God Hates The Cubs
On April 3rd of this year following two losses to the hated Brewers Adam Caldarelli offered his explanation of why the change in the leadoff spot didn't seem to work :
"Well, that was quick. After two losses, the first rather exciting as losses go, the second rather putrid, manager Lou Piniella has shuffled the lineup.
He used 125 of them last season and now has two in three games. Alfonso Soriano is back in the leadoff spot, after starting the season hitless in the second spot. He swaps places with Ryan Theriot.
(Somewhere message-board Moneyball Martin is preparing a 20-slide power-point presentation on why Soriano is even worse than Theriot in this spot. Not that anyone would disagree.)
There are numerous theories and/or explanations here. One, that Soriano was put in the second spot in anticipation of the long-rumored-but-never-happened Brian Roberts deal. Two, Piniella put Soriano back in the leadoff spot because the $136-million dollar baby is incapable of and/or unwilling to hit anywhere else, like, say, fifth. Three, that Ryan Theriot and his propensity to not reach base is not the answer in that spot, even though, have you, he had two hits yesterday after taking an 0-for-5 in the opener. And finally and least plausible without getting into a theological discussion despite the century's worth of circumstantial evidence, the Cubs could bat anyone anywhere and it won't make a lick of difference because God hates the Cubs."
And after last night's loss to the Dodgers it's hard to argue that point.
Ryan Dempster, who had dominated EVERYBODY at Wrigley field this year couldn't find the strike zone. While he got away with it for a while, it cost the Cubs the game in the end.
The best scoring run offense in the National League managed only two runs off of a bloop home run by Mark DeRosa. There weren't even that many chances after that.
The Cubs played last night like the Cubs of old : No pitching, no hitting.
I was a bit surprised by Lou's lineup last night. Fukudome in the 2 spot? Really? Has that worked this year? Why not go with the lineup that has worked so well all year? Soriano, Theriot, Lee, Ramirez, Edmonds, Fukudome, DeRosa, Soto. Given what Kosuke has shown over the last two months, I thought that was a really bad choice.
The other element of last night's game which had a nightmarish tone to it was the Wrigley Field crowd. Other than the DeRosa home run, there was a nervous quiet to the crowd last night, quite in stark contrast to the White Sox game from Tuesday night. I think the TV guys got it right when they said this team is expected to win. I honestly felt the crowd was just waiting for them to lose. We've been here before. Every time we get here, we think to ourselves "Now what can go wrong?" And it did go wrong.
I am reminded of the 2003 Series against the Marlins where the Cubs sent Zambrano to the hill in Game 1 and the Marlins hit him all over the yard. Prior came in Game 2 and remedied the situation as the Cubs POUNDED Brad Penney. Let's hope for a similar outcome tonight. If they win the next 3 like they did in that series, we move on.
"Well, that was quick. After two losses, the first rather exciting as losses go, the second rather putrid, manager Lou Piniella has shuffled the lineup.
He used 125 of them last season and now has two in three games. Alfonso Soriano is back in the leadoff spot, after starting the season hitless in the second spot. He swaps places with Ryan Theriot.
(Somewhere message-board Moneyball Martin is preparing a 20-slide power-point presentation on why Soriano is even worse than Theriot in this spot. Not that anyone would disagree.)
There are numerous theories and/or explanations here. One, that Soriano was put in the second spot in anticipation of the long-rumored-but-never-happened Brian Roberts deal. Two, Piniella put Soriano back in the leadoff spot because the $136-million dollar baby is incapable of and/or unwilling to hit anywhere else, like, say, fifth. Three, that Ryan Theriot and his propensity to not reach base is not the answer in that spot, even though, have you, he had two hits yesterday after taking an 0-for-5 in the opener. And finally and least plausible without getting into a theological discussion despite the century's worth of circumstantial evidence, the Cubs could bat anyone anywhere and it won't make a lick of difference because God hates the Cubs."
And after last night's loss to the Dodgers it's hard to argue that point.
Ryan Dempster, who had dominated EVERYBODY at Wrigley field this year couldn't find the strike zone. While he got away with it for a while, it cost the Cubs the game in the end.
The best scoring run offense in the National League managed only two runs off of a bloop home run by Mark DeRosa. There weren't even that many chances after that.
The Cubs played last night like the Cubs of old : No pitching, no hitting.
I was a bit surprised by Lou's lineup last night. Fukudome in the 2 spot? Really? Has that worked this year? Why not go with the lineup that has worked so well all year? Soriano, Theriot, Lee, Ramirez, Edmonds, Fukudome, DeRosa, Soto. Given what Kosuke has shown over the last two months, I thought that was a really bad choice.
The other element of last night's game which had a nightmarish tone to it was the Wrigley Field crowd. Other than the DeRosa home run, there was a nervous quiet to the crowd last night, quite in stark contrast to the White Sox game from Tuesday night. I think the TV guys got it right when they said this team is expected to win. I honestly felt the crowd was just waiting for them to lose. We've been here before. Every time we get here, we think to ourselves "Now what can go wrong?" And it did go wrong.
I am reminded of the 2003 Series against the Marlins where the Cubs sent Zambrano to the hill in Game 1 and the Marlins hit him all over the yard. Prior came in Game 2 and remedied the situation as the Cubs POUNDED Brad Penney. Let's hope for a similar outcome tonight. If they win the next 3 like they did in that series, we move on.
posted by Jason at
3:37 AM
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