Jimmy!

I've been struggling to come to grips with the face that one-time Cardinal Jim Edmonds, who has hit four home runs in the past four games and is batting .305/.376/.622 since joining the Cubs, is quickly becoming an invaluable piece of the Cubs outfield. I was a bit skeptical of Jimmy's success and felt trepidation when cheering for him, but then he went out and hit two home runs in one inning in the Crosstown Classic against the White Sox, and I was ready to give him a standing ovation.

So why, in this season where the Cubs lead the NL Central and are 20 games over .500, is a former Cardinal (?!?) leading the charge? Well, the way I see it, this is simply payback for the Lou Brock trade.

Brock was traded from the Cubs to the Cardinals on June 15, 1964 (along with Jack Spring and Paul Toth) for Ernie Broglio, Bobby Shantz, and Doug Clemens. Brock went on to make six all star teams and compile over 2,700 hits in a Cardinal uniform, while Broglio was out of baseball two seasons later, Shantz was traded again later that season, and Clemens played in only 182 more games. Think the Cards got the better end of the deal? Just by a hair.

Even though the Cubs acquired Edmonds via the Padres (after he was traded from the Cardinals in the offseason), I think karma has caught up with the Cards. And thanks for finally getting around to evening out the Brock trade. Better late than never.

Tuesday's Cubs Notes

Random Cubs notes for this Tuesday before interleague play resumes ...

- The Cubs are in it for the long haul. Not only are they still 20 games over .500 (48-28) heading into this week’s two interleague series with Baltimore, they have won 14 straight games at home and are 6-4 since Alfonso Soriano went down with a hand injury on June 11.

Even more impressive is that the Cubs are in every game they play. Don’t believe me? Well, out of their 28 losses this season, 20 have come by less than 2 runs. And with the best offense in the National League, I don’t expect this to change anytime soon.

- Sean Marshall gets the start tonight for the Cubs in the series opener against the Orioles. Marshall is filling in for the injured Carlos Zambrano and threw seven scoreless innings in his last start at AAA Iowa. Let’s hope he keeps it up, as the Cubs could use another lefthanded arm in the starting rotation.

- Aramis Ramirez has hit safely in 11 of his last 13 games and has bumped his average up near the .300 mark. Ramirez also is making a case for his inclusion in the all-star game, as his 14 home runs rank third among MLB third basemen and his 56 RBI rank second among MLB third basemen.

Now, here's to the Cubs making it 15 straight at home ...

Eff You Ozzie!

Nothing gets me stoked like the Cubs-Sox Crosstown Classic, and after the Cubs emphatically swept the Sox at Wrigley over the weekend, all I can say is, “Eff you Ozzie Guillen!”

If you remember in early May, Guillen had some choice words for Chicago media and fans when he was complaining about the lack of respect that the White Sox get. Here is his edited quote:

"We won it a couple years ago, and we're horse[bleep]. The Cubs haven't won in [100] years, and they're the [bleeping] best. [Bleep] it, we're good. [Bleep] everybody. We're horse[bleep], and we're going to be horse[bleep] the rest of our lives, no matter how many World Series we win.”

Well Ozzie I hate to break it to you, but your team IS horse[bleep] AND played like horse[bleep] this weekend. In what was billed as a possible World Series preview, the Cubs swept the Sox by outscoring them 22-11 over the three-game series and riding the ridiculously hot bat of Aramis Ramirez, who hit four home runs, including a walkoff home run in Friday’s win.

As of today, the Cubs are 4.5 up in the NL Central on Saint Louis and have won 14 straight home games, while the Sox have seen their AL Central lead over the Twins cut to 1.5 games. The Cubs and Sox also will play three more games next weekend at U.S. Cellular Field on the South Side of town.

And Ozzie, maybe this weekend you can remind your guys to try and not play like horse[bleep].

For your Monday

- It is important to note after my open letter to Derek Lee that he went 2-for-4 with 3 RBIS in the Cubs 7-4 win over the Blue Jays on Sunday. Apparently he reads this blog and was motivated (NOT!).

