Practically every game the cameras zoom in on Wrigleyville's "Eamus Catuli!" sign, the Latin version of Let's Go Cubs, which I never really understood. Who goes to the trouble of making a sign in Latin to cheer on a team?

Lately I don't want to cheer the Cubs in any language. For more than a week I was in transistion, moving into a new apartment, acquiring cable and Internet once again, and taking care of things more important than blogging about the Cubs. Now that I've got my free time back, the Cubs went on a tear of..really poorly played games. Honestly, who drops 4 of 6 to the Mets and Reds? Weren't the Cubs supposed to have the easiest road to the playoffs?

I could rip on LaTroy Hawkins and Sammy Sosa's .250 batting average - among other things - but what's the point? I've been hearing it everywhere- the Cubs have the talent, but they're playing bad baseball. The Cubs aren't out of it, yet. Are they playing like they want it? Um, no. Are they playing like they deserve it? See last answer. Could they still pull it off? Sure. They're still a game back at most after tonight, and the Giants end their season away at the Dodgers.

But wait- here comes Houston. After sweeping the Cardinals, who weren't playing their best starters, they face the Rockies to end the season, and somehow I don't have a lot of faith in the Rockies as playing the part of the spoilers. If the Cubs do manage to squeak into the wild card lead by the end of the season, I don't expect them to go far at all. If they can't beat clubs like the Reds and the Mets, does anyone really have faith they could make it past the Braves? Does anyone think they could win a game?

I'm leaning towards no.

- posted by Mike J. @ 10:10 PM
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Cubbies split today, and I can't say I expected more. It was in an odd fashion, getting shut out in the first game before trouncing the single-A callup Logan Kensing in a pleasing 11-2 win. Cub Nation itself wavered between the games, ready to give up on their playoff hopes, but they showed that they are indeed capable of executing the fundamentals.

A couple of notes on the games-

• Corey Patterson made the play of the year when he sprinted for a fly ball, laid out to catch it, and then slid on his face for a solid 2 yards. We knew it already, but in a league where there are more than a few decent center fielders, Corey is certainly Gold Glove worthy.
• Is anyone else a little curious how Neifi Perez went 4 for 4 in the second game plus getting a base on balls? I had written him off as another Rey Ordonez, but I don't think Rey-Rey was ever capable of something like this. I don't expect him to ever do it again, but I'll take it.
• Prior looked like Prior, throwing eight innings and giving up only 2 ER, and Wood looked like, well, Wood pitching with a lousy defense behind him. If I were general manager, I would have cut Ramon Martinez immediately after flubbing his second consecutive throw to first on a sacrifice bunt. I think Pat Hughes said it best- when the team lays down a sacrifice bunt, they're giving you the out, and you've got to take it. Of course Jim Hendry would never immediately cut someone, but he should at least be made to sit in a corner with a dunce hat on for a while.

As of this post the Astros are down 4-1 in the middle of the eighth, and if they lose they'll be tied with the Cubs in the Wild Card race and leave San Francisco all alone in the lead, which they'll probably keep for another day. They face Randy Johnson and a couple of fans the D-Backs pulled from the stands, so expect a 2-0 victory for the Giants in another complete game loss for Johnson.

- posted by Mike J. @ 7:38 PM
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The Cubs managed to drop Scott Downs' ERA a point and a half in one night, and somehow I'm not surprised. Amazingly the Astros have come from the lower half of the division to claim second place as well as the Wild Card for the moment, and perhaps this will cause them to realize how poorly they're playing right now.

Tomorrow's a double header that would have made me tingle in anticipation last year with Prior and Wood both taking the mound, but instead I'm only semi-confident in Wood and I can only pray that Prior gets through 5 innings with minimal damage.

Two days ago a full page article filled the back of the Chicago Tribune's sports page about what the Cubs' starting rotation would be in the playoffs, and while I have to admit I ponder these things from time to time, this is probably screwing with their heads as much as anything. The Cubs obviously are missing something - chemistry, whatever you want to call it - and I think everyone in Cubland is paying more attention to October than to the present. All the Cubs should really be worrying about is making the playoffs rather than winning the whole thing- if they do, it'll be the first time they've made the playoffs back to back since, well, 1907 and '08.

