Wells, It Could Have Been Worse



Making his first appearance in a game since being placed on the 15-day DL on April 5th with a right forearm strain, Wells threw two innings (40 pitches), allowing three runs (two earned) on five hits (three singles, a double, and a triple), with no walks and two strikeouts, and a balk.

Wells retired the first man he faced on a fly out to left on a 2-2 pitch, before allowing a triple into the right-centerfield alley. A spectacular diving catch by CF Kyung-Min Na on a pop fly to short-center saved a run and another base-runner, but the next two batters ripped consecutive two-out RBI hits (a single and a double) to plate the Angels first two runs Wells then recorded the third out of the 1st inning on a 3-1 GO (where Wells had to double-time it to 1st base to just barely beat the batter to the bag).

Wells found himself in trouble again right at the outset of the 2nd inning when a fielding error put the Angels lead-off man on 1st base. A ground out moved the runner up to 2nd, before two singles (on consecutive pitches) drove-in the Angels third run. The big right-hander then got it together and struck out the final two batters he faced, both looking. (Of Wells 28 strikes, ten balls were put into play, three were fouled-off, 11 were called strikes, and four were of the swinging variety).

RHP Andrew Cashner (rotator cuff) is a bit behind Wells in his rehab, and was limited to throwing a "two-inning" (30 pitch) pre-game "live" BP session on Field #2. One of Cash's pitches hit Augie Ojeda on the foot, sending the diminutive veteran infielder to the clubhouse and knocking him out of the starting lineup of the game on Field #3. For Augie, Fitch Park must be starting to feel like The Hotel California.

While one squad of Cubs was playing the Angels at Fitch Park, the other squad (known as Squad “A”) traveled up the 101 Pima Freeway to the Talking Stick Resort to play the EXST Rockies at Salt River Fields. Unfortunately I can provide no information about that game.

Here is today’s abridged box score from the game played at Fitch Park (Cubs players only):

1. Pin-Chieh Chen, 2B: 3-4 (1B, 3B, 4-3, 2B+E9, R, RBI)
2. Dustin Geiger, 3B: 0-4 (6-4-3 DP, 6-3, K, K, RBI)
3. Ryan Cuneo, DH #1: 2-4 (HR, F-8, 2B, F-7, R, RBI)
4. Reggie Golden, RF: 0-4 (6-3, K, 1-3, 5-3)
5. Brian Inoa, DH #2: 2-4 (1B, F-7, 4-3, 3B, R, CS)
6. Eduardo Gonzalez, LF: 1-2 (F-7, BB, 1B, F-7 SF, RBI)
7. Johan DeJesus, C: 2-4 (2B, 5-4-3 DP, 6-4-3 DP, 1B)
8. Xavier Batista, 1B: 1-4 (K, 1B, K, K, CS)
9. Wes Darvill, SS: 0-3 (P-4, K, K)
10. Kyung-Min Na, CF: 1-3 (F-8, 6-3, 1B, R)

1. Randy Wells: 2.0 IP, 5 H, 3 R (2 ER), 0 BB, 2 K, 1 BALK, 40 pitches (28 strikes), 2/2 GO/FO
2. Jose Rosario: 4.1 IP, 3 H, 1 R (1 ER), 0 BB, 5 K, 53 pitches (30 strikes), 4/2 GO/FO
3. Yilver Sanchez: 2.1 IP, 2 H, 1 R (1 ER), 0 BB, 3 K, 1 HR, 37 pitches (24 strikes), 1/2 GO/FO
4. Manolin DeLeon: 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, 16 pitches (10 strikes), 2/1 GO/FO

2. SS Wes Darvill - E6 (fielding error allowed batter to reach base safely)
3. SS Wes Darvill - E6 (throwing error allowed batter to reach base safely)
4. 1B Xavier Batista - E3 (missed catch on what should have been a 6-3 GO allowed batter to reach base safely)

Johan DeJesus: 3-3 CS


WEATHER: Sunny with temperatures in the 80’s




bases loaded, 1 out and Soriano up and already 2/2 on the day

"Soriano popped out to second"


200/237/314 heading into the game with RISP

351/383/860 with no one on

and 7 HR leading off an inning.....

just sayin'

sorry if this 3/44

Matt Garza-second best pitcher in baseball?

I think I mentioned two starts ago he was tied for best in league in Fangraphs WAR and best in FIP and xFIP which is essentially the same thing.

Halladay has since passed him in WAR.

His LOB% is 61.6% at the moment (usually you're in the 70-75% range and his BABIP is .388, so you can see where some of that bad luck is...

On the other hand, he's got a 2.9% HR/FB rate and you're usually around 10%, so there's gonna be some give and take at the end.

Hopefully he ends with an ERA around 3.25-3.5 at the end and Marmol stops blowing his games.

"Yet Garza has been the best pitcher for most of this year, and is currently the second best pitcher by a tad. This is because of insanely good his peripherals have been."

nice spreadsheet, bro.

i guess if you're going to be giving up runs and hits it don't matter as long as it's singles.

Glad to hear Randy Wells is on the road back.

back to ~~HELL~~

bah, is it next year yet?

Blake DeWitt now playing LF.

I am starting to think Casey Coleman isn't a viable starting candidate.



