This was late Saturday, at the end of another lost night. The free-falling Chicago Cubs had just whiffed 10 more times against a starting pitcher who doesn't throw hard enough to bruise a banana, San Diego's Josh Geer, and a couple of no-name relievers.
"Hard to believe," Cubs manager Lou Piniella said, exasperation coating his voice and disbelief covering his face. "It really is."
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| Lou Piniella admits losing Aramis Ramirez to the DL hasn't helped. (AP) |
Remember when Milton Bradley was going to be the missing ingredient the Cubs needed? Yeah, they do, too.
Instead, Bradley is making Mario Mendoza look like Ted Williams, hitting .188 with a .310 on-base percentage. And for a team that was a consensus pick to run away with the NL Central this summer, the Cubs seem hell-bent on turning the division into a three- or four-team sprint to the finish.
They headed into the opener of this week's homestand Monday night against Pittsburgh dragging seven consecutive losses with them.
They went 0-6 in last week's road trip to St. Louis and San Diego, their worst trip in three years. Over the first five games of the trip, they scored a total of three runs. A veritable offensive outburst in Sunday's 7-2 loss jacked up that run total to five whole runs in the six-game trip.
Piniella generally is pleased with the starting pitching, and the bullpen, a ticking time bomb for much of the season, is beginning to settle down.
The lineup, though, has been stunningly inept.
Third baseman Aramis Ramirez has been out since May 9 with a dislocated shoulder but, even at that, things shouldn't be this bleak. Into Monday's game, Mike Fontenot was batting .208 with a .299 on-base percentage. Catcher Geovany Soto was at .202 with a .313 on-base percentage and a .266 slugging percentage. Derrek Lee was hitting .248, Reed Johnson .237 and Aaron Miles .204.
"Really, the drop-off [without Ramirez] shouldn't be as pronounced as it is," Piniella said. "We haven't gotten any production at all out of third base since he's been gone. But we're struggling in a lot of other areas, too.
"For us to start being more consistent offensively, we need to start getting some of these batting averages around .200 up. Give ourselves more opportunity by getting on base more. But it's been a struggle, and losing Ramirez hasn't helped the situation."
During the six games in St. Louis and San Diego, the Cubs struck out 52 times and batted -- if that's what you can call it -- .160. They compiled a woeful .211 on-base percentage and a .214 slugging percentage.
Piniella thinks that, even without Ramirez, Cubs hitters should rank somewhere in the middle of the NL statistically. Yet, into Monday, they ranked 14th in the NL in batting average, 12th in on-base percentage and 12th in runs scored.
"When you manage a baseball team," Piniella said, "if you make moves pretty quick they say, 'Boy, this guy doesn't have any patience.' And if you wait too long they say, 'He should have made moves long time ago.'
"Look, the bottom line is you've got to win baseball games, and how we win baseball games determines what I have to do.
"If we're winning baseball games, I'll just rest people from time to time and keep doing the things we've done.
"If not, I'm going to have to invariably make some changes. Right now, I'm not contemplating any of those. I have confidence in the people we have."
Piniella liked two things about the addition of Bradley this season. One, the switch-hitter would balance a right-handed heavy lineup. Two, the skipper thought maybe the clubhouse was too nice last season, and the mercurial Bradley might give the Cubs a more raw edge in 2009.
Instead, the high-risk side of Bradley -- his history of injuries and an uncontrollable temper -- is threatening to make the club's three-year, $30 million investment a regrettable bet.
Both worrisome areas popped up in April, with Bradley missing time with a groin strain and being slapped with a two-game suspension (subsequently reduced to one game) for an April 16 run-in with umpire Larry Vanover.
Sunday, a day after he was called out on strikes on a borderline eighth-inning pitch by plate ump Doug Eddings, Bradley complained to the Chicago Tribune's Paul Sullivan that he thinks Vanover's colleagues are out to get him.
"Unfortunately," Bradley told the newspaper, "I just think it's a lot of 'Oh, you did this to my colleague', or, 'We're going to get him any time we can. As soon as he gets two strikes, we're going to call whatever and see what he does. Let's try to ruin Milton Bradley.'
"It's just unfortunate. But I'm going to come out on top. I always do."
In Texas last year, Bradley led the American League with a .436 on-base percentage. His .999 OPS (on-base plus slugging percentage) also led the AL. And his .425 OBP over the past two years ranks third in the majors.
"What am I supposed to do?" Bradley told the Tribune. "You lead the American League in OPS and two years in the top three in the league in on-base percentage. All of a sudden now, I come to Chicago and I can't see the ball no more? I don't know a strike from a ball?"
In Ramirez's absence and with Bradley slumping, the loss of Mark DeRosa from last year's club (traded to Cleveland for three minor league pitchers on New Year's Eve) has become especially glaring. DeRosa hit a career-high 21 homers and drove in 87 runs for the Cubs last year. This season, he's already hit seven homers and 30 RBI for Cleveland (and now is being dangled by the Indians because they desperately need relief pitchers).
"Last year, we had DeRosa, and when I got hurt they did not miss me because he played very good left field and he's a very good hitter," said Alfonso Soriano, who went 2-for-21 (.095) on the trip. "This year, we've got to play with what we've got."
Even without Ramirez for an extended time -- he isn't expected back until near the All-Star break in mid-July -- "what they've got" shouldn't be this bleak for the Cubs.
"The moment we're having now, it's not going to happen twice," Soriano said of the team-wide offensive failures. "It happens once a year. We've got to get out of this little slump. I hope we get out of the slump quickly."
Said Lee: "We're professionals. We get paid to hit and score runs, and we've got to find a way to do it."
Hard to believe? It really, really is.
CubBearFan76 
