Here is a list of Cubs position players in Atlanta last night who do not have a hit this year. Sappelt, DeJesus, Lillibridge, Valbuena. Here is a list of Position players batting under .200. Hairston, Navarro, Rizzo, Soriano. This is not good. Obviously not good. Terrible. Ok. Fine it's April and it's colder. As far as I'm concerned. Excuses Excuses. The cold doesn't make a batter swing at a pitch one foot outside the strike zone does it? Does the cold make you miss hit and run signs? I mean, as exciting as Dionner "la casa" Navarro is trying to steal second base is, I still only want to see that sort of thing on Celebrity Fit Club not in a Major League baseball game.
Other reasons why the Cubs look bad. I think Scott Feldman and Beef Wellington Castillo need an interpreter more than Takahashi. Judging by Feldmans chin strap beard, he is obviously Amish and speaks an obscure German dialect, while Castillo's original language is Spanish. How else could you explain 2 wild pitches, 4 walks, a hit batsman and 3 stolen bases? The battery looked like it was shorting out last night. To further pick on Feldman, while attempting to cover first base on a grounder to Rizzo, Feldman missed the base by a few inches, and that run later scored. How many times did they run that drill in Spring Training? 1000? I don't know. Except for that it's just fundamentally shitty fielding. Feldman also committed an error. Did I mention he kind of pitched like shit too? Well. He did. So far, not a fan of the chinstrap.
Ok. I would rather watch Ron Santo's legless ghost play 3rd base than Brent Lillibridge. Not only is he a career .209 hitter who belongs in his home town in Washington State coaching high school baseball and teaching remedial math class to learning disabled kids, but he's also a leprechaun. Nuff said. My prediction? The pot of gold is hidden under home plate, because he doesn't ever leave the batters box when its his turn at bat.
Anthony Rizzo struck out thrice last night. He chased pitches all night long. He looked like shit. This is the future people. Our future. I know we all think he's the second less drunk coming of Mark Grace, but it's unproven. Professional pitchers know how to miss his bat.
Other miscues...Alberto Gonzales clearly was out of position to tag a runner stealing second, which pissed off Beef Wellington, resulting in some of those afore mentioned pitcher/ catcher crossups, and a run. The Cubs struck out 9 times and didn't walk once. Swinging and missing badly on many a third strike. Oh....and they only scored one run. On a home run, with no one on base. And they lost.
The one positive take away? Carlos Marmol did not appear in this game.
Now on the podcast, located here, I predicted we would lose this game and win the next two. So far I'm right, I just didn't think the Cubbies would look so bad losing. One the bright side, Carlos Villanueva is going against Julio Teheran who is basically a rookie. Gives me some semblance of hope we can scratch a win out.
One interesting thing to watch for, and I'm going to predict it here. There will be a fist fight in this series. You may know about the Braves GM waving the Cubs relief pitchers off the field while they were playing catch in the outfield. Check the story out here...There were two hit batters last night. Add a little batting frustration, and you got yourself a Donnybrook! Maybe it'll light a fire under their ass....
OK. Enough with the nay saying! Let's go get em tonight!!!
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