Round 1 to Astros

Last night's 3-1 loss against the Astros was pretty much a microcosm for the Cubs season - a great pitching perfromance wasted. As the NOTD states, Kerry Wood made one mistake. He left a first pitch curve ball up in the strike zone to Jeff Kent in the 5th. He knocked it against the vines to give the Astros a lead they would never relinquish.

The Cubs would only muster one run against Houston starter Wade Miller and only hit two balls hard all night. Luckily they were in the same inning and it produced the run.

All over the blog world, this site included, the army has been calling for Hee Seop to start against right handers. It is especially more important to do this against Houston. Why? Because they have a lefty closer. How nice would it have been to bring up Karros in the ninth as the tying run instead of O'Leary and Gonzalez? As it stood, O'Leary stood five feet off the plate with a little stream of urine tracing down his leg as Wagner blazed strike threel over the outside corner. Gonzalez didn't do much better swinging at only one of the strikes.

Not only does it make no sense to leave Choi on the bench I get worried that it will alter his approach. Last evening when he pinch hit against Dotel, he swung at the first pitch. He does not do that very often. Maybe he thinks he has to be more aggressive to get starts. I certainly hope not.

Carlos looks to square up the series this evening against Redding for the Astros. Hopefully the bats will wake up and we can take the next 3 games.

posted by Dennis at 9:33 AM : |

 

Showdown time

Mark Prior was his dominant self and Sammy Sosa provided all of the Cubs offense in a 3-1 series salvaging victory over the Dodgers yesterday Coupled with Houston's win, the Cubs stand 2.5 games out of first place heading into the opener of a 4 game series this evening. A 3-1 series win puts the Cubs .5 games out of first while a sweep would give them the top spot.

The bad part about Prior pitching yesterday is that Houston will miss him altogether. Wood gets the ball this evening against Wade Miller. Miller handled all Cubs hitters this side of Carlos Zambrano in his last outing against them. Hopefully the Cubs will get to him a little earlier in this one.

Here is the tale of the tape between these NL Central contenders in a few categories:

• Houston ranks 2nd in bullpen ERA, Cubs 7th
  
• Cubs are 4th in starter's ERA, Houston 9th
  
• Houston is 5th in total ERA, Cubs 6th
  
• Houston is 4th in runs scored, Cubs are 12th
  

No real shocks in this list. The Cubs have a good pitching and defense although are weak with the hitting. Of course, Sosa is starting to heat up so this difference might shrink. On paper, it looks like a romp for the Astros, but games are played on grass (or turf or that funky hybrid easter egg stuff in Tampa Bay and Philly). The difference between the starters could very well make up for the difference between the offenses.

Weird Day Around the Majors

I am home watching Sportscenter this morning due to being between jobs and saw some highlights of some strange/historic plays. First in Atlanta Furcal turned an unassisted triple play. The genius Tony LaRussa decided to send his runners with no outs and the pitcher batting (albeit a good hitting pitched in Woody Williams). He lined out to Furcal who touched the bag and tagged the runner coming from first to complete the play.

In Toronto, a batter hit the ball off the pitcher and it bounced directly to the third basemen without touching the ground. The runner on first was caught half way, but the third basemen's throw to double him off went into the stands for a two base penalty. Only problem was the runner never went back and tagged up before taking his two bases. The Rangers got him called out on the subsequent appeal.

Something else I noticed

I have no clue why I mention these things on the site. Most of the time they just go to show how slow I am to pick up on things, but did you ever notice that there is a different voice over for those Boys and Girls Club commercials that run during baseball telecasts. I am sure most have seen these spots with Zito, Thome, Pettitte, Sweeney, Anderson and Young. If the commercial comes on during a Fox telecast, Joe Buck is doing the talking. During ESPN you hear the voice of Harold Reynolds. Does it mean anything, no, but I thought it was interesting.
posted by Dennis at 8:41 AM : |

 

Prior asked to save Cubs from sweep

I wasn't going to bring this up when we were on a winning streak, but now that the worm has turned perhaps bringing it up will get things moving in the right direction again. A week or so ago the Cubs were in the midst of a historic run of following wins with losses and losses with wins. They couldn't put even a two-game streak together for anything. As soon as I wrote that though, they naturally ran off a four-game win streak followed by back-to-back losses to the Dodgers. The only logical conclusion is the Cubs are conspiring to undercut anything I write.

Anyway, a pair of missed opportunities the last two days have left us 2.5 games back. Friday night Shawn Estes allowed just three runs over seven innings despite putting twelve men on and allowing a homer to Adrian Beltre. Sadly, the Cubs offense was unable to take advantage, scoring only one run against the Estesesque Andy Ashby and being set down in order for four innings by the dominant Dodger bullpen.

Yesterday, the Dodgers tallied four in the first off Matt Clement and the Cubs never threatened to get back in it. The lone Cub run was provided on a too-little too-late solo homer in the eighth by Damian Miller.

Back-to-back one run games for our batters highlights the fact that despite the trade for two substantial offensive upgrades, the Cubs offense hasn't gotten any better in the seventeen days since. In the 99 games before the trade the Cubs scored 453 runs for a 4.58 average. In the 16 games since, the Cubs have managed just 58 runs for a 3.625 average. That has something to do with Lofton's pedestrian.734 Cub OPS and Ramirez's dreadful .593. The trade can't really be blamed- partly because the people they replaced were even worse and partly because the Sample Size Police would ticket me if I didn't acknowledge that its only been two weeks- but it would be nice if they would start hitting and lead our offense up around a 5.0 runs per game mark.

Today we ask Mark Prior to face down comeback kid Kevin Brown and salvage a game in the series. Prior has never faced the Dodgers, but as weak as their offense is you'd have to imagine he is set up for a strong performance. Brown has been equally lights-out against lefties and righties, so Mark may need to shut L.A. out to give us a shot.

posted by Scott at 11:02 AM : |

 

Cubs win ninth out of their last twelve

What do you get when you cross Prior, Wood, and Zambrano with the worst team in the National League? A three-game sweep and a Houston lead in the Central trimmed to a game and a half, naturally. Carlos allowed just one run on seven singles and three walks while striking out eight. He was less efficient than in recent starts- he ran up 119 pitches in his six innings of work- but at least Dusty didn't quite as brutally as he might have. The Cubs pretty well dominated the series, but Padre third baseman Sean Burroughs has to be particularly glad to see the Cubs leave town. He was 0-10 against Cub pitching with strikeouts in five of his last six at-bats.

The Cubs head up the coast tonight to visit the Dodgers in Chavez Ravine. The Dodgers offense is a distant last in the league, scoring less than 3.5 runs per game. Meanwhile, their pitching is far better than anyone else's, allowing just 3.3 runs per game. The Cubs of course are kind of a Dodgers-Lite, with good but not great pitching and mediocre but not horrendous offense. Mix them up and throw them in the best pitcher's park in baseball, and you get what looks on paper like a series out of 1968. If there is to be an exception, you would expect it to be tonight as Shawn Estes (7-8, 5.70) tangles with Andy Ashby (2-9, 5.49).

Not even Mike Tyson could mishandle a sentence this badly

William Ligue, who attacked Kansas City first-base coach Tom Gamboa last year, was sentenced to thirty months of probation by Cook County judge Leo Holt yesterday. In his sentencing order, Holt said that Ligue should not spend a day in jail because there is violence in baseball. Holt also refused to bar Ligue from Major League ballparks during his probation. "I want to thank Judge Leo Holt for being compassionate toward my case," said Ligue after the sentence was handed down. "I don't think another judge in courthouse would have given probation."

Holt preemptively responded to those who would challenge his decision, saying that "a sentence of probation should not be viewed as a pass or a slap on the wrist. The defendant is a convicted felon. He will bear that stigma for the balance of his life."

Setting aside the fact that Cook County prosecutors have had to file complaints about Holt in the past for his absurdly light sentencing, this decision sickens me. Arguing that there should be no jail time for Ligue because there has been violence in baseball is in essence arguing that Gamboa's participation in a sport that has some violence means he at least partially deserved to be attacked. It's "I could tell by the fact he was playing baseball that he was asking for it." I would love to see what violence Holt would find appropriate to commit against a hockey coach, or maybe a football referee.

Tom Gamboa has a permanent hearing problem from Ligue's attack. But at least Ligue will have to bear the stigma of being a convicted felon as he sits in the first-base stands at tonight's Royals game if he so chooses. Poor guy.

posted by Scott at 8:45 AM : |

 

Welcome win streak moves Cubs into second place

Kerry Wood and Sammy Sosa hooked up to lead the Cubs past the Padres, guaranteeing the fourth consecutive series win for Baker's boys. Wood struck out ten in 7 1/3 innings, but stayed in one inning too long as he gave up a solo homer to leadoff the eighth. I've got to do a study at some point and find out whether it is just my imagination that Dusty's starting pitchers get bloodied in their last inning at an extremely high rate. Anyway, Guthrie and Dr. Tightpants got out of the eighth and JoBo came back from a rough weekend to throw a seven-pitch perfect ninth.

Dusty stuck with Choi after the prior day's 0-3 with two errors, and was rewarded with a single and a walk in four times at the plate. Showing patience towards or faith in Choi is something new for Dusty. Here's hoping it continues against every right-handed opposing starter the rest of the way. Tonight's game pits Kevin Jarvis against Carlos Zambrano. Jarvis is a righty but one with no appreciable platoon split, so perhaps our heavily right-handed lineup can have some success with him. A win would mean the team's first sweep since we took four in Milwaukee in mid-May.

