As Featherly and I sat through a cold night at Wrigley, we had a discussion on the effects of Carlos Zambrano’s anger.  Featherly felt that his anger and passion make him what he is, a great pitcher.  My counter argument was that this season, Zambrano’s temper has cost the Cubs some victories.  My point with this 2006 team, even with Lee and now even more without him, the Cubs really have no margin for error.  Especially with the rest of the NL Central on a tear.  The mantra you have heard from me since the beginning of the season is we have to keep it close until Wood/Prior/Miller are in the Cubs rotation.  The Cubs cannot afford to give away runs.  Walks, mental errors, pressing, all these things hurt the team hear or there and cost the team runs and sometimes games.  The Cubs need to play focused and near flawless baseball to get to the playoffs.   Take yesterdays performance against the Marlins. Pitching mistakes, defenisve mistakes, goofy plays.  It will cause you to lose a close game to a bad team like the Marlins, but it will get you killed against Houston, St. Louis, or even Milwaukee.  Of the seven runs Florida scored, six crossed the plate because of walks.  The Cubs are 13th in the league in walks issued.  Reliever Scott Williamson came into the came in the eight inning and issued a lead off walk.  He was then called for a balk by first base ump Bruce Froemming, already infamous in Chicago for spoiling Milt Pappas perfect game.  Williamson lost his cool, threw a wild pitch, and proceeded to walk the next two batters.  Dusty entered and pulled a double switch, having Howry come into pitch and Mabry play right and lead off the inning.  Mabry was put in because Jones looked horrible in right, flopping around like a fish out of water.  Howry came in and got Wes Helms to line one to right field, but Murton lost the ball in the sun, allowing to runs to score.  Mistake after mistake.  Angel Guzman looked good for his first outing, Murton had another clutch hit, and Ramirez jacked one.  The Cubs just got to get their heads on straight, especially Zambrano.  We need this team to keep their cool and try to string together more W’s.

Other notes;

-Question for all you Cubs fans that yelled at me for suggesting that the Cubs should trade Prior for Tejada and Eric Bedard.  Bedard is 4-1 and Tejada has the highest batting average in baseball.  Still think the trade was a bad idea?

-Ricky Nolasco looked real good out on the mound yesterday. I hope this is not one we regret for years to come.

-I am going to try and find out what the Cubs record is when Pierre reaches base versus these games where he does not reach.  I think I know how those results would turn out.

The Brew Crew come to town this weekend.  With the Cubs bats looking cold, let’s play to the baseball gods for some divine intervention.

Go Cubs!

Well, the Cubs just dropped the finally, but took 2 of 3 from the Fish.  A win is win, but it was the Marlins.  There are some concerns that Cubs fans should take away from these games, especiallly the Cubs top three hitters.  Milwaukee was picked by many to take the division.  They have proven streaky this season, but they look like they are on a hot streak coming into Wrigley.  This will prove to be a much more difficult match up than the lowly Marlins.

Tuesday night I made sure to wear long underwear as it gpt mighty cold down in Chicago.  I was a little nervous about the game, what with the amazing comeback the night before and the D-Train going against a rookie.  My co-pilot on this crazy tour is a guy who goes by the name Featherly.  We missed the train so had to go to Durty Nellie’s in Palatine for a few pregame beverages.  We met a bartender named Josh who told us we went to the game on Monday night and sat next to the Marlins owner.  Apparently he was even talking about Willis or Cabrera coming to the Cubs.  On the train, Featherly tried to scam a free ticket, but the train conductor was having none of it.  The ride down was fun and we me some cool Cubs fans, including Big Tim and his friend Arrien.  We all pregamed at Bernie’s and hung out with James the penut vendor and the Miller Light Girls.  Finally, Featherly and I went into the game.

