Archive for June, 2009

A Chicago Tribune poll has found that, among all baseball managers, Lou Piniella is the one players would least like to play for. The poll surveyed 380 players, with the one stipulation being that guys couldn’t vote for their own manager.  Piniella came in dead last in popularity, with 26% of those polled saying they wouldn’t want to play for him.  Lou’s Chicago counterpart, Ozzie Guillen, was next with 21%. Thank goodness Cubs players weren’t allowed to vote for Lou or that number would’ve only been higher. For the record, Atlanta manager Bobby Cox was voted the guy players would [...]

The Cubs/White Sox weekend series ended with a 6-0 blowout win for the Sox.  Pretty pathetic effort for a Cubs team that looked like it was starting to show some fire and tenacity at last. The Cubs once again found themselves being stymied by John Danks, who would be a Cy Young candidate if he could only pitch every start against the North Siders.  The Cubs, meanwhile, got a middling effort from Carlos Zambrano – and that’s frankly being kind.  Z’s been good lately, so it’s not fair to trash him, but one would’ve hoped for a better performance in [...]

Mark DeRosa is back in the NL Central…as a member of the St. Louis Cardinals. The Cards swung a trade for the former Cubs utility man and RBI machine Saturday night, sending reliever Chris Perez and a player to be named later to Cleveland in exchange.  The Cubs had reportedly been discussing a similar trade with the Indians for DeRosa, but were either too slow on the trigger or didn’t impress the Indians enough with their offer. Jim Hendry has already admitted that the Cubs traded DeRosa in the off-season as part of a “get more left-handed” campaign – a [...]

The White Sox did everything within their power to hand Saturday’s game to the Cubs, committing three key errors and a boneheaded balk, and though the Cubs did manage to take a 6-4 lead at one point, they were unable to maintain their grip on the contest.  It just wasn’t a great day for Cubs pitching:  Ryan Dempster had to grind to get through 5 innings, allowing 5 runs on 8 hits, and the bullpen wasn’t a whole lot better.  The Cubs ultimately lost in the bottom of the ninth when Jose Ascanio surrendered a run-scoring single to Gordon Beckham.

Lou Piniella has explained why he told Milton Bradley to go home after Bradley’s tantrum in the dugout Friday.  It was all about protecting the water cooler, which Bradley was ready to go all Carlos Zambrano on after flying out meekly in the top of the sixth: “I don’t like those things to happen, but I’m just tired of watching it,” Piniella said. “This has been a common occurrence, and I’ve looked the other way a lot and I’m tired. I’m not into discipline, I’m really not. I’m going to put his name in the lineup tomorrow and that’s it.” [...]

The Cubs had to know what they were getting into when they signed Milton Bradley to a 3-year contract this off-season, and if they didn’t…why the hell didn’t they?  His reputation was out there for everyone to see – he’s a headcase who clashes with management, teammates, announcers, umpires.  On Friday, the volcano apparently erupted.  After watching the rightfielder weakly fly out on a 2-0 fastball, Lou Piniella, apparently tired of Milton’s weak-ass approach at the plate, yanked him, touching off – according to Carrie Muskat – a full-on dugout argument that ended with Bradley storming out of the ballpark. [...]

Magglio Ordonez was mired in a season-long power slump – only 2 homers well into June – until he decided to cut that greasy mop he called a head of hair.  The reverse-Samson worked for Ordonez at least for one day:  he jacked a 2-run homer off Ted Lilly in the 4th, and helped the Tigers to a 6-5 win over the Cubs, sweeping the series.

Derrek Lee has been on a tear.  Tuesday against the Tigers, the first baseman extended his hitting streak to 20 games, and with a pair of knocks, raised his average to .292.  Unfortunately, Lee’s effort didn’t make for a Cubs victory.  Chicago held the lead going into the 9th, but Kevin Gregg surrendered a two-run game-winning homer to pinch-hitter Ryan Raburn.  That sent Tigers fans home happy.  Cubs fans?  We’re left to wonder when the team will find a closer whose appearance on the mound doesn’t fill us with dread.

Lou Piniella gave Milton Bradley and Alfonso Soriano the night off against the Braves Monday, moving Ryan Theriot into the lead-off hole and sliding Jake Fox into the clean-up spot.  The result:  a shutout at the hands of Javier Vazquez and Atlanta. All right, so the Cubs didn’t score any runs, but they did get 10 hits, 2 each from Theriot and Fox (and one from Derrek Lee who extended his hitting streak to 19 games).  Even if they had scored 10 runs on those 10 hits, the changes were only going to be temporary – Soriano and Bradley are [...]

Kerry Wood‘s return to Wrigley Field as a Cleveland Indian hasn’t been a happy one.  For the second straight day, Wood was responsible for blowing a save – directly responsible, in fact, as the winning scored on his wild pitch in the bottom of the 13th.  This after his catcher, Kelly Shoppach, helped the tying run get in by throwing one into centerfield while trying to nail Kosuke Fukudome stealing. Yes, the Cubs are finally catching some breaks.  Of course, such breaks don’t have a chance to occur if you don’t make things happen at the plate – another thing [...]