The Cubs fell just short of getting a series win for the 1st time since they took 2 of 3 from the Padres at Wrigley Field back on April 20th.

Casey Coleman suffered another loss giving up 4 ER on 4 hits and 5 walks in just 5 innings of work. Coleman is 1-2 with a 7.36 ERA and a 1.96 WHIP.  In 18 1/3 innings pitched in 4 starts, Coleman has given up 15 ER on 23 hits and 13 walks.  Why is this guy still in the rotation?  Isn’t there someone else in the minors that can give the Cubs more meaningful innings?

Geovany Soto, Darwin Barney and Marlon Byrd each had 2 hits in the Cubs loss.  Soto had 2 doubles in the game, the 2nd of which cut the DBacks lead from 4-1 to 4-3 in the top of the 7th inning.  The Cubs then stranded Soto at 2nd base in the 7th.  After stranding the tying run in scoring position in the 8th inning too, Carlos Pena almost put the Cubs ahead in the top of the 9th with a deep drive to right field that Upton caught right at the wall.  Marlon Byrd had doubled to lead off the inning and moved over to 3rd base with only 1 out.  The DBacks then walked to Geovany Soto to get to a pinch-hitter.  Jeff Baker only needed to hit a fly ball to tie the game but instead he swung at J.J. Putz’s first pitch and grounded into a game-ending double play.  Not good.

The Cubs have only won 3 series all season long and have a 12-15 record.  Lucky for them that no one else in the NL Central has put together a good stretch of baseball to try to gain a little space between the rest of the pack.  Despite the slow start, the Cubs trail the 1st place Cards by only 3.5 games.  Every time Casey Coleman and James Russell take the mound, you know the Cubs are likely going to lose, so knowing that Randy Wells and Andrew Cashner are both on the mend and hopefully back in the mix in the next few weeks can only mean improved play for the club.  After these 3 final road games against the Dodgers in L.A., the Cubs open up a critical 9-game homestand against the Cincinnati Reds, Cardinals and San Francisco Giants which could leave them still right in the thick of things or getting ready for 2012…

Mother nature helped the Cubs out on Wednesday – the forecasted rains caused the Cubs and MLB to re-schedule the Cubs-Rockies series finale to a date when the weather should be just a little bit nicer (hopefully) – Monday June 27th.  It was an off-day for both teams. The Cubs play in Kansas City the day before and will continue with a home stand at Wrigley Field.  The Rockies play the Yankees in New York the day before and will stop in Chicago to make up the game on Monday before heading home for a scheduled home stand.

The Cubs used the day off for some rest and for some early travel to Arizona where they begin a 7-game road trip against the DBacks.  The Cubs will skip Casey Coleman in the rotation to keep the 3 “aces” on their scheduled 4 days between starts.  Ryan Dempster (1-2, 7.63 ERA) , Carlos Zambrano (2-1, 5.28 ERA) and Matt Garza (0-3, 4.11 ERA) will start the 1st 3 games of the series while Coleman will pitch in the series finale on Sunday.  The Cubs have not named who will start their game on Monday night against the Dodgers in Los Angeles.  Looking at the numbers of the Cubs 3 “aces”, it is shocking that the Cubs even have a 10-13 record.  Crazy stuff once again for the Cubs in what is shaping up to be another LONG season…

It was not the way the Cubs wanted to start the series with the Dodgers – an embarrassing 12-2 loss to a team that had been struggling to score runs.  Boy is this going to be another fun season!

The Cubs pitching was simply awful.

Casey Coleman worked out of trouble during the 1st two innings before finally getting touched for 6 ER while retiring just 2 batters in a 6-run 3rd inning.  Coleman’s line is a joke – 2 2/3 innings, 6 hits, 6 ER, 4 walks and a whopping 90 pitches!

Jeff Stevens line was not much better although he did allow just 1 hit in his 3 1/3 innings.  Stevens allowed 3 ER on the 1 hit and 6 walks and he tossed a whopping 89 pitches!  He really took one for the team which has major pitching issues with the recent injuries to Randy Wells and Andrew Cashner.  Never thought I would see the day when 179 pitches from just 2 pitchers would only get you through 6 lousy innings.

