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Prescient Cub fan of the Year

Tuesday, May 25, 2004

The Cubs lost a big game today. We entered the day with the opportunity to put the Astros 2.5 games in back of us, and instead the Astros are only half a game back, while the Cubs find themselves 1.5 games behind the Reds. Roy Oswalt shut down the Cubs offense by throwing a three-hitter, and Carlos Zambrano had a rough outing, allowing 4 runs in 5 innings. The offense is struggling pretty badly, but there isn't much that can be done short of a trade. The Cubs bench players, who have decided they will be known as "the lemons" are starting to show a bit of everyday play fatigue.

Derrek Lee's swing looked very good today. Although Lee went 0-3, he seems to have evened out his swing, and reduced the uppercut. The balls that he has been popping up were simply fly-balls today. I think D-Lee is about to start crushing some baseballs. Also wondering, why Derrek Lee is hitting behind Aramis Ramirez. Ramirez is supposedly a breaking ball hitter, and Lee a fastball hitter. It would stand to reason then that Ramirez should hit behind Lee so that Lee would see more fastballs. Well, I'll ask Paul Sullivan.

I was thinking the other day about the Cubs pitching depth. The Tribune ran an article second guessing Jim Hendry's trade of Juan Cruz to the Braves for Andy Pratt and a minor league outfielder, Richard Lewis. Although I agree that the trade doesn't look so wonderful right now, I am not losing any sleep over it. However, it got me thinking about the Cubs pitching depth and marveling at Jim Hendry's foresight once again.

I had/have been saying since last July that the single biggest free agent the Cubs could sign during the 2003 off-season was Ivan Rodriguez. When Hendry signed Maddux, with the money I wanted him to spend on Pudge, I was disappointed and felt that the Maddux signing wasn't the best use of the spare budget room. (Think about a lineup with Ivan Rodriguez instead of Damian Miller... think about Pudge's defense). However, with the recent spate of injuries I now see Hendry's genius again. While Pudge has turned around the Tigers, and would have looked fantastic in the middle of the Cubs order, a rotation of Zambrano, Clement, Mitre, Rusch, and Juan Cruz would look significantly worse than our injury riddled rotation.

Speaking of the Cubs rotation, I saw some Cubs memorabilia on-line today that disappointed me. The plaque read "four of a kind" and included pictures of Wood, Prior, Maddux, and Clement. I want to know why Carlos Zambrano can't get any respect? Zambrano has been the staff ace so far this year, and didn't exactly have a bad campaign last year. Oh man, I can't wait til the Cubs get healthy and can start our big five right in a row. Prior, Wood, Zambrano, Clement, Maddux... sure would be nice. Best possible date for that to occur would be about June 5th, but not until about June 15th.

I think I am going through the five stages of mourning, and have now reached acceptance.

I filled out an All-Star ballot Today... and was suprised at some of the guys I voted for, but I picked those I thought were having the best season to date, (Barry got the nod over Pat Burrell, because he is Barry.)

Posted by Byron at May 25, 2004 12:00 AM | | |

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