"People ask me what I do in winter when there's no baseball. I'll tell you what I do, I stare out the window and wait for spring." - Rogers Hornsby

:: Saturday, August 21, 2004 ::

Who Are These Guys?

Lemme get this straight.

After an eight-game stretch in which the Cubs lost six, and scored only 25 runs (a little over three per game), they have now won three in a row, scored twenty-five runs in those games, and hit eleven home runs...

two of them by Mark Grudzielanek???

OK, if this is a dream, don't wake the Cubs up, please!

My buddy Mike always says, "Enough drama, I want a blowout!" OK, he got one last night as the Cubs crushed the Astros 9-2, winning not only their third in a row overall, but their fifth in a row in Houston. This game was so much "in the bag" that Dr. Tightpants was allowed to pitch the ninth inning, which he did with uncharacteristic efficiency (at least compared to his most recent outings), nine pitches, six strikes, a 1-2-3 inning.

They've finally started doing what my friend John from Phoenix said in yesterday's e-mail -- beating up on the clubs that good teams are supposed to beat up on, and they did it again with not only the bats, but the guy who may be this year's best feelgood story, Glendon Rusch.

If not for a Morgan Ensberg smash double down the line in the first inning that just got beyond the reach of Aramis Ramirez, Rusch might have been allowed to finish this game; he hasn't had a major league shutout since 2002 (and only two in his career). The two-run double almost negated the Cubs' two-homer first inning, back-to-back jacks (as Ron Santo must have gleefully yelled on the radio) by Moises Alou and Sammy Sosa, the 28th for each of them, and Sammy does look better at the plate, slowly, each day.

As I mentioned the other day, the 1984 team used to just know it was going to come back from troubled innings and this team's starting to do that. The two first-inning runs were all Rusch would allow, and the power bats just kept on powering after that -- Nomar Garciaparra to LF in the third (after a CF single in the first -- this guy has absolutely incredible bat control), then Grudz' pair-o-solo-shots, and for good measure, Corey Patterson finished it up with a two-run job.

This Houston team looked tired, dispirited, beaten, a far different team than the one I saw two months ago on my trip to Houston. Even just watching via TV, you could see this team's just about quit on the season. They are now six games behind the Cubs, under .500 by a game, and the way they're playing they'll be lucky to finish with a winning record. They remind me a little bit of the 1973 Cubs, who were at the end of the line of several years of contention, and who tried to squeeze one last contending year out of a veteran team. Like this year's Astros, that team went out to an early division lead -- at one point leading by 8.5 games -- but flopped badly in the second half. The Astros did just get finished sweeping the Phillies, another team expected to contend that's just about run out of gas.

I kinda feel sorry for Roger Clemens, who could have had one of the best sendoffs for a retired player in sports history, with his World Series win last year. Instead, he'll play for a team that's going to finish no better than third in its division and he'll watch the postseason on TV for the first time since 1998. Just for that reason, I bet he comes back next year to try to redeem himself. The Cubs won't face him in this series, but due to this year's bizarre schedule, the Cubs face Houston again starting Thursday at home, and Clemens, who will start Monday as scheduled, should be on target to pitch on Saturday the 28th.

The Cubs' two competitors for the wild-card, the Giants and Padres, both won last night, so the Cubs remain a half game behind San Francisco (though with one fewer loss) and a game ahead of the Padres.

The conventional wisdom says the schedule favors the Cubs. Now's the time to continue taking advantage of that.

:: posted by Al at 9:10 AM [+] ::
...

This & That

The city's at it again -- ordering another inspection of Wrigley Field and threatening to not allow Monday's game if they are not satisfied.

And why are they doing this?

Because a Los Angeles Times reporter, their Chicago bureau chief, with the preposterous name of P.J. Huffstutter was supposedly quoted as saying that she had heard an unnamed "Cubs official" say that the repairs were "shoddy and the cause of falling concrete."

Later she called city building inspector Stan Kaderbek and said she had mixed up some quotes and that no such official had said any such thing.

But does that stop Mayor Daley's minions? No way. I'm sure there are inspectors out there today, and they'll find exactly the same thing they found the last time -- that with the safety nets in place, the ballpark is perfectly safe, and that the Cubs will make the necessary repairs, this time we assume WITH the proper permits, over the winter.

