It was deja vu all over again. An inning starts and you expect to see Kerry Wood and instead, you see Glendon Rusch. Just like last May 12 in Los Angeles, we came back from commercial to complete disorientation. You saw a lefty, number 33 throwing a strike. When you were ready for a righty, number 34 bouncing one off the backstop.
This time, Kerry insists it was nothing. His shoulder was “cranky” and the Cubs decided to just have him go five innings. Sure. Absolutely.
But somehow, Glendon, Mike Wuertz and Chad Fox combined for four scoreless innings and the Cubs split a two-game series with the Pirates. They are now 3-2 on the season against Pissburgh, the worst team in the universe, and both losses were hideously painful and unnecessary.
The Cubs are 9-9, which sucks. But you know what sucks worse? They deserve to be 9-9. If .500 is the definition of mediocrity, the Cubs are the poster children for it.
If the Cubs were a TV show they’d be the one on CBS with the fat British guy and Jamie Gertz. You don’t know anybody who watches it, but enough people do that CBS has no plans on cancelling it. It’s just kind of there. That’s the Cubs so far this year.
At any point, except for the opening day fluke, have they given you a feeling like, “Hey, they’re pretty good.”
No. And they show no signs of doing anything to address it.
Think about this, right now, there are two Cubs carrying this offense and they’re Derrek Lee and Neifi. Neifi!
Play him at second or short, bat him second or eighth, Neifi does not care. He will destroy you all the same. Here’s a guy with a career on-base average of .302 and he’s getting on at a .420 clip.
Including his 23 game stint last year, here are Neifi’s Cubs career numbers.
Games – 39
At bats – 110
Runs – 18
Hits – 42
2B – 7
HR – 4
RBI – 14
Ave. – .381
OBA – .410
SLG – .555
OPS – .965
That, that’s ludicrous. I don’t think any of us thought he could hit .380 over 11 at bats much less 110. All I know is that you just ride it out. And right now, they have no choice.
As for LaTroy? Well, I think Dusty completely botched the situation yesterday. When he blew yet another one-run save chance on Saturday, Dusty had to stop using him as the closer. But with nobody in that bullpen able to step in and do the job, Dusty knew that he’d have to do it by committee. So Dusty made an announcement on Sunday LaTroy isn’t the closer anymore.
Then, yesterday, the Cubs get to the ninth with a three run lead. What better time to go to LaTroy than then? You get him right back up on the horse with the biggest save lead possible. But no. Dusty told the media LaTroy wasn’t going to close anymore. So he used Chad Fox. Chad got the save. And Chad’s arm is a threat to fall off at any time.
If Dusty’s really going to go to closers by “situation.” Then, the situation should be this for now.
One run lead? Go to Chad. What the hell. Let him blow some.
Two run lead? How about letting Mike Wuertz have a shot? Besides, he could have just left Wuertz in yesterday since he’d cruised through and easy eighth.
Three run lead? You ought to be able to use anybody.
You use Fox in a three-run game and what if you have one-run leads in the ninth tonight and tomorrow? You can’t run his bum flipper out three nights in a row.
Oh, well.
April 25th, 2005 at 12:11 pm
“Hard Nosed Bulls a Perfect Match For The City”
Unlike, say, the asswipe beneath this headline who will now rob you of ten minutes if you dare to read his drivel…
April 25th, 2005 at 12:12 pm
Make that “Headline”
April 25th, 2005 at 12:18 pm
Wheeeeeeeeeeeeee!
April 25th, 2005 at 12:27 pm
I…good…yes?
April 25th, 2005 at 1:11 pm
Andy, you need to be writing for one of the chicago area newspaper and replace all the douche bags they have.
April 25th, 2005 at 1:29 pm
wait..You don’t need to, but I think should be. That was poor word selection on my part.
April 25th, 2005 at 1:30 pm
And give up all this?
