Great Expectations

The Oakland Athletics have Kurt Suzuki lined up to take over as the everyday catcher and they have been prepping him for this role for the past month or two. The Chicago Cubs, on the other hand, had their catcher of the future on Geovany Soto at the Major League level, but only allowed him 7 AB’s before dispatching him back to triple –A Iowa. Something seems a little off here.

Soto has been a dynamic force in the minor leagues with his bat and given the time in Chicago, he had the potential to be a nice piece of the puzzle for the Cubs this season and beyond. Instead, Chicago sent down the young stud and made the foolhardy deal to acquire Jason Kendall.

So while the Cubs paid next to nothing for him, they’re also getting next to nothing in return, at least on the offensive side of things. Kendall has been an utter failure as an offensive threat for the A’s this year and has never been the type of produce that the Cubs need. His offensive numbers are just brutal though and far below what he used to amass. Kendall is 33 years old and has brought in all of 2 home runs and 22 RBI in 292 AB’s. That is not a stat you as a GM want to see, and that doesn’t even include his .226 average.

Chicago, when they dealt away Michael Barrett for Rob Bowen, knew they were getting rid of a strong bat in Barrett but his clubhouse antics and fiery temper got him replaced. They paid for a calm demeanor and some veteran leadership and they did get some by acquiring Kendall.

Now, if only they can get Kendall to double his atrocious production thus far, they may be ok in Chicago.

Mowing Them Down

It seems that the Cubs have been getting a lot of press from this site as of late, so if you’re a Cubs hater, than I apologize. However, this needs to be known.

Carlos Zambrano is back on track. Maybe getting rid of Michael Barrett was the magic elixir to make him go.

Zambrano has been absolutely untouchable over his last 7 starts. Including Friday’s effort, he has pitched 51.1 innings over that time and allowed only 8 earned runs against. Add all that up and you end up with a killer 1.40 ERA. Zambrano had a 5.38 ERA before this nice run, and has lowered it to a far more respectable 3.83. Maybe his preseason prediction that a Cy Young Award would be adorning his mantle this fall wasn’t so off the mark.

The Cubs have made up some serious ground on Milwaukee over the past month trimming their lead significantly and Zambrano has been one of the main reasons. His temper can flare at any time but since the now infamous blow up with Barrett, Big ‘Z’ has lit it up and appropriately focused all of his energy towards pitching.

He is a smoldering volcano that could go off anywhere at anytime but there’s pretty much no other pitcher that you’d rather have throwing in game 7 for you. Come to think of it, there’s really no other pitcher I’d rather have throwing beside me in a bar fight either.

This is Your Time

Back to the minor leagues goes Felix Pie today after another lackluster stint with the Cubs. Pie has appeared in 48 games this season with 139 AB’s, and has posted a sour average of .216. Pie definitely needs some more seasoning and some more playing time, which he will get only in the minors at this stage and with the Cubs in a divisional race.

Think the Cubs are happy they hadn’t dealt Jacque Jones yet like everyone thought they would a few weeks back?

The player called up to replace Pie was Geovany Soto. The catcher was the Cubs representative in the Future’s Game on Sunday and is raking in triple-A these days. Soto has 12 homers and 55 RBI in only 226 AB’s. He is well on his way to setting career highs as in the previous two season he has only put up 10 homers and 77 RBI in 634 AB’s.

Soto got slotted in right away as the Cubs starting catcher on Friday and will likely see significant playing time if he can post any offensive numbers whatsoever. Current catching tandem Rob Bowen and Koyie Hill have been disappointing to say the least since taking over for Michael Barrett after he was dealt away.

Soto has a lot of potential and this could finally be the solid chance he needs. Can’t be any worse than the incumbents.

