I am starting to think maybe the Cubs are cursed (2 Viewers)

[Saintman2884]

or maybe we just cursed ourselves by getting cocky after winning the NL Central and getting ahead of ourselves, we didn't look ahead to the future and the Dbacks.

Because right now the Dbacks are killing us, they have better pitching, smarter hitters, and maybe a smarter manager. That is why we are losing I think, we are getting outmanaged and outmaneuvered

 

[cdogg]

Its not a curse, its just ownership not caring enough because they make money whether they win or lose, based on a ballpark. Get Cuban as an owner, who will be bonkers like Stienbenner (sp), and you may make crazy moves, but you will win one or two Ws's. The Tribune Co could care less.

 

[GrayMatter78]

Dbacks are killing us, they have better pitching, smarter hitters, and maybe a smarter manager.

Having a better team is usually a sign that they will win. :dunno:

 

[Chairman_LMAO]

What happened to "no more excuses" and "BS" like curses and billy goats and stuff? It's only been six days and we're back to curses?

WE have our chance, it is right in front of us again, we have to do something good for this year, no more excuses like Bart man or black cats or some damn billy goat, this has to be the year for the Cubs. It is going to happen will have to be happening literally.

No more BS, no more choking on the cubs part. We have the tools to be good and we have done a good job so far, lets take it a step further.

Lets win a World Series.

WE have waited long enough for that to happen

WE got ahead of ourselves by not looking ahead to the future? Alrighty then. Bob Melvin is outmanaging Lou Piniella? Yeah, okay.

Let me tell you why WE are getting OUR butts kicked by the D-Bags. How about 13 strikeouts by Cubs hitters last night? How about 18 men left on base? How about Soriano, Ramirez and Lee accounting for 3 hits, 7 strikeouts and 12 men left on base between them? Against Doug freakin' Davis. How about those same 3 guys accounting for 1 hit, 5 strikeouts and 7 men left on base in game 1?

It's going to happen will have to be happening literally, indeed.

Lou Piniella is hands down the best manager of the 8 currently managing in the playoffs. The people who were giving him grief over pulling Zambrano "early" in game 1 clearly have very little knowledge of the Cubs, or Carlos Marmol (he of the 1.43 ERA in 2007 and 96 Ks to 35 BBs.) It was the right move, it just didn't work out. Marmol wet his pants, but there was ZERO reason to think that he would. Anyone who has watched Marmol regularly this year knows that Marmol > [Zambrano after 6 innings]

"But why let Zambrano hit if you were just gonna take him out????" Because Zambrano is at least as good an option at the plate as anyone on your bench, that's why. There's a reason he's been used as a pinch hitter several times this season while other guys were available to pinch hit.

But yeah, Piniella is an idiot. Okay. It's Piniella's fault that Soriano, Lee and Ramirez might as well not have even made the trip. It's Piniella's fault that Marmol melted down when there was no reason to think that would happen. It's Piniella's fault that Ted Lilly, who has been the Cubs' "stopper" all year -- 9-1 after a Cubs loss -- just didn't get it done yesterday. Piniella is wrong for wanting to have Zambrano available to start a potential game 4 rather than Jason freakin' Marquis, who probably should have been left completely off the postseason roster for the second straight year. There's a reason they call thim the Marquis de Suck.

Maybe Piniella has just fallen under the spell of the billy goat, right? Yeah, that's it. "No more excuses" indeed.

I look forward to the next rah rah post should WE win the next two at Wrigley to tie it up. I suppose OUR heart and determination and steely resolve will have broken free from any number of curses if WE happen to pull that off. Only to fall back under the curse back in Arizona.

Must be nice to be able to see things in such ways. Go Cubbies yay!

 

[theSpaniard]

The Cubs backed their way into the playoffs by winning a weak division. They don't even deserve to be there. That is why they are getting beat, not some curse.

 

[lsu31always]

D-Backs should close this series out on Saturday. All the Cubs have starting pitching wise is Zambrano, Marquis and Lilly have been great this year but have overperformed. Hill is still a work in progress.

 

[purvis_guy]

"But why let Zambrano hit if you were just gonna take him out????" Because Zambrano is at least as good an option at the plate as anyone on your bench, that's why. There's a reason he's been used as a pinch hitter several times this season while other guys were available to pinch hit.

You are right, I may not know that much about the Cubs, but I know enough about baseball to know that NO pitcher is a better batter than an everyday player who sits the bench from time to time. Saying a pitcher is a good hitter is like saying a punter is a good tackler, yes he is, FOR A PUNTER. Piniella may be a good manager, but he screwed up the Zambrano call, bigtime. Like Herman Edwards sez, "You play to win the game", not the game you may or may not play 4 or 5 days from now! Most especially in a short 5-game series!!!

