April Impressions

[TruffleShuffle]

Dempster's blues: Ryan Dempster has a 5.40 earned-run average, despite pitching well most of the time.

 

paul sullivan is the only person who thinks that dempster has pitched well most of the time.

[C.C.]

It's raining too much.

[Bull]

Soto will have a Sophomore slump all year, but not to this extent. I think he rebounds, but not nearly to the levels of expectation around here.

 

What does this even mean?

 

The "expectations" for Soto right now are generaly somewhere around "please don't be awful."

 

I'm obviously not as avid a reader or poster as you so I'll defer to your assessment of the local public opinion. The vibe that I got all through the offseason and in these first 20 games was that Soto would rebound and be the monster he was last year, even "progressing in his development". To me this implied even better numbers than last year were expected, while I assumed the league would figure him out, he'd adjust, they'd adjust, etc. making it a long and difficult season of learning a great deal for Mr. Soto.

I've been otherwise occupied with schoolwork this past week or so. Perhaps I've missed a major shift at NSBB? Perhaps my sporadic and haphazard reading here has led me to not view the full body of work. Again I'll defer to you. You're the expert.

[Sammy Sofa]

Soto will have a Sophomore slump all year, but not to this extent. I think he rebounds, but not nearly to the levels of expectation around here.

 

What does this even mean?

 

The "expectations" for Soto right now are generaly somewhere around "please don't be awful."

 

I'm obviously not as avid a reader or poster as you so I'll defer to your assessment of the local public opinion. The vibe that I got all through the offseason and in these first 20 games was that Soto would rebound and be the monster he was last year, even "progressing in his development". To me this implied even better numbers than last year were expected, while I assumed the league would figure him out, he'd adjust, they'd adjust, etc. making it a long and difficult season of learning a great deal for Mr. Soto.

I've been otherwise occupied with schoolwork this past week or so. Perhaps I've missed a major shift at NSBB? Perhaps my sporadic and haphazard reading here has led me to not view the full body of work. Again I'll defer to you. You're the expert.

 

Nobody here is claiming to be an exprt on anything.

 

I simply don't recall a large push by a number of posters here thinking that Soto was a lock to repeat his rookie season or surpass it. There was the obvious hyperbole, but that was just that: obvious hyperbole. When it gone down to realistic predictions, most hoped/thought that Soto would produce at the worst average offensive production from the catcher's spot while giving the team excellent defense. So far he's not even sniffed either.

[Sammy Sofa]

Brenley has pointed out that Soto seems to be playing through some nagging injuries. His hand injury has eliminated all of his power and his shoulder injury has hurt his throws on stolen bases. I thought Lou was going to sit him for a few games, but he played yesterday.

 

If that is the case, he should be DL'd untill healthy enough to produce, and one of the guys at Iowa called up - Chris Robinson seems to have had a good start the year there.

 

I definitely agree that Soto's struggle are likely due to his hand/shoulder issues, and I wouldn't be surprised if he could stand to lose 15-20 pounds on top of that. A DL stint wouldn't be unwelcome at this point.

[Guest]

Soto will have a Sophomore slump all year, but not to this extent. I think he rebounds, but not nearly to the levels of expectation around here.

 

What does this even mean?

 

The "expectations" for Soto right now are generaly somewhere around "please don't be awful."

 

Pretty sure he's talking about the manlove for Soto from last year. Where people would quote Geo 10 times. Fickle fans, very fickle. I can't wait to see these guys after Kosuke goes in a slump. Read the game threads, KF is a monster, once he goes 2-20, he'lll be a bum, and Fox should play RF, with Bradley beeing sccotted over.

 

Thanks. It took me until this post to figure out that KF isn't Kyle Farnsworth.

 

I love guessing games at 8 o'clock in the morning.

[Keener98]

Dempster's blues: Ryan Dempster has a 5.40 earned-run average, despite pitching well most of the time.

 

paul sullivan is the only person who thinks that dempster has pitched well most of the time.

 

Thats because Demp is considered a good guy, and really welcome to the media so Sullivan wont say a bad word about him. Had Z or Prior pitched like Demp has he wouldnt be saying the same thing. With Sullivan its all about who is nice to him.