The new man

The talk in Cub-land is that Carlos Marmol is the closer-to-be, with Ryan Dempster on the disabled list and Bob Howry, consistently inconsistent. Marmol has apparently shown manager Lou Piniella enough to be given the job despite the fact he has only thrown 26.1 innings since he’s been in the Majors this season. However, Marmol’s stats are very impressive. He has provided all of the stability for the shaky Cubs bullpen with 38 K’s to 9 BB’s. He has also put up a WHIP of just a shade over 1, as well as a similar ERA of 1.03.

While he may not have totally proven himself yet, he is about the only option for Piniella. Should be interesting to see how the young pitcher holds up.

Nice Call

For some reason, Lou Piniella decided it was a good idea to intentionally walk the .249 Ryan Zimmerman, and load the bases to get to the All-Star, .337 hitting Dmitri Young.

Now, I’m no manager of any sort but to me, something about that seems a little wonky and Mr. Young must have been licking his chops at the situation in front of him. He proceeded to hit the game-winning Grand Slam off Rich Hill, as the Nationals pitching staff shut down the Cubs for the rest of the day in a 6-0 victory for Washington.

Afterwards, Piniella defended the move, but come on, seriously, Young has easily been the best player on the Nationals all year and today was no different for Manny Acta’s club. Nice victory for the cellar-dwelling club.

And on a bit of a side note, after starting the season as the Cubs most proficient and reliabel starter, Rich Hill has really hit a wall over the past four starts. Hill has allowed 17 runs on 26 hits in a grand total of 17.2 innings over his last four starts. Um, that's not very good. Hill had a 2.81 ERA before this stretch and has since seen it rise to 3.81 after Wednesday's debacle against the Nationals. Hill has posted an 8.66 ERA over his last four starts, making him a very unattractive option for you fantasy geeks.

You know, just a little heads up for you.

Best Series of the Weekend

The Cubs – Brewers series kicked off on Friday afternoon, and in climactic and very dramatic fashion, the hometown Cubbies pulled it out, storming back from a 1st inning 5 run deficit.

Three hours or so earlier, I would have had a hard time believing that such a comeback could happen. The Brewers had Yovani Gallardo on the mound and the kid was hurling a gem, while his opponent, Rich Hill, had been touched up for 5 runs, including a 3 run jack by Kevin Mench, was strangely wild, and had thrown 73 pitches through 2 innings. By the time Hill had left, at the end of the 3rd, the score was still 5-0, and the Brewers were still firmly in control.

Then in came the much maligned Cubs bullpen. Led by Billy Petrick, for 2 innings Michael Wuertz for 2 innings, Carlos Marmol (who is the best reliever they have right now, check the stats) for 1 and finally, Bob Howry for 1. All tolled, the bullpen went 6 gave up 3 hits, 2 walks, 0 earned runs and 7 k’s. That is the kind of production a guy like Rich Hill, who has been great all year, deserves from his bullpen.

The comeback started slowly though as it took an RBI groundout, and a wild pitch by Gallardo to make it 5-2 in the 4th, followed than by an RBI single by Mike Fontenot in the 7th off Carlos Villanueva to make it 5-3. Than in the bottom of the 9th, in came Francisco Cordero, the MLB saves leader with 27, but a guy who has definitely cooled off noticeably since his hot start.

Cordero got a pop out right away but then Soriano and Fontenot (I told you this guy was good stuff) had back to back singles to put runners at the corners for Derrek Lee. Lee was able to get a sac fly to make it 5-4, leaving it up to Aramis Ramirez. So with 2 down, and the tying run on, Ramirez went yard. Big time. Huge game-winning walk-off home run to left field, taking some serious momentum for the rest of the series against the division leader, and closing the gap to only 6.5 games.

Pre-game, I had figured the Brewers would take 2 of 3 at least and possibly sweep based solely on the pitching matchups, but the bullpen I had thought to be the stronger of the two bombed, while the previously fallible Cubs bullpen looked impenetrable. Great win for the Cubs to start a huge weekend series.

Tomorrow’s affair should be just as good as Ben Sheets takes on Sean Marshall. 12:55 on FOX. Check it out.