- posted by Mike J. @ 2:23 PM
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Despite what you hear from the Cubs about last night's game, the Cubs did not lose because the wind was blowing in. The wind didn't make Matt Clement's neck flare up. The wind didn't push Mike Remlinger's pitches out of the strike zone It didn't make Mosies Alou strike out with men on the corners and one out and it sure didn't make Jose Macias worth any more than the jersey he was wearing. If you can see where I am going, you will notice that I don't buy this talk that the wind cost the Cubs the game. Dusty Baker claimed that the wind cost the Cubs 5, maybe 6 home runs. That's all well and good because yes, Derrek Lee's fly out in extra innings was likely long gone on any normal day. However, did anyone bother to tell Dusty that the Cubs only scored their first three runs as a result of possibly one of the five worst defensive plays of the year? I have little sympathy for Dusty complaining about his wind adjusted fly outs when the Cubs would not have even been into extra innings if not for that terrible play.

What bothers me the most though is the fact that the Cubs kept harmlessly flying out. Most of these Cub players have played a significant amount of games at Wrigley field and so should know what it is like to go from wind out to wind in from one day to the next. Are the Cubs hitters not good enough to recognize that the were not going to hit the ball out unless they hit for line drives? Did someone forget to tell them that it wasn't 90 outside and the wind wasn't blowing straight out? I have to believe some of these Cub hitters, cough Aramis Ramirez, know when they need to hit a line drive because the wind doesn't favor them. I sure hope they know how to change their style otherwise they are in for a rude awakening when or rather if they get to see the lovely weather Chicago throws at them in mid-October.

I don't really have much more to say as I am pretty much disgusted with the game last night. The Cubs are facing a virtual must win tonight as the Astros have already won and the Marlins currently lead the Mets. The Cubs cannot afford to limp into the series this weekend as they already seem to have enough problems getting pumped for big games. I could say something about the Cubs' mental makeup but I think 26 games in 24 days will tell us all we need to know about this team's mental toughness. At least if the Cubs lose tonight we will have the treat of listening to some more excuses. Maybe tonight's game will get blamed on Steve Stone.

- posted by Mike R. @ 6:20 PM
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Sammy Sosa sat out with bursitis in the hip on Monday, allowing Ben Grieve to crash into the wall and bloody up his eye in the Cubbies 9-1 victory. Its weird to call any repercussion of a hurricane a blessing, but the Cubs really did benefit from this break. You know Sosa would have played through this joint inflammation as best he could and probably let his game suffer in the process down this final stretch, and now he might get up to a week of rest if he sits out this Montreal series.

The days off are of course wonderful for Ramirez and his groin as well, who is the most important player on this Cubs roster- according to Baseball Prospectus, as of September 6th Ramirez's VORP is 48.3, 3.5 points higher than the next highest (Derrek Lee) and 11.3 higher than 3rd (Alou). If the Value over Replacement Player stat doesn't do much for you, consider that in the 16 games Aramis has sat out because of his groin injury the Cubs are 7-9, and in those 9 losses the Cubs managed only 1.78 runs per game.

Of course, during their unexpected 4-day rest the Cubs saw their Wild Card lead threatened not only by San Francisco but also by Houston, who came out of nowhere to win 10 straight pull within a game and a half of the Cubs. There is no denying that the Astros are playing spectacular baseball when no one thought they would- in 10 games they've scored 95 runs or, if you prefer, 1/7th of their total runs scored for the season.

On top of the 10 games they've already won against Chicago, Cincinnati and Pittsburgh, they have 7 more against Cincy and Pittsburgh, 6 more against Milwaukee, and then finish their season with a 3-game set against Colorado. Of course, they have a crucial 9 games against real contenders, playing St. Louis 6 times and San Francisco 3 before its all over. If they keep beating up on the sub-.500 teams they'll have a great shot at the final playoff spot, but they could lose any sort of advantage they have if they don't show up for that series in San Fran.