L Series?

I am not in Chicago, but I presume the fact that the Cubs and White Sox are both hovering within a couple of game of first place in their respective divisions is drawing some attention from the locals. Obviously we are still a long way from saying a Cubs/Sox World Series is likely, but the possibility is tantalizing. When I was growing up, my dad would always listen to the American League scores in hopes that the White Sox would win for the express purpose of giving the Cubs a chance to stick it to them in the Series. A big benefit to winning such a series would be is that there isn't much chance of the White Sox returning the favor any time soon. After all, we've been trying to live down the '06 World Series loss to them for 97 years now. No matter what happened in future years, we could always end any argument by saying "2003." I can also vouch for the fact that this technique works well on any Mexicans who want to talk soccer. They can say whatever they want, and you can always just come back with "2-0".
posted by Scott at 8:51 AM : |

 

Cubs return to Prior dominance

The Cubs won a heart stopping ballgame last evening 3-0 behind the return of Mark Prior, the emergence of Aramis Ramirez, and despite the fielding of Hee Seop Choi and the aforementioned Ramirez. Just a fun game to watch all around. I know this because I was dumb enought to watch the whole thing from San Diego which means a tired morning in the east.

The story of the night was definitely Prior. Limited to only about 80 pitches, he completed six innings of shutout baseball allowing only 3 baserunners and striking out six. The funny thing is that he probably pitched 80% fastballs and San Diego still could not touch him. Sir Tightpants made the game interesting as he loaded the bases in the 7th before giving way to Mark Guthrie. Guthrie got out of the inning by striking out a guy on 3-1 and 3-2 curveballs which were both out of the zone and inducing a high chopper to Ramirez who grabbed it and won a sprint to 3rd base to get a force play. I made this play sound easier than it was. In actuality it was a heck of a play.

The Cubs offense was not great, but with Prior pitching they don't need to be. Kim got another baserunner killed at home plate or the final difference might have been more.

After watching San Diego starter Brian Lawrence pitch I am not surprised he is having a tough season. I have never seen a right hand pitcher throw more inside sliders to right handers. Most hurlers start this pitch in the middle of the plate letting it break out of the zone looking for fishermen. He starts his inside and has it break over the plate. I am not sure I would ever want to intentionally have a ball break towards the sweet spot of the bat.

Good news abound yesterday for Cubs' fans as Houston and St. Louis both fell. That leaves the Cubs 2.5 games out of first and .5 games out of second. This is shaping up to be a good road trip. They have Wood and Zambrano left against the Padres and then the red hot pitcher of the week Clement, Estes, and Prior against the offensively challenged Dodgers. If Estes has to pitch, it might as well be against the Dodgers at their stadium. Things are looking up, lets see the Cubs grab this bull by the horns and play Houston next week to distance themselves instead of catching up.

Career Path

Well, the car shopping journey is finally over. I can now spend less time at cars.com and more time reading about baseball. I found a nice 2000 truck off lease with low miles for a fair price, so I am happy. I drove my father's truck all through high school and college and missed it.

If this statisitician thing does not work out I want to be the mystery guy at car dealerships who the salesmen have to ask about every price. I make an offer and the salesmen disappears for 10 minutes and then comes back with a counter. I need to be the guy they see. My wife said it reminds her of the guy behind the curtain in The Wizard of Oz .

posted by Dennis at 7:42 AM : |

 

Around the Cubs

The Cubs and most of the rest of baseball had the day off, so there is nothing really new to write about. That means I get to make a list of random stats, thoughts and tidbits about mainly the Cubs and some about baseball in general. All of the stats come from ESPN's web site.

• Sammy Sosa posted an above 1.000 OPS in July. It was mainly due to slugging though. He batted over .300, but his OBP was a very un-Sammy like .342. He only drew 6 walks during the whole month.
  
• Before he got hurt, Goodwin was on absolute fire. I have poked fun at him on this site, and I am sure it was a fluke, but .381/.422/.452 is a glorious fluke.
  
• Moises Alou also slugged the heck out of the ball last month. He managed to post a .604 slugging percentage to go with hie .360+ OBP.
  
• Kerry Wood and Shawn Estes have the same 5.4 ERA in the second half. I don't look for that trend to continue.
  
• Collectively, batters are hitting to a .919 OPS clip against the Cubs when the bases are loaded.
  
• As of today, 4 of the 6 divisions have races within 4 games. I am sure Selig will come up with a way to take credit for the wonderful parity in baseball.
  

That is about all the semi-interesting stuff I could find while poking through the numbers.

Mental breakthrough

I was taking Wrigley for a walk yesterday and I made a wonderful discovery. Sometimes it is very hard to judge the age of neighbors. My wife and I pay close attention to this because there are very few younger couples in the neighborhood that we have met. We are always on the lookout.

I figured out a tell-tale sign to figure out if someone is under 30. Look at what clothes they wear while mowing the lawn. If it is sports shorts and a T-shirt then they are young. Jeans and a work type shirt, you can be guess they are older. At what age do people decide they would rather be hot than comfortable when doing lawn work?

The greatest idea ever

I am at the age where I go to many, many, many, many weddings. I bet my wife and I have attended 15-20 over the last three years (including my own which is probably the one I remember the least, thank goodness for video). All weddings have one major problem, the unity candle. The candle itself takes about 20 seconds to light. There is usually a song playing which lasts about 3-4 minutes. The bride and groom have to stand up there and do nothing during this extra time. That brings me to a new invention...the unity sandwich.

The mother of the bride comes up and puts peanut butter on one slice of bread, the groom's mother puts jelly on another. Then the happy couple combines the sandwich, cuts it in half and chows down. Symbolically you have the joining of families, and logistically you have something to fill the time for the entire song. Plus, the bride and groom are usually so nervous before the wedding, they probably have empty stomachs. Bingo!! Now, they get a tide me over before the reception. It is up to you Northside Lounge readers to make this idea become a reality.

Update

Northside Lounge reader Marc Velazquez alerted me to a Freudian misspelling earlier. I said Selig would take credit for baseball's parody when I in fact meant parity. Of course Selig is a parody of a real commissoner so maybe it was fitting.

It is weird how you always have mental crutches in your life. Parody/parity has always been one for me. I will make this mistake about 5 times a year in print or on message boards. Another one is plaque/plague. When I was moving I marked a box full of "plagues and other stuff". People were scared to open that one...wonder why.

posted by Dennis at 8:02 AM : |

 

Clement, Sosa combine to take rubber game

Sammy Sosa hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the seventh to turn a 1-0 deficit into a 2-1 win. Matt Clement allowed just three hits in eight innings for his eighth consecutive quality start. Hee Sop Choi chipped in a single, a double, and a walk in four plate appearances. Now if only he would get his stroke back maybe he could help us.

The Cubs haven't made up ground in the Central because all three contenders seem to be heating up at the same time. That's a bit disappointing, but if we hadn't gotten hot lately we could easily have been seven or eight games out and ready to pack it in. The team travels to San Diego today before kicking off a three game set with the Padres tomorrow night. Mark Prior is scheduled to make his return from the DL to face Brian Lawrence. The Padres were horrendous early in the year, but have played much better of late winning nine of their last 17 and 18 of their last 32.

Soccer news- but don't tune out, there's baseball in it too

The U-17 (that's for players less than seventeen years old) World Cup kicks off in Finland in two weeks. In 1999 the event produced star turns for Landon Donovan and DaMarcus Beasley, who were named tournament MVP and runner-up respectively en route to their spectacular success in the World Cup in 2002. This time, American attention is focused on Freddy Adu, the fourteen year-old kid with the million dollar Nike deal. I was already excited to see Freddy play for the first time (although there are some sick highlights on the web), but this weekend's news just added to it. The team is training in England, and as part of their preparation they played Blackburn Rovers' U-17 team. Freddy came on as a substitute in the second half and scored not one- not two- but three goals in twenty-four minutes to lead the US to a 4-2 win. Remember, this kid is playing with guys two and three years older than him. In my head I know I shouldn't be this excited about a kid so young, but it's hard not to like what he has done so far.

I promised some baseball in the soccer section, so here it is. Sabremetrics has gone mainstream in the last year or two, with Moneyball hitting the best-seller lists and sabre-friendly GM's running three different major league teams. Although all sports keep statistics of some sort, most have been slower to follow the Jamesian philosophy of looking deeper inside the numbers for some hidden objective truths. There is a fascinating thread on the discussion site Big Soccer in which people are discussing applying sabremetric ideas to soccer. Its an interesting read if you are into sabremetrics or soccer, and a must-read if you follow both.

Power surge

Finally, I have an update on my personal quest to hit a home run for the company softball team. I went out to take some BP with a friend of mine, and we ran into about a dozen high school baseball players who had come out to hit the ball too. Next thing we knew, we were in an actual pickup baseball game, the first one I have played in since high school. In my third at-bat, I managed to get a hold of one and hit it over the fence in left-center. I was so surprised I didn't even think to do the Sosa hop! After a couple hours, we got bumped to a bigger field by some old folks who had reserved the field we were on. We played a few more innings, then wrapped up the day with a home run derby. As I took my turn, nearly everyone else had already gone and nobody had managed to hit one out (even though there had been seven or eight in-game homers hit and at least one on the big field). Down to my last out, I skied one to dead center and began to walk back to the dugout. Much to my surprise, it carried about three feet over the center field fence giving me the home run derby crown with one homer. If you are like me and haven't hit a homer in a long, long time, let me say I highly recommend it. Now I just have to transfer my newfound power stroke into a game that counts.
posted by Scott at 10:31 AM : |

 

The Cubs taketh and then giveth away

I was on the road yesterday (not a surprising turn of events for a weekend), so I did not see any of the Cubs game yesterday, but I was able to catch a significant portion on the radio in Indianapolis and finally part of the ninth off an ESPN or FoxSports radio broadcast as I got back to Cincinnati. Sorry to say I caught the bad part of the ninth.

