Cubs | The Baseball Zealot

Former Illini almost catches Derrek Lee’s homer

On Sunday night, the Chicago Cubs beat the Reds 5-2 thanks to some timely hitting by some part-timers, Koyie Hill.

But Derrek Lee had a solo shot, too. And for those Illini baseball fans who were paying attention, they might have noticed who attempted to catch the ball.

None other than former Illini thirdbaseman, Dominic Altobelli.

Alas, Lee’s homerun ball bounced off the wall out of Altobelli’s grasp and went back in to the outfield grass.

Here’s the video of Lee’s homer and Dom just missing the catch.

Nice try, Dom!

Altobelli just finished his first season with the Casper Ghosts, the A affiliate for the Colorado Rockies.

Bring in (Jake) Fox

With the Cubs LF Soriano out now, maybe it would be a good time to get Jake Fox some playing time. He’s quite capable of playing left field.

Circling the Bases thinks so and I agree. Unfortunately, so far the Cubs have not taken that strategy. He hasn’t started since Sept 3 the last time Soriano played a game.

Tater-less

Baseball Reference’s Stat of the Day blog does the numbers work and determines who among active players has the most plate appearances with 0 homers.

Most are pitchers, of course, though #1 on the list is Angel OF Reggie Willits with 785 plate appearances.

What struck me is the number of Cubs and former Cubs on the list. Most notably, Ryan Dempster who ranks #6 with 491.

That’s ok, that’s not his job.

Milton Bradley: getting bad vibes, great obp

Say what you want about Milton Bradley but it doesn’t look like he’s having a good time in right field. According to beat writer Carrie Muskat, Bradley’s enduring a fair amount of “hatred” during games courtesy of Cub fans.

Bradley doesn’t hold back:

"All I’m saying is I pray the game is nine innings, so I can go out there the least amount of time possible and go home."

Wow. Good natured ribbing or fan abuse? Or just a over-sensitive rightfielder?

Either way, maybe the fans are targeting the wrong guy. It’s easy to look at Bradley’s season batting average of .259 and think he’s not pulling his weight. But look at his stats in the last 20 days. In that period, he’s batting .306 with a nifty .411 OBP (and that’s not including tonight’s game when he hit a homerun).

Since he’s moved to the second spot, the Cubs have leveraged his on base potential the best that a team in their position can. MB has had two 4-hit games in that same period.

So Cub fans, go easy on the guy. Pick on the beer vendor.

Cubs show reason not to give up

The Cubs managed to avoid a sweep and more embarrassment as Rich Harden pitched a gem of a game against the Padres. Harden only allowed a hit in seven frames.

The best part of it is that Cubs came through with some offense too. Milton Bradley and Aramis Ramirez both banged out homers for the good guys.

Bradley, though he gets a lot of flack, has improved over the season. His second half number are looking a whole lot better. Since the All-Star break, he’s hitting .301 and perhaps more importantly, his OBP is .431.

Wednesday’s win is just one game, yes, but I think if it was a loss, we’d be seeing a whole lot more about the Cubs in today’s sport columns. And it wouldn’t be a fun read.

That’s not to say there hasn’t been calls already by the sports media for this season’s demise for the Cubs . Some of it probably fueled by GM Jim Hendry’s statement to the press that sounded almost apologetic:

”If things don’t go well, certainly it’s my responsibility. ‘That being said, we’ve got a real good team. We just haven’t played up to our capabilities. It’s kind of a mystery to all of us. We’ve got a lot of guys that have hit their whole lives who haven’t hit. We’ve done a very, very poor job all year of hitting with men on base. So it’s frustrating.

Before Cub fans start pushing the panic button, they should consider this:

The Cubs have a winning record in the second half of 2009 UNLIKE the first half.
It was not two weeks ago that the Cubs finished their best run of the season when they went 14-6.
The Cubs remaining schedule is full of teams they can beat up on. Washington, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, St Louis (yeah, I said it, St Louis)

Right now though, the Cubs need to focus on the here and now. And the here and now is the Los Angeles Dodgers. Tom Gorzelanny will be facing Jeff Weaver tonight.

Interesting pre-game stat: Aaron Miles is 6 for 15 lifetime against Weaver.

Go Cubs!

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.

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.