Links and Notes

It must be Philosophy in Old Rock Songs Day today.

On the drive into work, I heard “Live for Today” by the Grass Roots, followed by “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” by the Rolling Stones. Also, “I Can Help” by Billy Swan was the first song out of the radio when pulling away from the house, a song that I really like a lot. There is a guitar riff in there that sure reminded me of Les Paul, a connection I’d never made before. One of those runs down the neck, and back up, repeating the same sequence of notes. Here’s a recent version:

Something about the mood I was in made it all sound extra good. I think it’s because I was already in a very good mood, after getting my first good night’s sleep in a quite a few nights. I’m pretty sure this is directly due to my bike ride last night, also for the first time in many days. Went with my youngest boy Jordan, just the two of us, so it’s a win/win. I’ve noticed over the last few years that on days when I get zero exercise, my sleep is low quality. It’s shorter and not as deep, and during the next day, I don’t feel as good, I don’t have as much ability to concentrate, my mood is often inferior, etc. I often wonder how many people who fight problems with sleep and are taking medication for it are sort of barking up the wrong tree.

On to the links:

A night of healing in Iowa – A summation of Friday night’s tribute to Ed Thomas, the coach at Aplington-Parkersburg who was killed by one of his former players in June. He was instrumental, also, in helping rebuild Parkersburg after a devastating tornado mostly destroyed the town in 2008.

Ichiro defies critics and odds – Computers sometimes don’t throw Ichiiro Suzuki lots of love. Proving, I don’t know … that computers can be stupid? Is there a GM that wouldn’t sign him if they had a chance to start a team from scratch and wanted to win a World Series? I sure would. The guy creates team offense by getting on base at a ridiculous rate.

Political Economics 101 – Eric Raymond explains how health care would respond to government intervention in that market. See if you can guess how it turns out!

Oh, come on: one extra club costs Jim Furyk over $130,000 – And that’s why golf is the most honorable game in the world. Rules is rules. It sucks when you forget and break one. Which encourages not breaking them, and rewards those who follow them. The higher the cost of breaking them, the more value they hold.

Chicago street-grid system turns 100 on Tuesday – So … I guess the Chicago City Council has done at least one thing right in the last 100 years.

Quiz: Five Oldest Ballparks

What are the five oldest Major League ballparks, in order?

Soriano Discovers Joys of Batting with Runners On

The sixth spot in the batting order seems to be suiting Alfonso Soriano pretty well, after all.

From this Daily Herald article: “In 17 games out of the 6-hole, Soriano is 24-for-64 (. 375) with 5 homers and 15 RBI.”

So, .375/5/15 in 17 games, while prior to that, his numbers were .226/14/33 in 82 games.

This might not be proof of anything just yet, but it is enough to establish that he can at least be productive there, sometimes, for short stretches. Which is pretty much how he always hits: sometimes, for short stretches.

But when he’s locked in, he is a beast, to be sure.

So. Can we all agree to stop arguing that he MUST bat leadoff? Because, apparently, it isn’t true.

Of course, some will say “it isn’t a fair comparison for determining whether Soriano bats better in the 6 hole vs. the 1 hole, because of Derrek Lee and Aramis Ramirez getting on base more in front of him, so OF COURSE he will get better pitches to hit and drive in more runs.” Right. That’s exactly the point. That’s exactly why it makes sense to move a guy like him down in the order.

Fastball hitters will nearly always get better pitches to hit with runners on base. Especially mistake-hitters like Soriano, who will just destroy fastballs delivered to locations he likes (including out of the zone, low, which is his favorite of all). For the opposing pitcher and defense to have guys on base consistently when a hitter like him comes up is not a recipe for success, unless they execute extremely well.

Which they tend not to do as much in August, as compared to, say, October.

So we’ll see where he is in a few more weeks, and how he does in the playoffs, if they get there.

Ballplayers Get Hungry Too

Curtis Granderson on long extra-inning games:

People ask what’s going through your head once you start to approach that four or five hour mark in the game and that 13-16 inning mark.