Click here for Huffstutter's original article from the LA Times (free registration required). There's absolutely nothing in the article that suggests that repairs were "shoddy", or anything even remotely close to that. Mostly, the article's a rehash, seemingly aimed at Los Angeles readers who hadn't heard about this before, of the entire situation. The focus of the article is about the clash between the mayor and the Chicago Tribune, not on the Wrigley damage/repairs specifically.

And so it goes.

One thing I left out from yesterday's post: at Miller Park, when the umpires were introduced, they were introduced at the positions they had occupied on Wednesday night, rather than rotating one base as umpires normally do, and as they did in fact do on Thursday. Most likely, this is probably because the PA announcer (and incidentally, I found the PA VERY loud yesterday, and they had one of those smarmy idiot DJ-type announcers doing between-innings stuff, VERY annoying) had the wrong sheet in front of him.

The conspiracy theorist in me might think that it's because the umpires wanted to hide Wally Bell, who was behind the plate yesterday, after his missed call on Tuesday night. But I'd never say anything like that.

For whatever it's worth, Bell called a good game behind the plate yesterday.

Finally, I got e-mail from John in Phoenix, commenting specifically on my thoughts on Steve Stone's "marathon vs. sprint" comment the other day, and my thoughts about it:

I agree with both you AND Stoney regarding the idea of it being a marathon -vs- a sprint at this point in the season.

I agree with you in the sense that it is clearly too early to be going to the whip and treating each game like it was the 7th game of the World Series. In fact, I would argue that it is too early to be changing anything major with regards to the approach to each game. Tweaking is fine, going with what is working is fine, but there is still a long way to go and the LAST thing you want to give is the appearance of panicking. (See the 1964 Phillies).

However, I agree with Stone in that I believe the schedule affords the Cubs a MAJOR opportunity to create some separation between themselves and the other wild card contenders at this point in the season.

The bottom line is that the Cubs are a better ballclub, top to bottom, even with BP worries, than the Brewers, Reds, Astros, Pirates, etc. Now is the time to show it on the field and to be ruthless about it.

Because the BP problems are well documented at this point, the Cubs need to keep the pressure on when they get teams down by 3, 4, 5 or more runs. They need to make sure they don't "give away" at bats, as teams tend to do when they get a big lead.

In short, they need to develop a "killer instinct". They cannot go on cruise control when they build a lead when the starting pitcher is in the game. They need to approach each at bat as though it were a tie game, no matter how far ahead they are.

And they need to do it NOW. The fact that they are playing sub .500 teams will not help them as much in the last 2-3 weeks of the season. That is when the pressure builds on the contending teams (along with the propensity to fold under the pressure) and also that is when the non-contending teams are the most dangerous. They have no pressure on them and the motivation for them is to knock one of their rivals out of post season play. In other words, the Pirates, Astros, etc are less dangerous NOW than they are in mid to late September. So, it is time to take advantage.

Not to go to the whip necessarily, but just to intensify that killer instinct that has you go for the jugular when you get a team down.

I will be surprised and disappointed if the Cubs don't have at least a 3-5 game lead in the wild card race by mid-September.

I couldn't agree more. I think the Cubs did show that killer instinct the last two days in Milwaukee. Let's go get them this weekend in Houston.

:: posted by Al at 12:25 PM [+] ::
...

How The Other Half Lives

MILWAUKEE -- Howard and Jon bought, from a seller on eBay, two prime "dugout seats" for today's game, which included a "preferred" parking pass and four passes to the .300 Club, the Miller Park stadium club above the LF bleacher seats.

I already had a ticket for the game, but since they had the extra club passes, we all drove up together, and went into the club for a buffet lunch, which you reach by riding an elevator, which had a bored-looking young man sitting there so he could push the floor button.

I'm all in favor of giving jobs, but seriously -- is this one necessary?

It's weird to be in there. First, the ballpark was mostly empty when we got there, so we watched an empty field (the Cubs, as is their practice, don't take BP on day games after night games) for a while, and then the Brewers showed up for their own hitting. What's even weirder is that the windows are totally sealed shut, so all you hear is Muzak. You can't hear any crowd noise whatsoever.

The food's pretty good. It's a typical lunch spread, salads, deli stuff and some carved meats.

Naturally, we checked out the tomatoes. All they offered were cherry tomatoes, so that made the tomato ritual (which worked so well three Thursdays ago at the very same location) a bit more difficult. I ceremonially cut open one of the cherry tomatoes, bit off a piece and dropped it -- right on the second inning.

