Family Feud: Angels vs. Cubs

A little late on this, but as many of you know I live in a mixed marriage...the wife affectionately known as the AngelFan Wife around these parts. This morning I reminded the 5-year olds that the two clubs play each other today and the rarity of the scenario, gauging their reaction to see where their allegiences may be swaying. My little Gracie, who has an incredible ability to figure out exactly the opposite thing you want her to do or say, jumped on the Angels. You're dead to me blue eyes. This left Katie to redeem all my hard work over the last 5 years. Her eyes darted around the room nervously between my wife and me, unsure of who she wanted to please more. Then with a big toothy smile, she exclaimed, "Cubbies!" A pony for you. I walked upstairs for a few minutes to finish getting ready before heading off to work and could hear them exchanging chants of  "Cubbies"..."Angels" for the next few minutes reminicent of "Left Field Sucks" and "Right Field Sucks" that you'd hear at the bleachers.

It's the little things...

Kazmir vs. Silva is happening right now, no score through three. If the Cubs win this series, the AngelFan wife promises the Angels will take Derrek Lee and Ramirez's contracts off the Cubs hand. If the Angels win, I'll let the girls date before they turn 21.

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RBI bunt single by Mathis?


let me pass on a little parenting advice that my grandfather told me.

to get correct answers from kids it's best to threaten their favorite pet or toy.

btw my grandfather is dick cheney.

no that actually works

as does the promise of ice cream.

TV and/or candy.

Byrd bunting vs. a lefty...

tragic. it! Right after you left, the chanting continued in the car all the way to the gym thank you very much (I'll get you for that one later). Gracie remembered me telling her that the Angels had a better record...but she got it a little confused. This is what she yelled..."But Katie, the Angels like better records!" Good stuff. ;0) GO ANGELS!!! XOXO



"But Katie, the Angels like better records!"

there's a good amount of truth in that statement.

Angels take the opener. Katie and I will go sulk off the rest of the day.

Somehow, I've got the feeling that Katie cares a bit less than you do.

she takes things pretty hard, you never know.

and I'm pretty use to the Cubs losing, she's just getting started.

Good point. I still have to tell my daughter that she's a cubs fan. But now, when she sees a Cubs logo, she says "Just like daddy's hat!"

pitcher hits for himself for an out...immediately replaced by howry...jeff baker with 2 errors in a row putting guys on the corners.

so much cubbery.

And Howry does that thing of his where he gives up runs.

baker had a play at home if he didn't bobble a ball...won't count as his 3rd error, though.

6-2 laa/chc...awesome

Cubbery instigated by using Howry in the first place. Why did Russel get sent down, again? Heaven forbid we lose Bob Howry.

The Cub effect theory says that only players who left and returned to the Cubs count against them, right?

Maybe this is false and the Cubs need to not play anyone who is a Cub.

I don't know. The only logical assumption is that Lou is now actively trying to get fired. First he puts our best power hitter leading off, and then he uses our worst pitcher in a 1-run game.

That's a good theory. Hendry keeps saying what a great relationship they have, but Lou's thinking or lack-thereof is mind boggling sometimes.

"best power hitter leading off"--also the fastest guy. Somebody has to lead off. I find it annoying when the lineup turns over and there happen to be men and base, and Theriot comes up.

I didn't object to Soriano in principle, just in practice.

Fastest guy? No way, Theriot is WAY scrappier.

Colvin is Felix Pie fast. Lou designated him the fastest player on the team coming out of ST.

He's starting to remind me of Shoeless Joe Hardy. We haven't seen him pitch yet.

I'm just kidding. I was equating scrappiness with speed.

Colvin is now our best power hitter! Neat and Neifi was our best hitter at one time!

Funny how reality comes crashing back to earth sometimes.

100 AB's doesn't = a career.

I'm really liking Soto's new gear, though.

this is fundamentally bad baseball.

did anyone bother to read a scouting report on the angels? the infield setup is just retarded (not even talking about the errors, either).

it seems no one knows what the angels players are likely to do in situations.

this is like a pick-up game.

