The Friendly Confines (every post)

He's Baaaaaack!

Sat, 19 May 2012 22:24:12 +0000

Let the hysteria commence.

Kerry Wood is Retiring

Sat, 19 May 2012 21:20:09 +0000

According to Levine's twiitter.

Volstad

Sat, 19 May 2012 15:48:34 +0000

He sucks too. Maybe the equally as shitty Travis Wood will replace him full-time once Garza is feeling better.

MLB News & Notes

Sat, 19 May 2012 01:13:27 +0000

Per ESPN.com

QUOTE

Mike Hampton reportedly is returning to the Houston Astros.

Hampton and the Astros reached agreement Monday on a contract pending the free-agent pitcher passing a physical, KRIV-TV in Houston reported on its Web site. Terms were not available.

Link

A few interesting stats

Fri, 18 May 2012 23:20:31 +0000

Cubs catching has thrown out just 6 of 35 attempts. The 29 SB and the 17% CS are 29th in baseball.
Cubs relievers have blown 4-of-9 save opportunities. It could be worse, Miami's bullpen has blown 8-of-13.

Best. Bullpen. Ever.

Fri, 18 May 2012 20:04:55 +0000

Discuss.

Farm System - 2012

Fri, 18 May 2012 16:44:27 +0000

I'll be able to get better, more complete stuff soon. But for today, here we go:

From - TCR

Quote

@Iowa 5 - Round Rock 3; Rizzo, Jackson, Campana with 2 hits each and a stolen base each. W. Castillo hit twice by a pitch and with a catcher's interference call against him. R. Wells started and got the win going 6 innings and giving up 3 runs. Corpas with 2 shutout innings and S. Maine with the save.
Tennessee 4 - @Chattanooga 1; N. Struck goes 6 IP, 10 K, 1 BB, 1 ER, 4 H; Adduci, Watkins, Ha and Bour with multi-hit games and Bour with a HR. F.Batista got the save(1 IP/1K/0 BB) and K. Rhoderick a hold (2 IP/2 K/0 BB).
@Brevard County 11 - Daytona 4; Cubs lose to Brewers prospect and #12 overall draftee from last season T. Jungmann; Torreyes, Silva and Alcantara with multi-hit games. Loosen, Wallach and Kirk all tagged for multiple runs.
Peoria 5 - @Beloit 2; M. Jensen throws 5 scoreless innings, K. Burke with a hold and J. Lorick goes 2 innings, gets 3 K's and the save. DeVoss was busy; 1/5 with 3 K's, 1 E and helped turn 2 double plays. Multi-hit games for W. Darvill and Pin-Chieh Chen. Chen tripled and had an outfield assist.

Daily Recap - May 18

Fri, 18 May 2012 13:37:16 +0000

After Volstad sucked, the Cubs mounted a late inning comeback, but it wasn't enough. Cubs lose 7-8.
With yet another ugly loss, it's a possibility that Volstad's next start is at IA.
Welcome to the Bigs Mr. Parker. Pitch like Garza, but don't throw to first like him.
Joe Ricketts is screwing the Cubs by having a political voice.
And now we get the wonderfully fun Chi-Town series.

Daily Recap - May 17

Thu, 17 May 2012 16:55:12 +0000

Well, at least we are showing consistency. Good starting pitching, bad offense, hilariously bad bullpen.

Garza pitches ok, but Cubs still lose 9-2.
For some reason, Garza still can’t make a throw to 1B to save his life. Madness.
More on our horrible bullpen.
Sveum doesn’t give the media much to write about, so they write crap like this and still get paid.
Lendy was finally, mercifully placed on the DL and Maine was called up in case anyone missed it. Then Maine proceeded to stink up the joint.
Final game of the Phils series today, Volstad vs Halladay. Yeah, I won’t be tuning in.

Daily Recap - May 16

Wed, 16 May 2012 15:30:11 +0000

Imagine that, bullpen blows another one. Cubs fall to Cardinals 6-7 on walk-off single.
Cubs are up to 8 blown saves in 14 opportunities. Good for 29th in the majors.
On a high note, Soriano got his first home run of 2012.
Looks like the Cubs have a few players playing at an all-star level.
Cubs signed Mike MacDougal (swell) to a minor league contract and picked up Hunter Cervenka (double swell) to complete the Byrd trade.
The Cubs head home for a 2-game series against the Phillies.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH BRAUN PEDS HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHA

Wed, 16 May 2012 02:33:33 +0000

AHAHHAHSAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!

Daily Recap - May 15

Tue, 15 May 2012 21:05:42 +0000

Well, it could have been much worse. I think we broke the record for most sac bunt attempts in one game, or at least it appeared that way.

Dempster finally gets some run support, but he falls apart in the 6th inning. Cubs still manage to win 6-4.
It was nice to get a few clutch hits from our 3-5 hitters, and a drama-free 9th inning.
Despite his lack of power (ie 0 HR), Sveum is sticking with Soriano in the #5 spot, for now at least.
LaHair is happy to be here. Interview with Kurkjian following last night's game.
Tards starting to show some cracks. Let's finish them off today.
Apparently, extension talks with Garza are going well, according to Rosenthal. We'll see.
Maholm vs Lohse today on CSN as Cubs go for the sweep.

Is this guy always this idiotic?

Tue, 15 May 2012 03:34:16 +0000

Hi,

Take a look at the article in the Tribune by Phil Rodgers. I can't paste the link for some reason.

His point is the Cubs might be better off stumbling out of the gate. If you are going to end up 77-85, you might as well end up 67-95 because you will get a better draft pick.

Yeah, I suppose so if draft picking was a sure thing but in baseball it is not. The year Albert Pujols was drafted the top 20 draft picks for the Cubs played in a total of less than 20 games as I recall. Oh our wonderous #1 picks have all made the hall of fame in recent years, Brooks Kieschnick, Luis Montanez, and how about the Patterson kids, we had both of them? Geesh!

How much in revenue will the team lose if 100,000 fewer fans show up this year because the team is beyond terrible? If the average fan spends $50, that means $5 million less profit.

I would rather win 77 games and make more money to pay better players thank you.

regards,
5412

Daily Recap - May 14

Mon, 14 May 2012 15:35:53 +0000

Game 1 - Quite the nightmare for the bullpen. Cubs lose 7-8 in 13.
Game 2 - Volstad did what he does, give up a big inning and lose, 2-8.
Game 3 - Cubs avoided a sweep but still couldn't do sheet against the Brewers starters, winning 8-2.
Outside of Voldstad's terrible 6th inning, Cubs' SP went 15IP - 3R (and Voldstad had 1IP - 5R).
On a bright note, Marmol went on the DL with a hamstring pull and the Cubs brought up Coleman.
Kind of an odd week coming up with the Cubs facing St. Louis for 2 games, then 2 games against the Phillies at home, before 3 against the Sux.

Marmol...

Mon, 14 May 2012 15:33:07 +0000

Became just the 2nd Cub to ever have consecutive 30+ save seasons. Lee Smith was the other.

How sad is that? And it happened with 2 shitty teams with Marmol.