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Fuld is a numbers guy

Interesting piece on ESPN Chicago about Cubs OF Sam Fuld. Not only is he a decent outfielder but he is a stathead too.

"He was only 5 or 6 and he was already computing batting averages and ERAs," (father) Ken said. "He’d sit in the bathtub, and I’d say ‘If a guy goes 17-for-37, what’s his batting average?’ What struck me is that he’d perform these operations in very creative ways — not just that he got the right answer, but his methodology, adding in a factor and then dividing by 10, etc. I’d watch him and say ‘wow,’ just like I said ‘wow’ when he used to hit."

The love for stats apparently continued as he grew up. Fuld, an economics major at Stanford, even interned at Stats Inc.

Late-game shenanigans ruin Lilly’s return

I guess I’m glad I didn’t stay up for the entirety of last night’s Cubs-Padres pitching duel. That would have made for an angry bedtime.

Ted Lilly came through for a classic of a “first-game-back” performance that’s for sure. After a month on the shelf, he almost pitched TOO well. It crossed my mind that I’m sure they would want to be careful with him on his first day back on the job. As much as a traditionalist that I am, it would have been easier to pull Lilly had he given up a run. The Cubs didn’t have that problem though, taking Lilly out after 70 pitches and six innings.

They were pretty decent six innings at that. Lilly was helped by good defense most notably two 4-6-3 DPs. He spread out 4 hits and allowed no runs.

Lillly’s return would have been a great feel good story had it not been for the nasty combination of San Diego RF Kyle Blanks and Cubs “closer” Kevin Gregg. Blanks’ walk-off homer won it for the Padres and now has the Cubs wondering about the state of their bullpen. In the space of 2/3 of an inning, Gregg gave up all 4 runs to the Pads.

And with that inning, Gregg has most likely lost his job as the Cubs’ closer.

However, it would be easy and tempting to place all blame at the door of Kevin Gregg for last night’s loss. But let’s face it. We can’t expect Ted Lilly (let alone the bullpen) to pitch a shutout. While the Cubs were winning 1-0 going into bottom of eighth, a little offense isn’t a lot to ask.

As we saw with the series with the Phillies, it’s a question of timing.

With the Cubs’ bullpen in dire straits, Bleed Cubbie Blue wonders if we should sign John Smoltz who was DFAed by the Red Sox. Yes? No? I’m willing to try anything at this point.

TBZ gets a slight makeover

In case you hadn’t noticed, The Baseball Zealot went through a small makeover last week. It got a new banner and a new color scheme. I hope you like it.

As much as I liked the old orange and blue styled banner (above), it wasn’t as reflective of our current emphasis now that I’ve spun off almost all of our University of Illinois baseball coverage to Illinois Baseball Report which I brought up earlier this year (Illini baseball fans check it out!). Much thanks, by the way, to former Illini shortstop (and current Tiger minor leaguer) Shawn Roof who graciously allowed me to put his photo on the banner.

In case you’re wondering, the photo in the new banner is the of the infield of Huntington Park in Columbus, Ohio. Huntington Park is the brand new home (it was weeks old when I took the photo) of the Columbus Clippers and was named 2009 Ballpark of the Year by Ballparks.com. I had the chance to enjoy the park when I was there for the 2009 Big Ten Tournament.

Also, I’ve added Feedburner to better facilitate RSS feeds. There are links on the upper right to help you subscribe to your favorite feed reader or just click on “Subscribe”.

Comments are welcome on the new theme.

Comparing catchers

Mike, our commissioner in the Illowa APBA League sent this out to our members and it generated a fair amount of discussion.

“Can you identify these catchers. Which ones are in the Hall of Fame?”

Player Avg HR RBI Runs

# 1 .285 248 1389 1074

# 2 .262 324 1225 1025

# 3 .269 376 1330 1276

# 4 .308 427 1335 1048

Mike, is a Cardinals fan so he had an agenda behind this all. Two are in the HOF, one is waiting, and the other, in Mike’s eyes, is unfairly being denied entry to the hallowed halls.

Yeah, you guessed it, it’s former Cardinal Ted Simmons who is #1 on the above list. The question of the day is Does Ted Simmons who also spent time with the Brewers and the Braves, belong in the Hall of Fame?

