The Dog Days of August
Hello again Everybody and welcome to my newest edition of CubbieFever’08. Well the Cubs just wrapped up their 9 game home-stand by beating the Cardinals 6-2 and giving Dempster his 13th win of the year. Did you know Ryan’s highest win total as a starter came all the way back in 2001 when he won 14 games with the Marlins? He had 13 wins in 2000, so if all the stars align correctly for dempy he should be breaking his career high right around when Washington comes into town in the middle of the month. Speaking of the schedule, we are now in what most of the tv analysts like to call the dog days of August. Why do they call it that?? I don’t know but it is catchy. But it seems like just yesterday we were saying it’s a long season yet, with lots of baseball to play still. Here we are with 44 games left in the season and only 19 of those being here in the friendly confines. So now is the time where every pitch and every game means alot more than just another win or loss, its also dropping that ever hopefully falling magic number. And the sooner the better for the Cubs who do have a couple of players who look like they are wearing down a little bit. The most noticable being Kosuke Fukudome, who’s batting average has steadily fallen since late June and went a horrendous 3 for 28 in this latest homestand. Even Lou had something to say about his struggles in his press conference after Sunday nights game, saying that he needed to pick up his offense, because while his defense is stellar there are a few bodies sitting on that bench whose bat and glove are performing well and are desperately seeking more playing time. Watch out Kosuke you could very quickly become a highly paid and sought after bench player before you know it. Back to the upcoming schedule again, Did anyone pay attention to the last 7 games of the season? Ouch, talk about really sticking it to the Cubs, it starts with 4 straight games in NY against a more than likely playoff competing Mets, then ending the season with three in Miller Park against a Brewer team who will be either right on our butts and/or right in the wild card race. If you even look at the whole month of Sept. that Mets series is the only time we play a non-divisional opponent that month, with only 9 home games for the entire month! So like I said earlier lets build on that lead and get that magic number down as far as we can with our last remaining home games, because I don’t know about you but I would rather be going into those last seven games just looking for maybe a win or two rather than worring about it knocking us out of a second straight division title. Till next time Cubbie Nation this is Fro and Go Cubs Go!!!
Heading up To Wrigley North!! Well Hopefully like Home..
In the past couple years we’ve called it Wrigley North, and hopefully that tradition doesn’t come to a screeching hault in this HUGE 4 game series with the Brew Crew. I’ve never been there personally (going to the last two games of the year though), but a bunch of my friends have and they said usually we have half or slightly out number the brewer fans in the seats. Cmon Cubbie Pride fill up those seats and make it a home-like atmosphere for these next four games, because we definetly need to play like we are at home! If we lose two or three here we might be in trouble and winning three or four here could give us the boost we need to start playing like we did the whole first half of the season with the confidnece that we are the best team on the field and no one can beat us on our good days. Yes I am a firm believer that we are better than Milwaukee, and that we will still win this divison no matter how good they play, it is our division to win or lose, because numbers have proven it that the better team always wins the division at the end of the year. But I think that getting those Cubs fans up there could make all the difference, yes everywhere the Cubs go you always either see a big spike in ticket sales or you see a good number of Cubbie blue in the seats. It’s one of the many advantages of being a nationally televised team, pretty much everytime we play. But for some reason unknown to me we just cannot win on the road this year. So lets make this series a home field one, and make that 2 1/2 hour drive from the Friendly Confines to cheeseland and lets show them wannabees up there what a real following looks like. I’m not saying start any pee yourself websites if the Cubs make the playoffs (haha thats for you cheeseheads) but lets go up there and just drown them in their own crappy tasting Miller beer and sausages! Really stick it to them, not even let them take a breath. I’m talking total domination of a team, I’m thinking like first game lite up CC for 8 or 9 runs, the second game score an even 10, shut them down 5 to 0 in the third and completely embarrass them on Thursady with a good old 15- 3 blowout to say goodbye. Yeah thats what I want. How bout you Cubbie fans leave me some comments I would love to hear what you have to say. Yeah even you too Brew Crews shout back!! This is Fro and Go Cubs Go!
Worried Yet????