Your body isn’t really tired as you see pitchers still come in throwing around the same velocity as before. Players still make plays, steal bases, and hit home runs to win those long games. Mentally, you are ready for it to end sooner than later though.

Sometimes, though, you just get really hungry.

Somehow, I never wondered about that. It does make perfect sense though; by that time, a player probably hasn’t eaten in 6-8 hours.

I wonder how the players with blood sugar issues deal with this.

Which reminds me of an amazing story I heard from the Ron Santo documentary “This Old Cub”. It might even be true.

Santo, a Type I diabetic, was in the on-deck circle when he started to have a blood sugar reaction. He looked out at the pitcher’s mound, and instead of one pitcher, he saw three. Also, three scoreboards in center field.

Keep in mind, this is when he is just moments away from stepping into the batter’s box to face a baseball traveling near his head at 85-90 m.p.h. Or, three baseballs, in this case

A major “uh-oh” moment. He isn’t sure what to do. So he picks the pitcher in the middle. And he got a base hit.

In fact, in his version of the story, it was two outs in the ninth inning, they were behind, and he came up with the bases loaded and hit a home run.

I tried to find the box score from this game, supposedly against the Dodgers in 1966 against Bill Singer. I couldn’t find anything matching those circumstances. Who knows what really happened, but for me the amazing part is that he got into the batter’s box at all. Think about it. Three pitchers!

Manny Ramirez Suspended 50 Games for PEDs

Holy Couldn’t-See-That-Coming, Batman!

Ramirez’ statement:

Recently I saw a physician for a personal health issue. He gave me a medication, not a steroid, which he thought was okay to give me. Unfortunately, the medication was banned under our drug policy. Under the policy that mistake is now my responsibility. I have been advised not to say anything more for now. I do want to say one other thing; I’ve taken and passed about 15 drug tests over the past five seasons.

Um, sure.  OK.  If you say so.

Hey, who knows any more, who is guilty, and who isn’t?  I sure don’t.

But that just seems like legal gobble-dy-gook meant to obfuscate, not clarify.  So right away, I’m suspicious.

Dude sure can hit the damn ball, though. Of all the players I’ve ever suspected of using PEDs, he seemed like he “needed” them the least.

Honoring Jackie Robinson, Ignoring Branch Rickey and Josh Gibson

From the Cubs website:

The players on both teams will honor Jackie Robinson Wednesday, with all uniformed personnel wearing No. 42.

Really? Again?

Nothing against Jackie Robinson, but how many times does baseball need to bow down to him?

Bernie Williams: Former Ballplayer, Current Jazz Guitarist

Two of My Favorite Things Together: Baseball and Music

Check out Bernie Williams playing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” unplugged:

He does a very nice job interpreting that tired old sing-along in a new way. Quiet, reflective, acoustic. Nice.

Go ahead, click already, I can pretty much guarantee it will be the coolest thing you’ll hear all day. He has a new CD out Tuesday called Moving Forward, on Reform Records.

I think this is just outstanding.

Former athletes, for whatever reason, rarely embark on new creative challenges like “jazz guitarist”

As many of us can attest, it isn’t easy to take on new challenges in your forties. If it was, you’d see a whole lot more people doing it. Most of us slide quietly into whatever is easiest, whatever involves just about zero risk.  Becoming a professional musician at that age is usually not on the menu.

Yet Bernie Williams is ready to risk his very well-known name in a very public way.  For very little money, I suspect.

Of course, his risk might be mitigated somewhat by, you know, being Bernie Williams, and having made a whole bunch of money playing for the Yankees for 16 years. Unless he invested heavily with AIG or Bernie Madoff.

Still, I for one applaud his effort. And after watching that video, I think he’s got some pretty decent guitarist chops, too.

How Defense Wins Games

I love Reed Johnson

Top Nine Reasons Cubs Will / Won’t Win 2009 World Series

Everybody’s favorite team to pity, the Chicago Cubs, is back at it for the 2009 season.

Surprisingly, they have won two Central Division titles in a row, for the first time in like twelve thirty eight a whole big bunch of years.  Yeah, I’m too lazy to look it up, really. Let’s just go with “been a real long time”.

