Bleacher Report - Articles by Jason Pugh

Battle of Chicago: White Sox Return Favor and Sweep Cubs

Jason Pugh — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 03:54:02 -0400

Broom sales are at an all-time high in Chicago right now.

The Chicago Cubs swept their cross-town rival White Sox last weekend at Wrigley, and the Sox returned the favor this weekend on the south side.

As dominant as the Cubs looked at home, the White Sox held serve on their home turf and looked just as dominant.

Aramis Ramirez was the hero for the Cubs when the series was at Wrigley. It seemed as if he hit home runs during every at-bat. He even hit a walk-off homer in the series opener.

As hot as he was a week ago, he was ice cold for the rematch. Ramirez went 0-13 in the three-game series and came up empty in some clutch situations.

In the ninth inning of Saturday's afternoon game, the Cubs were trailing by one, with a runner on third and one out. Ramirez weakly grounded out, failing to bring the runner in. The Cubs couldn’t cash in with two outs, and they dropped the second game to the Sox.

In the series finale, the Cubs let Sean Marshall take the ball to try to avoid the sweep. Marshall is filling in for Carlos Zambrano, who missed his second game due to shoulder concerns.

Marshall pitched very well through seven innings, allowing only three runs. In the eighth inning, the Cubs went to another Iowa Cub who was just called up from the minors, Jose Ascanio.

Ascanio got the first two outs rather routinely, but then walked Jermaine Dye and gave up a tape-measure home run to Jim Thome.

The Thome blast made the score 5-1, seemingly out of reach. All five of the White Sox runs came via the home run on Sunday.

The Cubs were putting together a bit of a rally in the ninth, with the first two runners reaching base. But Jim Edmonds hit a rocket right at first base man Nick Swisher, and Mark DeRosa was doubled up at second.

Shortly thereafter, the Sox fans began the chants of “SWEEP, SWEEP”. Daryle Ward grounded out, and the series was over, with each team earning a sweep.

Both Chicago teams have been dominant at home, and less-than-impressive on the road (even in their own cities). They are both currently in first place at the midway point in the season.

There is still a lot of baseball left to be played, but it would be great to see this series, which is tied at three a piece right now, decided in October, with more than bragging rights on the line.

Chicago Cubs Drop Opener Versus Chicago White Sox

Jason Pugh — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 05:27:22 -0400

In the rematch series between the Chicago Cubs and Chicago White Sox, the Sox drew first blood.

The game had a three o'clock first pitch, but nobody told the Cubs to show up. The Cubs looked flat from the start and are starting a disturbing trend of not getting the clutch hits that they did earlier in the year.

I hate to pick on Cub manager Lou Piniella once things start to bounce against the Cubs, but I have a couple of problems with Friday's game.

First of all, Ryan Dempster was supposed to get an extra day of rest and not pitch until Saturday. I'm not sure why they felt the need to go with Dempster on Friday and give Sean Gallagher another day off, but they did.

Dempster faced the Sox on Friday at Wrigley and went eight innings only allowing one run. While he only threw 103 pitches it's important to note that last year he was a closer, and has already thrown more than 50 innings more than he threw all of last year!

Instead of skipping other starters to get to Dempster, the Cubs should be giving him an extra day off here and there to keep him strong in August and September.

Gallagher on the other hand hasn't pitched since last Thursday and will be going on eight days rest, and hopefully not too rusty.

Dempster had his worst outing of the year Friday without question, surrendering eight runs and is still winless on the road.

Another Piniella idea that needs to go away is the idea of having second basemen play the outfield. Mark DeRosa, Eric Patterson, Ronny Cedeno, and Alfonso Soriano were all infielders and have all spent time in the outfield.

Soriano has obviously made the move full time to left field, but is far from being a dependable left fielder.

Friday's game was the worst of Eric Patterson's career as he misplayed several balls, had an error, and the White Sox were running on his weak arm all game.

It's not very often you see a player tag up on a routine fly ball hit to left in the first inning. However, that's exactly what happened, and Patterson wasn't expecting it and it wasn't even a close play at second.

Carlos Quentin tested his arm on a base hit that shouldn't have even warranted sending the base runner from third, but again the throw was offline and Quentin scored rather easily.