Sean Marshall was fantastic.  His curveball was kneebuckling, he threw the fastball in the perfect location, and he kept hitters off balance.  He had a no hitter going into the fifth.  He ended up piching seven innings, the longest he has ever gone in the bigs, giving up only two hits and two walks with seven strike outs.  Willis was equally as impressive, and the Cubs played some small ball to get some runs.  Murton was big in this game.  In the fourth, Ramirez led off with a walk.  Barrett layed down a sac bunt to advance him to second.  Murton brought him home with a single, with Ramirez sliding head first, avoiding Olivo’s tag.  Then in the seventh,  Barrett and Murton hit back to back doubles to make it 2-0. Murton moved to second on Jacque Jones’ sacrifice, and then scored on Jerry Hairston Jr.’s bunt single.  Those insurance runs proved valuable.  Bob Howry came in to relieve Marshal to start the seventh, but struggled to get out of the inning.  He gave up three hts and one run, but got Cabrera to line out.  Dempster did the job and finished up the game.

I’ll write about today’s loss tomorrow.  Check out the gallery from last nights game!

It looked like the typical Cub loss.  Making a no name pitcher make your team look foolish and blow a game they should have won.  Jason Vargas, the fifth man in the Marlins rotation, was going up against the Cubs "Ace" Carlos Zambrano.  The Cubs proceeded to make Vargas, whose ERA was over 6 going into the game, look like Sandy Koufax.  Vargas gave up only one hit in 6 1/3 innings.  As ususal, Carlos Zambrano was an absolute head case, almost costing the Cubs the game.  Zambrano lost his cool in the first when he walked Dan Uggla.  After having words with the ump he fell behind to Miguel Cabrera who jacked one to left field.  Carlos gave up a walk to Cabrera in the third and got upset and lost focus.  He gave up a double to the next batter, Josh Willingham.  Then when he struck out in the third, Zambrano broke his bat over his knee.  I hope the Cubs fine him for all this bush league **** he keeps pulling.  The good thing is that Carlos settled down and ended up pitching seven innings and tying a career high with 12 strike outs.  I wish Zambrano would watch Maddux a little closer.  All these strike outs and waks caused Zambrano to throw over 110 pitches tonight.  If he want to pitch until he’s 40, he needs to learn how to let his defense do some work for him.  It looked like it was all over when the Cubs came to bat in the eighth.  Juan Pierre led of the inning against Marlins reliever Matt Herges.  Pierre with doubled to right center, giving the Cubs’ their second hit.  Ronny Cedeno then worked Herges for a walk.  It’s funny that the Cubs are last in the league in walks, but the two youngest guys on the team, Murton and Cedeno, know how to work a count. Maybe they can teach the veterans a thing or two.  Josh Johnson came in and relieved Hedges and proceeded to load the bases by walking Todd Walker.  Walker was robbed of hits three times in the game by the Marlins’ young defense, so I am glad he was able to draw the walk.  Then, Aramis hit a high chopper, and instead of throwing to first for the sure out, Cabrera rushed a throw to home to try and force out the speedy Pierre.  Cabreras low throw popped out of the glove of Marlins catcher Matt Treanor.  This made the game 3-1 with the bases loaded and nobody out.  Marlins’ manager Joe Girardi didn’t have anyone throwing in the bullpen.  It was Johnson’s game to win or lose.
Johnson got the first out of the inning by striking out Michael Barrett.  Than, Big Red, Mattt Murton, who was 0-9, delivered a tying, two-run single. Jones,who was booed by the Wrigley "faithful" earlier in the game, followed with a three-run shot to left.  Look Cubs’ fans, I know that it can be frustrating at times, but unless a Cubs player says something stupid to the media (Todd Hundley, LaChoke Hawkins), then we shouldn’t be booing our own guys.

If you would have told me that the Cubs would be 11-7 to start the season without one win from Zambrano, Wood, or Prior, I would have laughed.  Let’s stop the D-Train in his tracks and get a win tomorrow.

-One note about yesterdays Cardinals game that I forgot to write about in my last post.  I am officially starting the "I hate Jim Edmonds" club.  First Jim, you cry like a little girl because you couldn’t talk a warm bubble bath at Wrigley.  Then yesterday you ask the ump to check out the ball to see if Maddux was doctoring it.  Talk about "Triple A" garbage Edmonds, you can’t hit the ball so you cry to the ump.  You are a little bit!@ and I can’t wait to heckle you when you get you whiny *** back to Wrigley.

