2011 Cubs

[pdga#7648]

Blown save wild pitch by Marmol feels great!   Washington up 4-1 on Braves in 8th feels even better!!

[Dan Michler]

Would have felt even better if you could have beaten the lowly Cubs yesterday.

[pdga#7648]

wouldn't have made up any ground considering Atlanta won. we really needed the Mets let down on Thursday. would only be 1 back right now.

its okay though. if Cards can win tomorrow and Atlanta takes a loss, were 1 back with 3 to play. And Atlanta faces, Lee, Oswalt, and Hamels.  If Cards and Atlanta tie, I think the 1 game will be at St. Louis

[pdga#7648]

THATS A WINNER!! Thanks for the 10 wins Cubbies.

1 game back, Thanks Wahington. Let's go Philly!

[Dan Michler]

Son of a B.  That sums up the Cubs season.  Marmol with his 10th blown save and then we lose another 1 run game today.  Come on Houston, its pretty obvious the Braves have nothing left, so we need a miracle.

[Dan Michler]

If the Cubs hire you as GM, are you keeping Quade for the last year of his contract?  I'd hire Sandberg.  He may at least sell a few tickets and get fans excited, which is something the team's performance can't accomplish.

My other moves:  Sign Prince Fielder to a long-term deal.  I think he's about as safe a bet as you can get in free agency.  He's 27 and he's never been injured.  He plays every day.  In 6 seasons he's only slugged less than .500 one time.  He's good for over 100 walks per year and he's never hit less than 32 HR.  He doesn't strike out nearly as much as you might think.  His K% of 15.5% is actually better than the major league average, and less than guys like Adrian Gonzalez, Joey Votto, Matt Holliday, and Josh Hamilton.  I think you can build an offense long-term around Fielder and Castro. 

We're going to have to do everything we can to develop some players from our own farm system moving forward.  We're stuck with Byrd and Soriano in the OF for 1 more year, but after than I'd be open to a change at every other position besides SS and 1B.  This LeHair kid has looked good in September.  If Soto can't hit or catch, I'm not sure why I need him behind the plate.  Barney is serviceable at best.

I'm also going to see if I can get anything for Marmol at this point.  If somebody wants to take his contract and give a little something back, I'm taking it.  Closers are a dime-a-dozen and Marmol can't be trusted long-term.  Give Marshall a shot next year.

I'm not sure what you can do with Zambrano.  We might have to let him go for nothing.  For next year I'd roll with a rotation of Dempster Garza Cashner for the top 3 spots.  Those last 2 would be open heading into spring training.  If Ricketts has more money to burn, I'd love to go get C.J. Wilson, who I think could be a monster in the NL. 

There's still going to be plenty of holes in 2012, but if you fill 1 or 2 per year, eventually we'll start winning ballgames.

[pdga#7648]

Welcome to St, Louis Theriot. way to break it open with another 2 out hit.

It's ALL TIED UP. I like our chances with Carpenter pitching tomorrow. Even if Atlanta wins(Philly playing their B squad. Manuel already said he would rather face Atlanta in the playoffs. Understandable though. Braves are playing like the Cubs, while St. Louis is playing like, well St. Louis!) if Cards win, the 1 game playoff is in St. Louis.  I really don't think Atlanta beats Philly's scrubs though. They are totally deflated.

[pdga#7648]

Doug, you are now at 34.6%.

Dan, just for shits & giggles, what's that % at now? In 14 days it went from 4.5% to??

[Tom McManus]

In 2005, at that time it looked like the White Sox were going to give away the largest September lead. They went through a long losing streak but ended up winning the division by 6 games. I think that helped them in the playoffs. It will be interesting to see what happens with these two races. And how those teams fare that do get into the playoffs after the ending to the regular season.

[stpitner]

stupid braves.  even if they did make it to the playoffs, their home playoff games wouldn't have sold out anyway.  one last hoorah for pujols before he goes and finds another team

[pdga#7648]

This kind of ball will only make him want to stay. 90 wins without Wainwright at all? WOW!

[pdga#7648]

Will there be a game 163? If so, it's at the beautiful Busch Stadium. 

