Thursday Afternoon Meandering

Well, I’ve decided to sit down with my laptop for this afternoon’s game and meander a bit rather than keeping score. Zambrano will make the first pitch in a few minutes, and hopefully he can salvage a game out of this series with the Phillies. With the wind blowing straight out, hopefully Zambrano can get back into the groove with his sinker. Lately he’s been using that a little bit less, the games I’ve seen, but this is a perfect day to let groundballs find their way to infielders.

Except Cedeno. I’m frustrated with him, I gotta say. Right now, I would totally understand if they benched him for a week to get his head on straight. Not only has he made several defensive blunders, at the plate he looks like he’s trying to read a Dutch train schedule -- and he’s Venezuelan. Some of his swings last night were just brutal. He is not even close to resembling a major league player right now.

I realize that benching Cedeno would mean a double play combination of Theriot to Bynum until Izturis comes back. Not exactly fear-inspiring, although Theriot has yet to demonstrate in any way that he’s overwhelmed by major league pitching. It’s just that right now it seems like Cedeno is regressing, if that’s possible, and if they’re going to get his career back on track, messing with his position -- play second, no play shortstop again -- and batting him eighth in a weak lineup ain’t going to do it. There’s nothing that can make you wince like a confused batter getting nothing but bad pitches.

Murton, on the other hand, seems to have turned the corner of becoming a solid big leaguer. He looks to have stopped trying to guide the ball -- garnering him a slew of singles and not much else -- and now he’s ripping line drives and hitting a few homeruns again when he gets a better pitch to hit.

Meanwhile, the Phillies have jumped ahead one to nothing as Angel Pagan does his best to take “substituting for Jacques Jones in right field” literally, flimsily throwing a ball up the third base line on about eleven hops as Chase Utley scores easily.

Speaking of Izturis, I had no idea he was that good defensively. You hear about the gold glove he won, but that doesn’t capture just how solid a shortstop Izturis is. His range and arm, both in accuracy and strength, are elite. Although I’m not sold on him batting second.

I was disappointed that Pierre’s hit streak ended last night. I like hit streaks. Even last night, looking at my scorecard in the ninth, realizing Pierre didn’t yet have a hit, I felt a little extra tension as Pierre flipped one into left. It would have been a hit, too, if the defense wasn’t guarding the lines against a double into the corner. Still, it was a fun little ride, and it gives Pierre a chance to end up at .300 after all. And that puts Pierre tied for third for most hits in the NL this season.

Hey hey! An error and a single, and an Aramis Ramirez triple scores two! It’s not easy for Aramis to get a triple, but as Thurston struggled to dig it out of the vines, Aramis cruised on into third.

AWL mentioned to me last night that Ramirez is hitting a quiet .284, and while I disagree, I can see his point. Aramis started so slow, and there was a lot of attention given to his struggles while Lee was first hurt. Meanwhile, very little attention has been given to his recent 7-week tear because very little attention has been given to the team in general. Losing will do that. It’s been the same for Pierre; people who stopped watching probably don’t realize that these guys are having very solid seasons after all. So, Aramis Ramirez hitting .344 and slugging .750 for July goes under the radar.

Barrett hits a homerun! 4-1 Cubs! I like Zambrano’s chances...

Here’s another point: Aramis Ramirez is 12th in the NL in slugging (before that triple), but strikes out less than everyone ahead of him other than Pujols, who leads the league in slugging. Pujols has 38 Ks in 107 games; Ramirez has 53 in 124 games. (Rolen has 52 in 110 games.) No one else in the top 12 is even close. And seeing as Pujols is quite clearly a robot, we can conclude that Ramirez is the top-tier human slugger least likely to strike out in the NL.

And now Bob and Len are talking about whether Zambrano can win a Cy Young this year given that he pitches for the Cubs, and therefore will not pitch any games where his team’s fate is on the line. I don’t know where I come down on that argument, because I can see both sides. I guess I would say that it should go to the best pitcher no matter what his team has done, with loaded wins being something of a tie-breaker. That is, if Zambrano and someone from a playoff team end up with comparable seasons, it should go to the other guy for helping his team make the playoffs. But it shouldn’t be a detractor for someone like Z if he’s clearly the best all else being equal.

By the way - Theriot has another hit and Pierre is the second Cub cut down at the plate, but I won’t make a drinking joke about Chris Speier.

So how about O’Malley going on the DL? That’s 13 players this year for the Cubs. It’s almost statistically impossible how many injuries they’ve suffered the last few seasons. Which isn’t an excuse for awful play, by the way.

Holy cow! Pagan just blasted a homerun well over the wall to straight center, and it’s 9-1 Cubs. This Phillies rookie, Hamels, is out of the game. Somewhere, the beer is flowing.

