The Cubs lost again to the Tigers. I don’t want to talk about it.
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Today, I want to talk about a colum that Jason Stark has on ESPN.com. In it, he has a few things to say about the Cubs. First he talks about the Cubs offensive woes. Here’s what he has to say:
Who bat-napped the Cubs’ offense?
Was it really only last year that the Cubs led the National League in runs (5.31 per game), slugging (.443) and on-base percentage (.354)? Yep, sure was. You can look that up.
So is there a logical explanation for why almost an identical lineup — substituting Milton Bradley for Mark DeRosa — should rank 26th in the big leagues in runs scored (4.24 per game), 21st in slugging (.397) and 20th (.325) in on-base percentage?
Well, there are explanations. You can decide for yourself how logical they are.
Aramis Ramirez has been out since May 9 with a dislocated left shoulder. And that’s a gigantic factor. “He’s got such a presence,” one scout said. “You fear that guy.”
And no one has done more than Geovany Soto to perpetuate the idea that the sophomore slump is no myth. He’s hitting .228 (down from .285), slugging .372 (down from .504) and has gotten shockingly pull-conscious. “He didn’t get off to the same kind of start,” GM Jim Hendry said. “And he’s really tried to overdo it.”
Then there’s Bradley, who couldn’t possibly have gotten off to a rockier start — going 3 for his first 31, spouting umpire-conspiracy theories and turning himself into a local boo magnet. “He’s a good player,” one scout said. “It just seems like there’s always a tension that follows him.”
And finally, you have Alfonso Soriano (hitting .167, with two homers and a .231 OBP, since May 19) and Derrek Lee (finally picking it up after spending the first six weeks under the Mendoza Line).
But if you’re looking for one pivotal number, it’s 29. That’s the number of points this team’s on-base percentage is down from last year, an enormous plummet.
“What that tells me,” Hendry said, “is that we’ve got a lot of real high-character guys who care, and they got off to slow starts and now they’re trying to do too much, chasing bad pitches and trying to be the guy who gets us going. And it snowballs.”
But maybe not for long. Ramirez should be back in a couple of weeks. Bradley has hit .341 the last two weeks. Lee has a 21-game hitting streak. And Soriano is 41 points below the lowest batting average of his career, and 105 points below the .531 slugging percentage he put up from 2002 to 2008. So “hopefully,” Hendry said, “in the second half, we can play more like we did last year.”
I thought Hendry’s explanation was weak, but if you’re in his shoes, what are you going to say?
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Jason also talked about the possibility of the Cubs re-aquiring Mark DeRosa (a move I heartily endorse). Here’s what he said:
Reunion time?: And now for another potential Cleveland deal to watch: For all the weird talk in Chicago last week about some kind of fictional rift between Mark DeRosa and Lou Piniella, we’ve been hearing that the Cubs have kicked the tires on a deal that could bring DeRosa back to Wrigleyville.
For one thing, the reason the Cubs traded DeRosa in the first place had nothing to do with any “rifts.” It was because they’d have had to play almost an entire right-handed-hitting lineup if they’d kept him, and because they needed to move salaries to fill other needs.
But by late July, DeRosa would have only about $2 million left on his $5.5 million salary. So we’re guessing the Cubs might be allowed to take on that kind of money. That’s still unclear, though, given their ownership issues.
Finally, we know the Cubs have been doing some preliminary poking around for a bat. But because they aren’t sure where they’d play that bat, they’ve been asking about what one exec they talked to described as a “DeRosa-type player,” with enough versatility to be moved around as needed. But nobody fits that description, obviously, better than DeRosa himself.
Extremely well said. The Cubs need a DeRosa-type of guy and no one is more like DeRosa than DeRosa himself.
I’ll only add that Crane Kenney has already said that the Cubs can add a smaller contract at the trade deadline and he used Mark DeRosa’s contract as an example. It would be hard for him (or anyone else) to say the Cubs can’t afford DeRosa considering that Kenney has already said they could.
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The Cubs starting pitching is getting it done this year. Unfortunately, the bullpen has not been good and the offense at times has been non-existent.
Jason Stark provides a list of the best and worst teams when it comes to having the starters complete 6 1/3 innings or more in their starts. The Cubs are tied for second place with 33 (the Reds and Angels also have 33). The Blue Jays lead the majors with 36. The Brewers are 26th with only 19 games of 6 1/3 or more innings pitched by their starters. I would think that would bode well for the rest of the season (although it hasn’t panned out so far).
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The Daily Herald reported that Geovany Soto tested positive for marijuana during the World Baseball Classic in March. Soto addressed the issue by saying, “I don’t want this to be a distraction for me or my teammates. I’d appreciate if this is the last time we talk about it. It’s embarrassing, and I want to move forward. I’m man enough to do stuff; I’m man enough to face it. I just want to apologize to the Cubs’ organization, my family and the fans.”
Without being overly judgemental, this was a stupid thing to do by Soto. At the time of the test, he was representing Puerto Rico in the WBC. After the WBC, he had Spring Training with the Cubs. Is being high really the best way to approach these responsibilities.
Soto claims that it was an isolated incident, but people will still question whether or not it is pot smoking that has led to Soto’s dismal offensive performance this year. And if it’s not his pot smoking, is dealing with the aftermath of a failed drug test weighing too heavily on Soto’s mind? Is that why he’s not hitting? It was just a stupid thing to do no matter how you look at it.
