I’m not going to lie. I had confidence Saturday. Even when Rich Hill served up a bomb on the very first pitch of the game, I had confidence. I was in Florida for a wedding in (I shit you not) Pinella (yes, without the “i”) County. I thought it was a good omen. You know how it turned out. I’ve had a couple of days to recover, and I’m going to need a couple more before I can really get my thoughts together on the season. As weakly as it ended, there were good things to take away from 2007:
- This team finally learned how to orchestrate a comeback win (be it thanks to Lou or thanks to the new batch of players). In the last several seasons, if these guys were down 2-1 in the 4th, you knew they weren’t coming back. This year, you were a fool to turn off your television until the last at-bat was done.
- Lou. Is there any doubt this team is in better hands under the guidance of that cranky old bastard? What might have been if Hendry would have fired Baker at the All-Star Break last year and allowed Lou to put the pieces together at the end of a meaningless 2006 season. It took Lou a couple of months to figure out the team, but once he did, he had the pieces in the right place, and he certainly wasn’t afraid to shake things up. Hell, he even got some decent production out of Jock.
- The bullpen. All kidding about Dempster aside, the bullpen was the best it’s been in years. The emergence of Carlos Marmol, the glorious comeback of Kerry Wood, and the solid pitching from Howry was a thing of beauty. If Howry comes back next year as the closer, with Wood and Marmol getting the tough outs to get to him, I look forward to turning a lot of games next year into 6 inning affairs. From what little we saw of Kevin Hart, the kid looks good.
- Aramis Ramirez. No matter what happened in the playoffs, the Cubs finally have that guy who you absolutely want at the plate with the game on the line. Len’s “Ohhh, BABY!” will be one of my favorite calls for years.
- The starting pitching. Carlos will be back, Lilly was far better than advertised (and, honestly, so was Marquis). Hill finally started spotting his fastball, making his curve that much more effective. It will be interesting to see who the 4 and 5 starters are next year out of a pool of Marquis, Marshall, Prior(?), and possibly Hart, if they try to stretch him out.
- Mark DeRosa. Was there a more likable new Cub than DeRosa? I doubt it. The guy came in and got the job done every day. He played everywhere they needed him to play, and played well. I was one of the people who raised his eyebrows at the DeRosa signing, and I’m happy to have been wrong about this guy.
- Daryle Ward. Is the shit.
- Geovany Soto. Looks like we have a starting catcher next year who doesn’t bring coloring books on the team flights.
Don’t let those shit-talking Cardinals and White Sox fans get you down. You saw 165 games of meaningful baseball this season. They were lucky to see 100.
I’m pretty sure you were in Pinellas County, man.
DeRosa lost some of that likeability when he swung at ball four on a 3-1 pitch to Fat Livian with the bases juiced and the score 3-1. I hope he thinks long and hard about that decision to swing during the offseason while he perfects his Jack Nicholson vocal impression.
If they can address, IMO, just one of the CF/RF/SS mess, then I think this team should make a serious title run next year.
Soto should also rock.
it’s still an old team at key positions getting one year older…we need to find two sotos per year from our system if it’s not asking too much
Can you imagine how shitty this season would have been with the opening day lineup?
Barrett still at catcher. Cedeno at SS. Then, we find out that we have very capable bench players in Fontenot and D-Ward. We found a hole-filler at SS in Theriot and a pretty bright prospect in Geo Soto at catcher. Thunder began to play better down the stretch. We have a pretty stout 1-2 for the rotation, with Hill at 3 and 4 and 5 yet TBD.
All in all, the season was a mediocre success. Is there such a thing? Sure…but, only the Cubs could pull it off.
I do have questions about CF and if Pie’s ready. Also, the back of the rotation…if Marquis can come back to win more than he loses, even by one game, you have to figure the Cubs come out ahead.
Go Cubs. Oh…I changed my mind about D-Ward. He is the shit.
Can you imagine how shitty this season would have been with the opening day lineup?
Barrett still at catcher. Cedeno at SS. Then, we find out that we have very capable bench players in Fontenot and D-Ward. We found a hole-filler at SS in Theriot and a pretty bright prospect in Geo Soto at catcher. Thunder began to play better down the stretch. We have a pretty stout 1-2 for the rotation, with Hill at 3 and 4 and 5 yet TBD.
All in all, the season was a mediocre success. Is there such a thing? Sure…but, only the Cubs could pull it off.
I do have questions about CF and if Pie’s ready. Also, the back of the rotation…if Marquis can come back to win more than he loses, even by one game, you have to figure the Cubs come out ahead.
Go Cubs. Oh…I changed my mind about D-Ward. He is the shit.
Oh…posting twice in the comments section is so hot right now.
“Don’t let those shit-talking Cardinals and White Sox fans get you down. You saw 165 games of meaningful baseball this season. They were lucky to see 100.”
Thank you for that line. I’m already dealing with a lot of shit-talking White Sox fans. Hopefully, I can cram that one down their throats.
“People ask me what I do in winter when there’s no baseball. I’ll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring.”
Rogers Hornsby
Dammit 242, that quote is all over Al Yellon’s blog.
