We're now 23 games into the 2013 season, and clearly the Cubs aren't exactly world-beaters, but really, only blind optimism would cause expectations to be much beyond than the 9-14 record where they currently sit.
Their current three-game win streak, all against the hapless Marlins, has more or less coincided with Darwin Barney returning from the disabled list and getting his feet wet. After struggling at the plate in his first five games, in the past five he's put up a pair of multi-hit games, contributed a game-winning extra-inning home run and Friday made a highlight-reel snag of an errant throw to second by Scott Feldman to save a double-play.
Barney's absence I think was bigger than expected. We knew the Cubs were toast in 2006 the moment Derrek Lee was hurt, and relying too heavily on Aramis Ramirez staying healthy enough to produce runs was a long-term concern, but for a little guy with limited power who doesn't hit for high average, the Cubs were rudderless without their Gold Glover on the field. Two errors in his last 192 games at second is world-class.
Injuries are a huge X factor in determining what the Cubs really have to work with this year. Poor Steve Clevenger can't seem to catch a break, and is on the 60-day DL. We can only guess when Matt Garza and Scott Baker will debut in the rotation, and Arodys Vizcaino has yet to step on a field after his acquisition last July. Kyuji Fujikawa lasted exactly one day as the official closer before a forearm strain sidelined him.
As for my preseason concerns, Anthony Rizzo has been a real head-shaker. While hovering around the .200 mark, he's set the Cubs' April record for homers by a left-handed hitter and driven in twice as many runs as any of his teammates. Clearly his power is a force to be reckoned with, but strikeouts and consistency are concerns, and I don't think this month has really given us any idea of what to expect two or three years down the road.
And as for my concern over the closer role, that's still up in the air too. At least Carlos Marmol is out as the go-to guy, and his ERA started falling back to earth as soon as he was taken out of the role. The walk totals are dangerously high, but otherwise the numbers are old-school setup-man Marmol. Hits are way down, strikeouts are up, and he's only given up one inherited run and none of his own in his last nine appearances over a total of nine innings pitched. I'd wager none of his many detractors have even noticed, but if Dale Sveum keeps using him the way he has over the past two weeks, people will eventually start paying attention. If his Cub future lies as trade bait, the rest of the league will be noticing as well. In the meantime, Fujikawa should be eligible to return today, and he said when he went down that the forearm strain has happened before and is a 10-day recovery. We'll see.
Beyond that, I've started to question the coaching staff. Dale Sveum has called out his team over fundamentals, when really that should come down to coaching. There are only three position players over 30 on the roster, and with a team that's banking on its revamped farm system to come through when they're ready to compete regularly, they're going to be in serious trouble if their coaches and manager can't bring out the best of a roster full of young players.
Sunday, April 28, 2013
Monday, April 08, 2013
The more things change...
It doesn't matter if the Cubs began the season on the road, there's something special about the day of the home opener, even writing from 1,000 miles away.
Seeing the ballpark in action for the first time in months, the ivy brown and still waiting to come back to life, it doesn't matter if you're expecting to lose 87 games. You've made it through another long winter. There's a sense of promise, of hope. It means eighty-one more times we'll see that familiar scoreboard full of numbers, where the ones that matter most are between the red lines in the lower left corner.
That was threatened this off-season. It's happened before, typically little more than political posturing and puffery, mostly hot air. This time the mayor of Rosemont injected himself into the conversation via the media, like the skeezy guy at the bar witnessing a couple fighting and telling his buddy with a jab of the elbow that, "If things don't work out, I'll treat her right. You know what I'm sayin'?"
In the end, we all know something will be worked out. The Cubs have been in Chicago since 1876, the only team that's been a constant in one city since the beginning of the league. There may be a Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in the other league, or a New York Giants of East Rutherford in football, but for a ballclub that markets itself on tradition, the Chicago Cubs of Rosemont just wouldn't seem right.