By the way, the others listed are #2- Gary Carter, #3- Carlton Fisk, and #4- Mike Piazza.

Per the Simmons question and comparing hitting only, he holds his own against the other three with the stats provided. Yes, the dinger stats are down but the batting average and run production is comparable if not better.

So why the hate on Mr Simmons? He has plenty of supporters. Fungoes, a Cardinals blog with a SABR bent, puts Simmons second on their list of best Cardinals not in the Hall of Fame. Our dear commissioner, dogmatic fan that he is, would probably rank him over Bench.

Well, there’s the defense issue. Simmons had an reputation problem with the glove. While reports say that earlier in his career he had trouble, in reality, he was an AVERAGE fielding catcher. But in an age where every catcher was being compared to Johnny Bench and you’re the only decent alternative to him (read: backup in the All-Star game), people are going to look at your weaknesses.

Maybe a question for time: Mike Piazza- First ballot Hall of Famer? Hall of Famer at all?

Gorzelanny, Baker battle the Bucs for win

Tom Gorzelanny just did what was needed by his team.

Last night, I checked on Zach Duke’s stats, in particular, how he did against the Cubs. Going into today’s game, he had a 4-6 record against Chicago. Yet his 3.09 ERA against them was still pretty tasty. So I figured it was going to be up to Gorzelanny.

Well, Duke pitched pretty close to his status quo, allowing three runs in 7 plus frames. But Gorzelanny was up for the task. The Pirates only scored one run off him in five innings. Cubs win 3-1!

The big miracle in today’s win was that the Cubs’ bullpen didn’t implode. Rather, they pitched pretty dang well allowing two hits over the course of four innings with Gregg getting his 23rd save of the season.

Jeff Baker continues to produce for the Cubbies. Today, he went 2 for 4 with his second homer of the year. This one was a solo shot off Duke in the sixth inning. In the last six games, the Germany-born Baker has fourteen hits.

Hopefully, Geovany Soto is getting back in the groove. Soto was 1 for 19 in the first two series back from his month-long DL stint (albeit that one hit WAS a homerun). In the last two games against Pittsburgh, Soto has collected three hits, two of them doubles. Let’s hope he can find what he had last year.

Tomorrow: Rich Harden vs Pirates’ Ross Ohlendorf

Cubs find Bucs very obliging

See?! See?! What did I tell you? The Pirates came to town and all is better now. The Cubs who seemed like they were repressed beyond belief, exploded all over the Pirates.

The 17-2 win was full of highlights but Derrek Lee was the big story. For the second time this season, he drove in seven runs. This time he only needed two hits to do it, though.

The Cubs made sure the game was never in doubt, scoring 14 in the first two innings. The last time that happened was in 1906. Hmm, 1906… something happened in 1906. Something good. Can’t quite place my finger on it but when I think of it, you’ll be the first to know.

Tomorrow should be interesting with Tom Gorzelanny going against his former ‘mates for the first time. He and Cubs will be taking on Zach Duke, perhaps a more formidable pitcher than Friday’s starter Charlie Morton.

The question now is Did the Cubs shoot their proverbial wad today? I’ve seen it happen in the past. Score in double digits in game one of a series then the bats go flat.

But hey, these are Pirates, right?

Go Cubs!

Beer-tosser sobers up, says he’s “sorry”

Johnny Macchione should have drank that last beer. That’s ironic, because had he gotten drunker, he wouldn’t be in the mess he is now.

Macchione sobered up enough Thursday to say he what he did to Phillie outfielder Shane Victorino “was a big mistake” when just two nights ago he saw fit to dump a full cup’s contents of beer on him. Funny what sobriety and the wrath of millions of baseball fans will do to your perspective.

Johnny M apologized to the Cubs team too. “Chicago Cubs, I’m sorry I disgraced you”. Part of me wonders if he’s really enjoying his notoriety. Check his My Space page, stat!

All the apologies in the world aren’t going to get Macchione out of trouble, though. He’s being charged with two misdemeanors; battery and illegal conduct within a sports facility.

