Fresh from the 770 to you!

I took the recap at TCR today, so if you just can't get enough of my sublime writing check out my take on May-retta's own Corey Patterson and his game-winning self.
posted by Scott at 6:24 PM : |

 

Huge win!

Not really, but if I stick to headlines that actually describe the team's performance I may use up all the English words to describe frustrating baseball teams. Heck, I was resorting to "Ugh" yesterday, and that's hardly a word at all.

Last night the Cubs took it on the chin despite scoring nine runs and sending their ace pitcher to the mound. The problem came in that said ace pitcher got knocked around, lost his cool, and was asked to leave the field of play by the umpire. The parade of releivers that followed wasn't any better, although you can't blame them entirely. For instance one particular releiver, a southpaw known for having a reverse platoon split, was again used as a LOOGY despite now being a member of a pen with more lefties than righties. The color commentator pointed out that calling up Ohman gave the Cubs four lefties, but that it was all right because one of them had a hefty reverse split perhaps due to his changeup.

Confidential to Jim H.: The guy you put in charge of your team is being outmanaged by Bob Brenly. Bob Brenly!!

The Cubs try to salvage the series and get back above .500 this afternoon. Its Aaron Harang (1-1, 3.70) against Dempster (1-3, 4.57). Lets go Cubs.

posted by Scott at 6:21 AM : |

 

Ugh

I was off to bed with a 10-3 lead in the ninth, but circumstances led to me staying up a bit more and catching the recap from the ap wire. It seems Dusty had to go to his new closer despite a seven-run lead, Fox's long history of arm problems, and the fact that he pitched as recently as yesterday. A few runs and an apparent arm injury later, out he comes.

Maybe its better that Hawkins not close if this is how Dusty would treat his arm.

posted by Scott at 11:44 PM : |

 

Customer Service Silliness

I've been having issues with my Bell South DSL account. Its hardly the first time, but I don't have a lot of good alternatives so I've stuck with them. After three or four calls to tech support in the last twenty-four hours, I ended up with a service tech at my house who seemed pretty sharp and ended up telling me that if I kept having problems I should downgrade to a slower service to maintain better connectivity. The connection continued to drop after she left, so I called Bell South to make the downgrade.

The billing person asked for my mother's maiden name before she would make changes to my account. I gave it to her. She said "that's not what I have here." I confirmed that it was indeed my mother's maiden name. She said "it may be her maiden name, but that's not what you gave us when we asked you what it was." I said I doubted I had failed to know my mother's maiden name, but that I was willing to provide any other piece of personal information she would like to confirm my identity. She reiterated "I understand this might not be your mother's maiden name, but it is what you gave us." I again offered to give some other piece of information. She responded "This is what you gave us. It starts with an 'S'." I started rattling off things that started with S until it turned out my father's first name "Stuart" was the right answer. Yee-hah.

So we went through the billing change successfully. When we were done, she went into a goodbye script, but with a twist. She said "It has been my goal today to provide you with excellent customer service. On a scale from 1-10, how would you rate my customer service today?"

I was taken aback. They normally transfer you to a third-party for this kind of thing, so you don't have to worry about hurting anyone's feelings to their face. But, despite the maiden name silliness, things had gone relatively smoothly so I said "seven." She replied "Oh! What could I have done to make things better today?" A bit rattled, and not in the mood to rehash the maiden name stuff, I said "Nothing in particular." Assuming I must not have understood the question, she replied "Ten being the highest, what score from 1-10 would you give me today?" Swallowing the urge to say "three and falling", I repeated my seven with the proviso that "seven is a good standard score- nothing outstanding, just a good solid seven."

Now I didn't really want to rip her since I suspect she was just following the script and flow chart she was given, but what the heck? Who thinks its a good idea to force customers to rate their customer support to the face of the person in question? And how is it possible to get decent data when you get to challenge the person if they don't give you a good enough score for your liking?

Oh, and then in the middle of this post my connection blinked off again. I guess I should have given her a ten.

posted by Scott at 2:07 PM : |

 

This Old Cub

I finally got around to watching my DVD of This Old Cub, the film about Ron Santo's battle with diabetes, the amputations to each of his legs, and lots of associated stories. It isn't the greatest piece of cinema I have ever seen. Although its told in a roughly chronologic manner, there isn't a good rythym or dramatic arc to the story. There are times when fairly random Wrigley scenes are thrown in for a couple minutes to fill time. I'm no music snob, but the song choices for the score are so obvious as to be distracting (e.g. some scenes from a Giants game are shown while a song about San Francisco plays.)