Somehow or another, changes will be made without changes being made. While people talk about Wrigley Field as if it's been untouched since the Chicago Whales played there, every generation of Cub fans has seen major changes to their longtime home, and life still went on. The kids of today will tell their kids about sitting in the old bleachers, or before whatever changes the Ricketts family has in mind. My generation watched lights installed, one section at a time through the first half of the 1988 season, and seeing the bottom section of the scoreboard grow from a digital clock (beneath... an actual clock...) to a message board to a bigger message board to a bigger one - never mind that the original scoreboard would be unrecognizable to a modern-day Cub fan. We also watched year by year as a couple of guys standing around on top of buildings across the street evolved into a bunch of guys, rudimentary bleachers, then major construction and exclusive clubs. My dad talks about when the basket went up, and seeing games before the batters-eye section in center field was blocked off. My grandfather talked about going to games before the ivy, the scoreboard and even the upper deck were installed.
A little bit here, a little bit there, it's all changed except the address made famous by the Blues Brothers.
"I falsified my renewal. I put down 1060 West Addison."
"1060 West Addison? ... That's Wrigley Field!"
"Yup."
For the 100th time, today baseball will be played there for the first time of the new year. Let's go, batter up. I'm taking the afternoon off.
Seeing the ballpark in action for the first time in months, the ivy brown and still waiting to come back to life, it doesn't matter if you're expecting to lose 87 games. You've made it through another long winter. There's a sense of promise, of hope. It means eighty-one more times we'll see that familiar scoreboard full of numbers, where the ones that matter most are between the red lines in the lower left corner.
That was threatened this off-season. It's happened before, typically little more than political posturing and puffery, mostly hot air. This time the mayor of Rosemont injected himself into the conversation via the media, like the skeezy guy at the bar witnessing a couple fighting and telling his buddy with a jab of the elbow that, "If things don't work out, I'll treat her right. You know what I'm sayin'?"
In the end, we all know something will be worked out. The Cubs have been in Chicago since 1876, the only team that's been a constant in one city since the beginning of the league. There may be a Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in the other league, or a New York Giants of East Rutherford in football, but for a ballclub that markets itself on tradition, the Chicago Cubs of Rosemont just wouldn't seem right.
Somehow or another, changes will be made without changes being made. While people talk about Wrigley Field as if it's been untouched since the Chicago Whales played there, every generation of Cub fans has seen major changes to their longtime home, and life still went on. The kids of today will tell their kids about sitting in the old bleachers, or before whatever changes the Ricketts family has in mind. My generation watched lights installed, one section at a time through the first half of the 1988 season, and seeing the bottom section of the scoreboard grow from a digital clock (beneath... an actual clock...) to a message board to a bigger message board to a bigger one - never mind that the original scoreboard would be unrecognizable to a modern-day Cub fan. We also watched year by year as a couple of guys standing around on top of buildings across the street evolved into a bunch of guys, rudimentary bleachers, then major construction and exclusive clubs. My dad talks about when the basket went up, and seeing games before the batters-eye section in center field was blocked off. My grandfather talked about going to games before the ivy, the scoreboard and even the upper deck were installed.
A little bit here, a little bit there, it's all changed except the address made famous by the Blues Brothers.
"I falsified my renewal. I put down 1060 West Addison."
"1060 West Addison? ... That's Wrigley Field!"
"Yup."
For the 100th time, today baseball will be played there for the first time of the new year. Let's go, batter up. I'm taking the afternoon off.
Tuesday, April 02, 2013
How's that for starters?
It's always nice to open the season with an impressive win. Jeff Samardzija looked sharp and was efficient with his pitch count in tossing eight innings of two-hit ball over the up-and-coming Pirates, and Anthony Rizzo made a couple of nice plays at first in addition to launching a first-pitch blast beyond the bleachers in right in his first plate appearance. Carlos Marmol was shaky, but James Russell got a big out and Kyuji Fujikawa latched down a two-pitch save in his major league debut.
I'm an eternal optimist where the Cubs are concerned, but I'm not exactly counting on a playoff run just yet. The focus of this season, to me, should be the continuing development of young players as we see what long-term solutions are already in place.
