Series Preview: Cubs v. Reds, August 27 – August 29, 2010
The Chicago Cubs head to Cincinnati to take on the (still) best team in the National League Central – best not only in record, but in the sense that they might be able to keep the Cardinals out of the playoffs. I may still have antipathy for Dusty Baker, but I can’t say I hate the Reds right now. Time for the Series Preview.
The idea is to hook you up with the bare minimum of what you need to know about every series this year. That way you can look like a genius, hardcore fan in front of all your friends, with minimum effort. Oh, and there will be pictures of beautiful women, too.
Check out the Reds series preview, after the jump
Series Preview: Padres v. Cubs, August 16 – 19, 2010
It’s series preview time again as the Chicago Cubs welcome the best team in the National League to Wrigley Field. So bring it on Braves… er… Dodgers … er Cardinals? Giants?
Wait. San Diego Padres? Um, what?
A refresher on the series preview here at Bleacher Nation:
The idea is to hook you up with the bare minimum of what you need to know about every series this year. That way you can look like a genius, hardcore fan in front of all your friends, with minimum effort. Oh, and there will be pictures of beautiful women, too. So there’s that.
Check out the Padres series preview, after the jump
Alfonso Soriano is Struggling, and is Kind of Blaming the Team
Alfonso Soriano is a wealthy man. The Chicago Cubs gave him an eight-year contract four years ago, which pays him $18 million per season. Without commenting on the wisdom of the deal, it’s fair to say that it came with certain expectations that Soriano has not lived up to.
After a miserable 2009 season, Soriano was on his way to a fine rebound year in 2010 – until June, that is. And he’s got some interesting theories on why he’s struggling.
However, it’s been a struggle for Soriano since May. He was 4-for-18 on the road trip. He has 1 home run in August. He hit .225 in July, .234 in June and .308 in May.
“Players, to have a good year, have to have a good team,” Soriano said. “It’s very hard to have a good year when you don’t have a good team.
“You see the Cincinnati Reds. Everybody’s doing good because they are in first place. If you see us, nobody’s doing good because we are in fifth place. St. Louis has guys who are having a very good year because they are in first place, too.
“I think that’s the key. If we have a very good team, everybody can have a good year.” Daily Herald.
I’ll go ahead and give Soriano the benefit of the doubt, and assume that he didn’t mean that the way it sounded. Because it sounded like he’s saying his numbers are down because he’s stuck on a crappy team – and boy would that be a crummy thing to say.
Without getting into a chicken-or-the-egg style debate about individual good seasons and team good seasons (though it seems pretty obvious that teams have good seasons because of player good seasons, and not the other way around), Soriano should probably rethink his position. As noted in the article, he hasn’t hit in over two months, and you’d think he’d at least be good at saying the right things by now.
But then again, Soriano’s a really rich guy these days. It’s not like he’s got much to play for this season, right?
Lou Piniella Won’t Be With Chicago Cubs in San Francisco
Chicago Cubs manager Lou Piniella won’t be managing the Cubs out in San Francisco this week. Not because he’s tired of watching the crap, mind you; it’s because his mother is in the hospital, you jerk.
Piniella was to leave after Sunday’s game against the Cincinnati Reds to return home to Tampa to be with his mother, Margaret, 90, while the team would travel to San Francisco for a four-game series beginning Monday.
Margaret Piniella, who has been in fragile health, was hospitalized late Saturday for the third time within recent weeks, and only a week after the death of her brother, Joseph Magadan. CHICAGO SUN-TIMES.
Alan Trammell will manage the team in Piniella’s absence, as he did last week when Piniella went to Tampa for his uncle’s funeral.
Ted Lilly to the New York Mets?
Now that Cliff Lee is off the trade market, Chicago Cubs starter Ted Lilly becomes the best available lefty starting pitcher on the market, and remains one of the best two or three available overall. It seems highly likely that, if the Cubs decide to move Lilly and he’s amenable to waiving his limited no-trade clause, the Cubs will be able to find a taker for Lilly. Their first calls no doubt will go out to the losers in the Cliff Lee sweepstakes, including the Yankees, Mets, White Sox, Phillies, Dodgers, and division rival Cardinals and Reds, among others.
At least one of those teams – the Mets – have already been attached to Lilly for a couple of weeks now. And according to Joel Sherman, the Mets are expected to “turn strongly” to Lilly, now that Lee is off the market.
When it comes to moving Lilly, there are, of course, some hurdles. There is the aforementioned limited no-trade clause, though Lilly has never indicated a desire to remain in Chicago no matter what. There is also the matter of the $5.5ish million remaining on his deal this year, though the Cubs would be willing to eat some of that, depending on the return.
Perhaps the biggest hurdle to trading Lilly, however, is his recent performance. Back-to-back terrible outings in July have seen his ERA climb from 3.12 all the way to 4.08. He gave up five homers in those two starts, and 18 hits in just over 10 innings. They were about as bad as it gets.