John Grabow was the lone bright spot – 2 scoreless innings with 2 K’s – before Marcos Mateo had another disastrous outing.  Mateo gave up 6 hits in the 9th inning as the Dodgers added 3 “insurance” runs to pad the lead.

Ugly, ugly, ugly.

Kosuke Fukudome was the lone hitting star for the Cubs – he had 3 hits in the lead-off spot.  Starlin Castro is still stuck in a “mini-slump”.  Castro has just 3 hits in his last 4 games, a streak spanning 17 at-bats.  But he is still hitting .369 on the season.

Let’s hope Ryan Dempster fares better today against the Dodgers and can get at least into the 7th inning when he can had it off to Kerry Wood or Sean Marshall or Carlos Marmol to close the door in a Cubs win…

The Cubs host the Los Angeles Dodgers in a weekend series at the Friendly Confines of Wrigley Field.  The Cubs are an even 9-9 on the season, while the Dodgers are one game under .500 at 9-10.  The Dodgers are making more news off the field than they are on the field of late. Commissioner Bud Selig announced yesterday that Major League Baseball is taking over the business and day-to-day operations of the organization.  Owner Frank McCourt’s troubled financial issues and his unresolved divorce settlement from his wife have left the team in a huge mess.

Casey Coleman will start for the Cubs in search of his 2nd win in a row.  Coleman earned the Cubs only win over the Rockies last weekend at Coors Field in Denver.  He will face Chad Billingsley who has struggled early on this season.  Billingsley is 1-1 with a 4.91 ERA, but he held the Cardinals to 8 scoreless innings in a 2-1 Dodgers win in his last start.

It was a lost weekend for the Chicago Cubs against the Rockies at Coors Field in Denver Colorado.  The Rockies shut out the Cubs on Friday 5-0 and then after Casey Coleman’s great start and a 8-3 win on Saturday, the Cubs couldn’t get the win on Sunday to take the series from the NL’s best team.

On Saturday, Casey Coleman worked into the 6th inning holding one of the best hitting teams in baseball to just 1 ER on 4 hits and 3 walks.  He picked up his 1st win of 2011.

Coleman got plenty of help from his teammates to get the win.  Starlin Castro led the way with 4 hits including a home run and a double.  He drove in 3 and scored 1 run.  Darwin Barney had 2 hits an RBI and a run scored, while Carlos Pena had 2 hits and a run scored.  Alfonso Soriano also had a big day with 3 hits including a home run and 2 RBI’s.

On Sunday, however, Ryan Dempster dug his squad into an early hole by giving up 4 runs in the 1st inning.  He ended up giving up 5 ER on 7 hits and 2 walks and left with the game tied at 5.  Jeff Samardzija kept the game close with 2 scoreless innings of relief in his best outing of the season.  But it was Marcos Mateo who had a rare bad outing (he had made 5 consecutive scoreless appearances heading into the game) when allowed a 4-run 8th inning rally to the Rockies that gave the home team a win.  Starlin Castro and Darwin Barney kept up their hotting.  Castro had 3 more hits with an RBI and a run scored and is now hitting .418 on the season.  Barney had 2 hits and a run scored and is hitting .333.  The 1-2 combination of Castro and Barney at the top of lineup has given the Cubs offense a much-needed spark early in the season.  Let’s hope they can keep it up.

The Cubs fell to 7-8 on the season, but still only trail the 1st place Cincinnati Reds by 2 games in the NL Central.  Carlos Zambrano goes for his 3rd straight win of the season (and 12th win overall dating back to last season) as the Cubs square off against the San Diego Padres tonight at Wrigley Field.

