Anthony Rizzo see's LaHair's HR and raises him a pair of HR's as he went deep for # 5 and 6 tonight. His OPS is currently some enormous figure I don't care enough to look up but trust me people is big. And thick. Beef Castle hit a HR himself and Brett Jackson went yard for the first time tonight as well. The Iowa bullpen wants to prove that they are ready for the big league and well all out to display the Cub Way tonight. Heading into the bottom of the 9th the Iowa Cubbies had a 6-2 lead. The inning went as such
- Walk
- Walk
- (Pitching Change)
- Hit batter
- Walk
- Hit Batter
- (Dylan quit following the game to go kick a puppy)
Dae-Eun Rhee had a good start tonight working 6.1 IP and only allowing a solo HR. He struck out 4 and walked none. Ryno used to really like Rhee and word has always been that Rhee possesses a plus changeup to go with a low 90s fastball. I would give you an update on the hitting side of things but do you really care how Jonathon Mota batted tonight? Me neither.
Rubi Silva continues to crush the ball in High A going 2-4 with a BB. Matt Spellcheck Jr can't buy a hit but is a good sign that he is taking his walks as he drew 2. Last year Szzrzrzr seemed like the typical Hendry man crush a guy with tools who is allergic to 3 pitch AB's. So far Scissor Me Timbers has 7 BB and 7 K in 29 AB's.
Marco Hernandez had a breakout game tonight going 2-3 with a SB, BB and most importantly a HR. Hernandez is a name to keep on eye on he tore up rookie ball last year and skipped Boise so the club must have taken a shine to him. Whether or not he can develop some power remains to be seen but tonights HR is a good start.
We do not condone the kicking of puppies.
http://www.thecubreporter.com/2012/04/13/baez-can-do-whatever
FIGHT!
FIGHT!
FIGHT!
Today’s lineup, if the game happens
RF DeJesus
2B Barney
SS Castro
LF Soriano
3B Stewart
1B LaBomb
C Geo
CF Byrd
P Volstad
@ Aisle424:
I liked this one.
Speak for yourself.
Aisle424 wrote:
Steve Swisher wrote:
I’ll flag this one myself.
http://www.cubbiedoc.com/2012/04/what-hell-did-aramis-ramirez-ever-do-to.html
@ Aisle424:
wow. in the comments phil compares baez’s demeanor to jimmy piersall’s, and acts as if that were a good thing.
@ GW:
Wasn’t Piersall bipolar?
the pirates have a team woba of .213 right now.
@ mb21:
yes
@ GW:
Too lazy to go read Phil’s comment, but what’s good about being like Piersall?
I don’t care how MLB Players act on the field. Whatever. But I’d think you’d want your minor league players to not behave in the way he has so far.
Corey Hart has a SLG of 1.000
/fun with small sample sizes
Justified season 1 ——-> berselius
So, who’s going to wind up with more strikeouts: Yoenis Cespedes or Bryan LaHair? It should be close.
Both are also crushing the ball when they make contact, I should add.
@ ACT:
Cespedes, easily
Crap, just realized today’s game is a FOX game. Oh well, it’s probably going to get rained out anyway
If it gets rained out, I hope they show the Darvish game.
So, the Pirates have scored 11 runs so far. In 7 games. Speechless.
@ Berselius:
Didn’t FOX used to have the 3 o’clock time slot, and non-FOX games were at 12 (CDT) or at night?
@ Suburban kid:
Yeah, that’s why I figured we’d have this game. IIRC they were talking about moving the FOX games even later this year too.
@ ACT:
Damn it.
The Cubs are no longer scoring 3.6 runs per game.
Any word on a starting time?
@ Suburban kid:
“Hopefully soon,” per radio lackey.
Pat says “an hour or less”.
Darvish is having a much better game this time, though his pitch count is high.
Interesting…
I like Baez
Why would anyone have to ask if what Rizzo is doing is because of small sample size? Obviously it’s small sample size. Come on.
@ mb21:
People forget the most basic shit sometimes. And by people, I include me.
Sounding like a 2pm start time
@ Suburban kid:
Me too, but the only possible answer to the question was the obvious one. (dying laughing)
@ Berselius:
Pacific or Aleutian?
@ bubblesdachimp:
Martian
@ Berselius:
hmmmmm…. Cant seem to find that timezone on google…
@ bubblesdachimp:
You need to go to Google Mars
@ bubblesdachimp:
it exists in the foreign land of South Carolina.
Bubbs misses South Carolina
@ mb21:
Did SC join Georgia in forming a new nation, or did the two states go their separate ways?
@ ACT:
Separate ways. They disagreed on which nation was the center of the world.
@ ACT:
If they form a new nation does SC have to now be called North Georgia?
@ Mish:
That would imply an understanding beyond their comprehension. It’s quite obvious SC would become Up Georgia.
No Cubs game for mb21. This 7-1 Angels lead is far too exciting.
i like how we are tagging up and adding extra bases
mb21 wrote:
During my exhaustive Wikipedia search on John Jay last night, I learned that one of the four cases that he heard while on the Supreme Court was regarding a dispute between Georgia and South Carolina. I’m sure that my takeaway should have something to do with the foundations of Federalism or some bullshit, but I’d prefer to just assume that it means Georgia and South Carolina would never, ever join forces and leave it at that.
I’d really like to post something related to baseball soon, but I have to say that there’s about fuck all about this team that interests me. Wake me at the trade deadline.
@ uncle dave:
I like Garza, and I’m interested to see how the Samardzija experiment works out. Also, which Soto we end up with. And ‘m intrigued by the Cubs aggressiveness on the bags. It hasn’t been as terrible as I assumed it would be.
Too bad about that bullpen, though.
