Filed under: Cubs | Tags: Cubs, Jake Peavy, Lou Piniella, Rich Harden, Sean Marshall
Since I’m not a nerd at all, I am a subscriber to ESPN insider. For $6.95 a month I get to hear about rumors first so I sound educated when they may or may not happen the next day. Today they had a little blurb about a team I just started liking, the Chicago Cubs. Sarcasm aside, the big rumor surrounding them lately has been the talk of acquiring the great Jake Peavy to an already formidable rotation. Here’s what this premium paragraph read…
Jake Peavy
Now, as you can read from previous posts, I’m all for acquiring Peavy since I know the doom and gloom associated with being a Cubs pitcher. I just know we’re going to lose Harden early to injury. His track record was bad enough before he joined the cursed blue pinstripes. And something tells me that our sixth starter, Sean Marshall, is going to packaged in a trade to Kansas City soon for a guy nobody has heard of, although I hope not. Unlike most teams that can trade a promising pitcher in their minor league system, we can’t. If our prospects are good, they are on the major league team already. Therefore, come time for a trade we’re going to have to give up this luxury depth of ours and it is going to turn into a soft spot of the team. Piniella’s quite the decorated manager, he oughta know you can never have enough pitching. You can always acquire a bullpen guy, but a guy like Jake Peavy doesn’t come around often. And with the way pitcher’s value increase millions every year, he is a steal for what you’re getting. Pull the trigger Cubbies, something tells me Peavy isn’t afraid to pitch in the big games like some of our starters proved these past two playoff series.
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].”
http://media3.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/photo/2005/12/08/PH2005120800041.jpg">http://media3.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/photo/2005/12/08/PH2005120800041.jpg
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.
Filed under: Cubs | Tags: 100 years, black cat, Carlos Zambrano, Cubs, curse, goat, Lou Piniella, next year, Rich Harden, Ryan Dempster, Steve Bartman, World Series, Wrigley Field
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When a team hasn’t won a World Series for 100 hundred years, it’s only natural that excuses will be made as to why that is so. However, for this historic franchise, their excuses have some merit. The team has been cursed. From the goat to the black cat to the infamous Steve Bartman. This team has seen it all throughout this century. It’s amazing that Cubs fans have been able to stay optimistic and anually utter the Cubs mantra, “There’s always next year.” But next year is here and the feeling in the air is different from year’s past.
The Cubs playoff run officially begins tomorrow for a five-game series versus the Los Angeles Dodgers. I’m nervous. I’m psyched. I’m ready. This is probably the spot where someone should remind me that I’m just a fan, but I think it’s too late for that anyways. Ryan Dempster will take the mound for the Cubs to start off the series. Is her our best pitcher? No, Rich Harden is. Is he our highest paid ace of the staff? No, Carlos Zambrano is. He simply is our best pitcher when it comes to pitching at home in Wrigley Field. He’s 14-3 at home with a 2.36 ERA and those are statistics you can’t ignore when choosing who to start at the Friendly Confines. After closing for us for the last 3 years, Dempster got converted back to a starter this year in a move that makes our coach, Sweet Lou Piniella, look even more like a genius. Especially when the guy earned the nickname “Dumpster” for throwing some garbage games as a closer. But the past is in the past and the stars have aligned for my Cubbies. Things don’t have to make sense to know I believe in this team. Go Cubs!
