Was there a Cubs game yesterday? I was so in shock at Wisconsin's ability to score more than 60 points that I failed to pay attention to yesterday's games. It looks like it was probably a good thing. In the Dbacks game, Ryan Dempster gave up eight hits and a walk in three and 2/3 innings, but shocklingly only three …
Daily Facepalm 3.15.12 – Calling in Sick with March Madness
Practice Game recap Travis Wood probably punched his ticket to Iowa yesterday, giving up six runs while only recording one out. Bullpen/tenth starter hopeful Casey Coleman also had a rough day, giving up four runs in less than two innings. The only particularly positive result of the day was that Randy Wells had three scoreless innings, allowing two hits and …
Daily Facepalm 3.14.12
Practice Game recap Chris Volstad pitched three strong inninngs yesterday, extending his spring training scoreless streak to six innings. As with Samardzija and the other starter candidates, small sample size abounds, but I think he's got a good shot making the rotation. Tom Ricketts seemed to think so too during his brief time in the booth with Len and Mick. …
Daily Facepalm 3.13.12
Practice game wrapup The Cubs knocked the eminently hittable Bronson Arroyo around in the first inning, capped off by an approximately 900 ft Alfonso Soriano HR (HR distance estimated by the sound it made coming off the bat and Len's reaction). Paul Maholm performed about as expected in his Cubs debut, giving up a homer to Reds outfielder Todd Frazier …
Daily Facepalm 3.12.12 – Garza struggles
Garza has a rough outing While the Cubs starters have been impressive in their short outings for far this spring, Matt Garza ran into trouble in the second and had to be pulled after walking in a run or two. He's mostly just working on his fastball and changeup, and batters were sitting on it. He told Muskat: I’ve been …
Daily Facepalm 3.9.12 – Volstad Good, Soriano Good, Marmol Bad
Rotation battle news Chris Volstad followed up Jeff Samardzija's strong outing with three solid innings of his own yesterday. Volstad struck out three, walked none, and allowed one hit. Spring training stats don't mean much (especially just three innings for each guy), but as far as we can tell things are very up in the air for the last two …
Daily Facepalm 3.8.2012 – ST Cubs Not Entirely Depressing
Cubs win! Cubs win! Cubs win! The Cubs brought their spring training record up to the .500 level with a win against the vaunted Kansas City Royals. Shut up, someone could vaunt about them. But yesterday the main vauntworthy performance came from Jeff Samardzija, who faced just nine batters in three shutout innings in his effort to join the best …
Players told to get sleep or else
MESA, Ariz. — Theo Epstein laid down the law at the Cubs Convention, stating firmly the organization would no longer tolerate players who enjoy the nightlife at the expense of getting a good night's sleep. "It's been a factor in ruining some careers," the team president said. "And I'm sure it's been an impediment to the Cubs in winning. … …
Daily Facepalm 3.5.12 – Random state laws edition
This week in state laws Lots of discussion in the comments this morning about state liquor and marriage laws yesterday. Apparently WaLi tried to get drunk and marry his cousin yesterday, and needed to make sure what states he was allowed to do that in. Is there a Cubs game today? The Cubs play an A's split squad today at …
Daily Facepalm 3.1.12 – Expanded playoffs edition
Expanded playoffs have arrived I thought this had already been decided, but the extra wild card has been approved. I'm kind of surprised that MLB would do this so close to the start of the season. Given the glacial pace at which MLB moved, I figured they had just decided that they were going to do it at some point, …