Post game discussion

[rynefan]

Soriano is just such a huge key for the offense taking flight on this team and in this lineup. It's because of this that I find myself getting way too worked up when he swings at absolute garbage.

 

The frustrating aspect is they'll keep throwing him the same pitch over and over and over, you'd think Perry or Lou would say something to him.

 

You'd definitely think they'd be saying something, which makes me wonder even more.

[Elrhino]

The Cubs biggest advantage is that we have a rotation that should give us a favorable matchup every game (in theory). I'm not sure many of the teams that lost Game 1 and went on to lose the Series had a pitcher like Harden as the #3 pitcher in their rotation. Edited October 2, 2008 by Elrhino

[Elrhino]

Soriano is just such a huge key for the offense taking flight on this team and in this lineup. It's because of this that I find myself getting way too worked up when he swings at absolute garbage.

 

The frustrating aspect is they'll keep throwing him the same pitch over and over and over, you'd think Perry or Lou would say something to him.

 

You'd definitely think they'd be saying something, which makes me wonder even more.

 

Soriano has been swinging at that pitch for 10 seasons. You think someone hasn't told him to stop by now? You think Lou is just going to say "Hey, why not lay off that low and outside breaking ball?" and Soriano says "Wow, I hadn't thought of that before. Yeah, come to think of it ... I have been striking out a lot on that pitch over the last decade. Thanks, skip"

[TheDude]

Soriano has been swinging at that pitch for 10 seasons. You think someone hasn't told him to stop by now? You think Lou is just going to say "Hey, why not lay off that low and outside breaking ball?" and Soriano says "Wow, I hadn't thought of that before. Yeah, come to think of it ... I have been striking out a lot on that pitch over the last decade. Thanks, skip"

 

Every 'analyst' that also happens to be a former pitcher has said the same thing. Soriano is not a threat against a good pitcher. They throw him breaking pitches until he stops swinging - and everyone knows he isn't going to stop swinging.

[UMFan83]

Soriano has been swinging at that pitch for 10 seasons. You think someone hasn't told him to stop by now? You think Lou is just going to say "Hey, why not lay off that low and outside breaking ball?" and Soriano says "Wow, I hadn't thought of that before. Yeah, come to think of it ... I have been striking out a lot on that pitch over the last decade. Thanks, skip"

 

Every 'analyst' that also happens to be a former pitcher has said the same thing. Soriano is not a threat against a good pitcher. They throw him breaking pitches until he stops swinging - and everyone knows he isn't going to stop swinging.

 

I've never heard any former pitchers analysts say that Soriano cant hit good pitching. Soriano is just an extremely streaky hitter. When he's going good, he lays off just enough breaking pitches to force a pitcher to throw something in his hitting zone, and Soriano hammers it. Even when Soriano isn't going well, the pitcher will occasionally throw something in the zone to keep him honest. It's just that when he's not hitting well, he either watches it, rolls over it and hit a grounder, or doesn't get full extension and pops it up.

[SouthSideRyan]

Soriano has been swinging at that pitch for 10 seasons. You think someone hasn't told him to stop by now? You think Lou is just going to say "Hey, why not lay off that low and outside breaking ball?" and Soriano says "Wow, I hadn't thought of that before. Yeah, come to think of it ... I have been striking out a lot on that pitch over the last decade. Thanks, skip"

 

Every 'analyst' that also happens to be a former pitcher has said the same thing. Soriano is not a threat against a good pitcher. They throw him breaking pitches until he stops swinging - and everyone knows he isn't going to stop swinging.

 

Except that he has laid off quite a bit post-injury this year. Every armchair analyst says stupid [expletive] like just throw him breaking balls in the dirt and he'll strike out every time. These people are morons.

[abuck1220]

Soriano is not a threat against a good pitcher.

 

wrong. look up his career numbers...he's hit a number of good pitchers very well...sabathia, smoltz, glavine, k escobar, carpenter, mulder, maholm, etc.

[kente777]

It's only one loss.

 

That being said, this team knows that tonight's game is a must win. For some teams, that pushes them to excel. I hope I'm wrong, but I've got a bad feeling about this Cubs team coming through when the pressure is on. First off, I have little hope that Soriano will do anything in the playoffs. Secondly, if Lee and Rammy start pressing tonight, I think we may see a repeat of last year's playoffs -- lack of plate discipline and everyone swinging at cr ap.

 

When the Cubs lost game 6 of the 2003 NLCS, I knew in my heart we would not win game 7. If we lose tonight, I do not see our "big 3" coming through under pressure in order to string out 3 straight in a high pressure situation.

 

That being said, let's go out and win tonight!!!

[TheDude]

Soriano is not a threat against a good pitcher.

 

wrong. look up his career numbers...he's hit a number of good pitchers very well...sabathia, smoltz, glavine, k escobar, carpenter, mulder, maholm, etc.