...and why did silva hit for himself when the team was down by 1? no one on and 2 outs, but he didn't even pitch the next inning. meh.

Because Lou makes $4 million? Just spitballing here.

Because Howry and Grabow are his replacements?

But, hey, like Tito said, Lou's make 4 mil...he must know what he's doing.

"reminicent of "Left Field Sucks" and "Right Field Sucks" that you'd hear at the bleachers."

While Left Field certainly Sucks, I'm all but certain that Right Field actually Blows.

"It's the little things..."


you showed me.

it's been 7 years since I sat out there, don't recall that distinction.

nor does the google search I just did.

but apologies if I pissed all over that precious Wrigley tradition.

I remember that tradition, but I think it was before all you whipper snappers were around.

Baseball America Prospect Hot Sheet

#9 Trey McNutt
Team: low Class A Peoria (Cubs)
Age: 20
Why He's Here: 2-0, 0.00, 10 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 17 Ks
The Scoop: Sometimes timing makes the difference between landing a prospect and watching him go unnoticed. As we explained in the 2010 Prospect Handbook, the Cubs got a better look at McNutt than most other teams because they got a later look. Early last season, McNutt was a "nothing to see here" righthander with an 88-89 mph fastball. But at the Junior College World Series, when the Cubs bore down on him, the Shelton State (Ala.) CC freshman was a 90-93 mph fireballer. By the time the Cubs signed him during the summer, he was reaching the mid 90s, and he's maintained his velocity this season. The Cubs weren't the only team to like McNutt—the Twins flirted with drafting him—but the Cubs landed him as a 32nd-round steal, signing him for a very reasonable $115,000. McNutt has allowed more than one earned run only once in 13 starts, which explains why he has a 6-0, 1.51 record.

Brett Jackson "in the team photo."

Cubs CF Brett Jackson had his week truncated by the Florida State League's all-star break, but he still provided one of the minors' highlights of the year, hitting for the cycle Monday against Brevard County. He completed the feat with a walk-off home run to boot. The 21-year-old finished his shortened week at .421/.476/.842 (8-for-19), with a homer, three doubles and a triple .

McNutt...heh heh.


lol McFart.


Interesting (and perhaps uncomfortable) situation to have McNutt and Jockitch in the rotation.

Damn Colvin and his 3 RBIs from the leadoff spot.


1 run game!

Now THAT is ironic.

if only you could count on having the 7/8/9 guys set up the 1 guy we'd be set a few years ago.

if only Grab-ass and Howry didn't pitch in this game...

it was almost an awesome game.

horribly played awesome game...

nice game from Lee as well as Colvin.

Then there's Jeff Baker and the bullpen...

Yup, nice audition for Lee.

So if Colvin somehow got into the regular line up we'd have, like, a 35 HR guy in the lineup every day.

"We have a fly-ball hitting team and it doesn't really help when the wind is blowing in a lot," Piniella said.

"I like to see hitting in a baseball game. I think the fans like to see hitting in a baseball game," he said. "You go watch Sandy Koufax or Fergie Jenkins pitch, you want to see that great pitcher do what he does best.

"But (generally) you come to the ballpark and you have a few beers and eat a few hot dogs and you want to get up and down from the seat a few times and see the ball fly out of the ballpark or into the gaps, see a guy hit a nice triple. You want to see some action."

As I approach dodderhood, I hope to hell I don't talk about people I worked with 30 years ago or whatever in the present tense.

And, um, Lou? Oh, never mind.

"Piniella already had told the umpire that a pitching change would be made because Silva's leg had cramped up after making the last out of the sixth inning."

at least that mystery is solved.

Strasburg is the devil. I have no other explanation.

6 IP, 9 K, 0 BB on 71 fucking pitches.

and he's losing 1-0.

In other fantasy news:

Thank you, Ryan Howard
FU, Matt Garza.

and good riddance Chris Carpenter

No, he sold his soul to the devil. He is gonna pay a very high price for this after he gets laid by a thousand Muslim virgins.