Dave Campbell was the color man and boy was he colorful aboiut Borowski. As he was warming up Campbell said something to the effect of "he is a nice story and all, but he only has two pitches and is not the type to lead a team to the playoffs". He also added that he was big on heart and short on talent. Yikes! Joe has actually done pretty decent this season, but I guess he does not have the flashy dominant closer title.

Joe did wind up blowing the game though as we all now. The homerun is one thing, but the consecutive hits after the fact pretty much shows he was gassed. Reminds of an earlier game where he gave up a three run homer in the ninth to blow a Prior victory. Closers will have days like that and thankfully for the Cubs his have been few and far between.

It would have been great to have gotten on a little win streak, but these are the Cubs. The one up one down fashion continnues on. If all follows suit this afternoon, they will win and take the series.

In bad news for the Cubs, Grudz got Bagwelled yesterday and will miss four weeks. Bobby Hill is on the DL, so he cannot be called up (of course he has light skin and less than 5 years playing experience so he would join Choi on the bench after a 5 AB tryout). That leaves the Cubs with Ramon Martinez. Usually thought of as a good fielder, Jason Steffens talks about how the numbers do not bear this out. From my observation at a game in Cincinnati, I thought his reactions were slow. His first steps looks like they were taken with concrete shoes. Of course, speed is more important than quickness at second base compared to third.

Notice how I used a proper name as a verb in the last paragraph (Bagwelled). That got me to thinking about other baseball players who names I could use as verbs. Fell free to add some in the comments section.

• Bagwelled - To be hit on the hand by a pitched ball
  
• Sosaed - To hop out of pure excitement
  
• Grudzielaneked - To throw up after too much drinking
  
• Aloued - To check swing
  
• Piazzaed - Better ask the posters at Baseball Primer about this one
  
• Farnsworthed - To tackle, destroy and emasculate
  
• Alfonsecaed - To give 120% percent
  
• Alomared - To spit in the direction of another person
  
• Schillinged - To give your opinion when no one asked
  
• Glavined - To be regretful of taking more money
  
• Clemensed - To confuse wooden objects for baseballs
  
• Biggioed - To have an unnatural fascination with pine par
  
• Pujoised - To remain youthful looking and acting at 28
  
• Booned - To flip objects with excitement
  

OK, that is enough. Feel free to add others. Enjoy the game this afternoon.

posted by Dennis at 8:34 AM : |

 

I will remember you

Lenny Harris 2003-2003

I will remember you
Will you remember me?
Don't let your life pass you by
Weep not for the memories

Remember the good times that we had?
I let them slip away from us when things got bad
How clearly I first saw you smilin' in the sun
Wanna feel your warmth upon me, I wanna be the one

I will remember you
Will you remember me?
Don't let your life pass you by
Weep not for the memories

I'm so tired but I can't sleep
Standin' on the edge of something much too deep
It's funny how we feel so much but we cannot say a word
We are screaming inside, but we can't be heard

But I will remember you
Will you remember me?
Don't let your life pass you by
Weep not for the memories

I'm so afraid to love you, but more afraid to loose
Clinging to a past that doesn't let me choose
Once there was a darkness, deep and endless night
You gave me everything you had, oh you gave me light

And I will remember you
Will you remember me?
Don't let your life pass you by
Weep not for the memories

And I will remember you
Will you remember me?
Don't let your life pass you by
Weep not for the memories
Weep not for the memories

posted by Scott at 11:44 PM : |

 

Win Streak!

The Chicago Cubs survived a wild fourteen-inning game tonight and came out with a most improbable win. Curt Schilling and Juan Cruz matched zeros on the scoreboard through five until Arizona took a 1-0 lead on a bloop Luis Gonzalez single. With the rain coming down harder, the Cubs needed a run to tie the game and stave off the rainout loss. Realizing the importance of the situation, Dusty called on pinch-hitting specialist Lenny Harris who responded by poking a single to left. A sac bunt, an infield single, and a sac fly later the game was tied. Then the rains came...

About three hours later, the game started back up with the weak fans cleared out of the ballpark. Both pens held up till the eleventh, when Steve Finley leadoff with a single and Raul Mondesi followed with a bloop to put runners at first and third. Another bloop single from Rod Barajas plated both men and the Cubs trailed 3-1. Sosa and Alou went quietly in the bottom half, and all seemed lost. Then some guy turned to his girlfriend (who was wearing a Mark Grace jersey by the way) and proposed...

Base hit Karros, base hit Aramis Ramirez, pinch-hit double Troy O'Leary, WFK sends Ramirez who somehow beats the tag on a heart-stopping play, and its time for more free baseball! Vegas wouldn't have touched the odds on that particular series of events transpiring, and yet the evening's improbabilities weren't nearly over.

Antonio Alfonseca entered the game, and promptly loaded the bases in the twelfth but managed to escape unscathed. He gained steam in the 13th allowing only a walk, and flat-out dominated in a perfect 14th. That's right, three scoreless innings from the Lenny Harris of the pen.

After all that, it was well past time for the Cubs to put Arizona out of their misery. Sammy singled with one out, Alou followed with a single of his own, and Eric Karros (to his credit) drew a walk to load them up. Aramis showed great patience, taking three pitches outside the zone to run it to 2-1 (ask the ump how that adds up), then fouling off two pitches before hammering one the opposite way over Raul Mondesi's head for the win.

Just a wild, crazy, unbelievable, draining game. Kudos to the few hundred fans who had the guts to stick it out, and to the Cubs players for fighting all the way. If its not too much to ask, could we please try to build on this momentum tomorrow instead of just turning around and heading back toward .500? I know I am asking a lot, seeing as how Shawn Estes is scheduled to face Miguel Batista, but it would mean a lot to me...

posted by Scott at 12:36 AM : |

 

Sisyphean Cubs start climb again

I know how Dennis loves this shot. This time, Moises is stoic.

Carlos Zambrano won his third straight start as the Cubs again closed the gap to 3.5 games. Sammy Sosa delivered the offense with an RBI double and a three-run homer, and JoBo threw an eight-pitch perfect ninth to close it out. Zambrano's line would have been better, but Dusty left him in one inning too long (where have you heard that before?)

Carlos drew some criticism from Barry Bonds after Bonds saw his soft bases-loaded liner land in Zambrano's glove in the fifth. I certainly don't have a problem with a little fist pumping as long as Carlos keeps mowing down hitters. Although he still isn't getting much respect from people who don't follow the Cubs, Zambrano continues to be among the most valuable Cubs. He has actually passed Mark Prior and is closing in on Kerry Wood in SNWL (not updated for yesterday's game as I write). I guess we should be glad there isn't an inferior veteran option at hand or Carlos might find himself on the Greyhound to Iowa.

Which brings me to Hee Sop Choi. Reports are that the Cubs were prepared to trade a "top pitching prospect" to Texas to reaquire Rafael Palmeiro. It is mind boggling how little faith Dusty and Hendry have in Hee Sop Choi. As Steffens sagely points out, even if you ignore the long-term benefits of playing Choi, and even if you disregard the fact that Eric Karros has some regressing to the mean to do, Hee Sop Choi is still out-hitting Karros against righties. He is out-hitting Palmeiro against righties. He is a better hitter against righties than any other option we have, but the people in charge of this team refuse to see, and thus we give away chances to win. I guess with Lenny Harris finally pushed to the side, Jim and Dusty need another focus for their collective moments of idiocy.

The Cubs welcome the best starting rotation in the National League to Wrigley for three afternoon games this weekend. We'll miss Randy Johnson, but we do get Curt Schilling (2.91 ERA) today, Miguel Batista (2.72) tomorrow, and Brandon Webb (2.48) Sunday. We answer with Juan Cruz, Shawn Estes, and Matt Clement. I think its fair to say we have our work cut out for us. The good news is the Arizona offense has actually been a little less potent than ours, so we've got that going for us, which is nice.

posted by Scott at 10:17 AM : |

 

Once step forward, one step back

It would be a lot easier to write about the Cubs if they would give us a lengthy streak of some sort. Plot-based writing is supposed to have some kind of narrative flow. Events occur, the plot moves forward, it builds to an exciting climax, and everyone either dies or lives happily ever after. Not so with our team. We just run in place. Unfortunately, our competition isn't bound to be so stagnant.

This is all a way of saying the Giants used a second-inning grand slam off Kerry Wood to lead them to a 6-3 victory in Wrigley yesterday. Kenny Lofton hit his first homer as a Cub to break up Jason Schmidt's no-hitter in the sixth, so at least we were spared that indignity. The Astros and Cardinals both won, taking back the games the Cubs had made up the day before. Sigh.

The trade deadline cometh

Year	Age	EqA	ISOO	ISOS	OPS PLAT
2000	29	.236	.032	.067	+.121
2001	30	.235	.023	.113	+.164
2002	31	.236	.043	.095	+.090
2003	32	.229	.022	.087	+.029

The Cubs made another move yesterday, acquiring Doug Glanville for Lansing Lugnut outfielder Jason Franz and cash. Doug's EqA, isolated OBP, isolated SLG, and platoon differential versus lefties are in the chart on the right. Trenidad Hubbard heads to Iowa to clear a spot for Glanville. As you can see, Glanville offers little power and even less OBP-ness, so his value is mostly in his no-longer impressive batting average. He can hit lefties a little bit, and he is an upgrade over Hubbard at least. We didn't give up much in Franz (a 22-year old single-A outfielder without anything exciting on the stat sheet), so I am fine with the deal I suppose. Still, it shakes out to some small fraction of a win on paper, so I don't think its nearly enough. Jim Hendry still has six hours to the deadline, so perhaps he might have one more deal up his sleeve.

