May 12, 2017
With baseball being my favorite sport and because it is a
long season I will publish weekly updates. Before I get to Chicago team woes,
there a couple of things happening that are interesting. The Yankees, Orioles,
Astros and Nationals seem to be the strongest teams. The biggest surprise among
those are the Yankees. Another thing I’ve never seen is a pitcher get hit by
line drives from consecutive batters in a White Sox-Orioles game.
Chicago Cubs – Things are not going as smoothly as last
year. In fact, things are a bit rocky. When I last posted things seem to be heading
in the right direction. Then they get swept by the Yankees (no shame there) and
lose 2 out of 3 to a hot Rockies team who lead their division. I don’t think the
Rockies will continue at this pace, but the Cubs just caught them at the wrong
time. With Arrieta’s problems, the team is down to two dependable starters. One
topic of conversation was centered on if the Cubs could afford to re-sign
him. With the way things are going they might
not want to bring him back at all. The hitting is not as good as it was last year.
Rizzo, Russell and Zobrist are all well below their norm. Although Russell hit
in the .240’s last year, the homers and runs batted in made that acceptable.
Without them .240 is just bad. When Baez and Solar came up many thought they
would be good if not great players. Well Solar is gone (in a great trade) and
Baez has been a liability. His bat was always suspect and the defense is not as
good. All those who were enamored with
Schwarber are finding that maybe he’s not as great as they thought. The lead
off experiment is not working out as well as expected. One of the hardest
things in sports it to win back to back championships. However, with the
busters in the N.L. Central the Cubs should turn things around and win this
division. After that it’s a crapshoot. Last thing, is with a team 17-17 how
many of those wins are due to Madden’s managing?
The Chicago “loyalty trumps winning” White Sox were 15-12 on
my last post. They are now owners of a 5 game losing streak and have a 15-17
record. There are many reasons. The first is they played the Orioles who may be
the best team in baseball (just wait Cub fans you get them on the road In
July). That team has great pitching, defense and power. Last year they hit over
250 homers. Next up a hot Minnesota team won 2, and lucky for the Sox the other
scheduled game was a rainout. However, the main reason this has changed is they
are a bad team. Only 2 batters are showing consistency. There are seven guys
who are automatic outs. When Frazier is out of the line-up, Davidson is a
better option. I still don’t know if he is the long term answer at third. He
like the rest of the team strikes out too often. Injuries have the Sox using 2
pitchers that haven’t won a game and should be not on a major league roster. With
the second baseman hitting close to .200, they should call up Moncado. According
to G.M. Rick Hahn this won’t happen because he needs more seasoning. However, the
major league experience could be more beneficial and much better than playing
Saladino at second base. It also may be time to try some of the minor league
pitching. Once again this won’t happen, they need more time. However, they
would be just as good as the other minor leaguers they are starting now.
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