Baseball Diamond News

Wednesday, May 24, 2006

AAA team Sweeps Cubs

How does a team that has a total salary less than that of Kerry Wood and Jacque Jones combined, get swept by the team with a lesser salary?

I don't have an answer to that so please if you have the answer, send it to 1060 W. Addision and mark the package urgent.

This is just embarrassing and it looks like that there is no end in sight. The team can get back anyone they want back, it will not change the make-up of this team and the lack of talent out on the field, on the bench and in the front office.

Tuesday, May 23, 2006

Irony

Isn't it ironic that the Cubs lost today 9-1 and the 3 pitchers they faced in the game are all ex-Cubs: Wellemeyer, Pinto, and Nolasco. Ricky Nolasco started and went 7 innings giving up only 4 hits, 1 run, 2 walks and struck out 3, while Pinto gave up a hit and hit Bynum in the 8th and Wellemeyer gave up a hit in the 9th. I guess the one good thing is that Pierre went 2-4 today, but he still hasn't done much and I think in the end this trade will bite the Cubs in the ass.


Michael Wuertz came up back today from Iowa and got shelled verse a team that might as well be a AAA team. While I used to like Wuertz, I have soured on him as of lately. I still think he has a lively arm, but needs a pitching coach to help him and well the Cubs haven't had one of those in years.

Sunday, May 21, 2006

Cubs Win. Kerry Wood arm sore.

After AJ hit the home run today it looked like Carlos Zambrano was about to lose his head and blow the game. Fortunately for the Cubs, Carlos got his cool back and pitched a decent game today. Then in the 8th inning the Cubs got lucky on the double play ball that Walker hit, but instead the relay throw went past Paul Konerko and the next batter was Barrett who hit a 3b to right-center to tie it and then Jacque Jones hit a homer to help open up a lead for the Cubs. This was a good victory for the Cubs because all wins are good victories for the Cubs.

I heard on the radio that Kerry Wood's arm is still sore and might miss his next start on Tuesday. Well if this is true, that beat my guess of how many starts before he got hurt again, which was 3. Hopefully he can pitch, but if not I am assuming that we will see either Jerome Williams back up or Glendon Rusch back in the rotation. We might see both of these players starting anyway as the Cubs sent down Rich Hill today. Hill was a major disappointment for the Cubs while up this time and might have even soured other teams on him for use of trade bait. I hope he learns more control and can get back on track, but for the moment it doesn’t look good for him.

Saturday, May 20, 2006

Bill Wirtz SUCKS!!!!!!!!

I know this has nothing to do with baseball, but I need to vent real quickly about the Chicago Blackhawks. How do you low-ball Pat Foley? The last good thing about the Blackhawks these days was Pat Foley. The announcer for the Blackhawks for the last 25 years and they more or less forced him out. Being a season ticket holder these last horrendous few years, this was the last straw, no more. I am going to save my money this season and not give it to the cheap bastard Bill Wirtz. They never do things to get better and then take away the last appeasing thing to a Blackhawk fan. I wish Pat Foley the best.

Barrett, the fight, Barbaro...

I can honestly say I have no opinion about the fight because the only thing I have seen was a picture of Barrett hitting AJ. Today I was moving a bunch of stuff out of my "office" room to make way for the upcoming baby and did not watch any TV today. Of all the days to miss TV, today was the wrong one, Barrett and AJ get into fight, Bonds ties Babe Ruth, and the favorite in the Preakness Barbaro broke his leg (this after jumping out early). First I want to say I hope that Barbaro survives surgery tomorrow and can at least live a nice life out at a farm and maybe even stud as you never want to see a horse get put down. All I will say about Bonds is I don't like him, never have cheered for him and back in 1992 in the playoffs vs. Atlanta I cheered against him and PIT in my Dorm at Dayton (in a room full of Pirate fans, go Speedy Sid Bream).
Now to Barrett, I have just finally seen the replay on ESPNNEWS and I must say that it was a cheap thing to do on Barrett's part. I am saying this also being one of his biggest fans (I liked him back in Montreal and he was a 3b/C) and my friends who know me all know how much I cheer for him "MY BOY BLUE!!!!" (from IBL Road Trip 2003, Montreal). I will say that after bowling over Barrett, AJ could have done without the close brush by of Barrett, but that still is no reason to punch him. The collision itself looks clean as can be and though the ball might not have been to Barrett yet, how was AJ to know the exact spot the ball is at when all he is trying to do is get to home plate. I think MLB will give Barrett a 10 game suspension and reduce it to 7 after the appeal, but who knows with the discipline committee baseball has.