You're welcome for Derrek Lee's three-run homer which tied the score at that time and set the stage for one of the best Cub offensive showings in weeks, and though they blew a 5-4 lead, the Cubs came back and beat the Brewers 9-6, evening the season series at 7 each, and after losing the first three games in Milwaukee this year in a sweep, the Cubs won five of the last seven.

In walking to our seats, we ran into Brian and a few of his friends who had gotten some other tickets that Howard had run across, and also saw Jim & Mary Ellen from the LF bleachers.

I sat in my seat in section 109 for two innings, calling Howard after Lee's homer to remind him of the power of the tomato, and it was then that he told me that a single seat next to them in section 106 had been empty, so I went to sit with them for the rest of the game, right behind the Brewers dugout, where we had a closeup look at the finish line for the sausage race, among other things (the Italian sausage won today).

That's another strange thing for me -- I'm so used to the angle from the RF bleachers that when I sit elsewhere it's sometimes hard to pick up pitches, and that was the case today, made worse, oddly enough, by the bright sunny day. With the roof open (despite the coolish 64-degree gametime temperature), shadows start to cross the plate by about the fourth inning. Then -- the sun dips to the west and shines through the windows behind the 1B line seats, leaving us in bright sunshine in our seats, the entire infield in shadow, and the entire outfield in total sun, which is a very strange way to watch a game. They built Miller Park on the same diagonal that County Stadium was -- with home plate in the northwest corner. Most ballparks have home plate in the southwest corner (the Cell and Yankee Stadium, notable exceptions), which makes for much easier dealings with the sun.

Anyway, I've obviously digressed. Greg Maddux hurt himself with his own defense today, which is not like him at all, though he can be forgiven his first-batter error on Scott Podsednik's comebacker, because it hit him in the leg first. The next two batters hit playable balls, but the only result was a run scored, rather than the 1-2-3 inning Maddux should have had, and then Geoff Jenkins put the Brew Crew ahead 3-1 with a three-run homer of his own. But, after that, Maddux settled right down and threw six really efficient innings, winding up allowing four earned runs and throwing ninety-six pitches.

I found it interesting that in the eighth, an obvious slot for Kyle Farnsworth (and yes, I know there were left-handed hitters due up), Dusty went to Mike Remlinger, who would have gotten out of the inning unscathed if not for a Mark Grudzielanek error (isn't he supposed to be the better defensive 2B?).

Back in 1984, when the Cubs cruised to the NL East title, they won game after game in which they'd give up the lead early -- you just knew they'd come right back. Today's game had that feel to it, especially with Chris Capuano unable to throw strikes. A couple of Brewers fans next to me were commenting on this, which has been a Cub pitching staff bugaboo at times -- too many walks. Capuano wound up walking four in his 4.1 innings (98 pitches to get 13 outs), and three of them scored via the three-run homers by Lee and Aramis Ramirez. Sammy Sosa added a solo job of his own, and looked better today at the plate, also singling and drawing a walk. Maybe the #5 spot is growing on him.

As has been typical of all ten Cub/Brewer games at Miller Park this year, the crowd was probably two-thirds Cub fans, totalling 421,729 fans for an average of 42,173. That's probably about twice what those games would have drawn if the Brewers had played, say, the Expos, so Howard and I figured this: if the Brewers draw about 2 million this year, and it looks like they will, that's more than 20% of their total attendance in about 12% of their home dates, about 200,000 extra fans, for (wild-guessing here) about $5 million in additional revenue.

That's about 20% of Milwaukee's 2004 player payroll, right there, Cub fans. Congratulations. You're paying most of Geoff Jenkins' salary.

After the game, we found out what "preferred" parking means. It means you get preference to park up close when you come in -- and that means you're farther away from getting OUT when you leave. It took us about thirty minutes just to get out of the lot, and then seeing a lot of I-94 traffic, we took a scenic detour through some Milwaukee neighborhoods before joining up with the expressway again south of downtown. After that it didn't take too long to get back to Chicago, thanks to some shortcuts which I am NOT going to reveal here -- after all, they wouldn't be secret shortcuts then!