On Patterson's lone error of the game, he completely missed a rolling base hit through the outfield and nonchalantly went after it allowing AJ Pierzynski to make it to third.

It's hard to get down on Patterson, since he's playing out of position. I'm not sure what the allure is of having people playing out of position. The Cubs have more than enough offense to go around and need to have somebody capable of playing the outfield.

I don't know why the Cubs won't give Matt Murton a shot, but he's on the major league roster, and I look for him to get a shot soon.

Piniella said the Eric Patterson experiment in left field has come to an end though. It's too bad for Patterson, he has speed, is left handed, and has hit a little when he has been up, he just is behind three or four other players at second.

Phoenix Suns Have Struggled Since Colangelo's Have Left

Jason Pugh — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 04:49:47 -0400

Jerry Colangelo sold the Phoenix Suns (among other teams) to Robert Sarver in the spring of 2004.

Colangelo is without question the preeminent figure in Arizona sports history. He ran the Suns for nearly 40 years, and brought the Diamondbacks into existence, along with the first championship Arizona has ever seen in 2001.

Bryan Colangelo was the teams GM when Sarver bought the Suns, and remained in that position until leaving for the Toronto Raptors in February of 2006.

Bryan had been the Suns GM for 11 years, and in 2005 won the NBA Executive of the Year award.

On a side note, while researching Bryan Colangelo I discovered he went to Cornell University. As one of my favorite characters from the TV show “The Office”, Andy Bernard would say, “I went to Cornell, ever heard of it?” So not only are the Suns losing out on a Colangelo, but also a Cornell grad.

What would happen now to the Suns who were without a Colangelo making decisions for the first time in nearly 40 years?

Well the Suns didn’t panic, and Coach Mike D’Antoni assumed the role of the General Manager and he and other high ranking officials made the personnel decisions.

Let’s take a look at some of these decisions and see how they turned out. First of all, the draft of 2006 was a complete and utter disaster.

The Suns had the 21^st and 27^th picks in the first round. In desperate need of a point guard to back up Steve Nash, it appeared the Suns had lucked out with three appealing options available.

Not wanting to pay the money to a first round pick, the Suns traded both picks and passed on Rajon Rondo—who I think has turned out well for Boston—Marcus Williams and Jordan Farmar among others.

They also could have taken European star Sergio Rodriguez and left him in Europe for awhile, and not had to worry about his cap number.

Instead the Suns traded both picks and made a bold move. By bold, I mean horrific. The Suns signed Marcus Banks to a five year deal at over $21 million. Now I consider myself a pretty intense NBA fan, and I’m not kidding, I had no idea who Marcus Banks was.

I figured it was a shrewd move by the Suns and didn’t really worry because I figured the “Nash Effect” would take over.

Every player that Steve Nash has played with since the second grade has turned into an All Star and had their best years while playing with him. Sadly enough though, not even the great Steve Nash could make Marcus Banks an NBA-caliber point guard.

Later in the ’06 off-season they felt the need to lock up Boris (Doris) Diaw to a long term deal. Diaw had a huge first year for the Suns; however, this was the same year that Amare Stoudemire missed due to his knee surgery.

Instead of waiting to see if the two could play together, the Suns gave Diaw a five-year deal worth $45 million and quickly found out that they can’t play together.

Both players are “back to the basket” type players and need the ball to be effective. It doesn’t help that Diaw is the softest player in the league and is as aggressive as a girl scout (that’s kind of mean to girl scouts, I take it back).

The Suns had a very bad week in May of 2007. After losing to the Spurs in the “Robert Horry cheap shot/Steve Nash bloody nose/Tim Donaghy throwing games” series; the Suns also lost out on the Hawks draft pick.

The pick would stay with the Hawks if it went into the top three picks, and of course it did.

Instead of getting a player like Al Horford or Mike Conley, the Suns added Alando Tucker and Darryl Strawberry’s son.

Shortly after the draft the Suns introduced Steve Kerr as the new GM. Kerr’s qualifications were that he knew Michael Jordan, was from Tucson(so is Sarver), and worked for TNT.

