One of the worst things about the Chicago Cubs’ new marketing campaign, “Committed, is that no one ever told us exactly what we are supposed to be committed to. Up until last night, Dale Sveum was overly-committed to Carlos Marmol. This morning, not so much.

ATLANTA — Japanese reliever Kyuji Fujikawa was expected to replace Carlos Marmol as the Chicago Cubs closer in 2014 after Marmol’s three-year contract ended. Instead, Fujikawa moved into the closer’s role six games into the 2013 season.

Manager Dale Sveum made the announcement Sunday morning at Turner Field, hours after Marmol blew a save by serving up ninth-inning home runs to B.J. Upton and Justin Upton.

“We talked to them both, so we’re all done with that,” Sveum said.

Marmol lost the closer’s job early in 2012, but won it back after Rafael Dolis failed in his opportunity. Can Marmol return this year?

“Yeah, there’s a chance,” Sveum said. “Hopefully, Fujikawa takes it and runs with it and does a great job so we don’t have to even deal with that. Obviously, Marmol is going to pitch in less stressful situations and get his confidence back.”

So you’re telling me there’s a chance . . .

» Continue reading “Chicago Cubs Game Thread: Not Very Committed, Dale”

I don’t want to talk about last night, because it’s only going to make me sad. Alas, I fear we may have many more games like last night’s in the Chicago Cubs’ 2013 season. That doesn’t stop a large number of Cubs “fans” on Twitter from seemingly thinking this team is going to surprise everyone. I’ll be surprised if they only lose 90 games.

I don’t say that to be a downer or be depressing, but to be honest about what we’re looking at this season. Of course, it’s more fun to talk about how “committed” you are to the Cubs and hold out hope that the 1989 Cubs (who, by the way, had Greg freakin’ Maddux at the top of their rotation, and Ryne Sandberg, Mark Grace, and Andre Dawson in the 2, 4, and 4 spots in the lineup) will resurrect themselves and lead this team into the playoffs. Fun, but not necessarily all that sane.

Does all this mean that I’m not on board with Theo’s plan? That I don’t understand what he’s trying to do? That I’m impatient and calling for immediate change? Of course not. It just means that I’m a pragmatist. This team is going to be pretty bad. The most we can hope for this season is improvement from the kids and some amusing games along the way.

» Continue reading “Chicago Cubs Game Thread: Let’s Try This Again”

I do not like the Tomahawk Chop. I find it racist, white trash, and in all-around poor taste. I also don’t like the Atlanta Braves. Specifically, I don’t like that their roster is so, so much better than the Chicago Cubs’ roster is. Adding to my distaste is the fact that Scott Feldman (from across the hall) is starting tonight for the Cubs, which probably means bad things for us.

But alas, the Chicago Cubs are still atop the NL Central, so I have a choice between hope and despair, and I CHOOSE HOPE.

I love the irony of the guy in the Hank Aaron jersey not objecting to the Tomahawk chop.

And so does Scott Feldman:

After spending his first eight seasons in Texas, Feldman this offseason signed a one-year deal with Chicago. The right-hander went 6-11 with a 5.09 ERA in 29 appearances (21 starts) last year.

“I’m kind of anxious,” Feldman said of his Cubs debut. “Sitting here, watching three games, I want to get that first one under my belt and get off to a good start.”

Goodspeed. Scott Feldman. I am also anxious for your Cubs debut. I am anxious that Dan Uggla is going to launch three of your first four pitches to him out of the park. But, again, I choose hope.

» Continue reading “Chicago Cubs Live Game Thread: Chop This”

I’ll just leave this here for you guys to debate. And to explain how a ball that is halfway to the warning track could possibly be an infield fly. And yes, I know and understand the rule.

For those who missed all the fun:

ATLANTA — An improbable eighth-inning infield-fly ruling brought down the wrath of a sellout crowd and a torrent of empty water bottles and not-so-empty beer cans.

But after the 19-minute delay Friday, the St. Louis Cardinals celebrated a 6-3 win over the Atlanta Braves in the National League wild card game.

Chipper Jones’ throwing error in the fourth inning gave the Cardinals the opening they needed as they scored three runs, only one of them earned.

The Braves played the game under protest after the eighth-inning debacle. Andrelton Simmons was ruled out on an infield fly rule. The ball dropped in left-center — 75 feet beyond the infield — out of the reach of rookie shortstop Pete Kozma. That would have plated at least one run, and when it didn’t, the bottles and cans rained down on the field.

