Add Paul Maholm, Charlie Morton, and Brian Burres to the list of opposing starting pitchers that Cubs hitters can't solve. I don’t even think those guys have baseball cards. The North Siders (13-16) dropped all three games to the Pittsburgh Pirates and now find themselves in fourth place in the National League Central. Next up for the Cubs is a three-game set in Cincinnati, and they face the same starters they faced in the second series of the season—when they dropped two of three. The Cubs have called up phenom shortstop Starlin Castro, and he is expected ...
Death, taxes and a losing record for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Those are the only certainties in life. Okay, so it’s not a total guarantee, but the Buccos have failed to produce a winning record the past 18 seasons and 2010 doesn’t appear to be a winner either. The Cubs had a .714 winning percentage (10-4) against Pittsburgh in ‘09, which was tied for the team’s highest winning percentage against a single opponent. Under Lou Piniella, the Cubs are 32-15 against the Pirates. One reason the Pirates (10-15) aren’t going anywhere again this year is because ...
The Cubs begin May 3 with an average—at best—record of 13-13 and find themselves 4.5 games behind the St. Louis Cardinals (17-8) in the National League Central. Starting pitching remains the team’s strong suit. But if you haven’t noticed, the Cubs—outside of Derrek Lee and Aramis Ramirez—are starting to hit. Chicago spent the first two weeks of the season at the bottom of nearly every major offensive category, but the team is now second in the National League in hitting at .278. Only the Arizona Diamondbacks (.476) have a higher slugging percentage than the Cubs (.445). There’s no reason to believe the Cubs will ...
In case you missed it, Lou Piniella had a little back-and-forth jabber with a reporter after yesterday’s 3-2 loss to the Washington Nationals. It’s good to see that Sweet Lou still has a little baseball life left in him. I was beginning to think he had lost all of his passion, kind of like the Cubs’ offense against the Nasty Nats pitching staff. The North Siders managed only seven runs against Washington after pounding out 25 in the weekend series against Milwaukee. What gives? On paper, this team has more than enough offensive ...
If only the Cubs could play the Milwaukee Brewers every day. The Cubs (9-10) exceeded my expectations with an impressive sweep of Milwaukee over the weekend and flip-flopped places with the Brew Crew in the NL Central. They move to 5-1 against the Brewers and second in the Division. Optimism is back on the North Side, and the Washington Nationals (10-9) come into town to kickoff a seven-game home stand starting today. The Nationals have been playing over their heads in the early going, so the Cubs shouldn’t take them lightly. Last season, ...
Don’t expect the Cubs (6-10) to have an easy go of it facing the Milwaukee Brewers (8-7) this time around. The Cubs opened up their home schedule by taking two of three from the Brewers back on April 12-15—their lone series win to date—but Milwaukee and Chicago are two teams heading in opposite directions. The Brewers piled on 20 runs against the Pittsburgh Pirates yesterday and outscored the Buccos 36-1 in a three-game sweep. The Cubs, meanwhile, haven’t scored 36 runs in their past eight games combined. Cubs’ starting pitching has shined the past eight times ...
To quote one of my favorite episodes from Seinfeld:
"He's reliable. He's considerate. He's like your exact opposite." "So he's Bizarro Jerry." "Bizarro Jerry?" "Yeah, like Bizarro Superman, Superman's exact opposite, who lives in the backwards Bizarro world. Up is down, down is up, he says hello when he leaves, goodbye when he arrives." "Shouldn't he say badbye? Isn't that the opposite of goodbye?" "No, it's still goodbye." "Does he live underwater?" "No." "Is he black?"
Let’s face it. No one is looking to the Chicago Cubs organization as a blueprint of what it takes to be a successful MLB ...
If you tune into any one of the Cubs' four games against the New York Mets this week, you may get the impression that the umpires misread the calendar and bumped up the first pitch. But, no fear, Cubs fans, the umps did indeed start the game on time, and, no, they aren’t playing any tricks on you. That job is left for Lou Piniella, whose latest tinkering of the Cubs lineup may leave you experiencing a slight bout of déjà vu and a sudden onset of nausea. Don’t tell me Lou’s gone back ...
So much for home cooking. The Cubs (5-7) started off their first homestand of the 2010 season in strong fashion, just missing out on a sweep of the Milwaukee Brewers. Then the one-win Houston Astros came to town and did just enough to take two of three from a punchless Cubs squad. While it’s not time to panic, I wouldn’t smack you over the top of the head for being worried. Team defense—fifth-worst in baseball with 11 errors—and the bullpen (5.59 ERA) have been a major letdown the first two weeks, ...
The Cubs (4-5) missed out on a sweep against the Brewers Thursday, but another sweep-worthy team, the Houston Astros, comes to town starting today at 1:20 p.m.
The offensively challenged Astros (1-8) got their first win of the season against St. Louis yesterday, but the Cubs should have no problem getting back on the winning track with a three-game weekend series against the ‘Stros.
The Cubs went 11-6 against Houston in 2009. In fact, the only team in the NL Central the Cubs didn’t have a winning record ...
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