Kerr made a splash with one of his first moves, and this is arguably the single worst trade in the history of the NBA. Kerr traded Kurt Thomas, the only low post defender the Suns had, who had just given Tim Duncan fits in the playoffs, to Seattle.

What did the Suns get you ask? Wait a second; they also included two future first round picks in the deal. WOW! They must have pulled off a blockbuster!

Well, Mr. Kerr is pretty shrewd, and he was able to get a second round pick out of Seattle.

Let’s recap this one. Kurt Thomas, first round picks in ’08 and ’10 to Seattle for a second round pick.

What makes this trade worse is that Seattle traded Thomas to the Spurs for a first round pick in the middle of the season and Thomas was instrumental in sending the Suns home in the first round this past year.

The Sonics received three first round picks, and Kurt Thomas for half the season for a second round pick. This was obviously a money saving move by the Suns, but how much did it end up costing them?

In February of 2008 Kerr pulled off the blockbuster move by acquiring Shaq for Shawn Marion and dumping the Marcus Banks contract on the Heat.

Kerr said if the Shaq move didn’t work out that he’d be out of a job and he would be labeled a moron. Well he is right on one of the counts.

Kerr ran off Mike D’Antoni at the end of the season and the Suns run appears to be over, and that bright future looks really cloudy now.

Kerr says the Suns need to become better on defense and focus more time on the defensive end. This is a great idea in theory, but I have a question.

There is only one defensive player in the mix, and that is Raja Bell. Nash can’t stay in front of the quicker point guards, Shaq will get pick and rolled to death, Amare still makes silly decisions, and Doris is afraid he’ll break a nail.

At least with the run-and-gun style, Suns fans knew what they were getting: an up and down team that was as exciting as any.

Now with Terry Porter and Kerr at the helms, who knows what will happen, but I sure miss the glory days of...two years ago.

Cubs Sweep Sox—Champions of Chicago

Jason Pugh — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 17:16:23 -0400

The Chicago Cubs left little doubt who the winner of the Crosstown Classic was this weekend after finishing off a three-game sweep of the Chicago White Sox Sunday night.

Coming into the series, the clubs were heading in opposite directions. The Sox had just destroyed the Pittsburgh Pirates, scoring 37 runs in a three-game series sweep.

Meanwhile, the Cubs were swept by the Tampa Bay Rays, and suffered their first three-game losing streak of the year, and more importantly, were waiting for MRI results for ace pitcher Carlos Zambrano. Luckily Zambrano just has a mild shoulder strain and will miss just a couple of starts.

The series opener on Friday was the best and most exciting game of the series. In the seventh inning, the Cubs were trailing 3-1 and Sox manager Ozzie Guillen curiously pulled starter John Danks, who had shut down the Cubs throughout the game.

Octavio Dotel came in to the game and surrendered back-to-back home runs to Derrek Lee and Aramis Ramirez (the first two batters he faced) to tie the game. Ramirez saved his biggest hit for the ninth inning, when he launched a game-winning, walk-off home run off of Scott Linebrink.

It appeared that the second game of the series might get away from the Cubs when they were trailing 4-1 in the fourth inning and not getting very good swings off of Jose Contreras.

I’m not sure what happened in the fourth inning, but when the smoke had cleared, the Cubs had taken a 10-4 lead.

The bottom of the fourth started off with back-to-back home runs from Mike Fontenot and Jim Edmonds, and Aramis Ramirez would join the party also, by hitting a three-run shot to left.

Edmonds was the real story however, as he become just the third Cub in franchise history to hit two home runs in the same inning, by hitting another solo shot, the final run the Cubs scored in the nine-run fourth.

The final score was 11-7 after the Sox tacked on a couple of late runs, and the Cubs had won their 13th straight at home, while Jason Marquis won his sixth game of the year.

The Sunday night game was a showcase for Ryan Dempster, who has emerged as the Cubs' most consistent pitcher so far this year.

The Cubs jumped early on the Sox by scoring twice in the first, and that would be all that Dempster would need. He went eight strong innings and was really helped out by three early double play balls that the White Sox hit into.

The offense was again led by Aramis Ramirez, who hit his fourth home run of the series, and I’m sure the White Sox will be happy to not see him again until Friday when the teams meet on the South side.

