Today I am trying a new way of typing and uploading
these articles. Figured a Sunday works
about best and while Casual Cubs Fan is in its infancy. Hopefully, I can type these up on Word and
get them on to the Blogger software with ease.
Hopefully.
Also, I’d like to introduce someone who is not a
sponsor but I’ll be featuring his efforts a fair amount on here and trying to
support him the best I can. Well, I won’t
bury it on a Sunday…on a new site. Just
consider this a tease and I’ll roll it out Monday morning.
ON TO THE NEWSY’S!
- I am going to post this here because I feel obliged. I don’t have MLB.tv (I live in Iowa so most Cubs games are blacked out for me) and I have a full-time job with a Wife who is going to Med School. I won’t have a lot of opportunities to watch Cubs games (outside of the non-blacked out WGN games that I am home for and that I don’t have parental/home owner/spousal duties going on at the same time) so I will be relying on a lot of recaps and box scores in my game summaries. Maybe someday I won’t live in MLB Blackout Hell (seriously, Cubs/White Sox/Brewers/Twins/Royals/Cardinals (so up-to 10-20% of games any given day) and I can justify MLB.tv and this will be my full-time gig.
- Cubs failed in Las Vegas to the tune of 9-4 against the Mets. Baez wasn’t able to Baez all over the game in Las Baez and for that I will blame the loss solely on him. Cause he should have been able to score 6 times in his 3 PA. He did manage 2 singles but in the only at bat I was able to watch today (dang responsibilities and water galore in my garage) he looked mightily aggressive. Rizzo did mash 2 homers with a walk (please dear God, let him get enough singles this year) and Zeke DeVoss had a stellar diving grab in CF (after stupidly diving head first into first base (seriously, how is that NOT part of The Cubs Way (to not dive head first into first base…that is))). Wada got roughed up along with Rosscup and Grimm. Pimental went 2.2 innings with 4 K’s (noice), so at least it wasn’t all bad on the pitching front. Stat lines of the game: Cubs RISP: 0-1, Mets RISP: 7-17. NEED.MOAR.BASE.RUNNERS (Reminder, this is only Spring and I’m not really freaking out about it…too much)
- But the guys who stayed behind in Arizona did fare better, posting a nice-to-see 8th/9th inning rally to destroy the Royals 6-5 (yes, I am going to obnoxiously hype up every Cubs victory). Brett Jackson went 2-4 with a home-freekin-run and both of his hits were of the clutch type late in the game. He did have a K (they will always be a part of his game) but that should be expected with 4 PA. This game was the epitome of good luck and sequencing. Typically, when you go 7 for 34 with only 2 walks, you are not going to score 6 runs. But, when you are able to string them together all at once, good things happen. If you get a hit an inning with those two walks…you, likely, aren’t going to get many runs (and you sure as hell aren’t going to get 6 runs). Lake struggled again. The key to him becoming a serviceable CF for the Cubs is making consistent contact. No amount of consistent playing time or a steady position or steady spot in the batting order is going to help him if he is below-league average when it comes to putting the ball in play when he swings. Samardzjia didn’t do himself any favors, either. Two wild-pitches and 4 earned in 3.2 aren’t good.
- Well, Kyle Hendricks chance at becoming the latest incarnation of Greg Maddux (cuz, that’s what all soft-tossing Cubs pitchers are (even though Maddux wasn’t much of a soft-tosser)) is on hold…for now, according to Jesse Rogers at ESPN. He was optioned to the Minor League camp yesterday. Not too disappointing. He still has more work to do in AAA and the Cubs have a plethora of arms that will, most likely, be about as good as he could to start the year. Plus, I now get a chance to see him in action.
- FYI – I don’t care to link multiple stories from the same author and I originally found the Hendricks story at CSN Chicago by Tony Andracki, but they have an annoying auto-play video in all of their stories. I hate them so I figure you do to and I refuse to share links of people who auto-play videos (unless I have no choice). My tipping point with CSN Chicago was when they had two of the same videos on the same story.
- With that out of the way, Rogers has a good article about Justin Ruggiano, Jose Veras and Eric Jokisch. The jist is that each of these guys has done amazingly so far in Spring. The key thing to remember with performances in Spring is that we are dealing with a small sample size. A few plate appearances are going to wildly swing a player’s stat line. Even in Babe Ruth’s career, I am sure you could find a 0-20 stretch where he looked terrible at the plate and hell, for a couple games, Tony Campana had an OPS over 1.000 once…maybe.
- In non-Cubs related news, the ISU Cyclones won the Big-12 title game for the first time in a while last night. I’m not a Cyclones fan; however, whenever they do well I feel ok in congratulating them. Good for them. I mean, Baylor wasn’t ranked or anything but, you know, the Big-12 is a BCS conference and they played against other people who knew they were playing basketball and not crochet. (Damn Hawkeyes and their suckiness)
- Don't forget, if you are on Twitter, follow me: @CasualCubsFan. And tell a few hundred friends. I'd like it. Also, if you are a graphics designer and don't mind doing work on a tiny (read $0) budget, let me know. I need a logo that DOESN'T look like it's made in Microsoft Publisher. Oh, and if you are a programmer that can handle HTML and something like C++ or Ruby or Pearl or something like that, contact me as well...please. Thanks.
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