So, in breaking it down, there are two camps here:  people who figure the Cubs should win it again, and maybe even finally get to a World Series, and people who are White Sox fans, who enjoy their hatred for the North Siders a little too much (quite frankly, we’d recommend professional help).

Accordingly, let’s look at some of the reasons the Cubs will both win, and fail to win, the 2009 World Series.

Top Nine Reasons Chicago Cubs *Will* Win 2009 World Series

9. They win every 101 years, like clockwork baby!
8. Milton Bradley is best combination toy company / baseball player name ever
7. Kosuke Fukudome can’t really be as bad a hitter as he was latter half of last year … right?
6. Two words: Aaron Miles.
5. Nothing would piss off White Sox fans more
4. Lou Piniella is getting old, really need to get this done right now, fellas
3. Figure they can quit bluffing and start trying now, after going 0-6 in playoffs last two years
2. Probably the best way to get both White Sox fans and the media to stop talking about the 101 year thing, it’s getting super annoying, and killing all of them just seems rash
1. Media cabal conspiracy for killer TV ratings, umps and commissioner in on it too, of course

Top Nine Reasons Chicago Cubs *Won’t* Win 2009 World Series

9. Haven’t won it in 101 years, not likely to start now
8. Obama is a Sox fan, and thinking of pushing legislation through that would make it illegal
7. Team is named the Chicago … Cubs – duh!
6. Outside curve balls in the dirt still not outlawed, for some odd reason;  Ramirez, Soriano, Lee very upset
5. Billly Goat curse still in effect for another, let’s see, …. yes, another 1,000,000  years
4. Steve Bartman is a voodoo zombie master, with lots of voodoo dolls and pins, and he knows how to use them!
3. No matter how good they might be in the regular season, will find yet another creative way to meltdown when the pressure is on, somehow
2. Dusty Baker Effect lingering many years past expiration date
1. Relying on the “damn day games screw them up every year” excuse

Moving On Quickly … For Whose Benefit?

I like some of these points, about the steroids scandal in baseball, and I do agree that we should move on.  Fixating on scandal is no way to live.

But I do not agree that “cheating is cheating” and because of that alone, we have a good reason to shrug our shoulders and pretend the whole thing never happened.

And besides, it’s too soon: first, let’s allow some time for the victims here, the fans, to heal.  Here’s three reasons why.

Cheating vs. Gamesmanship

The word “cheating” covers a lot of ground.  One form, more commonly known as gamesmanship, has a long and storied role in baseball, even though technically it could be considered cheating.  Throwing a spitball, corking your bat, catchers moving their gloves a tiny bit to frame the pitch … these are examples of gamesmanship. And the players themselves begrudgingly accept it.  They admire those who can get away with it, because it is commonly considered acceptable behavior.  Barely acceptable, yes, but acceptable, nonetheless.

Changing your body’s hormonal balance by taking illegal drugs is not gamesmanship. It’s cheating in track, in swimming, in cycling, and yes, in baseball.

Obviously, not everybody will see a big bright line separating those two categories, but I sure do.

For one, public opinion would consider it cheating.  You can argue definitions all night long, but when public opinion goes against you, it’s a rough road.

Also, it is pretty clear that taking a substance that shrivels your acorns and causes depression and homicidal rages because it screws with your hormones is way, way beyond weight training and basic nutrition.

Don’t Lie to Us

But even beyond that, there is another issue, and for many fans I think, a bigger issue:  don’t lie to us.  Many fans don’t like to be taken for fools, and Sosa, Bonds, the whole lot of them, have been treating fans like chumps for years now.  Millions of us don’t care for it.  And some of us would now like to see certain players taken down a peg or two as a punitive measure.

Truth matters. The fans’ opinion matters. Image matters. Goodwill matters. Public perception matters. The history and integrity of the game matters; baseball, unlike any other sport, is the grand old game that it is because of the accumulated history behind it.

Object Lessons and Role Models

In fact, I would go even further here:  I think object lessons in cheating, and more importantly, how you handle yourself when you get caught, have a sizable impact on society and culture in general.  Especially young people.