Eric Patterson also had a strong series and hit his first major league home run off of Javier Vazquez.

Cub manager Lou Piniella tried to get Dempster his second complete game of the year, but after the first two hitters reached in the ninth for the Sox, the Cubs went to Bob Howry, who quickly got the next three out, and the Cubs finished off the sweep winning 7-1.

There was a lot of excitement going into the series at Wrigley this weekend, and all of the Cub fans are really excited to see how the team rebounded after getting swept in Tampa.

The Cubs have now won 14 in a row at home and have baseball’s best home record (32-8) and best record overall (48-28). There is still plenty of baseball to be played this year, but it’s great to finally see the Cubs playing great at home.

The Orioles visit Wrigley on Tuesday for a three-game set, and then it’s off to the South side to face the Sox again.

Chicago Cubs Fans: Next Year is Here

Jason Pugh — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 03:22:48 -0400

It's been 100 years since the Chicago Cubs last hoisted a World Series trophy in the air.

Now that I think about it, did trophies even exist in 1908?

That really isn't the issue at hand, however. The point is, seventy games into the 2008 baseball season; the Chicago Cubs are the best team in baseball. Not only do the Cubs have the best record in the game (45-25), they have scored the most runs in baseball and allowed the fewest in the National League (fourth fewest in all of MLB).

Coming off of a divisional title in 2007, it isn't a huge surprise that the Cubs are having another good year. However, I don't think many, if any, would have predicted the Cubbies to be the best team in baseball.

Coming into Spring Training, there were many questions about the Cubs' pitching staff. For starters (bad pun, I know), who would take the ball every five days in the rotation? Three of the five spots were filled with Carlos Zambrano, Ted Lilly, and Rich Hill. The other two spots were up for grabs though, and ultimately won by former closer Ryan Dempster and Jason Marquis.

Rich Hill, who was counted on to win 15 games and pitch around 200 innings, was a complete disaster and is currently trying to throw strikes in Iowa.

The person that has saved the rotation is Ryan Dempster. He has been a dominant starter at home (8-0), and he is vying for a spot on the All-Star team.

He won't be the only pitcher on the National League team from the Cubs. Carlos Zambrano has been electric all year, and will likely be joined by Carlos Marmol, the most dominant middle-reliever in all of baseball.

The other question mark in Spring Training was who would be the closer? Kerry Wood beat out Carlos Marmol and Bob Howry, and while he's had a few hiccups, he has been dominant as well.

There weren't many questions about the Cubs' offense at the start of the year. The only issue was their starting center fielder, or lack thereof. The Felix Pie experiment failed again, and the Cubs were lucky the Blue Jays released Reed Johnson at the end of Spring Training. Johnson took over for Pie on a full-time basis in April, and he hasn't looked back.

The Cubs were also able to add a veteran to platoon with Johnson in center. They found a player who can swing from the left side of the plate: Jim Edmonds. It was tough (and still is) for the Cubs' faithful in the bleachers to embrace Edmonds as a Cub (he was a notorious Cubs-killer for years with the Cardinals), but he's had a few big hits and always brings a great glove with him.

The Cubs took a gamble by counting on rookie catcher Geovany Soto to be the everyday guy and provide a solid bat. This is a gamble that has paid off very well. Not only has Soto shown to have a great glove, but he is one of the best hitters on the team, and without question one of the top-five catchers in the game.

Arguably, the most valuable player on the Cubs' offense has been Mark DeRosa. He doesn't get the credit he deserves, and he isn't a feared hitter in the lineup at all. However, he's hitting around .300, and he plays every position on the field. He'll start at second, move to either corner-outfield spot, and has even played first and third when needed.

There is still plenty of baseball to be played, and no doubt the Cubs will hit a slump at some point in the year, at which point all of Chicago will start blaming goats and nerds who wear headphones to games.

That being said though, if the Cubs play .500 the rest of the year, they’ll finish at 91-71, and that should be good enough to get back in the playoffs. Once they are there, you never know what will happen; ask the Rockies last year, or the Cardinals the year before, and on and on.

Things are shaping up to be an eventful year at Wrigley, and with the offense the Cubs have, and a dominant pitcher like Big Z, next year could finally be here.