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After I’d posted yesterday’s thread and gone to work, the Cubs got busy and traded Jeff Baker. They also managed to call up Josh Vitters and Brett Jackson. Jackson got the start in center field and got his first two Major League hits along with a walk and a run scored.

“I’ve just been soaking it in,” said Jackson, the Cubs’ newest center fielder. “I was thrown into the game and was in game mode all day. I’m sure it will sink in more tonight. I caught myself laughing a couple times — ‘You’ve got to be kidding me right now.’ It’s a pretty indescribable feeling, inspiring. I look forward to the days and hopefully years to come.”

Was Josh Vitters nervous when he flew out pinch-hitting in the seventh?

“It made it a little bit easier because we were so tired and out of it because we didn’t get any sleep,” Vitters said. “We were like zombies on the plane, we couldn’t really think. It was hard to be nervous. We tried to sleep so we could perform well when we got here.”

So, Mr. Jed Hoyer, why call them up now?

‘‘If they have success, wonderful,’’ general manager Jed Hoyer said. ‘‘If they struggle a little bit, hopefully they’ll learn from those struggles, and they can spend the whole offseason working on those things.

‘‘I don’t really see a downside for either one of those guys as far as development goes.’’

I guess we’ll trust you. And thank you for something interesting happening during this five-game losing streak.

» Continue reading “Cubs Monday Headlines: Rookie Mania”

We all feared the return of Chris Volstad to the big league starting rotation. But with the trades of Ryan Dempster and Paul Maholm, the Cubs were faced with little choice. Even though the Cubs didn’t win last night, Volstad was better than we’ve seen him most of this season.

‘‘That’s as good as we’ve seen,’’ Sveum said. ‘‘There’s plenty of time to prove that what we saw in spring training is the type of guy he is.’’

Volstad, who’s 0-13 (5.49 ERA) since his last win July 10 of last season, said he has quit looking over his shoulder after two demotions to the minor leagues and tried to think less and pitch more.

‘‘I feel like this has been a year of the biggest strides for me personally,’’ said Volstad, whose winless streak reached 21 games. ‘‘It’s been a tough year, for sure. But making it through something like that is obviously going to help me in the future.’’

With Volstad in good head space, we can now look forward to the return of Matt Garza, which is tentatively scheduled for Tuesday in San Diego.

‘‘Better believe it, dude,’’ said Garza, who has been sidelined by elbow stiffness since July 21. ‘‘I’m champing at the bit and ready to go. … They told me Tuesday a couple of days ago, so that’s what I’m shooting for. If it changes, it’s not my control.’’

Not so fast, said manager Dale Sveum, who needs to see how Garza’s elbow responds Sunday, and maybe Monday, before making a decision.

‘‘I’m glad he thinks that way,’’ Sveum said, ‘‘but it’s not his decision.’’

Better believe it, dude.

» Continue reading “Cubs Sunday Headlines/Game Thread: Volstad Not Horrible”

The latest news is that Ryan Dempster’s hissy fit seems to have worked. According to Jim Bowden, the Cubs and Dodgers are closing in on a deal, though nothing is official yet.

This will be Anthony Rizzo’s first exposure to Busch Stadium and, presumably, jorts. And the “best fans in baseball.” So that should be exciting for him.

Conversely on the excitement meter, we have the Ryan Dempster Trade Saga. I’ll tell you one thing: having a GM that takes his time to make measured, reasonable, sound baseball decisions may be fun, but it really lacks the kick of a Ted Lilly-and-Ryan-Theriot-for-Blake-DeWitt deal. With Hendry, you never knew what was coming, and that was exciting. For all we knew, he was going to trade Aramis Ramirez for Anna Benson on any given day. And that was entertaining.