Are the great fans of Wrigley starting to panic yet? I’m not! Tell you what, I am definitley scoreboard watching, so I’m not as comfortable as I was feeling three weeks ago, but I’m still very confident in our Cubbies. Yes, both St. Louis and the now surging Brewers (who have won 6 straight since the break) are nipping at our heels in the central division race. But are really any of us surprised? Would the Cubs have it any other way, then to put their loving fans through a little bit of stress? Yes, St. Louis is still a major surprise but we all knew that the Brewers were going to be there one way or another. I really don’t think that it would be a comfortable season for us fans if we didn’t have things to worry about, yes it would be nice, but admit it!, absolutely uncomfortable if we didn’t have some drama to discuss about our team. But good news ahead Cubs fans, Alfonso Soriano is on his way back and boy do we need his bat in our for some reason dormant offense. This team who was seemingly leading every major league offensive catagory at one time or another has hit a rough patch, well more like a rough field..lol. Their league leading team average has dropped and as a team their only batting .251 this month, Ouch!. But possibly as soon as todays game the third and final game against the D-backs this regular season, Soriano will be back into the line-up and hopefully bring a big boost to this team. This is for all those Soriano nay-sayers earlier in the year and last year when we were winning without him, since he went on the DL on June 11, the Cubs are 16-18!! Even when he goes 0-4, or 1-5 his presence in this line-up just plain and simple makes pitchers take a different approach. I think you will see D-Lee and Aramis both come out of their slumps and all the bats liven up when we get the free swinging Soriano back hopefully Wednesday. Then we can put together a nice little win streak with some big series looming in the not to distant future, 13 divisional games in a row. We have 4 road games against the Brewers, who are always tough in Miller Park, and the following homestand we have 3 against Pit, and another three against Houston, and finally a 3 game series against our bitter rivals the St. Louis Redbirds. So thank the baseball gods for timing, we are getting Soriano back just in time to make a great impact and hopefully beat up on some division rivals and give us some well deserved breathing room in the standings. Till next time this is Fro and Go Cubs Go!
Hamilton puts on a Display for the Ages in the First and Last Home Run Derby in Yankee Stadium
Josh Hamilton, what a story, what a professional, what a baseball player. Now days you just can’t say enough good stuff about this kid. Which is a total turn around from his early days in MLB. Just even last year I remember sitting in right-center field bleachers when the Reds were in town, screaming at him, if that was a needle in his pocket, or calling him Cheech everytime he ran out into center. As they are on everyone, Wrigley’s bleacher Bums are especially hard on the ones that make it so easy to pick on them. But he cleaned up and it’s looking like the Cubs should have waited another year or two before letting him go. If my memory serves me correctly I believe we even had him twice! Imagine him in center field for us this year, or Kosuke in center and him in right. WOW what a line up that would be. But back to his phenominal display of power and consistancy tonight. It seemed like it wasn’t even fair at first, when he just effortlessly launched 28 bombs, and I mean Bombs, into the seats at Ruth’s House. He broke Abreu’s record of 24 in the first round, and looked like he was going to ease into winning the derby, but ended up falling short to Morneau, by 2 dingers in the championship round. I personally think that it was his 71-year old pitcher, Council, that did him in, in the third and final round. Not saying that it was his fault I mean the old timer threw what 50 or so pitches in the first round alone. Most major league relievers would be tired out after that! But I do think that his pitches were defintely different from the first round and whether they were lacking the velocity that Hamilton needed or just not hitting the right spots. I think that if they put someone else in to pitch the third round Hamilton could of knocked out 20 or so more if he wanted too. Josh Hamilton deserved that title tonight, but fell a little short, maybe it will just be a little more motivation for him to go out in the second half and secure his bid for MVP of the AL this season. Maybe he can even knock in another 90 RBI’s and make a run at the record. But this kid amazes me, when most human beings would of shrivled up and died, this kid turned it into his guiding light and what a light he has become himself. Another great thing about him is his determination to help other kids going down his path. He takes alot of time out of his schedule to stop at schools and colleges all over the country to talk about his fight with drugs and alcohol, and how it completely crippled him. He REALLY wants to make a difference not just get the publicity for doing it, but actually wants to help. That my friends makes him an MVP in my book with ot without the numbers on the field. Just one season removed from Bonds and things are already starting to look up, we need more athletes like him to get the spotlight off the steriods era and moving on to the new generation of baseball players. I think tonights Home Run Derby was a good example of the fans and MLB taking that step to put it in the past and bring up the newest generation of MLB superstars, like Josh Hamilton, Ryan Braun, Dan Uggla, and Justin Morneau. These are the true heroes of the game that made it without chemical help, and a role model in each community, and most of all a good one for our kids. Til next time, This is Fro and Go Cubs GO!
