Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Gear Grinder of the Week

After reading some articles on the internet today I came to the realization that almost every message board or forum has someone defending Soriano by saying that when he is hot he can carry a team for 2-3 weeks. I think what some of those people are failing to realize is the fact that 2-3 weeks is only 13% of the season at most. Pardon the alliteration, but I would rather have a player constantly contribute than someone who gets hot for 2-3 weeks per season.

I am by no means a Soriano "hater", nor am I an advocate. I believe that he got the contract he did because the year the Cubs' brass finally decided spending some of their revenue was unfortunately the year when he was the best free agent available. However, with all the acquisitions we made that off season, he was by far the worst, and it is impossible to contribute the culture turnaround on the Northside two years ago to him.

Monday, June 29, 2009

I'm Back

I know its been quite a while but I'm back. I'm going to start writing a lot more.

Being back for the first time in a long time I thought I would talk about the current situation of my beloved Chicago Cubs. They are in a bad spot, but I don't think it's as bad as everyone is thinking. First, lets state the obvious. The offense looks plain bad. I don't think anyone needs me to go into the reasons why. I think they are all quite obvious. Especially when a GM goes and dismantles a team after posting a 97 win season.

I'm going to try something harder and find the silver lining in the blue.

First off, almost everyone on this team is underachieving. Soriano is definitely not playing like the player that he is and has been. He has never had a season like this and I believe that the law of averages is going to play out.

Theriot, as usual, is having a very good year. This guy has been the most consistent offensive player for this team for the past couple years.

Lee started out poorly, but has really turned it on for that 20-some game hitting streak and has stayed hot.

Milton Bradley is another story. I really don't want to get into the whole thing about how I wanted Dunn when the offseason started and I knew this guy was going to be a problem so I won't. However, I don't think Bradley is this bad. He has hit his entire career and I don't think this year will be any different.

Jake Fox I would say is the best thing that has happened to this team this year. They guy can plain hit and should be in the lineup everyday. When Ramirez comes back, my suggestion is to stick Soriano at 2nd and put Fox in left. Don't tell me Soriano can't play 2nd base, because he has and he is just as bad in left.

Ever since Soto came clean about the marijuana he has started to hit better. Normally I don't buy the whole thing where something from personal lives plagues these athletes' professional lives, but after reading all the comments on this, I have to say I think this was definitely the case for Soto.

The starting rotation has been absolutely stellar and the bullpen has been really solid. The Cubs just aren't hitting with men in scoring position. The Cubs are not hitting period. I would be worried about this if everyone was hitting for their career averages but this is not the case.

The most obvious silver lining: they are only 3 games back. When Ramirez comes back, and believe me he will make a huge difference, it will only be a matter of time until this team wins this division by at least 5 games.