“I didn’t hear anything,” Kozma said. “I was under it. I’m an infielder. I should have made the play. I took my eyes off it. I was camped under it.”

» Continue reading “Play-In Messiness”

I, too, am confused by the events of this afternoon.

After just about every national baseball writer in the country (including Matt Bowman, Keith Law, and Jeff Passan) reported that a deal had been struck that would send Ryan Dempster to the Braves in exchange for up-and-comin’ youngin’ Randall Delgado, Dempter had to go and ruin all the fun.

(raises hand)I know where it came from. It came from Atlanta’s beat reporter, mlb.com. cubs.com. Bob Nightengale, and about 50 other places.  Oh, and Dale Sveum jumped in too, demonizing Twitter and social media, blah blah blah. But since Dale is usually the last to know anything, I figure Theo just hadn’t gotten around to telling him yet.

So, what happened? My guess is that a deal was done and someone backed out. Was it Dempster? The Cubs? The Braves? The world may never know. We *think* the current status is thus: The teams have agreed in theory to a deal, and are now just waiting for Dempster to approve or kill the deal. At any rate. MLB.com is now reporting that a deal is “close.”

Of course, this entire debacle gave the Chicago beat writers, who haven’t broken a story about the Cubs since roughly the time of the Great Chicago Fire, the chance to jump around and crow about people’s “sources.” Do I think Jeff Passan and Keith Law have better sources than the Chicago beat writers? Yes I do. If they reported a deal was done, do I believe it was done? Yes, Yes, a thousand times YES.

At any rate, the Cubs have a game to play tonight, and play they will.

» Continue reading “Cubs Live Game Thread: Uh . . Might Have a Trade. Or Not.”

I know we’d hate for anyCubs players to talk to the media about how horrible this team is and how they expect the team to lose over 100 games. David DeJesus set the bar for unbridled optimism to a new high last night. 

“We still have work to do but you’ve seen things like this happen,” DeJesus said of the 31-50 Cubs, who started the day 14 games behind the Reds and Pirates in the National League Central. “The second half of the schedule for the Reds might be tough. And who knows about ours? But we just have to worry about every game, preparing ourselves and being mentally strong. I think that will get us to where we need to be.”

Yes, David, in 2014, by some stroke of great luck. Dale Sveum has more realistic expectations.

“We’re a much more stable team than we were a month ago as far as the lineup is concerned,” Sveum said. “The back end of the bullpen has been pretty solid. It’s that bottom end where those guys have to throw strikes. You can’t keep yourself in a ballgame to come back. We have to be better with men in scoring position and we need to throw strikes. You can’t lead the league in those two categories and think you’re going to win baseball games.”

Thanks for sounding like a normal person again after your weird Home Run Derby revelation yesterday.

» Continue reading “Cubs Thursday Headlines: What Has David DeJesus Been Smoking?”

Yes, I survived the massive storms that ripped through the area today. Thanks for noticing. Since none of you bothered to ask if I survived, I will point out that it’s now in the low 70s here, and all the windows in the cabin are open. So suck on that, those of you left in the deep fryer.

Uh, so the Cubs are still in Atlanta, and also STILL in the basement in the NL Central, but ONLY ONE GAME BEHIND THE ASTROS. The dream is still alive.

Tonight the Cubs send Paul Maholm (who I swear pitches every other day at this point) (2-4, 4.71)  to the hill to face  some dude named Randall Delgado (2-5, 4.18).

I know that this isn’t a headlines post, but I just had to point this out. Dale Sveum was asked about his fondest memory thus far in baseball, and he chose PITCHING DURING THE HOME RUN DERBY IN 2005.

ATLANTA — Dale Sveum had thrown plenty of batting practice, but never on such a big stage as the 2005 Home Run Derby, which was part of the All-Star festivities at Comerica Park in Detroit.

“Throwing in a Home Run hitting contest is kind of overwhelming in a way, because everybody is sitting there watching,” said Sveum, now the Cubs’ manager. “When you throw B.P., nobody is really watching you. [With the Home Run Derby], you know it’s on TV, millions of people watching.

“There are a lot of firsts involved,” he said Monday. “You’re throwing to Hall of Famers and regular hitters and All-Stars, and talking to them and getting to know guys who you don’t know, and you know they’re great players. Having your son on the field, those are the things you can’t replace or take away. He’ll never forget being on the field.”

» Continue reading “Cubs Live Game Thread: I Don’t “Get” Dale Sveum”

The Cubs flew out of Chicago high on the sweep of the Astros, but had to go to Atlanta and face a team over .500. Anthony Rizzo homered again and Jeff Samardzija looked more like the pitcher we saw earlier this year and less like the pitcher we saw in June. He apparently was trying to throw a curve ball without much success.

