Brett Jackson had another multi-hit game as he went 2-4 and he also walked again. He's walked in 3 consecutive games, which he'll do frequently. Through his first 3 games he's an impressive 5-11 with a double, triple, and has 3 walks. He's also driven in 3 and scored 3. Jackson will strikeout a lot and he's done that once again too. Anthony Rizzo was 1-4 last night. Catcher Blake Lalli was 2-4. Chris Rusin threw 5.1 innings, allowed 6 hits and 4 runs while striking out 3 and walking 2. NatE. Robertson is in mid-season Chicago Cubs bullpen form. He threw 1 innings, allowed 3 hits and 3 runs. He'd be the ideal late-inning reliever for the Cubs. Blaker Parker added another scoreless inning, striking out 1 and allowing a hit.
Logan Watkins continues to hit as he was 2-5 last night. Watkins started his professional career nicely in 2008, but had really struggled in 2010. He rebounded with a nice season for a 2nd baseman in the Florida State League a year ago. Jae Hoon Ha was 2-4 and Michael Brenly 1-4. Jonathon Mota was 1-4 at the plate and pitched a 1-2-3 inning in mop-up. Dallas Beeler threw 5, allowed 6 his and a run. He didn't walk anybody and struckout 2. If there's one thing I've noticed about the Cubs minor league starters so far they have just not been striking that many batters out. With the exception of Francescon, the numbers have been underwhelming. Daniel Berlind would also fit right in the Chicago Cubs bullpen. After a strong start from Beeler, Berlind comes into the game and can't complete an inning before allowing 8 runs. He allowed 7 hits and walked a batter in .2 innings. Casey Weathers somehow managed to pitch 1.1 innings and allow 6 baserunners, but only 1 run.
The Daytona Cubs had only 4 hits and Matt Sczczur and Ronald Torreyes didn't get any of them. Greg Rohan was 1-4, John Andreoli 2-3 with a walk and Sergio Burrell was 1-3. It was a little surprising to see Hayden Simpson sent to Daytona, but Daytona he is. He got off to a good enough start compared to what he's done before. He threw 4.1 innings, allowed 5 hits and a run. He didn't walk anybody and he only struckout 2. He threw 29 strikes and 26 balls. Casey Harman Larry Suarez finished the game and allowed only 1 hit and 2 walks (no runs).
Zeke DeVoss was 1-3 with a double and a walk. Eduardo Gonzalez, Brad Zapenas and Taylor Davis each had 2 hits. Gonzalez was 2-4 with a HR. Paul Hoilman was 1-4 and didn't strikeout. He did take a walk. Jose Rosario had a good start. He threw 5.1 innings, allowed just 2 hits and 2 runs. He walked 3 and struckout 2. Yao-Lin Wang threw 1.2 innings and didn't allow a hit or a walk. He struckout 2. Wang did hit 2 batters though. Austin Reed and Andrew McKirihan threw perfect 8th and 9th innings.
The 4 starters last night struckout a combined 7 batters in 20 innings. Remember when the Cubs used to have all those fireballing strikeout pitchers? Yeah, those days are over.
mb, these are quickly becoming my favorite regular articles here. Mostly because the minor leagues Cubs teams are far more interesting.
Not a big deal, but yesterday you posted the article after the live game thread went live, though. Kinda makes sense not to do that, if you know what i mean.
Whose fastball has more heat?
1) Jamie Moyer
2) Hayden Simpson
3) Betty White
@ Mish:
I got a late start on it and 424 had an interesting article up so I figured I’d do the game thread first and then post this. Hopefully it will get done relatively early most days.
@ Steve Swisher:
Betty White
Long term lurker/twitter follower.
Any idea why Vitters wasn’t in the lineup? I wanted to see how much longer his walk streak would continue.
We’re going to be enabling Cloudflare for the site. Hopefully there won’t be any issues, but who knows with this shit? I figure it’s Sunday and traffic is usually down on Sunday anyway and since I’m going to have dinner with family I figured it’s not going to affect me anyway (dying laughing). If there are problems, they probably won’t get resolved until later today. We’re not anticipating any problems though.
@ MikeyLo:
No idea. I did notice he didn’t seem to play every day toward the end of last season. Not really sure why.
@ mb21:
His week was so good, they wanted to cut it short
Z is scheduled to throw his first game in a Marlins uniform today. It would be cool if Sean Marshall gets to close it out.
http://www.insidethebook.com/ee/index.php/site/comments/you_cant_let_yourself_get_beat_by_your_second_or_third_etc_best_pitch/
The throw your best pitch in crucial situations has always irritated me too. If you always throw your best pitch the batters will tee off on it. Unless you’re Mariano Rivera.
mb21 wrote:
So Cub.
@ Mish:
We have Kerry Wood and Carlos Marmol scheduled to help out.
Semi-political, but a lot of baseball (and adv baseball stats) talk in this thread about newspapers dying.
http://reason.com/archives/2012/04/08/when-losers-write-history
http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/04/08/picture-of-the-day-hey-theo-how-bout-a-win-already/
@ Mish:
2 games and the worm is turning. Why can’t Cub fans just accept that rebuilding takes time, this team is terrible and form their expectations accordingly?
@ Mercurial Outfielder:
Because they’re Cubs fans.
That seemed to foul up your linker a bit there. I knew who you were talking about though.
Today’s lineup
RF DeJesus
2B DeWitt
SS Castro
LF Soriano
3B Stewart
1B LaHair
CF Byrd
C Clevenger
P Young
DeWitt and Stewart hitting higher than Byrd and LaHair? SMH
Cool story, bros: http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20120407&content_id=28091062&vkey=news_mlb&c_id=mlb
@ Mercurial Outfielder:
Saw that coming a mile away. This is going to be a brutal year. The fans that do show up will probably be booing a lot. It’s going to be ugly.
Prediction: Samardzija has a mediocre outing, but the Cubs come back from some crazy amount to earn him a win, thus forever solidifying Samardzija’s status as a legend.
Game Thread is up: http://www.obstructedview.net/chicago-cubs/its-jeff-samardzija-time-cubs-game-thread.html
I think we need to develop a Transformation Index stat so we can better grasp the true awesomeness of F7′s performance today.