No electricity, no running water, XM radio on the deck. That’s how I spent a chunk of the weekend, listening to the Twins ans Cubs with the Chicago announcers providing the detail. By the end of the weekend, I was almost feeling sorry for Ron Santo, their radio version of Gladden and Blyleven, who was reduced to muttering and half-finished sentences in describing his team. Don’t get the 69-year-old Santo, one of my childhood favorites, started on Koske Fukudome, who he needs to refer to by his first name in order to keep from an unsavory butchering of his last name. How many times did he say “unbelievable” during Fukudome’s at-bats — and not in a Mauer-gets-three-hits-again way?

The Cubs announcers were generally in awe of Joe Mauer, the Twins fans who invaded Wrigley and Kevin Slowey (at least for the first five innings of his start on Friday). It was really hard to tell what was happening based on the crowd noise, and if any of you took the trip to Chicago, it would be good to read about your trip.

But here’s the deal: The Cubs are what pessimistic Twins fans think their team to be. Milton Bradley (.227/,335/.383) is what Michael Cuddyer’s detractors think Michael Cuddyer is, even though Cuddyer is at .262/.343/.472 and isn’t being entrusted with the third spot in the batting order. In addition, Bradley just signed a two-year, $20 million deal that includes an option for 2011 if the oft-injured Bradley plays 75 games this season. Some folks here would really get worked up at that signing, not to mention having a guy who makes that much money lose balls in the sun and throw a ball into the stands after the second out of an inning.

The aforementioned Fukudome is their Delmon. Since joining the Cubs last season after a successful career in Japan, Koske has turned in .260/.368/.392 numbers while looking helpless against left-handers and not providing anything special in the field. Delmon in that time is .283/.325/.381. However, Fukudome was signed for four years and $48 million plus 8 first-class round-trip air tickets between Japan and Chicago for family each year, personal trainer, masseuse, interpreter, visa expenses, $25,000 annually in moving expenses, and a car during spring training and regular season. (And there’s a no-trade clause.) That investment kind of sounds like your year-end 401K, huh?

Delmon gets $1.15 million this season, without the masseuse.

The Cubs have an injured star third baseman, Aramis Ramirez, whose absence was blamed more than once over the weekend for all of the problems in the Cubs’ batting order. If there’s a blog in Chicago called “Fire Perry & Piniella,” one can assume its owners held a party Sunday after the Cubs fired Gerald Perry, their hitting coach. The Cubs were second in the NL in batting and on-base percentage and led the league in slugging percentage in 2008. So, obviously, Perry got dropped on his head and became stupid in the off season.

The Cubs have a first baseman (Derrek Lee) with a five-year, $65 million contract and stats that resemble Cuddyer’s (.278/.360/.444), a second baseman (Aaron Miles) who is putting up worse numbers than Nick Punto and the perpetually disappointing Alfonso Soriano (.229/.296/.454) batting leadoff and playing left field.The Cubs have been lucky to get good starting pitching because their bullpen — sound familiar — has been dicey. Maybe the Twins were fortunate not to have faced Carlos Zambrano and Ryan Dempster over the weekend, but Ted Lilly has been their best pitching this season and Rich Harden, despite subpar numbers, is just nasty.

It made for a weekend of hissing and moaning on the radio. Somehow, incredibly, the Cubs are only three games out of first place in the NL Central — probably because it is the NL Central.  Three games out of first? That sounds familiar.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 16th, 2009 at 9:04 am and is filed under Thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.