| time: | 11:20 a.m. PT |
| tv: | WGN |
| sp: | David Wells (3-3, 4.76) vs Ted Lilly (4-4, 3.96) |
| pre: | Padres.com, SI.com |
The Cubs are a strange team. On the one hand, their current record and occasional love spats have to be viewed as disappointments in light of the nearly $300 million they spent on free agents this past off-season. On the other, the Cubs are even further below their Pythagorean winning percentage than the Padres are, and several young hurlers — Rich Hill, Sean Marshall, Angel Guzman, Carlos Marmol — have gotten off to nice starts.
On offense, the triumverate of Derrek Lee, Aramis Ramirez, and Alfonso Soriano is striking large doses of fear into the opposition, and free-agent signee Mark DeRosa is insinuating that his season in Texas was no fluke. There’s almost enough fire power here to compensate for the out machines known as Cesar Izturis and Jacque Jones.
On the pitching side, Jason Marquis and Carlos Zambrano seem to be stuck in a Dan Aykroyd movie, but that will work itself out over the long haul. The bullpen? Not as terrible as you might expect (4.01 ERA, .249/.332/.382). Friday’s starter, Ted “$40 Million Man” Lilly, came out of the gates strong for the Cubs but has been brutal over his past four starts (17 IP, 8.47 ERA, .309/.372/.691, 7 HR). Whatever the problem is, here’s hoping that Lilly and the Cubs don’t solve it until after the Padres have left town.
David Wells gets the call for San Diego in the opener at Wrigley Field. He’s been the anti-Lilly of late. Over his past five starts, Wells has posted some nice numbers (31 IP, 2.90 ERA, .267/.286/.353, 1 HR). The key, of course, is to get Boomer out of the game at the first sign of trouble, if not sooner.
Oh, and the Padres have made a switch at third base:
| Out | In |
|---|---|
 |
 |
Let the Chase Headley era begin. Go Padres!
umm, nice time to be a Padres fan since the pitching imploding is 4 runs
Wow, Black lets Branyan hit against a LHP! Impossible!
Bud thinking to himself, “No way that happens again. Blum and his spaghetti stick are still my top choice.”
Strike Zone seems to have gotten bigger between innings
Way too many pop-outs today. We’ve got to have better at-bats.
Hey, guys, haven’t been checking in that much recently, so forgive me if this dead horse has been thoroughly beaten. But what is the collective conclusion of the Ducksnorts’ community re: Cla? Seems like when calendar flipped to May, shiny coach became pumpkin.
155: I think Cla has just got some mechanics stuff that he needs to figure out. If he can keep the ball down, he’ll be fine.
K-Cam twice in one week? What’s going on?!
How many chances has Headley had at third today? Has he even touched the ball?
Very funny to see Michael Barrett and Carlos Zambrano play fighting in the dugout…
Another good outing by Cameron. How long before he gets to have innings with any kind of leverage?
It’s a “natural reaction” for me to want to kill this announcing team.
158: I’m not sure that any balls were hit to Headley today…
158: Lots of ground balls to second and short. Headley didn’t get to field any balls.
150: Didn’t work, though. Lead off double and a walk. No damage. Kevin Cameron got into his second game in a week. Wow. Guess, he’s no longer the HVC for Bud.
155: Hi dprat. Welcome back. I think Silent L put a spell on Bud Black and, thus, he keeps getting at bats. The side effect of the spell was blindness to other players. I don’t think Cla resembles Silent L but maybe Bud thought Silent L can pitch too and kept using Cla. So, Cla Meredith is overexposed even if a lot of his hits are the unlucky variety.
Lilly threw 23 pitches in the first inning and ended up with 92 for 8 IP.
Pitch count by inning: 23, 9, 10, 9, 7, 13, 9, 12.
He must have been pretty good…and lucky.
I fear the Cubs right now, their pitching has been much better and they are finally starting to hit. I want the Pads to come out of this series alive – I would take one of three and be happy with a 3-3 road trip, still 10 games over .500 in mid June.
Padres draft pick Robert Woodard is pitching for UNC on ESPN2 right now. If you were at the Ducksnorts meet up, he’s the guy that Phantom and I were talking about with the…unusual delivery.
Defence:
http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/d-fence/
El Hombre is great, Kouz not so much.
OT (thankfully) … this note from rotoworld.com …
Mariners released third baseman Sean Burroughs.
A former first-round pick who was once considered a top prospect, Burroughs signed a minor league deal over the winter winter but has been unable to come back from shoulder surgery.