The Cubs have become very good at not getting swept this season.
At the same time, they've been really good at losing a three game series...so go figure.
People have started getting all excited saying that the Cubs played with a renewed intensity yesterday.
IT"S ONE GAME, PEOPLE!!!!
Of course they are going to look like a better team with renewed energy...they won! They've won 33 times this year...and in a majority of those games, they've looked good....because that's how you win 33 games. On the other hand, they've lost 42 games, and in almost every single one of those, they've looked like a joke...especially the offense.
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Whatever...Carlos Zambrano isn't all that is wrong with this team just like Milton Bradley was all that was wrong with last year's team.
And with Zambrano gone right now, don't expect this team to go on a rampage...the team played to an 8-7 record after Bradley left the team last year...that's hardly tearing it up...and Bradley was an everyday player. Z's absence will have just as little impact, if not less.
And what happens when Z comes back? This isn't like the Bradley situation where it happened at the end of the season...we aren't even half way through the year...Jim Hendry doesn't have the offseason to try to sucker somebody into taking Z off our hands.
Z is coming back whether we like it or not and he's going to pitch for this team in the bullpen. How is the rest of the team going to react to it? Well, Z is probably going to what a couple of disreputable source said he had already done a month ago...completely shut out everyone around him and be, not a cancer, but a black hole inside that locker room. And without a true leader on this team, that is going to have a negative impact.
So now what?
The Pirates come to town...and there will be a ton of empty seats at Wrigley for this series. Empty seats...in the middle of June? It's been a long time since we've seen that. They are 2-7 against Pittsburgh this year...and the truth is, if it wasn't for the Cubs, the Pirates would easily be the worst team in baseball...well below the level of the Orioles.
Another note about this series...this is the fourth series between the Cubs and Pirates since the beginning of May. They've been averaging playing the Pirates once every other week. You have to love that dartboard they use to make the MLB schedule.