This impact is impossible to measure, but it’s there.  And it can be bad, or good, or a mixture.  So it would seem to be in our best interests right now to hear some mea culpas and some truth-telling (finally).  Maybe even a little groveling. It’s cathartic, and that’s worth something to the fans, and therefore, to the game itself.

Here’s a truism:  what people do matters a lot more than what they say.

And whether they seek it out or not, athletes are role models, and have responsibilities to our youth.  You want fame?  OK, but in exchange, you get to help mold young people.  It’s just the way it works.  Even Charles Barkley, who famously shrugged off his role model status many years ago, has come around to understand the power of the famous athlete to shape behavior in young people.

So while I understand and advocate the desire to move on, and not focus too much on the seamy side of baseball and sports in general, and I most definitely agree that the media in general is exploiting all this for ratings, I still think there is value in players being held accountable.  Tremendous value, in fact, to the fans, to the game, and even, in some ways, to our society.

Too Many Grounders, DLee

Some interesting numbers showing the percentage of ground balls, line drives, and fly balls by some Cubs hitters:

PLAYER	GRD	LINE	FLY
Lee	45	21	34
Ramirez	31	20	48
Soriano	29	23	48
Soto	38	21	41
Fontenot	38	24	38
Theriot	57	23	20
Fukudome	51	19	30

Cubs Sign Milton Bradley

Despite Milton Bradley’s reputation as a troublemaker and a hothead, I have to give him credit for saying lots of the right kind of things in meeting with the Chicago media after his signing Thursday to a 3 year, $30M contract.

First, from this article:

“I didn’t call my mom and tell her because I wanted her to just find out from watching TV. But she called and left me a message. And I played it back several times. I could hear her voice cracking on the message.”

“My mom worked 35 years as a grocery clerk. Thirty-five years and was able to retire a few years back. Just a tremendous blessing.”

He uses the word “blessing” a lot:

“I’d like to take a little wordplay and switch up Lou Gehrig’s speech about being the luckiest man. I don’t believe in luck. I believe in blessings, and I consider myself the most blessed man on the face of the earth today. I’ve been through trials and tribulations and adversity. Standing here today, I’m pretty humbled.”

About his volatile past:

“The past,” he said. “If we could leave it there … I’ve seen a lot of cute headlines about me talking about everything. People that never met me speaking about me. I think it’s not very intelligent to speak about someone you’ve never met.”

And from this blog post, I like his approach to hitting:

“My focus at the plate is just try to get on base,” he said. “A lot of people say they try to get a hit. I’m just trying to get on base. I’m going to make the pitcher throw me three strikes. If I get the first one and it’s a good one and that’s what I want and I’m looking for it, then I’ll hit that one. For the most part, I’m going to make the pitcher work. I want to get a good strike to hit. If I swing at strikes, I’m going to be successful.”

About why he likes number 21:

“It’s a number they first gave me in rookie ball,” he said. “I just kind of stuck with it. You can’t wear 42 anymore (it’s retired in honor of Jackie Robinson). I always said that 21 is half of 42. If I can be half the player, half of the person, Jackie Robinson was, I’ll be a success. That’s my motto.”

I’m normally pretty tentative about bringing in players with baggage, but I have to admit, I like what I’m hearing from Milton Bradley.

And he led the entire American League in OBP (.436) and OPS (.999) in 2008. That’s a lot of O’s and P’s. He did this as a DH, though, and he’s had some injury history, so there is some concern about his ability to stay on the field as an everyday player. And even if he does, can he produce anywhere near those numbers?

As for being a hothead, time will tell. Maybe he brings a little bit of passion and intensity to the clubhouse, which is good. Every team — especially teams that plan to win championships — needs a player who isn’t afraid to call out players who are dogging it or otherwise hurting the team. And it can’t be a pitcher, like Carlos Zambrano, who is definitely a hothead, probably too much of one.  The Cubs seem to need a little more leadership and intensity, and maybe Bradley can supply that.

Or, maybe that’s just wishful thinking.