“That’s the learning curve of this starting stuff,” manager Dale Sveum said. “If you’re a three-pitch pitcher, be a three-pitch pitcher and don’t all of a sudden think you’re going to get to a 1.00 ERA. Just like a .300 hitter, don’t try to be a .350 hitter and change things otherwise you’re going to go backward. But that’s the learning curve of starting sometimes.”

Samardzija said he added the curveball in his June 16 outing against theBoston Red Sox with the intention of not only having another out-pitch at his disposal, but to also give opposing hitters one more thing to think about.

It turned out that the one more thing opposing hitters were thinking about was how far they were going to hit the curve ball. Anthony Rizzo hit his second home run of the year, but also covered for what looked to be a strange Starlin Castro gaffe in the second. Dan Uggla grounded to short, Castro waited to throw to first and Uggla beat the throw for a single. As you might imagine, Dale Sveum was waiting for Castro at the end of the inning, but that’s where Rizzo stepped in.

“Rizzo came to his rescue right away,” Sveum said. “Rizzo told him to give him time to get to the bag. He got caught probably trying to get too much ground and told somebody to take their time when they got a ball deep in the hole. It was one of those things that I apologized to Castro after.”

He’s a slugger and a stand-up guy.

“It was my fault in my opinion,” Rizzo said. “I told him before that to give me a little time. That’s just me not knowing Uggla’s speed. I thought I had time to get there.”

» Continue reading “Tuesday Headlines: Cubs Beat Real MLB Team”

Does this photo turn you on?

I’d love to use the Zombie Jeff Samardzija photo again, but that would be the third time this week, and that seems like a lot no matter WHO the zoimbie is.

The Cubs roll into Atlanta tonight to take on the once-feared Atlanta Braves (seriously, remember that pitching staff in the 1990′s? (shudders)). Alas, outside of Jair Jurrgens (who I think was demoted to the minors this year), I can’t name a single pitcher on their staff. Oh, how them mighty have fallen.

Even so, the formerly-mighty Braves are in the middle of the pack in the NL Easts and only 4.5 games behind division-leading Washington (did I really just say ‘division-leading Washington?’). The Cubs, on the other hand, are a mere 2.5 games from catching up to the lowly Astros. So we have that going for us, which is nice.

First pitch tonight is at 6:10 pm CT on CSN. The aforementioned Jeff Samardzija (2-6. 5.98) will take on Tommy Hanson (6-2, 3.51). If you haven’t noticed, Samardzija has had a bunch of bad starts in a row, and is dangerously close to going back to being called “Spellcheck” again. Let’s see if he can right the ship tonight. » Continue reading “Cubs Live Game Thread: Hotlanta Here We Come”

Ace.

So, when I think of a pitchers’ duel, the names “Paul Maholm” and “Tim Hudson” probably fall in positions 8,437 and 8,438 on the list of pitchers potentially involved. Respectively.

But today, as he has been for the last four starts, Maholm was downright excellent. He gave up only three hits, and while he did walk three, he worked his way out of the jams. The bullpen hung on to close out a 1-0 victory over the Braves, giving the Cubs their second series win in a row.

For all that Maholm shut down Atlanta’s bats, the Cubs didn’t do much on offense either. In fact, the only time we had runners in scoring position was in the seventh, when David DeJesus singled and then advanced to third on a pair of groundouts. Bryan LaHair played the hero yet again, driving him in with an opposite-field single.

The box score will show a Starlin Castro triple. In reality, it was very nearly a two-out inside-the-parker. Castro lined a hit into deep right field that bounced past a diving Jason Heyward and right off of the foul line.

Pat Listach waved Castro (second questionably aggressive send in the past week or so…) and Dan Uggla made an excellent relay throw to nail Starlin at the plate. It was the third out of the inning, and to be honest, I don’t see why you wouldn’t play it safe and hold Castro up with LaHair coming to the plate.

Fortunately, the Cubs didn’t actually need any insurance. Jeff Russell threw the eighth and managed two quick outs, but got into a little trouble when he gave up a single and a walk. He escaped unscathed when Dan Uggla flied out. Rafael Dolis earned the save with a perfect ninth.

We get the day off tomorrow. Matt Garza, hopefully all rested from his flu, will take on Randy Wolf at Miller Park on Friday. Gametime is 7:10 pm on WGN. See you there!