I am Sammy Sosa

I am in my third year on the company softball team, and despite a few decent hitting performances I still have a big fat zero in the home run column. I have vowed to hit one in a game by the end of next year, but I haven't made much progress toward that goal so far. I am limited by the fact that I have no speed and thus can't hit an inside-the-parker. Also, I have no power and thus can't hit an over-the-fencer. I went out and took BP yesterday afternoon, and I hit a few to the base of the outfield fence marked 300 feet. Before long some players showed up for an actual game, so we moved to the tiny field and I did manage to hit one out there. I'll mention it here if I make any progress toward my goal, and rest assured you'll get a banner headline if I ever actually get one out. I'm practicing the hop and the kiss for the camera, so I'll be ready when the moment comes.
posted by Scott at 9:43 AM : |

 

Clement dominates in series opening win

Usually the Cubs batters are the ones tipping their hats after games, but after Tuesday's 3-0 shutout victory the Giants batters are the ones doing the tipping. Clement was simply brilliant allowing only 2 hits (an infield it and a bloop shot). He also struck out 8 Giants and walked 2. It was his first shutout since 2002.

Lots of Matt's starts have been tainted by lack of offensive support and just a couple of mistake pitches. It was nice to see the other pitcher make the mistake. Moises Alou hit an 0-2 fastball out of the park in the fist inning to account for all 3 Cub runs.

The Astros lost to the Braves last evening, so the Cubs crept closer to first place. They are 3.5 games behind the juice men and 1.5 games behind the Redbirds. The Astros might be in some trouble again though as Roy Oswalt left the game with a tender right groin that may end his season. I think Oswalt should become a Red so he can join other players with fragile bodies. They also traded for Yankee reliever yesterday Dan Miceli. I thought the Yankees were supposed to have a bad bullpen while the Astros have a good one? Interesting move.

Today's ballgame is a battle of All-Star hurlers. Jason Schmidt takes the hill for the Giants and the Cubs counter with Kerry Wood. The Cubs are looking to make a nice little run in the Central and also in the Wild Card race.

Speaking of All-Star pitchers, the Cubs got some good news on the Prior front yesterday. He pitched 25 pain free pitches off the mound. This sets him up to come off the DL soon if his legs and arm are in decent condition. Obviously, the Cubs chances of putting together any sort of meaningful fun are directly proportional to him coming back.

I see that WGN started using an in-game ticker during its broadcasts. It is sponsored by the Chicago Tribune. I am sure Cubs will use all the extra revenue from the product placement on players and minor league development. They are getting fair market value for the ad, right? OK, probably not.

Finally a little off topic story to brighten your day. I need some new wheels since my new job will be farther away. I hate car shopping mainly because I always like to check out cars before talking to a saleman, but they generally come up and make small talk before you get the chance. I finally figured out the secret to peaceful shopping, my dog. Granted, Boxers are not mean by any strecth of the imagination. They are hyper though and if you don't know dogs, they could look mean. Basically a saleman thinks twice before approaching me and my bounding, springing dog.

The funniest part is when they get the guts to come close and ask, "does your dog bite?". I just shrug and say, "I'm not sure, we don't take her out much." Advantage me.

posted by Dennis at 8:25 AM : |

 

Ups and downs

If you are like me, the Cubs have had you pulling out your hair all season long. As and another thing! was discussing this weekend, it seems like every time we come through with a big win we follow it with a momentum-killing loss. The Zambrano game? Followed by a 3-1 loss. Alex Gonzalez's walkoff infield single against the Cardinals a few weeks ago? Followed by a 4-1 loss. Sosa's ninth inning homer for a 1-0 win in Philly? Followed by a 12-2 loss. Actually, it seems like more often than not, we never seem to get a streak of any kind going.

This being a blog run by a statistician and an engineer, let's take a look at the numbers and find out if we really have been prone to following up wins with losses and vice versa. Keith Karchner had an essay in SABR's "The Best of By the Numbers" that gives a method for determining what the chances of a team with a given winning percentage having a certain number of streaks is (although if you dig it up, be careful because there is an exponent missing in his variance formula.) The Cubs are 52-52. The mean number of streaks (where a streak is a run of wins surrounded by a loss on either end, or vice versa) you would expect for such a team is 53. The Cubs have had 67 such runs.

Chugging through the numbers we find that there is a 0.4% chance that a .500 team playing 104 games would have at least this many streaks by chance alone. This is well under the standard 5% chance commonly used to gauge statisticial significance. That's about one .500 team this incapable of putting a winning (or losing) streak together every 256 seasons. Obviously there are other variables at play (Wood and Prior were pitching back-to-back for a while, playing several consecutive games against the same opponent, etc), but its still interesting to me.

The Cubs get back to it tomorrow evening as Matt Clement (7-9, 4.37) takes on Damian Moss (9-6, 4.75). Moss's numbers don't look particularly good, and that's before you account for the fact that he pitches in the best pitcher's park in baseball. His overriding statistical characteristic is that he strikes out very few batters- only about one every two innings. He has been tougher on righties this year, but last year it was the other way around so it may not mean much. If you are curious, some kid named Barry Bonds has hit Clement better than any other Giant- 6 for 14 with three homers, three walks, a 1.672 OPS and only one strikeout. Of the eight Cubs pitchers who have faced Barry more than once, Kerry Wood has allowed the lowest OPS at .903. Scary.

posted by Scott at 10:26 PM : |

 

Cubs win "must-win" series

I've been kind of comatose all weekend, thus the lack of an update yesterday. I had mono my freshman year of college, so perhaps its a recurrence. Anyway, the Cubs soldiered on in my absence, losing 3-1 yesterday but coming back to win 5-3 today to take the series. The win leaves us 4.5 back of Houston, about the minimum I think most of us would have accepted at the end of this series to still feel like we were in the race.

Kenny Lofton had his best game as a Cub, stealing a base and lacking only a homer for a cycle. He was cut down at the plate in the first inning on a play I'll blame Kim for even though I didn't technically get to see it. Shawn Estes survived five innings (allowing one run on three walks, four hits, and a homer), and for once Dusty lifted him when he had the chance. Since Shawn's dark side didn't come out today, I presume it means six more weeks of Estes. We are off tomorrow before welcoming Barry Bonds and the Giants Tuesday.

Briefly, the US soccer team defeated Costa Rica 3-2 to take third place in the Gold Cup. Defender Carlos Bocanegra (whose incredibly cool Off the Ball columns have propelled him into a dead heat with DaMarcus Beasely as my favorite national team player) scored for the second time in two games, and Bobby Convey tallied his first for his country. Ernie Stewart had a rocket of a volley for a goal as well. The next big event for the US is the U-17 World Cup where a certain 14 year-old makes his debut on the world stage. Our first game is August 14th against South Korea, so you can be pretty sure I won't try to force soccer down your throat for at least the next two weeks.

Finally, I am going to go out on a limb here and say that Lance Armstrong is a good cyclist. He overcame injuries, crashes, and even the oddsmakers to capture his record-tying fifth consecutive Tour de France today, one hundred years after the Tour was first won. Not much new to say about this truest of American athletic heroes, so I'll just leave you with his quote from after yesterday's Tour-clinching time trial: "I'll be back next year, and I'm not coming back to be second."

posted by Scott at 6:51 PM : |

 

Baker: Genius or luckiest man alive?

That is the main question in my mind this evening after a thrilling 5-3 win over the Astros. As mentioned yesterday this is by far the biggest series of the season to date. The Cubs need at least 2 of 3. Things looked bleak early as the 'stros jumper out to a 3-0 lead in the first. I did not see the first inning, but apparently there was some bad defense. Chip reminded me of it 35 times over the course of the next 7 innings. The Cubs got one back on a Moises single in the sixth (I think, I am at the in-laws house writing this on AOL, and don't feel comfortable multi-tasking over to check the box score, so it is just me and my memory this morning).

In the seventh inning the Cubs got a runner on base with the pitcher Carlos Zambrano due up. At this point he is the tying run, had pitched six innings of wonderful baseball, and should basically have been taken down for Choi, right, right? Dusty actually let him hit. I was beside myself. I told my wife I was finally done with this team and was going to start an Oakland A's blog.

Then Wade Miller hung an 0-2 curve ball and Carlos tied the game. Unbelievable. I guess now you have to decide which is more important the process or the results. I tend to think process because if you make the right moves and execute them correctly, then over the long season results will follow. Of course, who can really argue with the results here. To be honest if Baker would have chosen Lenny Harris to bat instead of Choi, then I am glad he left Carlos in. Of course, I go to Choi 100 times out of 100 in this situation (well to be fair against Miller Choi would have been starting for me). Good thing I am not the manager.

With the game tied in the 8th inning, Moises Alou turned around a Dotel fastball with Grudz on base to put up the final margin of victory. Baker was trying to get a complete game from Carlos, but a Berkman single in the ninth brought out Joe to nail down the final 2 outs. The Cubs look to build on the momentum of this game this afternoon. It feels great to get win 1 especially in a nice comeback fashion against their number 2 pitcher.