Speaking of the Giants, their schedule doesn't work out nearly as nicely as Houston's. Their next 8 games are against Colorado, Arizona, and Milwaukee, but they finish their season by playing 15 games straight against playoff contenders- there's the 3 I mentioned against Houston, and then 6 each against San Diego and Los Angeles.

And then there's the Cubs. The Cubs have the maddening potential to win or lose any of the series they have left in the season, so any game is as important as the next. The most important ones, though, are the 6 games left against Florida and the final series of the season against Atlanta. If the Cubs still have the lead by the end of the season, you've got to hope they have a comfortable cushion in the Wild Card race, because the Braves don't show many signs of slowing.

One game at a time, though. Clement goes against the Expos today, so let's hope the offense gives him the minimal support he needs.

- posted by Mike J. @ 11:49 AM
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The Cubs finally get back to business tomorrow with another series against Montreal, this time at Wrigley. The last couple of days have been strange not having any Cubs baseball to watch, but I've managed to make a few observations, which I'll keep brief-

• The St. Louis Cardinals are really, really good. They swept the Dodgers with an extra innings win today, and while they didn't win in dominating fashion, they still swept a team they'll likely see in the postseason. It also puts them at 48 games over .500. With 26 games left in the season, its entirely possible for them to have their best regular season ever as a franchise and win more than 106 games, something they last did in 1943. When your division rival is this good, there's not a whole lot you can say.
• The Boston Red Sox seem to be getting as much help, if not more, as the Cubs from the four-team trade that sent Nomar to Chicago. They lead in the AL Wild Card race and are a paltry 2.5 games back in the AL East. I'm relatively indifferent towards the Red Sox, but then again I know I'm not a Yankees fan, so go BoSox.
• The Giants are now tied with the Cubs for the Wild Card. However, they've played 6 more games than the Cubs have already, which gives an edge to the Cubbies. since they'll have plenty of time to make up ground by the end of the season if they do fall behind. It does put pressure on the Cubs to perform well, and I can't tell if that's good or bad for them.
• Kent Mercker symbolizes what is wrong with this Cubs team. He whines and he's the poster child for a lousy bullpen.

That's all I got for now. Let's hope the Cubs can capitalize on some extra days of rest and start playing like they can against the Expos this time around.

- posted by Mike J. @ 7:34 PM
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I'm not going to lie, I don't like Olympic Stadium and I don't like the Montreal Expos. I don't dislike them out of spite nor do I hate them for any particular thing they have done I just plainly don't like them. Maybe my hard feelings have something to do with the near disastrous trip the Cubs took north of the border this week or the several disastrous trips to the great city of Montreal the Cubs have taken in years past. For some reason I can't explain, the Expos and their stadium bring out the worst in the Chicago Cubs and this week was no different. If not for one of the best pitching outings of the season by a Cub pitcher, the baby bears would have likely been stopped at the border and told they weren't welcome in the USA. That being said the Cubs were still able to leave Olympic Stadium winners of two out of three and alone atop the NL wildcard. While this week's series did not feature many highlights there were some positives to take from these three games.

• When the Cubs needed a dominant, ace-like performance Kerry Wood was up to the task, going 8 outstanding innings, striking out 11 and walking only 1. After a start in which Wood did everything humanly possible to allow the Astros to thrash the Cubs, Wood last night was about the only thing that kept the Cubs from losing. Short of hitting a game winning homerun, Kerry kept the Cubs in the game with terrific stuff and some fantastic defense. What was so great about Kerry's start last night was the one walk in eight innings of work. You will not often see Kerry Wood go eight innings and only walk one batter but after free pass night the evening before, the performance was greatly welcomed.



