By Dan O’Shea

If going horizontal to make amazing catches somehow could be translated into a fantasy stat, Sam Fuld would be the top-ranked player in fantasy baseball.
Of course, Cubs fans have known this for years, witnessing his defensive heroics as a September call-up and late-inning defensive replacement for Alfonso Soriano.
During those brief glimpses, though, Fuld never showed much more on offense except tenacity – not a bad thing, but the Cubs were looking for fireworks.
That’s why they packaged him up and shipped him to Tampa Bay as part of the Matt Garza trade.
But, wouldn’t you know it, it turns out that Fuld can hit, too, if given enough chance.

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Posted on April 20, 2011

By Dmitry Samarov

I didn’t want to write about the team this week; it was that bad. When I ran into Steve yesterday at Flying Saucer, I told him as much. My column will be: “THEY SUCKED. The End,” I said, Maybe I’ll draw the letters large enough to fill up the page. He assured me I’d come up with something. So . . . this will be about disappointment.
The Sox only won one game in the last six and that one was barely snatched from the jaws of defeat. I picked up a fan in Wicker Park who’d been at the game and was happy to relive the extra-inning victory. It was the lone bright spot; when the bullpen wasn’t blowing leads, the outfielders dropped easy fly-balls and the hitters, who’d been so hot, were going dead-cold. Adam Dunn made it back from his appendectomy, but didn’t do much to distinguish himself. Apart from a homer that was a run short of being a decider, he struck out eleven times. He’ll likely whiff about a hundred-ninety more times and hit another thirty-eight dingers if history’s any guide. He’s all-or-nothing and I’m fine with that, but if the rest of ’em are that way we’ve got in for a long summer.

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Posted on April 19, 2011

By Steve Rhodes

Marty Gangler is on a top secret scouting mission this week so I’m filling in until his return. He isn’t missing anything. For example:
* Pirates Nip Cubs To Stay In First. Oh wait, that’s from 1974.
* Pittsburgh’s Power Clubs Cubs, 22-0. Oh wait, that’s from 1975.
* Expos Gain, Whip Chicago Cubs. Oh wait, that’s from 1978.
* Dexter Fowler Heroics Help Colorado Rockies Rout Chicago Cubs 9-5. There we go. That just happened yesterday.

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Posted on April 18, 2011

By Roger Wallenstein

The wearing of Jackie Robinson’s number 42 on Friday night was a nice touch in a week that sorely needed one. Amidst dropped fly balls, Juan Pierre’s five consecutive base-stealing failures, an anemic offense, Gavin Floyd’s wild pitches, lots of errors, and the woeful bullpen travails, MLB honored its 64th anniversary of integration and the legacy of Jackie Robinson as all big-leaguers wore his number in ballparks throughout America.
If you’re interested in reading a definitive account of Jackie Robinson, try Arnold Rampersad’s 1997 biography. It is an honest, detailed, and fascinating account, not only of Robinson’s life but also the times in which he lived.
Dodger general manager Branch Rickey and future Sox owner Bill Veeck saw the value and wisdom of signing African-Americans a number of years before it finally happened. Veeck claimed that his quest to buy the Phillies during World War II was blocked by the owners and commissioner when they suspected (not without a healthy dose of truth) that he wanted to sign black players.

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Posted on April 18, 2011

By Thomas Chambers

In New York sports, more than any other town, you lose a few games and you are the lowest bums in existence. Win a few, and you are the juggernaut that only the Big Apple deserves and produces.
So it was fitting that this year’s Kentucky Derby “it” horse, Uncle Mo, who just minutes before was touted as the next coming, touched off such revulsion after losing the Wood Memorial Saturday at Aqueduct, Ozone Park, NY.
TVG’s Simon Bray and Todd Schrupp pulled an Ivory Soap and declared ‘Mo a 99-44/100 percent lock. They would have declared a total full-nelson, but for things like his gate stall not opening or John Velazquez getting tossed off or the wicked witch releasing the flying monkeys, and not in that order of probability.
But as often happens in this game, the aftermath of Uncle Mo’s “monumental” upset, finishing a tiring third at ridiculous odds of 1-9, has proven quite revealing as we ponder how he could have lost and where he goes from here. And why all those grizzled horseplayers drank the Kool-Aid and pounded ‘Mo at the windows.

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Posted on April 15, 2011

By Carl Mohrbacher

We’ve already blown a couple of late leads. Should I be worried about the bullpen?
-Darrin, Mt. Prospect IL
Easy there, Darrin. Unless the Ricketts family signs your paycheck, there’s no “we” in Cubs. But to answer your question, no . . . the Cubs should be worried about having only three healthy, but very ordinary looking, starters.
Will Alfonso Soriano ever be a stolen base threat again?
-Emily, Rogers Park IL
Absolutely not. At 35 . . . or so . . . he’s roughly 52 in professional athlete years; just young enough to play the Silver Fox card and get it up, but too old to out-hustle any of the young bucks on the dance floor. Soriano hasn’t stolen more than 19 bases since 2006, largely because he spent several of those years hopping over second base just as he’s about to grab it.

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Posted on April 14, 2011

By Dan O’Shea

The biggest surprise of the young MLB season – aside from the fact that the Cleveland Indians are leading the American League Central – may be the emergence of journeyman Willie Bloomquist, SS/3B/OF, Arizona.
The type of player who occasionally ends up on fantasy baseball rosters for short stretches thanks to multi-position eligibility and better-than-average speed, Bloomquist started the season as the Diamondbacks’ starting shortstop because of an injury to Stephen Drew. He also has played the outfield. After the first week-and-a-half of the season, Bloomquist is among league leaders in hits (14), and stolen bases (6).
At the beginning of the season, there are always a few breakout stars whose names will be hard to remember by the All-Star break. I’m betting Bloomquist won’t be just a flash in the pan for two reasons:

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Posted on April 13, 2011

By Dmitry Samarov

I got lots of positive feedback to last week’s column, including from my friend John McNaughton, who wrote to say he was glad to hear I was a Sox fan, adding, “Growing up in Roseland we would have just as well seen the Cubs as walk the plank off the top of the Prudential building.” A few people said that they might actually be interested in reading about sports for the first time. Things like that are gratifying and a bit overwhelming to hear.
I picked up several Sox fans in the cab after Thursday’s home opener. No diehards though. In fact, there were three young guys leaving Sox Park before the bottom of the 8th. They were Live Nation employees who were at the park to take advantage of their company springing for an open bar. The one from Atlanta even admitted to being a basketball fan, though he did agree that listening to the game on the radio on the way back to his hotel made it seem exciting. Then there was the couple that stumbled in around midnight in full-on Sox regalia. The girl told the guy, as we pulled away from a bar, “Wow, what a great Opening Day. I don’t remember any of the game, but it was a great day.”

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Posted on April 12, 2011

By Jim Coffman

The Hawks may be backing into the playoffs, but at least they are doing so on skates. And one of the many elemental wonders of hockey is how smoothly NHL players transition into skating backward and how well they can move in that direction.
So at a fundamental level, a hockey fan knows an action that would seem doomed to awkwardness (like, say, propelling oneself butt-first down a sheet of ice) can be redeemed quite quickly.

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Posted on April 11, 2011

By Marty Gangler

The first Cub Factor of the season could have appeared last week, after the opening three games of the season, but I have to admit I just didn’t know these guys yet.
I still have to say I’m not sure I have my head wrapped around this team.
But we may have already seen the defining play of the season – or at least one that so far sums up the 2011 Cubs. Let’s take a look.

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Posted on April 11, 2011