Revelation

A lot of Cub fans cannot stand Chip Caray. I personally do not have a vested interest either way. I have heard much better and much worse. Last eveing though I think I finally put my finger on what makes him annoying to some - he nags. Instead of just calling the game he always brings up negative things that have happened over the course of the game. If someone grounds out to end an inning it is, "There is a ground ball and the Cubs earlier failure to move the runner costs them a run as Alou is retired." Sometimes a player strikes out and you get this, "Here is the 2-2, strike 3 batter could not hold up on the 1 strike pitch and it costs him here." After every inning it is, "The Cubs have played shoddy defense in the first and trail at the end of 7". It is almost like the Price is Right game Plinko. He has about 7 verbal crutches he clings to during a game. He will start a conversation and it will bounce around, but always wind up in one of seven bins to finish the thought. Anyone else quantify why they don't like Chip?

And finally

I just checked my contract and darn it if I don't have to give a Tour de France update. If this is wrong anyone can correct me in the comments section. Lance holds a 65 second lead heading into the final 2 stages. Today's stage is a time trial and everyone on ESPN is saying this is the money stage. Ullrich seems to be the odds on favorite to gain some time back, but if he cannot get within 10-20 seconds, then experts expect Lance to win it on Sunday. This is the German's last real chance. Sounds sort of like when you are 2 runs down in the 8th inning with the heart of the order up. If you don't score then, the ninth does not look good. Good luck Lance.

Edited by Scott at 11:37 EDT to add:Lance has placed third in the final time trial today, beating Jan Ullrich by eleven seconds and extending his overall lead to 1'16". Call it an insurance run. The drive for five wraps up with the largely ceremonial final stage tomorrow. If you get the Outdoor Life channel, check it out from 9:00- 11:00 in the morning.

posted by Dennis at 8:50 AM : |

 

Look who's back, back again

Its been a long time since I have actually posted to my little creation. Hectic work schedules and the possibility of a new job have limited my activity. That is pretty over now because I put in notice yesterday and will be moving on. It is a relief to be done with the whole working/interview cycle and have everything in place. I look forward to closing up everything at the old place.

As I officially ended my streak at my current employer, the Cubs ended a somewhat impressive streak yesterday. They were swept for the first time all season if memory serves. Everything was looking great until the 6th inning when Philadelphia put up a nine spot and held on to beat the Cubs 14-6. Baker got a lot of his relievers in the game again in yesterday's blowout. Borowski came on to pitch the ninth and did not fare well. I suppose there are two schools of thought here: 1.) he has to get work somewhere or 2.) why the heck are wasting him in that spot. I would fall into group number 2 especially since Veres looked good, but I can understand number 1. Wellemeyer who was brought up specificially for long relief only went 1 1/3 innings. I wish he would have been more effective thus saving the pen, but I wish for a lot of things.

The Cubs stand one game under the .500 mark and 5.5 games behind division leading Houston as the Astros come into Wrigley this afternoon. The phrase "must-win series" is vastly overused over the course of a baseball season, but this certainly qualifies. If they were to get swept they would be looking up the chute at a 8.5 game deficit. On the other hand, sweeping them out of town puts the baby bears right back in contention. Carlos starts this afternoon with Estes and whomever is replacing Prior (possibly Cruz) finishing out the series. Not the best match ups on paper, but the games are played on grass.

The Amazing Race

Long time since I have discussed the race. The main reason is that the teams this season are boring. True, they fight and carryon like other teams but there is a certain charisma that is lacking. Last night the virgins were eliminated because they could not read a map. I always feel bad when a team gets ousted because someone simply screwed up. I suppose that is equivalent to losing a one run game in the ninth on an error. Regardless, there are only 4 teams left: the married gay couple, the engaged straight couple, the clowns (no really, they are clowns), and the best friends. Chip and Reichen (the married gay couple) took a strong lead last evening. Speaking of, I wonder if Reichen is a family name like maybe he is Reichen II. If so, would his son be the Third Reichen? Maybe not.

Other Random Thoughts

• VH1 is counting down their 200 greatest pop culture icons this week. I have been watching them inbetween baseball games and other television and have found it to be pretty interesting. Number one will be revealed this evening. I have been taping all of them because I am a sucker for list shows.
  
• I always thought the Sara Lee slogan was "Nobody does it like Sara Lee", but I recently saw a commercial with the slogan printed at the bottom and it is "Nobody doesn't like Sara Lee". I like mine better.
  
• Last but not least, I found out 2 weekends ago that I am about to be an uncle for the fifth time. My previous 4 nephews are from my brothers and sisters, but this one will be from the other side of the family. Kara's (my wife) brother will have the first grandchild on that side of the family; well he won't be having the child his wife will, duh. To say my in-laws are excited to be grandparents would be an understatement on the level of saying Shawn Estes has not pitched well this season. The Northside Lounge extends congratulations and best wishes to the parents to be.
  

posted by Dennis at 8:01 AM : |

 

PTBNL may be better than we thought

A report in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette indicates that the PTBNL in the Lofton/Ramirez trade will be the Pirates choice from Bobby Hill, Steve Smyth, and Francis Beltran. If true, this would change my opinion of the deal dramatically. What looked like a risk-free move suddenly looks like a lot more of a win-now gamble. Given the team's current roster and place in the standings, win-now gambles don't seem too likely to pay off. Mark me down as "slight thumbs down" instead of "strong thumbs up" if this report turns out to be true.
posted by Scott at 8:41 AM : |

 

Ramirez and Lofton arrive, improved offense misplaced en route

The New Cubs made Randy Wolf look like Cy Young as Kenny and Aramis combined to go 0-8 with an error. Matt Clement was all over the place early but managed to squeeze out a quality start. As much as I like the trade, it still comes with over half the season already in the bank and the Cubs looking at a 4.5 game deficit in the division. Its way too early to be talking about must-wins, but the prognosis is not looking good if we can't put together a win streak at some point.

I am not in the mood for a lengthy update, so let me skim through my two favorite non-Cubs related topics. Lance Armstrong and Jan Ullrich finished together in the pack as Tyler Hamilton, broken collarbone and all, blew away the field to take the stage all by his lonesome. The injury- which surely would have felled nearly any other human being on the planet- at the very least cost Tyler his shot at winning the whole thing, so its nice to see Lance's fellow teammate take stage glory. Two more flat stages for the sprinters before Lance and Ullrich go head to head in the final time trial to settle things once and for all.

On the soccer front, the US came one minute away from defeating Brazil in Miami tonight before the samba squad tied it at the end of regulation and won it on a sudden-death penalty kick. Carlos Bocanegra buried a marvelous header to give the US the lead midway through the second half, but with several US players seemingly playing hurt the defense just couldn't hold out long enough. Kasey Keller played out of his mind, showing that he wants that starting keeper's job back no matter how much pub Tim Howard and Brad Friedel get.

Finally, we welcome Cubs Pundit to the Cubs blogging party. I can't wait till some other team's bloggers try to start a feud with us, because I am pretty sure we've got them all outnumbered. Dennis may seem like an old softy who sits on the couch watching reality television all the time, but if you push him too far he'll bust out the kung fu. Al Yellon strikes me as a sturdy, no-nonsense type, so we'll let him kneel down behind the other team's bloggers, have Christian and Brian Carstens distract them with discussions of roster manipulations, and finally have Wilkinson push them over. I'll assign Derek to rubber-band shooting, because really, what crack fighting team doesn't have a rubber band shooter? Our Austrian adventurer Chris is in charge of missions to foreign lands in case someone starts an Expos blog, and that guy at Weeghman Park gets a cushy desk job as a reward for calling Farnsie "Sir Tightpants." Ken has the perimeter of Wrigley Field covered so he can be our Homeland Security man. If worst comes to worst Steffens can just sue them all to death.

posted by Scott at 11:36 PM : |

 

Mitre loses in debut, but help is on the way

Walking out of Turner Field tonight I was feeling a bit down. Fortunately, my Pirates friend Robert had left me a message. I called him as I walked to the car, and once he woke up (he is a family man now you see), he asked "did you hear about the trade?" Now I can't explain this, but I immediately started thinking "we got Giles, we got Giles, oh boy we got Giles!" He broke it to me that it was just Aramis Ramirez and Kenny Lofton, so then I didn't know how to feel until I got home to see what we gave up.

The pricetag is as follows: Ramirez, Lofton, and a small amount of cash for Jose Hernandez, Matt Bruback, and a PTBNL. Bruback is a 24 year old 6'-7" right hander who had a 3.96 ERA in 19 starts for Iowa this year. Sickels likes his arm, but last year was his only really good year as far as numbers go. Sickels gave him a C+ last year, and I see no reason in his numbers this year to upgrade that. When I analyzed Lofton and Ramirez a couple weeks ago, I said they would both be substantial upgrades and worth getting if we could get them at a reasonable price. Unless the PTBNL is someone substantially better than Bruback, I think this looks like a very reasonable price. Time to get these guys in the lineup and start pecking away at the Astros and Cardinals!

The Mitre clan in full voice- Photo courtesy of me

Anyway, tonight's game wasn't much fun. I have a soft spot for guys making their major league debuts. Its the culmination of every boy's dream and perhaps the beginning of a legendary career. I was even more emotionally invested in Sergio Mitre's debut tonight since I watched the game from behind homeplate with his mom, dad, two sisters, and some miscellaneous family members I never really identified. They were great fun to be around and really giving their all for Sergio. I wish I could say the same for the Cubs defense. Tom Goodwin and Trenidad Hubbard (who stepped in when Goodwin pulled a hammy) each misjudged easy flyballs to center that turned into doubles, and when Garcia induced groundballs (his specialty), nearly every one rolled between two immobile Cub infielders.

