|
Well, the Cubs have now won five in a row and things are looking pretty good -- for now. As fans of this team know, several times this year have the Cubs started to play well, appearing that a major move in the standings is imminent... only to immediately turn around and fall flat on their faces again. But if they continue to get the starting pitching like they have in these first two games of the second half against the Pirates, the Cubs should win a lot more consistently. What's really puzzling is how the Nationals and Braves dominated Cubs hitters, then since facing Dontrelle Willis they have pounded the ball the last five games. Like I said, this has... |
Well, we are at the unofficial halfway point of the year, and I must say this is Cubs team is one of the most frustrating and difficult to figure out that I have ever seen. In one three or four game stretch they'll look like world beaters, then they'll immediately turn around and have a stretch where they look like they couldn't beat a Class A team. As you'll see below, I declared their season was over after a miserable showing in Atlanta, but then to close the first half they went into Florida and dominated three games in a row against the Marlins and have pulled back to within six games (five losses) of a playoff spot. Here's a little... |
The Cubs are done. It's amazing, if you look back to my posts from just a few weeks ago you can see that things were looking pretty good, and the return of Kerry Wood and Mark Prior was supposed to make things even better. They actually had a lead in Game Two of Thursday's doubleheader but still lost their eighth straight game and are now eight games out of a playoff spot. This team has just been pathetic. Jim Hendry and Dusty Baker have continued to say that there's still hope but now hopefully they will realize that it's time to start planning for next year and make some major changes. Corey Patterson going down to... |
After winning the first two games against the Brewers it looked like the Cubs were starting to put it together, but instead they lost the finale of that series then were swept by the Nationals. In all three of those games the Cubs had many chances to win. Now, back to .500 at 40-40 and approaching the half-way point, this team is in trouble. They absolutely must have a winning seven-game road trip to Atlanta and Florida this upcoming week leading up to the All-Star Break or their season is over. These are two teams the Cubs are gonna have to get by to make the playoffs, because barring a monumental collapse the Cubs are never gonna catch the Cardinals. There... |
Somehow after an embarrassing loss to the White Sox on Friday, the Cubs came back with timely hitting and good pitching to win the next two games in the series. Hopefully we will look back at this as the turning point of the season, as Mark Prior came back earlier than expected from his elbow injury to pitch solid and Kerry Wood is coming back later on this week. Carlos Zambrano will get the ball Tuesday night to start another homestand against the Brewers. He really needs to try to throw strikes and not try to just throw as hard as he can, especially when he gets into trouble. These next two weeks before the All-Star Break are extremely important. The... |
It looked like maybe things were back on track after two wins in Milwaukee, but the Cubs then dropped the next two to settle for a split in the series. Thursday's game was especially difficult, because there were so many opportunities to win. There's nothing wrong with the middle of the order, but there needs to be more consistency from the leadoff and number two spots in the order. Neifi Perez has slowed down a little, and Corey Patterson has just been terrible. He looks overmatched at the plate and is showing no patience. I know he's still young and used to be a highly valued prospect, but if the Cubs want to contend this year they cannot afford to be... |
Two great wins by the Cubs the last two nights against the Milwaukee Brewers. On Monday Greg Maddux was impressive, as was Jerome Williams in his Cubs debut on Tuesday. Derrek Lee and Aramis Ramirez continued their hot streaks both with home runs in each of the games, and Ryan Dempster nailed down the save both times. Hopefully Carlos Zambrano will get back on track tonight as the Cubs go for their third straight win against Doug Davis and the Brewers. Davis has been very solid this year. I remember in 2003 when he first joined Milwaukee he had a terrific outing to beat the Cubs in Wrigley Field late in the season. It hurt the Cubs in their bid to... |
Well, things are once again going in the wrong direction for the Cubs. For most of the weekend they weren't even competitive as the Yankees swept them in the Bronx, and suddenly the Cubs are just one game over .500 again. You had to figure that sooner or later the Yankees were gonna turn their season around and unfortunately the Cubs caught them at the wrong time. The offense never really got it going, but the pitching really in the last week has just been atrocious. It seemed like every Yankee hitter was a struggle to get out every time. I'm a little concerned about Carlos Zambrano. For two outings in a row now he has not been hitting his spots... |
The Cubs now hit the road for the next ten games, and you figure that if they can at least break even on the trip they should still be fine. The first stop of course is Yankee Stadium, the Cubs' first trip there since the 1938 World Series. It's a showdown between the most successful sports team in America against, well, possibly the most made fun of team for futility. But of course we all know that the Yankees have not been playing up to their normal standards this year, and the Cubs won't have to face Randy Johnson, so hopefully this will be a good opportunity to get back on track. As Chip Caray used to say, one trademark of... | Last comment by: drrubb @ 6/18/05, 3:21pm |
|
Each of the last four games for the Cubs have been blowouts. Unfortunately the Cubs were on the positive end of that only once. Wednesday afternoon's loss to the Florida Marlins finished off a not-so-great 4-5 homestand. Toronto, Boston, and Florida have all been doing decent but not great and the Cubs really should have done better than that. John Koronka, Monday's losing pitcher, was sent down to the minors; he is not a major league pitcher and shouldn't have been up for a team trying to stay in the playoff chase. Big-time prospect Rich Hill was called up and I'm interested to see what he can do. One very pleasant surprise recently, of course, has been Sergio Mitre. He has... |
|
|
|
[NEXT 10 ENTRIES]
|
Tickco.com - Tickets for the Red Sox, White Sox, Braves, Cubs, Yankees, Royals & all World Baseball Classic games. Tickco.com - Tickets for Red Sox, Astros, Mets, Reds, Yankees, Cardinals & the World Baseball Classic.
Comments (2)
|
|
|
