Why the Cubs Have Done so Badly in 2010.

[wonkadog]

Uh yeah, that's totally different. I have a vested interest in Iowa State. I went to Iowa State. I spent four years of my life at Iowa State. I met some of my best friends at Iowa State. I could quit breathing easier than I could quit rooting for Iowa State.

I'm a rabid Twins fan. I even subscribe to the Twins radio broadcasts. Believe me when I say I would give them up in heartbeat if forced to make a choice between ISU and the Twins.

I don't get the "choice between ISU and the Twins" part. What does that have to do with anything? More applicable would be if the Twins sucked every single year would you stop rooting for them because of that? That's the point it seemed like you were making in your original post.

[aeroclone]

Do you root for Iowa State? You could darn near replace Cubs with Cyclones in the above paragraph. It's called being a fan.

Oye, if only we had their numbers...... or TV contract.

[CYdTracked]

The offense is the biggest reason, no consistency and no clutch hitting when guys are in scoring position. The rotation has been one of the best in the NL with 63 quality starts, the staff is 2nd in strikeouts and 5th in oposing batting average.

The offense has some terrible stats though, they have the 2nd most grounded into double plays, 12th in runs scored, 8th in batting average, 9th in on base %, 6th worst team in strikeouts and 5th worst in taking walks. They are hitting just .249 with runners in scoring position which is 3rd worst in the NL, .230 RISP with 2 outs - 9th in the NL.

The roster needs some turnover, its becoming very stagnent with Lee and Ramirez are your 3/4 hitters and hitting .251 and .227 while a guy like Soto who is hitting .286 and seems to found his way out of the funk he was in last year is hitting 7th or 8th some nights and leads the team in on base percentage! Colvin who 2nd on the team with homers not even being a full time starter until this past month is for some reason now the lead off guy too. About the only thing Lou is doing right now is he finally moved Castro to the #2 spot where he's hitting .325, Byrd should probably be hitting 3 or 4. In Colvin's defense I guess he is hitting .292 in the leadoff but baffles me how you could put a left handed power hitter there when you want guys on when he's up. He's hitting .333 and .346 this year when he bats 5th or 6th. Byrd is hitting .359 in the #4 spot too. I'm not even the manager but you'd think if Lou is "playing the matchups" like he always says he is he'd be paying more attention to the stat splits and notice some guys have hit much better in certain spots than others this season. Colvin leading off almost reminds me of how Lou was so set on putting another power hitter there in Soriano when guys like that need to be down in the order.

I hope they can move some guys like Lee, Nady, and Fukudome at least and see what some of these kids can do. The Cubs need to change the identity of this team starting next season and cleaning house of some of these declining vets is the only way to do it really.

[jdoggivjc]

LOL when will cubs fans just give up and accept the fact that the Cubs will always just suck. Worse Franchise in sports history but has a **** ton of fans? i dont get it, but just give up people lol

Well, considering White Sox fans are just fairweather Cubs fans that wear White Sox gear over their Cubs gear. I guarantee there will not be one single White Sox fan in existence once the Cubs win the World Series...

[cycloneworld]

LOL when will cubs fans just give up and accept the fact that the Cubs will always just suck. Worse Franchise in sports history but has a **** ton of fans? i dont get it, but just give up people lol

Word. Just like how Iowa State football will never win a national title so whey don't we all just give up and not be fans? Right on brother.

[cycloneworld]

Back on topic...as mentioned, the reason why the Cubs have done so poorly was illustrated twice in the last week. The extra innings game at Houston and the Sunday night extra innings game against St. Louis where the Cubs had 4-5 chances to win the game with just 1 hit and they can't get it done. Sunday night the Cubs had the leadoff man on like 7 of 11 innings and scored 3 runs. You can't win games with no clutch hitting.

[Wesley]

Soriano only cares about hitting home runs. He uses that ridiculously huge bat to do it. If he would check his ego, start hitting for average, and actually hustle and hone his craft he could be great. Instead he is going to go be remembered for being a disappointment, and lazy. I hope our Owners, the next Manager or his Mother talks some sense into him.

Lee and Ramirez are now getting to form. Their struggles are a big reason. Equally as big has been the glaring deficiencies in the Bullpen. Aside from Marmol and Marshall we are weak and playing rookies. We lost a lot of leads in the late innings. Cashner is starting to pitch well, and hopefully we are a decent team by the end. Just too young in spots to really be very good this year.

AR and DL are two months too late to save this year.

[CyCy]

Lack of clutch hitting, poor defense and Lou.

Comparing the Cubs to the Phillies - Phillies are 7 games over .500, Cubs are 8 games under.

Cubs have a team batting average of .261 and have hit 103 homers. Phillies have a team batting average of .256 and hit 103 home runs, yet they have scored 34 more runs than the Cubs.

Cubs team ERA 3.98, Phillies team ERA 3.99. Cubs have committed 77 errors and given up 62 unearned runs, Phillies have committed 57 errors and given up 28 unearned runs.