Big Move or Big Panic….
Hello again, and welcome back, Today I would like to discuss the new addition of Rich Harden and Chad Gaudin to our beloved Cubbies. Now most people are saying that we made this move to counter the Brewers picking up CC Sabathia earlier this week. I really don’t think that was the case. Yes, I do think that we were talking to Cleveland about CC, but here is what I think happend behind those closed doors. I believe the Hendry did make an effort to pick up CC but it was back a few weeks ago and realized that for what he had to offer them and what they wanted it probably wasn’t going to pan out. Cleveland was asking for starting position players who could play full time and make an impact by 2009. We have pitchers that fit that mold but we are a little light with postion players. So pretty much I imagine Hendry started looking elsewhere. Now in my opinion, there were only two pitchers out there this year that are worth making a trade for: CC and Rich Harden. I know everybody was throwing Erik Bedard out there but I think he has something wrong with him mentally and would be a clubhouse distraction, which is what you don’t need when trying to make a World Series push. When Hendry realized he wasn’t going to be able to land CC, I think he naturally went to Oakland and asked what was it going to take. Sean Gallagher was the piece he didn’t want to give up out of that deal, and the only effect that the CC trade to the Brew Crew had was make him throw in Gallagher just to make sure he would land Haren and get it done before any other team could go nuts and offer half of a team for him. I just hope I believe Hendry when he said that he wanted Harden two weeks ago, but couldn’t get it done with what he wanted to give Oakland. I don’t believe that Miluakee landing Sabathia forced him into this trade at all. I imagine it just as more of a coinceidnece, then a panic move, that they happend so close to each other. I would imagine that we would be sitting here talking about Harden and Gaudin even if CC wasn’t moved yet because Hendry already made up his mind before we were even thinking about it. I think it was the total opposite in fact, and the Brewers heard that we were close to landing Harden and wanted to make sure that they got CC before the Cardinals could jump in and grab him. Because look at St. Louis now, what are they going to do? They obviosly have to make some sort of move to get any pitching help that they can. Mulder was suppose to come back and be that move or in a sense bring up the team like a trade, but he lasted all of 0.1 innings before the dream came to meet a hard wall of reality. Chris Carpenter is still over a month and a half from returning and the Cubs and Brewers could bury lil ol St. Louis by then and build up a huge lead in the standings. That’s where the Brewers did not want to be, left in the dust. So even though they are only renting CC, for half of a season they thought it was worth it, just to have a shot at the wild card or the division if the Cubs falter. The one thing that CC going to Miluakee does do is make them a powerhouse in a playoff series later this year. Facing Ben Sheets and CC number 1 and 2 will slow down any offense and make the other team have to work to take any of those games from them as long as their offense doesn’t go into hibernation, because with a young team like that, games 163, 164 and so on take a huge toll on their young minds and bodies. I am still standing by my earlier statement I made a couple weeks ago that the only opponent that could beat the Cubs are the Cubs themselves. As long as they stay healthy and away from falling into that July/August slump that us fans are so accustomed to, we will be in the playoffs with a good shot at winning the NL and more. Til next time my friends, this is Fro and Go Cubs Go!!!
