I’ll admit that I passed on last night’s Chicago Cubs game in favor of laying on my bed and staring at the ceiling, but before you give me the standard “how can you tell they don’t care? can you read their minds? Hmmmm?” stuff, hear me out. You think the fans are the only ones just trying to get through this season? Not so . .  the players are, too.

After his horrible performance on Tuesday Night, Shawn Camp conveniently revealed that he had a sore toe that he never told anyone about.  He’s now been placed on the 15-day DL, much to the chagrin of Michael Bowden, who was designated for assignment on Tuesday to make room for Matt Garza.  Rafael Dolis has been recalled from AAA Iowa.

When asked why Camp wasn’t put on the DL earlier, Dale Sveum said that the team didn’t know about Camp’s injured toe, as he never told anyone. A) That’s extremely selfish on Camp’s part, given how terribly he’s been pitching, and B) I’m quite sure the Cubs have known about Camp’s 7.30 ERA for quite some time (Bowden has been much better this year, posting a 3.78 ERA and a 1.14 WHIP).

After my twitter rant about Shawn Camp yesterday, I heard from a few different sources that he wasn’t exactly known for “hard work” around Wrigley Field. One source pointed out that while Carlos Marmol is always seen performing pre-game cardio and post-game lifting, Shwan Camp pretty much foregoes all of that, the implication being that Camp really doesn’t seem all that interested in getting any better than he is.

On top of that, Gordon Wittenmeyer was on 670 The Score this morning, and he echoed what I’ve heard from another source in recent days: The Cubs are full of guys concerned about their own performance for contract reasons and a bunch of journeymen who show up to collect their paychecks. Wittenmeyer’s point was that there’s no Kerry Wood or Eric Karros on this Cubs team to rally the troops or get on people for stupid mistakes that cost ballgames.

So that’s . . encouraging.

» Continue reading “Cubs Continue to Make Stupid Decisions, Players Don’t Care”

We waited ten months to see Matt Garza take the mound for the Chicago Cubs, and he didn’t disappoint in his return. He pitched five shutout innings, didn’t allow a hit until the fifth and struck out five batters. He even had a two-run double in the second inning, which, for awhile, looked like the only runs the Cubs might need all night. What was it like to be back on the mound?

I don’t think Shawn Camp will smile like this in the vicinity of Matt Garza anytime soon.

“I felt great out there,” Garza told reporters. “I had some butterflies and the first couple of innings flew by. I had to kind of stop myself at one point and just slow down, but it was fun. It was a long, long time and it’s nice to not only come back but pitch well. You don’t want to spend that much time working to get back and then pitch poorly.”

Dale Sveum was happy to see such a good performance from Garza as well.

“He was really good,” Cubs manager Dale Sveum said. “He had a really good slider. His command, for it being his first time back, was outstanding. Even when he missed, he didn’t miss by much. His velocity was good, too, consistently at 93-94 (mph). He was just outstanding.”

The only bad thing was that Garza couldn’t stretch his 85-90 pitch count farther into the game. Unfortunately, the bullpen didn’t take long to undo Garza’s good work.

In the sixth inning, Rule 5 pitcher Hector Rondon gave up a leadoff double to Neil Walker, who later scored when lefty James Russell walked Pedro Alvarez with the bases loaded. Moments later, pinch-hitter Travis Snider crushed Shawn Camp’s changeup for a grand slam.

» Continue reading “Chicago Cubs Wednesday Headlines: Garza Great, Bullpen, Not So Much”

You may have heard a little something about Matt Garza’s return to the mound tonight. It will be his first start since July 21 of last year. What you haven’t heard is that was my birthday, so you folks have two months left to buy my birthday present. But back to Matt Garza for now. He’d like you to know that he’s excited about tonight‘s hopefully triumphant return.

“This actually means something, and I can’t wait,” he said. “It’s been 10 months in the making, so I’m excited to get back out there.”