[Ylabhunter]

The Cubs have several issues:

1. Poorly constructed team in general. There is no true lead off hitter which leads to numerous issues down the line up.

2. No leader on the field or in the clubhouse...Soriano is a me guy, D-Lee is too passive, A-Ram is too inconsistent, Z is well we all know crazy, Dempster doesn't have it, Lou isn't the Lou we signed up for. Its a bunch of individuals.

3. Its a line up built on the long ball, therefore makes it tough to win close ball games. Especially early when the ball isn't carrying out of Wrigley (over the last week the wind was blowing out, except Sunday when they lost by one run). Heck even the young guys couldn't get a bunt down Sunday.

4. Absolutely no speed in lineup or on bench. Which makes it difficult to manufacturer a run when needed.

I would love them to move D. Lee, Lilly, Fukedome, Fontenot and get some needs on the free agent market. Hopefully guys that are in the mid 20's not mid 30's. I think that they are going to be OK with arms for the next few years.

[jdoggivjc]

The Cubs have several issues:

1. Poorly constructed team in general. There is no true lead off hitter which leads to numerous issues down the line up.

2. No leader on the field or in the clubhouse...Soriano is a me guy, D-Lee is too passive, A-Ram is too inconsistent, Z is well we all know crazy, Dempster doesn't have it, Lou isn't the Lou we signed up for. Its a bunch of individuals.

3. Its a line up built on the long ball, therefore makes it tough to win close ball games. Especially early when the ball isn't carrying out of Wrigley (over the last week the wind was blowing out, except Sunday when they lost by one run). Heck even the young guys couldn't get a bunt down Sunday.

4. Absolutely no speed in lineup or on bench. Which makes it difficult to manufacturer a run when needed.

I would love them to move D. Lee, Lilly, Fukedome, Fontenot and get some needs on the free agent market. Hopefully guys that are in the mid 20's not mid 30's. I think that they are going to be OK with arms for the next few years.

They're probably going to have to give away Fukudome. I'm not sure there's been a more overrated baseball player during the 4+ year existence of CF than this guy.

[Cyclone1985]

They're probably going to have to give away Fukudome. I'm not sure there's been a more overrated baseball player during the 4+ year existence of CF than this guy.

Agree. Need to build this team around the Three C's; Colvin, Castro, Cashner. Trade Lee and he is easily replaced by Micah(minus the fielding, Lee is pretty good at snagging one hoppers), Colvin has already replaced Kosuke, and Fontenot's spot has already been filled by Castro.

[Ylabhunter]

They're probably going to have to give away Fukudome. I'm not sure there's been a more overrated baseball player during the 4+ year existence of CF than this guy.

Agreed...rumors were that they shopped him and were willing to pay 1/2 his salary and still no takers. After Sunday when he struck out on a pitch that bounced away to end the game and didn't even make an attempt to run it out I was done with him.

[CyJack13]

Agree. Need to build this team around the Three C's; Colvin, Castro, Cashner. Trade Lee and he is easily replaced by Micah(minus the fielding, Lee is pretty good at snagging one hoppers), Colvin has already replaced Kosuke, and Fontenot's spot has already been filled by Castro.

I hope you're just talking about using Micah as a fill in for the rest of the season and not the starter next year? They need a legitimate slugger at first base and not a AAAA player. They have some pieces to build around as you mentioned. I'd add Soto to that list as he's having a really good, but pretty quiet, offensive year. His OPS is quite a bit higher this season than it was in 2008. Also Marmol and Marshall have developed into one of the better bullpen combos in the league, although I wouldn't mind giving Marshall another shot at starting next season.

[ThatllDoCy]

I heard on the radio that our Three Minor League Teams are all in first place. So hopefully, there is some good talent coming up a la Castro and Colvin. The Ricketts are really left holding the bag after the Tribune made questionable contract decisions to insure the sale and short term success. Hopefully, they figure it out.

Hendry has led the effort to revitalize the Minor Leagues, and IMO that is why he is keeping his job. I think he is a good GM that was told to go in a bad direction. I am interested in this off season to see what happens. I would like to keep Lee, but move ARam. DLee is too good defensively to move IMO.

Brenly for MGR, Ryne for Bench Coach!

[CyJack13]

I heard on the radio that our Three Minor League Teams are all in first place. So hopefully, there is some good talent coming up a la Castro and Colvin. The Ricketts are really left holding the bag after the Tribune made questionable contract decisions to insure the sale and short term success. Hopefully, they figure it out.

Hendry has led the effort to revitalize the Minor Leagues, and IMO that is why he is keeping his job. I think he is a good GM that was told to go in a bad direction. I am interested in this off season to see what happens. I would like to keep Lee, but move ARam. DLee is too good defensively to move IMO.

Brenly for MGR, Ryne for Bench Coach!

Hendry's not near as bad a GM as a lot of people make him out to be. He had a terrible offseason before the 2009 season, where he overreacted to a three game sample size and basically every move he made did not work out. He also was in a tough position with the sale of the team not finalized and thus not being able to add payroll. But he did put together the 2008 team, which was by far the most complete and deep Cubs team of my lifetime. The Cubs are in a position along with very few other teams, where they can make a mistake on a contract and not have it cripple them for years, they have the financial means to cut a player loose and just take the monetary hit. Hopefully, the Ricketts look at some of these contracts as sunk costs and just move on.