- The Cubs are now 20 games over .500 and have won 6 of their last 10 road games. I'm not sure the last time the Cubs were 20 games over .500 because I am used to thinking the Cubs are always 20 games UNDER .500. Nice change of pace.

- Already looking forward to the weekend series against the White Sox. I am hoping the Cubs shove it up Ozzie's you know what and sweep the Southsiders. As for Ozzie, things would be so much nice if HE GONE, but I'll settle for a couple wins over the Sox.

- Cubs play in the last HOF game today. I was just at Cooperstown this March and the place is awesome. Now only if they would let Ron Santo and Andre Dawson in.

Will the Real Derek Lee Please Stand Up?

Dear Derek Lee:

We need to talk. Times are good for the Cubs (you know, since you guys have the best record and best offense in the NL), but I’m a little concerned with you. Yeah I’m impressed with your 14 home runs and 41 RBIS, which are solid numbers through the first couple months of the season, but what’s happened to you lately? After a smoking-hot start to the season, things just haven’t been the same.

Remember when you hit .371 in April? Well, I just checked and found out that you followed that up with .234 in May and .239 though the first two weeks of June. You’re average is still .286, but your struggles seem to have slid under the radar since the team is doing so well. If the Cubs are going to be playing in October, they’re going to need you firing on all cylinders. And since you’re one of the few players on the Cubs who have a World Series ring, you’re experience is just a tad bit important.

So how about a 10-game hitting streak? Or maybe a couple of multi-hit games in a row? Or back-to-back games with home runs? They might go a long way towards getting you back on track. This season is your chance to etch your names along sides the greats of Cubs history (Santo, Sandberg, Sosa, Williams, Banks). Don’t miss the opportunity.

Sincerely,

Cubs Fans

Rejuvenation Machine: Jim Edmonds

It’s a great time to be a Cubs fan, but also a strange time. Ryan Dempster has the lowest ERA of any Cubs starting pitcher (?!?), Scott Eyre, he of the 4.13 ERA last season, has yet to give up an earned run in 14 outings (0.00 ERA), and (brace yourself), Jim Edmonds (one of the most hated Cubs rivals in the past decade when he played for the Cardinals) is playing an integral role in the National League’s top offense.

Edmonds was picked up off the scrap heap by Cubs GM Jim Hendry on May 15, less than a week after he was released from the Padres. At the time, Edmonds was batting .178./265./.233. With those numbers, he deserved to be released. Since donning a Cubs uni, Edmonds is hitting .279/.333/.500, which includes a game-tying, opposite-field home run in Friday’s win over the Atlanta Braves. Edmonds has clearly been hooked up to the rejuvenation machine.

As Edmonds spent eight seasons with the Cardinals (2000-07), it is tough for Cubs fans to cheer for him. But since we’re coming up on 100 years since the last Cubs World Series, I’m inclined to cheer for anyone who can help push the Cubs over the top. Actually since Soriano just got hurt last week, the Cubs are in need of a left fielder and Barry Bonds is available. I even think if the Cubs signed him I would --- nah, nevermind on that one. Even I couldn’t bring myself to cheer for him if he was in a Cubs uni. Cheering for Edmonds is my limit.

The Rise of Ryan Dempster

Ryan Dempster in the conversation for the Cy Young Award? Seriously? As weird as I felt just writing that sentence, the unprecedented start for Cubs righthander Ryan Dempster has to merit at least some consideration (at least less than 3 months into the season) for the National League’s Cy Young award. Last night he tossed a complete game shutout against the Braves (with 11 K’s), racking up his eighth win of the season and dropping his ERA to 2.81. You may think I am crazy or an idiot (or both) for even suggesting this, but check out his number so far this season.

