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Memorial Day, Thanks Grandpa!

Monday, May 31, 2004

Its Memorial Day, and so its time for a Cubdom thanks to my Grandpa Jesse, a WWII veteran, and all other military service men and women. Thanks!

Make that two in a row! The Cubs rode a strong Greg Maddux outing to their second consecutive victory (3-1). Maddux threw 6 and two thirds of an inning, allowing one run, but leaving with a strained oblique muscle. (Please make it stop!) Maddux pitched pretty well, but allowed seven hits and two walks, giving the Astros a couple of chances. Maddux is now 4-4, with a 4.41 ERA.

Joe Borowski picked up his 9th save today, but it was pretty rocky. He got the lead off man, but then put two runners on before striking out the go-ahead run.

Roy Oswalt pitched well again, but not as well as Maddux. Oswalt pitched 6 innings, allowed 3 earned runs on 10 hits including a two run dinger to Moises Alou.

In the second inning, Todd Hollandsworth hit a broken bat double and hustled into second. When the throw squirted away from Jeff Kent, Hollandsworth sprinted to third. I bring this up, because I haven't taken the opportunity to mention how much I appreciate Hollandsworth's play. Playing mainly as a bench player/late inning replacement, Hollandsworth is hitting .319 with a .420 OBP. He has provided some power (.623 SLG, 6 homers), and a reliable glove. Perhaps the reason I like Hollandsworth so much is that he is always hustling, has a respectable arm in the outfield, and then executing the fundamentals (i.e. hitting the cutoff man, throwing to the right base, etc.). Way to go Todd.

Greg Maddux Sacrifice Bunt Watch: Maddux was asked to bunt for the first time since May 14th. Once again, Maddux had a bit of difficulty before getting the bunt down properly. In his first stab, Maddux popped the bunt up in the air, and into the Cubs dugout. However in the second attempt, Maddux got the bunt down pretty well and successfully sacrificed Paul Bako and Ramon Martinez over.

Following up on the Derrek Lee comments yesterday, the table below contains Derrek Lee's career statistic splits (as of 5/30/2004).

So what can we learn? (Provided past performance indicates future results). D. Lee's average is a bit higher than we would expect, but we should see the average climb between 30 and 50 points over the next couple of months. Also, the slugging percentage is higher than would be expected, but we can expect some extra thump for the next two months. Finally, the OBP should climp by about 40 points in the next couple of months.

Posted by Byron at May 31, 2004 12:00 AM | | |

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