[ManEatingTarp]

My impression is that you can't win a division in April but you can lose one, and nobody has lost the division yet. The Cubs are .500 after the first month.

[Transmogrified Tiger]

http://www.anothercubsblog.net/index.php/site/comments/crisis/

 

You’d think that longtime fans of this game would understand that over 162 games there are going to be slumps. There are going to be several of them. If losing 6 of 8 is as bad as it gets for this team they will win 100 games or more. The truth is that the Cubs are likely to play this poorly over 8 games at least 3 or 4 more times this year. They may play much worse than that too. It’s baseball.

 

In 2007 the Cubs lost 6 of 8 from April 8th through April 17th. They then lost 5 of their next 7 from April 18th through April 24th. This wasn’t the worst stretch of baseball either.

 

Beginning on May 10th the Cubs lost 6 of 8 games until May 17th. From May 25th through June 2nd they lost 7 of 8. You may saw that was before the team started playing good baseball. While that is true, it’s also part of the division championship team so I don’t see how that is relevant, but fair enough anyway.

 

On August 2nd the Cubs began a stretch in which they won only 3 times in 13 games including losing 6 of 8 from the 2nd until August 9th. They then lost 4 of the next 5. This was from a team that had the best record in the NL from June 3rd until the season ended in 2007.

 

We’re not done. On August 25th the began a stretch in which they lost 8 of 13 games until September 7th. They lost 4 of their final 6 games of the 2007 season as well.

 

You may say, “well, that was an 85 win team so you expect them to have losing streaks.” You expect all teams to have losing streaks, but obviously the more wins a team has the fewer chances it has for slumps. This is rather obvious, but let’s check out 2008, shall we?

 

Strangely enough, you don’t even have to look at the Cubs 2008 schedule past April 24th to find the beginning of a stretch in which they lost 6 of 8 baseball games. They actually won only 3 of 11 from the 24th through May 5th. I had initially planned on including runs scored and runs allowed, but it was this stretch of baseball that changed my mind. The cubs beat the Brewers 19-5 on April 30th last year and this changes everything over a stretch of games as small as 8 or 11 games. Runs scored and runs allowed, while very important to a team’s won-loss record, are less important over a small number of games.

 

You’re probably thinking that was the only bad stretch the 97-win Cubs had in 2008. Wrong. They lost 11 of 18 games from June 17th through July 5th, which included losing 6 of 8 from the 26th through July 3rd.

 

That 97-win team then won 5 of 6 before they dropped 5 of 8 and 7 of 10 overall. You may recall, that was when the Brewers tied the Cubs for the division lead and the Cubs went to Milwaukee for 4 games and were to face the newly acquired CC Sabathia as well as Ben Sheets. You also remember the Cubs swept the Brewers and never looked back.

 

Maybe they did look back. Beginning on August 30th through September 9th the Cubs lost 8 of 9 games including a 6-game losing streak against the Phillies (2 at home), Astros (3 at home) and then they took 1 of 3 in Cincy and lost the opener against St. Louis. Of those 9 games, only 3 of them were against teams that were any good.

 

Sure enough, as in 2007, the Cubs ended the 97-win season by losing 4 of 6.

[Bull]

Soto will have a Sophomore slump all year, but not to this extent. I think he rebounds, but not nearly to the levels of expectation around here.

 

What does this even mean?

 

The "expectations" for Soto right now are generaly somewhere around "please don't be awful."

 

I'm obviously not as avid a reader or poster as you so I'll defer to your assessment of the local public opinion. The vibe that I got all through the offseason and in these first 20 games was that Soto would rebound and be the monster he was last year, even "progressing in his development". To me this implied even better numbers than last year were expected, while I assumed the league would figure him out, he'd adjust, they'd adjust, etc. making it a long and difficult season of learning a great deal for Mr. Soto.

I've been otherwise occupied with schoolwork this past week or so. Perhaps I've missed a major shift at NSBB? Perhaps my sporadic and haphazard reading here has led me to not view the full body of work. Again I'll defer to you. You're the expert.

 

Nobody here is claiming to be an exprt on anything.