I have one more thing to say, that is the other day I said Dusty should not be fired before the end of the year, well if he doesn't start getting control of his players and have them vent some other way besides fisticuffs, maybe they should fire him. Dusty needs to discipline his players and not just for fighting, he should discipline them for getting picked-off, missing signs, not knowing the ground rules of your home park, not knowing if the ball is live or not, stupid errors, etc. This team has no discipline or fundamentals and it doesn't look like they will be learning any anytime soon.

Cubs 2000 draft: First 10 rounds review

After posting the last article I was looking at the 2000 draft and noticed that Freddie Bynum was taken in the 2nd round of that same draft and decided to write a brief review of first 10 rounds of the 2000 draft and what could have been.

2000 Draft:

In the first round Luis Montanez was picked and has just finally been promoted to Iowa (as an OF, started as a SS) and has been showing a little promise the last season or so, but before that was useless. He still has some ways to go and won't ever be more than a 4th/5th OF it looks like. The players picked after him Rocco Baldelli, Chase Utley, and Aaron Heilman. The 2nd round pick that year was Bobby Hill, who has been hoping around as a utility guy after failing to win the starting 2b job for the Cubs back in 2003. In the 3rd round the Cubs drafted Aaron Krawiec and 2 picks later Grady Sizemore was chosen. In the 4th round the Cubs picked Todd Wellemeyer the next player selected was David Dejesus and the player after that was Cliff Lee. The fifth round had the Cubs picking Gary Banks when 7 picks later Bobby Jenks was available. The 6th round has had no one in particular make MLB so it is being skipped. In the 7th round Ryan Jorgensen was drafted while 7 picks later Aaron Hill was drafted. The one pick the Cubs did get right was in the 8th round that year, the problem is they traded him before they ever got to see him in uniform, Dontrelle Willis. In the 9th round they drafted Mark Freed when they could have drafted Edwin Encarnacion (with the way Aramis playing we could use him). The 10th round the Cubs took Blake Blasi when 4 picks later Clint Barmes was drafted.

It would sure be nice to have that draft back and take Sizemore, Lee, Dejesus, Encarnacion and Willis. I could have listed each player we missed, but that just would be being too greedy, so I took the best 5. With them on the Cubs the rotation problems would be solved and their hitting problem might not have been a problem. Also Hendry this off season wouldn’t have had to acquire the anemic hitting Juan Pierre or sign Jacque Jones for RF as Sizemore could have easily played there. Another thing that is so pathetic is that out of the first 10 rounds the Cubs have 0 guys on the roster from that draft. Instead the team is struggling with more holes than a piece of Swiss cheese.

Cubs Claim minor leaguer Miguel Negron

Just after Cub fans thought it couldn't get any bigger than the Tony Womack signing, Mr. Hendry has gone out and gotten the Cubs another star player *sarcasm*. Today the Cubs claimed OF Miguel Negron off waivers from Toronto Blue Jays. He was a former first round pick from 2000 and was waived so the Blue Jays could put Ty Taubenhim on their 40-man roster. Negron has some speed, but besides that hasn’t shown much else besides that. He strikes out an awful lot, which is something the Cubs surely don’t need. He looks like a poor man’s Angel Pagan (no knock on Angel), but shows how much value he has.

Friday, May 19, 2006

Tony Womack ?!?!?!?!?

The Cubs have gone out and signed utility guy Tony Womack to a minor league deal according to Rotoworld. Unless Iowa is hurting for horrible veterans, I see no reason to sign this guy. He is not an improvement on Theriot, Bynum or Perez. I know that back in 2004 he had a good year in STL, but like Perez in 2005 it most likely was his last productive year. If Hendry thinks that is will improve the team even a little he needs to have his head examined.

