Cubbie Hole

For Rent

Stepping up from the bowels of disappointment and medicority: it's the Pittsburgh Pirates starting rotation! Congratulations to Josh Fogg, Kris Benson, and Ryan Vogelsong who are the second recipients of the coveted "Steve Finley Award". Unlike the previous recipient, Rob Mackowiak, this one is awarded in honor of the futility of good performances on bad teams. Despite their admirable efforts, the trio receiving the award today has only a single win to show for it (and none of the 3 even collected that win). True to the spirit of taking their lumps, however, the latter 2 recipients collected the loss in their respective games.

In 3 games against the Cubs, these fireballers compiled 19 1/3 innings of work while allowing 4 earned runs (1.86 ERA) with a 0.78 WHIP ratio and a 17:4 K/BB ratio. Pretty impressive, huh?

Congratulations, guys!

I'm also taking bets on when a Cubs player will receive the award. I'm thinking Rey Ordonez is on the verge of a breakout series buoyed by the success of his 2/16, 2-RBI series with the Bucs. Watch for the Cuban to make the Rebirds his personal whipping boy as he marches towards the Mendoza Line in that elusive quest for a .200+ batting average (only 2 hits away!).

On Idiots and the DL

I just can't help myself sometimes. This guy is just a magnet for my ire. No matter where I go to catch up on my baseball news, there's regularly some tidbit or other showing what a tempermental, arrogant, and immature person Josh Beckett is.

Yeah, yeah, yeah...Cubs blog...Marlins defeat Cubs....Josh Beckett owns Chicago and New York. Whatever. Bottome line? Josh Beckett was an absolutely dominating pitcher during the NLCS and World Series. Without a doubt, he won the games for his team that they needed to win. I'd like to think that part of the reason for his electric stuff in the post-season is due to the fact that he only started 23 games during the regular season and was better rested because of it. Sound like someone else you know and love?

But my dislike for him is a well documented subject. Now that he's back on the disabled list with the pesky blisters that have been a plague on his young career, imagine my surprise (or lack thereof) when I caught this tidbit on BenMaller.com from Philly.com:

Marlins World Series hero Josh Beckett, unhappy at being placed on the disabled list with a nasty blister, called trainer Sean Cunningham an "idiot" and a "jackass." That prompted manager Jack McKeon to post a notice in the clubhouse. "To Whom It May Concern: Leave your egos at the door. We won last year with 25 playing as a team."

Wanting to make sure I at least attempted to get a fair, unbiased grasp of the situation, I went out in search of blogs for the Marlins faithful. The only active Marlins blog I could find is a very well written and thoughtful one that I ready daily during the NLCS series - The Book of Mike. While I didn't find anything about his recent trainer commentary on his blog (check out The Palm Beach Post for more Marlins pitchers commentary), I did find some more gems from Beckett in this post.

That's all I have to say about that. </Forrest Gump>

Introducing the "Steve Finley Award"

During a 3-game series against the Diamondbacks April 26-28, the Cubs faced a fearful cub slayer. This man laughed in the face of a $4M high-profile free agent reliever signed in the off-season. Twice. He scoffed at the prospect of facing the returning prodigal son. Twice.

No, he's not the right-handed power hitter of the D-Backs lineup (probable season-ending shoulder surgery notwithstanding). And, despite decent power numbers throughout his career, he's not the bubble-gum chewing left-handed thump of the lineup either.

He's Steve Finley.

Over-dramatizing? Sure, especially considering the D-Backs lost the game where he hit 3 HRs (all solo). But the fact remains that during that 3-game series, he absolutely gobbled Cubs pitching. Not content with a simple flash in the pan performance, he came to Wrigley a week later and hit two more bombs off of Cubs pitching (Mitre and Wood). For those of you counting at home, that's 6 home runs in 6 games against the Cubs. Mercifully, it only adds up to 8 RBIs and none of his performances single-handedly caused the Cubs to lose that game.

While watching Rob Mackowiak slap us across the face, not once, not twice, but THREE TIMES, I was reminded of Steve Finley's performances against our much lauded pitching staff. Except this time, it hurt. A lot. When it was all said and done, the Cubs were in 4th place in the division behind the Cardinals (1.0 game), Astros (1.0 game), and Reds (3.5 games) with a half game lead over the Brewers for 5th place..

This is the part where I start talking to myself.

Me: You know something? There's been a lot of guys this year that the Cubs have made look like superstars.
Self: You mean like Casey Daigle? Paul Wilson? Jeff Weaver? ...
Me: Yeah, it's like the 24-hour flu. Except, instead of causing you to lay in bed wondering why you ate the double-chili burger, you go out slap around some pro baseball players that happen to call themselves the Chicago Cubs.
Self: We should name this phenomenom. That way we can collect royalties when it becomes popular.
Me: Riiiiiiiiight.

And so the Steve Finley Award was born out of the incoherent mental ramblings of an irate Cub fan. I figure there's probably a guy like this in most series the Cubs play, although I make no guarantees. It's certainly not restricted to the Cub's opponents either. If Jose Macias wants to make a bid for the award, you won't hear me complain. But if Lance Berkman continues to play whiffle ball at Wrigley in the next few days, he won't find his way to receiving the award because at least we expect that of him. So, no whining when you find Rob Mackowiak's smirking mug up here 10 days after he danced on our tattooed butts.

Damn You, Dusty

Ok, so Barrett's starting tonight instead of Bako making my previous rant just about irrelevant. I guess that's what I get for assuming.

Bako Over Barrett?

With all the myriad of injuries the Cubs are battling through so far this season, the "Lemons" are seeing quite a bit of playing time. I'm certainly not complaining about their overall performance so far. It's certainly made me feel a lot better about the strength of the bench for later on in the season.

But I can't figure out for the life of me why Bako started last night instead of Barrett. Baker pulls the slumping Martinez from the No. 2 spot in the batting order and inserts Barrett in it for the start of the Cardinals series. Barrett responds with a 2-5, 2 solo home run game and the Cubs web site responds with this rosey piece. The next day, Barrett finds himself back in the No. 7 slot (Todd Walker in at No. 2 with Goodwin leading off). Barrett goes 1-3 with an RBI. The Cubs finish their series with St. Louis the next day (Barrett goes 0-4) and have an off-day on Monday.

Then Bako gets the start against Houston. Neither catcher has significant stats against Oswalt to justify a switch based on performance. With Maddux next in the rotation for today's game, it's almost guaranteed that Bako will be starting today as well. So, you've got your starting catcher who has hit safely in 6 of his last 7 games (.307 BA) with 3 HRs, 6 RBIs. You juggle him around in the lineup a bit and he responds well to it.

And then you decide to arrange things so that he sits for 3 days?

Hey, I understand juggling the lineup a bit when hitters aren't finding their stroke well. With Patterson and Martinez swatting flies and Sosa on the DL, this certainly qualifies as one of those times. But with Baker stating, "I prefer a set lineup. Players prefer a set lineup. (...) I don't tinker for the sake of tinkering." I have to wonder what he's thinking.

Am I too far beneath him to grasp what he's doing here? With Bako being (essentially) the personal catcher for Maddux, Barrett is guaranteed at least one day off a week, which should keep him rested and healthy. Is he nursing a minor injury that I missed? Did his wife give birth, or what?