And not that anyone is counting, but the only guy not to get a hit other than Zambrano? Cedeno. Although to be fair, he only got one at-bat against Hamels. On the other hand, he has yet to hit a ball square this series, popping out to right off of the new pitcher, Sanches.

I wonder how Corey Patterson is doing... mmm, slumping, I see. Oh well. I hope he finishes strong, especially with the Orioles having a pair of series against both the Yankees and the Red Sox left. I suppose it’s inevitable now that the Yankees will take the AL East, but I’d at least like to make them win a game 7 in Detroit if it comes down to that.

Homerun Derby! Back to back jacks! Yeee-esssssss!!! Ramirez and Nevin go deep, and it’s now 11-1 Cubs.

The team I have been following along with a little bit is the Tigers. I caught part of several of the games between the Tigers and the Sox, and I’m definitely pulling for Detroit this season. Besides being a great baseball story, and a great story period, I have a lot of friends that are loyal Tigers fans from my days living in Michigan. Whatever else, those were some lean years for the Tigers, but those guys stuck with the team even so. Now it’s nice to see a season like this one unfold unexpectedly, and I hope they can ride it all the way to the series.

Cedeno, meanwhile, somehow snatched a strikeout from the jaws of a base on balls, with Sanches doing his darndest to hand him first base but Cedeno refusing to give in and take that free base.

AWL and I were talking the other night about whether we’d like the Reds or the Astros to pull the Wild Card, or the NL Central if they can catch the Cardinals. I’m indifferent: unless they’re playing the Cubs, I’m neutral on the Astros and the Reds. Along with the Marlins, Phillies, Nationals, Brewers, Pirates, Padres, Rockies and Diamondbacks. I kind of like the Braves, and this year because of Maddux I’m pulling for the Dodgers. I don’t like the Giants, and that goes back to well before Bonds ballooned. They’re enemy #3; the Mets are enemy #2, going back to those teams in my formative years with Gooden (circa ’87 and after) and Strawberry and Hernandez. The Cardinals, of course, are enemy #1, and I hope they collapse loudly down the stretch.

In the AL, I like the Tigers, Twins and White Sox, all being places I lived and attended a lot of games growing up, and I’ve hated the Yankees and Red Sox as long as I can remember. Anyway. Just sort of thinking on paper. Go Dodgers and Tigers.

Back to the Cubs: Guzman was impressive last night, although he settled into a pattern of depending on his curveball as his out pitch. It worked, but he needs to mix in a few 4-seam fastballs and changeups with 2 strikes, I’d say, if he wants to lodge himself in the rotation.

The guy I’m pulling for is Rich Hill. I have been since I saw him pitch in Memphis last summer and saw that his curveball was better than a big-league curveball. His stuff is good enough to win plenty of games. Other than that, Mateo has been the other one to impress me most of all, more than Marmol at least. Mainly, it’s that Mateo isn’t walking so many as Marmol and Guzman.

Interjection >>> Fan Cam, 5 for 12, with one very solid fuchsia bikini top.

Alright, as Cedeno reaches and flicks a ball low and outside meekly to second, we’ll finish up with Baker. I was reading Carrie Muskat’s Notes earlier, and saw that Baker thinks the homerun deficiency is more of a problem than the on-base percentage deficiency. In my mind, that’s a poor mindset. Granted, the Cubs will have two top-tier sluggers in the lineup next season who strike out rarely than most, but that’s a rarity. And the last thing I want to see is another rash of solo homeruns and not much else for runs; we’ve seen way to many of those stretches already in the Baker era.

And, I’m wondering, might that not be part of the general mindset that has let the Cubs slip in fundamentals? Or, if not slip, at least not improve, which is just about the same thing? The Cubs continue to make poor throws from the outfield (with the exception of Pierre, who throws weakly but at least accurately), put up poor at-bats swinging at the pitcher’s pitch, draw very few walks, and look absolutely lost on the basepaths. I hate that they have pitchers with no pickoff move whatsoever and poor bunting skills. I hate that fast guys like Pagan and Bynum hardly have any steals. And most of all, I hate that the Cubs pitchers walk more than anybody else in the league. Shouldn’t they be doing things to improve those areas in addition to wishing for extra homeruns?

This weekend the Cubs go to St. Louis, in what will probably be the last noteworthy series of the season as far as games with an edge goes. Unless the Dodgers series matters to the West -- or if Maddux pitches in Wrigley -- or the Reds need wins down the stretch. Otherwise it will be bad teams playing the bad Chicago Cubs as we all begin our adjustment to the offseason. Did I mention Go Tigers?