Who is Old Yeller?
I’m disappointed, but not crushed like I was in 2003. Lou is still the man. The media might be shitting all over him about pulling Z in the the 1st game, but how was he to know Marmol wasn’t going to be money? Some douchebag at the Daily Herald is saying we should trade Aramis. Fuck him sideways, too. Rami may have come up empty in the postseason, but only 4 years ago, this dude was mashing against the Braves and the Marlins. Rami’s legit, it’s just unfortunate that he, Derrek, and Sori all went ice cold at the same time. I think we go out and sign Fukudome (gotta love that name!), give Lilly whatever happy pills Big Z was taking the past few weeks, and scrounge up another right handed starter. If that means giving Dempster (gulp!) a shot a the rotation, so be it. Let’s not forget, the Rockies pummelled the Phillies and the Red Sox beat up on the Angels, both pretty good ball clubs. No one’s suggesting that the Philles trade Ryan Howard or that the Angels ship out Bad Vlad, who’s .183 in his post season careeer. I don’t know about you, but I’ll take Vladdy Guerrero to play right field any day, same as I would take Aram any day to play 3rd. I still don’t believe in curses, or billy goats, or any of that other shit. We played bad baseball for three days, something this team did off and on over the season. They also played a helluva lot better baseball than I’ve seen in years. So I will began to be cautiously optimistic about next year, unless they panic and do a lot of stupid shit in the off season.
“Don’t let those shit-talking Cardinals and White Sox fans get you down. You saw 165 games of meaningful baseball this season. They were lucky to see 100.” hell yeah BK!
The lack of offense and other various acts of shitting the bed with the spotlight on them was disappointing but it was three freaking games. How different was that than the series in Florida the last week of the season. Let’s face it, this was a team that was prone to doing that. It’s also a team that had some good fortune to be in the playoffs. I agree with Lou in his postgame press conference. This is the first step. Yeah, yeah..99 years blah blah. Fact of the matter is that this was a horrible team last year that got a lot better this year with some good players locked up for a while and a nice mix of young kids from the Cubs system. Soto and Hart proved there is more where that came from and Marshall and Pie have only begun to contribute IMO. Let’s not be all cub-like about this. Despite the weaknesses of this team, there is a solid nucleus to continue to build on.
SS, CF and RF definitely need to be addressed in the off-season. Obviously we’re all hoping ARod can reclaim his spot as the best SS of all time, as a Cub, but lets be realistic and assume that won’t happen. A much more realistic option is Renteria. In the OF, I definitely think we should go after Fukudome, maybe even Abreu, Jones or Hunter. We need to get Pie a chance to play CF, but otherwise, at least we know Jacque can be adequate. Also, I think we need another power pitcher in the rotation. I’m not sure who all is available in the off-season, but definitely a legit power arm would be nice.
BK, I tried emailing you but your inbox is full. Drop me a line. I’ve got an idea I wanted to shoot your way.
My inbox is full? Whaaaaa-? I’ll e-mail you.
You forgot one guy. Spliffy. He’s an animal. Back to reality though, how badass will this lineup look next year.
1.Soriano LF 2. Theriot SS 3. Lee 1B 4. Ramirez 3B 5. Floyd/Murton platoon RF 6. Soto C 7. DeRosa 2B 8. Pie CF 9. P
Wow that can cause some damage and then with our solid rotation, if we can fortify the bullpen a little more…I’m already looking forward to spring training.
Floyd won’t be back. I believe he needed a certain number of AB’s or PA’s or games played to vest his option for ’08, and I don’t think he reached it.
Floyd fell far short of performance vestings and I doubt he’ll be back. With the change in ownership, I doubt we’ll do much of anything in the market this year, and slip to 2nd or 3rd place again. Sorry, gotta be realistic
Springtime, that’s the same goddamn lineup as this year. The same lineup that got us only 85 wins and a swift kick in the dick by a shitty D’Backs team. You still got two horrible OBP’s at the 1-2 spot, a #3 hitter who wouldn’t be a #3 hitter on 6 of 8 teams in the playoffs and a combination that would make for the least amount of production out of the #5 spot in baseball.
Springtime, here is a real lineup to get a boner about:
1. Soriano LF 2. Fukudome RF 3. Lee 1B 4. Rodriguez SS 5. Ramirez 3B 6. DeRosa 2B 7. Soto C 8. Pie CF 9. Zambrano P
The Cubs team salary is going to take a pretty big jump next year just based on resignings and escalating contracts.
I would be very surprised if they add more than 5 mil in salary this off season. Of course, I’d love it if they prove me wrong.
If their team as it is now will remain so for about 4 years then I will be very sad…
BK, completely agree with everything you said, especially the positives about Lou and the bullpen. The one thing I kept thinking about the 2007 team, even when it looked like the division was there’s, was that it was certainly better than the 1998 wildcard team that had no shot against the Braves, but just not as good as the 2003 or 2004 teams which we all thought were potential championship squads. Is the secret for ’08 A-Rod or another starting pitcher, I don’t know. But I certainly think the Cubs are going in a better direction now than I did at the same time last year.