While the rest of baseball merrily traipses into interleague play this weekend, the Cubs are going to be playing the Pirates... again. Someone in MLB's offices needs to take whoever is programming the scheduling computers, lock the doors, look them right in the eye and say, "What are you THINKING?" This isn't the worst example of scheduling so far this year, but it's among them. I'm not talking about the Cubs not playing interleague this weekend -- every time there's interleague play, there has to be a NL series since there are 16 NL and only 14 AL teams, and this weekend the Cubs are nominated -- but why on Earth would you schedule one team to play another 12 times in its first 50 games (yes, 50, because we play them again next weekend in Pittsburgh!). And after that, it's bye-bye Pirates till August.
That said, this is a good time for the Cubs to take advantage, since they are already 6-0 vs. the Pirates this year.
Thought this would amuse you: I got the YouTube link below from BCB reader RN24 -- it's a guy in his backyard imitating batting stances from current and past Cubs. He's got 'em nailed.
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For all you Edmonds-haters out there, the Pirates are starting three lefthanders this weekend, so it's likely that Reed Johnson will get the start in CF all three games (or, at least, that would make sense). The Cubs have already faced Gorzelanny twice this year and beat the heck out of him both times, scoring seven runs in less than three innings both on April 7 in Pittsburgh and on April 19 at Wrigley Field. In fact, Gorzelanny's ERA against everyone except the Cubs is 2.73.
Let's beat up on him again. After that he can go back to pitching well against other teams.
I thought Sean Gallagher threw well on short notice last Sunday; he did get charged with four earned runs in 4.1 IP, but two of those scored after he left the game, courtesy of Chad Fox. He has faced the Pirates only once, 1.1 innings of relief last July 6 in Pittsburgh; in that game, which the Cubs lost 8-4 mostly due to bad pitching by Jason Marquis, Gallagher issued a couple of walks and a double and would have gotten out of it unscored-upon if not for an error by Mike Fontenot.
And Sean? Do yourself a favor. Get another photo take. That one is scary!
Today's game is on WGN-TV, so it should be available to most of you -- unless you don't have WGN OR Extra Innings, since EI doesn't carry WGN telecasts. For more see the MLB.com Mediacenter.
MLB.com Gameday (2007 version)
MLB.com Gameday (2008 version)
Baseball-reference.com game preview
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Discuss amongst yourselves.