Who knows?  People acquire reputations; some are deserved, some aren’t.  But even for those that are deserved, people can change, especially when given the right combo of teammates, manager, fan base, and media treatment.  You just never know how a new teammate is going to work out.

“Scouting and Development”? What’s That?!

Mark Cuban on attempting to buy the Chicago Cubs Baseball Club:

My plans were to spend to win, not to spend for spending’s sake. IMHO, the money I could save being in the 2nd tier of payroll could be invested in scouting and development.

“Investing in scouting and development”! What a concept.

A smart concept. A foreign concept to generations of Cubs ownership and fandom, but then, this is sort of implied by the whole “smart” thing. Although, I have to give current management credit, they seem to be developing some players a little better than they used to.

But when the best player on the team during the last 30 years is a player from the Phillies farm system (Ryne Sandberg), this is a strong clue that your scouting and development program wasn’t top notch.

Anyway, the whole post is really interesting, and recommended. An insider’s view into the process of buying a baseball team, including the possibility that White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf has a motive to lobby against Cuban: he wouldn’t want free-spending competition in town.

Here’s a Cure for Insomnia

Can’t Say I Never Gave You Nothin’

For those who care, I’ve posted a long-ish essay called “Baseball Stats are Useful … To a Point” in which I address the argument about sample sizes being too small in the postseason to accurately judge some players, and the larger question of whether “clutch” hitting exists or not.

My main point is that some things — things that we know can affect the outcomes of games — are unquantifiable, and always will be, because ultimately these are human beings playing these sports, not machines. And wherever you have human beings, you have unknown factors that reside within their hearts and minds. Factors which are, by definition, unquantifiable.

I also draw conclusions about the weaknesses of relying on stats to completely understand and explain any sport, generally.

Yes, it’s going to be an exciting ride!  Strap yourselves in.

As exciting as Brad Pitt cast as Billy Beane in a movie version of Moneyball? Well, no. But frankly, what is?

Chicago Cubs 2008 Post-Mortem

Once again, the Cubs’ season has ended too early.  This time, it was the dreaded Dodgers, who — stop me if you’ve heard this one before — outscored and embarrassed them 20-6, even though the Cubs were the highest-scoring team in the National League.

You might think it’d be pretty hard to dominate a league so completely in the regular season, and then look so bad in the postseason, but you’d be incorrect, bucko.

Many, many Cubs fans are surely angry, upset, borderline suicidal, confused, and generally feeling like jilted lovers.

When an entire team forgets how to hit for one playoff series, well, you can chalk it up to some bad luck, or a coincidence, or a pitching matchup problem that can happen in a short series, or any of a host of other rationalizations about failure.  And you might even be right:  bad luck does happen, and in a short series, luck definitely comes into play now and again.  Pitching matchups can be a big advantage over 2 or 3 games.

But when it happens two years in a row, something else is going on, and in this case, it’s pretty easy to see what it is, just by watching the games:  too much expanding the strike zone, chasing bad breaking stuff outside, that you can never ever ever hit safely.  Well, maybe if your bat is 52 inches long and you have superhuman hand-eye coordination.

NLDS Game 3: Dodgers 3, Cubs 1

Well. THAT sucked.

I’ll have more to add later, but long story short: the Cubs have once again been swept in the first round, for the second year in a row. This time it was the Dodgers playing the role of executioner, winning 3-1.

UPDATE: the series composite box score.

NLDS Game 2: Dodgers 10, Cubs 3

Wow.

I didn’t think it was even possible for the Cubs to top their ridiculous display of general ineptitude and lack of preparation from the night before, but they did.

Here’s the box score, log, and game story on Yahoo. If you care.

I didn’t even watch this disaster; saw parts of the first two innings, including the unbelievable string of errors in the Dodgers’ half of the second inning that allowed the Dodgers to score 5 runs. First and third, one out, grounder to second, easy double play ball.  E-4, DeRosa. Run scored, and they added 4 more in the inning.  None of them should have scored.

That was enough for me; I have a policy against watching playoff teams that don’t show up. So I watched “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia”, which is the funniest show on TV, by the way. And I’m glad I did.