As of June 12, Dempster ranks among the top 10 in the NL in ERA (2.81, fifth in the NL), strikeouts (75, 10th in the NL), wins (8, fourth in the NL), and innings pitched (89.2, ninth). Not only has Dempster been durable and consistent, opponents are batting a ridiculously low .185 off him this season, which ranks second in all of baseball. It is bizarre baseball at its finest.

To say that Dempster’s season has been a surprise is like saying winning the lottery might “catch me a bit off guard.” Prior to this season, Dempster had never won more than 15 games as a starter and had only one season as a starting pitcher where his ERA was under 4.00 (which was 2000, when he was an all-star selection and finished with a 3.66 ERA). He was less than steady as the Cubs closer for three seasons, but his transition back to the starting rotation has (so far) been seamless.

Can he keep it up? Well, opponents are only hitting .216 against Dempster when they put the ball in play (Batting Average on Balls in Play, or BABIP for short), and some of this is based on plain luck. The league average on BABIP is around .290, so there is a strong possibility that Dempster will regress to the mean and that his ERA will rise as the season wears on. Regardless, it has been an impressive start for Dempster, who has stabilized the rotation with Rich Hill and Sean Marshall currently at AAA Iowa.

Jason Marquis: Hey Maybe He Doesn't Suck as Bad as We All Thought!

From the “Hey, he’s finally earning his paycheck!” department, the “Hurling Hebrew” Jason Marquis appears to be getting his act together and might be on his way to helping solidify the Cubs’ starting rotation. As a Jekyll and Hyde member of the Cubs’ pitching staff, Marquis (who is earning $6.375 million this year) has been an absolute rollercoaster through the first two months of the season. For example, Marquis gave up 1 ER in 6.0 IP against Pittsburgh (4/19) and 2 ER in 7.0 IP against Colorado (4/24), only to follow that up with three straight starts of less than 6.0 IP and more than 4 ER per game. Marquis is, as they say, maddeningly inconsistent.

However, Marquis appears to be figuring things out in the third month of the season. After posting a 5.53 ERA in 27.2 IP during the month of May, Marquis is 2-0 in June with a 2.38 ERA after beating the Dodgers on Sunday Night Baseball. Against the Dodgers, Marquis allowed three hits and 1 ER in 6.2 IP and walked only one batter. Even more impressive, Marquis retired 12 straight batters after allowing a leadoff single to open the game. Granted the Dodgers started a lineup that included Juan Pierre and Angel Berroa (not exactly the ’27 Yankees), but it was an impressive pitching performance nonetheless.

The most telling quote from Sunday’s game story is about Marquis being what I like to call a “mental midget.” You can also call it “Rich Hill Syndrome,” and it occurs when a player wastes their talent because they fail to realize that they actually have talent and use their talent appropriately. Said Mark DeRosa after Sunday’s game:

"Jason's more than capable," Mark DeRosa said. "Jason sometimes becomes his own worst enemy. He sometimes doesn't realize how great his stuff is. When he's on, he's tough to hit."

That might be part of it, and as long as Marquis can avoid control problems (Marquis has walked 28 batters this season), a healthy and performing Marquis could solidify the Cubs’ rotation behind Carlos Zambrano, Ted Lilly, and Ryan Dempster. In fact, for the Cubs to continue their regular-season success, Marquis doesn’t have to be fantastic, just not suck.

Best in the Bigs ...

So it is the first week of June, the Cubs have won seven straight, and the Northsiders have the best record in Major League Baseball. Clearly the apocalypse may soon be forthcoming. How rare is it that the Cubs hold the best record in MLB on the 1st of June? Well, the last time it happened was 100 FREAKING YEARS AGO! It’s been so long since the Cubs owned the best record in baseball on June 1, here is a list of things that happened in 1908, which was the last time Chicago occupied the league’s top spot on June 1:

• Teddy Roosevelt was president
• The first ever Mother’s Day was held (May 10)
• Cy Young threw his second career no-hitter (June 30)
• Henry Ford introduced the Model T car, which went for $825 (Oct. 1)
• Orville Wright made the first 1-hour airplane flight (Sept. 9)

This is both sad and promising, as it is ridiculous that the Cubs have not been good enough at least once in the past century to hold MLB’s best record on June 1. Not exactly a winning history with the Cubs (which when you factor in that the Marlins have won two World Series titles in the past 11 years, it is frankly pathetic, but that is for another post). It is promising that Chicago is 15 games above .500, Alfonso Soriano is hot (tied with Derek Lee for a team-best 13 HRs), and the team is an astounding 26-8 at Wrigley Field this season.