 

The least you can do is read. This is not my opinion. As stated clearly in the post, this is what the so-called analysts say about Soriano. And their commentary is in the context of the post-season, not career numbers. My personal opinion is that they are right some of the time, and in the context of the post-season, most of the time.

 

Last night he proved them correct. I'm not certain he was thrown a pitch in the strike zone all night, as even the pitches he took were borderline pitches called strikes by the home blue. With Soriano, he will take the first pitch if it's a breaking pitch. If it's a strike, espea questionable strike, then he expands the strike zone from toe-to-shoulder. That's just who he is.

 

It's up to Soriano at this point or simply a different umpire. He could change nothing tonight, have that first borderline breaking pitch get called a ball, exhibit more patience based on the first call, then hammer then 2-0 fastball for an extra base hit. We've all seen that Soriano also.

[SouthSideRyan]

It's a shame the Diamondbacks won the world series in 2001(not really), otherwise Soriano would be a world series hero who thrived in the clutch. But since Mariano River blew a save to Tony Womack, Soriano can't hit in the clutch when it matters.

[Wolfgangbucks]

How come the Dodgers can hit them out but the wind knocks out deep fly balls down?

 

This is all I can do, ask this question over and over. Discarding the supernatural, I cannot for the life of me figure out how Loney's ball reached the seats when Edmonds' ball did not. Edmonds had much better contact and it looked like he hit the ball much harder than Loney. If Edmond's ball died at the wall, Loney's should have been a lazy 350' fly out to CF. At the moment of contact, I actually jumped up in celebration, because there was no way that Loney ball was HR and I thought Demp got out of it.

 

I just don't get it, and I don't think I can stop obsessing about it until the next game starts.

 

I thought Demp was out of it as well but that ball just kept going and going and going........................ :scratch:

[UMFan83]

It's a shame the Diamondbacks won the world series in 2001(not really), otherwise Soriano would be a world series hero who thrived in the clutch. But since Mariano River blew a save to Tony Womack, Soriano can't hit in the clutch when it matters.

 

To his credit though, Soriano has put up a line of

 

.218 .271 .309 (.580 OPS) in 165 postseason ABs lifetime.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

That has nothing to do with what I said and why I replied to that guy. Stop trying bait me into an argument when it has nothing to do with what I said and stop trying to force your doomsday attitude on me. I'm a pretty negative person when it comes to the Cubs but you're being ridiculous. Grow a sack and stop whining about how we're doomed.

 

Egocentric much? I was mocking Ender, who said that it the Dodgers pitching didn't have a road problem despite their clear difference in ERA, because one lucky-good performance would negate it.

[rawaction]

Soriano is not a threat against a good pitcher.

 

wrong. look up his career numbers...he's hit a number of good pitchers very well...sabathia, smoltz, glavine, k escobar, carpenter, mulder, maholm, etc.

 

Exactly. Soriano can hit anyone when he's on. He can't hit anyone when he's not. His splits mean absolutely nothing.

[Exile on Waveland]

The Cubs biggest advantage is that we have a rotation that should give us a favorable matchup every game (in theory). I'm not sure many of the teams that lost Game 1 and went on to lose the Series had a pitcher like Harden as the #3 pitcher in their rotation.

 

The Dodgers have a favorable pitching matchup tonight.

[SouthSideRyan]

It's a shame the Diamondbacks won the world series in 2001(not really), otherwise Soriano would be a world series hero who thrived in the clutch. But since Mariano River blew a save to Tony Womack, Soriano can't hit in the clutch when it matters.

 

To his credit though, Soriano has put up a line of

 

.218 .271 .309 (.580 OPS) in 165 postseason ABs lifetime.

 

You're giving him too much credit if you think actual statistics went into his analysis. Soriano's streaky, that's it. Remember when everyone wanted him traded for the corpse of Barry Zito after the first month of the season?

[BigbadB]

I think I could sing a different tune here today if we played a well fought battle, but came up on the losing end. Last night was an embarrassment, and I can't find a better way to put it. I almost always keep up hope and watch the game until the end. When Dempster walked the bases loaded, I had to leave the room because I knew something bad was about to happen. I saw how much fear everyone else in the room had towards my anger, so I thought it was best to be alone when the home run left the park.

 

I didn't even react when the home run was hit. Everyone except my wife immediately left the house before I came back down, for fear of seeing me behave in an extremely embarrassing way. But, there was no reaction. Nothing. I sat in a state of disbelief until the top of the 9th inning, where I decided I'd seen enough and went somewhere where I could be alone and drink. I refused to talk about the game all night and after a few drinks, I was able to have a little fun talking about things that were not Cub related.