At any rate, at least Sergio managed a base hit on the very first pitch he ever saw in the majors, and off future Hall of Famer Greg Maddux no less. The bullpen was strong again, as Guthrie, Alfonseca, and Remlinger combined for 4.1 scoreless and Remlinger managed to strikeout five in two innings. Plus, we may well have seen Lenny Harris's last start for a long time. All in all, today could have been worse. We'll be home tomorrow as Matt Clement faces Randy Wolf and the Lofton/Ramirez era begins.

posted by Scott at 12:11 AM : |

 

Just a routine 15 run outing

We are through the looking glass here, people.

In the least Cubs-like Cubs game of the year, our guys whomped the Braves 15-6. A few parts were predictable- Sammy went yard, Shawn Estes imploded, and JoBo pitched a perfect ninth to nail down the win. Beyond that though, chaos reigned. Consider:

• SAFE!

  The Cubs got a big early lead, blew that lead, then fought back to not only retake the lead but actually blow the other team out
• Tom Goodwin delivered five hits. Five!
• Lenny Harris walked.
• When the Braves loaded the bases with nobody out and threatened to finish the Cubs off early, Dusty pushed the right button. Dave Veres came in and struck out Marcus Giles, got Sheffield to pop up to short, and got Chipper Jones to ground out to first to get out of it unscathed.
• Antonio Alfonseca pitched two innings and allowed nada. When Gonzalez Bucknered an easy grounder, Alfonseca just calmly turned around and got the next guy like there was nothing to it.
• In one sequence, Lenny Harris doubled, stole third on the front end of a double steal, then tagged and scored on a sac fly. Lenny F. Harris! I mean for crying out loud, he's the slowest Lenny since Of Mice and Men!

At any rate, I can't explain what happened tonight but I was sure glad to be there to see it. There wasn't much in the way of entertaining off the field anecdotes to share. Sammy did maul one in BP that landed in the last row of the left field bleachers, kicked forty feet straight up in the air where it landed and stuck on a support beam. There was nearly a riot as people collected under the beam hoping the ball would fall. Tommorrow I'll be in the fourteenth row, one section to the third base side of home plate, so look for the tall guy in the Choi jersey. Although Sergio Mitre's strikeout rates have been low, Sickels doesn't totally hate him so perhaps he'll put a good start together. If not, maybe we can score 15 more runs.

A quick note on the Tour de France- Lance kicked ass. At the moment when all the momentum had turned against him, Lance dug deep and came out like a champion, destroying Jan Ullrich on the final climb of the final mountain stage and opening up a 1"07 lead. Credit Ullrich too- Lance crashed just before making his glorious charge, but Ullrich showed a great deal of class by allowing Lance to remount his bike without pulling away. Of course, he was only returning the favor as Lance had showed him the same courtesy when Ullrich fell two years ago. Anyway, the race is not yet over, but Lance is now back in command. Here's to our man in yellow, Lance Armstrong.

posted by Scott at 12:43 AM : |

 

Cubs take game 16-2, series 2-1

The Cubs finally broke out some lumber, and naturally it was Carlos Zambrano that was the offensive ringleader. Phlorida phenom Dontrelle Willis was the victim of the explosion, getting chased in the third. Zambrano was three for four on the day, or in other words had three times as many hits as Lenny Harris in Lenny's best game of the year. Carlos also pitched well, allowing just one run in six and a third. Sammy also crushed an upper deck homer, forcing the first ever mid-game NOTD update (it was the third stadium he owns the longest homer for this year).

Shawn Estes will face Shane Reynolds tomorrow night in Atlanta. Constant checking of the UPS tracking page indicates my road Hee Sop Choi jersey should be arriving courtesy of Wrigleyville Sports just in time for the game, so if you are going to be there look for me. My reward for suffering through an ugly Estes/Reynolds matchup was supposed to be Prior/Maddux on Tuesday, but now Mark Prior has been scratched due to lingering effects of the collision with Marcus Giles. Better to get him healthy than risk anything, but you've still got to fear for the Cubs chances if he misses any significant amount of time.

Effectively wild?

The Cubs have a rotten offense and a great pitching staff. That's the conventional wisdom, and its generally pretty accurate. Of the thirty teams in baseball, we are scoring the 25th most runs per inning with 0.488, and we are allowing the 9th fewest runs per inning with 0.489. Then again, ninth out of thirty doesn't sound that overwhelming after all. If you are counting on your pitching to carry you to becoming one of eight playoff teams, you probably ought to be better than ninth best at it.

Cubs Pitching
Category	Number	Rank
HR/IP	0.103	7th
K/IP	0.956	1st
BB/IP	0.483	27th

Accepting the DIPS conclusion that homers, strikeouts, and walks (I'll include HBP here) are the things that pitchers have the most control over, let's take a look at how the Cubs pitching staff is doing. As you probably know this is a dominating strikeout staff, averaging nearly a strikeout per inning as a team. They are doing a good if not great job at keeping the ball in the park, allowing less than a homer per 9 IP. But then we come to the walks- sad but true, the Cubs are fourth worst control staff in baseball.

Perhaps its just me, but this information came as a bit of a shock. If there is one thing I have retained faith in as I watched LFH flail away, its that at least we could rely on our pitchers. I mean, sure we have our Esteses and our Alfonsecas, but surely Prior, Wood, JoBo, et al make up for them, right?

Name	Control
Veres	188
Borowski	150
Prior	129
Clement	100
Alfonseca	93
Farsworth	90
Guthrie	86
Zambrano	79
Wellemeyer	78
Estes	76
Wood	76
Benes	57
Cruz	56
Remlinger	55
Norton	46

Here are the Cubs pitchers BB and HPB allowed compared to the major league averages for pitchers. A number over 100 represents better control than the major league average. The first thing I notice is that only three of the fifteen pitchers the Cubs have used this year are better than the major league average. Prior and Borowski have been strong across the board all year, and control is no exception. Clement is about average and even the much-maligned Alfonseca is within shouting distance too, but what of the rest of the staff? Control has been the chink in Wood's armor. Estes has been just as bad as Wood (without all those nifty strikeouts to balance it out.) Remlinger's control has been nonexistent. Even reasonably effective guys like Guthrie, (my contract obligates me to use this nickname) Dr. Tightpants, and Zambrano have had shaky control.

I don't know if the Cubs' rampant control problems are symptoms of a flaw in Larry Rothschild's approach, products of some other unknown cause, or simply coincidental. I do know that the wildness is the difference between the Cubs being a slightly above average pitching team and being as dominant as the Dodgers. Considering our offensive struggles, our pitchers will have to start finding the plate if they are going to lead us to a division title.

Anyway, I'll be back tomorrow with an in-person report from Turner Field. Maybe I can even cajole Dennis into writing something for all you Goodieheads out there. Don't forget to check out Lance Armstrong in the morning too; he stayed even with Ullrich today and in the overall standings, but the third place rider made up ground on both of them. Ullrich is likely going to beat Lance in the remaining time trial, so Lance has to find a way to build a cushion before they leave the mountains. Kick some butt, Lance.

posted by Scott at 6:05 PM : |

 

Wood leads Cubs back to .500

"You can watch a good 1-0 soccer game to get you in the right mindset for a typical 1-0 Cubs game shortly thereafter." -- Me, on this blog this morning

Well, I was nearly right. Kerry Wood dominated for his second consecutive complete game, a 1-0 win over the Marlins. Kerry was aided by several defensive gems, including back-to-back caught stealings from Paul Bako immediately after Bako replaced the injured Damian Miller. The lone run of the game came courtesy of a Alex Gonzalez sac fly after Moises had doubled and taken third on an error.

While it was a marvelous performance from Wood, I have to worry about back-to-back 129 and 130 pitch starts with an All-Star relief inning in between. I just don't see the point in risking Wood when you've got a fully rested Joe Borowksi waiting in the pen. How much better odds of pitching a scoreless ninth did Wood really have? Is that small increase (if it was an increase at all) really worth gambling with Wood's health? I really thought the organization had learned its lesson from Wood Surgery I, but its increasingly clear they didn't.

On to the part of my prediction I was slightly less than absolutely accurate about. The US soccer team thrashed Cuba 5-0 in Foxboro today. Landon Donovan tallied four all by himself, ranging from an impossibly easy tap-in off a perfect pass from Brian McBride to a sublime half-volley ripped past the Cuban keeper to the far post. Eddie Lewis continues to cross the ball brilliantly, picking up three assists on the day, and Steve Ralston continued his best run with the national team with an amazingly powerful header right over the keeper's head (yes, the ball in the picture is going so fast the keeper won't be able to move his hands up and block it.) The US will meet the Colombia/Brazil winner in the semifinals.

posted by Scott at 9:29 PM : |

 

Cubs fall below .500

My lead for this post was going to be "If I had a dollar for every time I have heard the phrase '(insert opposing starter here) has pitched an amazing game tonight,' I could buy the Cubs and release Lenny Harris myself." Then I read the AP story on last night's game and saw that Dusty beat me to it with "everybody who pitches against us looks like Cy Young, and that's not the case." I guess its encouraging that he knows Cy Young hasn't been exhumed and traded from team to team to allow him to face us over and over, but it would be nice if he would take the next logical step and realize his lineup stinks.

