Archive for the ‘game strategy’ Category

Fallout from the Cubs opening day blowout

Yes, it’s just one game, and no it was not lost due to the horrendously blown call on the trap by Nate McClouth on Marlon Byrd. Today’s 2010 season opener against the Braves in Atlanta was a lousy game from top to bottom. Cubs were twice doubled off base, committed 2 errors, pitchers walked 8 [...]

April 5, 2010  Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,   Posted in: game day, game recap, game strategy, lineup, Lou Piniella, players, roster  No Comments

Kevin Gregg versus Kerry Wood

In April I tried to give now former Cubs closer Kevin Gregg a chance to prove himself. But instead by June he validated all of my original concerns – the guy just isn’t a “winning” closer. He has given up 12 home runs in the closer role, for an average of a hefty 1.9 per 9 [...]

August 18, 2009  Tags: , , , , , , ,   Posted in: game strategy, lineup, Lou Piniella, observations, players, stats  No Comments

Did Lou concede yesterday’s game?

Cubs manager Lou Piniella filled out a most unusual lineup card yesterday. He started just two regulars (Derrek Lee & Kosuke Fukudome), one rookie’s first every MLB game (Bobby Scales), and his #5 starter (Sean Marshall) to face reigning National League Cy Young Award winner Tim Lincecum. “We’re in a stretch of 20 straight games [...]

May 6, 2009  Tags: , , , ,   Posted in: game recap, game strategy, lineup, Lou Piniella, observations  No Comments

It is still early for Kevin Gregg

It is early. Very early. Just a reminder: 158 games remain in the regular season. Now, I’m not a necessarily a big Kevin Gregg fan. I only know him by his numbers from last year and looking at those, I’m not impressed. He would be fine as closer for a lesser team. But for a major [...]

April 10, 2009  Tags: , , , ,   Posted in: game day, game strategy, lineup, Lou Piniella, observations, players  No Comments

Cubs start season off right

From the second pitch of the game in yesterday’s season opener at Minute Maid Park in Houston, the 2009 Chicago Cubs got off to the start they need to in order to fulfill their lofty exptectations for this year. Alfonso Soriano batting leadoff belted the second pitch from Roy Oswalt out of the park to [...]

April 7, 2009  Tags: , , , , , , , ,   Posted in: game day, game strategy, observations  No Comments

Cubs Choke is Hard to Swallow

I have been reluctant to write about the astonishing collapse of the 2008 Cubs team during this post-mortem interval. The fan in me died another death watching this Cubs team, like so many Cubs teams before it, collapse under the weight of major league playoff baseball. Not every team can win it all, to be [...]

October 20, 2008   Posted in: game day, game strategy, Lou Piniella, observations, players, playoffs  No Comments

It’s Harden or Go Home

Tonight Rich Harden will throw the most critical game of the Cubs season so far. ESPN’s Bruce Levine came up with this stat: Harden is 34-0 in his career when his team scores at least 4 runs. So the offense will need to show up, Harden will have to throw his usual game, and Lou [...]

October 4, 2008   Posted in: game day, game strategy, observations, playoffs  No Comments

Howry Needs to Grab Some Bench

Hearing that Bob Howry is coming into a one-run game tonight to relieve Ryan Dempster, I thought to myself: why? How is it that Lou doesn’t see that Howry has been too inconsistent (I’m being kind here) to be relied upon. Lou refuses to look at the numbers: His 5.54 ERA is a full two [...]

September 16, 2008   Posted in: game strategy, Lou Piniella, observations, players  No Comments

Cubs Never Out of It

No matter how flat the team seems on a given day – they had just 5 hits going into the 9th inning last night – they always seem to have a good chance to win. Listening to the radio call last night, I hear Pat Hughes channeling Jack Brickhouse in trying to sell me the [...]

August 16, 2008   Posted in: game strategy, observations, oldschool, the media  5 Comments

Missed Opportunities

In their past 5 games, the Cubs have left 34 runners on base, leading to losing 4 of those last 5 games. In the game they won, the stranded 4 base runners; in the losses they stranded 30.  A team can’t leave that many runners on base and expect to win very many games. After [...]

June 28, 2008   Posted in: game strategy, observations  No Comments