 

I'm sitting here telling all of you that I didn't even bother watching the whole game. It's the freaking playoffs, and I basically turned off the game. That's how embarrassing last night's game was.

 

I know that occasionally a hitter lets a good pitch go by, but Derrek and Geo both had balls that they could hit 600 feet just laid in there for them to crush, but they watched them go into the catcher's glove with a great count. Geo's came with a 2-0 count, and then he proceeded to strike out on the next two pitches. I won't even bring up the walk thing, or Fukudome spinning himself like a top at the plate.

 

I'm finally at the point that I can talk about last night's game. I trust that they got the embarrassing stuff out of their system last night and can now focus on winning baseball games. A loss tonight would not be a good thing.

 

And if the Cubs want the crowd to get into the game, I might suggest they do something that makes the fans want to get into the game. Walking the bases loaded just doesn't do it for me.

[bhogg]

I was boastful, cocky, and confident going into yesterday's game.

 

Today, I'm howrying bricks.

[gflore34]

It's a shame the Diamondbacks won the world series in 2001(not really), otherwise Soriano would be a world series hero who thrived in the clutch. But since Mariano River blew a save to Tony Womack, Soriano can't hit in the clutch when it matters.

 

On the other end of the spectrum, its because of that WS that everyone thinks Counsell is good.

Edited October 2, 2008 by gflore34

[Cynosure]

Soriano will have a big game tonight, book it... and quote me in the game thread when it happens.

[windycityfan]

I think I could sing a different tune here today if we played a well fought battle, but came up on the losing end. Last night was an embarrassment, and I can't find a better way to put it. I almost always keep up hope and watch the game until the end. When Dempster walked the bases loaded, I had to leave the room because I knew something bad was about to happen. I saw how much fear everyone else in the room had towards my anger, so I thought it was best to be alone when the home run left the park.

 

I didn't even react when the home run was hit. Everyone except my wife immediately left the house before I came back down, for fear of seeing me behave in an extremely embarrassing way. But, there was no reaction. Nothing. I sat in a state of disbelief until the top of the 9th inning, where I decided I'd seen enough and went somewhere where I could be alone and drink. I refused to talk about the game all night and after a few drinks, I was able to have a little fun talking about things that were not Cub related.

 

I'm sitting here telling all of you that I didn't even bother watching the whole game. It's the freaking playoffs, and I basically turned off the game. That's how embarrassing last night's game was.

 

I know that occasionally a hitter lets a good pitch go by, but Derrek and Geo both had balls that they could hit 600 feet just laid in there for them to crush, but they watched them go into the catcher's glove with a great count. Geo's came with a 2-0 count, and then he proceeded to strike out on the next two pitches. I won't even bring up the walk thing, or Fukudome spinning himself like a top at the plate.

 

I'm finally at the point that I can talk about last night's game. I trust that they got the embarrassing stuff out of their system last night and can now focus on winning baseball games. A loss tonight would not be a good thing.

 

And if the Cubs want the crowd to get into the game, I might suggest they do something that makes the fans want to get into the game. Walking the bases loaded just doesn't do it for me.

 

Mighty fine post. Like you just stole my handle and my thoughts.

 

The only wrinkle is I did make a donkey out of myself and lost it in front of my wife and kids. They don't want to be part of the game watching experience tonight.

[UMFan83]

Thanks for the recap of your emotions last night. Sometimes, I feel like people on this board try too hard to prove who is the most calm and collected during tumultuous situations, when its obvious that most people ride the wave of emotions. For the record, I was the same way. I am pretty embarrassed to admit this, but I walked out of Wrigley immediately after Samardzija allowed the 6th run to score. I walked out of the park and walked down Clark Street, all the way down to Fullerton and Clark, and then took a cab home (I live near Belmont and Southport, so I went way out of my way). I just needed to clear my head of the game.

 

I know I know, its just game 1 of a playoff series. But the thing is, mentally I was quietly confident about this series, but in the back of my mind, I just knew a lifeless performance in game one would crush me. I was looking for any sort of sign that this team would be different in October than it was last year, and I didn't get it.

 

I really need to see the offense do something tonight.

[windycityfan]

Does anybody know what the track record is for the loser of the first game of a 5-game series?

 

Hanging on to any hope here, not because I think one loss is the end of the world, but instead of the magnitude of the loss and the bad vibe reappearing.

[Cynosure]

Does anybody know what the track record is for the loser of the first game of a 5-game series?

 

Hanging on to any hope here, not because I think one loss is the end of the world, but instead of the magnitude of the loss and the bad vibe reappearing.

 

88% of teams who win game 1 go on to win the series.

 

Yes, that is an accurate stat.

[SouthSideRyan]

I was boastful, cocky, and confident going into yesterday's game.

 

Today, I'm howrying bricks.

 

I'm the opposite. I feel really good about tonight and was nervous as hell yesterday.