Looking at the live box score of today's Padres/Cubs game, I was struck by how many elements in it looked completely preposterous.
Play along, and decide which of the following is the freakiest of all, because I can't:
- Ryan Theriot hitting over .300
- Ronny Cedeño hitting over .300
- Henry Blanco hitting over .300
- Theriot, Cedeño, and Blanco all hitting over .300
- Ryan Dempster delivering an 8 1/3-inning start
- And striking out 12
- And walking 1
- And lowering his ERA to 2.35
- And improving his record to 5-1
- The Cubs starting a centerfielder named Jim Edmonds
- And yeah, it's that Jim Edmonds
Compared to the other items in this post, that seems positively mundane.
Since the season began, I've been writing a "Cubs Hits Of The Week" piece each Monday at The Cub Reporter, based on the Win Probability Added resulting from each Cub at-bat during the preceding week.
Last week was interesting because as well as the Cubs played (five wins in six starts between Monday, 4/14, and Sunday, 4/20), there weren't many dramatic, game-altering, high-WPA hits. That's what you get for jumping to early leads then thumping opponents into submission.
Wednesday night's game at Colorado, won 7-6 in thrilling, 10-inning fashion by the Cubs, was another matter entirely. Between the Cubs and the Rockies, from just the sixth inning on, there were four hits with higher WPAs than anything the Cubs delivered all of last week.
(Again, that's not to suggest the Cubs weren't hitting last week. They did, after all, put together back-to-back 13-run games against Pittsburgh after putting 12 runs on the board last Wednesday against the Reds. The point is that the games were mostly one-sided Cub victories, which depressed the WPA of any individual Cub hit.)
As for Wednesday night's win, Aramis Ramirez's ninth-inning homer to put the Cubs up, 6-5, registered a game-high WPA of .638. The fact that Kerry Wood couldn't protect that one-run lead in the last of the ninth simply opened the door for Ryan Theriot's game-winning--and .351 WPA-registering--tenth-inning single.
A fine win and one that was rich in big hits, which was a bonus: those 12-3, 13-1, and 13-6 victories get to be SO tedious.
Cub players, as quoted by Paul Sullivan in the Tribune, wish to absolve Dusty Baker of:
- Overusing, and thus causing the arm problems suffered by, Kerry Wood and Mark Prior
- Facilitating the Kent Mercker/Steve Stone kerfuffle
- Responsibility for the Cubs' collapse in 2004
- Enabling Carlos Zambrano's temper tantrums and generally juvenile behavior
- Preventing Ryan Theriot's development by playing him behind Neifi Perez
- Not being Lou Piniella
Astros starter Chris Sampson, who came into today's game at Wrigley Field having allowed just one earned run in 15 IP lifetime against the Cubs (0.60 ERA) while letting up 69 earned runs in 140 2/3 IP lifetime against the rest of Major League baseball (4.41 ERA), shut-out the Cubs for the first six innings this afternoon while throwing 56 pitches.
Six innings, 56 pitches:
11 pitches in the first inning.
6 pitches in the second.
8 pitches in the third.
8 pitches in the fourth.
12 pitches in the fifth.
11 pitches in the sixth.
Ryan Theriot saw 8 pitches in his first three at-bats; Aramis Ramirez saw three pitches in his first two at-bats.
That's how a pitcher manages to throw 56 pitches over six full innings.
And that's one good reason the Cubs were able to go six innings today before scratching out a couple runs against Chris Sampson on their way to a 4-3 loss and their third defeat in four games this season.
The Hardball Times flagged this fascinating story by Alan Schwarz in Tuesday's New York Times, a description of the work of Swarthmore College mathematician and avid Yankees fan Steve Wang.
Employing an analytical method called Chernoff faces, in which data are represented by varying heights, widths, and angles in images of human faces, Wang reflects the strategic tendencies of all 30 Major League managers from the 2007 season.
If I understand the explanation of Wang's analysis, the Piniella Chernoff face suggests Lou's relatively frequent use of pinch runners (the upward swoosh of the hair), the disinclination to use the sacrifice bunt (the slit nose and downward-turned mouth), and his tendency to switch starting lineups (the oval face).
Speaking of the lineup-switching, Old Oval Face announced after today's 8-2 loss to the Brewers that he will be re-installing Alfonso Soriano in the leadoff spot. Soriano has contributed to the Cubs 0-2 start by going hitless in nine at-bats, including three strikeouts, out of the second spot. Ryan Theriot, with whom Soriano will be swapping batting order positions, went 2-for-4 Wednesday after an 0-for-5 in Monday's opener.
Wanting to move Alfonso Soriano out of the leadoff spot, where he might "feel pressured to run" and thereby risk re-aggravating hamstring and quadriceps injuries that troubled him in 2007, Cubs manager Lou Piniella slotted Ryan Theriot in the leadoff spot, had Soriano hitting second, and moved Kosuke Fukudome down to fifth for Thursday's Cactus League game against the Padres.
Theriot was 2-for-4, Soriano was 1-for-3, and Fukudome went 1-for-4 in the Cubs' 3-2 victory. That's a combined 4-for-11 with a walk and a run scored...and a victory. I guess that settles it. It's a good idea. Let's move on.
