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”

A few seasons back, we had a term for the “good Chicago Cubs,” you know, the Chicago Cubs that showed patience at the plate, executed fundamentals on defense and the base paths, and managed not to give up 37 runs in the 9th inning. We called them the “Pod Cubs.” You know, as in the real Cubs are being kept in a pod somewhere by aliens (or something) and these are the fake Cubs who have been sent to play in their place.

(Actually, I’m not even sure what the original plot is that “pod” is supposed to suggest. Did the real people get kept in pods? Did the aliens come from pods? What movie is this even referencing?)

Anyway, the point of all this is that yesterday the Pod Cubs showed up:

Anthony Rizzo and Alfonso Soriano homered, Welington Castillo knocked out a career-high four hits and Carlos Villanueva earned his first victory with the Cubs, allowing two runs on four hits over seven innings in his third straight quality start.

“It was ugly,” Villanueva said, referring to the weather. “We had no idea (if we would play). We heard (Wednesday) we weren’t going to get the game in, and it was going to be tough. I tried to keep my guard up. You never want to drop your guard and then all of a sudden, ‘Hey, the game starts in 20 minutes and I’m just sitting at my locker not thinking about the game.’

Hey, that’s kind of like me. I was sitting here, watching TV and reading when Doc said “By the way, the Cubs are playing baseball right now.” Carlos Villanueva and I have so much in common, though he does have a way better mustache than I do.  I’m working on it.

The weather today is pretty miserable again, so perhaps we’ll see the Pod Cubs again? Maybe they’re activated by water, like Gremlins?

» Continue reading “Chicago Cubs Friday Headlines: Rain Brings Out Pod Cubs”

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”

The big news, of course, this morning is that I am kicking everyone’s collective butts in the LOHO Bracket Busters NCAA March Madness tourney. Go me. I’ll also point out that my Final Four is still completely intact. Perhaps next year you’ll see the folly in doubting me.

Not feeling so hot about the Cubs starting rotation? Don’t worry, the always-confident Jeff Samardzija and his pals have enough faith in themselves for all of us:

It’s a good mix of veteran guys who have been around and have been on a couple of teams now, so we know how it is,” Villanueva said. “We might not have all the aces, but our rotation is going to keep the team around in some games. Hopefully one of us turns into that other ace, or a couple of aces that we need.

“You never know what’s going to happen. It might happen during the season. We’re happy where we’re at right now, and when Garza comes back it’s going to solidify us more.”

With most forecasts calling for only modest temperature increases in early April, the Cubs likely will need their starting pitchers to excel to win what figure to be low-scoring games. All five of the starters have the talent to perform well, but none has put together the kind of consistency that separates the great ones from the rest.

Hooooold on there, Sully. No one is shooting to separate the “great ones” from the rest. I’m look at this season as more of one separating third place fro, fifth place. If the rotation can do that, I’ll be thrilled.  The lower our expectations, the happier we’ll all be.

» Continue reading “Chicago Cubs Monday Headlines: The Season Draws Near”

The real Jeff Samardzija arrived in camp yesterday:

PEORIA, Ariz. — Cubs starter Jeff Samardzija cracked his second home run of the spring and drove in another run with a single in the seventh as Chicago rallied for a 7-4 win over the Mariners in a Cactus League game Thursday night at Peoria Stadium.

First baseman Brad Nelson hit a two-run homer in the eighth off Erasmo Ramirez for the final margin, handing Ramirez the loss and making a winner out of reliever James Russell.

The Mariners’ Justin Smoak hit his fourth homer of the spring and the Cubs’ Alfonso Soriano also hit his fourth as the Mariners’ winning streak was halted at six games.

I don’t know who Brad Nelson is, but he sounds like he did a smashing good job last night. Does anyone know if he can play 3B?

In terrifying news this morning, it looks like Phil Rogers gets a lot of his ideas from Tom Tunney, which explains so so much:

But I’m weird in a way that’s really not that weird. I like scoreboards that, you know, actually tell you the score of the game. When something in my house is outdated, I generally replace it.

If the Cubs wanted to do that with the 76-year-old center-field scoreboard — yes, the iconic scoreboard — here’s what I would say: What took you so long?

I am not surprised in the least that there has been talk about that scoreboard this week. A couple of weeks after President Theo Epstein was hired, here’s a quote I used from an unnamed general manager about the changes coming for the organization.

“I wouldn’t look for that old scoreboard to be sitting on top of the center-field bleachers for many more years,” he said. “There’s $20 million (per year) sitting up there if they put a giant Jumbotron up. I know people are attached to tradition, to that scoreboard, but is taking it down any bigger change than putting seats on top of the Green Monster?

Yes, actually. It’s completely different, in that the Green Monster still exists with seats on top of it, whereas removing the scoreboard means that it’s gone. I’ve been supportive of extensive renovations at Wrigley Field, meaning everything but the bricks, ivy, and the scoreboard. I draw the line at the scoreboard. And if you can’t figure out how to tell what the score is from the Wrigley scoreboard, Phil, I’m not really sure how to help you.

» Continue reading “Cubs Friday Headlines: Jeff Samardzija arrives in camp, Phil Rogers is confused by the Wrigley scoreboard”

None of us question that Dale Sveum will be back next season. Some of us question his quotability and sanity from time to time. Theo Epstein believes the Cubs have the right man for the job. Not that he’d say if they didn’t.

“Players want to play for certain managers,” Epstein said. “I’ve seen a big difference from 10 or 15 years ago. Now, the word gets out on who you want to play for really quickly, because players all know each other and text with one another and they understand.