Alas, even though the Dodgers have reportedly tendered an offer to the Cubs for Dempster, the Cubs are apparently pitching him tonight:

According to MLB.com’s Ken Gurnick, the Dodgers have made an offer, but they won’t get into a bidding war because they also need to add offense, preferably a corner infielder, even more than they need Dempster. The Dodgers’ farm system also is a little thin in the kind of prospects needed to land All-Star caliber players like Dempster, the Padres’ Chase Headley or the Phillies’ Shane Victorino. Cubs president of baseball operations Theo Epstein has said he’s looking to improve on pitching in the organization.

That said, Dempster, 35, would be a pure rental for the Dodgers, which most likely is affecting the negotiations. Dempster is in the last year of his four-year contract, which is paying him $14 million this season. Players must be with a team for an entire season in order to qualify for Draft-pick compensation, according to the new CBA.

» Continue reading “Cubs Live Game Thread: Mr. Rizzo Goes to St. Louis”

The National League scored five runs in the first and had the game pretty much decided at that point. Tony LaRussa, however, saw it fit to leave his starting shortstop in for 7 innings and use his backup first baseman as the third string first baseman. That was while a third baseman wore his glove to become the second first baseman. All that didn’t matter to Bryan LaHair, who had a good time anyway.

“It was awesome because the team came out banging and we had a dugout that was excited from the first inning on,” LaHair said.

The night was highlighted for LaHair when he batted against Fernando Rodney in the ninth inning.

“I tried to ambush his fastball but it didn’t work for me,” LaHair said of his groundout to shortstop. “I put it in play but I did not get enough barrel on it.”

And in true Cub fashion, he swung on the first pitch. In similarly Cub fashion, Starlin swung on the second pitch in his only at bat.

» Continue reading “Cubs Wednesday Headlines: NL Wins, LaRussa Still A Big Jerk”

Before we get to yesterday’s game, we’ll get to what happened before yesterday’s game. With Matt Garza unable to pitch due to the flu, Travis Wood had to be called up from Iowa. The Cubs needed to do something to clear a roster space for him, so they DFA’d Blake DeWitt. Dale Sveum tried to sound genuine in his parting remarks for Blake.

“Hopefully he clears waivers and stays with us,” manager Dale Sveum said. “It’s unfortunate, because of the flu bug it costs somebody his job. But hopefully he stays in the organization.”

Hopefully he’ll stay in the organization but never make it back to Chicago. As for yesterday’s game, the Cubs got a not-horrible start from Travis Wood.

“It felt good,” Wood said. “Pitches were working. I had some unfortunate walks that I don’t like and left a pitch up that Rivera ended up hitting out of the park but I kept them close, we battled back and ended up winning the game.”

Unfortunately for Wood he’s likely to end up back in Iowa today as an extra position player (likely Adrian Cardenas) will be needed. Dale, what did you see out of young Travis?

“He just had a little bit better command,” manager Dale Sveum said of Wood’s turnaround after the Rivera long ball. “He was getting ahead easier after that. I just think he settled into the game and it might have relaxed him a little bit. They had three runs but he threw the heck out of the ball after that and got some pretty weak contact.”

» Continue reading “Cubs Monday Headlines: Dodgers OutCub Cubs”

Oh, man, it feels really good to see that happen to not-us.

In case all the shouting and hysteria didn’t reach you on your justifiably Cub-free Sunday, Travis Wood’s spot start went better than expected, and the Cubs managed to win the game 4-3 on a walk-off walk by David DeJesus in the 11th inning.

Wood had a messy second inning in which he walked two Dodgers and allowed a run, but otherwise he acquitted himself well. The problem was a two-run homer that he served up to Juan Rivera in the third, putting the Cubs in a 3-0 hole.

Starlin Castro answered back immediately with a two-run single in the bottom half of the frame, and Wood retired 11 straight batters after the homer. But despite putting the leadoff man on base five times (and more often than not, it was Bryan LaHair; he went 3 for 4 with a walk today), the Cubs weren’t able to stage a rally.

Until the ninth.

