Chicago Cubs

There are two weeks left to go for both the Cubs and the Brewers this season.  And contrary to belief, or might you may have heard or read, both teams have their destiny in their own hands.  One of the reasons is that they don’t play each other longer during the 162-championship schedule.  If the Brewers win out, including a dramatic game 163 versus the Cubs, they’ll win the division title.  And at the same time, it can be said for the Cubs, if they win out and forced to a game 163 against the Brewers and win that one, they will win the division title.  As has been the case for quite sometime, the Cubs have, by far, the easier schedule with the Brewers still looking at the Braves for four in Atlanta and finishing their season four games against the very tough San Diego team that’s battling, not only for the West division, but also for the Wild Card. 

There is no doubt that Soriano is hitting pretty well.  Most of his hits have been homeruns.  When he does, however, hit a single or a double it seems purely by accident.  His game average is .290, with 27 homeruns, and 58 RBIs.  Usually 27 homeruns yields many more RBIs, but as we know, Alf has a tendency to pout if he’s not in the #1 spot.  Soriano told Lou Piniella not to rest him this series, and Lou obliged by playing him in all four games.  Soriano had a pretty good series against the Cardinals; he really doesn’t need much rest.  He may have been resting with plays like with the bases loaded and a Ramirez chopper in the infield, Alf didn’t particularly run very hard and apparently he was still resting when he got thrown out at the plate with nobody out in the inning.  Alfonso also gets to rest when he poses at the plate admiring a would-be tape measure homerun that somehow doesn’t leave the ballpark.  In St. Louis he hit one over the head of Jim Edmonds, dropped the bat, and watched as the ball majestically left the park.  A second time he hit the ball down the line that was bobbled by the left fielder, but Alf had already broken it down and was coasting in to second.  Twice in the same game he was able to turn triples into doubles - nobody of course mentions that.  Soriano also gets plenty of rest every time he swings at strike threes in the dirt, and the catchers mishandle the pitch, because there are curves and sliders.  Alf apparently doesn’t know the rule that you can run to first base if it’s unoccupied, so he walks slowly back to the dugout. The Cardinals having been familiarized with this rule under Tony La Russa, or perhaps under every other manager they’ve had in the 1900s, do run do first base and at times in the case of Ryan Ludwick, forces the catcher, in the case Kendall, to make a bad throw and get charged with an error with the aforementioned lollipop toss.  That particular play with Ludwick actually started a game-winning rally and allowed a decimated Cardinal’s team to take just one lone game of the four in the St. Louis series.  Not many people dressed in Cub blue talked to Alf much about his lack of hustle, because he hit homeruns and is a run scorer.  What else do you really expect for $18 million? 
 

 

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