How did he make it through 10 months without playing baseball?

“It was tough, but I had my family and my wife and kids the whole time to help me through it,” Garza said. “It was a grind, mentally. Physically, I could do anything, but the mental part was the tough part. It was one setback after another, and it was, ‘Keep going, keep going, keep going.’ I’m just happy I’m here at the end of it and can’t wait ’til Tuesday.”

If nothing else, it will be great to see him on the top step pulling for the rest of the team. Garza will be on an 85-90 pitch limit, so I’m thinking we’ll get five or six innings out of him. What are the chances we’ll get to see him make a wild throw to first in that time?

Evil Cubs nemesis Wandy Rodriguez will take the mound for the Pirates tonight. He’s 4-2 on the year with a 3.25 ERA. Lineup after the jump.

» Continue reading “Chicago Cubs Game Thread: Return Of The Matt”

I’ve been dealing with migraine headaches the last few days, so I’ve been decidedly out of the loop on Cubs news. From what I can tell, all I missed was Dale calling the Cubs “old“ and a redneck beer fight in the bleachers. Sounds about right.

So hey, Matt Garza returns today, and he’s eager, NOT NERVOUS:

Tell me this doesn’t look like Matt Garza. It totally does.

Garza may be talking down any tenseness about the start, but his manager, Dale Sveum, knows the challenges of returning to pitch on the game’s biggest stage. He’s worried — as he always is with players returning from injury — that Garza might try to do too much.

“You always worry about that with anybody, because I don’t care what you say, it’s different when 40,000 people are in the stands and you have third decks on the stadiums,” Sveum said. “But he’s been around long enough to understand how to control it if he’s starting to feel that, so you hope you’re able to control that in the first inning and get through that.”

Sveum plans to limit Garza to 85 to 90 pitches against the Pirates, who are 8-2 in their last 10 games and have only lost one game this season when leading after seven innings.

I have to admit, the thing I’m most looking forward to in Garza’s return is his penchant for yelling at Dale from the mound. It’s been a long time since we’ve had a good manager-player fight, and I feel like our chances just got a lot better. Welcome back, Matt!

» Continue reading “Cubs Tuesday Headlines: Matt Garza and I return”

Yesterday, Travis Wood continued his streak of nine straight starts to begin the season. He also hit a home run. Unfortunately, he gave up an untimely home run in the seventh inning which allowed the Mets to tie the game, which they would win in the eighth. How does it feel to be so good, only to blow it with one pitch?

“As soon as it left the hand, I didn’t like it,” Wood said. “I was hoping he would pop it up or something. But he didn’t. He put a good swing on it, hit it out of the park to tie the ball game.”

Giving up three runs in seven innings is good. Unfortunately, the Cubs offense couldn’t manage more than three runs to make Travis Wood a winner. But he does have the consolation of being the first Cubs lefty to begin a season with nine straight quality starts since “Three-Finger” Brown in 1908. But Wood is just doing his job.

“I think that I’ve always had that (mindset) regardless of how things are going,” Wood said of his quality-start streak. “That’s gotta be the goal, that way you’re getting deep into ball games and helping your team win.”

The offense, which has been better with RISP lately, reverted to being bad in those situations Sunday.

“We left guys on third base, struck out twice with a guy on third base and less than two outs,” Sveum said. “So those kinds of things come back to haunt you.”

The approaches are lacking at times, too. The Cubs drew only 1 walk against Mets pitching. Starlin Castro, who went hitless in his final 11 at-bats of the series, grounded out in the third by swinging at a pitch low and outside after getting ahead 2-1 in the count.

“That’s what we got right now in Castro swinging the bat,” Sveum said. “He’s going to swing the bat. He’s only walked five times or something like that the whole season. So we know what we’re going to get.”

