Archive for September, 2009
If you like Francisco, you’ll appreciate this:
The Giants moved from New York to San Francisco 51 years ago, in 1958. Since then, the Cubs have played them in San Francisco in a four-game series 23 times.
The number of times a Cubs team has swept a Giants team on the road in those 23 tries is zero. So the 2009 Cubs has a chance to do something that’s never been done before by a Cubs team — sweep the Giants in a four-game set in San Francisco. The Cubs did sweep the Giants in a four-game series at Wrigley Field in 1963. The final game of that series, on June 6, was memorable. Reliever Lindy McDaniel came into a tie game in the 10th inning with the bases loaded. He picked Willie Mays off second base, struck out Ed Bailey, then hit a walkoff homer leading off the bottom of the 10th. That is the only time the Cubs have swept the Giants at all in a four-game series since they moved West in 1958.
There was an article the other day by Paul Sullivan speculating on whether the Giants would trade Aaron Rowand for Milton Bradley. Thought you would like to see a couple of FanShots from McCovey Chronicles with some thoughts from Giants fans on whether they’d do it or not. And, you can cross the Royals off the list of teams that might want Bradley, with pretty strong language quoted by Bob Dutton of the Kansas City Star:
Royals officials dismiss â in strong terms â reports of possible interest in acquiring outfielder Milton Bradley from the Cubs. “Idiots” was one of the nicer comments directed at those offering such speculation.
Site note: tonight is Yom Kippur, so today’s game recap will be delayed until tomorrow morning.
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Matt Cain last faced the Cubs on July 11, 2008 at Wrigley Field. He and Jason Marquis both threw seven shutout innings that day, but the Cubs won 3-1 when Aramis Ramirez hit a three-run homer off reliever Tyler Walker. In fact, Cain didn’t give up a run to the 2008 NL scoring leaders in two starts last year. This year, Cain has overall good numbers, but has lost his last three starts, in which he has a 9.42 ERA. Derrek Lee, who we hope will be back in the lineup today, is 4-for-15 with a double and HR off Cain and Aramis Ramirez is 3-for-10.
Randy Wells talked Lou into giving him two more starts, so he’ll go today and then Saturday at home vs. the Diamondbacks. Randy’s walk rate is up a bit this month (10 in 26.1 innings) but he has still posted a 2.73 ERA in five starts. He has never faced the Giants and the only player on their team who he has faced — Freddy Sanchez in his Pirates days — is now out for the season.
Today’s game will have good announcers again (Len & Bob) on WGN and also on CSN Bay Area (Mike Krukow and Duane Kuiper). For other games today see the MLB.com Mediacenter.
Baseball-reference.com game preview
Please visit our SB Nation Giants site McCovey Chronicles.
Overflow comment threads will post today at 4:15 and 5:15 pm CDT.
Discuss amongst yourselves.
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I want to see how this is going to effect the rest of the team!
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Look who is in this news again - FRANCISCO! This time, Michael Crabtree Surviving Off Delicious Subway Sandwiches Nfl. For you convenience -
Professional holdout Michael Crabtree has still not signed with the San Francisco 49ers, but don’t worry about him. His marketing agent has him endorsing Subway, which is perfect because Crabtree is probably really, really hungry.
Mike Ornstein is not part of the wide receiver’s football negotiations, but he says Crabtree is “not under the gun” to sign a football contract any time soon, thanks to $750,000 in endorsements that Ornstein and his partner have already secured. I sure hope those are guaranteed dollars because commercial endorsements don’t carry much weight when they come from unemployed people. Crabtree has deals with Subway, Jordan Brand, Upper Deck and Topps-although again, you generally don’t get to be on trading cards when you don’t own a football uniform.
Only in the last sentence of this article does Ornstein admit that Crabtree would have significantly more endorsement dollars had he already signed—yet another reason why rookie holdouts are extremely counterproductive. Of course, this is after he declares Crabtree “the Reggie Bush of this draft.” Is that because he has such a marketable personality, he likes curvy reality stars, or because Bush fired Ornstein after his rookie year?
