Maybe you haven’t heard yet, but it’s Draft Day. The first round (and supplemental first round) of the MLB Draft go off this evening, and you can follow it all here at BN. If you’re even remotely into the amateur side of the game, the Draft is a hell of a lot of fun, and the anticipation that builds as those first few picks go off the board is incredible (“Oh, crap! The Mariners just took Correa! Does that mean one of the college pitchers will slide? Wait! The Royals just took Almora!”). We’ll have lots more about the Draft as the day goes on. Until then, Bullets…
Dale Sveum is starting to sound like Mike Quade and Lou Piniella before him. No, that’s not a criticism of Sveum, mind you, it’s just, well, this team will make you say things like this: “It’s the same press conference every day. It’s a broken record. I don’t even know what to say to come up with something different. It’s just frustrating. I mean, golly.” Someone want to find me a good picture of Sveum looking frustrated or perplexed so I can add “I mean, golly” to it? Better than that picture there, that is?
Sveum says Carlos Marmol’s lack of walks since returning from the DL is a good sign, but he’s not ready to hand Marmol back the closer job. I don’t think it will take too many more scoreless outings to get Marmol back in the job, however, as the Cubs will do anything possible to try and rebuild any tiny value he might have as we approach the trade deadline.
Reliever Marcos Mateo, whose elbow has been bothering him for almost a year (remember when Mike Quade had him pitch, like, five innings in a game out of nowhere last year … just sayin’), finally underwent Tommy John surgery. He’s been out since the Spring, and now he’ll be out until the second half of 2013 … if he makes it back at all. It’s a shame.
Is Bryan LaHair’s low RBI total (just 22) actually his own fault? We think of RBI as kind of a meaningless stat in terms of reflecting a player’s true ability, and, in that way, how can you blame LaHair for not having guys to drive in? After all, his season line is a huge .313/.399/.587. Well, as Matthew Pouliot points out, LaHair hits considerably worse with runners on base (.233/.347/.433), and even worse than that with runners in scoring position (.171/.348/.286). Interesting.
Mini-SCardenfreude: the Cardinals have scored one run in their last three games, have lost five in a row, and are now a mere .500 team. It doesn’t make the Cubs any less terrible, but it can make us feel a little better about it.
Brett Taylor is the Lead Cubs Writer at Bleacher Nation, and you can find him on Twitter at @BleacherNation and on LinkedIn here.
Brett is also the founder of Bleacher Nation, which opened up shop in 2008 as an independent blog about the Chicago Cubs. Later growing to incorporate coverage of other Chicago sports, Bleacher Nation is now one of the largest regional sports blogs on the web.
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