Interesting notes stolen from BCB

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The Cubs' 1-0 win over the Padres Monday night was a thing of beauty (despite Carlos Marmol loading the bases in the ninth inning before getting Nick Hundley to fly out to end the game), but it also generated quite a few interesting numbers that deserve mention:

* It was the Cubs' fourth 1-0 win of the season. That seems like a lot -- and it is -- but in a season where there have now been 60 1-0 games in the major leagues (the most since 1976), three teams have had more: the Dodgers (six), Mets (five) and Padres (five).
* Carlos Zambrano has now allowed two or fewer runs in ten consecutive starts of five or more innings. That's the most in Cubs history since 1920, and it comprises all his starts since his return to the rotation, during which he has posted a 1.27 ERA and allowed only one HR in 64 innings. He accomplished this feat in front of his mother, who was watching him throw a major league game for the first time. She'll be at his final start of the year in Houston over the weekend, too.
* Z posted his tenth win of the season, eclipsing his total from last year. He also passed Charlie Root into second place on the all-time Cubs strikeout list, with 1436. That's 602 behind the all-time leader, Hall of Famer Fergie Jenkins.
* Carlos Marmol made his 300th career relief appearance and posted his 35th save. He became the sixth Cub pitcher (Bruce Sutter, Lee Smith, Randy Myers, Rod Beck, and Mitch Williams the others) to have that many saves in a season.
* The Cubs' only run, and the lone tally of the game, scored on a Blake DeWitt single following an Alfonso Soriano double. The double was Soriano's 39th of the season, which ties him with his teammate Marlon Byrd (who also had his 39th two-bagger last night) for seventh in the National League. Soriano's SLG ranks 20th in the NL, for those who think he hasn't been productive this year.
* It was the Cubs' seventh straight road win. That's the most consecutive road wins since 2008, when the Cubs won nine straight away from Wrigley.

Star-divide

For a while, it appeared the game would go so fast that it might end before the Bears/Packers game, which seemed for a while headed to possible overtime. But the Green Bay fumble and subsequent Robbie Gould field goal gave the Bears the win while the Cubs and Padres were in the bottom of the seventh. Z was solid last night, though again issuing too many walks. That's the primary thing I've seen since Z's return that is concerning -- the walks.

Sean Marshall threw a scoreless eighth with two K's and that left it up to Marmol, who retired the first two batters without event.

And then Carlos turned into Bad Marmol. Yorvit Torrealba beat out an infield hit that DeWitt cut in front of Starlin Castro to field -- Len & Bob said, and I agree, that it should have been Castro's play. Then, Marmol hit Chase Headley with a pitch. Or, at least that's what plate umpire Greg Gibson said. Mike Quade came out of the dugout and had a fairly animated discussion with Gibson; replays appeared to show that the ball hit the dirt between Headley's feet and bounced away. Maybe it grazed his pants, but otherwise it didn't appear to hit him at all.

Was Marmol rattled? He walked Tony Gwynn Jr. to load the bases and then Nick Hundley hit a 1-1 pitch into the air.

What's the first reaction of a Cubs fan seeing the ball head into left field like that? Right. "Uh-oh. That's a grand slam."

But it wasn't. It settled gently into Sam Fuld's glove short of the warning track and the Cubs had a 1-0 win.

There's one more number that's significant with that win. It was the Cubs' 36th road win this season -- that's one more game than they won at home in 2010. The last time a Cubs team won more away than at home was 2005 (38-43 at Wrigley, 41-40 on the road). This team still has a shot at a winning road record. Go for it; finish the year strong.

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Two things that I think are worth mentioning:

1) Marmol has 35 saves in 40 opportunities. Pretty solid and worth mentioning since I was the one questioning his effectiveness mideseason.

2) I didn't know Fonzi has 39 doubles, but I'm still going to question his productivity. Sure, he may have the 20th highest SLG, but I'm guessing there are quite a few names on that list ahead of him that are making less.

Paul Sullivan's Top ten list of Cubs mistakes in 2010:



1. Zambrano to bullpen: The Cubs were convinced Zambrano no longer had the stuff to be a starter, and would be better off filling a void in late-inning relief. The experiment failed and Zambrano returned after a lost month before exploding at the Cell. By the time he got his act together, after the dugout tirade and anger management therapy, the season was long gone. (Jim Hendry called it an "organizational decision," so he gets the blame).

