A couple of gripes off my chest ....

Team Record – 24-16, First Place in the National League Central, by 2.5 games.

(God, that looks beautiful!!!)

The team statistics below tell the story for the Cubs: Solid, but not spectacular hitting, superb pitching and hideous defense. A team CAN win by excelling in two of those three facets of the game, but defense affects the other two the most. Better defense means less pressure on the pitching, and it makes a solid offense even more effective. Think of some of the pitching stats if the defense weren’t giving the opponents four of five outs in some innings!

There is no one person to blame for the errors, but, as a staff, Cub pitchers have committed nine errors in 72 chances, compared to just 13 in 253 chances last year! What the hell causes that?!? That’s over 1/4 of the team’s errors, and a good place to start the improvement.

By the way – the only starting fielder without an error? The defensively oft-beleaguered Sammy Sosa!

TEAM STATISTICS (rankings out of all 30 MLB teams) as of 5-14:
Batting:

.271 AVG (11th)
212 RUNS (tied for 5th)
44 HR (tied for 12th)
.794 OPS (7th)
298 SO (28th)
160 BB (4th)

Pitching:

3.37 ERA (3rd)
1.26 WHIP (6th)
350 K (1st)
150 BB (22nd)
291 Hits (2nd)
31 Fewest HR Allowed (3rd)
1.60 GB/FB Ratio (2nd)

Defense:

.978 Fielding % (26th)
33 Errors (tied for 25th)
421 Assists (16th)

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FIRST GRIPE: Baker abusing the Cubs pitching staff

Okay. Kerry Wood’s 141-pitch outing was an eye-popping number. But very little has been written about Dusty Baker’s theory on pitching throughout the season, and it makes perfect sense to me.

Baker has stated that during the month of April, he counts on the bullpen heavily, which is what he had shown last month. His intent is that his starters go definitely five innings, hopefully six, then let as many as 3-5 relievers carry the rest of the game.

After six weeks of spring training and another four weeks of the regular season, Baker feels that his starters at this point are “stretched out” enough to increase the length of their outings. Also, by May, Baker knows he needs to give his bullpen a rest after an active April. His decision is based on an individual basis, but he expects more than six innings (90-100 pitches) in May – more like in the 115-120 range. Wood’s 141 was the exception, not the norm.

By the way, in Wood’s next outing, he pitched seven scoreless innings with three hits, two walks and 13 strikeouts. On 119 pitches.

As for the rest of the season, beginning in June, Baker just lets what happens happens. He won’t push the starters or relievers as a rule as he does in April and May – it’s based on the individual and the situation, like most managers.

So, pitch counts are something to keep track of. If someone pitches 140+ innings 2-3 games in a row, THAT would be a concern. But until that happens, it’s nothing to panic over, or nothing that should have drawn the media blitz it has.

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SECOND GRIPE: Sammy Sosa is scared/on a decline/playing up his injury

People. Sosa had a toenail removed! This is what Baker compared it to: “You have your big toenail off the foot—that's like raw meat sticking up with thousands of nerves in there. I remember watching World War II movies, and some of the main tortures were drill them in the teeth and get 'em underneath the toenails and the fingernails.”

THAT’s what Sosa is dealing with.

It began last season. Sosa doesn’t know what caused it, but during the Houston series in August, the pain and infection started. However, he never came out of the lineup, and the toe soreness probably led to Sosa falling short of the 500-homer milestone at the end last season. But he played through it, just like with other problems he’s had over the seven-year DL-less stint.

The condition improved in the off-season because Sosa wasn't constantly digging in at the plate to hit. But, with the cold weather in April, and digging into hard ground, the problem returned to the point he finally had to do something about it.

So this has been a nine-month problem. It led to the lack of power at the end of last season and his total of six home runs so far this year. If you can’t dig in, and you can’t turn on your back foot, your power will go down. So, until proven when he’s healthy, he is not on a decline.

The condition occurred many months before the beaning in Pittsburgh. Sosa was hitting .303 with 11 doubles, 23 RBI and 28 walks prior to going on the DL. He obviously has not been affected by the beaning.

And the issue of playing up the injury – questioned because Sosa has said that it will probably take longer than the 15 days on the DL for the toe to be fully healed, and that he “won’t be a hero” and rush back. If you’re integrity, your guts, and your ability have been questioned, wouldn’t you wait until you’re 100% to prove everyone wrong? He says he’s not mad, but I guarantee that he will be fuming by the time he takes his first at-bat.

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NEXT TIME: I keep saying I’ll write about the minors. I’m sorry I haven’t, but I promise I’ll have a special report on them within the week.

A name to think about – Todd Wellmeyer, who, in his major league debut, struck out the side for the save in the 17th inning to complete the sweep of Milwaukee Thursday. Each strikeout was capped buy a gutsy, nasty change-up – incredible poise for a guy in his first game!