I’ll be at the game so I hope to see some of you at Bernie’s pregame.

Go Cubs!

The odds makers in Vegas have the Cubs beating the Marlins tonight as their lock for the day.  After a road trip that saw them go 5-4, the Cubs will be glad to be back home.  The Cubs should have gone 6-3 had they not blown that game on Saturday.  Maddux was magnificant again, carrying this team to another victory and preventing a sweep.  The team did everything they needed to do to win.  Pitch well, play defense, and a nice mix of small ball and long ball.  The Marlins should provide the Cubs with a nice opportunity to string some wins together.  Some other interesting notes;

-After the Cubs win in St. Louis, Walker was talking about the small ball that the Cubs played, Walker had this smart *** remark "From what I understand the last three years, that’s what people wanted anyways."   Maybe I am taking this the wrong way Todd, but what Cub fans have wanted is not long ball or small ball, but smart ball.  We are tired of closers who can’t close.  We are tired of having runners at second and third with no outs and not be able to score a run.  We are tired of having three pitchers in one game forget to cover first.  We are tired of a team that was not able to win without a home run.  We are tired of guys that can’t take a walk, lay down a bunt, hit behind a runner, or draw a walk.  So quit being condecending to the fans.

-If Zambrano cannot pull a win out, this will be beyond disappointing.  The Marling trimmed their payroll from 60 million to 15 million.  Twelve players in the majors make more than the whole Marlins team combined.  The Marlins are starting five rookies.  If you are a teams number one pitcher, and you are not facing Willis, then you have no excuse to lose to this team.  Period

-If Zambrano loses, than the Cubs have Marshall going up againts Dontrelle Willis.  Then you find yourself possibly losing the series.

-Welcome back Joe Girardi.  I pray that Dusty goes elsewhere and we can sign Joe.

I will be at the game Tuesday night, so I will bring my camera for pictures.  I will be at Bernie’s pregame, so stop on by and say hi,

Go Cubs!

As I wrote, the Cubs could have won yesterday game against Sidney Ponson and the Cardinals, but they blew it.  They had every opporunity to win, but didn’t have confidence to take the gift that the Cardinals gave them.  There are three people to blame for this loss; Aramis, Glendon, and Dusty/Larry Rothchild.

-Aramis is the only deep threat the Cubs have left, yet team have absolutly no fear of him.  They go right at him.  Why wouldn’t they?  He’s batting .189.  This is the same problem we had with Sammmy in 2004.  You can’t have you clean up hitter not being able to hit his own weight.  Ramirez had numerous opportunities to put the Cubs in a good postition to win this game.  I know he was called out on a bad call by the first base ump, but still he needs to pick it up.  He knows this. 

-Glendon Rusch was pitching beautifully.  I was watching the first four innings, thinking about how I would apologize to Glendon on this blog for tearing him apart lately.  Then he completely falls apart.  He walked the eighth and ninth hitters, So Taguchi and pinch-hitter John Rodriguez, with two outs in the inning.  Neither of these guy are good hitters.  In fact, they are mediocre. Now you put runners in scoring postition for the top of the line up.   David Eckstein followed with an RBI single to tie the game. Rusch then walked Hector Luna, another mediocre hitter to load the bases. The trick to beating the Cardinals is not allowing Pujols the opportunity to beat you.  Rusch was  given the hook and Scott Williamson came in to face Pujols, who singled to center to drive in the go-ahead runs.  Giving up a single to Pujols is getting off light.  You can’t blame Williamson for giving up a single to the hottest hitter in the game.  You blame Rusch, yet another Cubs starter who couldn’t get through five innings.