That said, it doesn't need to be a master film to work. Seeing a good-hearted individual bear what Ron Santo bears, and do it with nary a complaint or a word of self-pity, is incredibly moving. You could slap that footage on a DVD with no score or editing or anything else and still have a worthwhile product.

A few years back I got myself run over a transit bus here in Atlanta. They flirted with amputating my right foot, I spent six months in one of these, and it was a little over two years before I could walk relatively normally again. In other words, I went through about 2% of what Ron Santo has been through. I always felt like I did a pretty good job of keeping a stiff upper lip through my saga, but he puts me to shame. He's an inspiration. I highly reccomend spending ninety minutes of your time with this movie.

posted by Scott at 11:26 PM : |

 

The Reds pitching stinks

This and other great insights in my Reds preview at TCR. Look for Dennis with some reports from the scene of the crime this week as the Cubs visit the Queen City.
posted by Scott at 9:29 PM : |

 

Frustration

That was going to be the title of this post, and it was going to feature bullet points like these:

• What was Todd Hollandsworth doing on that pop-up in the third inning? He was sprinting in after it, then let up about five steps before the ball dropped in front of him. It looked to me like he had a shot at making the catch, but he relaxed and not only let it drop but didn't seem to make any effort to prevent it from going past him. Throw in Mark Redman's third career hit and a debatable call at first and we were down 2-0 in an inning that could have been scoreless if any number of breaks had gone our way.
• And what was Rob Neyer's "Smartest Pitcher Alive" doing jogging around first on his hit down the left field line? I realize he is old and slow and a Hall of Famer, but would it have been so hard to hustle a bit and not get gunned out by ten feet by the shortstop?
• And why on earth is Dusty playing for one run in the sixth inning with a man on and nobody out for the heart of the order? Bunting Hairston kills off your chances at a big inning, and has the potential to backfire and leave you with nothing at all. They say play for the win on the road, and that's even more true three full innings before the ninth.
• And how many years of experience with broadcasting Cubs games will it take before WGN stops missing the first pitch of the inning two or three or four times a game? Awfully unprofessional stuff.

But then Maddux settled down, Mr. April (dyk: there are 1220 hits on Google for the phrases "Derrek Lee" and "slow start" on the same page) cracked a two-run single and the practically automatic LaTroy Hawkins nailed down his second save in as many nights. The roar from Camden Yards via my living room television indicates the Yankees just got swept by the Orioles, so I guess you could say things are looking up.

I'll have a Reds preview up for TCR tonight, and then I'm off to LA for another week of joyous precipitator inspecting. Pity me.

posted by Scott at 4:16 PM : |

 

Prediction Contest Stuff

I received sixty-five entries this year, 28 bloggers and 37 readers. I still haven't figured out prizes, but I'm sure I'll come up with something classy. Here is either the average answer or the most popular answer from the group, with a few notable secondary answers thrown in for good measure. You may remember that the average date for Maddux's 300th win predicted by the entrants in last year's context turned out to be the exact day it happened, so I'd reccomend printing a copy of this post and going straight to your neighborhood bookie.

1- How many games will the Cubs win? 91.2(High- 98, Low- 83)

2- What place will the Cubs finish in the Central? 1.6 (High-1, Low- 3)

3- How many runs will the Cubs score? 756

4- How many runs will the Cubs allow? 653

5- How many Cubs will make the All-Star game? 2.9 (High-5, Low- 2)

6- Who will lead the Cubs in batting average? Garciaparra-52 (Ramirez-11)

7- Who will lead the Cubs in OBP? Garciaparra-28 (Lee-16, Ramirez-15)

8- Who will lead the Cubs in SLG? Ramirez-58 (Lee-4)

9- Who will lead the Cubs in HR? Ramirez-53 (Lee-11)

10- Who will lead the Cubs in runs? Garciaparra-29 (Patterson-21)

11- Who will lead the Cubs in RBI? Ramirez-59 (Lee-4)

12- Who will lead the Cubs in stolen bases? Patterson-64 (Hairston-1)

13- Who will lead the Cubs in caught stealings? Patterson-46 (Lee-6, Hairston-6)

14- Who will lead the Cubs in stolen base percentage (min 5 attempts)? Patterson-28 (Lee-17, Hairston-15)

15- Who will lead the Cubs in IP? Zambrano-46 (Maddux-9)