Because otherwise, I’d have been watching the Cubs getting their butts kicked for the second game in a row. At home, where they’ve been dominant this year. These two games have easily been, to my recollection, the worst two consecutive games they’ve played all season. Call me crazy, but the playoffs is when you want to play better, generally speaking.

So the whole Cubs organization should be embarrassed now.  If the players on this team have any guts whatsoever, they’ll bring some effort on Saturday, and maybe even, oh, I don’t know, play some good baseball, across the board, like they did all season long, for a change? That would be sweet.

And certain players, whose names rhyme with Soriano, Lee, and Ramirez, had better figure out a way to become effective at offense, instead of offensive, in the postseason. That’s why you guys make the big bucks, after all.

The postseason is when reputations are made.  This 2007-2008 team is making themselves an unmistakable reputation for choking, and they have one game left to begin to right that ship.

NLDS Game 1: Dodgers 7, Cubs 2

Not Real Happy, No

I waited all summer for this?  The same crappy effort they put forth against Arizona last year?

The entire team basically looked terrible: pitching, offense, defense, across the board.  The 1-6 hitters went 3-for-23 with 1 run, 2 walks, 5 Ks, and 9 runners left on base.  Soriano and Fukudome, the 1-2 hitters, were a combined 0-for-9 with 3 Ks and 0 walks, and Soriano gets the award for Most Ineffective Batter, going 0-for-5 with 2 strikeouts and three weak popups to the infield. Soto, at number 5, was 0-for-3 with a strikeout and a walk.  Lee, Ramirez, and Edmonds each managed a single hit.

The 7-8-9 hitters, though, were 6-for-12, with two hits each by DeRosa and Theriot, including the only hit that drove in any runs of the game, a two-run homer by DeRosa in the second.  Even Ryan Dempster managed a hit.

And the pitching was equally bad.  Dempster had no control, and was in constant trouble, and walked 7 in his 4+ innings of work.  In the fourth, he walked the bases full for James Loney, who cashed in the gift by hitting a grand slam.  The relief corps wasn’t much better, except for Sean Marshall, who did a decent job by going 2 and 1/3 innings, striking out 4 and giving up only 1 hit, a homer by Manny Ramirez, but give Ramirez credit, he hit a pitch 6 inches off the ground into the seats,  You can’t hang that on the pitcher.  Samardzija and Marquis pitches the 8th and 9th, and both got hit hard, each giving up a run.

So now what?  Note to Alfonso Soriano … maybe you could put a little more effort into laying off the breaking stuff away, and a little less effort into hopping when you catch fly balls? 0-for-5 isn’t really going to get it done. Perhaps you’ve noticed, you can’t pull breaking stuff away.  So stop trying. Take an outside pitch to right field, or don’t swing at it. The book on you now is “breaking stuff away all day”, and so you have to prove you aren’t going to swing at these pitches in the playoffs, and until you do, that’s all you’re going to see.  You are the leader of this team’s offense, you need to accept that challenge, and become a better team player — especially in the playoffs — by being more disciplined and not giving away 5 outs every game.

And are there any pitchers on this staff that can bring it in the post-season? Dempster looked like he was trying to strike everybody out with one pitch. Zambrano has been shaky for the last two+ months, and has never won a post-season game.  Harden and Lilly, it might up to you two to win each of your starts, to force a game 5 for Dempster to redeem himself.

This level of effort is not going to get it done.  I know Derek Lowe is a good pitcher, and gives them trouble.  And quite possibly, they could rebound tonight and bring a better level of intensity and focus and execution.

We’ll find out over these next 2 games.

So, I don’t know, I’ve just about had enough of watching this October bullsh*t baseball. I think that unless I see some real effort, intensity, and execution pretty quickly here, I’m just about done with this group, with the playing well in the regular season and then looking stupid in the post-season.

