Baseball In The Daytime: 5-30-08

When next we meet for BITD, the calendar will have turned to June, the third full month of the season. No longer will we able to explain away bad starts by players of teams with the dismissive refrain "It's Early." June ain't early. It's put up or shut up time, my friends.

On that note we display the sole day game on today's docket. You know who it is--it's Friday, the Cubs are home, you ain't got no job, and you ain't got shit to do but watch this game. And it's a Rockies game no less. After the jump we'll preview this sucker, and we'll get into a little pre-mortem autopsy of why one of these clubs has the NL's best record while the other sports the worst...


Colorado @ Chicago Cubs, 12:20 Mountain After a humiliating sweep at the hands of Chase Utley and the Phillies, the Rox slunk into the Second City yesterday and proceeded to fumble away yet another game. Remember the 2006 World Series, when Tiger pitchers could not throw balls within the vicinity of bases one through three? Colorado's bullpen reenacted it last night, with much historical authenticity. Today Aaron Cook will attempt to throw accurately to all those bases plus home plate, while pharmaceutical heir Ted Lilly has a prescription of his own.

Now both of these teams made the playoffs last year, and both brought back roughly the same roster. Why do the Cubs seem so much improved while Colorado has regressed spectacularly?

Chicago is first in the NL in runs scored (304, 5.6/game) OPS (.808) and batting average (.284), while Colorado is 14th in OPS (.714) and average (.256). The Rox have plated 224 runs, good for 4.1 a game (13th in the league) and less than the Cardinals, Marlins, Pirates and 50 fewer than the Diamondbacks. The same Diamondbacks that a year ago tallied almost 150 fewer runs than these Rockies.

The former Blake Street Bombers languish in homers (38, 14th in the NL) and extra base hits (159, 10th). The former can be excused in part by injuries to sluggers Matt Holliday, Garrett Atkins and Brad Hawpe, but the latter is puzzling to say the least. Even with the Coors Field humidor taking some of the jump out of baseballs, the park still has the deepest dimensions and most spacious power alleys in the game. With the young sticks and young legs that pepper the lineup, this club should never flounder in doubles and triples as it has. They can't hit.

Chicago, meanwhile, can. They're fourth in the league in home runs at 56, and second in extra-base hits (183). Although Alfonso Soriano runs like a club-footed vagrant trying to catch a bus on a cold morning, he still puts good wood on the ball. Kosuke Fukudome is nothing less than a pure hitter at the major league level and sports a .409 on-base. Aramis Ramirez drives everybody home (38 RBI) and the deep and versatile options Lou Piniella has in Theriot, DeRosa, Cedeno, Reed Johnson and even gimpy old Jim Edmonds give the lineup spark everyday.

But if you want two big answers as to why the Chicago Cubs have turned into an elite offense, look no further than Geovany Soto and Derrek Lee. Soto, the rookie catcher, is slugging .559 while playing in 50 out of 54 games. Lee is nothing less than an early MVP candidate with 13 HR--this following a lackluster 2007 season that was hampered by a power-sapping wrist injury.
On the hill, the Cubs are equally impressive. Their 3.56 ERA is second in the NL while the opponent's batting average of .243 ranks third. Even with the implosion of Rich Hill, the rotation has been sturdy, and the bullpen lights out. Carlos Marmol may be the most consistently unhittable pitcher in the game, and even Kerry Wood is holding it together from the closer's spot. That's not meant to be a jinx either, Cubs fans, I'm actually impressed.

Up in the high mountain air, the Rockies' pitching has been as atrocious as their hitting. Their 4.93 ERA is 15th out of 16 National League clubs, and they yield a .272 batting average to their foes. The starting five has been a five-alarm grease fire, with a very pre-humidor 5.46 ERA. Franklin Morales was sent down, Mark Redman was cut, and Jeff Francis and Ubaldo Jimenez have only recently begun to look like professional pitchers.

The only aspect of Colorado's performance that's not way off from last season is their fielding--measured by the archaic fielding percentage stat they're within shouting distance of 2007's record-setting mark, last night's foibles included. Gazing at these numbers, one can only conclude that the magical run the Rox took last year was a huge fluke. This is a young, impatient, undisciplined, thoroughly shitty team.

Back on the North Side, however, things look rosy as all hell. The pieces are all in place for a run of their own, and dare I say a World Series championship. OK, that one was a jinx. Sorry about that.