@ josh:
Yeah, I’ll concede that there are some interesting stories. I think my disinterest has as much to do with the fact that I’m working like seven days a week right now and can’t watch any of the games. I’ll correct that at some point, but it seems pretty irresponsible to comment on the team without, you know, actually watching them (dying laughing). I s’pose that wouldn’t stop some folks, tho…
Fucking MLB blackout pisses me off.
Ugh, error by Castro.
@ uncle dave:
I haven’t been exactly glued to my chair when they are on, so I understand.
Wow. This is a good inning.
@ josh:
Good? Whose side are you on?
Starlin sucks at throwing.
@ ACT:
Sarcasm’s.
Is it just me or is Soriano still without any hit that wasn’t described as a soft liner to right?
LaHair lets yet another catchable ball go by.
So where are all the articles today telling us whether Samardzija is the real deal or not after giving up 5 runs yesterday?
@ ACT:
Pretty good at hitting, though.
@ josh:
The gist seems to be that he was doing okay and then relaxed too much. Excuses.
Methinks Castro’s days at SS are numbered. 4 errors already?
josh wrote:
I was wondering the same thing. If yesterday was a Zambrano start the fans would have gone batshit insane as Zambrano let the Cardinals back in the game. He’d be so horrible that they’d have to trade him immediately.
uncle dave wrote:
I know what you mean, dave. I’ve got little to nothing to say about this team.
@ Rice Cube:
He’s the real deal except when he’s not.
@ mb21:
SSS!
Seriously, though, the Cubs would probably improve quite a bit defensively if he switched spots with Barney.
However, is it really Starlin’s fault that Bryan LaHair isn’t a few inches taller?
@ Suburban kid:
That’s just the way it is.
The Red Sox have really been hell-bent on humiliating the Rays this series.
Oh, and Z is pitching. Walked the first batter on four pitches.
That’s 2 walks now. And 1 out.
@ ACT:
Yeah, small sample size and all that, but combined with the last two years he’s only hurting himself playing SS. I don’t really like the idea of him and Barney switching places. I’d prefer Castro stay at SS, but I would like the Cubs to go after a SS this next offseason unless Castro begins to show improvement.
The Miami uniform makes it look like Z is a very festive ice cream man.
Can Z go a whole inning without walking someone?
@ ACT:
Probably not.
http://www.insidethebook.com/ee/index.php/site/comments/which_contract_would_you_prefer_if_you_were_a_team/
@ mb21:
What if I picked “neither”?
The problem is that SOMEONE is going to pay it so you’re at the mercy of the market if you want to acquire/retain the guy. So the regret is probably built into the contract anyway.
@ Rice Cube:
He almost made it this inning!
He made it!
zERA under 4
Matt Kemp —> 4 HR
Not sure how many SBs though.
@ Rice Cube:
He’s stolen 1 base and been caught twice.
I wonder if Zambrano will kill Heath Bell tonight.
Kemp now has 5 home runs.
ACT wrote:
Small sample size and he’s repeating the level.
Ellsbury injury —————-> Marlon to Boston?
http://www.suntimes.com/sports/baseball/cubs/11903022-573/red-sox-might-be-a-taker-for-cubs-marlon-byrd.html
That last Kemp hit didn’t quite have the distance.
Ted Lilly threw a nice game.
These Blackhawks…I swear.
@ Rice Cube:
It’s like mgl says: If you give a fair contract to a player, unless you heavily front load it, ALL teams will hate the last few years of a long-term contract. So you can either acquire the good players or not. If you want to be good you’ll more than likely have to, which means the end of the contract will look bad. That’s why the overall contract is what’s important. You get production you don’t pay for at the beginning of the contract and the player gets paid for production he doesn’t provide at the end.
@ Berselius:
I thought about writing something about that possibility a couple days ago, but I don’t see it happening. Ellsbury is out 4-6 weeks and that article even says they’ll probably wait a week or so before deciding if they need to go outside the organization. At that point they may only be 3 weeks away from Ellsbury’s return.
How did you guys miss this on on Twitter?
Jose Canseco @JoseCanseco Close
Would love to host SNL and would donate pay to greenpeace .Does anyone know how to contact Lorne Greene ?Please help me make it happen! Hugs
@ ACT:
That’s what I’m saying.
@ mb21:
Good point, but it’s also not like Ellsbury will be 100% when he comes back. And Crawford is still battling 5000 injuries,
@ Berselius:
They’ve been hit hard in the outfield, but how much is Marlon Byrd worth over a month? Half a win at the most. Is he half a win better than the current replacement? I don’t see the Red Sox giving anything up to acquire half a win in Ellsbury’s absence.
I think with Castro, because this is a building year, he should and will get the whole season at SS. They’re not contending; might as well see if you’re going to get an elite SS or not. If not, move him to 3B or 2B. The bar for SS is so low at this point, and switching Barney back to SS might be valuable. Depending on how Castro’s bat continues to develop, etc, I still think you consider locking him up after this year. With Jackson and Rizzo, you’ll have additional regular position players at league minimum, along with $$ coming off the books. I think the Cubs will spend some cash this offseason, although it might be in creative ways rather than just signing FA (of which there are less and less interesting ones.)
I still wonder if Castro playing CF would be a better position than 2nd or 3rd. With his throwing issues I don’t think you want him playing 3rd base. It also eliminates his range for the most part. He does have a strong arm, covers a lot of ground so I think CF is the position you move him to. Just my 2 cents.
@ mb21:
I think BOS could continue to get value form Byrd against LHP even after Crawford, Ellsbury return, plus he can play all 3 OF spots.
@ Recalcitrant Blogger Nate:
It’s possible if they used him in that manner, but that would require they play Crawford and Ellsbury less often. I’m not sure how that would sit with either of those two.
@ mb21:
There’s also Cody Ross in RF, though he’s a RHH
new shit up