» Continue reading “Chicago Cubs Monday Headlines: Travis Wood Good, But Makes An Oopsie”

We all know the struggles that Edwin Jackson has been through so far in his first year with the Chicago Cubs. He’s been particularly bad at Wrigley Field so far this season. Despite picking up the loss in yesterday’s game, he pitched reasonably well, allowing three earned runs in 6.2 innings. But he’s still a disappointment to Bruce Levine. Let’s check out his story with the headline “Jackson’s Struggles at Wrigley Continue”.

Edwin Jackson, who signed a four-year, $54 million contract with the Cubs last winter, continued to struggle at Wrigley Field on Friday despite turning in his longest performance of the season.

Jackson pitched into the seventh inning for the first time in 2013 before being lifted after allowing a go-ahead single to Mets starter and winner Matt Harvey as New York held on for a 3-2 win. Jackson is 1-6 in eight starts in Wrigley with an ERA above 8.00.

So he had a quality start, his longest outing of the year and only gave up three runs. I’m not sure how he continued to struggle, other than that the picked up the loss. And that could have been different, were it not for a bad decision by third base coach David Bell.

The Cubs had the potential tying run on second base with one out in the eighth inning when David DeJesus hit a line drive single to former Cubs outfielder Marlon Byrd in right.Darwin Barney hesitated a bit and then took off around third base with Bell’s blessings toward home plate. Byrd’s throw was a perfect strike to catcher John Buck, who tagged Barney out three feet from the plate.

”Obviously it is disappointing. It turned out it wasn’t a very close play,” Bell said. “I just watched the replay again and it wasn’t close. As a third base coach you always want to make the right decision. and that clearly wasn’t the right decision.”

As it turns out, Byrd, once again, was the wyrd.

» Continue reading “Chicago Cubs Headlines/Game Thread: Marlon Byrd Foils Cubs”

I’ll be honest, I had no idea that Marlon Byrd was on the Mets, or even that he was still in major league baseball. In fact, until today, I don’t think I’ve thought about him since he was suspended for PEDs last . . well, whenever that was.  But today, today Marlon will make his triumphant return to Wrigley Field. And he’s bringing his ginormous biceps with him:

When he wore Cubs blue, Marlon Byrd would salute the Bleacher Bums at Wrigley Field. And for a while, they loved him. Fans arrived at games wearing “Byrd is the word” T-shirts, as they watched him patrol center field for more than two seasons and earn a trip to the 2010 All-Star Game.

But when Byrd was traded to the Red Sox last season after only 13 games, he was hitting .070 and had recorded only two RBIs. It didn’t get much better for Byrd in Boston. After just 34 games, he was suspended for 50 games for a positive drug test.

On Friday, Byrd will return to Wrigley Field for the first time since Chicago traded him last April. After a brief stint in the Mexican Pacific League during the offseason, the 35-year-old Byrd is hitting .271 with three homers and 16 RBIs in 96 plate appearances with the Mets this season.

When New York opens a three-game series in Chicago on Friday, Byrd will once again settle into his spot in front of the ivy.

So if anyone is feeling nostalgic for the Mike Quade year, today’s your chance to relive the glory days. By the way, I would KILL to be able to find our old “Marlon Byrd is Magic” pic. If anyone has a copy, let me know.

» Continue reading “Cubs Live Game Thread: The Return of Marlon Byrd”

Last night was unarguably a great night for Chicago Sports. Bulls season? Mercifully over, but not until one of the biggest comebacks in playoff history was achieved. Blackhawks? Killed the Red Wings made it look easy. Chicago Cubs? Took the second series in a row AND leapfrogged the hated Brewers in the process. No, I’m not kidding. The Cubs are in 4th place.

I’ve often spoken of my complete and total disdain for the Milwaukee Brewers. I realize that, as a Cubs fan, I’m supposed to reserve most of my hate for the St. Louis Cardinals, with a small amount left over for the White Sox. And, after all, I grew up halfway in-between Chicago and Milwukee, and the Brewers were my AL team.

