2015 Cubs Off Day Blues

The Cubs have managed to win the last 3 series!  There's something I haven't said all year.  Fortunately, there was a lull in the schedule, and we faced 3 teams worse than the Chicago Cubs.  The Astros, Brewers, and Mariners.  We now sit 10 games under .500, 1 game away from the halfway point, and with the trade deadline looming, and key players expected to depart Chicago for prospects and cash, the future doesn't look so bright.  Or does it?  Oh yeah....2015....

Except for one game against the WhiteSox, the Cubs don't face a single bad team this month, until Milwaukee comes in for 4 the last 3 days of July (double header).  With Sweeney and DeJesus on the shelf, Marmol off the team, and the rest of the offensive regulars underperforming, what will stop the Cubs from scuffling the rest of the way?  The bullpen, except Kevin Gregg, already looks shot, and we're not even half way through the season!  Kevin Gregg will be gone soon anyway, and then who will close?  Russel?  Then who's the lefty?  Fujikawa's getting the Tommy John.  And with Garza and Feldman on the trading block, who will start?  Who will be the long reliever when Carlos Villanueva comes back to the rotation?  Soooo many questions.  No answers.  Oh yeah....2015....

Recently, Theo Epstein has come out in recent support of Sveum and his management skills, saying we've put an imperfect team on the field, and it's not his fault.  Then whose fault is it boy wonder?  Oh yeah...yours! Your big free agent signing has been a bust so far in Edwin Jackson.  And even though Schierholtz and Sweeney, fill in signings, have performed well, the core of the team in Castro, Barney and Rizzo has underperformed.  What exactly are you building Theo?  Besides a scoreboard and a hotel.  You do realize that in 2015, all bets are off, and those fans who drank the Kool Aid you fed them a year ago, will be demanding a championship, or at least a decent playoff run.  You have a window of opportunity here in Chicago, and it's closing fast Theo.  In 2015....

I am impatient by nature, and I'm not going to pretend putting a winning baseball team together is an easy task.  But so far....meh....I don't see too many glimmers of hope except for starting pitching, and as always, you're an injury away from a huge roster hole.  Especially after trading away any pitching depth and experience we might have.  And Cubs fans have had it!  Wrigley is a great place to see a ball game, but people have stopped showing up because there's nothing to really watch.  There is not a single Cubs hitter who strikes fear in the hearts of the other team.  Not one.  In 1987, at least the last place Cubs had Dawson and Sandberg.  Who do we have now?  A bunch of kids.  And if they don't develop, it's your ass Theo, it really is.  In 2015.

Who will these Cubs be in 2 years?  Will Castro be a .300 hitter?  Will Rizzo hit 40 homers?  Will Darwin Barney bat .270 AND win a Gold Glove?  Will Samardskjbfkeb have 20 wins?  Will Jorger Soler win rookie of the year? All this has to at least come close to happening, in order for the Cubs to make a run at it in 2015.  Everything, and everyone else is a question mark.  Well....Enjoy the second half!  I know I will.....in 2015.....

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Cubs Lose. Here's Why.

In lieu of recapping the Cubs' painful 10 inning 5-4 loss to the Mariners last night....lemme just say, Dale Sveums still an idiot and mismanaged the bullpen, Castro still isn't hitting, the defense is still shoddy, and Dioner Navarro is fat, (but at least he hits)....here's proof....

Furthermore....this...

In addition....the skinny young fan screwed Santa out of a homerun ball....lame....

That is all....

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Slams, Shams, and Sveums!

Do you know what the best thing about the 2 Grand Slams hit by the Chicago Cubs in the last 2 days is?  They were hit by both a platoon outfielder and a pitcher.  Did I mention that the back up catcher had a 3 homer day the day before?  Depth depth depth, is what you need to win a Championship.  Injuries and slumps take their toll on every team throughout the year, and you've got to have a backup plan.  Look at the Yankees who's entire starting lineup is a back up plan.  They are in second place.  The Cubs backup plan guys are now sparking the team, and hitting the cover off the ball.  But what of our original plan guys?  Ummmm...not so much.....