16- Who will lead the Cubs in wins? Zambrano-35 (Prior-21)

17- Who will lead the Cubs in losses? Maddux-39 (Wood-9, Dempster-9)

18- Who will lead the Cubs in saves? Hawkins-33 (Borowski-26, Dotel-2, B. Wagner-2)

19- Who will lead the Cubs in holds? Hawkins-29 (Remlinger-18)

20- Who will lead the Cubs in ERA (min 100 IP)? Prior-33 (Zambrano-26)

21- Who will lead the Cubs in K? Wood-43 (Zambrano-13)

22- Who will lead the Cubs in BB? Wood-48 (Zambrano-11)

23- Who will lead the Cubs in CG? Zambrano-37 (Prior-16)

24- Who will lead the Cubs in outfield assists? Patterson-45 (Burnitz-16)

25- Who will lead the Cubs in fielding percentage among 2B, 3B, and SS? (min 150 total chances) Walker-26 (Garciaparra-19)

26- Name a Cub that will make the All-Star team. Garciaparra-30 (Ramirez-13, Zambrano-13)

27- Name a Cub (majors or minors) that will be traded out of the organization. Kelton-19 (Mitre-11)

28- Name a non-Cub (majors or minors) that will be traded into the organization. Dotel-17 (Urbina-11, Huff-9)

29- Name the rookie that will get the most plate appearances for the Cubs. Dubois-61

30- Name the rookie that will throw the most innings for the Cubs. Guzman-39

posted by Scott at 11:28 AM : |

 

Chortle chortle

I'm in Mobile, AL, inspecting the precipitators at Barry Steam Plant, and I've learned an important lesson: don't ever agree to inspect precipitators at a steam plant.

However, there has been one upside- I did get the opportunity to catch some really entertaining highlights this morning. Not the Cubs doubleheader (although it was a huge relief to see Prior pitching well), but rather the Cardinals/Reds game. First of all, Mulder gives up six in five innings. Then, the Cards had first and second down three with one out in the bottom of the ninth. Eckstein hits a deep fly that lands over Adam Dunn's head, bounces on the track, and clears the fence by about a foot. The ground rule double puts the tying run back on third. The Reds then intentionally walk Larry Walker to set up Albert Pujols (Albert Pujols!) for the double play... and he obliges! A high-chopper to third, a leaping stab by Joe Randa, a bullet to first, and the game-ending 5-3 twin killing. You've gotta love it.

posted by Scott at 7:17 AM : |

 

Quickie

Is anyone else getting annoyed with WGN missing the first pitch of half-innings coming out of commercial breaks? At first I thought it was my imgaination, but around the time we came back from break with Burnitz fielding a single in right I realized otherwise. But hey, I shouldn't complain on a day when we pulled out a win. Today's extra-inning triumph cancels out Friday's extra-inning defeat. Today's mediocre but enough to win Maddux start cancels out Tuesday's mediocre enough to lose Maddux start. Three up, three down. Yin and yang.

We start fresh tomorrow afternoon against the Padres' Adam Eaton (0-0, 5.79). I'd say it might be a nice chance to catch a good pitcher not at his best, but we are countering with Dempster (0-1, 17.18), a mediocre pitcher not at his best. That is indeed a 17.18 ERA. Yowzers.

I'll be in Mobile, AL on business all week. When I'm not at Hank Aaron Stadium catching the AA Bay Bears I'll try to post from the hotel. Lets go Cubs.

posted by Scott at 10:39 PM : |

 

Hawkins Forever

Or at least until he does something to show he deserves to be taken out of the closers spot. That's the thesis of my new post at TCR. Please direct all hate mail to the comments section over there.

Also, you may have noticed the playoff odds meter hasn't been updated. BP said they'd be updating it daily this year, but not only have they not updated it even once but they don't have any updated stats for 2005. I suppose its possible they've moved all their stats into the pay-only areas. I'll give them another week or so before giving up on the odds-meter.

posted by Scott at 11:16 AM : |

 

Little things

One of the tough parts about being a Cubs blogger as opposed to, say, a '72 Dolphins blogger or a Nadia Comaneci blogger is that you have to deal with writing about losing. We lost Tuesday, and I wasn't in the mood to rip Dusty's blundering pinch-hit decisions so I didn't post. We lost last night, and I wasn't in the mood to try to divine Dempster's future from the sample size he presented last night so I didn't post.

