No "Around the Horn this week".  Maybe I'm done with that, seeing as how the Cubs season is down to a one-game playoff at least 3 times in a row. 

Let's just get this out of the way: the Cubs must win.  Plain and simple.  It is not impossible for the Cubs to go into Los Angeles and take two, bring it back to Chicago, and finally win a game at home.  But there is no chance of that if the Cubs' play does not pick up.  NOW.

The pitching has been brutal so far.  Ryan Dempster got a bad case of the "it's-the-playoffs-OMGZ" in Game 1.  No hitting, save Mark DeRosa.  Carlos Zambrano, despite taking a tough loss, was a victim of unspeakably bad defense by every infielder.  That fateful 2nd inning, Zambrano essentially pitched 7 outs.  Ryan Theriot should have gloved the ball after the lead off single, DeRosa should have had an easy double play, and Derrek Lee, most surprisingly of all the infielders, booted a can of corn grounder.  Normally, he picks that like a badly congested nose.  Counting the double play as two outs, that's 4 potential outs passed up, and Zambrano had to work for the next 3.  7 outs.  SEVEN!  Unbelievable and unallowable.

Continue reading "Suspending judgment until.... later...."

Well, it's official.  The Chicago Cubs have become the biggest joke in professional sports.  For such a storied franchise, nothing in the world can explain how a team laden with so much talent could implode with such alacrity.  Or can it?  I'm going to try.

Well, first things first, the Cubs didn't hit.  No surprise there, seeing as how this team scored a grand total of 6 runs in the 2007 playoffs versus the Arizona Diamondbacks, and were swept 3-0.  How many times did they score this playoff season?  6.  What was the series record? 3-0.  Carbon copy.  No runs = no wins = no advancing = no championship.  About as simple as it gets.  The averages were abyssmal and I could throw Alfonso Soriano, the Human Strikeout, under the bus all winter long, but I won't.  Too easy.  Two men who actually showed up this series: Mark DeRosa and Derrek Lee.  Lee was on base 3 times in Game 3, the only game in which I felt the Cubs had multiple chances to win, and no one was anywhere close to driving him in, save Daryle Ward.  Aramis Ramirez could not figure out Dodger pitching, and the Cubs were lost without his bat.  I am not going anywhere near the $40 million problem named Kosuke Fukudome.

Continue reading "6 months, down the drain"

Carlos Marmol sustained a few minor injuries in his home country of the Dominican Republic a day or two ago.  He was picked up from the airport by a few friends and family members, when the car they were driving was hit.  Reports are that he is fine, with only a few bruises and "swelling" of the forehead, which I assume means a bump on the head.  Since he's going to be the Cubs 8th-inning set-up man for years to come (I hope), all the best to him, and hopefully he's feeling great by the time 2009 rolls around.

Rich Harden had his shoulder examined on Wednesday, before the Cubs' deadline to pick up his 2009 option.

NLCS Game 1 between the Phillies and Dodgers tonight.  It'll be an interesting series.  I'll have only a passing interest in it, seeing as how my foucs is not on baseball these days.

Continue reading "Minor news matters"