Cubs’ Road to Last Place; Sox There, Too

June 15, 2014 @ admin → No Comments

Sunday smorgasbord: With their 7-4 loss Saturday at Philadelphia, the Chicago Cubs fell to a National League-worst 12-25 on the road. That’s a .324 winning percentage. At that rate, the Cubs would finish 26-55 on the road in 2014. Meaning the Cubs would need to go 37-44 (.457) at Wrigley Field to avoid 100 losses. The good (?) news is that the Cubs are 15-14 at home (.517 winning percentage). Meaning they can avoid 100 losses if they continue to play that well — “well” being a relative term — at home.

Brazilian model Andressa Urach is a big fan of Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo.

* Speaking of victories at home, the White Sox failed to record one Saturday against Kansas City. Even so, with a 19-17 mark at U.S. Cellular Field, the Sox have the second-best home mark in the American League Central (if that’s any consolation to Sox fans — and the guess here is that it is not). They also have the worst record in the AL Central. Meaning Chicago has two last-place teams. Bottom’s up, baseball fans.

* Cubs third baseman Mike Olt went 1-for-4 with his 10th home run of the season to improve his batting average to .152. He also struck out twice. He has struck out 60 times in 145 at-bats this season (meaning he has whiffed 41 percent of the time). Exactly what he is doing on a big-league roster — other than very little offensively — is unclear. The idea of being a good manager is putting people in a position to succeed. It would seem Olt’s place to succeed — certainly for the short term, if not longer — is with the Iowa Cubs.

* Olt’s presence in the lineup serves as a friendly reminder from Cubs management that the team has little — if any — interest in winning this season. Not that 145 at-bats is the world’s largest sample size, but it is large enough that on a normal big-league ballclub Olt would be back in the minors.

* Speaking of strikeouts, Royals pitcher Danny Duffy struck out nine Sox in seven shutout innings in K.C.’s 9-1 victory. Sox catcher Tyler Flowers fanned three times in four hitless at-bats. He has struck out 79 times in 184 at-bats this season. Meaning he has struck out 43 percent of his at-bats. On the bright (?) side, Flowers is batting .250.

* Once the Cubs finish celebrating 2014 as the 100th anniversary of Wrigley Field, maybe the Cubs brain trust can put something together for 2015. You know, like the 70th anniversary of the ballclub’s last World Series appearance. OK, probably not.

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