In case you were doing something better than watching the Cubs last night (I was watching B-movies on Netflix), you might have missed another depressing Cubs loss. Jeff Samardzija continued his recent trend of not pitching very well.

“I’m beginning to notice about the 80-pitch mark, the ball gets up,” Sveum said. “Even though there’s no velocity (drop), the ball gets up and that’s where the walks start coming in. So we’re going to have to monitor that because it’s definitely getting to be a pattern.”

Jeff’s season is definitely not headed in the right direction.

Samardzija said he feels “better” than he did early in the season when he went 2-0 with a 1.03 ERA in four starts. Since then he’s 1-5 with a 5.95 ERA over his last seven starts.

“It’s just those times when there are runners on base, you need to really bear down and make your pitches,” he said. “I left that splitter up to Montero, which was a big pitch. Those are make or break times in the game.”

So, Mr. Sveum, the D’Backs had a late scratch from a lefty starter to a righty, but you stayed with the same old crappy right-handed hitting lineup. Any explanation?

Sveum said he had time to change the lineup but believed it wouldn’t make much of a difference against Collmenter, whose “funky” delivery makes it especially difficult for anyone who hasn’t faced him several times.

“We had no prior history with him. None of our hitters had ever faced him,” Sveum said. “I saw it last year. For [hitters who’d] never faced him before, he’s a completely different pitcher. He’s a guy you have to face three, four, five times before you get a reading on that arm slot and everything.”

So you don’t think any of the Cubs hitters would have hit him. I’d still rather give Bryan LaHair a shot there than Jeff Baker. But maybe it’s just me.

» Continue reading “Cubs Saturday Headlines/Game Thread: Cubs @ D’Backs, 9:10 Central”

When last we left Matt Garza, he was blaming his terrible Spring Training outings on the thin air in Arizona. Since then, Garza has proved that he is able to pitch terribly in dense OR thing air. Tonight, he returns to the scene of his crimes, Arizona, where his ERA is a sky-high 10.38.

YOWZA.

For all our sakes, let’s hope Garza has a short memory or can be convinced he’s actually pitching in Tampa.  I’ve often wondered if the Cubs have looked into hypnosis. I like the idea of a Manchurian Candidate-esque Matt Garza going out there and mowing guys down just because Quade says “pumpkin pie” or “rectangle.”

» Continue reading “Cubs Live Game Thread: The Air Up There”