 

I simply don't recall a large push by a number of posters here thinking that Soto was a lock to repeat his rookie season or surpass it. There was the obvious hyperbole, but that was just that: obvious hyperbole. When it gone down to realistic predictions, most hoped/thought that Soto would produce at the worst average offensive production from the catcher's spot while giving the team excellent defense. So far he's not even sniffed either.

 

From the "Bold Predictions" thread

Geovany Soto contributes a nearly identical line to his 2008 season and is only outmatched by Brian McCann as the best catcher in baseball.

 

Soto has a better year than last year

 

Steel cage match, Soto vs. Wieters.

The world ends because this much awesomeness can't be in one place at the same time.

 

geovany soto is the third or fourth most productive catcher in the national league.

 

Most garing is that in 6 pages only 4 people mentioned him at all, implying no significant change from last year.

 

I said: severe sophomore slump for Geovanny Soto. As in, he is bottom half of nl catchers in OPS.

 

The only response:thats simply not realistic

 

 

In the "What if Soto goes on the DL" thread

 

Soto going on the DL would immediately make the Cardinals the best NL Central team.

 

I don't think I'm out of school in saying this community expected great things from Soto this year, with plenty of exceptions, I'm sure. We are all individuals.

[Mephistopheles]

geovany soto is the third or fourth most productive catcher in the national league.

 

this seems to be the most likely, who made it?

[Bull]

geovany soto is the third or fourth most productive catcher in the national league.

 

this seems to be the most likely, who made it?

 

:)

[soapy]

http://www.anothercubsblog.net/index.php/site/comments/crisis/

 

Well I don't know who MB21 is, but I like him already.

[Sammy Sofa]

Soto will have a Sophomore slump all year, but not to this extent. I think he rebounds, but not nearly to the levels of expectation around here.

 

What does this even mean?

 

The "expectations" for Soto right now are generaly somewhere around "please don't be awful."

 

I'm obviously not as avid a reader or poster as you so I'll defer to your assessment of the local public opinion. The vibe that I got all through the offseason and in these first 20 games was that Soto would rebound and be the monster he was last year, even "progressing in his development". To me this implied even better numbers than last year were expected, while I assumed the league would figure him out, he'd adjust, they'd adjust, etc. making it a long and difficult season of learning a great deal for Mr. Soto.

I've been otherwise occupied with schoolwork this past week or so. Perhaps I've missed a major shift at NSBB? Perhaps my sporadic and haphazard reading here has led me to not view the full body of work. Again I'll defer to you. You're the expert.

 

Nobody here is claiming to be an exprt on anything.

 

I simply don't recall a large push by a number of posters here thinking that Soto was a lock to repeat his rookie season or surpass it. There was the obvious hyperbole, but that was just that: obvious hyperbole. When it gone down to realistic predictions, most hoped/thought that Soto would produce at the worst average offensive production from the catcher's spot while giving the team excellent defense. So far he's not even sniffed either.

 

From the "Bold Predictions" thread

Geovany Soto contributes a nearly identical line to his 2008 season and is only outmatched by Brian McCann as the best catcher in baseball.

 

Soto has a better year than last year

 

Steel cage match, Soto vs. Wieters.

The world ends because this much awesomeness can't be in one place at the same time.

 

geovany soto is the third or fourth most productive catcher in the national league.

 

Most garing is that in 6 pages only 4 people mentioned him at all, implying no significant change from last year.

 

I said: severe sophomore slump for Geovanny Soto. As in, he is bottom half of nl catchers in OPS.

 

The only response:thats simply not realistic

 

 

In the "What if Soto goes on the DL" thread

 

Soto going on the DL would immediately make the Cardinals the best NL Central team.

 

I don't think I'm out of school in saying this community expected great things from Soto this year, with plenty of exceptions, I'm sure. We are all individuals.

 

Two of those comments (the steel cage one and the Cardinals one) are so ridiculous that they're clearly not serious. Besides that there's three comments from the entire site that you found that show people expecting Soto to do better than last year. I know there's more, but even then it's hardly a general consensus. Most people here are more realistic than that.

[Schwarber Fan]

April Impressions

 

May can't come soon enough.