Sorry to bring up the negative while we are on a 5 game winning streak, but winning these games so decisively, with such incredible displays of hitting prowess, has me asking "who in the hell are these guys?!"  Castro and Rizzo, the cornerstones of this organization have struggled consistently this year.  Rizzo with a painfully slow start, including 45 strikeouts.  And Castro with a batting average of .264, far below what many of us expected from him.  Soriano is also playing below potential with only 6 homeruns.  And Darwin Barney, though a fielding phenom, is hovering precariously just above the Mendoza line at .209.  The Cubs in general are 7 games under .500, even though they have scored more runs than their opponents.  The only team to find themselves with this unlikely predicament of a stat in the majors.  They rank 6th in starting pitcher ERA, (9th overall), and they just don't hit on the road.

Wondering out loud.....Why did Sveum sit Navarro the day after his 3 homer game?  Why do the Cubs have 40 errors?  Half by the Pitchers and Catchers?  Why are we 7 games under .500 when an ancient greek philosopher named Pythagorus says we should be 2 games over.  Why?  Maybe it's because baseball isn't a "math problem" and wasn't invented in ancient Greece.  It's an American game, and as a people, Americans hate Math.  There is a place for stats as far as making decisions in this game.  Managers need to find the right matchups.  Lefty righty, double switches.  Defensive replacements.  There certainly are many factors to consider, but then there's just good old fashioned heart and gumption.  The intangibles like when a guy gets on a hot streak, or the converse, when you just know the starting pitcher doesn't have his stuff, but you try and get 5 innings anyway.  The innovations that sabermetrics has brought to the game of baseball are interesting at best.  The run expectancy charts in certain situations.   How a player hits against a specific pitcher.  Or how many strikeouts can be expected on a Tuesday, when it's partly cloudy, and the home plate umpire has explosive diarrhea.  But in my opinion, most of it is total BS.  Statistics don't play games, people do.  People with emotions, interpersonal chemistry, and good days and bad days.  Just like everyone on the planet.  I'm not calling Pythagorus a sham, I'm sure his theories are one of the reasons I'm even typing on a computer right now, but I don't think it applies to baseball as much as people involved in the front office, especially those who crave understanding and control of all things, want it to.  It's just a sham for baseball.  Better to be lucky than smart.

Speaking of smart!  Dale Sveum, our fearless bullet magnet of a manager, has come out and said he believes the team to be playing under their potential.  Well....duh...Dale were you also aware that the sun rises in the east, sets in the west, and puts two scoops of raisins in every box of Kellogs Raisin Bran?  I'm asking questions too here Dale.  Questions like why do the Cubs have an inexperienced manager, managing inexperienced players?  Was Brent Lillibridge really a leprechaun?  Should I get a 2013 World Champion Chicago Cubs tattoo?  I've been hard on Sveum in the past.  It's easy to criticize, and be a Monday morning quarterback, but seriously, I really hope, if the Cubs sell off the team that's currently winning ballgames, that he's part of the sell off too.  If they are truly thinking of Sveum, along with Rizzo, Castro, Jackson and Smardwjfbbferfbwhj as the core of this team, we might be 3/5 short of a core.  However, if we keep winning with Grand Slams by utility players and pitchers, I'll just shut up and take the wins, and quit complaining.  Son Ranto quit complaining?!  That'll be the day....

Check out the new podcast at http://www.sonranto.com  Or on Soundcloud

Boring Cubs Game Results in Loss to Mets

A word of advice to those of you who love watching the Cubs score runs.  Don't show up in the second inning if you want to actually see any runs scored.  Well, at least when Matt Harvey of the Mets is pitching.  Harvey looked shaky in the first inning and then cruised to victory with 6.1 more innings of scoreless baseball.  The Cubs did nothing for the other 8 innings, while Edwin Jackson pitched well enough, giving up 3 runs, two of them on solo homers.  Struck out 4, walked one....blah blah bored.  The only actual play worth mentioning is when with one out in the 8th and Darwin Barney on second,  David DeJesus singled sharply, ostensibly driving in the winning run, but David Bell, our fearless third base coach, waved Barney around third, which was in hindsite a terrible move, because ex Cub Marlon Byrd threw him out by about 10 feet!  It looked bad.  So, instead of 1st and 3rd, one out, we had two outs and a man on second.  Cub Rally Fail!