• It is nice to see the Cubs win a series despite not hitting any homeruns and getting virtually nothing from the first two batters in the lineup. After the honeymoon that was this lineup scoring around 6 runs a game for a nice stretch the Cubs bats came back down to earth hard. I will admit I nearly broke my ankle jumping onto the new lineup bandwagon but after what I saw this week I think I will relax a bit and realize that this is still at times a flawed collection of hitters. Hopefully the poor hitting can be attributed to the voodoo that the Expos practice on the Cubs and is not a sign of bad things to come.

That's all I have for today. After a very stressful three hours last night I get to relax today as the Cubs have an off day and head back to Chicago to wait out hurricane Frances. Unfortunately, instead of enjoying a stress free night devoid of sports watching I will be watching my Wildcats open the season against TCU. However, this is obviously not a Northwestern football blog so I will not torture you with my feelings on the men in purple.

- posted by Mike R. @ 10:04 AM
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Excuse me for being a tad bit cynical but I am far from impressed with the Cubs' latest acquisitions of outfielder Ben Grieve from Milwaukee and backup catcher Mike DiFelice from Detroit. DiFelice should be able to battle Paul Bako for the player who should most be wearing a triple A uniform award as he currently is hitting a robust .136 in his 13 major league games with no homeruns and 2 RBIs. Ben Grieve on the other hand is actually a solid addition as he provides a much needed lefty power bat off of the bench. Grieve was hitting .261/.364/.415 with 7 homeruns and 29 RBIs in 234 at bats for the Brewers. I do not have a problem with Grieve as a player, only that his signing most likely signals the end of the line for Todd Hollandsworth who was a valuable bench asset and our most dangerous hitter off of the bench. Todd had a great early part of the season and deserved much better than this. He would have provided a key lefty bat off of the bench in late game situations. While he may somehow make it back for the end of the season this signing would seem to indicate the the Cubs at least think Todd is done for the season.

- posted by Mike R. @ 10:10 AM
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As of my writing this, September 1, 2004, Mark Prior is 4-4 with a 4.87 ERA, 96 strikeouts and 41 walks. To compare that to last year's amazing season, at this point in 2003 Prior was 14-5 with a 2.36 ERA and in the midst of a terrific 10-1 stretch. In 16 games this season, Prior has walked 41 men while in 30 games last season he walked only 50. Obviously, the stats speak for themselves: something is not right in the world of Mark Prior. Now after last night's loss I could spend my whole morning ranting about how the Cubs got completely outplayed in every facet of the game for nine innings by the hapless Expos but Prior's outing last night has convinced me to tackle the issue of what ails Mark Prior.

If we accept that everything is not the same with Mark Prior as it seems is the case based on his numbers this year the question then follows of whether his struggles our mechanical, mental, or just the rest of the league catching up. First the mechanical. Ignoring Prior's earlier injury this season which would lead me to believe something might still be bothering him physically, I don't see a whole lot of evidence that he is having physical problems. He does not seem to be in any visible pain and his stuff seems to be on par with what it was last year. To use last night as an example his fastball was still popping Barrett's glove even after the 100th pitch and was consistently in Prior's normal 93-95 mph range. His fastball still has terrific late movement and seems to have lost nothing since the glory days of last year. His curveball has at times seemed to struggle as it might have lost a little crispness and control since last year but I also may be imagining things. He is striking out roughly 10.38 men per nine innings which is only .05 off his 2003 mark of 10.43/9. The only thing that would lead me to worry that he is still injured is that he was injured already this season and he may still be feeling the effects. If Prior is feeling any pain I believe he has to be shut down for the season as he is way too valuable to this team in the long run and the Cubs cannot afford too many more lackluster outings in the heat of the wildcard race.

So if Prior's trouble are not physical then perhaps he has hit a mental road block which would explain his struggles this season. I personally believe that Prior's struggles are most likely of the mental variety. This is a pitcher who has of his own admission never had a season like this and never really faced baseball adversity. After a tremendous 2003 season which opened some eyes and placed a lot of expectations on him Prior was hampered by an injury that kept him out of a good portion of this season and that has to be mentally taxing on a young player. It seems to me that Prior has lost some of that mental edge from last year. This is not even mentioning his conspiracy theories about being squeezed by the umps and his tendency to go off the deep end after any close call which doesn't go his way.