Still, he had a 2.53 ERA in June, and sports an excellent 1.15 WHIP. The last two starts notwithstanding, Lilly is generally a durable, consistent starter. He’s also likely to be a Type A free agent, which could further enhance his attractiveness to a team willing to offer him arbitration after the season.
Mitch Atkins to Chicago, Brian Schlitter to DL
Brian Schlitter is the latest Chicago Cub to come down with bad-performance-itis. I kid (sort of), but following his disastrous outing on Friday against the Reds, the Cubs discovered that Schlitter had a “shoulder impingement.” He’ll head to the DL, and Mitch Atkins comes back up from Iowa to take his spot in the bullpen.
Manager Lou Piniella said Schlitter injured the shoulder in his last outing — he allowed five runs on Friday against the Reds — and the cortisone shot he received on Saturday improved his ailment, but not to the degree that he became available out of the bullpen.
Schlitter, who made three appearances since being called up on June 26, will accompany the club to Los Angeles for a four-game game set that closes out of the first half. He will likely be activated to the roster shortly after the All-Star break.
Atkins, who was available to pitch in long relief Wednesday, wasn’t called upon in his June 12-15 stint at the big league level. The 24-year-old went 5-2 with a 3.60 ERA in 18 games (10 starts) for Iowa and now joins a ‘pen that already includes fellow rookies Andrew Cashner, James Russell and Justin Berg, who was recalled on Monday.
“We need some innings out of our bullpen,” Piniella said. “The young kids are going to have to perform.” cubs.com.
Perhaps Atkins will actually get a chance to pitch this time around – he didn’t make an appearance in his last stint with the big club, and he didn’t get into a bullpen-heavy game last night.
The injury to Schlitter makes me remember/wonder: what’s up with Esmailin Caridad these days? He went on the DL (for the second time) with an elbow strain all the way back on May 19, but we haven’t really heard boo since then. Anyone know how he’s doing?
Dusty Baker Could Have Fixed The Cubs
Cincinnati Reds manager Dusty Baker was in town for this weekend series against the Cubs, and that means the Chicago media was hungrily grabbing tons of quotes from the former Cubs manager.
The most interesting one is probably Baker’s declaration that he has ideas of how to fix the current iteration of the Cubs. They are ideas, he says, that he tried to implement when he was the manager – but wasn’t allowed.
”Every once in a while, I think about how close we were [in 2003] and how different things might have been,” Baker said during a recent conversation with the Sun-Times. ”That wasn’t how it was supposed to be. You continue with your life and try not to look back on things. You look forward. You can’t do anything about the past and what-ifs.”
Baker said he knows what he would do to change the culture and fortunes on the North Side — things he suggests he wasn’t allowed to do — but he’s not revealing the formula.
”They didn’t want to hear them when I was there. Why would I want to tell them now?” he said. ”Ask me when I get through managing.” CHICAGO SUN-TIMES.
I’ll admit – I’m curious. Given that Baker hasn’t had any real success since 2003 until this year, however, I’m skeptical that he’s got the magical cure in his back pocket.
Hmm. Does that read as bitter?
Dusty Baker: I Regularly Had to Talk to Carlos Zambrano About His Anger
Dusty Baker managed the Chicago Cubs from 2003 to 2006, which coincided with the early years of Carlos Zambrano’s nascent career. Zambrano was a bundle full of energy back then, too, and Baker says he regularly had to reign Zambrano in when he was bursting into anger flames.
The manager who had Carlos Zambrano through his best major-league seasons had more closed-door sit-downs with the emotional pitcher than the public ever knew and seemed less surprised than disheartened by the latest blowup.
”It saddens me. He’s a good guy,” said Cincinnati Reds manager Dusty Baker, who had Zambrano through the pitcher’s first four full seasons as a starter, through 2006.
”Hey, man, I know where he’s coming from because I fought most of my adolescent life [with my temper,'' he said. ''My dad cut me three times -- my own dad cut me from my Little League team three times because of my temper. He said, 'If you can channel that into a positive direction, you can be something. Until then, you're going to get cut again.'''
Baker hauled Zambrano into his office numerous times early in a career marked repeatedly by incidents involving showing up teammates with angry displays.
''We had quite a few conversations about things,'' Baker said, ''contrary to everybody thinking 'Dusty's so easy-going.'
''[Anger] was always there, but he was channeling it to win. Carlos hates to lose. This guy is a competitor, big-time.” CHICAGO SUN-TIMES.
No surprises, I suppose, as we all saw how Z was in those days (and these days). A bit surprising that Dusty, who’s always regarded as a “player’s manager,” and usually goes out of his way to avoid saying anything concrete about any players, was willing to lay it out there.
Still, it is interesting to hear that “anger” has been an issue for so many years. Maybe anger management really will end up a good thing for Zambrano, after all.
