This is a head scratcher at best.  Z thinks it’s temporary.  Lou could be convinced otherwise.  At least the big guy isn’t throwing a fit.  He seems to be taking it well for now.  We’re not endorsing it and we don’t think it will end well.  But it doesn’t change our focus from the impotent offense.

vis ESPN

We’re way behind on recaps, we know.  But the Blackhawks playoffs have taken ownership of our sports television viewing.  We have a new schedule during the week now so we should be able to resume watching both.  The way they’ve played lately though, it’s hard to watch.

The Cubs offensively are one of the worst teams in all of baseball after two weeks.  They’re 15th in runs scored, 10th in team average, 11th in team slugging and first in strikeouts.  Not exactly lighting up the scoreboard right now.  There’s lots of fingers being pointed at new hitting instructor Rudy Jaramillo, but let’s be fair… it’s going to take at least a month or two for his instruction to really have an effect.

What’s most concerning to us right is the the lack of a consistent lineup.  If you remember, last season the White Sox ran with something like 126 different lineups over the course of the season.  The Cubs seems to be following that model this season.  We understand the five outfielder problem, but there is a complete lack of a leadoff hitter in the Cubs lineup and 6-8 isn’t producing anything.  The only concrete slots are the 2-3-4 with Fukudome, Lee and Ramirez.

While it’s highly unlikely until at the very least the first week of May, we’d like to see Lou sit Soriano down for an entire three game set.  It’s no secret he’s dogging it out of the box and we all know his defense is horrendous.  At the same time, Soriano is necessary for offensive production because when his bat gets hot, he carries the Cubs.  This all boils down to one problem for the Cubs.

There isn’t a roster move or a trade out there right now to improve the offense.  This team is constructed as it is and will need to hit as it is.  We can complain all we want about the bullpen blowing games, but we can’t win if we can’t score.  Do the Cubs need to turn into a running team and start playing the steal or hit and run game?  Do they even have the personnel?  Or are they strictly built to win via the home run?  Because they haven’t won a game without one yet.

Cubs 8 – Brewers 7:

That last part makes it all the sweeter.

We looked up the stats and Carlos Marmol has only allowed two foul tips in his last two appearances.  Nary a ball put in play.  He’s been dominant, he’s throwing strikes and the Cubs have a legit closer to start the season.  The bridge to him is still a little shaky but at least we’ve seen him in the strikezone in every outing.

Ryan Theriot stole two bases, went 4 for 5 and may have cured a small child of leukemia.   Randy Wells had a respectable performance giving up four earned in 6.1 IP.  The top of the lineup was great and the pinch hitters at the end had impacts in every plate appearance.

A sweep and a chance to get over the .500 mark on the season awaits.  Go Cubs.

Cubs 9 – Brewers 5:

As it said right outside the stadium, it’s a way of life.

The ball game itself was just as great as the Wrigleyville area.  The Cubs had the long ball rocking early as Xavier Nady made quite an impression on Cubs fans in his home debut.  A three run homer in the 3rd inning had the Cubs out of the gate and they would never look back.  Jeff Baker added on in the same inning with a two run bomb and the Brewers starter Doug Davis was chased just one out into the 4th.

The bats were just crushing with the wind blowing out to left.  Aramis Ramirez got off the schnide with a blast of his own late in the game to put the final nail in the coffin.

Ryan Dempster had a fairly good start but we’d have like to seen him throw more strikes when he was pitching with a big lead.  He only had one mistake all day and it was the three run homer to Braun.  He tallied 6.1 and threw 114 pitches so it’ll be interesting to see Demp in his next start.  The bullpen was flawless today.  Samardzija, Russell and Marmol worked with only two baserunners between the three of them.

An excellent way to begin a homestand series with a division rival.  Yes, we’re huge dorks and uploaded the stretch which was sung by the Ricketts and Go Cubs Go at the end of the game.

Go Cubs.

Here’s the stretch, too

Reds 3 – Cubs 1:

The only Cubs run came from Derrek Lee’s RBI single but the Cubs squandered many chances including a first inning bases loaded, no outs one.  They left 12 men on base.  After a perfectly played game on Saturday, the Cubs did little right outside of Gorzelanny on Sunday.

During the game, we saw a lot of calls for Marshall to be brought in as the bridge to Marmol and we tend to agree with this.  If Lou wanted to bring in a lefty, why not Russell to begin with or Sean Marshall?  Grabow pitched yesterday and was successful.  He only threw 14 pitches.  Hindsight is 20/20 but we would have preferred to see a fresh arm out there. It’s unlikely Grabow will be available tomorrow at all.