With the win, the Cubs pull to within a half-game of the idle Giants for the wild-card lead, and for whatever it's worth, 13.5 games south of the Cardinals, leading into the weekend series at Houston, where they have won four of the first six games played this season. And if you just haven't had enough of the Brewers... we'll see them again on Monday... unless...

the city of Chicago comes through on yet another threat to shut Wrigley Field down. Another inspection has been ordered, and I'm sure this will happen tomorrow.

I have absolutely no doubts that the Cubs will do whatever it takes to open the ballpark for business on Monday.

:: posted by Al at 8:35 PM [+] ::
...

A Long Day's Journey Into Night

This is what both the Cubs and I had yesterday.

Usually, I'm off work every day by noon, as I get up when most of you are sleeping in the middle of the night. Yesterday, I was asked to return to work to direct the 4 pm news, so my long work day didn't end till 5:00 in the afternoon, and then the long day continued thanks to the Brewers' Russell Branyan, who hit two game-tying home runs and sent the game into extra innings. And yes, I did stay up till the end -- couldn't miss this one -- and that means I'm yawning big-time here at work this morning.

The game's ending felt like the 17-inning game last year, primarily because the game-winning hit was the same -- a two-run homer off the bat of Corey Patterson, and the Cubs beat the Brewers 7-5 in 11 innings, moving back ahead of the Padres into second place in the wild-card race, a game behind the Giants.

That's only the result, though. The most important thing that happened last night is this:

The Cubs became a team.

Why do I say this? There has been much written lately, in the mainstream media and by members of the CBA, about the selfish attitudes shown by many of the Cubs players. We don't have to rehash that here.

But I saw, in the extra innings, players on the top steps of the dugout cheering on their teammates. Players with rally caps on -- when was the last time you saw a Cub do that? Carlos Zambrano leading cheers in the dugout.

Every time the Cubs looked like they were going south last night, someone picked them up.

Really, there were only two bad pitches thrown by Cub pitchers in the entire game -- the two that were smashed for long home runs by Russell Branyan, who drove in all five Milwaukee runs with a three-run homer off Matt Clement in the third, and a two-run homer off Mike Remlinger (only the second he's allowed all year) in the bottom of the 8th after the Cubs had carefully fashioned a two-run lead without the benefit of a home run (single runs in the fifth and seventh).

There were so many heroes last night. God, Nomar is a god. He hit three doubles, each one to a different field. He's got amazing bat control, and he also made several slick fielding plays, including two in extra innings.

And last night might be the day we look back on and say, "This was the day that Corey Patterson arrived as a star." Corey singled, doubled and hit the game-winning homer in the 11th, scored three runs, stole a base and finally looked like the guy that Dusty Baker says could be the next Lou Brock.

Patterson's homer came right after Steve Stone made yet another comment that reminds all of us exactly how good he is. The Brewers had just called up lefty Travis Phelps from Triple-A; his ML experience consisted up to then of 75 mediocre appearances for Tampa Bay in 2001 and 2002.

After Phelps walked Ramon Martinez, Stone said, "Phelps is a lefty who slings the ball, someone a left-handed hitter like Patterson ought to be able to hit hard."

BOOM! Corey ran the count to 2-2 and then hit his homer, almost a carbon copy of the game-winner on May 15, 2003 at Miller Park. Then LaTroy Hawkins closed the game out fairly easily, though not without making it interesting by putting two runners on. This I'd define as the "Mitch Williams save", and he usually got them. My favorite Williams save was on Opening Day 1989, when he walked the bases loaded and then struck out the side, including Mike Schmidt to end the game.

I liked everything about this game (apart from the Branyan homers). Matt Clement threw great -- tied his career high in strikeouts with 13. I liked Dusty's new-look lineup with Sammy batting fifth. (I assume Todd Walker will sit again today against the lefty, Chris Capuano, though.)

More Steve Stone. He said something else that I'm going to take issue with. He repeated what Dave has often told me: "Baseball is a marathon, not a sprint."

But then he said, "This late in the year, it's not a marathon any more, now it is time to sprint."

I'm not sure I agree yet. There are 43 games remaining, and the Cubs moved back to within one game of the Giants, the wild-card leader, and ahead of the Padres, who lost to Atlanta last night at home. The Cubs also have played four fewer games than the Giants, and are actually ahead of them in the loss column.

My feeling is -- it's not time to sprint till September. Take the next two weeks and win, get everyone healthy, then sprint home, just as they did last year.

