This Offensive Juggernaut Rolls On

That got me thinking about Barrett. He's a good bat, of course, but he's no Damian Miller behind the plate. I know Miller was a solid clubhouse guy, but was he as good as I remember behind the plate?

Bigger picture, was the '03 team pretty good fundamentally? Outside of the rotation, the '04, '05 and '07 lineups were much stronger than the '03 squad and those pens were (on paper, at least) better -- no Alfonseca, Veres.

I know the '03 team was far from a regular-season powerhouse. But that group was MUCH better in 1-run games. It seems like since that season, the Cubs have had an odd combo of lots of talent AND lots of galling losses.

In '04 and '05, injuries played a huge role, of course, to say nothing of last year's disaster. But this year, aside from a few lost games from Lee and Soriano, the Cubs have been basically healthy.

So if we're healthy and still losing a lot of close games, does that mean are fundamentals have gotten even worse?

The best moment of the game was the military guy who lost both arms and both legs throwing out the first pitch.  It was sad to see he pitched better than Scott Eyre but I like the standing ovation he got.  One thing I noticed was during the Moment of Silence at 3:00 PM people were shouting out GO CUBS!!!, YEAHHHH!

Sad to see us get shutout by a guy that has an ERA of over 7.00 going into the game but looking back at the tape, Kim had some nasty stuff today.  His pitches were moving all over the place.

Let's go out and win tomorrow night.

I didn't think that was terrible. The strikeouts are somewhat to be expected in that situation with that guy on the mound. We did manage to score 3 runs.

I was impressed that Marshall didn't have any kind of meltdown today. He got into some tough spots early.

I flat don't like Eyre, but frankly I can only think of about 3 games that I feel like the bullpen lost for us. I know their win-loss record says otherwise, but many of those losses were in extra innings where the offense never would score. Eventually, any bullpen is gonna give something up. Yesterday was a painful loss, but the bullpen gave up 2 runs in 5 innings. If you take Eyre out of the equation, the bullpen has a pretty solid 3.65 ERA. Howry has two terrible outings, other than that has been pretty good. Wertz is having what is shaping up to be a career season. Cotts was incredible at the beginning of the season until he had those last two outings that were awful.

To me I think Lou can get more out of the pen than he is getting. Why we want to convert Cotts to a starter is beyond me. I hope that works out, but I would rather see Cotts come back to the pen and send Eyre to the DL (or AAA or AA or anywhere but here). Then I'd start stretching Wuertz a little more. If we can get 2 innings out of Wuertz from time to time or at least 1.1,1.2 then that eliminates the need to use so many guys. Marmol had better control today, so let's use him in some more low pressure outings to make sure he's ready. Then he may be able to help us. And finally, I would look around for one more quality RP, probably a leftie since Cotts future is uncertain. And then, if Kerry Wood makes it back later in the year and can contribute, then that's just icing on the cake.

In any event, the bottom line is everyone thinks their bullpen stinks when their team doesn't hit. Starters are paid to keep you in the game until you can score, but if you never do, the bullpen will give it up eventually. Even if it takes 15 innings. And these guys will hit. They already have. They're in a collective slump now, but earlier in the month, they hit pretty well, especially Soriano, Lee and Ramirez.

And finally, Al I'm not comfortable with your use of absolutes. Soriano doesn't have to make that play in LF today. He probably should make it 75-90% of the time. So today he didn't. It had little to do with why the Cubs lost. It was a pretty decent hit. Every series you state what the Cubs have to do to be a contender. But in reality, they really don't. In 2003 the Cubs were below .500 in late July. The Central was pretty bad. So let's just say that the Cubs have enough talent to win the World Series if they start playing well at the right time. Because that is absolutely true.

Somehow we've got to get back to the basics........pitching and defense.....and consequently, maybe it's time for the Barrett catching experiment to end, as others have already noted.

The National League is bad.  The NL Central is brutally bad.  What does this say about the Cubs?!?  It's not like the Cubs are an awful team in a mega-competitive league and division.  

The new ownership group can't happen soon enough.  Hopefully the new group will come in a drop the atomic bomb on the front office and minor league system.  

i must say, the cardinals look truly terrible this year. a beautiful day for baseball here in denver, but a bit too high on the hollow patriotism for my tastes. coors field was packed with cardinal red. i wore my cubs hat. kip wells was atrocious and the card's offense was constantly sputtering. i was at least happy to bear witness to how low they have sunk this year.

what else can any of us say about this cubs team except -> let's see if we can get back on track starting tomorrow........(sigh)

<<Sean Marshall's first-inning error which led to a run (other than that, Marshall threw another credible game, even though I don't think he threw a single pitch over 90 MPH)>>

Anyway, I don't get out to the bleachers much, but I'll make a point of dropping by next time I do -- I had fun, but even the most excruciating games are still days of baseball, which is great in and of itself.

eesh.

B.  Bench Jacque Jones.  Yep, you heard me.  The guy who has defended Jones in the past.  Right now Jones is in a funk.  He needs time off to get his offensive game pieced back together.  

C.  Call up Felix Pie.  I'm pretty sure we can't possibly be a worst team with Pie's bat in the lineup.  

D.  Trade Matt Murton.  He cannot be trotted out to right field any longer.  

E.  Send a wake-up call and trade Scott Eyre.  If Hendry can swap Eyre for a similar awful player and contract, then go for it.   If Hendry needs to eat a shit sandwich and swallow a lot of salary to make Eyre go away, then so be it.  

F.  Put Bob Howry on the DL with Wade Miller disease.  See if 15 days off can get him turned around.  Send out an All-Points-Bulletin for his velocity too.  

G.  Get Ryan Theriot in the lineup 5 days a week.  Just do it.  

if we were to let him go--what would our options be behind home plate?? Isn't AJ a free agent too? And a lefty hitter....clutch, would inject some fire into the team, nice platoon with Blanco (and surely an upgrade defensively).

Barrett, Jones, Izturis most likely not to be back with team in '08 or even after trade deadline, even tho they may not yield much in return...the only chance is that a contending team loses a key player and needs a fill-in, like the Sox now with Ozuna...If another team loses its starting C, RF or SS, we will be able to "sell'' with higher return.

Yes we have handled Willis well in the past. I don't even need stats to tell you this.
2003 in the NLCS in Miami we score a ton of runs off of Willis and that was the game Aramis hit the grand slam.

Now Some Stats:

Last year we beat him 3-1. We went 1-0 against him
In 2005 we went 1-1 against him.
In 2004 it doesn't look like we had a decision against him.
In 2003 we blasted him winning 16-2.
This is the NLCS game that we beat him in:
http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2003/B10110FLO2003.htm

So we are 4-1 career against him from what I can see. Hopefully Al can verify this in his game preview tonight.