Cubs showed whose really the top of the NL
As I stated earlier in one of my blogs the St. Louis series this last weekend was a huge measuring stick for our Cubbies and where they were exactly standing in this playoff race. The Cardinals who are winning with virtually nobody found out first hand why I think the Cubs are the best team in the NL and maybe the bigs all together. DEPTH… one of our best players hasn’t played for 23 games now and we are still keeping roughly the same lead we had when he got hurt. Since Soriano’s injury the Cubs are 11-12, not the best record by far but staying afloat until he can return to this line up. Think about it Cubs fans it really makes the line up 100% more potent with Alfonso in there. I know I’ve heard all the “we can do it without him, and he strikes out too much”, but his bat makes every opposing pitcher tremble and take a very different approach to this line up. We can put Fukudome back to #5 where he has hit a ton better and when I say a ton I mean it. In the 12 games at leadoff Fukudome has hit .260 BA with a .362 OBP and since moving to #2 just recently with Reed and Theriot back and fully healthy he is 3 for 28 in seven games. This compared to his .316 BA and .427 OBP when in the 5 hole. Then we put Theriot back to #2 and so on. It just works better for the hitters this way. We are definetly a much better offense when he is there. Our bench players and other starters have really stepped up and that makes me feel really confident in this team. Derosa WHAT A STUD! He has absolutely over-achieved this year and his career best 13 homers in going to get crushed at the pace he is on right now. He has a good shot at 100 RBI’s and you can’t find a more versatile player out there, I bet he could pitch if we needed him too. Not to mention he is also a fellow MLBlogger! Everyone said we over paid for him, forget that he needs a raise!!! Lee and Ramirez are as always having great years and the addition of Soto’s bat is just amazing. Where has this guy been hiding at? All-Star and by far the front-runner for Rookie of the Year right now, he has been the difference maker from just a good competitive team to cream of the crop of the league. Then you got Theriot who is batting around .315 and by far one of the best contact hitters I have seen in a while, he can put the ball anywhere. Then you add Reed Johnson or Jim Edmonds in center and that is one hell of a line up to throw at any pitcher in this league. Bring on CC, Miluakee thats what I say! But back to the Redbirds series, if it wasn’t for a hiccup from Wood in the 9th on Sat. we were sweeping them and letting everyone know that it is going to be damn near impossible to beat us out of winning the Central, plus more this year. We still made our point and I think that after that series, St. Louis is going to start to fade away like everyone’s been waiting for all season. For some reason the best three records in the NL are all in the central and you got a NL West that the first place Diamonbacks are one game under .500 now. Talk about a turn-around! In conclusion, I think the Cubs did what they had to do this past weekend and beat up on the Cards and took their place back a top the NL. They will get healthy again and before we know it be back in the race for best ML record and cruise into the playoffs with the Cubbie Swagger the Lou always preaches about. I have a really good feeling about this year!!! Till next time this is Fro and Go Cubs Go!!!
Busy Weekend, All-Stars, C.C. trade….
Welcome back once again, to my blog on the Chicago Cubs. If any of my regulars haven’t noticed I now put a hit counter on my site that counts the number of page uploads to different computers. Right now it’s at 36 which is not a bad weekend , yes. of course I would like it to be 100 or more that read my blog over the weekend but it takes time and I’ve only started this blog a little over two weeks ago, so not a bad start if you ask me. Plus I didn’t install the counter till Friday morning, and it doesn’t count multiple loads by the same computer, so you can’t just load my page go back and load it again to make it go up, it has to be a different computer to count, in that short of a time, but you can come back a couple times a day spread out over the day if you want. I just think it’s really interesting to see how many people read my blog, and please everyone leave me comments I love to read what you think about my blogs whether they are good or bad reviews. Thanks in advance. Anyway back to what you came here to read Chicago Cubs news and my thoughts on it. First off. All-star voting has been completed and we have three starters representing the Cubs and a total of seven total players heading to the Bronx on July 15th. I think it’s great that we have that many players going in the teams name, actually I think Theriot and Derosa deserved to go also, but hey every team does have to represented and that’s how it goes. I mean Kyle Lohse of the Cardinals, who has 10 wins already isn’t going, Evan Longoria, Jermaine Dye and Josh Beckett didn’t make it, so there are alot of names out there that are deserving but not in the mix. Soriano starting in LF (if healthy), Fukudome in RF, Soto behind the plate, and on the bench ready to go in you have Aramis Ramirez, Carlos Zambrano, Ryan Dempster, and Kerry Wood, and let’s not forget Sweet Lou gets to go taking the place of recently fired Willie Randolph. You know what’s in the back of everyone’s mind, is that it would be nice for the NL to finally win one this year and give homefield advantage to the NL in the World Series. Which Big “Z” hinted around to earlier when he hit the DL saying he would love to contribute and try to win, and if healthy will play in the mid-summer classic. Well win or lose I just hope the Cubs can keep up this first place baseball pace and finish the second half of the season the way they did the first half in FIRST PLACE!