 

[lsu31always]

You are right, I may not know that much about the Cubs, but I know enough about baseball to know that NO pitcher is a better batter than an everyday player who sits the bench from time to time. Saying a pitcher is a good hitter is like saying a punter is a good tackler, yes he is, FOR A PUNTER. Piniella may be a good manager, but he screwed up the Zambrano call, bigtime. Like Herman Edwards sez, "You play to win the game", not the game you may or may not play 4 or 5 days from now! Most especially in a short 5-game series!!!

What about Micah Owings?
Zambrano is only hitting .247 this year.

 

[theSpaniard]

There is an exception to every rule, and Owings might be it. But it's only 60 ABs that he's put up the numbers that he has, and I still may consider going to the bench depending on who is on it, who is pitching, game situation, etc.

 

[JOElittleBIGhorn]

Hold on for another year 2884. Cuban will buy the Cubbies and sign A-rod where he will show up all of his NY haters and catch fire in the playoffs.

 

[Chairman_LMAO]

You are right, I may not know that much about the Cubs, but I know enough about baseball to know that NO pitcher is a better batter than an everyday player who sits the bench from time to time. Saying a pitcher is a good hitter is like saying a punter is a good tackler, yes he is, FOR A PUNTER. Piniella may be a good manager, but he screwed up the Zambrano call, bigtime. Like Herman Edwards sez, "You play to win the game", not the game you may or may not play 4 or 5 days from now! Most especially in a short 5-game series!!!

A simplistic view, and I agree with you that it's also an uninformed one.

There's a reason he's been used as a pinch hitter several times this season while other guys were available to pinch hit.

I'll admit that my choice of words could have been better, but when I said that Zambrano was at least as good an option as anyone on the bench at the time, I didn't mean that he was the best hitter they had available. But I insist, and I know what I'm talking about, that he isn't far behind. But it's not even about that.

It's about not bringing your best option off the bench in the 5th inning of a game where you're behind by 1 and you have the tying run in scoring position with no outs. Theoretically, you ought to be able to tie the game there, and you can save that would-be pinch hitter for later in what might be a tie game much later or even go into extra innings. Zambrano had already hit a gapper off Webb earlier in the game for a double.

Having Zambrano bunt to move Theriot to 3rd with 1 out and Soriano coming up would have also been a better move than pinch hitting there. Some would say that bunting would have been the best option overall, and I can certainly see THAT point of view. But Soriano strikes out a TON. No guarantee of a sac fly in that situation. And Piniella knows that Zambrano isn't "a pitcher" at the plate. He's not. You may not know that, but I do, and Piniella did.

As it turned out, Zambrano hit a line drive that would have been a run-scoring single if not for a spectacular play by Stephen Drew. The same result was just as likely with Bonds or ARod or Manny Ramirez at the plate.

And as for what everybody's really been giving Piniella grief over, taking Zambrano out ofter "only" 85 pitches and therefore somehow not "playing to win the game"... just because hack sports talk radio guy says it over and over all day long, that doesn't make it true.

Zambrano in pitches 1-90 this year:
650 opposing at bats
opponents' batting average: .218
opponents' slugging %: .328
home runs: 13

Zambrano after pitch #90:
151 opposing at bats
opponents' batting average: .298
opponents' slugging %: .563
home runs: 10

THAT is why you have a bullpen in the first place. To avoid those kinds of drops and better position yourself to.... :16: "win the game." Lou Piniella was aware of that. Sports talk radio guy was not.

Sports talk radio guy also has little to no idea who Carlos Marmol is, or how good he has been all year. He doesn't know, nor does he care, that Marmol is 5-1 out of the bullpen this year, with a 1.43 ERA, has struck out 96 in 69 innings while giving up only 41 hits and 35 walks. That Marmol has electric stuff and SHOULD have been able to stonewall the D-Bags for as long as necessary. I do. So does Piniella.

He has no idea how sudden it happens when Zambrano loses it, and how sometimes by the time you notice, it's already too late. I do. So does Piniella.

He has no idea how well the Marmol-Howry-Dempster late-inning bullpen progression has been working for the Cubs especially late in the season. I do. So does Piniella.

Just because it doesn't work out doesn't mean it was a screw up. That's simplistic, uninformed sports radio guy logic. Don't listen to sports radio guy. To get to the truth of the matter, you have to dig a little, and/or you have to be intimately familiar with the team in question.

 

[SaintsFan11]

I am starting to think maybe the Cubs are cursed

I've been saying this for years.