5/21: Cobs (Marshall) @ Cards (Wainwright); 7:15 pm CT, CSN

[TruffleShuffle]

you know which team was really bad at small ball? the phillies last season. the red sox have also been pretty bad at small ball the past several years.

[Little Slide Rooter]

you know which team was really bad at small ball? the phillies last season. the red sox have also been pretty bad at small ball the past several years.

 

Yeah, but those teams sure were good at knocking the tar out of the ball. 2009 Cubs, not so much.

[Guest]

On a clear night, the park will play pretty neutral. There were 3 or 4 home runs hit on Monday night.

 

It's pretty rare that the nights are clear. The marine layer comes in off the ocean in the early evening and kind of creates a ceiling that holds a lot of moisture, which basically gives the air a thickness which knocks the travel off of a baseball by a significant amount.

[haubrich91]

Well this team sucks.

[bcl412]

NSBB during a losing streak creates some good reading.

[TruffleShuffle]

Why can the Cubs afford to hide a non-prospect in Patton on their bench for the entire year? I mean at best you get a decent reliever somewhere down the road. Yay great. The Cubs have been throwing money at their problems for year, and now all the sudden they can accept having a 24 man team to keep a marginal reliever on their team? Just make a trade with Colorado already.

 

oh believe me, i don't want patton on the team any more. i just don't think he's got a high enough ceiling to justify stashing him away on a team with high aspirations. johan santana was stashed away on a bad twins team, but i'll use him as an example since he's probably the best rule 5 pick in this generation, if not of all time. he had a K-rate over 1 per inning in his 3 years in the minors, and was 19 years old. we've all seen his stuff, so clearly he had a high ceiling.

 

david patton, on the other hand, was selected as a 24 year old after 4 years in the minors. he's given up more than a hit per inning and his K-rate is not as good as santana's was. bottom line, at 25 years old now and having not gotten above A-ball in 5 years, he really isn't a high ceiling guy. best case scenario, he becomes a pretty good middle reliever, which is nice, but not great. i'd use up a roster spot on a guy who has a ceiling as an all star, but not for a guy like patton.

 

but my point was that you can't infer anything from him sitting around not pitching recently. this happens to rule 5 guys all the time. good teams rarely try to carry rule 5 players, and the fact that he made the team out of spring training and continues to be on the team despite next to no contribution means that someone - hendry, scouts, lou, i have no idea - thinks he's good enough to merit keeping on the team. they may decide otherwise, tomorrow or next month or whatever, and i hope they do, but we can't really assume that it's coming.

[mjohnson71]

Anyone in the thread tonight actually been to the Cardinals' "new" park? How does it rate?

 

It's by far the cheapest of the new parks and it shows. Lots of exposed pipes and other cheap finishes. Busch III cost like $330 million while most new places are $550 to $650 million. Then you've got the New York ballparks at $900 million and $1.5 billion.

 

Anyone in the thread tonight actually been to the Cardinals' "new" park? How does it rate?

I thought it sucked for a brand new park. Kansas City did a better job with their renovations.

 

KC spent like the same amount just doing renovations.

[Careless]

"Small ball" is pretty meaningless.

 

So is hitting the ball hard right at the defense.

If there were people who had the ability to hit balls hard right at people consistently and they were the people playing for the Cubs, yes. Neither one of these seems to be true, however.

[Eric Clipperton]

"Small ball" is pretty meaningless.

 

So is hitting the ball hard right at the defense.

If there were people who had the ability to hit balls hard right at people consistently and they were the people playing for the Cubs, yes. Neither one of these seems to be true, however.

 

You missed the inning with three straight liners to deep CF of which only the last resulted in a hit when the Cards collided? I'd call those hard hit balls.

[Careless]

"Small ball" is pretty meaningless.

 

So is hitting the ball hard right at the defense.

If there were people who had the ability to hit balls hard right at people consistently and they were the people playing for the Cubs, yes. Neither one of these seems to be true, however.

 

You missed the inning with three straight liners to deep CF of which only the last resulted in a hit when the Cards collided? I'd call those hard hit balls.

Oh, so you're claiming that the Cubs intentionally hit those balls to places they knew could be caught.

[Eric Clipperton]

"Small ball" is pretty meaningless.

 

So is hitting the ball hard right at the defense.

If there were people who had the ability to hit balls hard right at people consistently and they were the people playing for the Cubs, yes. Neither one of these seems to be true, however.

 

You missed the inning with three straight liners to deep CF of which only the last resulted in a hit when the Cards collided? I'd call those hard hit balls.

Oh, so you're claiming that the Cubs intentionally hit those balls to places they knew could be caught.

 

Uh.....no? Just that it's bad luck/small sample. Not an overwhelmingly horrible offense which can only score 1 run max.

[Fred Hornkohl]

Great inning for the Cubs offense.

 

Fred, when is the last time the Cubs were held to 2 runs in a 3 game series? The last time I remember was in 2004 against the Astros, but maybe its happened more recently.

 

Here's one run total in 3 consecutive games from 2006.......

 

Gm#    Date       Opponent         Score  Starter
.73  Sat 06/24  @ Minnesota     N   0- 3  Prior        
.74  Sun 06/25  @ Minnesota         1- 8  Marshall      
.75  Mon 06/26    Milwaukee     N   0- 6  Maddux        

 

Here's one run total in 4 consecutive games from earlier that year..........

 

Gm#    Date       Opponent         Score  Starter
.25  Tue 05/02    Pittsburgh        0- 8  Guzman        
.26  Wed 05/03  @ Arizona       N   1- 5  Maddux        
.27  Thu 05/04  @ Arizona       N   0- 6  Hill        
.28  Fri 05/05  @ San Diego     N   0- 1  Zambrano      

 

Here's one run total in 3 games from the same series in 2005...... but then they played a 4th game...... (unfortuantely, I attended them all.)

 

Gm#    Date       Opponent         Score  Starter
.81  Mon 07/04  @ Atlanta       N   0- 4  Wood        
.82  Tue 07/05  @ Atlanta       N   1- 5  Maddux        
.83  Thu 07/07  @ Atlanta           0- 6  Prior        
.84  Thu 07/07  @ Atlanta       N   4- 9  Williams      

 

Here's 2 runs total in a 3 game series going back to 2004......

 

Gm#    Date       Opponent         Score  Starter
.82  Mon 07/05  @ Milwaukee         0- 1  Clement
.83  Tue 07/06  @ Milwaukee     N   2- 4  Prior
.84  Wed 07/07  @ Milwaukee     N   0- 4  Zambrano

 

Didn't find anything involving the Astros...... actually, we knocked them around pretty good in '04.