-I liked Dusty putting Cedeno in the two spot in the line up, but come on Dusty, John Mabry hitting fifth?  That was embarassing.  I want to know what Rothchild is doing with this pitching staff.  I know it is not the greatest staff, but this is ridculous.  Zambrano, Rusch, Williams, are big leaguers with years of experience.  All three have said that they have lost concentration in a game.  How do you "lose concentration"  or "lose focus"?  Rothchild better do something, whether he asks Baker/Hendry to call up some other pitchers from Iowa, or else start giving these guys some of Scott Eyre’s Ritalin to keep these pitchers focused.  Marshall is a rookie who never threw in a Triple-A game before.  You can’t blame him, but these other three are killing this team.  Zambrano shows signs of improvement, but Williams and Rusch don’t.  Our pitchers have got to stop walking mediocre hitters.  Rothchild needs to start doing something.  Jim Hendry spent a lot of cash to give us a quality bullpen.  Now, because of the injuries to the BrokeArm Mountain Boys and the poor outings by Rusch, Williams, and Zambrano, along with the in experience of Marshall, this bullpen is being overworked.  These bullpen guys can only work in a limited amount of innings.  Overwork them and they will get injured or become ineffective.  Take a look at Eric Gagne.  He was the most dominant closer in the game, yet when he lost his set up guy Guillermo Mota, he was forced to pitch longer outings, two innings rather than one.  Now look at him.  Stuck on the DL two years in a row.  Don’t be surprised if the same thing doesn’t happen to a few of these guys in the bullpen if this keeps up.  Now we are asking Maddux to give us another miracle.  Sooner or later, the bubble is going to burst.  Maddux is not going to go 32-0 this season. 

Look at the line for yesterday’s game.  The Cubs had one run on six hits with no errors.  The Cards had 4 runs on 4 hits and one error, yet the Cubs are the ones that lose. Why?  Six walks, four by Rusch.  The Cubs let one slip away.  You could see they were pressing, especially when Walker tried to stretch a single into a double and was nailed by six feet.  The Cubs need to get their acts together quick.  A win would have had them a game and a half behind Houston.  Instead they are now two and a half behind the ‘Stros.  They cannot start to slip away.  This team needs to do some deep soul searching.

OK.  I’m, back. Enough of this poor me garbage.  It’s time for the Cubs and Cubs fans to realize that we can still do this.  Like the great Belushi said, "Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?  No, nothing’s over until we say it’s over.  Who’s with me?"  It’s going to be much harder without Derek Lee.  In fact, I will stick by what I said earlier.  Derek will not be back until mid-September, and if the Cubs aren’t in the playoff hunt, then he will not be back this season, period.  That being said, the Cubs need to step it up in every part of their game; pitching, defense, and hitting.  We cannot wait for Ramirez and Jones to start hitting.  They need to hit now.  We can’t have Pierre be hot one game and ice cold the next.  We need him to be consistent.  If the Cubs want it bad enough, they are going to have to put in the time.  Jerome Williams was horrible yesterday.  I know he pitched well against a bad team, the Pirates, but this guy has got to go.  This guy just can’t pitch at this level.  How do you walk the eighth and ninth batter in a line up?  Really Jerome, you couldn’t throw a strike against Mark Mulder?  You had to walk in a run?  You couldn’t get through two innings?  Quit sitting on your hand Jim and Dusty, get Hill or Guzman up and get rid of Williams.  His ball had absolutely no movement, he had no control, he stunk.  The rest of the bullpen looked good except David Aardsma.  This is killing me because I pushed hard to have him called up.  Hopefully he finds it soon.  Today Rusch goes up against Sidney Ponson.  We can beat that fat drunk.  Be patient against this bloated moro& and win this game.  The Cubs need to keep close to the pack until there starters get back.  Prior faced batters for the first time Friday in Mesa.  Miller is supposed to be ready by Jne 1st.  Unfortunately for the Cubs, Kerry Wood had another "minor setback".  He was supposed to throw against minor league hitters, but he felt "tightness" and the Cubs shut him down.  What a surprise.  I am sorry to all the Wood fans(sorry Eichenberger), but I can’t wait until the end of this year when Wood is no longer a Cub.  Thanks for the memories Kerry, but I can’t take the disappointment anymore and I will glad to get a pitcher who can actually pitch.  Whatever we get out of him this year will be fine and dandy, then it’s time for the Cubs to move on.