So anyway, the Florida Marlins defeated the Chicago Cubs last night 6-0. Matt Clement walked none but did hit three batters en route to a three-run, six inning quality start. Kyle Farnsworth gave up two homers in the seventh, but the game had been out of reach of the Cubs offense since the first Marlin run so what did it matter?

Its Kerry Wood's turn to try to win a game with zero runs of support today. It hasn't ever been done in baseball history, but that's no reason not to keep trying. Wood (9-6, 3.19) will face Brad Penny (8-6, 4.55) in a strange 6:05 EDT start. I guess they like to have time to go home and change before heading to South Beach down there. I don't see the game on my Extra Innings schedule, so I suppose Fox's blackout period will save me from the stress watching our hitters flail away seems to cause.

Its becoming increasingly obvious that Lance Armstrong doesn't have it in him to dominate the Tour de France like he has in the past, but in the first Pyrenees stage this morning he managed to tenaciously hang on for another day. Jan Ullrich pulled away from Lance in the final two kilometers, but just when Lance could have cracked and given away the lead, he fought back to finish in fourth and save the yellow jersey by a razor-thin fifteen second margin. By all accounts Lance is a decided underdog now, but if there's anyone we can count on to fight to the last mile its Lance.

Don't forget to check out your national soccer team at 3 EDT on Univision (the main Spanish channel) today. Even if you don't speak a word of Spanish, the excitement level their announcers lend will make it worth a few minutes of your time. Plus, you can watch a good 1-0 soccer game to get you in the right mindset for a typical 1-0 Cubs game shortly thereafter.

posted by Scott at 11:16 AM : |

 

Southern Swing

Tonight the Cubs embark on a five game road trip through Florida (3 games over .500) and Atlanta (+30). Then come series against Philadelphia (+13), Houston (+7), San Francisco (+21), and Arizona (+11). The Padres (-27) provide a respite, but then its Los Angeles (+6), Houston again, LA again, Houston again, Arizona again, and last but not least St. Louis (+3). All in all, its sixteen straight and 35 of the next 38 against teams over .500. The reward is a very easy looking September schedule, but unless the Cubs step up their game it likely isn't going to matter.

The trial by fire begins tonight in Miami as Matt Clement (7-7, 4.39) faces Mark Redman (7-4, 3.26). Clement has been a disappointment so far this year as he has failed to followup on last year's breakthrough performance. There have been signs of hope lately though, as he has managed four consecutive respectable starts, going at least six and a third innings each time out and never allowing more than three runs.

From the World Sports category, Lance Armstrong held on to the yellow jersey today despite losing over a minute and a half to his main rival Jan Ullrich. There are rumblings across the Tour that Lance may not have the legs to hold on this year. Tomorrow's stage is in the Pyrenees where Ullrich is likely to try to tear the yellow from Lance's back. On the bright side, the US Men's soccer team has advanced to the quarterfinals in their attempt to repeat as North American champions. We play Cuba tomorrow afternoon at 3pm live on Univision. Hopefully in about 24 hours the Cubs, Lance, and the Nats will all have marched on with flying colors.

posted by Scott at 3:57 PM : |

 

Second half begins...tomorrow?

Who on earth is the scheduling genius that determined some teams would get an extra day off after the All Star break? The break is brutal enough without strecthing it one more day. There are some games scheduled for today, but the Cubs renew tomorrow in south Florida. ESPN has the starters listed as Wood against Beckett, but I suppose that could change subject to how the Cubs want to set their rotation.

Since there is no real Cubs performance news out there, I suppose this will degenerate into a random column. I have no idea where it will lead, no idea where it is coming from, and no idea when it will end. The only thing for which I am certain is that I will feel better when it is done.

The Cubs beat writers were sharing a brain this morning. Paul Sullivan writes about the five things the Cubs need to do to compete in the second half. Jason Steffens over at The Clark and Addison Chronicle has a breakdown. Speaking of Jason's site, the only thing that gets more facelifts are aging soap opera stars. His site is looking pretty slick and maybe one day I will take the plunge and leave blogger and get my own site. Of course that would require more than a basic knowledge of HTML, so I might be stuck here for awhile.

Northside Lounge favorite Mike Kiley writes that Eric Karros must start more at first base in the second half in his list of five. Since Choi is 0 for his last 9, then he obviously should be on the bench the rest of the season. What a bunch of garbage. I think the platoon system they have in place is working just fine. Choi still has a higher OBP and SLG against righties. To be sure, Karros does have value on this team, but as a left mashing platoon guy.

ESPN has been running promos non-stop for their "Trial of Pete Rose" that airs tonight. I realize that Americans lead busy lives with little spare time, so as a service to the loyal Northside Lounge readers, I will put everything in prospective for you. Pete Rose is banned from baseball. People who are banned from baseball are not eligible for the Hall of Fame. Therefore Pete Rose cannot be in the Hall of Fame. Easy. Making the argument that he is a great player is pointless. Making the argument that Ty Cobb and Cap Anson were SOBs is pointless as well because they never gambled on the game (well, there is speculation that Cobb did once with Joe Wood and Tris Speaker, but that is a story for another time). The society of baseball, like any society, has different punishments for different crimes. I realize that speeding could result in a fine while murdering someone could get me the death penalty. Baseball players know that corking a bat is a 7 game suspension while gambing on your team gets you a lifetime ban. Easy. Let's put Pete Rose to bed until January when the HOF voting happens again.

Speaking of ESPN, the ESPYs were pretty brutal last night. Jamie Foxx was about an unfunny as one could be. Not only was he not funny, after his jokes bombed he had to think of something to fill the dead air. He usually would just scream , "give it up for (fill in the blank)". The musical opening was too long, they showed way too many montages and generally made for a boring show. They showed the nominees for "play of the year" about 5000 times which is about 4999 too many. It seems to me that sports programming recently is trying to hard to create "moments" rather than letting them happen. I usually like the ESPYs. Oh well.

posted by Dennis at 8:16 AM : |

 

Two birds with one stone?

Rumors are flying concerning a possible deal to bag Aramis Ramirez and Kenny Lofton from the Pirates, thus simultaneously filling third base and centerfield. Clark and Addison has a story from a Pittsburgh paper suggesting the Cubs might offer "youngsters like right-handers Francis Beltran, Juan Cruz and Todd Wellemeyer and outfielder David Kelton." Rumor on Baseball Primer has it that ESPN Radio is reporting a done deal with the Cubs acquiring the pragmatic Pirate pair for Kelton, Cruz, and cash.

Name	Year	Age	PA	OBP	SLG	EQA
Ramirez	2000	22	274	.293	.402	.232
Ramirez	2001	23	655	.350	.536	.290
Ramirez	2002	24	570	.279	.387	.232
Ramirez	2003	25	393	.328	.441	.266
Lofton	2000	33	640	.369	.422	.276
Lofton	2001	34	576	.322	.398	.256
Lofton	2002	35	611	.350	.414	.276
Lofton	2003	36	351	.338	.450	.275

On the face of it, the trade is an obvious upgrade at the Cubs two weakest positions. Lofton provides steady, solid offensive help even at 36 years old. According to the numbers in Baseball Prospectus 2003, he has played above average CF defense in three of the last four years. If not an all-star caliber player anymore, he at least looks like a clear upgrade over Goodwin in center.

Evaluating Ramirez is a little more complicated. He tore the cover off the ball at high-A Lynchburg and AAA Nashville, earning a callup in the second half of 1998. He bounced back and forth from Pittsburgh to Nashville for three years, putting up major league OBPs of .296, .254, and .293. His unrealized potential was making him a target of the boobirds in Pittsburgh, and it was around this time I told my Pirate friend Robert that we would gladly take him in Chicago if they wanted to get rid of him.

In 2001 Ramirez busted out, looking like the hitter he had been in the minors. He hit 34 homers and 40 doubles and looked to be established as a star third baseman for the decade to come. In 2002, the pendulum swung back the other way. He sprained his ankle in an April brawl, and saw his OPS fall from .907 that month to under .600 for each of the next three months. A small late season recovery still left his overall numbers low. His defense remained poor (top ten in the league in errors for the second year in a row without great range to make up for it), and the boo birds returned.

This year started out no better as his OPS dipped to .599 in mid-May. He went 2-4 on May 17th though, and ran off seven more multi-hit games in his next ten to get his OPS back up to .752. Since then he has been neither Jekyll nor Hyde, chugging along with basically average offense and his typically mediocre defense. His EQA currently sits at .266, 11th best among major league third basemen.

So with Lofton we can expect a league-average CF on offense and perhaps a bit better than average defensively. With Ramirez, we will most likely get a league-average third-base stick with a shaky glove, but we may get a very good hitter or we may get a poor one. Ramirez is due $6M next year, while Lofton is signed for just this year for around $1M. A trade for these two would be good in the sense that it improves the team at two positions. It wouldn't be good in the sense that we would be giving up one or more good prospects, taking on a significant financial commitment for next year, and (most likely) not getting a strong long-term player in return. Depending on who we were to give up, I wouldn't necessarily be opposed to a deal for Lofton and Ramirez, but I don't think they are enough to put us over the top.

posted by Scott at 8:57 AM : |

 

The best of times and the worst of times

The All-Star game is supposed to be a showcase of the best baseball talent in the world. For the most part it is, but the actual All-Star break is a pretty brutal time of year. Sure the Home Run Derby is fun until Berman wears on the nerves and the celebrity softball game has its moments, including a Ryno to Ozzie to first double play, but for the most part fans just struggle to fill the time between the first and second "half". The most popular way to fill time is to look back on the first half. Chris over at the Yarbage Cub Review has done a great job at looking back at the players' performances. Therefore, I will take a different approach. I present to you my list of the five best and worst games from the first half. If you feel I have made a mistake, feel free to let me know.