April 25th, 2005 at 1:33 pm
Well it was once again an interesting weekend at the friendly confines. Which for Latroy Hawkins wasn’t friendly on Saturday in the ninth. Anybody can say that it’s just the ninth inning he can’t pitch in. But really, you put him in the 7th or 8th inning, you’ll see the same results. He is Mel Rojas II. A supposed solid closer, who turns out to be a flop and collects a nice sized check. Hawkins and you can include Remlinger are worthless out of that pen.
Then you have Kerry Wood being the bitch that he is in yesterday’s game. Let’s just pitch enough innings to qualify for that win and then take yourself out because you might catch a cold pitching. Even Dusty had the balls to call Kerry out on that one. Wood has really turned into a premaddona cocksucker. Before this year is out, he will have had as many Cub fans turn against him as Sammy did last year. This guy is a bigass pussy. He’s really throwing it into the Cub organization’s face too. Let’s sign a nice size contract and act like a totally dickhead.
This closer by situation is a joke. Dusty needs to give up his stubborness and go with the common sense choice right now to close and that is Wuertz. It really can’t get any Wuertz. But really, he got alot of experience at Iowa in those situations. Use Rusch, Fox, and even Bartosch and Leicester as setup men. But you will continue to get burned by Hawkins and Remlinger. These guys’ glory days are over. Those other guys are barely hanging on the way it is. Go with Wuertz until JoeBo comes back and blows. Then Hendry will have to finally get off his ass and trade for a closer, which should have been taken care of this past off season.
Those bats are really catching colds here lately too. They can only blame it on the horrid weather so long. Perez and Lee being hot will only last so long as well. Somebody else needs to take some big steps forward- Eramis!
Prediction for Reds Series- Prior loses tonight as he catches a cold and we lose 3-1. Lawnmower man comes back strong for another solid performance tomorrow night and we win 5-2. Dempster continues his swell pitching and finally gets a win on Wedneday afternoon and the Cubs win 4-3 as Wuertz gets his second save in 2 days to solidfy the closer position.
Just kidding about the Wuertz prediction. In our dreams that will happen.
GO CUBS!
Baker Basher
April 25th, 2005 at 2:05 pm
Baker Basher,
I agree with you that Wuertz should be the closer, I’ve thought that the whole season, however I disagree with your assessment of Hawkins. Latroy has been one of the best setup men is baseball the past few years. The Twins tried the same closer experiment with him and failed, however he went right back to being a dominant setup man again. I blame Baker for even trying him in the closer role again this year. How many years are people going to try this before they realize that he is not a closer. I’ve always been a believer of putting your people in the best chance for them to succeed and Baker did not do that with Latroy. He weakened two positions by using him as the closer instead of the setup man. ANYONE can blow a save, but if you’ve got a man thats dominant in one role, LEAVE him there. OK I will shut up now.
April 25th, 2005 at 2:15 pm
Fortunately, the Pirates lineup decided that they needed hits rather than walks so they swung at wide and unhittable throws by Fox. Did they feel guilty about stealing Saturday’s game and deliberately hand yesterday’s game to the Cubs? I don’t know, but I will take it.
April 25th, 2005 at 3:30 pm
The Baker Basher continues to put up a daily fight for Dumbass Du Jour. Keep trying there Basher. You are doing a fine job.
April 25th, 2005 at 3:33 pm
Baker Basher, you are a ******* dumbass.
Have you ever even seen me pitch as a set-up man? Then why not wait and see what happens (and my career numbers would indicate pretty damn good things) before you make stupid assessments based on nothing but what you pull out of your ass?
April 25th, 2005 at 3:49 pm
**** you LaTroy, you punk ass bitch. We know where you live, brutha.
April 25th, 2005 at 4:30 pm
My client is real happy about the “Dumbass du jour” recognition he got last week, keep using him as a closer and you can be sure he will be crowned “Dumbass du year”.
April 25th, 2005 at 4:32 pm
I play basketball.
My amigo is Carlos Zambrano.
I will kill you.
April 25th, 2005 at 4:33 pm
Would somebody teach Baker Basher to set up his own blog so he can print his idiotic screeds there instead of inflicting them on us? I at least had the decency to do that.