Other notes;

-I wantto thank Marc, who writes a Cardinals blog,http://rabidstlfan.mlblogs.com, for his kind words about Derek Lee.  I also thought it was classy that the St. Louis organization had a nice get well message for Lee on their scoreboard also.  Marc, to answer your question, Mabry is a great guy to come off the bench, get a pinch hit, and give guys a day off.  You know that from Mabry’s years of service in St. Louis.  Unfortunately, the guy is not an everyday player.  I would rather haveWalker playing first.  If Dusty wants to put Mabry in the line up every few days, I am fine with that, just as long as Walker is playing second.  We cannot afford to have Walker’s bat on the bench.

-Look, we all know that Pujols is a great player, but doI have to hear Bob Brenley give Albert the old reacharound the whole game, geez!

- One comment to the PR official from the Dodgers who told Ernie Banks to be quiet in the press box.  If you didn’t hear the story, Banks was in the press box in L.A. when the Cubs made their comeback against the Dodgers on Wednsday night.  According to the Chicago Tribune, "After Cubs right fielder Jacque Jones threw out Sandy Alomar at the plate in the seventh inning of the Cubs-Dodgers game at Dodger Stadium, Banks started applauding loudly from his seat in the press box. In accordance with long-established "no cheering in the press box" custom, he was asked to stop."  Banks apologized for his actions, but he is a seventy five year old die hard Cubs fan.  Was it really that big of a deal? To the LA press guy who asked Mr. Cub, a living legend and hall of famer to be quiet, don’t even think about coming to Chicago or you will get a Crawly boot up your ***.

Keep the faith Cubs fans, I know this is painful, but we can still pull this off.

Go Cubs!

I have been staring at this computer for thirty minutes trying to figure out how to write this post.  The feeling of emptiness, loss, a promising season all on the ropes.  A week and a half after signing a sixty-five million dollar deal, the best Cubs player since Ryno was clutching his wrist, grimicing in pain.  The look on his face, Dusty’s postgame comments, the description of the somber clubhouse after a come from behind victory told the real story.  Now the Cubs have to deal with Derek Lee, last years batting champion and the MVP of the Cubs, will be gone for 2-3 months with broken bones in his wrist.  Not only that, but Scott Eyre, who has been phenomenal this season and who signed a big contract with the Cubs this off season, hurt his knee on the same freak play.  Who knows how this will affect his season?  What in the world have we done to deserve this?  Is this because of that stupid goat?  Since 2003, the Cubs have been dealing with injury after injury after injury.  Kerry Wood, Mark Prior, Joe Borowski, Todd Walker, Aramis Ramirez, Chad Fox, Nomar, and numerous other Cubs all have spent significant time on the DL over the last few seasons. It isn’t fair.  Nearly a year to the day that Nomar fell to the ground with a groin tear, Lee gets injured in a collision with the guy the Cubs were going to sign. The Cubs were doing exactly what they were supposed to be doing; treading water until their three starters got healthy.  Now what?  Lee’s injury could have a huge domino affect that could be felt for years to come.  Here are the Cubs current options;

-Have Harriston hit second in the line up and play second, have Walker play first and hit third.  This seems like the best solution, but Walker is not a true number three hitter.  The Cubs will not have enough power in the lineup to compete in the NL Central.  Walker is also not a first baseman and will not have the defensive skills that Lee does.  This will expose Ramriez and Cedeno’s poor defense.  I don’t even want to think of how many errors this will cost us.

-Call up a kid from the minors.  Of course Brian Dopirak, who had a great spring for the Cubs, especially while Lee was at the WBC, broke a bone in his foot and is out for the season.  The Cubs may call up Ryan Theriot, Michael Restovich, or someother kid to give first base a try.  This will hurt the Cubs more than it will help them.

-The Cubs could dabble in a minor trade, giving away quality players for one mediocre player like former Cub Hee Seop Choi.  Haven’t we already traded enough young talent away?