Will Carlos Silva be on the Cubs opening day roster when camp breaks at the end of March – that is a key question.  With the quality starts by Randy Wells all spring long and the emergence of Andrew Cashner as a viable 5th starter, the Cubs could be looking to move Carlos Silva when camp breaks at the end of March.  Lucky for the Cubs, they have some suitors.  The Washington Nationals and New York Yankees both have had scouts watching all of Silva’s starts this spring.  Both teams are in need of a 5th starter to round out their rotations and the Yankees could easily absorb all or a portion of Silva’s whopping $12 million salary for the 2011 MLB schedule.  Despite 2 rough starts to open up the spring and a dugout squirmish with Aramis Ramirez after a dreadful 1st inning in which Silva surrendered 6 runs when his defense committed 3 errors, Silva has put together 2 good starts and clearly still has what it takes to pitch at the major league level.  Silva even pitched 5 innings in his last outing and is building up his arm strength.

This would be a great coup for the Cubs if they can find someone to take Silva, even they end up paying for part of his salary to get a deal done.  Silva is not in the Cubs long-term plans and by moving Silva for something (a prospect, draft pick, saving some cash), it would be much better than outright releasing the big righty.  It would also free up a spot for Cashner to open the season as the Cubs 5th starter.  And even if the Cubs have an injury problem or Wells or Cashner struggles out of the gate, they still have some other young options to fall back on with James Russell and Casey Coleman who will most likely start the 2011 campaign starting in the minor leagues.

Andrew Cashner was a pleasant surprise for the Cubs out of the bullpen during the 2010 MLB schedule.  Cashner appeared in 53 games, going 2-6 with 16 holds and 1 blown save.  He had a 4.80 ERA and a 1.56 WHIp, with 50 K’s and 30 walks in 54 1/3 innings.  Cashner started off well, but hit the wall a little bit at the end of July and in early August.  He gave up 6 ER in back-to-back appearances on July 27th and July 30th, and then had a stretch where he gave up 7 total ER in a stretch of 4 out of 5 appearances in the middle of August.  But he rebounded after that – from August 23rd on (which coincided with the Mike Quade regime), Cashner worked in 18 games and gave up just a total of 3 ER in 19 1/3 innings pitched.  He appeared to regain his confidence and he pitched with a sense of purpose in some stressful situations for Quade and the Cubs late in the season.  Let’s hope he can keep it up and improve on the consistency during the off-season so that he is ready and able to lead a successful bullpen reformation during the 2011 MLB season.

Cashner recently had some interesting insight into pitching at the major league level and discussing how he plans to prepare for 2011: “I always thought I had good enough stuff to pitch here.  The biggest surprise to me is all the material you can use here every day.  The biggest thing I’ve learned is how much the hitters make adjustments.  You can face a guy at the beginning of the season in the Minors and get him out, and then face him three months later and he’s still the same guy.  The hitters here are constantly making adjustments.  I see our guys doing it all the time — they’re always working on something. The outs are a little harder to get later in the game… I’ll take some time off this year.  It’s been a really long year.  I’m going to shut it down for three, four weeks.  I have a trainer I work out with and I won’t see him until November 1.  Then, I’ll start five days a week first of November.  The throwing program usually doesn’t start until December.

Cashner will play a large role in how well the Cubs bullpen performs in 2011.  There are a lot of talented, but young arms in their, so it’s imperative that they stay focused and come prepared to pitch in pressure situations each and every day.  If guys like Cashner, Russell and Casey Coleman can continue to make a positive impact, it could be a sign of good things to come for the Cubs in 2011 and the very near future…

Larry Rothschild has only a few days left to decide whether he wants to exercise his option to remain the Cubs pitching coach in 2011.  He must inform the Cubs by Monday if he wants to stay on as Cubs pitching coach for the 2011 MLB season.  The odd thing is, even if he exercises the option, once the Cubs hire a new manager this winter, that new skipper could decided he doesn’t want Rothschild on his staff.

Rothschild’s Cubs pitching staff finished the season with a 4.18 team ERA – good for 13th in the National League.  That was the worst that his team has performed in years given the fact that there were so many rookies making their major league debuts in 2010.  The team had finished in the top 5 in ERA each of the last 3 seasons.  Despite the high ERA, Cubs starting pitchers had the most quality starts in the NL in 2010 with 96. That is a prett high number for a club that won only 75 games.

