even one blown call down the stretch this season, it was worth it.

Really?  Just one blown call saved would be worth it?  All the money spent to put this in place.  All the dissension from those who disagree with the policy? 

A little perspective, please.

Bill Klem would have something to say about that.

Love them Buccos

With the Cubs’ win over the Pirates on Wednesday, that unfortunately closes out the season against them.  For 2008, the Cubs were 14-4 against Pittsburgh. 

To look for a season when the Cubs won that many games in one season against one team, you would have to go back to 1978.  Under the helm of manager Herman Franks, Chicago had a losing season record of 79-83 good for third place.  Despite the losing record, they managed to win 15 against NL East rival St Louis Cardinals. 

Winning 14 against the last place Pirates may not seem like such a big deal but consider this… The Cubs were 14-16 against them for the last two seasons (2006-2007). 

Rich Harden: Has he matched the hype?

Let’s take a mid-"half "-season look at Rich Harden since he’s been acquired by the Cubs and see how much he’s helped the team. 

Looking at the Stats

Ok, first the easy stats:  Since coming to the Northside, Harden has been 4-1 with a nifty 1.50 ERA in 9 starts for the Cubs.  Not bad at all.  Actually very good and probably more than we Cub fans could expect. 

Looking at his K/BB ratio, it gets even better.  Harden has struck out 75 batters in 54 innings.  In five games, he has KOed more than 10.  On the other hand he’s done his best to keep the runners off the bases.  He’s walked only 18 in the same period.  Only twice he has walked more than three (today was one of them when he walked four Philles).  Oh, one HBP and two wild pitches for those keeping score.

The most interesting about Harden’s stats is this:  He has given up six homeruns so far with the Cubs yet only allowed 10 runs.  I thought surely he must be giving up only solo shots.  I checked his gamelog and sure enough he has only given up one homer with a baserunner on (a one-run home run to Geoff Blum of Houston on August 5). 

Endurance?

One concern regarding Harden was his endurance and that isn’t totally unfounded.  But I think all thinking Cub Fans didn’t expect Rich Harden to go out there and pitch nine innings every time.  And well, he isn’t.  Do the math.  He’s averaging an even six innings per start which to be honest is almost better than what I expected.  He almost established a pattern of pitching 5, then 7, then 5, then 7 again etc. 

Run Support

The most frustrating thing about Harden is something that is really not in his control.  Run support.  That was evidenced in today’s game against Philadelphia when the Cubs could only give Harden one offensive run while he held the Phils to 2 runs (one earned).  Fortunately, the bullpen held while the offense came alive and the good guys won 3-2. 

That wasn’t the case earlier in the season when we first got Harden.   In Harden’s second and third starts for the Cubs, he allowed one run each in seven and five innings respectively, only to have the Cubs lose both games due to lack of run support (Harden got the loss in the second). 

Since then (today’s game notwithstanding) the run support has gotten better and the Cubs won the next 5 games that Harden started. 

Is Rich Harden the next ’84 Rick Sutcliffe?   Maybe not.  But boy, I don’t want to think where we’d be without him.

Go Cubs!

On Instant Replay

It seems to me that I’m seeing a lot of articles online in favor of instant replay but I personally know very few baseball fans who like the idea. 

Maybe I’m hanging out with wrong crowd. 

I share the same sentiments with Scot from Coffeyville Whirlwind who has a thoughtful article on the subject. 

I am willing to be proven wrong, but it all just doesn’t seem worth it at this point. For a handful of correct home run calls a season, baseball fans and players will be subject to delays, technology problems, and arguments over replay usage.

Indeed, with MLB’s rush to fast track this out (in response to a couple bad calls in a relatively wide span of games), the cynical side of me just makes me wonder, "what is their real agenda?".

Looks like Cubs manager still isn’t toeing the company line yet.  Though to be accurate, he isn’t fully up on how it works.  He’s the first to admit it though. 

Via the Chicago Trib:

Piniella laughed and said it "could turn into a little bit of a fiasco initially" because it hasn’t been fully explained.  "Do you throw out a red handkerchief or something?" Piniella said, laughing. "What’s the format? What do you do? I’d love to be able to throw a red hanky or a green hanky on the field. Can you imagine being able to throw something on the field and you can’t be ejected? Nobody has told us anything. I think we should be schooled on it somehow."

One more reason, if we really have to use it, to wait till next season so team personnel can be educated on its use. 

Top hitting pitchers

As of 8/27/08, here are the majors’ top hitting pitchers (min 25 PA):

Carlos Zambrano, Chi   .365

Brandon Backe, Hou   . 302

Micah Owings, Ari   .288

Braden Looper, Stl   .275

Adam Wainwright, Stl   .267

You can see the full list I saved over at Baseball Reference’s Play Index.

Not only is Zambrano at the top of the list of hitting but his 14 rbis dwarfs second place Brandon Webb’s 7 (which ironically he got with a .138 BA and no HR). 

Zambrano needs a little lovin’ after his rough August. 

Go Cubs!