-The Cubs could make a huge trade by selling the farm, literally.  The Cubs could package Jacque Jones, Rich Hill, Angel Guzman, and Felix Pie to the Marlins for Dontrelle Willis and Miguel Cabrera.  Willis would provide another important arm and Cabrera could fill the offensive void left by Lee.  There is no guarentee the Marlins would go for this, we could lose Willis and Cabrera to free agency, and anyone of those young kids could be a future All Star, especiall Pie.  It would be a huge gamble.

-The Cubs could wait until next year.

The earliest I could see Lee back at first is in September.  The Cubs do not have the pitching to win them games right now, the offense will not be able to generate runs.  The bullpen is already overworked and we are not out of April.  The rest of the NL Central looks too good.  Who knows if he will ever be the same again?  Dusty will be gone when the season is over.  Why would he want to stick around for this?  Dusty says he has never seen anything like the injury bug that has plagued the Cubs the last three years.  I am sure he is on the floor somewhere in the fetal position,******** his thumb and crying, like the rest of us in Cub Nation. 

Here’s hoping for a miracle.

Another brilliant game by Maddux.  Keeping the Dodgers off balanced, making jumping stabs at balls over his head, catching Furcal trying to get a jump to third base, hitting an RBI single, this guy did it all.  Maddux retired the first nine batters he faced, Maddux threw 86 pitches in eight innings, 58 of those were strikes.  The game lasted just under two hours.  I really hope all the players on the team absorb how Maddux interacts with his coaches, felow players, fans, and media.  They’ll soon learn why Chicago, and everywhere else love this guy.  Here are a few of his postgame comments;

On age-"Age is just a number, I heard Julio Franco say it a million times. I used to laugh at him, but now I know what he means."

On comparing his pitching to his 1994 season, the last time he started 3-0-"Nope, don’t remember that far back,"

On picking off Furcal on second-"That was all Larry(Rothchild).  Larry told me to put that on. Good for him."

On his RBI-"I had a cheap hit, imagine that,"

On pulling himself after eight innings- "I was pretty done. I’ve got 30 more starts. Let Demps come in and do his job."

On his performance-"There were balls they hit that I thought would have been out in Wrigley but are [at the] warning track here, and the balls they hit hard, were hit right at people."

-On his altered workout routine in the off season-"I didn’t do anything special. It’s how you pitch, not how you work out."

In an era of selfish players, jerks like Barry Bonds, prima donnas, and whiners, Greg Maddux is such a breath of fresh air. 

The Cubs also played a little long ball and a little small ball to help Maddux get win number 321.  Walker hit a solo shot in the first.  In the fifth the patience of Murton and the speed of Cedeno and Pierre brought home three runs.  Muron got Dodger pitcher Brett Tomko to walk him, then Cedeno hit a single to right, moving Murton to third.  Maddux blooped a single driving in Murton and moving Cedeno to second.  Pierre than laid down a beautiful bunt that caused third baseman and ex-Cub Bill Mueller’s throw to be off the mark for an error.  This allowed Ronnie Cedeno to score.  Todd Walker finished up the inning with a sac fly.

Other Notes;

- Congrats to Ryan Dempster for tying Joe Borowski’s record of 22 straight save opportunities.

-Welcome back to the bigs David Aardsma.  Of course the other guys in the bullpen made him carry a red fire engine backpack to the bullpen that was filled with sunflower seeds and other useful items.

-Kerry Wood threw a side session for Rothchild at Dodger Stadium.  Wood may be able to pitch a rookie game in Arizona amd then, possibly, a minor league assignment. Wade Miller is about two weeks behind Wood and  Prior threw fifty pitches in Arizona.

-A special Crawly shout out to awsome Cub fans Tom F, Jim and Joe B, Dion D, and Chris J, former students of mine who found this blog somehow.  Good to hear from you guys!

Tonight Zambrano pitches against sinkerballer Derek Lowe.  The Cubs have stuggled against sinkerballers this season, so lets hope Big Z gets his first win tonight.

Go Cubs!