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Cubs-Diamondbacks Preview: April 29-May 2

April 29, 2010 by · Leave a Comment 

In case you missed it, Lou Piniella had a little back-and-forth jabber with a reporter after yesterday’s 3-2 loss to the Washington Nationals. It’s good to see that Sweet Lou still has a little baseball life left in him. I was beginning to think he had lost all of his passion, kind of like the Cubs’ offense against the Nasty Nats pitching staff. The North Siders managed only seven runs against Washington after pounding out 25 in the weekend series against Milwaukee. What gives? On paper, this team has more than enough offensive ...

Lou Piniella Needs To Learn How To Win at Wrigley Field

April 29, 2010 by · Leave a Comment 

"What kind of baseball do you play?" That question was addressed to George Castle by Cub manager Lou Piniella yesterday when Castle questioned his strategy in the eighth inning of a Cubs loss to the Washington Nationals. The question asked was why with a man on second and nobody out and Mike Fontenot at the plate and the Cubs trailing by a run that Piniella didn't have him bunt him over to third. Castle has been a long-time media member following the Cubs. He's a guy with the reputation of asking the tough questions and in this case, may I say, the smart question. Piniella ...

So Far in 2010, Marlon Byrd Is the Word for the Chicago Cubs

April 29, 2010 by · Leave a Comment 

When your top offseason acquisition is a hitting coach, you know it was a quiet winter. But Cubs outfielder Marlon Byrd is doing his best to get people talking about him—rather than hitting coach Rudy Jaramillo. Byrd was overlooked when he was brought into the fold on the last day of 2009. The impending New Year (and an episode of Jersey Shore, as I recall) was on more minds than Marlon was. Byrd had a very quiet 20-home run, 89-RBI season a year ago, and it was easy to dismiss his signing as "just another guy." People pointed out that Rangers Ballpark was a hitter's ...

Bringing Up the Cubs’ Starlin Castro Fine As Long As Lou Is Patient

April 29, 2010 by · Leave a Comment 

This is not simply a reaction to the post by Bruce Levine, who is wrong more often than he is right. There seems to be legitimate buzz around the Cubs organization about bringing up young stud Starlin Castro. But it doesn't necessarily mean the end of Ryan Theriot as a Cub, for they may simply move The Riot to second base and play Castro at short. Regardless of what they do with Theriot, one thing for sure is that they won't bring up Castro to sit on the bench. He will not come up until manager Lou Piniella can guarantee him regular ...

Livan Hernandez is Officially an Ace thanks to Win Over Chicago

April 28, 2010 by · Leave a Comment 

For the fourth time this season, Livan Hernandez put the Nationals on his back and carried them late into the game. By doing that, he gave them a chance to earn a victory. With early run support, Washington was able to do just that as they defeated the Cubs 3-1 and nipped a one game losing streak in the bud. Throughout baseball, the aces of pitching staff's are called stoppers. They are the pitchers who managers, general managers and fans feel comfortable putting in every fifth day to make sure that no losing streak gets out of control. That's exactly what Livan did for the ...

2010 Fantasy Baseball Waiver Watch: Three Hot Bats You Must Know About

April 26, 2010 by · Leave a Comment 

As we approach the month of May, player injuries, slow starts, and roster tinkering are wreaking havoc on fantasy rosters in all formats across the fantasy landscape. But hey, what else is new, right? Screaming at your computer monitor or Blackberry update will not alleviate your problems, nor will crazy-desperate trade considerations. What can help is utilizing the hot bats for this week in plug-and-play situations to open up the door for added opportunities. Let’s take a look at three hot bats that have a huge ceiling for success in a plug-and-play role this week.   Seth Smith–OF–Colorado Rockies: Smith has been slowly ...

National League Playoff Chances with Accuscore

April 26, 2010 by · Leave a Comment 

Over at Federal Baseball they have a great collection of stories which look into just exactly how good the Nationals are. It's a useful debate, especially considering the fact that many outlets predicted the Nationals to finish, at best, fourth in the National League East. Starting this week, we will be looking at the shape of the National League playoff race every Monday with the help of Accuscore. As you can see below, the Nationals 4-3 record last week helped them improve their playoff chances from 7.8 percent to 13.9 percent. Accuscore also projects that they have a 9.3 percent chance ...

Cubs-Nationals: What To Look For In The Upcoming Series

April 26, 2010 by · Leave a Comment 

If only the Cubs could play the Milwaukee Brewers every day. The Cubs (9-10) exceeded my expectations with an impressive sweep of Milwaukee over the weekend and flip-flopped places with the Brew Crew in the NL Central. They move to 5-1 against the Brewers and second in the Division. Optimism is back on the North Side, and the Washington Nationals (10-9) come into town to kickoff a seven-game home stand starting today. The Nationals have been playing over their heads in the early going, so the Cubs shouldn’t take them lightly. Last season, ...

Catching up with the Chicago Cubs – View From The Bleachers

April 26, 2010 by · Leave a Comment 

 To help preview the coming series against the Chicago Cubs, we sat down with Joe Aeillo from an outstanding Cubs blog, View From The Bleachers . Go check out their site, they do some really cool stuff over there. I also prepared a short preview for them which I will post here once it gets put up. Anyways, Joe and I talked about Riggleman, Strasburg, Zambrano, and getting the Cubs back to the World Series. The Nats Blog: Can this team as it stands make it back to the post season and compete for that elusive World Series title? ...

Top Five Chicago Cubs by Last Name: “A”

April 26, 2010 by · Leave a Comment 

With such a rich and lengthy history, the Cubs have seen roughly 2,000 don the Cubbie blue over the years. Because of that, I thought it would be fun to name who I feel are the top five players for all 26 letters of the alphabet, going by last name. To qualify, the player needs only to have played at least one game for the Cubs. However, only stats and accomplishments that took place while the player was with the Cubs will be considered. Because of that, you will not find someone like Richie Ashburn on the following list, despite the fact ...

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