Dale Sveum, when asked about the Barney play said "these things happen".  Duh!  Of course they happen.  But Barney was rounding 3rd when Byrd got the ball.  He shouldn't have been sent.  Period.  I don't know if we score that run anyway, but we certainly weren't going to score it this way.  Ugh.  Just lame.  Boring.

The Cubs also committed two errors, but neither resulted in a run, so whatevs....We now have 33, but luckily the Nationals still stink at fielding too, and have consistently had two more than us.  I really do hope the fielding can improve.  It's going to cost us a lot more games if they can't get their act together.

All in all, it was a boring boring game.  Almost as boring as this blog post.  So I'll just stick to my main tenants.  Fire Sveum.  Spend money on good players.  No scoreboard.  No Wave at Wrigley.
So what's happening today you ask?

Well, the lovable Lou Sears and I will be attending todays early game 12:05 start.  It'll be Jeremy "Hugh" Hefner 0-4 with a 4.61 ERA vs. Scott "formerly known as Chinstrap" Feldman 3-3 with a 2.53.  Hoping for a better result to this one, or at least a game that's not as boring as yesterdays.

Check out the New Podcast here!  Trust me.  It's more exciting than watching the Cubs Highlights from yesterday!

Also, please support Son Ranto by using the Amazon Search Bar at http://www.sonranto.com

Go Cubbies!

Cubs Win Road Series! Rizzo a Cub til 2020.

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!

10 Day Cubs Baseball Binge; Now I Have a Sveum-over

After spending 9 of the last 10 days in the Friendly Confines of Wrigley Field, missing only the cold and wet Friday game against the Reds, I can truly say that for the first time in my life, I'm glad the Cubs are on the road for a 3 game set against the Nationals. The Cubs were 4-6 on this homestand, splitting a 4 game series with the Padres, swept by the Reds in 3, they clobbered the Rangers in a makeup game, and then split the 2 game series with Cardinals to finish it off.  Besides the obviously exhausting problem of drinking too much, talking too much, and eating too much at these 9 ball games,  I am actually hung over from the Baseball itself.  Once again, as in earlier series this year, we were close in almost all of these games, but ended with a losing record for the homestand.  Why can't this team get over the hump?  Why do they make stupid errors?  Why is Carlos Marmol given the ball in close games?  Why do we allow teams 5 outs an inning due to misplays?  And most importantly, why is Dale Sveum still the manager?

Let's take yesterday's 5-4 loss to the Cardinals, a game we were winning until the 7th inning, and didn't go behind until the 8th.  The Cubs starter, Carlos "the stache" Villanueva had 2 outs in the 7th, and was due up second in the bottom of the inning.  Sveum pulls him after 101 pitches, because his arm was tired from twirling his mustache between innings,  and in comes James Russel, who has been great, until yesterday, gives up a double and a single.  Tie game.  Now I'm not a big fan of the whole lefty/righty match up thing, especially with Villanueva due up second in the inning, it makes no sense to use your lefty in the 7th for one batter, Matt Carpenter, when the next 4 Cardinals are switch hitters, or righty's.  Russel gives up the double to Carpenter, and then Beltran, a switch hitter, brings him home with a single.  Russel then stays in to get the final out against righty Holliday.  So what's the point of the lefty match up, when Russel comes in and faces two righty's anyway?  Stupid.

Sveum, then pinch hits Borbon in the 7th for Russel, who attempts to bunt Cody Ransom to second, but runs to first base on the grass side of the baseline, and is called out on interference.  Ransom goes back to first.  DeJesus comes up, grounds into a double play, inning over.  Why the hell doesn't Borbon run in the damned baseline?!  The man has been in and out of the big leagues since 2009, but can't do something simple like run down to first base!  Why?!  Sloppy play= crappy coaching.

