Play of the Day: A Cubs Runner Reaches Third Base!

The closest the Cubs came to scoring occurred in the fifth inning.  New guy, Blake DeWitt, led off with a single, and then the eighth hitter in the lineup, OPS team leader, Geovany Soto, followed with a single.

Unfortunately, the problem with batting your best hitter eighth means that when he gets on base, the pitcher is up next.  With Tom Gorzelanny batting, Bronson Arroyo uncorked a wild pitch that allowed the runners to advance to second and third with nobody out.

So that was it.  The wild pitch.  That was the best thing to happen to the Cubs today.

Carlos Silva to Have Heart Procedure

Bruce Levine is reporting that Carlos Silva will undergo a procedure on his heart on Monday:

Chicago Cubs right-handed pitcher Carlos Silva will have a cardiac catheterization on Monday to determine if he needs a cardiac ablation, the team announced Friday.

I have no idea what any of that means except that they are going to cut him open and tinker with his ticker and that is not good news at all.

The bright side is that the Cubs have a decent recent history involving heart procedures.  Jim Hendry completed one of the greatest free-agent signings in the history of the Chicago Cubs when he signed Ted Lilly from his hospital bed before under-going angioplasty surgery.

Also, Bruce reminds us that the Mighty DeRosa came through a similar procedure in 2008:

The ablation was performed, and the irregular heartbeat was adjusted. DeRosa returned to playing baseball within 10 days.

So let's wish good things for Carlos Silva and hope he eventually can resume his career. 
 
Carlos, as a word of warning, I wouldn't try to break DeRosa's record for returning to action.  For one, there is no reason at all to risk your health to rush back onto the field to play for this team.  For another, Mark DeRosa, as we all know, is more God than man.  One should not enter lightly into a contest with such a being.
 
Get well soon.

Play of the Day: Good Job, New Guy!

The Cubs looked to be well on their way to another loss to another crap team.  Dempster was walking the pitcher on four pitches. Jeff Baker was trying to throw the ball into the outfield instead of second base.  Soriano was letting the ball get by him to go all the way to the wall.  Santo was babbling about how he couldn't believe it, leaving us to wonder why he couldn't believe it since this was as regular an occurence as the sun rising in the east.

Then in the bottom of the 6th inning, the Cubs put together what looked like another one of their patented Tease Rallies.  These are the situations where the Cubs put themselves in a position to tie a game, or take the lead by getting just one more hit (or even a fly ball into the outfield).  They then mystify everyone by not only not scoring, but finding a new and inventive way of not scoring.

Geovany Soto had pulled the Cubs within a run and put the tying run on third with only one out with an RBI single that made the score 3-2.  Soriano promptly stepped in and struck out.  Of course, the next batter would hit the deep fly ball that would have been useful just one batter sooner.

But that isn't what happened.  Newly acquired Blake DeWitt (who apparently hasn't finished reading the team playbook) singled on an 0-2 count to tie the game.

The Milwaukee bullpen then continued its implosion that led to the eventual final score of Cubs 15, Milwaukee 3.  But none of it would have happened if the new guy had followed the basic Cubs blueprint for this season.  He also added a 3-run homerun to cap off the scoring in the 8th.

Way to go, new guy.  Way to not know how to read.  Nobody teach him.

Play of the Day: Starlin Becomes a Real Cub

You know how Yankees fans don't consider some of their best players "real Yankees" until they pass the clutch test a few times?  Alex Rodriguez was putting up unreal numbers when he arrived in New York, but a few high-pressure pop-ups or groundouts led to grumblings that he was not a real Yankee.  The same thing happened to Mark Teixiera and any number of other players who have worn the pinstripes in the Bronx.  To be a real Yankee, you better damn well hit a few walk-offs on national TV, or you are just a poser who doesn't deserve to wear the NY on the cap.

The Cubs have an opposite situation going.  New players can't really be considered part of the rich history of embarassingly bad baseball until they have that moment when they do something so off-the-charts ridiculous, you wouldn't believe it actually happened except for the fact that it happens all the time to the Chicago National League Ballclub.

Some players become real Cubs almost instantly.  Milton Bradley got ejected after striking out looking in his first at-bat of the season after returning from an injury he sustained in an at-bat in which he walked.  Here's your Cubbie patch, Milton.

Some Cubs take awhile to realize they are Cubs.  Mark Prior didn't become a real Cub until he injured himself plowing into Marcus Giles while running the bases.  Here's your Cubbie patch, Mark.

God bless him, Starlin Castro tried his damndest to hold off becoming a real Cub, but he became a Cub in his ninth inning at-bat against the Brewers on Tuesday.  The play started well enough.  He singled up the middle to drive in Mike Fontenot to bring the Cubs within one run.  He then saw a slight bobble in the outfield by Jim Edmonds and decided to try to stretch it into a double. 

That is when things went horribly wrong.  He ended up channeling his inner Theriot and stumbled as he tried to accelerate halfway between first and second, and he was caught.  He got run down and ended up being tagged for the second out as he tried to sprawl around Rickie Weeks.

Welcome to the club, Starlin!  You're a real Cub today!  Here's your Cubbie patch.

Someone kill me.

Hire Ozzie Guillen

The death march has begun.

The Cubs have traded probably the only tradeable pieces that they are willing to trade.  There may be some rumors about Fukudome or Nady as the waiver deadline approaches, but I expect that the moves would either never come to fruition or do nothing more than clear a roster spot.

