Ryan Dempster continued his unbelievable streak of bare-minimum quality starts (6 IP, 3 ER), and Mike Quade actually played a few of the “kids.” Bryan LaHair had another hit, and DJ LeMahieu had a couple, himself. Carlos Marmol locked things down with a couple strikeouts.
But the story was the game-winner…
Brett Taylor is the lead writer at Bleacher Nation, and can also be found as Bleacher Nation on Twitter and on Facebook.
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23 May 2013
Why it's a lot tougher to sell guys for value now than you might think, even if they offer their new team more starts in 2013.
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23 May 2013
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23 May 2013
It turns out the Cubs might not have done it if they'd known the extent of Shawn Camp's injury.
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23 May 2013
Each of The Big Three were in action yesterday, finally, and each had a notable performance. Also: looking ahead to the second round of the Draft.
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22 May 2013
Doesn't matter if you hold them to one. Can't win if you don't score.
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22 May 2013
Also pitch count debates, Mariano Rivera's ridiculousness, increased shifting in baseball, and so much more.
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22 May 2013
This, despite the fact that the Cubs knew about the injury this weekend.
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Quite nice to get the good Carlos tonight. Marmol looked positively 2009-ish.
i dont think Castro will get his 200 hits ..damn
Why?
there’s 18-19games to go & im being pessimistic
Why are they not playing for a draft pick. I understand winning but damn…..we are 50 games out of first(jk)! But i’m just saying.
You NEVER try to lose on purpose.
Haha – lobbying for the GM position I see.
did Ricky tell Quade to play some kids?
castro needs 18 hits in the last 19 games, certainly doable
It looks like Lemahieu can make all the defensive plays; there should be an interesting battle for starting 2B in 2012. And for anyone else old enough to remember, tell me if this isn’t true: a. Cueto’s windup reminds one of Luis Tiant; and b. James Russell is looking more and more like Paul Assenmacher.
If I were confident that LeMahieu could be 90% the defender that Barney is (which, this year, hasn’t actually been all that great), I’d say give him the 2B job right now. He has offensive upside that Barney doesn’t even approach.
I liked the way he went out after the popup down the first base line and looks good going to his right. You can’t fault him for the play on Cueto’s bunt. But Barney has been so good driving in big runs…….
“Clutchness” tends to be either a fluke or the mere ability to not crap your pants with runners on. In Barney’s case, it’s a little of both – with RISP, he’s hitting .287/.336/.361, which is only slightly better than his season line.
… but it’s still pretty crappy.
I bet byrd or pens would like that line with runners in scoring position.
SLG% …its all about SLG% and thats the only thing Barney can do to keep his job next year ..LeMahieu is bigger & will naturally SLG more (hopefully)
I thought I heard you say once that scouts don’t think that his frame will fill out and develop any power. That is a real shame, because he is a big kid. I met him in Iowa and he has got some really wide shoulders. Time will tell, but maybe a couple of “Camp Colvins” and that upside will go even higher. As for defense, he has looked aweful good at third base…
That’s the concern with him – that his huge frame will prohibit him from playing 2B long-term, but that he still isn’t filling into the frame to develop the power necessary to man 3B or a corner OF position.
For the record, I’m a big LeMahieu fan if he can stick at 2B, even if the power never comes.
Did you just say “upside?”
Now is not the time for upside potential.
*Like*
I guess my feeling on Barney is more of a “gut feeling”, an eyeball test (which is probably a bad thing since I listen to most games instead of watching), but even with your stats., you have to agree, I think, that Barney has put together a pretty good rookie year and LeMahieu hasn’t had the same chances. Hence, the interesting battle in 2012.
I don’t like bashing Barney, because there’s so much to like about him. But, with apologies to both him and you, I just can’t agree that he’s had a good year. He’s a 25-year-old rookie near the top of the league in errors and the bottom of the league in offense. He’s gotten by on an excellent April and a great attitude/effort, and it’s taking months to disabuse people of the idea that he’s this awesome young kid who is a building block for the future.
He’s a solid 24th/25th man. That’s it.
Playing on a team with a number of 24th/25th type players.
Scrappy Dabby Doo… He’s fallen into that phantom fandom related “good” season, but his numbers with RISP still towers above Pena and Byrd.
castro will finish with 198 hits on the season.