Baseball Musings: Chicago Sweep

June 23, 2008

Chicago Sweep

Aramis Ramirez
Photo: Icon SMI

The Chicago Cubs took game three against the White Sox last night 7-1, sweeping their cross town rivals. The Cubs won by neutralizing a strength of the White Sox pitching staff, the ability to keep the ball in the park. In their first 73 games, the White Sox allowed just 54 home runs, good for a .372 slugging percentage against. In the three games at Wrigley, the Cubs hit nine home runs, four by Aramis Ramirez. In terms of homers allowed per 200 innings, the White Sox gave up 16.6 before the series, 75 during, a better than four fold increase.

The losing streak made the division tight again. While the White Sox were getting swept by the first place Cubs, the Twins were sweeping the first place Diamondbacks. At one point, the White Sox held the largest lead of any first place team, but that's down to 1 1/2 games. Even the Royals are just 8 1/2 back in last place.

Aramis Ramirez shows once again show the incompetence of the former Pirates regime. With Pittsburgh, Ramirez showed flashes of greatness but was inconsistent season to season. The Pirates traded him at age 25, just as he was entering his peak years. Since then, Aramis produced consistently good OBA and great slugging percentages. His 25 games as a Cub against the White Sox were particularly fruitful, as he posted a .380 BA, a .442 OBA and an .804 slugging percentage. His 10 home runs helped him drive in 27 runs in the 25 games. His pickup is likely one of the great Cubs trades of all time. The Pirates got basically nothing in return.

Posted by David Pinto at 07:21 AM | Series | TrackBack (0)

Comments

The Cubs sweep was one of the few bright spots in the ongoing saga of NL incompetence. Yesterday the senior circuit turned in a nifty nine losses and five wins. The NL is currently sporting an impressive .425 winning percentage.

The National Leaguers did do better Friday and Saturday, so maybe they have some hope. While the AL is a tad better top to bottom, it's not a .575-.425 difference.

Of course, San Fran did blow that 10-3 lead to KC yesterday. What a fiasco.

Posted by: Casey Abell at June 23, 2008 08:32 AM

Cards, Cubs, Reds all get props for a good weekend - most others don't - I like interleague play but last year BOS would have lost the division if not for interleague - if NL can't be more competitive or too many races get affected and more guys get hurt there'll be more whining about getting rid of it. Maybe the NL can try to play them as friendlies?

Posted by: Bandit at June 23, 2008 09:45 AM

It's never quite fair to leave out that the Ramirez trade was basically forced on Dave Littlefield -- it's not like he woke up on July 23, 2004 and thought "I need some organizational fodder and a utility man -- I wonder if the Cubs want Aramis? Maybe I'd better throw in Kenny Lofton just to be safe." It's an open secret that MLB told the Pirates that they would cut payroll, right now, by any means necessary. Kris Benson was on the disabled list; Ramirez had the big price tag.

Arguably, Littlefield could have gotten more in return for giving the Cubs the division that year; we'll never know for sure unless one of the principals in that malfeasance ever talks. Littlefield's failure was worse than that; he should have quit his job rather than sign off on that trade.

None of this, incidentally, is meant to justify Littlefield's record overall -- or, indeed, to suggest that the Ramirez trade wasn't, on the merits, of a piece with some of his later transactions that he did of his own free will. Just to say that MLB and/or Pirates' ownership had more to do with this trade than DL did.

Posted by: KPatrick at June 23, 2008 06:40 PM