Rizzo is my main concern. Obviously he got off to a promising start yesterday, but this is his first real test as an everyday first-baseman and middle-lineup hitter over a full season. The Cubs will be counting on him as an anchor, and I'm anxious to see how he's capable of performing once he shows more consistency than he did in 2012 and we have a good idea of what to expect year-in and year-out. Last year he had two extended hot spells and two extended cold spells that still averaged out to some impressive overall numbers for a 22-year-old. The league will make adjustments to him and vice-versa, but I already like his defense. The question remains, will Rizzo be a solid big leaguer, an all-star or something very special? We'll have a better idea six months from now.
My next concern is the closer role. I stand by my long-term judgment that Marmol is best suited as a setup man, and so far I think Dale Sveum is underestimating Fujikawa's potential. His numbers in Japan were flat-out ridiculous - six of the past eight seasons with an ERA of 1.36 or better - over a long enough span that we can say the Cubs haven't spent their money based on a peak year (see Milton Bradley) or after a down-year or two with the hope of recovery (see Kosuke Fukudome). The baseball gods were trying to tell us something in forcing an unexpected Opening Day appearance, and I expect a lot of regrets around the league in allowing the Cubs to grab him as a relative bargain. There's a very good chance he could become one of the elite closers in the game. Regardless, I see the Cub bullpen overall as one of their strengths.
Beyond that, I'll be spending more time than usual this season following the farm system. I'll have my eye on the Class A Daytona Cubs in particular, to see how long it takes Javier Baez and Jorge Soler to make the jump to either AA Tennessee or AAA Iowa. I'll be watching Arodys Vizcaino's recovery from Tommy John surgery to see how the Paul Maholm/Reed Johnson trade pans out.
Like 2012, there's still a lot of guesswork, but we'll have a better idea of how the rebuild is going and what moves will still need to be made as the season moves along.
I'm an eternal optimist where the Cubs are concerned, but I'm not exactly counting on a playoff run just yet. The focus of this season, to me, should be the continuing development of young players as we see what long-term solutions are already in place.
Rizzo is my main concern. Obviously he got off to a promising start yesterday, but this is his first real test as an everyday first-baseman and middle-lineup hitter over a full season. The Cubs will be counting on him as an anchor, and I'm anxious to see how he's capable of performing once he shows more consistency than he did in 2012 and we have a good idea of what to expect year-in and year-out. Last year he had two extended hot spells and two extended cold spells that still averaged out to some impressive overall numbers for a 22-year-old. The league will make adjustments to him and vice-versa, but I already like his defense. The question remains, will Rizzo be a solid big leaguer, an all-star or something very special? We'll have a better idea six months from now.
My next concern is the closer role. I stand by my long-term judgment that Marmol is best suited as a setup man, and so far I think Dale Sveum is underestimating Fujikawa's potential. His numbers in Japan were flat-out ridiculous - six of the past eight seasons with an ERA of 1.36 or better - over a long enough span that we can say the Cubs haven't spent their money based on a peak year (see Milton Bradley) or after a down-year or two with the hope of recovery (see Kosuke Fukudome). The baseball gods were trying to tell us something in forcing an unexpected Opening Day appearance, and I expect a lot of regrets around the league in allowing the Cubs to grab him as a relative bargain. There's a very good chance he could become one of the elite closers in the game. Regardless, I see the Cub bullpen overall as one of their strengths.
Beyond that, I'll be spending more time than usual this season following the farm system. I'll have my eye on the Class A Daytona Cubs in particular, to see how long it takes Javier Baez and Jorge Soler to make the jump to either AA Tennessee or AAA Iowa. I'll be watching Arodys Vizcaino's recovery from Tommy John surgery to see how the Paul Maholm/Reed Johnson trade pans out.
Like 2012, there's still a lot of guesswork, but we'll have a better idea of how the rebuild is going and what moves will still need to be made as the season moves along.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)