There are times when it's really tough to like this team. Yesterday was one of those times.
Quick thoughts:
- Elizardo Ramirez pitched better than his line, and I actually feel better about him than I have all season. He has a lot of movement on his pitches, and I think he's going to get better as the year goes on. Lots of the hits against him were bloopers and excuse me hits. He'll be fine.
- The Cubs oughta just go ahead and same themselves some time and heartache and DFA or bench Juan Pierre. The guy's completely lost it. He goes up hacking at every first pitch, and his OBP is like .270 at this point. He might be the biggest reason why the Cubs suck as bad as they do.
- Kent Mercker needs to get it together, and it needs to happen soon. This is why I tend to dislike veteran players, because it's tougher to get rid of them when they implode, and it looks like he's imploding. It might be because he's hurt, or it might be because he's just getting old, but he's really hurt the team this year. He turned a doable deficit into a virtually impossible one.
- Ryan Freel got screwed, but I guess it didn't matter in the end.
- Cubs relievers throw really freaking hard. Seemed like they were all up in the mid to high 90s. I'm kind of confused as to why David Aardsma has had such a rough time with the stuff he has. He was touching 97 pretty consistently.
- Matt Murton's got to be the one bright spot for Cubs fans. He's going to be pretty solid for awhile.
- The next two games are crucial. I'm still (grudgingly) optimistic, but it has to be said: the Reds are in a freefall, and if it doesn't stop here then it probably isn't ever going to stop.