The Cubs stopped the streaking Nationals, who had won 7 of their last 8 games, to win the series, taking 2 of 3, in Washington DC. Amazingly, they did it against some of the best pitchers in the National league, Steven Strasburg and Geo Gonzales. And while the bats might have been somewhat silenced in yesterday's 2-1 nail biter, the Cubbies managed to win, playing small ball, and scratching out a run, instead of waiting for a huge timely hit, that so far this year has been an elusive event for the Cubs' hitters.
Yesterday's ballgame was won, when with 1 out in the 9th, and Soriano and Borbon on 2nd and 1st respectively, the runners began to double steal with Welington Castillo at the plate. Kurt Suzuki, the Washington Catcher snapped up to try and throw out Soriano at third base, but Suzuki threw the ball directly into Castillo's bat, and the ball sailed into left field. Soriano came in to score. Cubs go up 2-1, where the score remained, as Kevin Gregg snagged his 6 save with a perfect bottom of the 9th, including 2 strikeouts.
The play involving Suzuki throwing into the bat is an interesting one, because Castillo doesn't have to move from his spot in the batters box to get out of the way. If he had been in the way of a throw to second however, he would be called out for interference. My favorite thing about this surprise double steal, was that the Cubs' base running aggressiveness is what caused Suzuki's error. The Nationals are making a run at the Cubs for the worst fielding team in the majors with a total of 30 errors against Chicago's 31, and Sveum, our fearless manager figured, "Hey, let's let them make a mistake here.". The Cubs played aggressively earlier in the inning too. After Soriano's leadoff single, Julio Borbon came to the plate in what was obviously a bunt situation, but Borbon swung away and singled as well. Aggressive=Win. Ryan Sweeney came to the plate in an even more appropriate bunt situation, as he lacks the speed of Borbon to beat out a double play, and ended up striking out. Aggressive=Lose. I was listening to this game on the radio in my car, and at this point was cursing the name of Sveum out loud! Yes, I was that man in the Volkswagon Beetle on I94 yesterday yelling to himself around 3 pm. But Sveum kept coming at the Nats, and on the first pitch called for the double steal. Suzuki throws the ball into Castillo's bat and the Cubs capitalize on the error. These are the kinds of errors the Cubs have been making all year, costing us numerous ball games. It was nice to see it happening to someone else. The Cubs and Nats have as many errors as the top 3 fielding teams combined. However, the Nats are in second place, 1 game behind the Braves, while the Cubs languish in last. As exciting and beneficial to the Cubs win yesterday as this play was, I'd rather see Sweeney bunt than strike out. Hell, I'd rather see Borbon bunt too. I'll give Sveum credit for pulling surprise plays like this, but it's not necessarily the smartest baseball. Check out my new Sveum Video!
In other not necessarily the smartest baseball new, but we will see.....the Cubs locked up Anthony Rizzo, our unproven future star, until the year 2020. He's going to be paid 41 million with 2 club options worth 19 million, and he could make as much as 73 million all told. There is no "no trade clause" in the contract as well. So Rizzo will make between about 6 and 10 million a year, depending on his performance. Usually this means making the All Star team, winning batting Championships, hitting over a certain amount of homeruns, etc etc....Compare this to other major league ball clubs, and this contract doesn't even break the top 10 in terms of cost. In fact, Rizzo's contract is half as much as the top 5 first basemen in the majors, which includes such names as Mark Texiera at 23.125 million, and Prince Fielder at 23 million. Texiera's currently injured and on the 60 day DL. He is also 33 years old and was injured some of last year as well, depressing his numbers. Prince Fielder is 4 years younger than Texiera, and has actually comparable numbers to Rizzo. They both have 9 homeruns this year. Fielder is slightly better in all other hitting stat categories, but Rizzo has yet to play a full year in the majors and is 5 years younger than Fielder. If Anthony Rizzo turns out to be a top tier hitter, then I'd say we got a real bargain here. But that's a big "IF". I like what I see for the most part. Rizzo started out painfully slow this year, but made adjustments and has been tearing the cover off the ball for a few weeks now. The Cubs future is securely in place, centered aroung Rizzo and Starlin Castro. Will it work? Time will tell....
So what's up next? A new podcast for starters....you can subscribe here....
And...I'll be on a rooftop tonight watching the Cubs take on the Rockies. The Rockies will pitch Juan Nicasio, who is 3-0 with a 4.72 era, while the Cubs will throw lefty Travis Wood, who is 3-2 with a 2.33 era. On paper, we win tonight. But we will see which way the ball bounces!
In the meantime http://www.sonranto.com for all things Cubs....
Go Cubbies!
No comments:
Post a Comment