I'd like to say that I thought this wasn't a bad idea at the time. It probably was, but I will also say that between chemistry problems that Z may have had with his teammates, or within his body he wasn't performing well enough to be where he was. I'm still not convinced the Cubs should keep him next year even though he's been rock solid. We've seen similar variations of this Z in years past

2. Ticket price hike: The Cubs bragged they went over the 3 million mark in tickets sold, ignoring the thousands of empty seats that belonged to apathetic fans or scalpers who couldn't dump them. Raising the prices by an average of 10 percent after a disappointing 2009 season was a ludicrous way for the Ricketts to begin their stewardship. (Crane Kenney).

3. Kids in the pen: The Cubs started the season with rookies Esmailin Caridad, Justin Berg, and James Russell in the bullpen, along with inexperienced Jeff Samardzija. John Grabow had a terrible spring, and carried it over. When things went horribly wrong, it led to the Zambrano move. Bad planning. (Hendry).

Agreed. The bullpen's settled down now, but it would be nice for Hendry to acquire 1 or 2 more good arms.

4. Lou's lineups: Leaving Derrek Lee and Aramis Ramirez in the middle of the lineup killed the Cubs offense in the first half. Both should've been moved down until they figured things out at the plate. Colvin as lead-off man was a head-scratcher, and despite a good start, Mike Fontenot was buried after Starlin Castro was called up in May. (Piniella)

5. The Noodle: You'd think a team with the Cubs' sad history would try to avoid giving people more reasons to abuse them. What marketing chief Wally Hayward called "Noodle Art" was just a tacky advertisement that didn't bring in enough revenue to make up for the embarrassment of turning Wrigley Field into the Wisconsin Dells for one summer. (Hayward).

6. Colvin sits: It took Steve Stone's criticism of Piniella's handling of Colvin to fire up the Cubs' manager, who took off on Stone and David Kaplan in his You Tube moment of 2010. But Piniella eventually decided Stone was right when he said Colvin deserved more playing time, and the rookie wound up with 20 home runs before his promising season ended with the broken-bat incident. (Piniella).

I do need to mention that Dome's numbers were solid during the latter part of the season...I'm not making a proposition as to what should've been done because I don't know

7. Zambrano tirade: Big Z's failed attempt at "motivation" in the dugout on June 25 at U.S. Cellular Field led to a five-week absence from the game and a reputation as a bad teammate that will be difficult to shed. Zambrano compounded the mistake by going on ESPN before his return to "explain" himself. (Zambrano and his agent, Barry Praver).

8. Castro starts in minors: The Cubs waited until May 7 to call up the player who turned out to be their most consistent hitter. If Castro was ready May 7, he probably was ready April 5 when the season started, and could've helped the sluggish offense. (Hendry).

9. Managerial hand-off: The decision to leave was done for the right reason if Piniella felt he needed to take care of his mom, and the decision to give Mike Quade the job for the last 37 games turned out to be a good one, too. But the abrupt departure, along with the stunning announcement of Quade over Alan Trammell (shortly after Trammell had managed the team in Colorado and San Francisco) made for an awkward hand-off. (Hendry).

I think the perception was far worse than the reality of the situation. From what I understand, communication was clear and everyone was on board with the decision.

10. Calling it 'Year One': The Cubs have been in existence since 1876, so calling it "Year One" was an exercise in hubris. It may not have been the Ricketts' idea, but trying to separate themselves from the previous 102 championship-free years of Cubs baseball was ill-conceived at best. (Ricketts' family)

http://www.chicagobreakingsports.com/2010/09/plenty-of-blame-as-cubs-close-out-year-one.html

Dear Padres,

Suck it.

Love,
the 1984 Cubs

Marmol now at 37 saves, good for 1 short of 3rd in the NL. The three teams above him are all playoff contending teams. Safe to say if the Cubs won 90 games this year, he might be the league leader in saves. He has 18 straight scoreless appearances with only 4 hits given up that whole time. 0 runs in Sept and only 2 hits in 14 appearances.