“I guarantee you starting today and throughout the whole winter, players will be talking about how great it is to play for Dale Sveum and to be part of this clubhouse.”

Jeff Samardzija is Team Dale, too.

“I was just impressed with Dale’s approach every day, how he represents the team,” Jeff Samardzija said. “He’s spoken a lot about how we come to work every day and do our jobs regardless of the situation. It’s very important in any situation – whether you’re doing well or (not) – to have the same mentality every day when you come to the park: Today’s the most important day.

“It’s easy to get caught up in what’s happened in the past and how things have gone. But Dale doesn’t allow that to happen. Even with all the new guys – and I can’t even imagine how many guys we’ve had on this roster throughout the season – to be able to keep all those guys in check and to know their personalities, know what they like and don’t like, it’s a tough thing to do. And he’s done a great job with it.”

“He even knows what my favorite ice cream is!”

» Continue reading “Cubs Thursday Headlines: Epstein Endorses Sveum”

The excitement of newness tends to wear off quickly, especially when related to this Cubs team. Not that we aren’t eager for the future, we just know the future is too far off to be palpable. Maybe that’s why Anthony Rizzo hasn’t been mentioned quite as much lately as when he first was called up. But Sunday, Rizzo nearly single-handedly brought the Cubs back from 6-1 and 9-5 deficits with two home runs and six RBI, including a grand slam.

“I didn’t know what they were saying and then I realized that’s what you do,” Rizzo said of the fans beckoning him for a curtain call after his decisive grand slam. “It was pretty cool.”

In 72 games with the Cubs, Rizzo has put up a .300/.352/.491 line with 14 home runs. That includes a stretch of 28 games from July 31 to Aug. 29 in which he struggled with a .231/.289/.279 mark and only three extra-base hits.

But with one big game on Sunday, Rizzo matched his home run total from a tough month of August.

“You work every day hard,” Rizzo said of bouncing back from his August struggles. “(There are) days you’re gonna feel good and days you’re not going to feel good, you just go with it. You go with the flow and understand that’s the nature of the game.”

Nice to see the big guy bounce back.

» Continue reading “Cubs Monday Headlines: RizzOMG Returns”

After shockingly holding their own against the first-place team in the NL West, the Cubs will be in Washington to play the first-place team in the NL East. We should all be praying that the Cubs do well in this series or we’ll never hear the end of it from gravedigger.

Jeff Samardzija (8-12, 4.03) will take on lefty Ross Detwiler (8-6, 3.32). With a lefty on the mound for the Nationals, you know what that means for the Cubs… Lefty lineup!

Mather CF

Barney 2B

Rizzo 1B

Soriano LF

Castro SS

Castillo C

Vitters 3B

Sappelt RF

Samardzija P

You’ll be able to watch the game on WGN today. Let’s go team!

The Cubs went out west and promptly got swept by the Dodgers and Padres, running their losing streak to 8 games. Jeff Samardzija took advantage of PetCo Park by allowing only one run in 7 innings, but the Padres took advantage of a woeful Cubs offense by shutting them out.

‘‘The starting pitchers have pitched really well,’’ manager Dale Sveum said, refuting the idea of a post-deadline hangover. ‘‘I think they’ve all filled in pretty admirably for the three guys we lost [including Matt Garza to injury]. Bottom line is we stopped scoring runs.’’

I think Dale forgot about the Brooks Raley game. Spellcheck seems to understand that the rest of the season is going to be a prolonged struggle.

‘‘I don’t think we’re going to look at that too much,’’ Samardzija (7-10) said when asked about the significance of the second-longest losing streak of the season.

‘‘Obviously you want to win every day, but we’re going to learn a lot here in the next month and a half. We play some really good teams. We’re going to see what we’re made of as a team.

‘‘We know it’s not going to be easy. We’re not here to make excuses, either.’’

Even if he did get frustrated enough to break a bat over his knee after striking out.

‘‘Just felt good to snap it like a toothpick,’’ said Samardzija, who smiled at the comparisons to Zambrano. ‘‘I watched him as a kid. I saw how he did it.’’

Will the media lambaste him? Is Dale Sveum sick of his childish antics?

‘‘Right now, when you start losing games and a lot of things aren’t going your way, you’re going to see some frustrations come out,’’ he said. ‘‘That’s part of the game. It’s OK to see guys with emotions and fire. Those are the guys you want around.’’

Unless they’re Venezuelan.

» Continue reading “Cubs Thursday Headlines: Swept In San Diego”

If one were making one’s MLB debut as a pitcher, I don’t think there are many friendlier ballparks than PETCO in San Diego. So when the Cubs sent Brooks “Boo Radley” Raley to the mound against the Padres, they were setting him up for success. Too bad he gave up 7 runs in 4 innings.

“That was an experience for sure,” Raley said. “Obviously you go from here to here. Obviously it was a great opportunity. I didn’t take advantage of it.”

Sveum said before the game that Raley would get a few more starts at least.

“I’m glad they gave me the opportunity,” he said. “I think I belong here. So I’m going to try and get better.”

Raley will get more starts because the other options are Casey Coleman and Rodrigo Lopez. What of the other rookies? Josh Vitters got his first MLB hit and two RBI. Brett Jackson has struck out in 8 of his last 9 plate appearances. But Jeff Beliveau threw 2 scoreless innings!

» Continue reading “Cubs Wednesday Headlines/Game Thread: Better Luck Next Time, Boo”