However, all that has changed since the Brewers moved to the NL Central. And while my hatred for the Cardinals is tinged with a begrudging respect that they always seem to be in the running when the post-season rolls around, I can’t say the same for the Brewers. For them, my hatred is only tinged with disgust. Accordingly, the above standings have brought me great joy.

» Continue reading “Chicago Cubs Thursday Headlines: Suck on that, Cheeseheads”

Our dearly beloved Chicago Cubs will seek to continue their new-found winning ways tonight. With a win against the Colorado Rockies, they will have won two consecutive series for the first time in 10 years. Of course, now that I’ve stated the possibility of a win, I’ve stacked the deck against the Cubs and we’ll likely see the greatest pitching performance of the year from the Rockies’ starter, Jon Garland.

You might remember Jon Garland from his stint on the south side, or before that, as the guy the Cubs traded to the White Sox for Matt Karchner. I was going to make a joke about how old he is, but looked up his age and he’s a year younger than me. He’s bounced around the last few years, and I can’t find anything about him pitching anywhere last season. So far for 2013 he’s allowed 22 earned runs in 41 innings over the span of seven starts. Opposing batters are hitting .304 against him, totaling 48 hits allowed. Maybe the Cubs can add on to their Major League-leading 90 doubles and score some runs against the not-so-young Mr. Garland.

Tonight on the mound for the Cubs, we’ll see the flowing locks of Jeff Samardzija whipping about in the breeze. Young Mr. Spellcheck is looking to rebound from a horrible start in DC last Friday. In case you’d forgotten, he allowed seven runs (five earned) in five innings that night. He’s allowed 42 hits and 20 earned runs in 48.2 innings over eight starts. He’s also leading the league with six wild pitches.

Lineup after the jump.

» Continue reading “Chicago Cubs Game Thread: Matt Karchner Lives In Our Hearts And Minds”

Today marks the next installment of LOHO’s “use a number as a post title” series. It also might be the last in the series, but who knows? Yesterday, Julie pointed out that the Cubs were but five games out in the Wild Card race. What most of us probably expected was a Cubs loss to the Rockies and falling to six games behind the Wild Card leader. That’s exactly what happened. But another bit of news highlighting the number six came out before yesterday’s game when Dale Sveum was asked about the starting rotation after Matt Garza’s return from his rehab assignment.

“It’s a tough decision because everybody has pitched pretty well,” Sveum said. “It’s going to be one of those things that will be unfortunate for somebody but it’s a reality and it’s going to happen.”

Carlos Villanueva, who started Tuesday, has the most experience as a swingman.

“It might lean to who we’re playing that series, the matchups,” Sveum said. “Maybe you go to a six-man rotation for a week because of matchups. You never know what the bullpen is like. A lot of things come into play. We’ll make that decision — and I know you guys are going to keep asking this question every day. It’s not going to change.”

A six-man rotation? That makes no sense, especially when what he’s describing is a spot start. He’s not even talking about a six-man rotation. Is he just trying to get our hackles raised? Is Dale Sveum trolling us? Fortunately for Dale Sveum (and our sanity), Carlos Villanueva may have made the decision an easy one after last night’s start. He gave up seven runs on 12 hits in five innings.

“I know we’ll be a stronger team when he [Garza] comes back,” Villanueva said after the game. “A night like tonight didn’t help my cause.”

(snip)

“You would be lying if you said stuff doesn’t cross your mind when it comes up, but, like I said, we’re professionals,” he stated. “It’s hard to play that way [thinking of your job], hard to pitch, hard to play defense.”

(snip)

“Chalk it up to a bad day at the office,” Villanueva said. “When the good ones get hit, obviously the bad ones get hit even harder.”

At least there will be one more slightly competent pitcher in the bullpen when Villanueva is sent there.

» Continue reading “Chicago Cubs Wednesday Headlines: SIX!”