To add, he has the lowest BAA for of all closers from what I see at .140 for the season

Marshall had a 1.17 ERA in Sept in 11 spots.

In other news -- We face the Astros this weekend -- we have lost all 5 series this year, but have not been swept once. A sweep of the Stros would allow the Cubs to leapfrog the Astros and finish 4th.

Record against pirates and astros this year -- 10-20 Yikes.



[This message has been edited by WhataMaroon88 (edited 10/1/2010 1:53a).]

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Dear Padres,

Suck it.

Love,
the 1984 Cubs

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golf clap

They were wearing those ugly ass 84 unis last night too, weren't they?

If we can manage to complete the sweep in Houston today, we will finish the season 1 game ahead of the Astros. I know it doesn't mean much, but it would be nice to have the little bit of ammo around here for the off-season.

Matt Murton tied Ichiro's Japanese Major League single-season hits record at 210 with 3 games left

I think I jinxed it. Astros up 4-0 right now.

4-0 final

Page 3?

Surely we can find something to talk about...How about the Stanley Cup Champion Blackhawks beginning the road to repeating?

Dave Martinez wants to be manager!

all in favor......... **crickets**

Quite honestly, I'm OK if they give Quade the job. I have a feeling next year is going to be a repeat of this year and then Ricketts will finally bag Hendry. When he goes, his manager probably will too. I'd hate to see Ryno get the job and come in to a bad situation. If he ever gets the job, I hope he has every chance to be successful.

am i the only one who constantly gets this error in this thread??

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Microsoft OLE DB Provider for SQL Server error '80040e31'
Timeout expired

D:\WEB\TEXAGS.COM\MAIN\../libraries/db.asp, line 196

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nope

all the time

F*** YOU PAUL SULLIVAN FOR RUINING MY DAY BEFORE IT EVEN STARTED.

i recommend avoiding the tribune's cubs news online today.

I can't get the last page of our thread.

Thank you Bob Oliver for ruining my morning!

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am i the only one who constantly gets this error in this thread??

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Thing has been stalling out on me for years. On different computers, internet connections, browsers, ISPs, and operating systems. I complained about it back on page whatever it was.

Also, some dude {Will Carroll), is saying Quade is the next Cubs manager with Sandberg being "promoted" to the big league bench coach position. Any way they could switch those titles?

http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/39676195/ns/sports-player_news/

i couldnt complain with that.

i suppose Trammell is gone... unless he replaces somebody like Sinatro now that Lou's gone. i havent heard anything about Trammell's situation except that he wasn't a candidate for manager. but it sounds like the rest of the staff is more or less safe.

I know that Rothschild picked up his option for next year.

Bruce Miles of the Daily Herald said yesterday that he doesn't think the Quade/Sandberg deal is done yet. He did say that he thinks Quade is the odds on favorite right now.

Ted Lilly and the Dodgers have agreed to a 3 year deal... so much for any chance to bring him back.

Curious timing on this one:

Cubs have signed Mike Quade to a 2-year deal with a club option for 2013.

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20101019&content_id=15713804&vkey=news_mlb&c_id=mlb

They mention Sandberg being undecided on what he'll do next, but they include this paragraph.

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Quade was selected over Ryne Sandberg, which will upset more than a few Cubs fans who wanted the Hall of Fame second baseman back at Wrigley Field and in the dugout. Sandberg spent the past four years managing in the Cubs' Minor League system, including this past season at Triple-A Iowa. Sandberg, 51, was named the Pacific Coast League Manager of the Year after leading the Iowa Cubs to an 82-62 record. He led Double-A Tennessee to the Southern League championship series in 2009, and spent two seasons as the manager at Class A Peoria.

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That makes it sound like they kind of expect him to get mad and leave.

I'd be more behind this move if Ryno joins the team in some capacity. I'm not too sure of this hire. Sandberg put in the time, is a local hero, did well in the minors, and would make interest in the Cubs skyrocket.

They're right. That's what I was hoping for.