Now, Chicago embarks on a tough stretch that has them playing 23 of their next 32 games on the road (where they are 10-13 this season). First up is a 7-game road trip to face San Diego and Los Angeles. Go Cubs Go.

Steve Rosenbloom = Idiot

Sometimes mainstream media members like to write things just to rile up the internet folks, and this posting by Steve Rosenbloom (Let’s Play Odds Ball: Sox are in, Cubs are Out) is no exception. It is an obvious bait that Cubs and Sox fans took in an effort to get people to slam each other (see the nearly 200 comments made, or roughly 180 more than a normal blog post gets).

The basic premise of his blog post is that the Sox are a lock for the playoffs because “almost two-thirds of the teams that lead their divisions on the Memorial Day weekend go on to win them.” Also, since 1/3 of the teams who DO lead on Memorial Day will ultimately lose the division, the Cubs and Tampa Rays are the most likely candidates to be the 1/3 that DOESN’T win the division. The article has no factual support and makes little sense, and contrary to Rosenbloom’s poorly written blog post, here’s why the Cubs WILL win the division.

1. The Cubs are the only team in Major League Baseball that has not lost more than 3 games in a row this season.

To borrow Joe Morgan’s favorite word, the Cubs are consistently consistent. They have had two six-game winning streaks, a four-game winning streak, and have yet to lose more than 3 straight 52 games into the season. Not too shabby, and it speaks to the ability of the club to turn the page after tough losses (especially this week after blowing two winnable games in Pittsburgh and rebounding to sweep the Dodgers).

2. The Cubs win at home and are excelling against a relatively tough schedule.

The Cubs are already 22-8 at home this season (ridiculous .733 winning percentage), and last year’s 2007 NL Division Champions all had strong home winning percentages (D-backs at .617, Cubs at .543 and the Phillies at .580). In addition, the Cubs have played the ninth-toughest schedule in MLB according to ESPN.com. Although critics will argue that the Cubs are 9-3 against the Pirates, who usually suck, the Pirates have a better record this season than 11 other teams and are 24-26, only one game worse than the NY Yankees.

Coming off a 3-game sweep of the undermanned Dodgers, it looks like the Cubs are for real. June should be an interesting month though, as the Cubs will play the White Sox six times and play 13 of their first 17 games in June on the road. Regardless of the tough road stretch, I hope we get to keep hearing this song:

Ryan Theriot: Fluke or for Real

Browsing through my latest edition of Sports Illustrated, I found an interesting story from Nate Silver of Baseball Prospectus, who broke down his “The All-Bizarro Team,” which consists of MLB players who have jumped out to red-hot starts in the first two months of the season. One of the members of the all-Bizarro Team was none other than Cubs’ shortstop Ryan Theriot, who is off to a .312/.392/.391 (batting average/on-base percentage/slugging percentage) start for the first-place Cubs (tied with the Cardinals as of 5/25). In it he wrote:

“Theriot has fooled us before. He was hitting more than .300 as late as May 19 last year before eventually slumping to .266. A player who relies heavily as Theriot does on singles (81% of his hits) is unlikely to sustain such as fast start, though Theriot’s improved plate discipline should keep him from slipping too far.”