I just have to say that this is the first time I've noticed "Brazil Butt Lift" in the Visit These Sponsors Too box on the left. Who shells out $60 + SH for that?

*raises hand*


Only if there is a lovely brazilian gal waiting eagerly for me on the way down.

And at my age, that's like asking for seven games straight of Colvin.

Colvin Colvin...

Of course he should be in the lineup, wth is Lou doing? Still Colvin isn't the silver bullet. This team needs blow'd up.

Colvin is not the silver bullet at all. In fact, he needs to be in the lineup so that the league can come back and say, "hey, fucker, take this." Adjustments, and all.

He does actually seem like a good hitter but I gave up on my ability to gauge prospects when I got excited about Hee Seop Choi. My confidence is way down, in other words.

We all talk about trades but maybe we should trade Colvin. Just for grins.

His speed is often overlooked. Not sure what that means, just throwing that out there.

it's pretty much what makes him a CF as well as a LF'r.

he's good with the glove when he can get to it, but doesn't always take the most direct route. his speed lets him cheat enough to cover CF...for now.

What were Colvin's power numbers like in the minors? He looks MUCH bigger than he did during his cup of coffee last September ... suspiciously bigger.

he's been expected to run a 25+hr type with 30+ doubles...his big knock even when coming out of college was/is how many Ks will he rack up while doing that.

he's showing more power than predicted early in the majors, but his minors #s were all floating at the high end of his projections*shrug*...could have a legit 30+ homer guy on our hands.

hope he can do something about his plate selection, but he's already shown you better not make a mistake or he'll rock you.

there's his minors #s.

Also, it's easy to say Hendry didn't know what he had in Colvin, or he never would have signed Byrd and caused this outfield logjam.

But if anybody would show faith in Colvin, it would be Hendry, Wilken and the Cubs front office. After all, didn't everybody laugh when Hendry drafted Colvin in the first round when everybody thought he was nowhere near a first round talent?

I guess what I am saying is that I have no major issue with the way Colvin has been handled, either in terms of playing time or where he has been placed in the batting order. (Personally, I don't think batting order matters as much as other people do.)

As for the way Hendry and Lou have dealt with the Theriot-Castro-Fontenot-Baker situation, that's another matter.

if hendry could find someone to take on a chunk of fuku's salary they'd probably be dumping him asap. i wonder what they have planned for d.lee. it seems there's a market for nady if they want to dump him.

all this logjam could end pretty quickly if the cubs keep losing. :/

imo, nady vs. colvin fighting for random playing time is a hell of a hard thing to manage...especially when byrd/soriano CF/LF are playing decent enough you don't want to give them more than the occasional day off.


imo, it's pretty easy since this season is over. Nady, here's the bench groom you beard and balance your check book.

I also don't have a problem with how Colvin was handled. Making the kid earn it seems alot better approach than how Pie and Patterson were handled. At this though, the season feels like a lost cause. Play the future of the organization (Castro, Colvin, and Soto to a degree) everyday and let take their lumps and make the necessary adjustments.

He put on 20-25 lbs of muscle in the off season.

I'm not a doctor or a nutritionist (i'm peeling a whopper wrapper off my shoe as we speak) but I don't know if that is too strange for a kid his age with that frame to do that naturally.

It's not that hard to do, depending on how you define "naturally", and if your body is ready to put on the weight, like his looked like. It's not like he's 2001 Barry Bonds or anything, he still looks smaller than say Tiger Woods to me.

3rd pick Micah Gibbs, the catcher from LSU, has signed.

I think i heard Lou on postgame say it made the most sense to start
Colvin in leadoff spot with the lineup.
The question is will it happen saturday.

Here is my guess


Cuz Lou likes Home Runs?

When the wind blows out and Fergie (not the sexy one) and Koufax are hanging around?

Can someone fucking explain all that is happening? I feel dodderhood creeping in.

Random comment: Castro can hit a major league fastball. Kazmir threw a couple by him early before Castro ripped one into the left center field alley. He can hit major league pitching, and he can adjust up there.