Ornstein: Marketing cash keeps pressure off holdout Crabtree Sports Business Journal
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How do you think this news will affect the rest of the team this season?
Here’s a video of FRANCISCO:
Dr. K-Rod, Save Specialist - Francisco Rodriguez
Discover great seating options, and great prices on baseball tickets - at TicketsNow! Going to a game shouldn’t cost you hundreds of dollars, so shop smart and compare dozens of different tickets, all guaranteed to be authentic and delivered before the opening pitch.
News about Francisco,
Throughout this September, with the Cubs desperately clinging to hope of a postseason berth with a 16-9 start to the month, I kept thinking “stranger things have happened”. From time to time, as you know, I’d cite various other late-season pennant collapses or pushes, such as the 1964 Phillies or 2007 Rockies, as examples of why the Cubs could come back.
Now, though, if the Cubs were to somehow pull off a miracle finish, you’d have to say “stranger things have NOT happened”. With four teams ahead of them and an elimination number of one, the race is, for all intents and purposes, over.
It would, however, be fun if somehow the five teams wound up in what Baseball Musings’ David Pinto calls a “massive tie”. Today Pinto posts the way in which four teams could wind up tied for the NL Wild Card. That’d be fun to watch if only to see how Bud Selig would have to sputter his way through the method of breaking the tie. Right now the team with the best chance of pulling a “miracle” finish is the Braves, who on September 6 were seven games off the wild-card pace and who have now won six in a row and closed to within 2.5 games of the lead.
Yesterday, the Cubs missed their chance to have their first-ever four-game sweep of the Giants in San Francisco, losing to the Giants 5-1. Randy Wells didn’t pitch too badly, but he kept getting nibbled at; he allowed eight singles and two RBI doubles to a backup catcher (Eli Whiteside) who was hitting .197 at the start of the game. How many times have we heard that story this year? Give some credit to the Giants’ Matt Cain, who is one of the better pitchers in the league and who tied the Cubs in knots, throwing eight shutout innings before the Cubs got a consolation run off the Giants’ bullpen. The Cubs did get enough men on base in the ninth to force Bruce Bochy to call on his closer, Brian Wilson, to finish it off.
So the Cubs will come home for a season-ending seven-game homestand against two bad teams, the Pirates and Diamondbacks, with a chance to at least end the season strong. Some will say that if the Cubs win all seven (for example) and finish the year with 88 wins, that it would “fool” management into thinking there aren’t any problems. I disagree. Management clearly knows what they did wrong this year — the sending-home of Milton Bradley is evidence of that — and though this isn’t an excuse, injuries, particularly to Aramis Ramirez and Alfonso Soriano, held this year’s team back from winning more games.
The first win will give the Cubs three consecutive winning seasons for the first time since 1970-71-72. The 82nd win will also make Lou Piniella the first Cubs manager to have winning seasons in his first three years since Charlie Grimm in 1933-34-35. That’s a worthy goal. And any baseball player with professional pride should want to win every time he goes on the field.
I was trying to think of comparisons in Cubs history to the disappointment we have felt over the 2009 Cubs, and “disappointment” is the right word. This wasn’t a bad Cubs team, just one that wasn’t quite good enough. That would make a comparison to 2004 inapt, because the 2004 Cubs were tremendously talented. Their late-season collapse wasn’t in any way comparable to 2009 — the 2004 team had the wild card in its grasp and blew it.
It’s not comparable to 2001, because that was a team of overachievers that probably had no business being in contention that long. That team wound up with 88 wins; the current bunch would have to sweep the homestand to do that — not an impossible task given the opposition. (We also wouldn’t want the 2010 Cubs to do what the 2002 Cubs did — lose 95 games.)
It’s also not comparable to the 1977-78-79 teams, Cubs clubs that either were in first place or nearby for a couple of months each, because this team had far more talent than any of those.
