Sunday, March 04, 2007

Cubs Live Blog 2/4: Cubs vs. White Sox spring training

One of the most overanalyzed games of the whole baseball season for a single team might be the first televised spring training game. In fact, it might rank behind only opening day as far as games that are looked at and dissected to the point of insanity, when really, neither game means a whole lot in the grand scheme of things. Opening day means something in the sense that it's an actual game that gets counted in the actual regular season record of a team, but the first televised spring training game means absolutely nothing. It is, however, the first time the fans back home get to actually see the team for the first time.

Please bring the comments, and away we go. Let the overanalysis begin.
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2:04- Your starting pitching matchup for today: LHP Rich Hill going for the Cubs, former Cubs farmhand, RHP Jon Garland going for the White Sox.
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2:11- Rich Hill struck out the first two batters and then Paul Konerko took him deep. How fun.
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2:15- Dye pops out to end the first for the White Sox. The Cubs start their first inning down a run. I should get used to that.
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2:16- Cubs half of the first, Soriano starts with a double. Here's the lineup:

CF Soriano
LF Murton
1B Lee
3B Ramirez
RF Jacque
2B Derosa
C Blanco
SS Izturis

After those first four hitters, it's nothing.

Murton walks. I should get used to that, too.
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2:20- Jon Garland won 18 games last year with a 4.51 ERA. If he pitched on the Cubs, he wouldn't've won 8.

Derrek Lee strikes out.
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2:21- Aramis Ramirez just grounded into the easiest 6-4-3 double play I've ever seen. I could have turned that play, and that's saying something. In my little league career I played somewhere in the neighborhood of 9 games at second base, and I could make a good throw from second to first only half of the time, but I still could have made that play. Good job Aramis.
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2:27- Wikipedia Gonzalez is starting at catcher for the White Sox today. In full disclosure, I didn't intend on typing "Wikipedia," but I'm going to leave it there. Wow, I can't believe I did that.

Wikipedia Gonzalez just grounded into a double play to end the inning. Rich Hill has three strikeouts in two innings, and he also gave up a home run. He is who we thought he was.
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2:32- Lou Pinella said that he doesn't like bunting early on. At least that means we don't have another Don Baylor who had Ricky Gutierrez lead the league in sacrifice bunts in 2001.
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2:38- New pitcher for the Cubs in the top of the second. Juan Mateo comes in. to face Junior Spivey, who has 48 career home runs. Spivey hit a fly ball to center and Soriano somehow managed to catch it. JUAN PIERRE WOULDA CAUGHT IT FASTER, DUH.
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2:40- Len and Bob are saying how Alfonso Soriano is not a typical leadoff hitter because he doesn't bunt a lot. If Alfonso Soriano bunts at all this season I'm going to break something.

Also, Mark Prior and Kerry Wood are pitching in the same game tomorrow. That's going to me a major mindfuck.

Juan Mateo throws a 1-2-3 inning.
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2:45- Len Kasper says that the Cubs don't necessarily need Mark Prior because they have depth in the starting rotation. If he meant depth of crap, he'd be right. We're three deep in the rotation [Zambrano-Hill-Lilly] then we have a pile of guys with injury problems/pitching problems/career problems/mediocrity problems.
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2:49- Alfonso Soriano's 2-2 out of the leadoff spot. I could get used to this.
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2:56- Bob Brenly drops Lou Whitaker's name.
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3:03- All of a sudden it's 4-0. I should get used to this.
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3:04- 5-0 as Rob Mackowiak goes deep. If there's one thing the White Sox have been able to do for a long time, it's hit dingers. They have three of them today. There are still no outs in the top of the 4th.
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3:10- John Webb gets the Cubs out of the inning. Fun fact about John Webb: He broke his leg before last season's spring training whilst walking his dog down the stairs. He's also an ex-Devil Ray, which is not at all fun. Jon Garland's day ends with a line of 3 innings and 2 hits allowed, both to Alfonso Soriano. No runs. Still 5-0.
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3:17- Derrek Lee puts the Cubs on the board with a long ball. I'd also like to note that Kerry Wood looks very, very thin now...as opposed to before when he didn't. They also showed about 5 seconds of Len Kasper singing at a celebration that Len and Bob Brenly hosted in the offseason. The 5 second clip definitely brought the funny. The event also featured Ryan Adams & the Cardinals [booo Cardinals booo]
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3:24- Paul Konerko felt the need to hit another home run. That's the fourth home run for the White Sox today and the second for Konerko. Like I said, we all knew the Sox could hit 'em, but we also knew that the Cubs could give 'em up.
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3:35- Alfonso Soriano hits another double and is now 3-3 on the day. I'm not sold, but I'm impressed. He was 0-5 before today in Spring Taining. The double drove in a run, so it's now 6-2, and that's the first run that was not scored via the home run. Matt Murton also drew his second walk of the day, which is very nice to see. Bob Brenly said that he likes Murton as the number 2 hitter, and I doubt many people will disagree with him. If Cesar Izturis ends up hitting second in this order...well, I don't quite know what I'll do. I'll certainly be pissed.
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3:45- Apparently Koyie Hill is a Cub now. I know this because he threw out Josh Fields as he was trying to steal third base. I'm also going to note that I thought I saw a white Larry Hughes Wizards jersey in the crowd.
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3:56- Len Kasper informs us that Tartuffe the Spry Wonder Dog, also known as, [dammit] BOBBY HILL! is back in the Cubs organization. This is a day of surprises. John Danks came in and threw against the Cubs that inning and didn't look too bad. That McCarthy trade probably won't work out now, but there's no question that Danks will eventually be good.
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4:18- New record crowd at Ho Ho Kam Park today. Bumper music was provided by a band called the Handcuffs, who have fewer than 350 plays on LastFM. Gio Gonzalez came in and threw a good inning against the Cubs, and it's now 8-2.
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4:58- Sorry, no updates for 40 minutes. I'll put up a recap in a few minutes.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

hah, i googled "wikipedia gonzalez" to see if anyone else had thought of it. bravo.