Darwin Barney Owes Anthony Rizzo a Steak and Other Bullets

September 22, 2012, by Brett Taylor Chicago Cubs

With their win yesterday, and the Rockies’ loss, the Cubs have now climbed into the third-to-worst spot in baseball for the first time in several weeks. The Rockies have lost seven in a row.

Dale Sveum says we can expect to see non-regulars against the non-contenders coming up next week (for example, in the suddenly very important three-game series against the Rockies) for evaluation purposes. Excellent. That doesn’t include Darwin Barney, however, who is still shooting for the MLB record single-season errorless streak at second base. He needs five more games to tie Placido Polanco’s record 141 game streak.
Speaking of that streak, Anthony Rizzo saved Barney a throwing error yesterday in the 10th when Barney uncorked a wild one and Rizzo dived to his right to spear it, while sliding his foot back to the bag. Unstated, though, is that even getting to the ball and getting a quick throw over to first was a nice play for Barney, who was ranging far to his left at the time. Barney says he’s going to get Rizzo a token of appreciation.
Dale Sveum says he doesn’t expect to see a quality on-base percentage from a young guy until he’s had 2000 at bats in the big leagues or 4000 at bats in professional baseball.
If I’m counting correctly, the Cubs have walked off on the Cardinals four(!) times this year – the back-to-back nights in April, the RizzOMG back in July, and the one yesterday. That’s nice.
Comparing the Cubs over the past 30 years to the Cardinals is not a pleasant exercise. Voodoo freaking magic, man.
The Cubs have licensed their stuff to an eatery at O’Hare International Airport, so there will be a Cubs restaurant there starting Tuesday. There are jokes available, but most are hacky.
Melky Cabrera asked to be unqualified for the batting title, so MLB, together with the players union, crafted a new rule where, if you’re short of enough at bats to win the batting title because of a PED suspension, you don’t get the benefit of the other rule that would have allowed you to still win if you were given enough at bats to qualify (all as hitless at bats), and your average still stays on top (which would have been the case with Cabrera, who needed just one more hitless at bat to qualify, which would have dropped his average, like, nothing). Probably a good idea.