IBL: COU Cougars

Well as bad as the Cubs are, so is my IBL team the Cougars. I have not written about them all season yet, so maybe this will change my luck. Currently my team is 11-19 and does not look to be getting any better. I am not sure why they are struggling so much this season as I thought my team was even better than last year's team which won 99 games. I still can turn thing around and with my rotation of CHN Zambrano, HOU Oswalt, OAK Haren, BAL Bedard, COL Francis I am hoping things turn around. My main problem is the first 2 guys in each inning getting some kind of outs and then a hit or 2, but then another out with no runs. I have juggled my lineup a few times and each time I do it like a dummy I look to see what would have happened if I hadn't switched it up and usually it was the wrong choice. So maybe I am over coaching my team. My generic starting lineup is CHN Barrett at C, OAK Johnson 1b, CLE Belliard 2b, TB Lugo SS, DET Inge/LAN PerezA. 3b, TEX Mench LF, CHN Patterson/TB Hollins CF, SD Giles RF, DET Young/DET Ordonez DH. The batting order I usually use is Lugo SS, Belliard 2b, Giles RF, Mench LF, Young DH, Barrett C, Johnson 1b, Inge 3b, Patterson CF. I am open to anyone's suggestions for improvement. I know Patterson's bat sucks, but his defense is actually decent and batting 9th he is just like having a pitcher bat, he does a lot of bunting.

Managers make a big difference.

Well two days after complaining that the Cubs tried to bunt with the clean-up, the Cubs do something even more outrageous, with 2 men on losing in the 9th by 2 with 2 outs, Nefi Perez tries to lay down a bunt for a hit and was thrown out by a mile. What was he thinking? What was Dusty thinking? If Nefi was given that sign by the coach, then he should have just ignored the sign as it was a horrible call, if Nefi did that on his own, the Dusty Baker should fine his and bench him (bench him anyway, I know Aramis is hurt).

The Tigers were struggling earlier this year and Jim Leyland went on a tirade and now the team is in first. I am not saying that is what Dusty needs to do because I don't think it will work, what I am saying though is a manager makes a big difference. Leyland teams play some good fundamental baseball and usually they perform well (until his past owners then dumped players due to salary reasons). The Cubs need a coach that will teach these players fundamentals, base running and how to hustle, all which seem to be lacking this season. I also think that this season is a lost cause for the Cubs so they should probably not fire Baker this year unless they have a coach in mind to coach for more than the remaining part of season.

Thursday, May 18, 2006

Cubs Report

Well after last night the Cubs are on a wining streak (2 games) and while I am not getting excited it is nice to see that instead of the losing streak that has been permanently etched in the newspapers. Do I think the Cubs will continue this streak? That answer is no. Not unless some changes are made to the lineup and not just moving the order around, but actual changing of players. I know I have been harping on this in almost every column and it is easier said than done, but I also don't think that it is that hard to make a change or two for the better, especially when you lose 14 of 16 games (can’t get much worse than that).

The Cubs are lucky that the Nationals are in town during this streak because they are one team in the National League that is actually as bad as the Cubs. Not only did the Cubs beat them the first 2 games, but the also shut them out both games. While this makes the pen very happy, as they have been used too much already, fans should understand it was verse the Nationals. They still have made bone head base-running errors in this series and as I stated in a different column, Baker sending his clean-up hitter in there to bunt so even with the 2 wins lots of room for improvement.

SIDE NOTE:
To the MORON FAN that threw the ball at Jacque Jones, you should be banned from ever entering Wrigley field again and I also think charged with attempted aggravated assault. I agree that fans have to right to boo anyone they want for the money they pay, but throwing a ball at a person is almost as inexcusable as running on the field. Reading the Chicago Tribune I hear it may have been a girl named Kate and the Cubs are not pressing charges and just saying it was a drunken fan. If that is not a "double-standard" I don't know what one is, I guarantee if it that ball had been thrown by a male, not only would he be kicked out of game, he would also have been arrested. Drunk or not drunk, male or female, young or old all fans at Wrigley Field should be responsible for their actions.

Wednesday, May 17, 2006

Cubs thoughts.