BREAKING NEWS- CC Sabathia to Miluakee for the top prospect in the Brew Crew’s organization and two other minor leaguers. WOW I thought they got him pretty cheap, and so early it’s unbelievable. I mean he might even get a start before the All-Star game. Well that puts a little more pressure on our Cubbies, now that the Brewers picked up CC and moved into a tie for second place with St. Louis at only three and a half games back. The Cubs have alot of games left against both teams and it should play out to be an interesting second half. But I do think overall that the Cubs have the better ball club and will win the Central, even with no help from a move before the trade deadline. But more than likely they will make a move, we will just have to sit back and wait to see who and when it will be.
More Trade Thoughts
Yesterday I was just sitting back waiting for my day to end, and listening to 670 The Score radio station out of Chicago, like I always do on my ride home. Then I heard some very interesting thoughts come through those crappy little three and a half inch speakers in the doors of my car. “Why doesn’t Jim Hendry buy his way into the World Series by picking up all the top players out there, and just eliminate the threat of another team getting a big mid-season pick up and making a run at them” HUH,,,, I thought, what a crazy idea. Well the Marlins did it in 1997, but it was the beginning of the year, and they just bought the whole free agent market. So why couldn’t the Cubs just dump all of their farm system to get anybody who could possibly be a difference maker this year. Then just simply not resign them at the end of the year and there you go instant title with no after effects, right? No, the Cubs farm system first of all isn’t THAT strong to be able to lure in multiple teams, for there stars, but also with this core of players that Hendry has put together, they are not just looking at winning this year, but putting together a couple runs at a championship, think about it. Every major player on the Cubs except for Edmonds right now is signed for atleast another year if not all the way up to the next four years. This could be the making of a great team for the next 3-5 years. So why put the young bodies we have down in the minors, whom some are very legit ballplayers themselves, like a Sam Flud, Felix Pie (maybe), Josh Vitters, and so on, even in that predictament just to solidify one years chance to possibly still get upset in the playoffs. I say let’s win now, but not at the cost of losing a possible next 5 years of competiting for a title. So I say let C.C go to Milaukee and Fuentes go to St. Louis, I still think were a better team then they would be with those additions. Just some food for thought, to all those Cubs fans who think we have to make a move to win, If we get healthy, the only team who could beat the Cubs is the Cubs themselves and I trust Sweet Lou to not let that happen. GO CUBS GO, IT”S GONNA HAPPEN!!! GO CUBS GO
Need to Win Tonight!!!!!
Every Cubs fan out there knows this one thing, we cannot lose this series to the Giants. No way, No How!!! Dempster needs to go in there and show all of his critics that it is a fluke that he has not won on the road. Which it is anyway. I’m sorry but he has looked great this year, and you don’t get an ERA just over 2, with not being able to pitch on the road. So lets Go get’em Cubbies, win this series then on to St. Louis!!!!
Early Playoff Series for Our Cubbies!!!
Hello again everybody and welcome back to another great edition of CubbieFever’08. So this weekend we finally get to control a little bit of our own destiny by engaging in my favorite rivalry beating up on the St. Louis Redbirds. For some reason the Cardinals who were picked by most experts, and me!, to finish somewhere between Cincinatti and Pittsburgh, are hanging in there and winning game after game, most of the time in dominating fashion. I myself have no idea how this is happening, they have NO pitching what-so-ever, or at least that’s what I thought, but they signed some free agents that some triple A teams wouldn’t want and are winning with them. Pujols gets injured and put on the 15-day diabled list. They still win. the only two so-called aces they would have, haven’t pitched since 1995. But they still win. I don’t understand what is going on here. They should be 10 games under .500 right now, but yet they are only a measley 2.5 games behind the Cubs and taking over first place in the NL Central. So that’s why this is such an important series for the Cubs season this year. I know its only early July, but this is a statement series, that if the Cubs go into St. Louis and take two or three out of three from the redbirds, it says yeah your sticking around now, but we ARE the better team and WILL win the division. Then again if it happens the other way, it could be the Cardinals saying we ARE here and will be HERE at the end. So Cubs fans take that, 5 hour or however long it is from your town, drive down to St. Louis and cheer on our Cubbies because before you know it, it will be crunch time at the end of the year, and a series win right now and here, could be the difference in resting our starters for the playoffs on the last weekend, or having to pitch Zambrano on four days rest just to get there. That my friends could mean the World Series Title!!!
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