Oh yeah… Mike Leake was pretty good in his first MLB start.  He walked a ton of Cubs, but obviously we didn’t capitalize.  106 pitches is quite a bit but Dusty Baker is in the Reds dugout.

Two road series to start the season, only one win in each.  Not how we’d like to have come out of the gates.

Tomorrow is the home opener and Ryan Dempster will take the hill.  The Cubs will enjoy their first Opening Day in quite some time without precipitation.  It’s also supposed to be warm.  Hopefully the wind is blowing out and we can see some offense.  We’ll be in attendance.  Drop us an e-mail if you’re going as well.

Messed up and didn’t publish this earlier.  It’s something like the bottom of the 5th when I noticed.  Whoops.  At Hawks/Scum today.

Cubs 4 – Reds 3: Been waiting to write a recap like this.  Five games wasn’t too bad of a wait, though.

Just a well managed game from Lou Piniella and a well played game by the players.  Big Z got off to a shaky start giving up three runs in the first three innings, but he wasn’t dominant thereafter.  Zambrano went 7 strong giving up just the 3 ERs while striking out nine.  It was a marked improvement from his first outing in Atlanta.  John Grabow managed the 8th and Carlos Marmol was absolutely dominant in the ninth inning.

The Cubs may have relied on a the longball a bit too much here, but in Cincinnati, it’s hard not to.

Piniella putting in Jeff Baker was probably my favorite moment of the game.  That’s what he’s there for.  Mashing lefties.  Soriano got his first dinger and this is the 1st half Kosuke Fukudome that we’re used to seeing.  It’s nice to see contributions from up and down the lineup so far with the only slow starters appearing to be Aramis Ramirez and Geovany Soto.

More games like this one will make it much easier to watch Cubs baseball.  Noticeably, we didn’t see a single rookie arm from the bullpen.  Let’s take two of three and head home for the opener at .500.  Go Cubs.

We won’t point the finger at the umpires last night, but we would like to discuss the call made in the 9th inning that may have cost the Cubs a shot at extra innings.

Leading off the top of the ninth after the grand slam, the Cubs were able to rally and load the bases.  They almost tied the game.  But Chad Tracy was unable to cash in and the Cubs ended up with the loss.  For Chad Tracy, a check swing on the first pitch of a pinch hit at bat is unacceptable.  Either swing, or don’t.  However, the leadoff hitter in the inning was Tyler Colvin and he hit a slow roller to Brandon Phillips at 2nd.  Phillips was able to glove it and flip it to first for a bang-bang play in which Colvin was called out.

Now, the call could have gone either way.  It was close enough that we’d like to say the tie should have gone to the runner.  Had the Cubs lost 5-3, it would have be inconsequential.  But the next batter, Derrek Lee, delivered a 424 foot home run that with Colvin on base would have tied the game.

Again, this game is not on the umpires.  Yet it always seems that calls like that don’t go your way in games like this.

The bullpen is going to be a source of frustration that we’re going to have to deal with all season long.  We’ve now lost two late inning games because of blown leads and were blown out of another that they couldn’t keep within three runs.  Piniella is going to have a midseason stroke if they continue to give up leads in the late innings.  There’s going to be some growing pains obviously.  But with those pains needs to come development from these kids.  We’ll sit through a rocky April if one or two of the arms is able to develop into a constant contributor.

There’s a reason most teams don’t spend a lot of money on their pens.  They’re the most unpredictable facet of any baseball team.

The Cubs rebound today with an early start that is actually in the bottom of the first as we type this.  It’d be nice to see Big Z rebound with a strong seven inning outing today to brush that Opening Day disaster by the wayside.  Aaron Harang opposes him on the mound.  His numbers can against the Cubs can be found here.  The Cubs have seen him a lot.  In Cincy, this should be an offensive game with the weather being warm and the ballpark being what it is.

Go Cubs.

The Cubs have had pretty good success against Bailey in the past but the Cubs current hottest hitter, Marlon Byrd, has yet to face him.  Soriano will likely get the start in left tonight as he’s crushed Bailey (3 for 3 with a homer).

Every time the Cubs play the Reds, we always have to worry about noted Cub killer, Joey Votto.  He’s probably the best young player on the Reds roster with Jay Bruce.  The Reds have a solid mix of left and right handed hitters in their lineup so it’s even difficult for Dusty Baker to screw up his order.  The pitching in this series will define the outcome.

via ESPN

The Cubs are last in just about every offensive category in the National League coming off the 3 game opening set in Atlanta.  That does one of two things.  It confirms what we thought about the Braves pitching staff… it’s one of the best in the majors.  That, and the Cubs lineup has struggled to do anything without the long ball.  The top of the lineup has struggled save for Kosuke Fukudome.