Now I was in class last night, but my buddy Sean informed me via message that Dusty Baker was having our clean-up hitter bunt, in the 4th inning. Now I know that the Cubs have been having a hard time scoring runs, but this is ridiculous. Hendry should have walked down to the dugout and fired him there. Thankfully, Barrett fouled off the bunt and had to swing away and ended up getting a single and moving Walker over to 3rd. I would understand bunting if this was the 9th inning and all the Cubs needed was 1 run to win the game, but in the 4th inning? This just adds on the list of things that should have Baker leaving at the end of the year, if not before.

Also I know that the Cubs needed to send down Angel Guzman but what bring up Jae Kuk Ryu instead of Wuertz? I say this because Ryu is only here to relieve until Thursday, but wouldn’t he be better off served being in Iowa and in the rotation where he can get more innings and won’t be skipped in the rotation? I also am not saying that Michael Wuertz is going to help out much more, but at least he is a reliever and being in Iowa or in Chicago not going to mess up his rotation status.

If Angel Pagan is not close to coming back to the roster anytime soon, I think the Cubs need to place him on the 60-day DL and find a OF/1b to take his place. Since they don’t trust anyone in their minor leaguers, they will have to go out and trade for one. The bench now consists of Ryan Theriot, Freddie Bynum, Neifi Perez, Henry Blanco, and Jerry Hairston which is probably one of the weakest benches in all of baseball. There is not a guy on that bench that I would trust to come in and ph at any time, and though some might have speed, they are mostly all useless and even if combined into one player, that guy would still not resemble a MLB player. This problem falls back on Jim Hendry, but since he just received a 2-year contract extension, expect to see more benches like this. Why do I say this? Look over the last few years he has been the GM of the Cubs, have they ever had a good bench?

Wednesday, May 10, 2006

Thoughts

Just like the Cubs offense I have been on a break. I haven’t meant to be just things kept coming up and then got lazy and then the hard drive needed reformatted. So let’s talk about the Cubs.

Let's start here:


Since Derek Lee went down the Cubs look like they decided to just throw in the towel. They look like they have no energy at the plate or on the field and have now lost 8 in a row. The Cubs haven’t done a thing to replace Derek Lee besides try Restovich (who actually played RF for them) and that is it. I know it is early in the year, but there has to be something they could
have done. The Red Sox had to put Hee-Sop Choi on waivers to send him down, that would have cost the Cubs nothing but the 40-man spot Restovich had inherited. I am not saying he would have helped out tremendously, but has to be better than what has been going on. I also understand the Cubs need a guy to hit lefties and that is Choi’s problem, but I think putting Walker back at 2nd and benching Nefi and Hairston might have also helped the offense. This is a total failure on Jim Hendry's part and further goes to show that he was not deserving of that 2-year extenstion he signed earlier this year.

My thoughts so far on a few players:

Rich Hill has been a big disappointment and needs to find a 3rd pitch soon or he won’t ever make it in the majors even as a 5th starter. He throws only that slow curve and a fastball with no slider or change-up, so pretty easy for a batter to figure what he is going to throw. Maybe he needs to go back down and just concentrate on working on that third pitch.

Juan Pierre a guy who I was never high on in the first place, has sucked offensively. He has not hit and worst of all he walks as much as Patterson did. I think the Cubs future would be better off with Patterson on the team, just for the fact that we would have some pitching prospects still instead of dumping them for what is sure to be a 1-yr rental now. Hopefully his offense will come around, but I am not counting on it.

Jacque Jones has not produced for the Cubs much this year, but on the bright side to that, Jeromy Burnitz has been much worse. While Jones started off poorly since April 28 he has produced enough to where he is not a complete loss offensively (not saying he has been doing good either.

Nefi Perez has reverted back to his old self and is batting a massive .184/.216/.224, I just want to hear from all of you guys that last year were all over Nefi. This is the real Nefi and he is almost making Jose Macias look attractive, at least Macias wasn’t owed 5 million dollars over next 2 years.

Happy B-day to my Sister Ariane

Here Birthday was on Sunday, but I have not been around in a week. So happy birthday Ariane.


 
Blogarama - The Blog Directory