[Little Slide Rooter]

Want my April impresions? We have a bad team on our hands. thats my April impressions. For what its worth though, the Brewers and Cards will probably make this a very exciting division.

[17 Seconds]

Want my April impresions? We have a bad team on our hands. thats my April impressions. For what its worth though, the Brewers and Cards will probably make this a very exciting division.

 

You really need to stop. It's kind of embarrassing.

[Little Slide Rooter]

Want my April impresions? We have a bad team on our hands. thats my April impressions. For what its worth though, the Brewers and Cards will probably make this a very exciting division.

 

You really need to stop. It's kind of embarrassing.

 

If I wasnt so tired, Id be half tempted to dig up all of the kind of embarrasing posts of another poster who will remain nameless.

[NCCubFan]

We have a bad team on our hands.

Wrong. We have a good team that's playing bad right now. There's a difference. A bad team would stay bad; a good team hopefully won't.

[Little Slide Rooter]

We have a bad team on our hands.

Wrong. We have a good team that's playing bad right now. There's a difference. A bad team would stay bad; a good team hopefully won't.

 

We are a good team, but I dont know about great.

 

Our starting rotation is one of the best in the business.

Our bullpen, however, is a joke, especially if Marmol never finds the strike zone again.

 

Soriano and Ramirez are the only 2 players I trust for a fully solid season.

 

Lee is clearly on a decline, but hopefully he can still give us an OPS in the .800s. At this point, hes a big time liability, especially where he is in the order.

 

Milton Bradley has had 3 season with >100 games. Last year he had that monster, but it was in on of the top hitters parks in the game. The other 2 rsulted in a .923 OPS(pretty damn good) and the othe in the .700s, not so good

 

Fukudome has been off to a hot start aside from the last 2 games, but wasnt he last year at this time?

 

We dont know what to expect from Soto. While its hard to believe that that bottom would completely drop out, its happeend before. Hopefully he stabilizes with an OPS in the high .700's-.low .800s

 

Theriot can hit for average, and Fontenot has some power. Id replace either in a heartbeat if there were an upgrade available.

 

As for the bench, we go from Johnson, Edmonds, Fontenot, Blanco, Cedeno to Hoffpauir, Johnson, Gathright, Miles, Hill. Thats one hell of a downgrade.

[Marco4]

April impressions?

 

Never has waking up at three o'clock in the morning to check the Cubs score been less fun.

 

I keep trying to gee myself into enjoying the season, but they ain't making it easy (yet).

[Little Slide Rooter]

My saving grace is that the Brewers were like 12 games out this time last year, and they clawed their way to the top, or at least close enough to it and I feel that were better than the Brewers were this time last year and the competition, aside from the Cardinals isnt. We really need to do something about the bullpen. though. Id take Chad Fox, Ascanio, and Stevens over pretty much anyone we have, aside from Marmol, when hes not injured and having no business on the mound. Also, Gathright and Miles need to go. If there was nothing better available, Id say whatever, but there are upgrades over these 2 guys everywhere you look, be it through free agency, Iowa, or through trade.

[bhogg]

My impression is that one of the Cubs' biggest problems is nagging injuries. They aren't bad enough for them to DL guys, but they are just bad enough to seriously limit the individual player's ability to perform well.

 

I'd like to have seen them DL a couple guys, but what do I know?

 

 

One can only hope the bullpen works itself out. I can't see any other option for those guys. . . . .AAA guys and / or trades may not solve the problem.

[Little Slide Rooter]

 

One can only hope the bullpen works itself out. I can't see any other option for those guys. . . . .AAA guys and / or trades may not solve the problem.

 

We have a lot of AAA guys Id like to at least take a look at. Brad Snyder, Jake Fox, Jason Dubois, my grandmother with macular degeneration, and maybe Sam Fuld would all be upgrades over Gathright.

 

Scales, Deeds, Blanco, or Rivas might not be as appealing as the outfielders, but at least couldnt be downgrades from Miles

 

Stevens, Fox, Ascanio, and Wells would all be upgrades over Patton and Cotts easily.

[Derwood]

The Cubs actual record (10-11) matches their pythag record, so the record is a true reflection of the team play so far. Players may be underachieving on an individual level, but there certainly hasn't been any bad luck involved.