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Ouch, another tough start for Chicago. It was only 4 runs in the first inning today given up by Sean Marshall. I was surprised to see Marshall pitching so poorly; he has been known for his consistency and his quality starts since he came up earlier in the year. The Cubs did come back with 2 runs at the end of the 1^st inning, but it wasn’t enouh. After going through the batting order in the first, the Brewers didn’t let up. Marshall let them score another 3 runs in the second inning. He continued throwing fastballs down the middle of the plate and was unable to strike any Brewer out. His control was not as accurate as it has been all year. Marshall finished after 2 innings, giving up 7 runs on 7 hits…. DAMN! (more…)

If you did not see the footage Wrigley Field yesterday afternoon, our field was covered in 5 inches of rain within an hours time. It looked as though Hurricane Katrina’s sister was coming to Chicago. But the weather subsided and the wonderful crew at Wrigley made it seem like it never rained.

The Friendly Confines did not really catch on fire, but it seems that our Cubs have. Last night was their 5th win in a row, and this afternoon they will go for their second consecutive sweep. Here is the pitching matchup for today…

On paper, we sure have the upper hand in this matchup. The way Big Z has been pitching lately is lights out, I would be shocked if he gave up more than two runs. Hopefully our bats can stay hot, even though they don’t need to be too hot with Z on the mound, and we can sweep the Rockies.

More after the game

I was just watching Around the Horn and Jay Mariotti said that the Milwaukee Brewers have a better bullpen and batting lineup than our Chicago Cubs. I agree with him on the bullpen. After what happened last night, you can’t think we have a “good” or even “decent” bullpen; but the batting lineup is, in my eyes, a more proven lineup.

If you take the top three batters from each team, you have Derrick Lee, Alfonso Soriano, and Aramis Ramirez on the north side. As for Milwaukee you can try and make a comparison with Prince Fielder, J.J. Hardy, and Bill Hall. (more…)

How many people have you heard say, “Soriano is NOT worth $136 million dollars?” Well to me, HES WORTH IT. Just to see him homer in every game of the crosstown classic over the weekend is worth $136 million to me! Doesn’t this great performance raise another question? Why do we still have Soriano in the the lead off position? (more…)

I couldn’t believe the news I heard when I woke up yesterday.  Our catcher, Michael Barrett, who has been in the middle of all the drama this season, was traded on Wednesday.  Barrett was having a horrible year behind the plate, I think he had 9 or 10 passed balls already this year.  If you watched Barrett this year you could notice he didn’t seem to block as many pitches thrown in the dirt. It just didn’t seem he could move around as good as he used to behind the plate.  Offensively he wasn’t having too good of a season either, holding a .256 BA with 29 RBIs and 9 HR. (more…)

Mike Fontenot has put on a real show since coming up from the minors. On Friday afternoon, Fontenot drove in the first threes runs via a tie-breaking home run and a sac fly. Let’s take a look at his big league numbers so far.

At Bats - 27
Hits - 11
Runs Batted In - 9
Home Runs - 2
Triples - 2
Doubles - 2
Strikeouts - 4

Not only are his numbers looking nice, but he is doing BIG things for the cubs. If Fontenot wasn’t in the lineup would the Cubs have won the game today? Even with D.Lee’s 4-4 monster day, no other Cub, besides Barrett, had more than one hit. (more…)

We should have won 3 out of 4 in Atlanta, but Dempster had to come in early and BLOW the game. The bullpen had to start early last night; after two batters Ted Lilly was ejected from the ball game. The umpire said that Lilly intentionally hit Renteria, but why would he do that after two strike-outs? Wouldn’t he have waited until the Braves got at least ONE hit?

I think the ump should deal with some consequences for this incident! I mean sure, Soriano got drilled the game before on the first pitch, but I don’t think Lilly intentionally hit Renteria, and sure as hell didn’t deserve to get booted from the game! Piniella was on with Jon Miller and Joe Morgan during the game, and they asked if the umpire gave warnings to the team before the game, and NO THEY DID NOT! So even if it was intentional, how could you eject a player before even warning them? (more…)