Shark with another gem and LaHair goes deep again. Those two have been wonderful surprises so far. Hope they can keep it up.

9-6 in their last 15 games.

I don't see Rizzo up until late this season. Hoyer mentioned that he regretted bringing Rizzo up so fast last season at SD. LaHair seems to be doing well at first.

Yeah, Rizzo will be in Iowa for a bit, I would think. They can't justify taking at bats away from LaHair right now. Unless they get to the point where LaHair takes at-bats from Soriano in left field.

Oh Woody. You've gone the way of Marmol.

:-(

Some are speculating as to whether Woody's near retirement. Sadly, it might be time.

Rizzo had another solid night. I think he went something like 2-5 with two jacks. I know he's not exactly Josh Hamilton, but still alright.

Another great Dempster start wasted.

With the power drought in our lineup outside of Lahair, I wish we could gamble and see what Rizzo can do now. But, I've heard they are having issues getting Lahair to be defensively competent in the outfield... so maybe better to wait until rosters expand.

Starting pitching from anyone not named Volstad has been excellent.

Russell worked his way out of the 8th.

Dolis came back in the 9th and had to face Chipper, Heyward, and McCann and gets them 1-2-3. It's his 3rd save, surpassing Marmol.

LaHair is the entire offense, RBI single.

1-0 Cubs Win

[This message has been edited by Lance Uppercut (edited 5/9/2012 3:30p).]

Nice win. Good to see what a real bullpen can do. What the heck changed with our starting pitching? Coaching? Whatever it is... The quality starts are coming in bunches!

Since May 1st, opponents are hitting .182 vs. Cubs pitching. Best in MLB.

Anyone know how Wells has been doing? Is he in Iowa?

[This message has been edited by WhataMaroon88 (edited 5/9/2012 5:15p).]

Wells is in Iowa. While I don't have figures to back it up, whenever I see his numbers down there I'm not overly impressed. I don't have hope in that guy. He always pitched himself into jams, but somehow managed to wiggle out of them. I think the book's caught up on him and he can't live as dangerously.

Wells has pitched poorly at Iowa so far. At this point, he's basically holding up a spot for Raley to move up to Iowa.

He has an 8.38 ERA thru 4 starts

[This message has been edited by Theo is a Touchdown (edited 5/10/2012 11:24a).]

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Paul Maholm is the first Cubs lefty since Ken Holtzman in 1969 to have 4 straight games of 6-plus innings and no more than 1 run allowed.

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Wells was secretly up for 2 starts this season while Dempster was out. He had one mediocre start and one bad one, and then went away. When Garza was sick, they called up T. Wood instead.

There's an article on cubs.com about advance video and Sveum's defensive shifts working out. Can't argue with results, because I've been watching quite a bit recently (mlb.tv is worth every penny) and there have been quite a few times where there's one hit up the middle and I'm thinking "well that's a hit" and there's Starlin or Darwin. It's honestly saved us runs and gotten us quite a few of the recent wins since runs have been hard to come by.

Man, DeJesus with 5-RBI's already as a 7th inning sub (we're in the 9th)

As a Cub fan is there anyone that annoys you more than Yadier Molina?

Wow, Sveum with probably one of the worst decisions he'll make as manager of the Cubs. Tie game in the 8th and he has Castro sac bunt with LaHair on deck. Thankfully Soriano delivered an RBI single to regain the lead, but that call is ridiculously stupid.

Junkhead beat me to the Castro bunt rant. Its bad enough to have it on in the first place, but after Castro popped one up behind the plate, I absolutely can't believe a guy with 25 years MLB experience would keep the bunt on.

All in all, a decent showing. Always nice to see Soriano deliver something.

5 back! If we win 2 more against the Cards, 3 back! Another HR for LaHair (9).

Really absurd that we started 4-12, and now we're 15-20. Quite a change of pace, and then the "what if game" with every appearance Marmol made when it mattered....Cubs have been fairly respectable since around the time Byrd left (not that he was the only problem, and he's batting .281 for the Red Sox).

Anyway, better the Cubs have made watching their games interesting. It's better than "complete train wreck".

Cubs Top 3 in the rotation:

Dempster--1.74 ERA, .94 WHIP
Garza--2.56 ERA, .98 WHIP
Samardzija--2.89 ERA, 1.17 WHIP

Looking at their wins is a different story, but still.