There's been a lot of naysaying lately, with the club looking poor, and let me tell you a little story.

In October 2000, I was in New York on business, and one of my friends at ABC in New York got me a ticket to one of the Mets/Cardinals NLCS games. It was a gorgeous fall day, nearly 80 degrees, and I sat next to a Mets fan who was constantly complaining about his team, how this guy couldn't hit, and this pitcher sucked, and all I was thinking was...

"BUT YOU'RE IN THE PLAYOFFS!"

Point being, it's never as bad as you think it is when it's going bad. Last night COULD be a turning point, I felt it and it sure looked like the team felt it, which, believe it or not, is even more important.

Howard, Jon and I head up to Milwaukee later this morning. As Mike said to me on Sunday, "Win today and all is forgiven."

Amen, brother.

:: posted by Al at 4:39 AM [+] ::
...

The Beginning Of The End

For once, an obviously wrong umpiring call did NOT cost the Cubs a ballgame.

I hate to complain, and I really think the ballplayers do too, but there seem to have been an inordinately large number of calls that have gone against the Cubs this year that have been so clearly wrong. Could this be a reaction to the Cincinnati series in April, where there were several bad calls and the two incidents which resulted in the Kerry Wood and Dusty Baker suspensions?

Whatever it is, this is more and more not looking like the Cubs' year. Yes, I know there is still plenty of time left.

But last night, despite the support of another sellout crowd at Miller Park that was at least half Cub fans, the listless Cubs could not generate any offense whatsoever (no, I don't consider a solo homer by Sammy Sosa to be "offense"), and they lost to the Brewers 3-1.

With the Giants and Padres both winning last night, the Cubs drop all the way to third in the wild-card race, a game and a half behind San Francisco, now leading. All three teams have lost fifty-five games.

[a rant]

Let's talk about the bad call first. There is absolutely no doubt that Corey Patterson, after catching a sharp line drive in center field, doubled Brady Clark off first base. Three different replay angles showed that Derrek Lee had his foot on the base with Clark's hand still nearly a foot away. 2B umpire Wally Bell called Clark safe.

Why was Bell making this call rather than 1B umpire John Hirschbeck? We have no idea, because none of them said a word about this after the game.

I've seen this more and more from umpires in the last few years. They have become arrogant. They have started confrontations with managers and players rather than walk away from them. The best umpires are the ones you never notice. If you go through watching a game without thinking about the umpiring, then they have done their jobs well. And I don't want to give the impression that I'm blaming the umpiring for all the Cubs' woes lately, because they have enough problems of their own.

But after this season, I think MLB has to sit down and really figure out a way to:

* set exact procedures for umpires to follow in disputes and then stick to them;

* demote or fire umpires who are clearly incompetent or incapable of doing their jobs.

[end rant]

OK, I feel better now. This call did not cost the Cubs the game, bad as it was, because there's debate over whether the Brewers' third run, which scored on this play, would have scored before or after the play at first base. Regardless, it didn't matter because the Cubs' only run was Sammy Sosa's (sigh) solo homer in the 2nd. The Cubs did manage to load the bases with Sosa batting again in the next inning, but Sammy struck out -- at least he managed to run the count full first.

I'm still absolutely puzzled as to why Dusty refuses to play Todd Walker against right-handed pitching, as he was doing for a while. Walker's been hitting great this month -- when he's allowed to play. What I also didn't understand about yesterday's choices by Baker was this: why was he saving Moises Alou to pinch-hit for the pitcher in the 9th, when he could have come up as the tying run, batting for Mark Grudzielanek? Yes, I know Grudz had two hits yesterday, but at a certain point you've got to get your hitter actually into the game.

Mike said to me on Sunday that he felt the wheels falling off, and at the time I disagreed, but unless the ballclub can win the next two games, I think I may have to concur with that assessment.

All the experts still think the Cubs ought to be the favorites for the wild card -- check out today's Phil Rogers column from the Tribune (free registration required).

We used to say that they ought to tear the grass out of Wrigley Field and replace it with paper, because the Cubs always looked great on paper. Now it's time to perform up to those standards.

I was absolutely astounded that the Cubs did not make a roster move before the game. I believe that at the very least, Kyle Farnsworth must go to the DL -- there's clearly something wrong with him.