No, I think the best comp to the 2009 Cubs would be the 1970 edition. Similarly to 2009, the 1970 Cubs had to play after a season filled with wonders, only to have the previous year’s team collapse — 2008 in the playoffs, 1969 in September. And like this year’s team, after 1969 the Cubs made one significant change: they sent Oscar Gamble and Dick Selma to the Phillies for a washed-up Johnny Callison. Not only was Callison not nearly the player he had been three or four years before, but Gamble eventually became a productive player elsewhere. This forced the 1970 Cubs to play nonentities like Cleo James, Joe Pepitone, Jimmie Hall, a 33-year-old Jim Hickman, and even (for one game) Glenn Beckert in center field, much as the 2009 Cubs have mixed and matched at various positions. The 1970 Cubs got off to a hot start, racing out to a five-game lead by mid-June, and then lost 12 in a row. They never recovered — just as the eight-game losing streak this year put the Cubs in a spot from which they just barely got back into first place in late July before having an awful August.
But also like this year’s team, the 1970 Cubs had one brief “maybe” moment in September. On September 13 at Wrigley Field, the Cubs were down to their last out trailing 2-1, when Matty Alou of the Pirates dropped a routine fly ball. Given new life, the Cubs followed with three straight hits, winning the game 3-2 and moving them to within one game of first place with 17 games left. Unfortunately, the Cubs went 8-9 in those 17 games and finished five games out of first place, the closest they would come to first place in the 1967-73 era of contention.
Enough of the history lesson. Let’s hope the Cubs play some fun and winning baseball in the next week, because we will all miss baseball while it is away for the winter.
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Any tThoughts?
Take a peek at a video of Francisco trying his best work:
Anaheim Angels Baseball Francisco Rodriguez vs Red Sox
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Look who is in this news: young! This time, The Learning Curve: Diminishing Skills The Learning Curve. :
This segment is called “The Learning Curve” where you, young blog proprietor, will get a link to your new site on Deadspin. Any and all questions you may have about being a successful blogger will (hopefully) be answered.
Not by me, though. Consider this a “Dear Abby” for blog publishers and, you, proud, angry, often cruel commentariat should provide your helpful tips on success.
Now, thick skin is a requirement for every blogger. But do try to be helpful as well.
Don’t just torture all these people and trounce on their dreams in the comments - email them your tips, your real suggestions, your advice, etc. Touch lives and all that.
Today: Diminishing Skills, a blogspot production with an editor who lacks confidence (even though he has a pretty bad-ass first name) and is slowly losing hope unless you fine people can convince him otherwise.
My name is Canaan and I’ve been writing a blog called Diminishing Skills on-and-off (until recently, mostly off) since 2006. After moving to a town in the middle of nowhere, I’ve been updating it more regularly, and I was hoping that I could get some advice from your esteemed commenters on how to drive up readership (currently, I think I’m the only person who’s ever laid eyes on 90 percent of the blog’s content). The big thing I’m looking to get out of this is some feedback on whether putting as much time as I do into writing Diminishing Skills is actually worth it, since the few people who actually have seen the blog don’t ever let me know what they thought about it. Beyond the writing, the layout is a Blogger template, so any tips on how to make it a bit more personal and flashy would be greatly appreciated. Look forward to hearing both the good and the bad (mostly the bad; I regret not having a blog name that could be twisted into meaning two hobos’ cocks, but I’m sure someone will think of something). Thanks!
Offer your personalized flashy tips for Canaan.
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How do you think this news about young will affect the rest of the team this season?