Kudos to Victorino who not only CAUGHT the ball amidst the splattered rain of beer, he is also saying the right things now. He’s not holding it against the fans of Wrigley (Ozzie Guillen, are you paying attention?):

"No, I love playing here. I love the atmosphere. I love the way they go about the game."

Reading some blog comments and forums, I’m seeing some backlash especially from Cub fans who think that the reaction to what Macchione did is “over-reacting” pointing to incidents in the parks.

a) something that happened elsewhere, at another time does not make this right

b) the fact that Victorino did not get hurt also does not make it right

c) stop making excuses

I don’t think anyone reading this will take issue with me on this but the basic problem here is respect for the game of baseball. That problem permeates on all levels, management, players, and fans.

When you see a fan who thinks it’s okay to dump a beer on a player simply because he is there or because he on the other team or because the players are there for our “entertainment”, that is a prime example when a fan has lost respect for the game of baseball.

Uncle Joe Cannon’s Jamboree vintage base ball Tournament- August 22

I had lunch with Shawn Lee today. Shawn is the web person and occasional ballist for our local vintage base ball team, the Vermilion Voles.

Aside from discussing what’s ailing major league baseball today, we talked vintage base ball. Shawn reminded me that the annual Uncle Joe Cannon’s Jamboree Tournament is coming up. For those in the East Central Illinois area, it’s a great chance to see some great vintage base ball (and lots of it!).

This year, they’ll be having it at the Voles’ usual home park at beautiful Kennekuk State Park. The tournament will take place on August 22 at noon. The Voles will be hosting the Chicago Salmon, Rock Spring Squirrels, St Louis Perfectos (and no doubt their bright red stockings).

Some Chicago Salmon players taken at the 2008 Jamboree

I went to the Uncle Joe’s Jamboree in 2008 and had a blast. I did a write up and posted some photos.

If you’re interested, please come. The teams love a crowd and really make try to get the spectators involved by speaking to them and informing them about how the game of base ball was played in 1858.

You can find more info (including their schedule) on the Voles’ web site.

Cubs at a low point but hey, the Pirates are comin’ to town

I’ll go on record here. If, god forbid, the Cubs don’t win the NL Central in 2009, the 2010 review mags and books will point to their series with the Philadelphia Phillies in mid-August and call it one of turning points of the season. A “lowlight” if you will.

And there would many reasons to do so.

The Cubs extended their losing streak to five games after getting swept by the Phils. When they lost 4-3 in a heartbreaking 12-inning affair in which Rich Harden was perfect into the sixth and the Cubs outhit the Phils 10 to 3. And when they were out-slugged 12-5 on Jeff Samardzija’s first career start.

And today, when Ryan Dempster saw his August ERA go sky high (Kudos to Jeff Baker, though who went 2 for 2 and has 11 hits in his last 5 games). Today’s rout of 6-1 puts the Cubs at 4.5 back in the NL Central.

No timing, no patience, no luck, and no clutch.

Oh as if the players weren’t having a tough enough time, who invited this fan into the park??

God, this kind of stuff puts me in a bad mood. There’s nothing anyone can say (including “I was drunk”) that excuses this.kind of behavior. If you can’t treat people with decency, then stay home. Chicago, the Cubs, and baseball doesn’t need need to make the news for this kind of crap.

But all will be fine again. Word has it Ted Lilly is ready to come back on Monday after his surgery. He threw five scoreless innings in Peoria A ball.

And this weekend, the Pirates are coming to town. This year, they’ve gone 4-2 against them. The last three years? Same ratio… 26-13.

So say it loud, Cub fans, The Pirates are comin’ to town and all will be fine again!

Rejoice!

25 things we miss

I enjoyed reading through Sports Illustrated’s list of 25 Things We Miss in Baseball.

There’s no reason to expect any of the listed 25 will ever come back nor for the most part, should they… we live in a different world (#11- Fans Running Out onto the Field, #9- Wimpy Middle Infielders)

But I get it. Some of the listed are products of baseball when it was a sport in age of more innocence. And if wasn’t innocent, we didn’t know it.

I still would like to hear organ music (#13) at a ballpark and quality mustaches (#7) would certainly bring some character to the game (Rollie Fingers, anyone?)

(link via Circling the Bases)