Casey Coleslaw?

So who are they going to send down Saturday to make room for Davis?

Berg? Coleman? Colvin?

In a way, if they are thinking about sending Colvin down, it probably makes more sense to either send him down or Coleman and to keep an extra bullpen arm for Saturday in case Davis gets shelled, then send the reliever down for a hitter on Sunday.

I assume Coleman stays to start.

Berg or Stevens or possibly Russell goes down.

Stevens was sent down when Berg came up. I would bet it's Berg. He has already used an option this year, so by sending him down, they wouldn't give up an option year with anyone else. Yet.

I should pay attention.

Berg or Russell then. Berg had been pitching well until today.

After some in depth research, Fox Sports has gone out on a limb and declared that the Cubs won't win the World Series this season.


STL beat writer trying to explain and/or defend the addition of Theriot:

"But why did Tony La Russa and John Mozeliak covet Theriot? No. 1, they believed he’d upgrade the offense. And the improvement is there. Is it dramatic? Not really. But last season STL shortstops ranked 28th in the majors with an OPS of .600. So far this season the OPS for STL shortstops is .638 which ranks 21st."

Wow. That's worth sacrificing defense for. My favorite line about Theriot came this off-season when someone with the Dodgers said something along the lines of, "we didn't know until we got him that he had the range of an anvil."


my fave as well...

That was Tony Jackson, ESPN LA.
To be precise, he said at times Theriot had the mobility of an anvil.

Brett Jackson on 7-day DL.

Nelson Perez called up to replace him. Luis Flores replaces Clevenger.

Interesting catching duo at Tennessee: Flores and Lalli.

Muskat says he only needed a few days fwiw, but wanted to play it cautious.

Just noticed this from Bruce Levine:

Jackson, who plays for Double-A Tennessee, was hit on the hand by a pitch against Huntsville on Wednesday. He saw a hand specialist in Chicago on Thursday and underwent an MRI.

I don't think it's possible that Jackson was hit, unless the ump missed it: Jackson was 1 for 1 ("Brett Jackson singles on a ground ball to left fielder Brandon Jones") when he was lifted in the top of the second (for Nate Samson, with Flaherty shifting to the outfield).

Could have been the ump called it a foul ball.





Uhhh.. seriously?

colin cowherd was your source?

Driving in Fl all that will come on, my apologies again

no worries, I won't ban you...this time.

/appropriate bold lettered sarcasm

rumors been squashed by all the beat writers fwiw.

Did you really need this instance to arrive at the conclusion that Cowherd is a dick? I would assume not. Just another in an ever-growing list of reasons for me.

I actually don't think he is one, but he plays one on TV/Radio. Five or Six years ago when I first started listening to him he was relatively measured, but the last couple years he seems to be the "say anything controversial to get my name in lights" type of guy. Meanwhile, the patron saint of dicks, his colleague Jim Rome, seems to be backing off of the running inflamatory remarks.

Anyway, Cowherd is right, Hendry does need to be fired... Where is Manny when we need him?

Personally the Good/Bad Hendry take on things finally tipped when he traded Maddux for Izturis... and then crowed about it. What a buffoon.

Somebody at ESPN probably told him or tweeted about Kent (who am I and why does Google stick my stuff at the top of search?) Sterling's blog on Wednesday. His column starts like this,

Today, I am announcing the immediate termination of Chicago Cubs general manager Jim Hendry.

Wells to have a rehab start Tuesday with one of the minor league affiliates, one that is going to be home since they like to give them the attendance boost.

and it will be Peoria.

Torres 8, Sanchez 4, Huff 3, Bosey 2, Schierholtz 9, Ross 7, Fontenot 6, Tejada 5, Bumgarner 1


Castro 6, Barney 4, Byrd 8, Baker 5, Soriano 7, Johnson 9, Pena 3, Hill 2, Dempster 1

over under on 4 runs total in this game?

I thought Q-Ball said he was trying to get Colvin some playing time?

Must've meant AAA.

"Dempster 1"

Give me the over, unless it's getting rained out after three.

1-0 Giants in first, game over.

Great play by Reed Johnson on a ball hit by Fontenot. That will be on tonight's highlight reel.

Diving on a ball that the typical outfielder makes on a fast jog?

The parachat die hards have already moved on to following college baseball it seems.

Fontenot hit a ball that kept drifting towards the wall, looked like it could be a hr. Johnson backed up, turned around and looked like he might have lost it, then drifted from along the wall into the well, looked like there was no hope of even getting a glove on it, and he jumped back against the vines and made the catch. He even looked like he stuck in the vines for a second. It was a great catch.

It was windy and real foggy down there the first part of the game. I ran some errands and now the fog doesn't look as bad.

0-2 count on soriano...he ends up walking?

who's wearing soriano's jersey? that can't be him.

2-out clutchiness by Dempster, Castro and Barney.

it's a miracle!!!

barney 2011... 195 hits, 15 doubles, 2 triples, 2hr.

13 hits (so far, 0 out 8th)...11 singles.

When did the cubs have a lineup where their first 4 hitters were over .300, the 5th was leading the NL in homers and the 6th was over .400

True cubbery to have a struggling offense with the above stats.

  • Sign in with Twitter