April 25th, 2005 at 6:15 pm
I am in the lineup today, bitches. Playing 2nd and batting 8th. You didn’t think Dusty had forgotten about me, did you?
April 25th, 2005 at 6:27 pm
Wow, and I’m playing instead of Corey.
Which would be the lesser defense evil in CF, anyway — me or Jose?
April 25th, 2005 at 6:31 pm
Hey, Latroy’s agent, maybe you should pay attention to what the **** is actually going on with your client…in which case you’d know he’s NOT gonna close games anymore, he’s going back to set-up. Duh, dude.
April 25th, 2005 at 11:16 pm
How the hell am I about to win my fourth game of the year already? I mean, are the offenses in the AL that bad/cold this year? Shit.
April 25th, 2005 at 11:58 pm
Thanks a lot Dusty, you stupid motherfucker.
April 25th, 2005 at 11:59 pm
Oh shit.
April 26th, 2005 at 9:12 am
Even if he is not closing, my client has a chance of picking up
a lot of “dumbass du jour” awards, he is very capable of winning the award
daily with only one pitch per outing.
He can start, finish or set-up and STILL mess it up for you.
April 26th, 2005 at 12:59 pm
“You use Fox in a three-run game and what if you have one-run leads in the ninth tonight and tomorrow? You can’t run his bum flipper out three nights in a row.”
Dolan, you magnificent B#$%^&*, you called it.
What should my lottery numbers be?
April 26th, 2005 at 1:13 pm
Wait, while was I doing what? While? Why?
April 27th, 2005 at 3:14 pm
June 8th, 2005 at 12:11 am
Spent some great time in your site, really enjoyed it
June 8th, 2005 at 3:18 pm
The stuff on this web site is really witty and cool wise
June 14th, 2005 at 11:16 am
nice site, very informative, well designed, easy to use … what can i say ? i love it…
June 14th, 2005 at 2:03 pm
Hallo thank you for a lovely web site I enjoyed
June 17th, 2005 at 10:09 am
%-) genuinely interested by this website
June 17th, 2005 at 11:14 am
I really like the layout and colors that you chose for this website! It certainly is incredible! :)
June 17th, 2005 at 5:04 pm
I send you and your visitors my best greetings.
June 20th, 2005 at 8:50 am
Best content I ever seen. Huge amounts of live feeds, high payouts. Realy cool.
June 20th, 2005 at 9:20 am
Schöne Seite
June 20th, 2005 at 10:49 am
Man, what a well set-up website!
June 20th, 2005 at 11:47 am
I come to your site because it keeps me entertained and aware of new things.
June 21st, 2005 at 10:09 am
Nice! We rather appreciated the website
June 21st, 2005 at 2:21 pm
Hi, I really apreciated this website! Thanks
June 21st, 2005 at 2:53 pm
I must say that I was surprised to find this web page, but – - – Good Job.
June 24th, 2005 at 3:01 pm
What a nice site, been surfing on it for the whole night and day and i neva got bored for a single minute. Keep up your good work and all of the best in everything you do! :-)
June 24th, 2005 at 3:36 pm
Recommend this site for great pleasure.
June 24th, 2005 at 5:22 pm
Perfect site :-) I will recommend it to all my friends and fans
June 24th, 2005 at 6:27 pm
Great work with this one, nicelly done!
June 25th, 2005 at 8:04 am
This is such a wonderful and informative way to reach others. I Will be more than glad to share this site
June 25th, 2005 at 10:27 am
Could you please send to me the contacts of developer of your site? It looks so damn good!
June 25th, 2005 at 11:53 am
Great Design and useful information. I will be back soon!
July 2nd, 2005 at 12:14 pm
This is a great web site. I have some great web pages myself if you are interested to share. But I should not go on about my site too much, that is not fair, right?
July 7th, 2005 at 4:00 am
You are doing a wonderful thing here on the Internet. I wish you the very best. Kindest regards.
July 7th, 2005 at 4:35 am
YES,VERY GOOD WEBSITE!
July 7th, 2005 at 6:34 am
great site great site great site BRAVO!