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News about young,
KKOB-AM has the story, and appropriately enough, it’s rendered in SHIRT-RIPPINGLY SUPER-INTENSE WATER-SKI-READY ALL-CAPS: UNM’S HEAD FOOTBALL COACH IS BEING ACCUSED OF BATTERY BY ANOTHER COACH. THE TEAM’S WIDE RECEIVER COACH JONATHAN “JB” GERALD TOLD ALBUQUERQUE POLICE COACH MICHAEL LOCKSLEY HIT HIM DURING A “HEATED” COACHES MEETING ON SEPTEMBER 20TH. 770 KKOB OBTAINED A COPY OF THE POLICE REPORT. GERALD TOLD OFFICERS THAT AFTER LOCKSLEY GRABBED HIM BY THE COLLAR SEVERAL COACHES TRIED TO INTERVENE, BUT ACCORDING TO GERALD, LOCKSLEY PUNCHED HIM IN THE MOUTH — CUTTING HIS LIP. UNM’S VP OF ATHLETICS PAUL KREBS SAYS HE’S STILL SORTING IT OUT. GERALD HAS NOT RETURNED TO THE TEAM. EARLIER IN THE YEAR, A FORMER OFFICE ASSISTANT SUED LOCKSLEY AND UNM FOR FOR SEXUAL HARASSMENT. THAT CASE IS STILL PENDING. That last bit refers to a former administrative assistant’s accusations that Locksley fired her because she wasn’t “a younger gal” who might lure recruits. This at least served to momentarily distract Lobos fans from the fact that the prize of Locksley’s first recruiting class had left school for family reasons. And now he’s allegedly punching his coaches in the mouth. Awesome. He’s the perfect Ron Zook disciple, right down to that 0-4 record. He pisses intensity and incompetence. COACH-PUNCHING, MOUNTAIN WEST STYLE With Leather
First-year New Mexico coach Mike Locksley learned at the knee of famous intensity-pisser Ron Zook, and it seems he learned well. Locksley now stands accused of punching his wide receivers coach in the face.
LOBO COACH ACCUSED OF BATTERY 770 KKOB
UNM Head Football Coach Accused of Battery What’s The Word with Peter St. Cyr.
Post your thoughts below!
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I wonder how Davis’s real fans feel: “
D. J. LeMahieu singled, doubled, and tripled, and scored two runs, Ryan Flaherty reached base four times (double, two singles, and a walk), scored twice, and drove-in a run, Michael Brenly doubled and tripled and scored twice, Dong-Yub Kim singled and tripled, scored one run, and knocked-in another, and Rebel Ridling had four RBI, but it wasn’t quite enough offense to provide a victory, as the Cubs and Brewers played to a 9-9 tie in Arizona Instructional League action at Fitch Park Field #3 this afternoon in sunny and VERY hot Mesa, Arizona.
The Instructional League features a virtual all-star team from each organization, which for the Cubs means most of their best prospects from Peoria, Boise, and AZL Cubs (Mesa), plus a few older prospects at Instructs to work on specific aspects of their game. Other players are there to learn a new position (3B-1B Jovan Rosa and IF-OF Brandon May are being converted to catchers).
All of the Cubs minor league coordinators and instructors are present at Fitch Park each day (Monday through Saturday), as are many of the minor league managers, pitching coaches, and hitting instructors, so the kids get a lot of intense instruction on a daily basis. The players work out for several hours before each game, and then the players who are not in the lineup that day work with instructors on adjoining fields during the game. .
The Cubs got off to an early 5-1 lead today, as starting pitcher Alberto Cabrera threw two-hit one-run ball over three innings while the Cubs scored a run in the 1st on a double by Flaherty and a two-out RBI single by Ridling, and then four more in the 3rd that featured two-run RBI doubles by Hak-Ju Lee and Ridling.
But the Cubs relief corps couldn’t hold the lead, as the Brewers scored seven runs on four hits, three walks, two wild pitches, and a balk in innings 4-5-6-7 off Rafael Dolis, Jose Rosario, and Austin Kirk (although Dolis and Kirk did combine to strike out eight Brewers in just four innings of work).
But the Cubs offense kept the pressure on the Brewers, scoring single runs in the 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th to take a 9-8 lead into the 9th, as LeMahieu doubled and scored on an RBI FC in the 5th, Brenly doubled and scored on an RBI FC in the 6th, LeMahieu tripled and scored on an RBI single by Flaherty in the 7th, and Brenly tripled and scored on a one-out infield single by Runey Davis in the 8th (and then Davis promptly got picked-off 1st).
Corey Martin entered the game in the top of the 9th with a save opportunity, but he surrendered three hard hit singles, allowing the Brewers to tie the game. Martin was saved from further damage thanks to a fine running catch by CF Kyung-Min Na that the little Korean turned into a nifty 7-6 DP to end the inning and give the Cubs a chance to win the game in their half of the inning, but the Cubs left LeMahieu stranded on the base in the bottom of the 9th.