Then in the 8th inning, Michael Bowden come in for the Cubs, and the Cardinals take the lead because of a single, a wild pitch (our league leading 21st), and another single.  Why all the wild pitches?  They don't score without a wild pitch!  We have 2 Missers....I mean Catchers that can't catch or block the damn ball.  Your called a Catcher!  What you are supposed to do is in the damn job title!  I don't know if these are pitch crossups, lack of communication, sheer ineptitude, or a combination of the 3.  But I do know, when something negative happens enough in your game play, that you must work to fix said negative problem.  Once again...sloppy play=crappy coaching.

So, that's how we lost yesterdays game, but what did we do to not win it?  Well, ground into 4 double plays for one.  Two of them reflecting on coaching or management in my opinion.  The first one that bugged me was Dioner Navarro's DP in the 6th inning.  With men on first and third.  Navarro, who is visibly fat, hit a 2 bouncer to second.  Just about every other player on the team would have beat that out, but not Sir Chuggington Navarro.  He is listed as 5'9" 205 lbs.  Which is the exact weight and height same as me.  And I'm fat.  About 25-30 lbs overweight.  How is this guy a professional athlete, and allowed to stay this rotund?  The run from third would have scored had he been able to leg it out.  Maybe I can shame him into losing weight by sitting near the first base line, and yelling Boom Babba Boom Babba Boom as he runs down the line.  Don't these guys have dietitians and conditioning coaches?  Why is nobody demanding this guy get fit?  He gets paid millions of dollars to play a kids game!  Ever hear of Seattle Sutton's healthy eating?  They're a freakin Cubs sponsor for Crissakes!  But do you think Dale Sveum went up to Navarro and told him, "you know you would have beaten that out if you weighed 15 lbs less".  No.  Probably not.  Sloppy Body=Crappy Coaching.

The other Double play I will second guess Sveum on happened in the 8th inning.  Now granted, Nate Schierholz has been one of the best players on the Cubs this year.  But he rarely plays against leftys.  In fact, he's had only 9 at bats and 1 hit against lefty's this year and is batting .111.  The Cubs have first and third, one out.  Now, Sveum has Alfonso Soriano on the bench,  and all we need is a sac fly to tie the game.  Soriano is batting .421 against leftys.  Yes, .421 vs. .111 with the game on the line in the 8th inning against the hated Cardinals.  What does Sveum do?  Nothing.  Schierholz bounces into the Cubs 4th double play of the day.  Inning over. Chance squandered. Cubs go 1-9 with men in scoring position and......Ugh... Soriano did end up making an appearance in the on deck circle in the bottom of the 9th where he would have faced a righty though.  As I said, I'm not a fan of the lefty righty thing.  Maybe Schierholz would be better against leftys if he actually got to face them once in a while, but Sveum loses the lead by using a lefty matchup with James Russel, and then fails to do the exact same thing on offense an inning later.    This team is inconsistent.  Dale Sveum is among the most inconsistent.  Actually, I take that back.  He is incredibly consistent, at losing baseball games.

Further reasons why Sveum sucks and should be canned.  Even though we beat the Cards on Tuesday, why was Marmol allowed into that game?  We were only winning 2-1, and Marmol gave up a walk and 2 hits in an inning and a third.  We were lucky that the Cardinals Molina made a stupid base running play and was picked off.  Marmol needs to work out some kinks, yet he didn't pitch in the blowout against the Rangers on Monday.  It would have been the perfect time to let him get out there with no pressure.  Because under pressure, he blows it.  Every time.  Yet, we did see James Russel, our lefty specialist in the blowout.  Why?  What was the point of that?  Bad decisions.  Bad coaching.  Yesterday, Rizzo tries to steal third with 2 out in the first.  Why?  He's already in scoring position!  What's the point?  Dumb Dumb Dumb.  Bad Coaching.

So, yeah.  I'm calling for Sveums head.  These young players who apparently don't know the simple fundamentals of baseball like running in the baseline, or not stealing a base when it's unnecessary, or being fit enough to run, need a manager like Bobby Cox, or Piniella in his hey day.  Someone old school who will teach them how to play the game right.  Why they already don't know that at this point, as professional millionaire ball players is beyond me.  I guess jocks are dumb.  But the Cubs make me feel like I'm at the blackjack table, and someone next to me keeps taking my Ace, by hitting on 16 when the dealer has a bust card.   They're just playing the game wrong, and it's killing us.

