"At the end of the day, boys, you don't tell me how rough the water is, you bring in the ship." – Steve Stone
A Goat Riders Affiliate
Go Cubs!

Wrigley Rooftop Directory
Ryne Sandberg Fan Page
The Cubdom Photo Gallery
The Cubs Prayer
Cubs Calendar
Jim Hendry Page
Cubs Ownership History
Baseball Business Essays
TheCubdom Hall of Cubs


Recent Blog Updates

Editor's Pick:

Goat Riders of the Apocalypse
Bleed Cubbie Blue
Desipio Media Ventures
Hire Jim Essian!
Cub Reporter
Ivy Chat
Cub Town
Ghost of Paul Noce
The Cubdom
Thunder Matt's Saloon
View From the Bleachers
Cubby-Blue
WGN-TV Baseball Blog

Honorable Mention:

A Hundred Next Years
A League of Her Own
Agony and Ivy
Bad News Cubs
Baseball Diamond News
Boys of Spring
Bush League Times
Chicago Cubs Baseball
Chicago Cubs Blog
Chicago Cubs Online
Church of Baseball
Clark & Addison blog
College of Idiots
Cubs f/x
Cubs Hot Stove
Cubs Hub
CubsNet.com
Cubs Obsession
Five Outs to go
Gonfalon Cubs
Kosuke Fukodome
Lollygaggers
Out of Right Field
The Cubs Brickyard
The Other Fifteen
The Ted Lilly Fan Club
Temporary Bleachers
TheCubsfan.com
Wrigleyville23

Newbies:

Cubbie Nation
Holy Cow Bell
Ivy Envy
Towel Drills
Turning Two
Wasting away in Wrigleyville

Soldiering On:

Die-hard Cubs Fun
Fire Dusty Baker
Northside Lounge
Peoria Northsider Report
Yarbage Cub Review

Cubs Sites:

Desipio Boards
North Side Baseball
Cubscast.com
Inside the Ivy
The Heckler
My Wrigleyville

Just Read 'em!

Baseball Analysts
Baseball Musings
Baseball Prospectus
Baseball Think Factory
Hardball Times

Conglomerates

Baseball Toaster
Most Valuable Network
SportsBlog Nation

NL Central

Brew Crew Ball MIL
Bucs Dugout PIT
Crawfish Boxes HOU
Get Up Baby STL
Honest Wagner PIT
Red Hot Mama CIN
Red Reporter CIN
Viva El Birdos STL

NL East

Amazin Avenue NYM
Citizens Blog PHI
Federal Baseball WAS
Fish Stripes FLA
The Good Phight PHI
Sabernomics ATL

NL West

6-4-2 LAD, LAA
AZ Snake Pit AZ
Dodger Thoughts LAD
Ducksnorts SD
Gas Lamp Ball SD
McCovey Chronicles SF
Only Baseball Matters SF
Purple Row COL

AL East

Batters Box TOR
Bronx Banter NYY
Camden Chat BAL
DRays Bay TB
Futility Infielder NYY
Joy of Sox BOS
Over the Monster BOS
Pinstripe Alley NYY
Replacement Level Yankees Weblog NYY

AL Central

Aaron's Baseball Blog MIN
Bless You Boys DET
Let's Go Tribe CLE
Royals Review KC
South Side Sox CHW
Sox Machine CHW
Tiger Blog DET
Twins Geek MIN

AL West

Athletics Nation OAK
Halo's Heaven LAA
Lone Star Ball TEX
Lookout Landing SEA
USS Mariner SEA

Miscellany

Beyond the Boxscore
Minor League Ball

Chicago Sports

Blog-A-Bull
Section 8 Fire
Windy City Gridiron Bears

News Sources

Chicagosports.com
Cubs.com
MLB.com
Sun-Times Cubs
Daily Herald Sports
Daily Southtown Sports
BaseballReference.com

Walker's defense, Maddux' bunting

Sunday, April 25, 2004

I watched the Cubs game (almost in full), and am really excited! Matt Clement threw an eight inning two-hit gem today, and the Cubs won 4-1. He took a no-hitter into the seventh inning, which he lost when he gave up a home run to Karim Garcia. (I was at the grocery store for half an inning and just missed it... shouldn't have left the couch.) Anyhow, he looked a bit flustered and gave up another hit to the next batter. Then, he got a pop-up and threw another perfect inning. He looked great the whole game, struck out 13, and when he walked a guy in the second, I thought to myself... darn he coulda had a perfect game. Anyhow, nothing terribly remarkable in the stat box, but a great game from Clement, who has put some spring-training struggles behind himself. A few other things of note: I am now a big Aramis Ramirez fan! I hope the Cubs ink him to a long-term deal. I could see him playing at Wrigley for the next 10-15 years.

Although our win streak is now at six, and our error-free streak at eight, I saw some troubling things today. (First a note, Ramon Martinez dropped a ball on the transfer from glove to throwing hand today, which could have been an error if errors were allowed for failing to turn a double play.) Ok, troubling things: The Cubs are having a terrible time getting down sacrifice bunts. I have been noticing this for a while now, and was rather peturbed when Greg Maddux failed to get down a bunt April 18th against the Reds. In the 4th inning, with Paul Bako on first, Maddux <error> at second. Todd Walker followed with a double getting Maddux to third, where he was stranded. If Maddux would have gotten the sacrifice down, Bako would have scored from second and the Cubs would have won. Instead, the Cubs ended up losing the game in extra innings. In his next start, April 23rd, Maddux again failed to advance the runner in a sacrifice attempt in the seventh inning. Although the Cubs won that game, the failure to accomplish the "little things" in a game, will eventually cost this team some more games. The reason that this is making it into today's space is that in the third inning today, Clement popped up a sacrifice bunt that nearly cost the Cubs a run. (After a would-be sacrifice fly from Ramon Martinez, Corey Patterson got a two-out single to score Michael Barrett from second.)

The other thing that is bothering me is Todd Walker's propensity for lazy underhand flip's/tosses from the second base position. So far, nothing horrible has happened yet, but everytime he weakly flips a ball to first makes me cringe. So far, in the early season, I am much more concerned about Todd Walker's defense than Aramis Ramirez' (who by the way showed off his rifle of an arm today...). If you can, I definitely recommend watching this game again.

Posted by Byron at April 25, 2004 12:00 AM | Bookmark and Share | BallHype: hype it up!
Subscribe to The Cubdom - get emails with the latest Cubs info and pictures

This post has been tagged:

1 Comment

Hi my 7 yr old son would like to e-mail todd walker would you know where I can get his e-mail address. We may be related and that would be really cool for a 3rd base playing 7 yr old. Thanks KLA

Leave a comment


AddThis Feed Button

Get The Cubdom email updates


Search

Google
Web
TheCubdom.com

eXTReMe Tracker
Since Mar 18, 2004

Recent Entries


Monthly Archives



Cubs Sale Articles

© 2004 – 2015 Byron Clarke
legal - about thecubdom.com - site index