Warning: wild, unprovable conjecture ahead
Obviously these mental struggles are not a tangible thing and cannot be proven by any of the statistics but it seems that Prior just doesn't completely have it mentally this year. He often loses guys after getting them to an early two strike count and has several times given up big hits to the pitcher after seemingly getting out of jams. Take for example his start against Houston back on August 21. After walking himself into a jam, Prior faced the pitcher with 2 outs and the chance to work himself out of a jam. Instead of dispatching with Brandon Backe as he should have, Prior threw a lazy fastball which Backe smacked right back up the middle to score two runs and put the Cubs in an early hole. Instances like that one seem to me to indicate a pitcher that has all the right stuff but is missing something mentally. That does not mean is career is over or that he was overrated. It simply means he is a young pitcher going through the toughest stretch of his career and struggling a bit because of it.

Regardless of the cause of Mark Prior's 2004 woes the Cubs need a cure if they hope to make the playoffs and make any kind of serious run. I for one do not think that Prior has pitched himself into the bullpen as I think he is still one of our 3 most dangerous starters and the one who is most capable of throwing a 3 hit shutout in the playoffs. Prior is still a vicious competitor and would be a valuable asset in the playoff rotation. That being said I would like to see three straight solid outings from him before I am totally sold on his condition. He was on a decent string until last night and I would like to seem him start another string before I give my full endorsement. However, if an injury does present itself in the near future and we find out that Prior has been hurting all along, he must be immediately shut down for the season. He is way too valuable to the future of the Cubs to gamble on his health. As one of my favorite Cubs I personally hope Prior can find the old form and help the Cubs make the playoffs down the stretch.

- posted by Mike R. @ 9:16 AM
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Deciding I didn't have enough distractions in my life a couple of weeks ago, I started shopping for a baseball video game to fill some of my free time. I settled on EA's MVP Baseball 2004 for Xbox, far and away the best baseball video game since Bases Loaded. I wasn't that great at first, but since then I've learned the ropes and constructed the greatest team of all time in a fantasy draft to fill out the Cubs 2004 roster. My starting rotation dominated the leagues, with Mark Prior, Josh Beckett, Tom Glavine and a surging Ron Villone battling for the Cy Young award, and a 1-6 batting order of Johnny Damon, Bobby Abreu, Albert Pujols, Rookie of the Year Mike Jansen at 3rd base, and Richie Sexson tearing up opposing pitchers and shattering hit and home run records.

I've managed the dream team up until the final series of the season so far against an ailing Atlanta Braves squad, where they put on surely the most dominating performance of our generation, winning the first 2 games by margins of 20-0 and 21-0. I can't wait to play the last game of the season. Of course, once I stepped back to reality, I scoffed at the scoreboard, thinking such blowouts weren't possible in the real big leagues- well, at least as possible as hitting 93 home runs in a season.

Then I checked espn.com when I got home at 1am, and proceeded to pry my jaw from the space bar.

I think I may have to buy this one from mlb.com so I can watch it myself. As I'm sure you all know by now, the Cleveland Indians annihilated the New York Yankees 22-0. Twenty-freakin-two to zip. Sure, 95% of baseball fans are experiencing rapturous joy at this magnificent fall from grace by baseball's most expensive lineup, but I'm still in shock at this point. 49 at-bats. 218 pitches. 22 hits. 26 left on base. It's baffling.

Of course, the last team to get shut out so badly was the Cubbies back in 1975, who got an equally painful beating at the hands of the Pittsburgh Pirates (thanks espn.com, thanks for pointing that out). That's beside the point, though.

Anyway, Cubs are still in possession of the Wild Card along with San Fran, even though they don't deserve it right now. Thanks to the Cardinals - what? - San Diego remains a half game out, so hopefully they can salvage the series in the rubber game tomorrow.

- posted by Mike J. @ 1:36 AM
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