5/2: Chicago Cubs at St. Louis Cardinals, 3-5
5/3: Chicago Cubs at St. Louis Cardinals, 9-3
5/4: Chicago Cubs at St. Louis Cardinals, 3-5
Pros:
Ted Lilly -
He is finally rebounding and is pitching like he should be. He's not flashy, nor particularly great as a pitcher, but he gets the job done.
He pitched 7 solid innings on Saturday, only allowing 3 runs. That's your prototypical Lilly outing. The offense picked him up as they scored nine.
He has now pitched 3 straight quality outings after struggling enormously early in the season.
Is it too early to say that we've got our no. 3 guy back? Now if we only had a legitimate no. 2 starter, we'd be set.
Bullpen -
Believe it or not, they did not completely suck. They were good all series long, but were put in an unfortunate situation as Hill was pulled early in game one.
Despite being overtaxed in game one, where Chad Fox was asked to do something you should not ask Chad Fox to do.
Marmol was lights-out as usual.
Cons:
Derrek Lee -
Yes, he does contribute, but he was a non-factor in this series. He has been a non-factor for a while now.
Lee can go 2-for-3 in a game, but he just does not drive in runs like he should. He continues to be a non-factor and maybe it was because of Ramirez's injury or not, but it still remains an issue.
He sure is not going to win an MVP by not being an impact player. We already have a consistent contributor in Kosuke Fukudome. What we need is an impact player that will drive in runs and get extra-base hits. That player is supposed to be Derrek Lee. He really needs to step up and fill that void in the lineup more consistently.
Alfonso Soriano -
Soriano's one-hit-per-game season continues. Yes, he did come through in the ninth on Friday, I'll give him that.
You are never going to find a bigger advocate of Soriano batting lead-off than me, but even I have to admit that this is getting a little ridiculous.
Soriano will inevitably heat up soon, but the problem is when he is slumping. And given that Soriano is one of the most streakiest hitters in the Majors, he is hurting this team by not getting on base enough.
A lead-off hitter should be able to get on base even if he are slumping, but Soriano's refusal to draw walks is quickly becoming a big problem.
There are two solutions as I see it. One is batting Fukudome second to combat Soriano's shortcomings, the other is to drop Soriano in the lineup. I will add that I am not a fan of him batting second, that's worse than him batting first.
To me there is only two realistic choices: first or fifth in the lineup. I'd stretch to maybe batting him cleanup, but Ramirez is a better hitter and a better insurance behind D-Lee.
Rich Hill -
Poor guy. He is not a bad pitcher, but he just has not been able to get things done this year.
He has struggled enormously with the mental part of baseball and now finds himself back in AAA because of it.
He was supposed to be the guy that stepped up, but could not hack it. So now the Cubs rotation is getting shuffled around yet again.
Lieber is not a bad substitute though, so fortunately the only thing to come out of this is a realization that the Cubs need to improve their rotation before August/September.
Next Series:
Coming soon...
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2 months ago
I agree with most that you said. But Derrek Lee not contributing? He leads the team leading the majors in offense in RBI and home runs! C'mon man!
from 2 months ago
He could do more. We already have Aramis Ramirez, Alfonso Soriano, Ryan Theriot, etc., all of whom are extremely streaky hitters. Derrek Lee can't go 0-for-4 or 0-for-3 with 1-2 walks during one week, he needs to do more.
Yes, you are right in that he has good numbers. But if you read my previous pros and cons, you'll see that I give him enormous credit for it. But that was the first 3 weeks, he has dropped off significantly after that. He needs to be more even this year for the Cubs to be able to stay on top in this division. The Cards are only going to get better once they get their pitchers back, and the Brewers are capable of going on runs throughout the season.
All I am saying is that given our pitching, which is mediocre at best (cumulatively), we need consistent offense. It doesn't take a baseball genius to see that the Cubs struggle in that department. They score 7-8 runs against the Mets, then 0-3 runs against the Nationals. They also scored 19 runs on the Brewers, and then 3 runs in two games against the Cardinals. Their pitching is good, but not that good. You can't beat up on their best pitcher to date this season, Kyle Lohse, and then not beat up on Wellemeyer.
The Cubs are not consistent enough, not even close. That's why they need Derrek Lee to be more consistent.
from 2 months ago
Yes the consistency isn't there. I completely agree. But although Lee failed the past few games he is still as solid as it gets. He even took the blame for the past few losses so he knows whats needed of him. But the only player 2 players on the team this year are not surprisingly Marmol and Big Z, so yes it would be great to see the offense become more consistent, not to mention the horrible defense of late.
2 months ago
Ted Lilly looked filthy at times on Saturday. I'd say he could be a no. 2 pitcher when at his best. Good article.
GO CARDS
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