Ian Stewart, apparently feeling well enough to pinch-hit, reached on a one-out single. DeJesus followed with a walk. Now, in this situation, I definitely don’t enjoy seeing Tony Campana at the plate, but this time, he delivered: Campanarama 2.0 lined a double into center, plating Stewart.

» Continue reading “Cubs Game Recap: Hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha”

Scott Maine, you got some ‘splainin’ to do.

A flu-like virus, apparently first contracted by pitcherScott Maine before his return to the minors, is making the rounds and the most notable victims areMatt Garza and Jeff Baker.

Garza will have his turn in the rotation skipped, withTravis Wood called up to start against the Dodgers on Sunday. Garza now is scheduled to face theBrewers on Friday in Milwaukee.

“He’s pretty down-and-out, pretty sick,” managerDale Sveum said.

With Travis Wood on the mound instead of Matt Garza, the chances of winning this series just went down significantly. One pitcher who won’t be blowing today’s game in the ninth inning is Carlos Marmol, who made it through his first appearance as a non-closer without allowing a run yesterday.

“He threw his fastball and threw it for strikes,” manager Dale Sveum said. “I think that was encouraging for him that he can throw his fastball a lot. He still got the strikeout on the last pitch, a slider, but sometimes that thing gets set up because of the fastballs he’s throwing. He threw, I think at one time, five fastballs in a row which he doesn’t do that very often.”

» Continue reading “Cubs Sunday Headlines/Game Thread: Flu Ravages Clubhouse”

Dude, maybe you should get some pointers from Maholm.

Today’s game contained exactly zero surprises, unless you want to count the fact that Matt Kemp again failed to hit a home run. Chris Volstad had two implode-y innings, handing five runs over to the Dodgers. The Cubs managed all of five hits off of Dodger pitching, and lost, 5-1.

Volstad was pretty good everywhere except the second and fifth innings, where he let LA string a few too many hits together. Particularly galling was a two-run double by pitcher Chris Capuano in the second inning that gave the Dodgers a 3-0 lead.

The Cubs made a token show of a rally when Ian Stewart drove in Starlin Castro with two outs in the ninth, but Darwin Barney grounded out to end it.

Points of interest: Lendy Castillo is not, in fact, dead or in hiding. He pitched the sixth and seventh and gave up only a single to Mark Ellis. Recently-shunned Carlos Marmol got an inning of work today as well, and the change of pace hasn’t done him any good; he issued a walk and launched a wild pitch.

We also saw Marlon-Byrd-compensation Michael Bowden in the ninth, where he was perfect. (Bowden for Closer 2012!)

The Cubs committed two errors in quick succession today. Volstad flubbed a pickoff throw, sending Mark Ellis to second. Starlin Castro (sigh) followed that up by bobbling an Andre Ethier grounder, allowing him to reach base. Neither runner would score. Castro did balance out the error with a three-hit day, making him 60% of Chicago’s offensive production.

» Continue reading “Cubs Game Recap: Volstad Still Not Good”

Remember this thing? It's flying today.

Strange things that happened today:

1. Tony Campana was caught stealing for the first time.
2. He also walked. Twice.
3. Jerry Hairston missed hitting for the cycle by a double.
4. Jerry Hairston hit a home run. Matt Kemp did not.
5. Joe Mather hit a home run – to the opposite field.
6. The bullpen didn’t blow a lead (though not for lack of trying).
7. Yes, it’s true: the Cubs actually won!

Not at all strange things that happened today:

1. Matt Kemp hit an RBI triple.
2. Kerry Wood was depressingly bad and gave up two runs.
3. Tony Campana dove for a ball and managed to deflect it for extra bases.
4. Rafael Dolis closed the game and scared the crap out of everybody.
5. He also had to face an extra batter because of a blown call by the home plate umpire.

All told, today’s game was pretty promising. There was some late-inning excitement, even without Carlos Marmol closing; but the Cubs maintained a respectable lead through seven innings after getting on the board in the first, finishing with a 5-4 victory over Los Angeles.

» Continue reading “Cubs Game Recap: Unexpected Success!”