Here's the counterpoint to that. Ricketts has already said that he expects the 2011 payroll to be less than 2010. That tells me that we will be a young team for at least the next year or so while some of those bad contracts come off the books. Quade showed some success down the stretch playing a lot of young kids. Seems like he would be a good candidate going forward if they plan on having a similar roster next year. Likewise, if they plan on spending less money next year the team will probably not be any better or at least not significantly better. Would you really want a Cub legend managing a team that is most likely going to suck? Ricketts is a Cubs fan first. He probably doesn;t want to see Ryno's HOF playing career messed up because of a year or two managing a sub-par team. If Ryno can swallow his pride and sit next to Quade for the next year or two, he would almost be a no brainer to take over when hopefully the Cubs will have money to spend on better players. Then if Ryno fails, it's all on him. Just a thought.

I agree, all good points. Next year's team looks to be a lot of the same.

But I will readily admit that I just want Ryno to coach because he is who he is, and I don't feel like waiting.

Gotta say. I like Quade, but it sucks to not see Sandberg not given the job. This article pretty much sums up my gut feelings:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/ct-spt-1020-cubs-rogers-quade-mike-ch20101019,0,3574360.column

From Muskat's blog two days ago:

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Ryne Sandberg said he was disappointed that he didn't get the Cubs managing job but still has a dream of managing in the Major Leagues. He was bypassed as the Cubs decided to hire Mike Quade as manager.

"From my standpoint, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't disappointed," Sandberg said on WMVP AM 1000 Tuesday. "I got the call [this morning] and they told me it went down to the wire and obv I was one of the last two guys standing and they made their decision. That's it in a nutshell. It's a disappointing day for sure."

Sandberg was not offered a job on Quade's staff, and said he was "digesting" the news and deciding which direction to go.

"I spent the four years in the Minor Leagues to manage at the Major League level," he said. "I think that's where my heart is and that's where my next step is. I think that's where I look at next. I'll take it a step at a time and look at my next opportunity and go from there."

He called his time in the Cubs' Minor League system as a "positive opportunity." Sandberg managed four years in the Minors, beginning with two seasons at Class A Peoria, then another at Double-A Tennessee before moving up to Triple-A Iowa. He was named Pacific Coast League manager of the year this season.

He met twice with GM Jim Hendry, once with assistant GM Randy Bush and also with Tom Ricketts and Crane Kenney.

"All I can say from my standpoint is, I was well prepared, I felt very good about it," Sandberg said of the process. "Managing four years in the Minor Leagues went a long way with my presentation and what I knew about the organization and the young players and about teaching and having a game plan and philosophy and something I wanted to instill in the Cubs. Those four years went a long way in that process for me. I don't look back at anything. I felt I made the most of my opportunity and had success and there's no looking back."

So, no regrets?

"Reflecting back, there's no regrets," Sandberg said. "I wish Mike Quade the best and the Cubs the best and the Ricketts family."

He wasn't sure if he will return to the Cubs and manage again at Triple-A.

"I still have the ambition to do this at the Major League level," Sandberg said. "After some digesting and like I said, seeing if other opportunities come about, I'll listen to those opportunities and take it from there."

-- Carrie Muskat

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I hadn't realized he was not going to be offered a job on Quade's staff. Last I'd heard (yesterday), no decisions had been made.

http://muskat.mlblogs.com/archives/2010/10/1019_sandberg_no_regrets.html

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Sandberg was not offered a job on Quade's staff

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I'm not disappointed at all with him not being named manager, but this bothers me. He probably would have turned it down anyway, but at least make him the offer.

Undercover Boss featuring Todd Ricketts will air Nov 7th on CBS

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"Undercover Boss" takes top executives out of their cushy suites and sticks them in lower level positions at their own companies under a false identity. The Chicago Tribune earlier reported that Todd Ricketts grew facial hair and wore glasses to affect a different look while working on the grounds crew, as a vendor, in the Captain Morgan Club and even emptying trash outside Wrigley Field during the Aug. 30-Sept. 8 homestand in which the Cubs were 5-4.

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http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/towerticker/2010/10/todd-ricketts-undercover-boss-cubs-episode-set-for-nov-7-on-cbs.html

now that 2010 is officially over... what are the chances that Josh Vitters has a Starlin Castro-like emergence and can take over the 1B hole in 2011?

I wouldn't count on it, but it's nice to dream about. I'm still hoping we go get Adam Dunn to play 1B. Not sure what the payroll will be like, though.