Archive for May, 2009
Lou Pinella made a lineup blunder in the 8th inning when he changed his mind on a pinch hitter after he’d already been announced, and it may have come into play in the 9th inning as he had less flexibility to make a move and couldn’t get the lefty-on-righty matchup he might have wanted. Instead, Jake Fox ended up with the opportunity to win the game with the bases loaded. Since you’ve already read the headline, you know that didn’t happen and the Cubs lost to the Dodgers 2-1.
I’m not going to blame this one on Jake Fox. He’s a young kid who will have many more chances to win games for the Cubs in the future. I do blame Lou Pinella, who is starting to show his age and is regularly missing opportunities to pull double switches to get his lineup the way he should want it in the late innings.
The Cubs called up rookie hitting sensation Jake Fox from Iowa and sent down Neal Cotts, the lefty specialist. Fox is batting over .400 with 17 home runs with Iowa, making him by far the hottest hitter in the upper minor leagues at this point in the season.
Calling up Fox is just what the Cubs needed at this point in their disappointing season. They need to make up for the loss of Ramirez’s bat in the lineup, as he probably won’t be ready to go for another month. I’m really hopeful this is going to turn things around.
Any Cubs fan who has been paying attention for the past month knows that Milton Bradley is getting rung up on pitches that are off the plate. Some of these pitches are missing by what looks like a good 6 inches. Is it just bad luck? Are catchers framing pitches off the plate better when Bradley is at the plate? I think the more obvious answer is that umpires are targeting Bradley after he was suspended for a game last month for a heated argument he had during a game.
MLB needs to look at this situation, because it hurts the integrity of the game when you have umpires who are factoring in the hitter when they make what should be judgment calls. Any umpires found to be taking part in this vendetta against Bradley should be suspended immediately and indefinitely. There is really no place in the game for this type of behavior.
It’s no secret that Derrek Lee has completely fallen off the radar this season. He has miraculously managed to hit 4 balls out of the ballpark, but all of his numbers are way down from career averages. He’d have trouble hitting home runs right now if they moved the fence in to the edge of the infield dirt. The man who will probably replace him next season, or this season if he keeps playing like crap, is one Micah Hoffpauir, who has some good numbers in a limited number of big league plate appearances. He’s old for a guy just breaking into the bigs, but he’ll put up much better numbers than the aging Lee, who should probably be thinking about retirement and which country club he wants to belong to.