Well...what's on tap?  A new podcast with the Lovable Lou Sears for one.  Check out the expiring one here....   You can follow us on Soundcloud or subscribe on itunes!  And you will be notified accordingly...

In the meantine...check out http://www.Sonranto.com and Go Cubbies!

Let's Kill dem Nats in DC!!!

Cubs Win; Goat Head Magic Finally Working

Umm, who took my Chicago Cubs and replaced them with a good baseball team?  After an April spent on the bottom rung of the NL Central, the Cubs have surprisingly played pretty darn good baseball the last 2 days.  Blowing out the Rangers on Monday, and squeaking by the Cardinals last night for a 2-1 victory.  Timely clutch hitting, a 2 out single by Soriano followed by a Schierholz homer, rock solid starting pitching, and an actually effective bullpen have made this team look more like contenders than also rans.  At least for the last two days.  All I can think is that the severed Goat Head sent to Tom Ricketts at the beginning of the season is finally starting to have the magical effect it was intended to have.  There really couldn't be any other possible explanation, right?

Or could it be that these Cubs aren't as bad as our record shows?  I've been saying all year that if a few plays had gone differently, if the wheels didn't totally come off the bus sometimes, and if we had played more solid fundamental baseball, we could easily be a .500 team, if not better.  You could sense the tension in the crowd last night when Sveum went to the bullpen in the 7th to replace Travis Wood with Carlos Marmol.  The fans booed Sveum (I was one of them), then clapped for Wood's strong performance, and then they booed Carlos Marmol (I was not one of them).  I can't really say that Marmol did well either, he gave up a walk and 2 hits in an inning and a third.  And but for a base running error by Yadier Molina, where Marmol caught Molina trying to steal, we could have easily been "Marmoled" once again.  He's blown many a ball game for us this year, and as much as I used to love watching him pitch, I really don't ever want to see him pitching during a tight game ever again.  I mean ever.  I understand Sveum is trying to work out some of Marmol's head problems by putting him out there day after day.  But why not let him work it out on Monday when we won 9-2, and the damn game isn't on the line.  Honestly, he almost blew the game again last night, and the blame would have been on Sveum.  It was almost as if Sveum was trying to lose.  Why use James Russel, our hottest hand in the pen on Monday night in a blowout, and Marmol, a guy that's lost at least 4 games for us with terrible performances in a 1 run ball game?  I just don't get it.

What else happened?  Well, Castro made a great play up the middle, and then proceded to drop the ball for his 6th error of the season.  He's only one behind the league leader, National, Ian Desmond who has 7.  Welington Castillo has 5 errors, and the Cubs are also one error behind the league leading Marlins with 28.  Besides shoddy relief, this has been the Cubs biggest problem this year.  Makes you feel as if the wheels could come off at any second with just one poorly executed play.  We also lead the league in Wild Pitches with 20, which is a reflection on our Misser...ummm....I mean Catcher as well.  Hey...at least Castillo can hit and has the best batting average on the team, which is more than I can say about Castro, who's batting a paltry .277.  They shoved Castro in our face as a superstar, but he hasn't really done anything too spectacular yet.  Sure...he makes some flashy amazing plays, but he's not clutch, and it all goes to hell in a hand basket on a two hopper straight at him.  I say trade him while his value is decent.  I really don't think he's the future of this team.  Darwin Barney went 0-3 last night too, lowering his average to .147.  Umm...wassup with that?  It's like we have two pitchers up there!  Hey at least I can take a whizz and buy a beer in the third and not miss anything.

Side note, Luis Valbuena hit a screamer 10 feet over my head onto Waveland Avenue in the second inning.  I was leaning up against the fence in terrace reserved, right field.  And it looked as if the ball was coming straight for my face.  I don't think my heart stopped thumping until the 7th.

But we won yesterday!  We freaking won!!  We tried to lose, but the Cardinals gave us one and it felt good.  I know my blog posts are overwhelmingly negative, even when we won the game.  I'll try and be more positive, but it's frustrating to think how many more games we could have won this year if it wasn't for these major flaws in the Cubs game plan.