This may sound bizarre due to the bad year he's had, but yesterday the Padres released Rod Beck. With his history with Dusty Baker and the ballclub, why not sign him to a Triple-A contract? Give him some innings at Iowa and see if there's anything left. At the very least he could help the club in September, and if not, it costs you almost nothing.

And, here's an e-mail I got from Neil MacDonald in the UK, responding to my thoughts about making Mike Remlinger the closer:

You will recall that he was rushed up from his minor-league rehab this spring when Kent Mercker went to the DL. He had a few short outings and then gave up 5 ER in 1/3 inning against the Cards.

The fact is that other than that one terrible outing (when he yielded the only homer he has surrendered this year) he has given up only 1 earned run all season.

In 29 other outings his ERA is a staggering 0.44. Looking at his game-logs he has also been putting in regular one-inning shifts rather than just LOOGY-ing, as happened briefly after his shelling by St.L.

The man works quickly, doesn't seem to get rattled and, arguably has the best repertoire of any of the bullpen personnel.

I'd put him in either the set-up or closer role now and leave him to it. The fact of the matter is he has been having a stellar season while flying below radar level.

Absolutely right. Dusty, you listening?

I actually got a call late yesterday from a co-worker offering me a ticket to last night's game. Glad I didn't take it -- but I will be going up for Thursday's day game. Watch for weird stuff to happen again.

:: posted by Al at 8:29 AM [+] ::
...

Musings On Closing

I wrote the other day that given how well Mike Remlinger performed in a save situation on Saturday, that maybe he ought to be given the job.

John Hill wrote me from the UK to concur, and he provides me with some stats and analysis, which I share with you as we await tonight's matchup in Milwaukee:

Here are some statistics that back up the general consensus that Hawkins has struggled since he was made closer:

Hawkins before and including June 4
(the date of Borowski's last appearance this year):
30.2 IP
1.47 ERA
0.75 WHIP
17 H (of which 3 HR, 2 2B), 6 BB

Hawkins after June 4:
30.0 IP
3.90 ERA
1.37 WHIP
36 H (of which 6 HR, 8 2B), 5 BB

The walks have remained constant, but Hawkins is giving up a lot more hits and a lot more extra base hits as the closer, and as a result a lot more runs. In fact, outside of the troublesome bullpen situations in Colorado, Arizona, San Francisco and Montreal, not one closer in the National League has worse ERA and WHIP numbers than Hawkins has accumulated in his time as closer.

Remlinger on the other hand looked comfortable getting the save on Saturday, and even if he's no better than Hawkins as the closer, using Remlinger as the closer would at the very least allow, as you said yourself, Hawkins to revert to the setup role in which he excelled for two years in Minnesota and 30.2 innings at the start of this season here in Chicago. Remlinger has done well in middle relief this year, but Mercker, the criminally underused Leicester and the young Todd Wellemeyer (who I believe should be in the bullpen over Dempster) could easily cover his workload there.

As for Remlinger being a lefty, you may be interested in his splits for 2001-2003:

531 AB vs right, 186/280/290
253 AB vs left, 277/335/455

Obviously, those splits are the wrong way around. He may have given up too many walks to right-handers, but when he did throw them strikes they sure had trouble hitting him. Lefties on the other hand didn't.

To confuse the issue, of course, this year Remlinger has held lefties to 216/262/324 in their 40 plate appearances against him, while continuing to enjoy success against right-handers when he's not walking them.

Of course, I cannot see Dusty doing it on the grounds he throws with his left-arm, or something like that, but I agree entirely with the idea of Remlinger as the closer, at least until the Joe Borowski of 2003 returns.

I couldn't have said it better than that. Thanks, John.

:: posted by Al at 1:52 PM [+] ::
...

This & That...

... on today's off day.

No word on any roster moves yet, but I have to believe that Jim Hendry's cellphone battery is running down constantly today. We shall see.

Kerry Wood's suspension, from his tirade on April 17, was upheld today.

The Cubs, of course, outsmarted themselves on this one. Wood had already served this suspension when he hurt himself in May, the club thinking he wouldn't be out very long and it wouldn't matter. Then, when they retroactively put him on the DL on May 12, they had to reinstate the suspension, and now, unfortunately, it has to be served in its entirety.

