Filed under: Cubs | Tags: Alfonso Soriano, Cubs, Geovany Soto, Jim Edmonds, Kosuke Fukudome, Lou Piniella, Manager of the Year, Reed Johnson, Rich Harden, Rookie of the Year
Baseball has announced some of the season’s award winners, and my cubbies have represented. Chicago Cubs skipper, Lou Piniella, was namedNL Manager of the Year. While our catcher, Geovany Soto, was named NL Rookie of the Year. Can’t say I’m surprised about Soto. Even though he plays a position not typically known for pretty statistics. He dominated all season and you could have named his this after the first few months of the season. I’m actually surprised about Lou. I love him, but I think there were more
Lou Piniella
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deserving candidates. The GM really put him and the the team in a position to win by acquiring guys like Rich Harden, Jim Edmonds and Reed Johnson. However, come playoff time Lou decided not to even play the productive Reed Johnson. Instead, not only did he play and commit to the struggling fan favorite, Kosuke Fukudome, but he batted him second. Plus I have disagreed with him playing Soriano at leadoff ever since we acquired him. I guess Lou is lucky they determine the winner of this award before he is given an opportunity for his team to get swept in the first round of the playoffs for the second straight year. With that said, I wouldn’t have any manager but him.
Filed under: Cubs | Tags: Alfonso Soriano, C.C. Sabathia, Cubs, Curt Schilling, Diamondbacks, Lou Piniella, next year, Randy Johnson, sweep
Well this blog sure got depressing quick now didn’t it? In what was at least a closer game, the Cubs were eliminated and swept from the playoffs for the second straight year with a 3-1 loss. And now I can officially say, “There’s always next year.” I hate the thought of that phrase while the Cubs are still in it, but once they are done, there really isn’t much else to look forward to. The fact of the matter is the Cubs couldn’t hit, couldn’t pitch, couldn’t play defense and couldn’t keep it together. Therefore, it really shouldn’t be a surprise they were swept. Our coach, Lou Piniella, said it best.
(Phil Velasquez, Chicago Tribune)
“But let me tell you this, you could play postseason between now and another 100 years, and if you score six runs in a three-game series, it’s going to be another 100 years before you win here.”
Let’s hope the Cubs score some runs next time because I don’t know if I can make it another 100 years. Although I gotta say, if anyone is going to be the guinea pigs of working out the kinks of cryogenic freezing, it would be a Cubs fan. We would do anything to see them win one. Just unfreeze us when they are about to win it.
To every good point made, there is an ignorant one. For that, I would like to pull a quote from our 136 million dollar outfielder who “earned” his money batting an astounding .071 batting average for the series.
“We’re a very good team for [162] games, but we don’t do nothing after that,” he said. “That’s the difference. We’re not put together for [a short series].”
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Built for a marathon and not a sprint Alfonso? I’m sorry but some teams are lucky to have one ace on their team. The best teams have 2 great starting pitchers like the Diamondbacks did when they won the World Series in 2001 with Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling. The Cubs had three this year. Granted not a single one of them got a win, but only Dempster didn’t have his stuff. The other two pitchers just didn’t get support from their teammates whether that be with their bats or gloves. So where some teams would have to overwork their best pitcher and tire him out to the point that he is no longer effective like the Brewers did with C.C. Sabathia, the Cubs could put a stud out on the mound each game and keep the starters fresh at the same time. I don’t want to hear that baloney from Soriano, I want to hear him say I’m donating half my salary back to the Cubs because I’m not living up to it. If there was any scapegoat to this series it was Alfonso Soriano. Knowing that, I would have sang a different tune if I was him.
