Remember the Bill Murray film “Groundhog Day”? After the Cubs failed to generate any offense Sunday, Dale Sveum finds himself stuck in a similar situation.
“It’s the same press conference every day, a broken record,” Dale Sveum said. “I don’t know what to say to come up with something different. It’s just frustrating — I mean, golly.”
The Cubs need some kind of offense. Reed Johnson made good contact against Zito as did Starlin Castro, even though he went 0-for-4.
“Other than that, there weren’t a lot of good at-bats,” Sveum said.
Koyie Hill has been trying super hard, but hitting is hard work, y’all.
“If we knew the answer — give credit to them,” Hill said of the sputtering offense. “They’ve run three pretty good pitchers out there. We know Zito has had his issues in the past but he doesn’t look like the same guy. He’s competitive with all his pitches and it makes it tough on us, especially in a ballpark that’s not very hitter friendly to begin with.”
Poor Koyie didn’t even stand a chance against the likes of the Giants.
Even the affable Alfonso Soriano is ready to jump ship.
“I’m 36 years old, so, yeah, I would like to have the opportunity to … if they want to trade me, I hope it is to a team that’s a contender because it’s about trying to go for that ring,” Soriano said before the Cubs’ third consecutive loss. “You want to feel good, feel like maybe you got a chance for that if we don’t have a chance here. But like I said, it depends on them. I don’t control the situation.”
Dale Sveum is doing his part to find Soriano a good home.
“He goes about his business as the ultimate professional,” manager Dale Sveum said. “He works on his outfield play every day, his offense, he does the same stuff every single day. It’s been impressive since the start of spring training how hard he’s worked to try and make himself a better player at [his] age on legs that don’t feel that good.”
Now, if they’d just stop telling the world how horrible his legs are. But Sveum needs someone to talk to, as apparently the front office isn’t returning his calls with the draft looming.
“They’re in lockdown right now,” Sveum said of Epstein and scouting chief Jason McLeod. ”There’s a lot going on in their life right now. It’s just one of those things where you’re in situations, any organization, you want that to be the right pick. In the second round, we want to find those diamonds in the rough. There’s a lot that goes into that draft that people can’t even fathom, to make sure you find the players that can impact the big-league team.”
Poor Dale.
“Golly??” No reason to work blue, Dale.
A lot of people were all over Soriano yesterday for not getting to that ball that started the rally…and some people were all over Sveum for continuing to trot Soriano out there when it is extremely obvious that his legs are in pretty bad shape right now.
The thing is, Soriano’s offense has been relatively good and that is the thing that is going to sell him to another team as the trade deadline approaches. Until his offensive numbers start to drop, the Cubs have no choice but to play him. In the coming weeks, it won’t be so bad as the Cubs will have some interleague games where they can use Soriano as DH, which is ultimately what he will become when he is traded.
I’m afraid he set too high a bar by so far outperforming what he’s done in previous seasons in the field. A reasonably capable OFer should have had that, and that’s how he’s played this year for the most part.
After seeing Soriano gimp around in the outfield I have to wonder if his bat offsets the deficiencies of his fielding that lead to runs for the opposition.
the wheelchair comment yesterday was classic dark humor.
It’s hard to say at the moment…Soriano’s defense, before he hurt his leg, was quite good…to the point where he was, statistically, one of the better defensive OFers in baseball. His poor defense over the last few weeks really hasn’t resulted in a significant drop in his defensive rating yet. Regardless, his offensive numbers the past 3 weeks have put him among some of the best players in baseball during that stretch. Typically, offensive numbers have a stronger affect than the defensive numbers as far as RAR and WAR. We’ll have a better idea in a few weeks as he plays more innings on that bad leg.
The draft is coming and the excitement here is overwhelming.
I don’t feel overwhelmed….
That was the point. Aren’t you excited to see who the Cubs draft to have a 25% chance of making it to the big leagues 5 years from now?
This team has completely sucked the life out of me. I have nothing left to give.
Note to Doc: Phil Rogers posted and article (http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/chi-your-morning-phil-correa-sale-castro-20120604,0,6812004.story) using the same arguments I used in defending my position to keep Starlin Castro.
I hereby change my mind and reverse my position.
That’s a wise move.
Catching up on my reading of posts from the last few days and of course chuckled my head off.
But remind me never to play baseball with you all if Julie is on the mound.
The “Should have aimed higher” comment had me laughing followed by an “Ouch!”
And anymore language like that from Svuem and I’m gonna keep my grandkids from postgame interviews. I mean “Golly!”?
Good Morning- my employer has decided to make LOHO view only. I found this out only after logging in about 10 times. Now have to post by phone…
Luckily, I’ve found that Mark has gotten the mobile version of the site working again.