[pdga#7648]

Nope. The Wildcard Champion Cardinals will travel to Philly on Saturday.  But being the Cardinals, they are used to being in October! 

[Dan Michler]

Wow.  Can't believe that both of those historic collapses happened simultaneously.  The Rays and Cards were the benefactors, but this was all about Atlanta and Boston just completely falling apart, and more specifically their pitching imploding.

Atlanta is more understandable.  They never had that great an offense this year.  It was all Hanson, Jurrjens, Hudson in the rotation and Venters and Kimbrel dominating the late innings.  Hanson and Jurrjens went on the DL and they were in trouble immediately.  Then Venters and Kimbrel hit the wall (I think they were overused at such a young age) and couldn't get anybody out down the stretch.  Had the Braves made the playoffs, they would have been swept anyways.

Boston had some injuries as well but many of their main pitchers just fell apart.  I'm not sure how they could have won anything in the playoffs with the way they were going, so I think its fortunate for their fans that they managed to blow the regular season.  Now the Boston fans can have another "feel sorry for me" story, which they love up in Boston.  I don't think they felt comfortable being the 2 time WS champs and becoming the new evil empire after signing Crawford and Gonzalez last year.  Now Boston can do what it does best, cry like babies and find people to blame.  I've already heard they are ripping the Yankees for not sending Mariano out there in the 9th against Baltimore.  Ha!  Give me a break.

I wonder if Boston's GM Theo Epstein will be looking for a fresh start in Chicago.  I didn't take that talk seriously before, but after this it seems slightly more plausible.

[pdga#7648]

Wow.  Can't believe that both of those historic collapses happened simultaneously.  The Rays and Cards were the benefactors, but this was all about Atlanta and Boston just completely falling apart, and more specifically their pitching imploding.

I wouldn't say all was their falling apart. St.Louis had to go 18-8 in September to get it done.  yea Atlanta wore down, but that just shows the young guys slow down in September, especially if never in a situation as big as they were after getting swept by the Cardinals, which shortened their lead to like 6.5 with 2 weeks to play. Mentally and physically they were drained.

[CEValkyrie]

Last night was super exciting. I stayed up watching all the action. The finish to the Sox/Rays game was great.

Plain and simple. Quade should be fired! How do you pitch to Pujols in back to back games and give up walk off HR's to lose both. The Cubs lost four 1 run games to the Cardinals this year. 5-10 vs the Birds. What a pathetic bunch.

I'm looking forward to the offseason. It will be interesting to see who they hire to replace Hendry and if they keep Quade or not. They have to sign Pujols or Fielder and a starting pitcher. I thnk we've seen the last of Big Z in Chitown. It's time to burn the barn down and get rid of the rats. We need veteran leaders that know how to work. It's obvious the leadership of Zambrano, Ramirez, and Soriona sucks!

[CEValkyrie]

Attendance #'s. Cubs still drew 3 million. First time in a while that I did not get to a game at Wrigley.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/leagues/MLB/2011-misc.shtml

[airspuds]

I know the umpire who ejected  quade (his first ejection ) this year

did not get to wrigley this year

11-3 at the cell for me this year

Ill go with my NL allegiance  Phils 

go phils ! 

[Dan Michler]

I thnk we've seen the last of Big Z in Chitown.

There was some news story I noticed on Yahoo saying Zambrano is short selling his River Forest home.  Not sure if that means anything, but who knows.  I feel like 75% sure Quade is gone.

Did you see Soriano's comments about batting 7th all year?  Does he think his .240 average and 25 HR were lighting the league on fire?  Its hardly worth the time to comment on how clueless that guy is.

[CEValkyrie]

I did see Z was selling that home. i thought I read that it was his 2nd home but I could be wrong. I just don't see him playing for the Cubs next year.

I read that about Soriano. What a D-Bag. We are who we are because of these guys. He should bat 7th next year too. He's a pretty good 7th hitter.

The sad part is Marmol blew 10 games this year. The lack of leadership and work ethic is clearly visible. I'm not going back and looking but the last count I had was 16 one run losses. As bad as this team was they were in ball games and had some chances to be semi respectable. Intead they are just pathetic!