Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
September 03, 2008
Streaks

The Cubs lose to the Astros 4-0, the third time this year Houston shutout the Cubs. For some reason, the Houston pitching staff matches up well against Chicago. The Cubs losing streak goes to five games, and visions of 1969 are dancing in the stands at Wrigley. The Cubs are coming off a nine-game win streak, however. If the Cubs were winning two then losing one, no one would be that upset. So remember, the Cubs are 9-5 over their last 14 games. That's a .643 winning percentage.

The same thing happened to the Rays. Remember their seven game losing streak? That was preceded by an 11-1 run, making them 11-8 over a nineteen game span. That was a much better measure of where they were going than either streak. The Cubs are probably going to be okay.


Posted by David Pinto at 11:52 PM | Team Evaluation | TrackBack (0)
Comments

You know . . . the Astros HAVE won 8 in a row, and something ridiculous out of their last 25. Why no mention?

Posted by: Aaron at September 4, 2008 01:08 AM

Visions of '69? I don't know where you heard that, but somebody's obviously trying to make a story out of nothing. Milwaukee's just not playing like they'll overtake the Cubs. Ever since they tied for the division lead in July 26, they've gone 20-15 while the Cubbies have gone 25-11....and it looks like whoever loses the NL Central will be the NL Wild Card team anyway...the Cubs would have to go under .500 for September to have a chance at missing the playoffs.

Posted by: Devon Young at September 4, 2008 06:48 AM

Aaron, the Astros had this great run and still haven't caught the Cardinals. 6 1/2 games out of the wild card with three teams to pass doesn't exactly put them in the race.

Posted by: David Pinto at September 4, 2008 07:21 AM

Actually, that's not the reason I didn't mention the Astros. My concern was a comment I got yesterday from a Cubs fans indicating he was very worried about a collapse. With Houston pretty far out of the race, my main thoughts were on the how the losing streak might be distorting fans view of Chicago.

Houston has had a nice run, but until they pass St. Louis I'm not going to get too excited.

Posted by: David Pinto at September 4, 2008 07:51 AM

You might be on the verge of excitement. The Astros are now exactly one (1) game behind the Cardinals.

Milwaukee's an okay team with a +79 run diff. But they're not immune to a mini-collapse that could inject a lot of interest into the wild card race. They only have a 4 1/2 game lead over the Phillies, with four games left to play at Philadelphia.

The Brewers have some easy touches coming up, though, with seven games against San Diego and Cincinnati. But who knows? Easy touches could trip them up.

Too bad they can't pitch Sabathia every day.

Posted by: Casey Abell at September 4, 2008 08:11 AM

Oh, one other thing. I'd feel a lot better about the Cubs if Zambrano's and Harden's arms felt better. It's hard to see how even the (allegedly) lovable losers could collapse horrendously enough to miss the postseason. But if they lose two-fifths of their rotation, they might go three and out again in the playoffs.

Posted by: Casey Abell at September 4, 2008 08:21 AM

i like my team winning and i like ty wigginton playing out of his mind, but hey i am realistic and i have a VERY hard time believing that this team could win the pennant.

the WC?

well, if zambrano and harden really ARE down, the cubs gonna have a toughER time keeping that lead.

as for catching the cards, i been watching our team staring up at TLR for too freaking many years now to count out bout any team he's managing...

but what worries me is that i KNOW that management is gonna throw bout this exact same team out there next year and i have a hard time believing that moehler has finally learned how to win (ahem) or that randy wolf gonna pitch shutouts or even go more than 5 innings most of the time

and thre really isn't anyone worth much in the minors.

STILL

Posted by: lisa gray at September 4, 2008 01:56 PM

David:

You obviously don't spend any time reading the Houston Chronicle, or else you would know that the Cubs, Brewers, Phillies, and Cards are all about to be overtaken by the Astros express.

Richard Justice wrote today that the Astros are the best team in baseball, and Jesus Ortiz is writing that Cecil Cooper is the NL manager of the year.

Yeah, I think they're full of it, too, but there are a lot of people down here who think the same thing.

And, Lisa, I worry about the same thing that you do. I dread a 2009 rotation of Oswalt, Backe, Rodriguez, Moehler, and Wolf. You know the thinking, they were solid at the end of the year, so they'll be great for an entire season.

Posted by: John Royal at September 4, 2008 02:40 PM

Was this the same Cecil Cooper who didn't have control of the clubhouse early in the year?

Posted by: David Pinto at September 4, 2008 03:29 PM

Yeah. The same Cooper. I don't think things are really any different, besides Chacon being gone. I think this is a case of winning some games curing all ills, until the team starts to lose again.

Posted by: John Royal at September 4, 2008 06:05 PM
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