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Is that a goat we hear bleating? Because no sooner do the Cubs climb into a tie with the Brewers for the NL Central lead, they lose one of their top sluggers to injury.
Alfonso Soriano landed on the disabled list on Monday, after tearing his right quadriceps in Sunday night's game against the New York Mets. Attempting to run from first to third on a Ryan Theriot single in the third inning, he came up lame and tried to hop into third before being thrown out.
Diagnosed with a one-centimeter tear in his right quad, Soriano was placed on the 15-day DL — the first trip to the DL in Soriano's career. However, he's expected to miss about a month. Lou Piniella said he hoped to have Soriano back in the lineup around Labor Day.
In the heat of the playoff hunt and suddenly without their top hitter, will Cubs GM Jim Hendry pull any deals to land a replacement? With the recent passing of the non-waiver trading deadline, Hendry could have real difficulty landing anybody he'd want. He claims that he believes a combination of young players, including the new Iowa call-up Eric Patterson (Corey's brother), can pick up the slack.
On the other hand, Chicagoist can think of one player who's available and might make it through waivers for the Cubs to pick up ....
Photo by AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh.
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i'd say this post is a day late.
Regardless, don't even start with that curse crap. THERE IS NO CURSE. The cubs will be fine for 2-3 weeks until soriano gets back. if eric patterson produces like he has in Iowa, and with D-Lee and Ramirez still in the lineup, we'll be fine.
as long as eric patterson learns from his brother's mistakes on this team, we've still got potential. unfortunately we seem to be slumping again regardless.. how can you go 0-10 with runners on base??
You people and your goat. It's all about skill and consistently, not the random bleating of a long-dead beast that probably didn't exist anyway.
i'm not too worried about the slump at this point...every team goes through it, especially in august. but they need to pick up some ground against the weaker teams to stay in this.
The Cubs had problems way before the Soriano injury. They've played bad baseball lately and all the shortcomings of April and May are rearing their ugly head again. Luckily the Brewers are similarly tanking. That being said, if it's not a curse, how else can you explain that Soriano has NEVER been on the DL. In 1,065 games played over 8 years, never been on the DL until now. Is there a problem with the Cubs trainers or conditioning coaches?
its not a curse. maybe exactly why he's never been on the DL is why his body is showing wear and tear now.
I'm not too concerned about losing Soriano's bat given the depth of the rest of the team. His speed on the bases, and his arm in the outfield may prove to be more of a loss.
The Cubs have speed in their line-up. The fact that Soriano wasn't on his usual SB pace for a season is what concerned me. It seems like lately the Cubs aren't stealing bases or doing a hit and run and I think that's why they've lost 9 of their last 17 games. Hitting into too many goddamn double plays, ending innings, killing rallies. Theriot and Fontenot are fast. Angel Pagan is fast. Derrek Lee is fast and he's f'ing huge. Imagine having that rumbling into second base as you're trying to concentrate on getting the throw from the cather and applying the tag.
Guest 5 is right. If Soriano hadn't gone to the cursed Cubs, he would have kept on playing for the next 42,000 years without an injury. We all know a long athletic career never slows down because of age and wear, and nobody else in the majors is injured right now. It's a curse, I tell you.
Dumbass ...
I'm concerned by the fact that the Cubs, in what was their biggest series of the season so far, couldn't handle the Beltran-less Mets at home. But they did manage to stay in every game and the bullpen looked great, for the most part. Wood threw in the mid-90s and had his breaking ball snapping. I'm a bit worried that the NL is about to catch up with Sean Marshall in a big way. He can't throw his plus curve every pitch, and that 88 mph straight cheese is going to get him into trouble eventually.
Losing Soriano for a month is big. There's no way around that fact. I hope DLee's recent power surge is here to stay, because the Cubs are going to need it.
We just have to look at it objectively and accept that the Cubs are far from the best team in the National League. They're a good team, and they're getting better, but I think we need to look at this more as the year the team figures itself out than the year the team gets it together and wins it all. If we don't get impatient and start looking to replace Lou and everyone else because we haven't won the lottery, then we'll see it happen ... next year. For real.
Looking at this city's baseball teams objectively is nigh-impossible, sometimes.