Silver’s verdict was that Theriot’s hot start was a “Fluke,” although he did point out that Theriot should not slip too far. Do I agree with this? Yes and no. Here why I disagree:

1. Last season was Theriot’s first full season in the major leagues, where he played in 148 games. Yes, Theriot did slump down the stretch last season (hitting .202 in September and October) and ended up batting .266/.326/.346 for the year, but it was the first time in his professional career that Theriot played in more than 130 games (which he did in 2002 as a member of the Lansing Lugnuts). It’s safe to say Theriot hit the wall down the stretch, but this year he turned 28, so hopefully he will be peaking this season and understands what it takes to play 162 games. Is it likely Theriot will keep his BA above .300 for the whole year? Unlikely, but I don’t expect him to hit .266. Expect .280-.290 from him because …

2. Theriot excelled in his final two minor league stops. Although there isn’t always a strong correlation between minor league and major league performance, Theriot’s final two seasons in the minor leagues suggest that he has the ability to hit above .300. In 2005 at AA West Tennessee (120 games), Theriot hit .304/.369/.391 and put up a nearly identical stat line during the 2006 season in 73 games at AAA Iowa (.304/. 367/.379) before being called up to the Cubs. So is this hot start somewhat of a surprise? Yes, but he did shows flashes of potential in the minors.

However, there is a definite reason to put faith in Silver’s predictions, including that fact that:

1. Theriot is a career .271 hitter in the minor leagues. Theriot’s final two stops in the minor leagues (AA West Tennessee and AAA Iowa) were his two best seasons in the minors, and prior to those two seasons of .300+ batting, Theriot never hit above .273 at any of his previous minor league stops. The only thing that is positive is that this .273 was in 2004 with the Daytona Cubs, which suggests that the light might have come on for Theriot in his final three minor league seasons. If you take out his first three minor league seasons, Theriot’s career batting average from 2004-06 (spanning 1,058 at-bats) is .294, which is something a lot of Cubs fans would love to see.

It is necessary to point out that Theriot’s pitches-per plate appearance are up from last season (3.53 in 2007 and 3.68 in 2008), and he already has drawn 23 walks after getting 49 all of last season. As a Cubs fan, I hope Theriot can keep up his hot start, but I’m expecting a line near .280/.355/.375. It’s not spectacular, but considering the other bats around him, it might be enough to get the Cubs in the postseason. Is Silver right in that Theriot is a fluke? Yes and no. He won’t hit .320, but he won’t be a .260 hitter either.

Another Cubs Blog?

Just when you thought the internet couldn’t pump out any more Cubs blogs, another one has come along to satisfy the needs of the dedicated legions of Chicago Cubs fans. Frankly, this blog will be nowhere near the quality of other Cubs blogs like Hire Jim Essian or Desipio, but hopefully it will give some insight into the mind of a somewhat deranged Cubs fan and provide some humor and analysis about the Chicago Cubs franchise.

Now, on to answering the two burning questions on the minds of the dozens of people who have stumbled upon this blog. First, why am I putting up another Cubs blog? Well, because I have to if I want to graduate and earn my master’s degree. As part of my COM 660: Technology and Communication class, I am required to blog about a topic of my choice. Since my one main passion in life is following the debacle wondrously successful franchise known as the Chicago Cubs (I listen to nearly every game on MLB Radio and read up on the Chicago Tribune sports section most every day), this seemed like a natural topic to blog about.

But the second question you probably have is: why the heck is your blog named “The Legions of Les Lancaster?” There are two reasons for this random blog title. First, I have always been fascinated with the random Caucasian middle relief pitchers the Cubs have trotted out in my 20 years following the team. Bob Scanlan, Turk Wendell, Paul Assenmacher, and Shawn Boskie are some of my favorite random middle relievers, and Les Lancaster is no exception. However, the reason this blog is named after Lancaster is because he had a nice mullet that he played a vital role on the Cubs’ 1989 East Division Championship team. During the 1989 season, Lancaster appeared in 42 games (72. 7 innings pitched) and finished 4-2 with 8 saves and a team-best 1.36 ERA.

Expect about 2-3 blog posts per week about the Cubs (both past and present) and leave any feedback you have.