I Knew the Cubs Would Lose, But Still....

I guess Dale Sveum didn't get the memo from Rahm Emmanuel, that the people of the city of Chicago don't want to watch Carlos Marmol pitch anymore.  His 3 walk appearance in yesterday's 8-4 loss to the D'Backs, didn't decide the game, but it was a typically ugly outing for the beleaguered reliever, and the smattering of fans that braved the unseasonably cold weather at Wrigley Sunday, made clear their feelings to Mr. Marmol.  Boooooo!  They Said....Boooo!!!!  Now I've written about booing before.  I am a boo-er as well, but I reserve my booing for lack of effort, or concentration, and the players of opposing teams.  People my people.  Do you want the Cubs to win or not?  Marmol is out there trying his best.  He wants to succeed!  The last people to stand in his way should be the Cubs' fans!  The next time he pitches....oh god...please no....the fans should stand in support for Marmol.  Cheer him.  Help him to do better this time.  Just my two cents.

You ready for more bad news?  Edwin Jackson the Cubs big off season signing has been a bust so far.  Not only is he 1-8 with a 6.29 ERA, but the Cubs are paying Jackson a lot of money for the next 4 years to basically be a mediocre number 5 starter, and unfortunately, I'm not surprised.  When the Cubs signed Jackson, I looked up his stats immediately and was not impressed.  Jackson has 7 full seasons in the majors as a starter, and has a sub 4 ERA in only two of those seasons.  He's also a journeyman who has played on 8 different teams in his 10 years in and out of the majors.  It really makes you wonder about a guy when so many teams have let him go.  So what did Theo and Jed see in him?  Well, whatever they saw, it ain't there now.  Check out this chart I found on the interwebs....

Yes, this one man, who plays every 5 days takes up 12.2% of the payroll.  At least Soriano, who pretty much takes the rest of it, plays everyday.  I hope things even out for Jackson.  He seems like a nice guy.  Just one decent outing could spark things in a better direction, but so far....it's been pretty ugly.  Jackson himself said yesterday, after the game "This is probably one of the most frustrating seasons I've been through,"  We know Edwin.  We know.  Welcome to the Chicago Cubs.  Hey, at least he got a hit and an RBI yesterday, which is more than I can say for Starlin Castro and Anthony Rizzo, the cornerstones of the 2015 World Champion Chicago Cubs.  To be fair, Rizzo did walk twice.

I have a question.  Why are there so many damned lefty hitters on this team.  There are currently 6 on the Cubs active roster, and it seems as if we are facing a lefty opponent pitcher every third day.  Don't you think other teams look at our roster and try to make certain they face the Cubs with a lefty?  The Cubs are 23rd out of 30 teams in batting average against lefty's and 13th against righty's.  I think most of the problem stems from micro-managing the game in the first place.  Lefty hitters don't even get to practice against left handed pitchers.  If they didn't over specialize, maybe lefty hitters could learn to hit lefty pitching better.  For example, DeJesus sucks against lefty's possibly because he doesn't face them too often.  In only 28 at bats against lefty's this year, he's batting .179, but against righty's, he's .297.  So, instead, yesterday, because the Cubs don't have 3 right handed outfielders, Julio Borbon played, who's batting a slightly better .222 aginst lefty's, and he drops an easy fly ball, leading to at least 2 unearned runs.  Took a couple of screen shots of Borbon's Bor-boner.

I Got It!!

I Got It?

I lost it......

Speaking of defense.  We still have "missers" instead of "catchers".  Did you know that Welington Castillo, or "Beef Castle", as he is known to many has the most errors of any catcher in the major leagues?  Navarro, our backup doesn't look much better back there.  Dropped third strikes are his thing.  The Cubs lead the league in Wild Pitches, and are 8th in passed balls.  In general, the Cubs are the second worst fielding team in the majors.  Here's a couple of shots of Navarro taking one off the face mask yesterday.

It has not been a stellar year for the Cubs behind the plate, but at least these guys can hit!  Castillo has a higher batting average than Castro and Rizzo, and Navarro, who doesn't even play everyday, has twice as many homers as Castro, and is tied with Soriano with 6.  

Well, today's an off day.  Thank god.  It might sound crazy, stupid, or both, but the Cubs are off to Anaheim to play two games against the Angels, have another off day on Thursday, only to return home to Wrigley on Friday to play the Pirates.  What the hell kind of scheduling is that?  

New podcast coming soon.  In the meantime....check out my awesome Sveum video!

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