Despite the good numbers produced over the years by Rothschild, something is wrong there and I think the club would be wise to try to get a new guy in there.  He’s had so many talented pitchers of late — Mark Prior, Kerry Wood, Carlos Zambrano — but he never seems to be able to get a consistent 100% out of any of them.  The Cubs have some talented young pitcher coming up through the ranks – Andrew Cashner, James Russell, Casey Coleman, Jeff Samardzija just to name a few.  It is the perfect time for the “right” pitching coach to take these guys to the next level (just like Leo Mazzoni did with young pitchers like Greg Maddux, John Smoltz, Tom Glavine and Steve Avery back with the Braves in the 1990′s).  If Rothschild doesn’t have what it takes to mold these players into the superstars of the future, then the time to part ways with the guy is now.

Keep your head up high, Larry, because I think you have a friend on your side.  With the way the Ricketts continue to endorse GM Jim Hendry and the “great” job he has done, it doesn’t seem like the new owners are to anxious to make any rash moves right now.  I guess we’ll have to wait 3-5 years and suffer through a few more awful seasons, before they realize they need to make change if they expect to end the longest World Series drought in major league history…

Casey Coleman outdueled Chris Carpenter to pick up his 3rd win of the season.  Despite giving up 3 runs in the 1st 3 innings, Coleman stayed focused and ended up pitching 7 solid innings.  He did not allow another run after the the Cards scored 2 runs in the 3rd (one of which was unearned).  Coleman gave up 5 hits and 2 walks and struck out 4 in the process.  Sean Marshall pitched a scoreless 8th inning giving up 1 hit.  And Carlos Marmol struck out the side in the 9th inning.

Blake DeWitt, Aramis Ramirez and Alfonso Soriano each had 2 hits for the Cubs.  The Cubs scored 5 runs off of Carpenter in only 4 innings as they put together a few good rallies with 7 hits and 4 walks.

Jeff Samardzija looks to get Cubs fans a win in the final home game of the season at Wrigley Field today.  He is going for his 3rd win in 3 starts since being called up from Triple-A…

So much for that great Cubs finish – the last 2 losses show that the Cubs are still a long ways away from being an NL playoff contender anytime soon.

Thursday 9/23/10 – Cubs 0, Giants 13 – Ouch.  Ryan Dempster was denied his 15th win of the season, as he couldn’t even get out of the 2nd inning.  The Giants used a 9-run 2nd inning to blow the game open courtesy of 2 home runs and 6 RBI’s from the “light-hitting” Juan Uribe in the 2nd inning alone.  He hit his 1st 2-run HR of the inning off of Dempster and then drilled a Grand Slam off of Thomas Diamond to cap the scoring. Dempster has had a few rough outings of late.  Last night, he ended up giving up 9 ER on 7 hits and 2 walks.  He gave up 7 ER to the Pirates back on August 31st.  Dempster will look to pick up win #15 next week and he also needs 8 K’s in order to reach 200 for the season.  He is already over 200 innings pitched for the 3rd consecutive season since being switched from closer to the starting rotation.  While Dempster is no ace, he is a solid #3 starter.  Problem is that the Cubs don’t have a #1 or #2 starter right now.

Friday 9/24/10 – Cubs 1, Cards 7 – Ouch again. The Cubs managed just 6 hits and a walk off of Adam Wainwright who picked up his 20th win of the season.  The Cubs didn’t fare much better against Kyle McClellan and Ryan Franklin as the duo retired 9 of the 10 batters they faced to finish off the Cubs.  Aramis Ramirez accounted for the lone Cubs run with his solo home run.  Tom Gorzelanny was downright bad in his 1st start since August 27th – 7 ER on 7 hits and 5 walks in 3 1/13 innings.  Overall, it was just another bad day for the Cubs at Wrigley.  The Cubs have now scored just 3 runs in 4 games this week.  They have been shutout twice and lost 7-1 today.  Not good…

The Cubs hope that Casey Coleman can even up the series when he takes on Chris Carpenter at Wrigley Field tomorrow afternoon with an early 12:05PM start.