The Cubs have slipped into fifth place in the standings and have some work to do to get to last, but that may end up being the biggest story when it is all said and done.

We will get to see a parade of pitchers who are clearly over-matched on the major league level.  Casey Coleman may be a third generation major league pitcher in his family, but the Cubs might as well have sent his grandfather out there against the Brewers last night, and he's been dead for 13 years.

Brian Schlitter is so terrible that I think he may actually be part of a plan to make fans beg for Jeff Samardzija to get another chance.  He makes us wish John Grabow a speedy recovery.  He makes us pine for the services of Bob Howry again.  He makes us wish we could get our hands on some cyanide capsules.

There is almost nothing interesting left about the 2010 season, so there is almost nothing left but to wildly speculate about 2011.  So, what if Ozzie Guillen were the next manager of the Chicago Cubs?

See, if I had said that yesterday you would have thought I was just an insane, wreckless blogger living in my mother's basement and stirring up trouble.  But today, Paul Sullivan provided this conjecture:

So I am not the one throwing the insane, wreckless ideas out there.  I am just sitting here in my mother's basement and commenting on it.

I'm going to come out and say this is a fabulous idea and I throw the full weight of Aisle 424 behind this initiative.

Let's face it, the Cubs are probably going to blow pretty hard next year too.  Everyone will be a year older and on a veteran team like the Cubs, that isn't a good thing.  There isn't any money to improve via Spendin' Jim's preferred means, so the caravan between Iowa and Chicago will be adding a few departures to keep up with demand.

What would keep us interested in 2011 after the disappointment of 2009 and the journey to oblivion in 2010? 

Ryne Sandberg?  I know he's become a walking firestorm that gets kicked out of games every other day now, but it is still Ryne Sandberg.  The quiet guy who kept his head down and played "the right way."  I love Ryne, but we also have to remember that when stuff got tough at home, it followed him onto the field and he eventually quit before his skills left him.  That was his choice and something he felt he needed to do, but it doesn't make for a quality I would want leading the Chicago Cubs where adversity is around every corner.

Joe Girardi? If he is the next manager of the Cubs it is because the Yankees didn't want him badly enough to hold onto him.  That's not good.  Add in that he was fired from his Florida Marlins job after winning Manager of the Year, and we have what appears to be a very good manager, but one with some quality that nobody wants around very long.  That could be interesting, but it hasn't made for real good copy since whatever it is about Joe that people don't like must happen behind closed doors.

But Ozzie on the north side?  That would be entertaining as hell.  Half of the fan base would hate it to the core of their being.  You thought bringing in Jim Edmonds was a tough sell?  I would almost rather try to convince people that BP is an environmentally friendly corporation.  So there would be that shitstorm which would be fun in and of itself, but then you would also have the media dredging up every anti-Cub, anti-Wrigley, and anti-North Side thing Ozzie has ever said.  Think of the backtracking and the new Ozzieisms that would spring from such an exercise. 

On top of THAT, the only reason Ozzie would even ever be available for the job would be because he and Kenny Williams' irreconcilable differences will become unlivable and the split probably won't be amicable.  If you thought reading how big a dumbass Kenny Williams is in "Moneyball" was fun, just wait for the first press conference Ozzie has when he is asked about his feelings about Kenny.  That is an hour-long ESPN special waiting to happen.

So I am 100% on board the Ozzie-to-the-Cubs Train.  It gets hard to write about the Cubs every damn day, but I bet Ozzie would make it a whole hell of a lot easier.

Oh, and he won a World Series with a team that had Geoff Blum and Scott Posednik on it that was second only to the Cubs in futility.  So there is that too.

Play of the Day: Remember That Catch in the First Inning? That Was Pretty Good

The Cubs are really making me work to come up with a Play of the Day.  Seriously, guys?  18 to 1?  Anyone want to have a guess at what the team that showed up this evening has in common with the 2003 Detroit Tigers that lost 119 games?  Alan Trammel as manager.

Of course, this game and the two horrible games before this one can't be used to prove that Trammel should not be the new manager of the Cubs next year, but they aren't something he will want to add to his resume either.

Anyway, we should be talking about the Play of the Day, so I'll go with the running, leaping-into-the-wall catch by Tyler Colvin in the first inning to rob Ryan Braun of extra bases.

Any play that takes something away from Mr. Shiny Shirt is worthy of notice, so good job, Tyler.

Play of the Day: Alfonso Comes Close, But No Banana

It was looking like the Play of the Day would be Alfonso Soriano striking out with the bases loaded in the first inning since that was looking like the best chance the Cubs had of doing something good in their final game against the Rockies.

Instead, as the Cubs clawed back to make it interesting, Soriano came up with a chance to tie the game with Marlon Byrd on third and the Cubs down 8-6.  He drove the ball to deep right center field and almost accomplished the feat of bringing the Cubs all the way back.  Instead, Dexter Fowler made a leaping catch up against the wall that ended up knocking him out of the game.

It didn't look like the ball would have made it over the wall on its own for a homerun, but it would have put a runner at second for sure, and probably at third since Fowler hurt himself on the play, with only one out.

This would have practically guaranteed that new arrival, Blake DeWitt, would have had a chance to make his legend grow beyond human comprehension in a fifth at-bat after going 3 for 4 already in the game.  Instead, there were two outs and nobody on, and Jeff Baker struck out to end the game and complete the series sweep by the Rockies.