Seriously, if Alfonso Soriano is miscast as a leadoff man, his long swing and strikeout tendencies would seem to render him at least as much of a miscast in the two-hole.
Here is what Soriano told Carrie Muskat:
"I have to make a small adjustment hitting with somebody on base," Soriano said. "I want to be the same guy. Batting second is more hitting, and not really running so much."The "experiment" is supposed to be temporary–how temporary would seem to be a function of how productive the new-look Cub lineup is.He should get more RBI opportunities.
"I think batting second I can help the club more," he said.
Jason Marquis had his longest outing this Spring on Thursday, throwing four scoreless innings against the Padres.
According to Paul Sullivan in the Tribune, Marquis picked the right time to blank the Padres, since the HoHoKam Park stands were full of other teams' scouts.
One line of thinking is that Marquis could be of interest to the Red Sox, from whom the Cubs might like to pry Coco Crisp. The Red Sox pitching staff has been thinned by Curt Schilling's latest injury and more recently, Josh Beckett's back problems.
It was Schilling's injury, however, that caused the Sox to sign Bartolo Colon as a free agent. Colon also threw on Thursday, allowing one run in two innings but maybe more importantly, hitting 93 on the speed gun.
Maybe the Red Sox will decide they need double insurance and pursue Marquis also.
The Cubs won their second game of the Spring on Monday, nearly coughing up a 6-2 ninth-inning lead against the Mariners, but holding on to win 6-5.
Jon Lieber was tagged for two runs and three hits in two innings of work as he returned to Cub pinstripes. Jeff Samardzija pitcher two scoreless relief innings and was credited with the victory.
At the plate, DH Jake Fox (double and a triple), Ronny Cedeno (3-for-5), and Ryan Theriot (2-for-3) led the way. Kosuke Fukudome went 0-for-2 and is now 1-for-7 in Cactus League play. Lou Piniella is considering letting Fukudome hit second to see if he is "more comfortable there."
Speaking of Fukudome, Chris Jaffe of the Hardball Times offered this note on Monday, which, in case you needed it, serves as a handy reminder of why the Cubs pursued the Japanese star so relentlessly over the winter:
"The 2007 Cubs had an historically large split between their righty and lefty bats. The former posted an impressive sOPS+ of 112, while the latter floundered at a replacement-level mark of 74.
"That 38-point edge in sOPS+ for right handers is the seventh-greatest in the last half century. In two-thirds of the team's at-bats, righties went .283/.345/.453 while their counterparts poked an ineffectual .248/.309/.358. Righties had an OPS similar to Miguel Tejada's 2007 while the southpaws hit as badly as Craig Biggio did in his swan song.
"Could be worse though—the 2005 Cubs had the fifth-biggest gap favoring righties."
Day One of Cactus League 2008 is in the books, Ryan Theriot is hitting 1.000, Kosuke Fukudome has a 1.000 OBP, and who needs Brian Roberts when we have homer-hittin' Mike Fontenot?
The Cubs tatooed the Giants, 12-6, in Scottsdale Thursday on the strength of 15 hits and a five-run third inning. Theriot had three singles and a stolen base batting out of the leadoff spot--Alfonso Soriano had the day off, but is expected to play on Friday when the Cubs meet the Giants in Mesa--while Fukudome, who batted third, was hit by the first Major League pitch he saw from Giants starter Noah Lowry. Fukudome later walked and singled.
Fontenot had a homer and a triple, good for 3 RBI in four at-bats, though he didn't even start the game at second base. New Cub Alex Cintron received that honor, with Mark DeRosa recovering at home following his minor heart procedure. (Can any heart procedure be considered "minor"?)
On the mound, starter Ryan Dempster gave up a first-inning homer to Randy Winn and a single to new Giant Aaron Rowand. But he also struck out two in his two innings of work and I guess on balance, you would have to say this was a positive first step for Dempster in his quest to join the rotation.
Finally, Felix Pie took an early lead in the battle for the Cubs center field job, going 2-for-2 with a double, a homer and three runs scored. Sam Fuld, Pie's competition for the position, went hitless in two AB's.
(Okay, I'll come clean. I stole that headline from The Sporting News. Back in the early and middle '70s, when I used to read the magazine faithfully, the weekly report on each MLB team would end with a series of notes introduced by a cute, distinctive little subhead, e.g., "Twin-klings" for the Twins notes, "A's Acorns" for Oakland A's notes, "Bruin Briefs" for the Cubs, etc. So yes, I plagiarized the headline. Don't tell the Clinton campaign!)
– The Cubs have complemented Ryan Theriot and Ronny Cedeno by adding a third member to the Light-Hitting Middle Infielders Club.
– For all the talk of Kerry Wood as closer, Lou Piniella says he is not even the leading candidate for the job right now.
– On last night's WGN Sports Central show, David Kaplan was interviewing Ryan Dempster, the Cubs' resident practical joker. Kaplan told Dempster if he needed inspiration before planning his next prank, he should check out this comic triumph from the Land of Phillie.
– There may be a new, mean-spirited, bald-headed guy calling the shots at Tribune Company, but some things remain the same: the Cubbies just can't get enough of that courtroom action.