Fortunately, thanks to the timing of the announcement (Wood must sit out the Milwaukee series and the first two games of the Houston series), it only pushes him back two days, rather than "missing" a start. If not for the suspension he'd have started on Friday in Houston. Instead, he'll start the Sunday game in Houston, with one of the following scenarios for the other two games:

Mark Prior on four days' rest Friday and Glendon Rusch on Saturday
or
Glendon Rusch on Friday, and Mark Prior on five days' rest on Saturday

Doesn't really matter, I suppose -- this also has the effect of giving the three starters in the Milwaukee series (Carlos Zambrano tomorrow, Matt Clement Wednesday, Greg Maddux Thursday) an extra day of rest each, by slotting Rusch in what amounts to a "spot" start (rather than replacing Wood completely).

At this stage of the season, I imagine most starting pitchers wouldn't mind an extra day off. Wood gets one too, so the effects of the suspension will be minimal.

Now, let's go out there and win.

Incidentally, the Cubs will miss Roger Clemens in the weekend series -- he throws Wednesday against the Phillies. If schedules hold, Clemens might face Greg Maddux, in a matchup of 300-game winners, on Sunday, August 29.

Also, at the August 8 Cubs/Giants game in SF, there was a promotional giveaway (playing cards, given to kids) sponsored by United Airlines. They also passed out a card pointing us to a website where you could get a discount certificate.

Click here, enter a valid e-mail address (must be HTML-capable), and you'll get a number which can be used as an electronic certificate for 15% off of various flights if you book them by September 20.

You're welcome.

:: posted by Al at 7:31 PM [+] ::
...

Where Do I Begin? (Part Deux)

... to write a post on a game as ugly, ugly, ugly, UGLY as this one?

Let's dispense with the particulars first. The Dodgers beat the Cubs 8-5 today, dropping them once again into a wild-card lead tie with San Diego, who beat the Reds 7-2.

Well, that's not so bad, you're thinking, if you haven't seen the scoreboards or highlight shows yet, or didn't watch the game, that's a loss, but the Dodgers are a good team, and...

Nope. There's almost no positive spin you can put on today's game. OK, here's a small one. The Tomato Inning made a decent comeback after a day off and a day of Wrigley Field tomatoes (I went to Jimmy John's myself today) -- it was the sixth, and Michael Barrett's (sigh, of course it was a solo) homer gave him a new career high in RBI's.

Here's the nicest thing about today. The weather was absolutely tourist-bureau gorgeous, low 70's, a few fair-weather cumulus clouds scudding by, and a gentle wind off the lake, and the 300th win ceremony for Greg Maddux before the game was tasteful and Greg the laconic one even managed to say a few words beyond "Thank you".

It reminded me of the day the Cubs threw for Sammy Sosa in September 1998, after which they went out and stunk out the joint and lost a game that was even more critical in the wild-card race of that season.

I'll tell you one thing. I know enough about the workings of the current leadership of the Cubs organization, particularly Jim Hendry, to know that he will absolutely NOT stand pat after a bullpen explosion (it was way too loud today to be termed an "implosion") like this afternoon's. There's an off-day tomorrow and the Cubs don't play till Tuesday night in Milwaukee, and I would absolutely expect a roster move and maybe more than one before the ballclub next takes the field. If Hendry's not on the phone right now, I'd be greatly surprised.

Let me point out the good thing about today's game: Mark Prior. He wasn't perfect -- allowing three runs (one of which scored after he had left) in 6.1 innings and 111 pitches (77 strikes) and absolutely showed flashes of the dominance that he had in the second half of last year, striking out nine, a season high. If Prior and Kerry Wood keep putting together outings like the last two days, the team ought to build confidence off of that, plus give opponents the fear that this pitching staff actually is, at last, the one that Cubs management, players and we fans thought we had leaving spring training.

Dave and I got into a discussion of who the Cubs ought to pick up, and I'll get to that later, but I told him that getting a closer isn't necessary. First of all, today's failure was not a failure of closing, but of those preceding the closer, who went from bad to worse to putrid.

Let's face it, everyone: there is absolutely something wrong with Kyle Farnsworth. Whatever it is -- whether it's his arm or his head -- he needs to go on the disabled list NOW. People say he ought to go to the minors, but his veteran status means he can refuse such an assignment. Frankly, he looks a lot like Joe Borowski looked just before he finally admitted he was hurt. Since Dr. Tightpants hasn't lost velocity, it may be all in his head. This is a good enough reason for a DL stint, and Todd Wellemeyer could be recalled... or...