It’d be nice to see the Cubs convert on those runner on 3rd with less than two outs situations this weekend.  We’d also like to see if anyone is going to be stealing some bases.

No word on if Tyler Colvin will see the field tonight after a solid performance in Atlanta.  We’d say it’s doubtful since Soriano is a definite start and Fukedome/Byrd carrying the offense.  The Reds don’t have a left handed starter until Dusty ruins Aroldis Chapman is called up so don’t expect to see Fuk sit this series.

Silva is going to throw strikes tonight.  The Cubs defense will need to make plays behind him.  First one to five wins game one.

Cubs 2 – Braves 0:

Then, Carlos Marmol came in…

We were on our way home from the Bulls game (left at halftime, whole other story… eff LeBron) and listening to the game on WGN when the Cubs closer was brought in.  It was one of those moments where you thought Santo was going to have a stroke on the air.  With every pitch, Ronnie took short breaths and just wanted to see strikes.  It’s always a dramatic ending with Marmol, but he got it done.  Only one walk, but two three-ball counts.  He struck out McLouth and Cabrera in the inning to give Randy Wells the win.

Marmol is going to be a rollercoaster for at least the first half of the season.  There’s no chance he’s fixed those control problems in just one offseason.  Perhaps Maddux will get to him sometime in the next two or three weeks.  Otherwise that WHIP is going to be a pressure cooker all season long.

Tyler Colvin launched his first MLB big fly and Marlon Byrd added his 2nd as a Cub.  That was the only offense the Cubs mustered against young Tommy Hanson.  While they can’t count on Wells to have a shutdown performance every night, it’s nice to see Randy allow them to capture at least one game in the series.  After last night’s collapse (sorry, we missed the recap…), it’s a good sign that the bullpen had a short memory and was in control tonight.

The Cubs head into Cincinnati tomorrow night to face the Reds for a three game weekend set.  It’ll be Carlos Silva and Homer Bailey.  With the homer friendly Great American Ballpark and the bottom of a top heavy Reds pitching staff due up, the bats need to wake up for the Cubs.  They’ll need to manufacture some runs instead of just relying on the long ball.

We’ll be getting out our W flag to fly it proudly for the first time this season.  Hope to be able to at least two times this weekend so we’re no less than .500 heading into the home opener.  Go Cubs.

Sure Big Z looked like he was throwing BP out there (1.1 IP, 8 ER). The Braves did have some bloop hits that weren’t helped out by the Cubs defense.  Soriano had a… well, Soriano moment in left field as well.  If there’s one common theme with Chicago baseball on both sides of town this year, it’s bad defense.

But we’ll try and keep you off the cliff heading into Wednesday’s night game at the Ted.

Marlon Byrd managed to homer in his first at bat in a Cubs uniform.  Top of the first inning and most Cubs fans were thrilled with the start of this game.  Aramis Ramirez was showing no ill effects from his shoulder injury last season as he homered in the 3rd.  That’s about it for offensive optimism on Opening Day though.  Tyler Colvin did have a plate appearance which was nice to see.  It’ll be interesting to see how long of a leash Lou affords the Cubs starting outfielders with Colvin on the big club.  Cubs fans definitely got an early look at what the major weakness of the ballclub will be this season.

The bullpen.

Casual fans have heard of the Cubs closer, Carlos Marmol.  Unless you were glued to Spring Training games, it’s unlikely you know the names of James Russell, Esmailin Caridad, or Justin Berg.  Berg saw some time with the big league club last season but is the only one with any experience among those three.  The Cubs bullpen is pretty green this season and there’s going to be some lumps taken all season long.  John Grabow did manage a scoreless 2/3 of an inning and Russell looked great too.  But Shark and Berg were hit around pretty well.  James Russell reminds me of David Patton last season… hopefully his spring carries over into the regular season unlike Patton’s.

Count me in the camp that wants to send Samardzija back to Des Moines to have him work as a starter.  This isn’t a knee jerk reaction after a poor opening day but rather a trend that has followed Shark since last season.  If there’s anyone who should in the bullpen, it’s Sean Marshall.  His splits from starting to bullpen work are quite different.  He can be an innings eater and he’s not the only lefty in the pen this season.

The bullpen issues we saw on Monday is something Cubs fans should get used to.  The defense is something that can be more quickly corrected. Only one game, Cubs fans.  An off day yesterday and the team can rebound tonight against Atlanta.  Staying away from the bats of Jason Heyward and Chipper Jones will be crucial.  The Cubs collectively have little experience against Jair Jurrjens, but in what time they’ve seen, they’re successful.

Dempster going tonight against Jair Jurrjens.  We’ll have a game preview up later today.