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.
“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…
Make that “Headline”
Wheeeeeeeeeeeeee!
I…good…yes?
Andy, you need to be writing for one of the chicago area newspaper and replace all the douche bags they have.
wait..You don’t need to, but I think should be. That was poor word selection on my part.
And give up all this?
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
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.
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.
The Baker Basher continues to put up a daily fight for Dumbass Du Jour. Keep trying there Basher. You are doing a fine job.
Baker Basher, you are a fucking 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?
Fuck you LaTroy, you punk ass bitch. We know where you live, brutha.
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”.
I play basketball.
My amigo is Carlos Zambrano.
I will kill you.
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.
I am in the lineup today, bitches. Playing 2nd and batting 8th. You didn’t think Dusty had forgotten about me, did you?
Wow, and I’m playing instead of Corey.
Which would be the lesser defense evil in CF, anyway — me or Jose?
Hey, Latroy’s agent, maybe you should pay attention to what the fuck 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.
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.
Thanks a lot Dusty, you stupid motherfucker.
Oh shit.
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.
“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?
Wait, while was I doing what? While? Why?
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