I’m not the kind of fan who adores a team and sticks with them in thick and thin; been there, done that, and I finally decided that life is too short to let your emotional state get yanked around by a sports team.  I’m more of a manager-style fan, who demands that a team maximize its potential, and execute, and bring it every game, and play winning team baseball; and what I’m seeing over the last 4 playoff games, going back to last year, is not impressive.  And when I’ve had enough of a team, I “fire” them, which means I might still pay attention, sometimes, when I feel like it, but there is no devotion whatsoever. We’re very close to that point right now.

And so, to this team, and their October performances in 2007-08, let me say this:  you suck, basically.

In October, you need to up the intensity, up the concentration, up the focus, and up the execution!  Use your f**king heads!  Play as a team, like you did all summer, and good things can happen.  Or play like idiots, like you did last night, and cement your reputation as a bunch of choke artists who can’t handle the pressure.

It’s all about the post-season, guys.

Derrek Lee Coming Around?

Among the many things we could take from Sunday night’s 5-0 win by the Cubs over the Astros, the most obvious is the fact that Carlos Zambrano threw a no-hitter. His stuff was electric; even pitches right down the middle moved so much, the hitters would swing and miss. So congratulations to him.

But to me, there was another very good thing, and that was Derrek Lee hitting a double to right field to drive in two runs in the 4 run fourth. Lee has really been struggling, striking out a lot, swinging hard at everything — even with two strikes and runners on base — and when he does make contact, he hits weak grounders to the infield.

He generally just looks lost at the plate.

When he is at his best, he is very good indeed, hitting lots of line drives and long fly balls to all fields; he uses the whole plate and hits the ball where it’s pitched. He seems to have forgotten this essential rule of hitting, and his effectiveness has been vastly reduced.

Common baseball wisdom says that one of the best ways to break out of a slump is to forget about pulling the ball, and go to the opposite field on purpose, because (1) it’s easier to get hits this way, for a lot of reasons, and (2) it helps re-focus your swing and your mental approach.

Lee looked good hitting that pitch to right Sunday night. And yesterday, in the Cubs’ 6-1 win, he went 2-for-4, with a 2 run homer, and the other hit was a single to right field again, sending the base runner from first to third. This is a very promising sign, both for Lee personally, and for the team: if they get Lee and Soriano and Ramirez all going at the same time, they are going to be tough to beat.

Derrek Lee is too good a hitter to get bogged down by trying to kill the ball all the time. He doesn’t even need to pull the ball to be an effective hitter, anyway; he is big and strong, with quick hands, and hits the ball hard in every direction. He should just go with the pitch and trust his ability; with his talent, he should be an absolute beast with the bat.

And they’re going to need him to be at the top of his game in October.

Recent Cubs Woes

The Cubs have now lost 8 out of 9, and some fans are getting nervous. “It’s 1969 all over again! Oh, nooooo!“

Of course, they won 7 in a row right before that, so when you average that out, they’re 8-9 over the last 17. And the Brewers, in second, are 9-8 during that stretch, and so have gained just one game in the standings.

Going back even further, both those teams were very hot from August 1 until the recent swoons: the Cubs were 13-5, and the Brewers 12-6, so even including the recent woes, both are 21-14 since Aug. 1. That’s .600 baseball over 35 games, people.

In other words, they’re still doing fine, as long as they snap out of this funk this week.

So some folks should just calm down a little. Stats are nice, but when you get too fine, and slice and dice your samples without regard to balance, you can tell any story you like.

It would be nice to not have to endure a stretch like this on the stretch run to the playoffs, but Al at BleedCubbieBlue.com did a little research and found that nearly all of the last 8 World Series winners had a rough patch in September. It’s a long, long season, with very few off days, and even the best teams go through things like this, probably due to various breakdowns (physical, mental, and emotional).

For the Cubs, it seems mostly due to a lack of offense; in 8 of those 9 losses, they’ve scored only 16 total runs, and have been shut out twice.

In last night’s game, they left a lot of guys on base, again. They seem to make every opposing pitcher look better than they actually are.

So they’re encountering normal in-flight turbulence, and if they have what it takes to win in October, they’ll come out of it just fine, and soon enough, this will all be a fleeting memory. If they don’t have what it takes, then they fall apart, and they don’t deserve to win anyway.

That’s kind of how this all works. Always has, always will.