Dale Sveum is Peeved and Other Bullets

The reason I was without a computer for a portion of the day yesterday is because I got a new one, and I was transferring my data/files/whateves from the old to the new. Some things are slightly different on this new one, so you’ll have to let me know if things start looking odd to you – formatting, pictures, and especially Enhanced Box Scores. Let me know if anything starts looking jacked up to you over the next few days.

  • To date, Dale Sveum has been a pretty even keeled manager. Sure, he’s argued a few calls and expressed disappointment at the Cubs’ struggles. But, generally-speaking, he doesn’t really get riled up in the way that Mike Quade or Lou Piniella did (Dusty Baker was a bit more like Sveum). Sveum actually once said, “I mean, golly!” as a way of expressing his frustration earlier this year. Not exactly what you expect from a dude with tats.
  • Well, Sveum blinked yesterday after the Cubs kicked the ball all over the field, and, in Starlin Castro’s case, on the base paths. “I’m a little upset today, yeah,” Sveum said, according to the Tribune. “There were a few things just taken for granted. Some things aren’t acceptable when you take things for granted. And it wasn’t just the baserunning blunder either …. I don’t attribute [the errors] to anything. We’ve been playing good defense all season long. Sometimes those kinds of things happen. Sometimes you take things for granted. There’s no rhyme or reason why they all happened in one day, and three in an inning and to five different guys.”
  • Sveum got the most heated when he started talking about Starlin Castro, specifically, who booted a ball, and got thrown out at third base after stealing second while Josh Vitters hit a single to right (Brandon Phillips faked like he was about to receive a throw as Castro arrived at second). “You steal a base five runs down, you better damn know where the ball is hit,” Sveum said. “The lack of concentration [from Castro] is still there on a consistent basis in situations where you can’t make a mistake like that at all.” Sveum said he’s going to think about benching Castro.
  • Lendy Castillo – remember him? – is expected to be activated this weekend and return to the bullpen after a long stint on the disabled list with a back inj … a leg inj … an arm thing? Hand? Elbow? Was it mono? Well, he’s been out with some kind of injury. And, hey, what do you know: by returning this weekend, assuming he stays active the rest of the year, Castillo will accumulate just enough time on the active roster this year for the Cubs to keep him (90 days) after taking him in the Rule 5 Draft last December. Good thing his lupus cleared up just in time!
  • (For those who desperately want to know, Castillo’s injury was apparently a “groin strain.”)
  • Doug Padilla takes an early look at who might comprise the Cubs’ September call-ups, but it isn’t too hard to figure it out – just peruse the 40-man roster, grab anyone who’s already been up this year, and then throw in someone like Junior Lake, who’s a maybe, and you’ve got the crew.
  • I guess Brett Jackson is ok after taking a Starlin Castro thigh/knee to the shoulder/neck on a windswept fly ball yesterday (it was one of those tweeners where nobody could call for it, two guys dive, and the ugly collision is inevitable). Jackson stayed down for a while, but stayed in the game.
  • written by

    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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