The reason this post is a bit late is that after the game, we hosted a birthday party for Mark, who will be nine in a few days. Let's just say that an evening with eight hyperactive nine-year-olds is... well, it's loud. During the pizza-and-cake portion of the evening, all eight of them were loudly yelling, in the way nine-year-olds do, about who's going to make the World Series. I think I heard the consensus being the Red Sox and Cubs (hey, sometimes kids are prescient, right?) but I also heard other teams named, the Cardinals and White Sox (OK, so one of his good friends is a Sox fan. He's a good kid, so forgive him), and inexplicably, the Expos and Royals...

Which leads me to an idea. Scott Sullivan, with the Royals this year, has been an effective setup man for several seasons. Last year the White Sox picked him up around this time of year in their abortive drive for a division title. His ERA (4.26) is a bit high, but he doesn't give up longballs (6 in 57 IP) and he's been doing this for a very long time, and I doubt the Cubs would have to give up much for him.

Al Levine, a Chicago-area native who is a friend of Dave and Brian's, would also be a cheap pickup from the Tigers.

Neither of these guys is young, which would probably endear them to Dusty Baker, but both of them have been through pennant races.

Back to the game for a moment. Mike and I both agreed that despite Farnsworth's absolutely horrible appearance (a sharp line drive to second, a walk, and a hit batsman) wasn't the reason this game was lost. It was the fact that, with two out and the Cubs still leading 5-4, Cub relievers had three consecutive batters -- Cesar Izturis, Steve Finley and Milton Bradley -- down 0-2 and failed to retire any of them. They all got RBI hits, though Finley's landed only inches out of the reach of Mark Grudzielanek.

Mike and I have discussed this often -- the failure of pitchers to go right after hitters after they have them down in the count. They start trying to nibble corners and get cute, and what happened today is the sad and too frequent depressing result.

With the Dodgers coming in only once a year, I haven't gotten the chance to see Eric Gagne pitch very often, and today, Jim Tracy thought the game important enough to have Gagne throw two innings instead of one. No matter. In fact, Dusty outsmarted himself when he failed to double-switch when the inning began. Moises Alou had been ejected at the end of the 7th, and this surprised me when I read it in the game summary, because there was NO indication at the ballpark that this had happened.

Anyway, Tom Goodwin came in for Alou, but wound up being wasted when he had to leave when Glendon Rusch entered to pitch. When Jose Macias ran out to left field, Goodwin stood there, hands on hips, looking at him as if to say, "You have GOT to be joking."

This is not a way to win ballgames, my friends.

Anyway, I mention Macias because when he came up against Gagne, I said to Mike, "Here is how 'overmatched' is defined in the dictionary." Sure enough, a three-pitch strikeout ensued.

Gagne's so successful because unlike ESPN's current analyst and early 90's maniac pitcher Rob Dibble, a man with a similar build and fastball, Gagne simply does not walk people -- only 13 in 58 innings entering today's game, and that means you have to hit the 98 MPH fastball he throws, which ain't easy. This is exactly the reason that Kyle Farnsworth fails -- he doesn't throw enough strikes, and at least in recent outings, has simply not trusted his fastball.

Sammy & Nomar watch -- Nomar had three hits, and even the out he hit was hit hard, and he took Jose Lima successively to left, center and right field, showing how good a student of pitching this man is. He double-clutched on a potential DP ball from Milton Bradley in the seventh that turned into a run-scoring FC, but you know why? I think he was making good and darn sure that 2B umpire Jerry Crawford saw him keeping his foot on the base, a reaction to the bad Bruce Froemming call of the other day.

Sammy had a decent day, hitting a sharp single and also a fly to right that would have been an opposite-field homer on most days. Milwaukee has always been a good place for him to hit, so perhaps he's laying the groundwork to break out of his slump.

So.

There are forty-five games left in the season. The Cubs are still tied atop the wild-card race with two other flawed teams, the Giants and Padres. I remind you, as I reminded everyone in the bleachers today, that for the last forty-five games of the 1998 wild-card race, no more than one game separated the top two teams, and the result, as you surely remember, was the memorable Cubs/Giants tiebreaker game.

Keep the faith and hope, and mark my words, I believe the Cubs will make at least one roster move before they take the field at Miller Park on Tuesday night.

:: posted by Al at 7:25 PM [+] ::
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