And yet I find myself thinking about baseball. Not about the Cubs, but about our company softball game Tuesday. And not about the game itself, but about sitting on the bench when the kid brother of one of our players saw me scoring our game and asked "can I do that?"

I showed him my way of scoring- draw a diamond as runners move around the bases, color it in if they score, write the fielders numbers for groundouts and circle their numbers for fly outs. He took my pen and followed my direction in recording the results of the next batter, and the next, and the next. By the end of the game he was merrily recording everything that happened.

We lost, we gave up 13 runs in the first inning, and I was 1-3 on three weak infield grounders one of which was a GIDP. The Cubs got whipped two out of three by a team that won 51 games last year. And yet, thinking of baseball makes me think of teaching a little kid how to score a baseball game, and that makes me smile. Hope it helps you some too.

And I also hope we win Friday so I don't have to post any more namby-pamby touchy-feely garbage.

posted by Scott at 11:11 AM : |

 

1-0

23 hits, 6 XBH, 33 total bases, and 16 runs. I suppose that's an acceptable start. At the very least, it was enough to cover for a mediocre start from Carlos Zambrano and propel the Cubs to an Opening Day win.

The Bats

Derrek Lee and Aramis Ramirez are the two best hitters in this lineup, and they went a combined 7-10 with a walk, three doubles, two homers, six runs, nine RBIs, and plenty of applause from my couch. Burnitz got hits in three of his AB and struck out in the other three. I'd say that's his upside- its the prospect of days when his results are divided evenly between strikeouts and other kinds of outs that scares me. Corey was 3-5 with a walk. I was pleased to see him hitting the ball with some authority, but distressed to see a bit of early patience evaporating as the game wore on. I recall last year scoffing at the announcers saying his Opening Day homer was the worst thing that could happen for him. Today we saw him slapping the ball around the park but by the end of the day he was chasing as badly as ever. I don't find that result any more encouraging.

The Arms

Carlos seemed to have good stuff but lost his control as the day wore on. He gave up the uncharacteristic long ball to Jose Cruz Jr., and lost his composure when he made his exit. I think we're better off when he maintains personal control, but if you are going to blowup at the umpire I suppose its best to do it after you leave the game. Glendon Rusch was all over the place in his 2.1 IP. Hopefully it was just some extended spring training in a game that was in hand, and next time he comes into a close game we'll get the 2005 version. Of course, if I discount Rusch's wildness then I can't give too much credit to Bartosh or Wellemeyer for their relative effectiveness.

The Other

In the car on my way home from work, they had a clip from the Tigers game on the radio. In it, Steve Stone said that Dimitri Young didn't consider himself a power hitter but in this situation he was liable to go yard. Then the pitch was delivered, and you know where it ended up.

That sort of psuedo-psychic prediction was Stone's forte, but when the hapless ESPN crew of Sutcliffe, Gwynn, and Dave O'Brien tried it blew up on them repeatedly. "Carlos Zambrano is one of the toughest pitchers in baseball to homer off of... deep to left, and its gone!" "Nomar doesn't see a lot of pitches, but one thing you can say about him is he will make contact and put the ball in play. Swing and a miss, strike three!" I just wish they would have predicted a season of Dusty Baker freezing out young players and running up 140 pitch outings on his starters.

I can't figure what I have heard about the Aramis contract. We already had him under contract for this year. He can opt out after 2006. So in effect, we've extended our commitment for three years in exchange for locking Aramis in for only one additional year. For that privledge we've agreed to pay him at the market rate for the next four years (if he chooses) despite the fact that we already had him at a cheaper rate for '05. Maybe there are details I am missing, but I don't see the upside.

Anyway, one day into the season and we are tied for first. Greg Maddux will face Russ Ortiz today. Ortiz wasn't particularly effective this spring (7.94 ERA, 1 HR, 10 BB, 7 K, 17.0 IP), so hopefully some of that will carry over. Go Cubs!

posted by Scott at 6:54 AM : |

 

Play Ball!

Opening Day is finally here. A week or two from now we'll know a lot more about where this season is heading. Baker and Hendry won't be able to spin their way out of it if Wood and Prior have been either unable to pitch or unable to pitch effectively. For one day though, I am going to not worry about that and just enjoy the fact that baseball is on my television. You've got until noon central if you haven't sent in your Cubs predictions (check here for details). Remember, its free and I'll hand out cool prizes so don't miss it.

Carlos Zambrano (0-0, 0.00) vs Javier Vazquez (0-0, 0.00)

Let's go Cubs!

posted by Scott at 5:46 AM : |