Chicago Cubs Baseball

Every Sunday during the Chicago Cubs baseball season I’ll try to issue a report card, assessing the week that was from a long distance point of view.Here’s the report card for the week of April 15 to April 22:

Weekly Record: 3-4
Season Record: 7-11
It was another week of should haves, could haves and more didn’ts than dids for Chicago Cubs baseball. There was a scare at the beginning, some promise in the middle and frustration throughout.

The Cubs continued to play “so close, so far away,” battling back from deficits only to watch the bullpen play good Samaritan to opposing hitters. Obviously, the Cubs bullpen hasn’t heard the one about charity beginning at home.

Just this past week, the Cubs dropped two games in extra innings, watched a come-from-behind effort go wasted and spoiled outstanding pitching performances from lefty Ted Lilly. To put this in perspective, Chicago has yet to win an extra-inning affair or a game settled by two runs or less.

But it could have been worse - much worse. The Cubs survived a scare to open this week when Alfonso Soriano left Monday’s game with an injury. It turned out to be a hamstring tear - serious enough - but Soriano pinch hit in today’s game and is slated for return sometime this coming week.

On the brighter side, Cub fans got their first glimpse of touted prospect Felix Pie, who left no doubt that he’s the center fielder of the future, if not now. Pie played an amazing center field this past week, and only needs to catch up to major league pitching to be considered for full-time job.

Weekly Grade: C+
Season Grade: C

Starting Pitching:
With the exception of Wade Miler and an April-like Carlos Zambrano, no one could expect or could have expected the Cubs’ starting pitching to perform as they have.

As a starting staff, the quintet has compiled a very respectable 3.58 ERA through April 21. Remove Zambrano and Miller from the equation and the staff ERA drops to 1.63 ERA.

Lefty Rich Hill continues to astound major league hitters. He picked up his third win Thursday, while dropping his ERA to a microscopic 0.41. Jason Marquis had a big week, picking up his first two wins of the year, while Lilly remained the Cubs’ hard-luck pitcher, losing 1-0 last Sunday and 2-1 on Friday.

Miller, meanwhile, turned in his third straight anemic performance today. Cubs manager Lou Piniella said he’ll expand the pitching staff to 12, leaving one to wonder if Angel Guzman will fill the fifth starter spot once recalled from the minor leagues.

As much as I’d like Miller to be the comeback story of the year, the Cubs can ill afford to hand out victories to the opposition every fifth day.

Weekly Grade: B
Season Grade: B-

Relief Pitching:
Opposing teams have the Cubs figured out. And it’s only taken three weeks of inconsistent and downright disgusting efforts by the Chicago bullpen.

If you can get to the Cubs’ relief pitching early enough, you’ve got more than a better shot at winning. Will “Bad” Ohman and Scott Eyre have been the biggest culprits of calamity, although after watching today’s game, no one gets a pass.

Neal Cotts and Bob Howry, two of the Cubs most consistent relievers, pitched scared today against the Cardinals. Neither could find the plate and Howry surrendered a go-ahead homer.

Cub closer Ryan Dempster looks like he’s on his way back to 2006 form, surrendering a crushing, game-winning homer to Albert Pujols.

The only good thing I can say about Cub relievers this week is that they managed to preserve the shutouts of both Hill and Marquis.

Weekly: Grade: D
Season Grade: C-

Hitting:
Cub hitters began to show signs of life this week - but, then again…

It’s hard to say how much of an impact the Cubs’ bullpen is having on the team’s hitters. It’s become the status quo for the Cubs to battle back only to see the lead given back to the opposition.

Derrek Lee is three weeks into the season without a homer, despite a .358 batting average. It makes me wonder if Lee is fully recovered from the 2006 broken wrist.

Also, there’s no doubt Soriano’s injury impacted the offense. Although he’s only hitting .245 with no homers, the Cubs need Soriano at the top of the lineup.

Even if Cub bats eventually heat up to preseason expectations, will it be enough to withstand the bullpen’s inadequacies?

Weekly Grade: B-
Season Grade: C

Base Running:
”We’ll have base-running drills every day on the homestand,” Piniella said earlier this week. ”It wins ballgames for you, and we need improvement.”

That pretty much says it all. To aid the cause, Piniella has enlisted former Cub and base-running coordinator, Bobby Denier.

The focus will be on the younger players, which was evident on Friday when Ronny Cedeno overslid second base and was tagged out - on a walk to Mark DeRosa. Cedeno was running on the pitch failed to look back. He represented the tying run.

Weekly Grade: C
Season Grade: C

Defense:
Defensively, the story of the week was Pie in center. Pie’s everything touted to be - at least measured defensively. On his first day on the job, Pie threw out the potential go-ahead run and throughout the course of the week he has the ability to get a jump on a ball and chase down gappers.

Chicago’s infield performed solidly, if not spectacularly. Both Aramis Ramirez and Ryan Theriot both turned in a defensive eye catchers.

Weekly Grade: B
Season Grade: C+

Managing:
The injury to Soriano has in a way hamstrung Piniella. The injury wasn’t severe enough to place Soriano on the disabled list, forcing Piniella to call up Pie from Triple A Des Moines.

But what goes up, must come down - and Guzman drew the short straw. The Cubs could have used the right-hander, particularly in today’s game where the wind turned Wrigley Field into a hitter’s paradise.

Sweet Lou continues to do the best he can with what he has to work with.

Weekly Grade: B+
Season Grade: B+