The Worst

5. Sunday June 15th - 5-4 loss at Toronto

The Cubs were victimized by a walk off homer in the 10th inning by Reed Johnson. The odd thing is that Johnson also hit a lead off homer in this game as well. Troy O'Leary hit a grand slam to provide all the Cub runs in this one. After the slam, the Cubs led 4-2 only to have Estes cough up the lead in the next inning to end the scoring until the 10th.

4. Tuesday June 3rd - 3-2 win against Tampa Bay

Not all bad games are losses. Case in point is the game were the Cubs actually won in the bottom of the ninth. Of course all people will remember is Sammy Sosa's first AB. One broken bat, some flying cork, and a suspended superstar later, the Cubs were left reeling. Just now, Sammy is starting to find his stroke again.

3. Saturday June 21st - 7-6 loss against the Sox

Clement was brutal. He gave up 7 runs in just over three innings of work. The bullpen was spectacular though and the Cubs started chipping away. In the seventh innings Wavin' Wendell Kim sent Damien Miller home with no outs and he was nailed by 20 feet. The Cubs continued to rally and lost by one run.

2. Friday June 27th - 4-3 loss at Sox

The Cubs staged a late comeback against White Sox "closer" Billy Koch and tied the game at three. Alfonseca came into the game in the ninth and prompty served up a walk off homer to Jose Valentin. It has spelled the beginning of the end for Alfonseca. Ever since this game he has performed terribly and been booed unmercifully.

1. Thursday June 26th - 5-3 loss to Milwaukee

Mark Prior struck out 16 Brewers, pitched 126 pitches and held a slim one run lead in the ninth inning. Borowski comes out puts the first two men on base and serves up a three run homer to Geoff Jenkins. Just a crushing blow to the Cubs considering they had lost by six the previous day in extra innings. It also started a trend as they would lose the next two games in the ninth. For a team that fails to score a lot of runs, chinks in the bullpen armor are very disturbing and this was the worst of them all.

The Best

5. Monday March 31st - 15-2 win at New York

Nothing is better than a victory on opening day. Well, maybe a blowout victory on opening day against the opposition's shiny new free agent pitcher. Grudz actually led off the season with a walk and the offense was off and running. Patterson laid his claim to the moniker Mr. March by driving in 7 runs and the Cubs leaped into first place.

4. Wednesday April 9th - 3-0 win versus Expos

Mark Prior proved to the baseball world that he was here to stay even though it is only his second season. He pitched a complete game, shutout allowing only 4 hits and striking out 12. Even more amazing is that his opponent, Javier Vazquez, struck out 14 and neither walked a man. Vazquez's only mistake was to Damien Miller who put a fastball in the basket. Miller now gets taken down against all righties in late innings for Lenny Harris.

3. Saturday May 10th - 3-2 win versus Cardinals

Joe Borowksi blew a Kerry Wood victory in the ninth by giving up a walk, stolen base and single, but the Cubs were able to hold the Cards in the 10th and give Alex Gonzalez a chance to end it. Just as he did 6 days earlier against the Rockies Gonzalez took a pitch out of the park to cement his reputation as a clutch performer, whether it is true or not. Gonzalez has already hit many memorable homers for the Cubs and fans will forever pay attention closely when he comes up late.

2. Saturday July 5th - 6-5 win versus Cardinals

The Cubs were down 5-0 after the first one and a half innings. Shawn Estes went from the bad Shawn to the good Shawn in the same game and held the Cards in place as the Cubs started chipping away. Alou and Sosa homers sandwiched around another run got the Cubs to 5-4. The game was tied in the bottom of the ninth when Patterson pinch hit for Remlinger. He hit a high chopper and beat the play at first. Eventually Alex came up with the bases loaded and a chance to win the game. He delivered with a game ending infield single off Scott Rolen's glove.

[Update and Edit] I originally talked about this being the game where Patterson tore up his knee. Alert reader Brian Hipp reminded me that Patterson actually was injured the following day. He is 100% correct and once again I am proven to be an idiot. Well, maybe not an idiot, but someone with a flawed memory. Thanks for the correction Brian!

1. Saturday June 7th - 5-2 win versus Yankees

A no brainer. A nationally televised game of the week pitting two history rich teams who had not played a series in almost 70 seasons, the only two pitchers to strike out 20 in a nine inning game facing off, and one pitcher going for win number 300 made for a circus atmosphere at Wrigley. The game actually lived up to the hype. Wood struck out 11 but a no call by the ump that denied number 12 gave Matsui new life and the Yankees a 1-0 lead after a homer. The Cubs put runners on in the 7th to chase Clemens. Juan Acevedo came out of the pen and turned Clemen's 300th win into a loss on one pitch to replacement first basemen Eric Karros. Karros, who was playing for Choi after a horrific concussion, etched himself into the hearts of Cubs fans forever with a laser beem off the back screen. In the top of the 8th, the Yankees loaded the bases with Giambi coming up. Remlinger replaced Wood and carved him up dropping the best changeup of his career on a 3-2 count to end the rally. The Cubs added some insurance in the 8th and won 5-2. Best game of the season hands down.

Well, there is my list. Honorable mentions goes to Bellhorn's clutch homer in St. Louis, Goodwin's homer against Pittsburgh, and the marathon victories against Milwaukee and Houston.

posted by Dennis at 8:50 AM : |

 

Cubs fall, head to break at .500

The Cubs were 7-2 losers to Shane Reynolds at Wrigley last night. The Cubs offense performed its usual duty of making the opposing pitcher look like Lefty Grove, and Dusty stayed with Carlos Zambrano one inning too long. On the bright side, Antonio Alfonseca put only two runners on and allowed neither to score, dropping his ERA to 6.09. In a virtuoso performance, Lenny Harris went 1-3 raising his batting average to .171.

We head to the break in a tailspin, losers of 20 of our last 31 games. The offense is putrid, the bullpen is in disarray, the starters are overworked, and Corey Patterson is out for the season. Like many Cubs fans, I am sometimes prone to Chicken Little-esque behavior, but we should all realize that the season isn't quite over yet.

• We are three games out. Three games is a lead that can evaporate in a good weekend.
• We are behind two flawed teams- we aren't talking about having to catch the '27 Yankees here. The Astros have an aging offensive core and real problems at catcher and short. Their hodgepodge pitching staff has been beset by ineffectiveness expected and otherwise, and their best starter has had recurring injury issues. The Cardinals have their problems too, with Tomko and Simontacchi ineffective and even ace Matt Morris struggling lately.
• We have clear problem areas that can be easily upgraded. We are getting absolutely nothing or less than nothing from catcher, third base, and the fifth starter slot. We can substantially upgrade those positions with even a league average player.
• We've got Dusty Baker. For all his tactical failures, Dusty Baker remains a manager that players want to play for. With some judicious help from Jim Hendry removing guys like Lenny Harris from the equation, I think Dusty can get something out of our players. At the very least, I wouldn't expect a collapse out of the Baylor/Riggleman playbook.

So you see, all hope is not lost. Relax, enjoy the All-Star game, try to tune out all the Selig-induced "improvements," and get ready for a second-half run.

From the sports that you are completely uninterested hearing about but I am going to tell you anyway category, USA Soccer and US Postal Cycling strive on today. Landon Donovan and DaMarcus Beasely take on Martinique in another first round Gold Cup game tonight. Martinique doesn't have anywhere near the talent to hang with a team like the US, so it should be a chance to score some goals and get ready for the tougher opponents ahead. On the Tour de France front, USPS is on the road as we speak. It is a fairly mountainous stage which should be fertile ground for Lance. Hopefully the Posties can give it a strong go and build on Lance's lead.

posted by Scott at 8:45 AM : |

 

Clement , Sosa find a way to beat Atlanta

Matt Clement went eight strong innings as the Cubs stemmed the tide and stole a win from the visiting Braves. Sammy Sosa gave the Cubs a 2-1 lead with a leadoff homer in the fourth, and by the time the inning was over his teammates had chased Horatio Ramirez and staked Clement to a 7-1 lead. Sosa joined Barry Bonds and Ken Griffey Jr. as sluggers with five homers in their last five games. It must be something in the water...

Tonight, Carlos Zambrano faces Shayne Reynolds on ESPN as the Cubs try to salvage a split and go to the All-Star Break on an up note. Zambrano (6-7, 3.19) has been a bit of a hard-luck pitcher, but then again is it really hard luck when your team can't score more than three runs per game and your bullpen has a six-fingered villain who pitches and gives up three runs in every one of your games? Reynolds has been Atlanta's worst starter this year, and has been particularly shaky over the last month or so. He has been pretty good at keeping the ball in the park, but has had horrible BB and K numbers (15/23 K/BB ratio over his last eight starts). The Cubs need to show some patience and take advantage of Reynolds' weaknesses.

In other news, the US Soccer team dropped El Salvador 2-0 in the first game of their second major tournament of the summer. This is the Gold Cup, North America's continental championship. We are the defending champions, but after last summer's World Cup thrashing of our arch-rivals, the Mexicans will surely be gunning to knock us off. Last night the goals came from a typical source (the head of Brian McBride) and a less typical source (the right foot of the southhoofed Eddie Lewis. The US has a day off today before facing minnow Martinique Monday night.

Last but not least, Sir Lancealot is where he belongs: in yellow. With the 1.2 mile high L'Alpe d'Huez climb on the itinerary today, the stage was set for Lance to blow the weaker riders right out of contention. Some