Brenly then became a little critical and said Castro doesn't hit to right center field as much as he did when he first got called up. As if on cue, he rips a liner to the right side that Kendrick makes a nice catch on.

I'm more curious to see how he handles it a couple years from now when the fans start booing him when he doesn't turn into Honus Wagner.

brenly's a pretty damn observant a fan of a lot of the things he notices players doing day after day. you can tell he's never turned that 'manager mindset' off.

i didn't know much at all about castro until this past summer/fall...

it seems he's a guy who can hit the ball anywhere, though. he doesn't have that ichiro-like precision, but it seems when the D is setting up against him it's the vanilla-style no-shift and playing in/out depending on the inning/outs/runners-on-base situation.

it'll be interesting once he puts up 2-3 years worth of spray charts.

wish minors had comprehensive spray charts...that's stuff the scouts/stats-dudes have, but i haven't been able to find any of that stuff on the net.

Saying someone doesn't have "ichiro-like precision" is like saying I don't have "Jesus-like floating ability".

Ichiro's bat literally flexes when it contacts the ball (he keeps them in a humidifier and doesn't let other humans touch them).

It's shit like that that drives me nuts.

Castro seems like, heaven forbid, a product of the system who is a semi-nice, serviceable piece of a decent team at SS, and he's got good enough D that people won't fucking dog him all the time quite as much as they do Theriot.

Fuckin' A man, I like fancy "advanced stats" as much as the next guy, but sometimes you just have to sit back and say "Wow, he plays pretty good ML baseball for a fucking 20 year old kid. Maybe we should keep him around."

Like the post Jumbo has below, Lou is not too bright with the lineup construction and understanding what he has.

Crunch has pointing out for last couple years of our best power hitter batting lead off.

You can talk about line up construction not mattering but I believe you can lose enough games here and there with a stupid line up. Which obviously this team can not afford to do.

Lou will explain at the award's picnic after the season where everyone gets a trophy because it's the "fair thing to do."

I'm fairly certain that Crunch never noticed that our best power hitter was hitting lead off.



Possibly 3/44
There's probably nothing shocking to anyone here.

it's worth repeating...

Plain and simple: Piniella is screwing up. He’s playing a bad player over a good player in an effort to win more games. It’s not like the team is responding to the move, either. On May 17th, the Cubs were 17-22, 5 1/2 games out of first place. Today, they are 29-36, 6 1/2 games out of first place. They’ve gone 12-14 since Piniella decided to make Soto a part-time player.

The Cubs are almost certainly going to have a house cleaning at some point in the near future. In the best interest of the organization, their manager should probably be part of that, and the franchise should make “Is Geovany Soto a better catcher than Koyie Hill?” the first question they ask in the interview process.

Well, Hill IS a better CATCHER than Soto, but Soto is a far better hitter whose advantage in offense more than makes up for Hill's advantage as a catcher.

I keep looking for it, but throwing aside, what makes Hill a better catcher than Soto? I don't see it in pitch blocking.

and the Angels lineup sans a DH had two catchers in it. Take that LouPA!

I just hope Sandberg is deciding on where Wellington Castillo fits in next year.

For anyone else who caught the discussion on yesterday's broadcast about Bobby Abreu, I found it funny that Mike Scioscia thinks he is getting close to being considered a Hall of Famer. Abreu's career .891 OPS is fantastic, but he has been an All-Star twice, has won one gold glove, and has never finished above 12th in the MVP voting. He's simply not a Hall of Famer. In my mind, Abreu is in the Dave Parker or Al Oliver tier of players and won't even sniff getting in the Hall.

Abreu's career sounds a lot like a pitching version of Bert Byleven. The statheads will be screaming forever about him not making it, ignoring the fact, that like Byleven, he wasn't that famous.

4 runs in and 1 out in the top 1st.

this game is starting out well.

no no-hitter today or shutout or win

wow, a wild pitch without a run scoring.

the cubs pitchers are improving there at least.

bases loaded angels, 1 out.


double plays are awesome, too.

10 cubs errors in 5 games.