Well, it's gonna be another tough one today as we face Jake Westbrook  with "the Stache", Carlos Villanueva.  Westbrook has a 1.07 ERA, so he's damn tough.  As I said yesterday, we have to, have to, have to get to their bullpen, it's surprisingly the worst in the majors.  So come on boys!  Let's work some counts, lets foul off pitches for days.  Anything to tire the guy out.  Going to the game with Mom, who I don't think has seen the Cubs win in the last 5 years.  So let's get one for her, she's freakin 75!

Check out the Son Ranto Podcast here!

Go Cubbies!!

Cubs Blowout Rangers!

I almost forgot what it was like to sit in Wrigley Field high fiving strangers, cheering with delight, and being proud of my Chicago Cubs.  The Cubs blew out the Rangers 9-2 for a sweep of their one game series makeup game, by putting up a 5 spot in the 4th inning.  Of course there were murmors in the crowd that the lead was not enough once our bullpen got in there.  Chinstrap Feldman pitched amazingly again by following up his complete game 3 hitter with a 2 hit 7 inning appearance.  I wasn't sure about this Feldman guy at first.  He has three errors and couldn't cover first base for shit.  But those kinks seem to be worked out at this point and the guys on a roll.  Chinstrap even knocked in and scored a run in the 5 run 4th.  I was at the game with my friend Scotty, who's Jewish, so he was particularly thrilled to see who he assumed to be a fellow Jew playing so well.  He said, there's not a lot of us in baseball, so we gotta cheer for the guys we got!  I think I'm going to start doing that for players of mixed European descent instead of wasting my cheers on other races....Sheeessh!

Other positives.... The Cubs drew 7 walks last night!  Two of which were drawn by Darwin Barney, who really isn't getting on base any other way. The Cubs also rallyed with 2 outs! Yes.  You heard that right.  All 5 runs came with 2 outs.   Castro came through in the clutch.  Rizzo homered.  Luis "Ian Stewart Who?" Valbuena went 3-4, and the Cubs generally looked like a dominant baseball team.  This, after such an abysmal weekend of losing to the Reds.  It was nice to see, and the fans responded with the most intense fanatical cheering I've seen at the ballpark this year.  The best thing about last night?  We put up 9 runs against the Rangers, a team with the lowest ERA of any major league club.  At least they were until last night!  They got knocked down a notch because of us!!  And a Huge positive from yesterday.....Son Ranto and the Lovable Lou Sears's new podcast is ready for consumption!

Some negatives from the game.  Soriano went 0-4, lowering his average to .267, however he did draw a walk to force in a run.  Also, our Misser, ummm, I mean Catcher, Castillo, committed a throwing error.  But the most negative event of the night was not getting to the ballpark in time to get my free winter hat!  It would have gone so perfectly with my texting gloves from the second game of the season too!

Now I mentioned the Rangers were knocked out of 1st in ERA, but guess who is first now?  That's right.  The St. Louis Cardinals, and they're here in Chicago for a 2 game set.  Tonight, Lance Lynn who is 5-0 with a 2.75 ERA goes up against Travis "I'm not kerry" Wood, who is 2-2 with a 2.50 ERA.  If you go on runs alone, we will best their starter by .25 runs.  And here is the key to winning these games.  We gotta get to their bullpen.  I know this is hard to believe when you consider the Cubs are 12-20 and the Cards are 20-11 and in first place.  But the Cardinals bullpen is dead last in team ERA with a 5.45 compared to the Cubs pen of 4.60.  So Dale Sveum....if you read this blog....please tell the team to take some damn pitches tonight and get to the Cards pen.  It truly is our only chance at winning.  Patience.  Patience.  Patience.  Let's take another 7 walks eh?  Tomorrow, Jake Westbrook who is 2-1 with a 1.07 ERA goes agains The Mustache, Carlos Villanueva who is 1-2 with a 2.85 ERA.  Both of these games have all the makings of pitchers duels....well....at least until the bullpens are tapped....then it might get ugly....

Let's do what we did last night!  Keep the rally going!

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Go Cubbies!