Outfielders Dong-Yub Kim and Kyung-Min Na are the latest Korean teenagers signed by the Cubs to big bucks bonus contracts, and it’s pretty obvious why Kim was rated by many scouts as the top high school player in South Korea. He is a big kid, a right-handed hitter with plus-speed and plus-power, the protypical five-tool outfielder.
Na is a litlle guy, maybe 5′6 130. He is a left-handed slap hitter who uses a toothpick for a bat, but he is fast runner (although Hak-Ju Lee is faster), and an outstanding defensive CF with s plus-arm. Na is so small he makes Tony Campana look like the Incredible Hulk. I understand Na was lost for several hours last week until the Fitch Park ground crew could mow the lawn and give the kid a chance to see over the tops of the blades of grass and find his way to the clubhouse.
While fellow Koreans Su-Min Jung, Hak-Ju Lee, and Jae-Hoon Ha were playing at Boise and Dae-Eun Rhee was rehabbing from TJS at Fitch Park, Kim and Na spent the summer at the MLB Australian Baseball Academy while waiting for their H2B visas to get processed.
The Cubs also signed three Taiwanese players this year (RHPs, Tzu-An Wang and Yao-Lin Wang, and 2B Pin-Chieh Chen), and they are supposed to participate in the AZ Instructional League, although they hadn’t reported as of last week.
Here is today’s abridged box score (Cubs players only):
LINE-UP:
1. Hak-Ju Lee, SS: 1-5 (F-7, 2B, 4-3, 6-3, 6-3), 1 R, 2 RBI
2. D. J. LeMahieu, 2B: 3-5 (6-3, F-9, 2B, 3B, 1B), 2 R
3. Ryan Flaherty, 3B: 3-4 (2B, BB, 1B, 1B, F-8), 2 R, RBI
4, Rebel Ridling, 1B: 2-4 (1B, 2B, FC, F-9), 4 RBI
5. Kyler Burke, RF: 0-4 (FC, F-8, K, K)
6a. Jovan Rosa, C: 0-2 (K, 5-3)
6b. Michael Brenly, C: 2-2 (2B, 3B), 2 R
7. Justin Bour, DH #1: 1-4 (K, F-7, 1B, 4-3)
8. Runey Davis, LF: 1-4 (L-7, K, K, 1B), RBI, PO
9. Dong-Yub Kim, DH #2: 2-4 (1B, 3B, FC, K), R, RBI
10. Kyung-Min Na, CF:Â 0-3 (BB, 6-3, K, 3-U), R
PITCHERS:
1. Alberto Cabrera - 3.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R (1 ER), 1 BB, 1 K, 1 WP,1 GIDP, 6/2 GO/FO, 44 pitches (25 strikes)
2. Rafael Dolis -Â 2.0 IP, 3 H, 2 R (2 ER), 2 BB, 4 K, 1 WP, 1 BALK, 1/0 GO/FO, 50 pitches (30 strikes)
3. Jose Rosario - 1.0 IP, 2 H, 3 R (3 ER), 1 BB, 0 K, 1/2 GO/FO, 17 pitches (8 strikes)
4. Austin Kirk - 2.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R (2 ER), 0 BB, 4 K, 1 WP, 2/0 GO/FO, 37 pitches (24 strikes)
5. Corey Martin - 1.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R (1 ER), 0 BB, 0 K, 1/2 GO/FO, 15 pitches (11 strikes)
ERRORS: NONE
CATCHERS DEFENSE No stolen base attempts and no passed balls
OUTFIELD ASSISTS: Kyung-Min Na (2) - 1) threw out runner trying to stretch single into a double, and 2) doubled runner off 2nd base on line drive to CF
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what do you think?This might be shocking news for Davis fans, but some of you who will say that you saw it coming from a mile away. I’m pretty surprised though. Davis is neat, I really hope this doesn’t affect the season.
Take a peek at a video of Davis at his finest:
Baseball Positions and Roles : How to Play Shortstop
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Ha, I can’t get enough of JONES -
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