40 unearned runs so far this year...

blah blah blah blah...

42 unearned runs...

at least the cubs are leading MLB in something.

rare switch...entire battery mid-inning out. lilly + hill (hill is obviously injured or hobbled after the last inning and it was weird he was still in the game, anyway)

One more run and it is slaughter rule time

we need a season slaughter rule, 10 games out and 10 games under and you're allowed to throw 2 pitchers at a time and use aluminum bats.


As many errors as hits, nice.

I know there are older people on here, but this is one of the worst teams I can remember watching. Please please blow this team up. Trade everyone of value (subjective term), get a nice draft pick next year and sign Lebron James.

I can think of some other more crappier Cubs team of yesteryear, HOWEVER, not with the 3rd highest payroll or highest average ticket price...

if the bosox or yanks were in this position right now, what would they do?

spend $20+ million more until it starts working.

They would have figured out after the first playoff sweep that some fairly fucking important (not necessarily drastic, but important) changes needed to be made. Even if that just meant talking to Lou about when to, and not to, pull your fucking starter, and that EVERY GAME MATTERS, especially in the playoffs.

They would have spent whatever money needed spending, and they'd have spent it wisely, and wouldn't have pulled some bullshit like letting one hometown hero walk (Wood) trading another "fan fave" (DeRosa) and then gambling the whole gosh damn thing on a fucking nut job (really? do i have to type his name?).

Mark my words. If Hendry continues to run this team, and Byrd continues to perform at/near/above expectation, and continues to 'blog' and work hard and 'hustle' and win over the fans, Hendry's going to trade him during or after 2011, probably to the Indians, for a ham sandwich and 2 mid-level prospects.

And what will the fans do?? Show up, because that's what Cubs fans do.

Jacos, I think your question is a valid one (even though it REALLY upsets me) and I think it's one that Hendry should have (at least secretly) asked himself 3 years ago.

Why? Same reason you asked it. Because those teams FUCK. ING. WIN.

I do want to point out in my own post, that as much as I didn't agree with it emotionally at the time, trading DeRo acutally was the right baseball move. I think I mention it just to point out that in theory the fan is the customer, and Hendry is out of something, hell, I don't know, I'm really just frustrated and ranting here.

That was as much fun as

a) a kick in the nuts
b) watching Human Centipede
c) watching Sex in the City 2
d) the 2006 season

at least we don't have the outrage of the 2006 season. things got very reactionary with "simple solutions" that could solve everything if only Player A/B/C or Manager/Coach A/B/C would do this or that.

50 million dollars and 4 years later...yeesh.

i was expecting a lot more out of this season, but when aram/dlee and the bullpen aside from 2 arms can't pull their weight...yeeeeeeeeeesh. ugg.

after the umps declared slaughter rule was in effect, they rolled out the kegs onto the on deck circles and then Starlin Castro committed his error (of course they carded him but his ID says he's 21)

castro did this slick as hell hand trick pulling his ID out of his wallet and then proceeded to flick his ID over the keg-master's shoulder into the stands.

Lou postgame: When they can't hit the ball and can't field the ball, what am I supposed to do? Yell and scream, , that won't do any good. We've changed lineups...we've done all we can do. They just have to play better.
if it's not time for a new manager (who has run out of options), it's time for a roster blowup and that means eating a ton of salary over several seasons.

Teflon Jim, put some of that non-stick spray. You're going to need it.

Well said, and you're absolutely correct.

(I for one say Yes, yell and scream your fool head off, our season as fans and your fucking job depend on it, but that's me)

The man says himself, in the press, to the world and everybody that he doesn't have any answers, can't fix the situation. So if I'm the owner, I've gotta ask myself, Who can? And then I hire that guy.

"Taking his first at-bats since going on the disabled list, Cubs third baseman Aramis Ramirez went 0-for-3 with a walk in his first rehab game for the Class A Peoria Chiefs on Saturday."

More possibly 3/44...
Sickels draft review
Comprehensive comment by respected reader/commenter Toonsterwu, too

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