Got some texts mentioning maybe Dempster to Boston at some point this season bc of their pitching woes. I think Dempster is in the last year of his current contract and that he's 35. Didn't look into that rumor any more.

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Really absurd that we started 4-12, and now we're 15-20. Quite a change of pace, and then the "what if game" with every appearance Marmol made when it mattered....Cubs have been fairly respectable since around the time Byrd left (not that he was the only problem, and he's batting .281 for the Red Sox).

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The Cubs are respectable just about anytime Volstad isn't pitching.

quote:

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Got some texts mentioning maybe Dempster to Boston at some point this season bc of their pitching woes. I think Dempster is in the last year of his current contract and that he's 35. Didn't look into that rumor any more.

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It would make all the sense in the world to try to trade Dempster later in the season assuming the playoffs are out of reach. It would also make all the sense in the world for Boston to look at a guy like Dempster, their rotation is awful.

i do like the speed with campana. It is like playstation, everytime he gets on, he is running.

I could definitely see Dempster in a BoSox uniform. I think it makes sense for both sides. I know Ryan loves Chicago and may not want to go to a place like Boston where their locker room is a dumpster fire right now, but they could use a quality pitcher and clubhouse guy to bring that team together.

He's a class act and wish he had the chance to lead the Cubs into the postseason - he just likely will not.

After the game:

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"Some poor bunting, but it wasn't as much the bunting as you have to pull back and slash in those situations when they're charging," said manager Dale Sveum. "It's hard to get guys to understand that."

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This quote really doesn't sit well with me. I almost feel like he's throwing Castro under the bus. It is a true statement, but the situation is so odd that you can't really expect a young guy to do that. So you put him in a strange situation and when he fails, you say he could've not done what we told him to do. I don't know, that's how I see it.

There are some things about Sveum that I like, but I do think there could come a time where the time just disconnects from him. He seems to be a little to honest with the press about his guys. The other day he told the press he was "frustrated" with Volstad. Now I know everyone is, but Sveum needs to be on his side while Volstad is on the roster.

Just my thoughts.

I want to know why he has his #3 hitter bunting when all that's going to do is allow the Cards to intentionally walk your best hitter to get to one of your worst. He takes the bat out of the hands of his two best hitters in a tie game in the 8th. I cannot fathom how he can justify that.

I like the fact that he's pointing this stuff out. Sveum seems to know his bseball and he's just letting the press know it. Heaven forbid that the Cubs finally have a manager who actually holds the players accountable for how they play the game. This is a huge shift in managerial style and it seems like the players have started to respond. Let's hope they can keep it up.

[This message has been edited by Macpappy99 (edited 5/15/2012 11:28a).]

Macpappy, I'm with you on this particular quote, but only if Sveum is taking just as hard a look at himself, holding himself accountable, and trying to improve as a manager: Castro should have been swinging.

I like the numbers based small ball approach. Sure Castro is a good bat but he still gets out two out of every three at bats. Sveum was putting him in a situation where he has the option based on how the field is playing. This helps Castro and the team.

Bullpen lets another one get away

SORIANO!

quote:

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I like the numbers based small ball approach. Sure Castro is a good bat but he still gets out two out of every three at bats. Sveum was putting him in a situation where he has the option based on how the field is playing. This helps Castro and the team.

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LaHair is the best hitter on this team right now. Castro is #2. Soriano is one of the worst. The decision to have Castro bunt takes the bat of the hands of your two best hitters and puts the fate of the team in the hands of one of the worst. How anyone can defend that line of thinking in beyond me. It's like hitting on 18 in blackjack because the dealer is showing an 9. Sure once every hundred times you'll hit a 3, but that doesn't make it the right decision when you do.

"bullpen"....in quotes bc it seems like we don't have one.

Oh, and HR #10 for lahair

I understand that the all-time heroes of this game failed 70% of the time, but the skinny on Castro is he's an awful bunter.

I can't understand it, and don't know how you couldn't see that Castro was about to pound a bunt into the ground after he popped one foul the first time.

It's a good opportunity to learn, but cover that in spring training, would ya Mr. Sveum?

he had a bunt competition!

And considering how awful the whole team's bunting has been that's been the running joke with the press.

They asked him about the Castro bunting decision again today and he basically said two things: 1) The decision was his to make, and 2) he was hoping that a walk would put another man on base and could keep the lineup moving.

I don't know, part of our problem is hitting with RiSP. At least we won that game, though.

[This message has been edited by bluestainedivy (edited 5/16/2012 7:57a).]