So there has been much misinformation out there about the Cubs record. This post is just to inform what they've done this year.

The record on the road is 25-33

The record at home is 35-22

Then if you break it down for the opponent team's record (at the time of playing them)

Road vs below 500 teams 15-14   rs107  ra104   (rs=runs scored  ra=runs against)

Road vs 500 teams 2-1   rs 21   ra13

Road vs above 500 teams 8-18   rs98  ra134

Home vs below 500 teams  16-8   rs129  ra90

Home vs 500 teams   2-1   rs9  ra8

Home vs above 500 teams  17-13   rs147   ra136

So we battle the losing teams really well on the road(15-14), while we struggle against the good teams on the road.(8-18)

And at home we do well against the poor teams(16-8) while we battle well against winning teams.(17-13)

And then I decided to break it down a little bit further, because sometimes teams with losing records are playing well at the time. So base on the other teams record for its past 10 games before playing us:

On the road, playing teams that have gone 4-6 or less   8-8   rs52  ra48

         broken down vs losing teams 7-4   rs41  ra33

         broken down vs winning teams 1-4    rs11  ra15

On the road, playing teams that have gone 6-4 or more   7-19   rs100  ra142

         broken down vs losing teams 2-7   rs24   ra37

         broken down vs winning teams 5-12   rs76   ra105

At home, playing teams that have gone 4-6 or less    13-4   rs104  ra70

         broken down vs losing teams 10-0   rs73   ra29

         broken down vs winning teams  3-4   rs31   ra41

At home, playing teams that have gone 6-4 or more    12-9    rs90  ra83

         broken down vs losing teams 3-2   rs25   ra21

         broken down vs winning teams 9-7   rs65  ra62

See the trouble spot, just because we're playing below 500 teams doesn't mean we have an easy time with it. If the team we're playing is playing well we struggle on the road no matter who we're playing.

So what can we extrapolate for the rest of the season based on these numbers? Absolutely nothing., just because you do something before means that you will continue to do the same thing. (the only thing you can actually take from this is that I had way too much time on my hands last night)

Now, hopefully the posters will know the actual numbers and the misinformation will stop.

So last night was another gem by our pleasant surprise Randy Wells. I'd hate to think about where our team would be without him this year. His stats are truly impressive for a rookie:

16 GS   2.73 ERA   160 ERA+   1.143 WHIP   2.0 BB/9

And I agree with Al, that he should be the front runner for ROY. But I'd sure like to caution against pushing a young pitcher too soon. I know we need him for our playoff push this year but if we keep pushing him this hard for the rest of the year I think we may be risking something we aren't thinking about right now.

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I know Al has said that Cubs management is aware of BCB. So I will recount the day I had at Dodger stadium for the purpose of giving a good suggestion to Cubs management. Plus it will be good for all of us to get our minds off this frustrating team we all follow.

The Dodgers had a Jr. Dodger day at the stadium. It was on a Friday and a good day to take the day off to watch everything. It was a day for kids to get instructions on the basics from two former players like Mariano Duncan and Jay Howell, to bench coaches and a trainer. The ages of the kids were between 7 - 12. They had about 8 groups of kids, consisting of 12-13 kids per group.

Here are some photos:

http://mlb.mlb.com/la/photogallery/year_2009/month_06/day_26/cf5544650.html

The parents were not allowed on the field and had to watch from the left field bleachers. And most of us were joking that the day probably meant more to the parents than to the kids. I'm sure it will sink into them as they grow up, that they were allowed on the field of their favorite team. (I'm sure many of us at BCB would love to step foot onto Wrigley Field- or even watch our kids on the field.) Just imagine watching your child warm up in the actual bullpen where the Cubs pitchers warm up or hit in the actual batting cages where the players hit. It was a priceless day. (actual price for annual membership is just $250 and there are other things that they are eligible for also)

There were 8 stations of various baseball activities. They had batting tees, agility, grounders, pitching with radar gun, fly balls, batting with small ball, pitching windup, and batting cages. Now I coach my son in little league so I was really focused on picking up extra drills for my team. I will tell you that they did not have any special drills that a good little league coach doesn't know. But I guess the point was to get instruction from professionals and I'm sure that holds more weight with the kids more than anything I could say. And the added benefit of doing it on the actual field. After the batting cages the kids were escorted through the player tunnel, through the dugout and into the field. They were not allowed into the locker room, one of the parents tried to give their kid a video camera but that was not allowed as they feared players would be in the locker room at that time. My son did say that he was able to peek into the locker room, and although he didn't see any players, he did see Andre Ethier's locker and jersey.

After all the station work, all the kids broke for lunch. While we were eating they broke the field up into 4 fields to have a little scrimmage between the different groups. (My son was 1-2 with a home run in the scrimmage.) The scrimmage lasted about a half hour. It was really fun to watch the 12 year olds, put the ball into the seats. Some of those kids can really kill the ball.

Then at the end, they brought a player to talk to the kids. Orlando Hudson spoke to the kids for about ten minutes. He even took questions from the kids. Aside from one annoying Mom that wanted to keep shouting to Orlando from the bleachers, it was a great moment for the parents and the kids.

So after it was over I was thinking what a smart thing this was for the organization. Sure the parents that signed up their kids, were already fans and come to games already. But they certainly planted the seeds of future fans in the kids. Something the Cubs brass should think about.

Okay I was preparing this post and it came up in the thread yesterday also. So this will be the...

Official 2009 post for moving Sori out of the leadoff spot. For new posters and for old posters that haven't grown so tired of the debate as to dismiss opinions. But if you are tired of the debate, then just click back out of here and leave the newbies here to talk. Think of it like therapy you've gone through and it's made you feel better, now let the new kids get some therapy for themselves. I do welcome alternative views, just not pictures of dead horses and snide comments.

And I did do my research and the only in season thing on this topic was a fanshot. But that wasn't really a discussion, more of a pile on of posters that didn't want to see the subject raised at all.

Also before you say it has been tried before with no success. 2009 2 games batting third, 2008 2 games batting 2nd, 2007 9 games out of the leadoff spot. Hardly a large sample size,eh?

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Honestly, I was working on this before last night's game. I thought the Cubs have been patient as a group of hitters, of course outside of last night. And I came to a conclusion, these are not your Father's Cubs and the Cub's hitters will be fine this year.

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I’m sure all of you remember back on 6/10/07 when Renteria was on the Braves and there was a battle between the 2 teams. Just a brief recap for those that don’t remember…

Soriano had hit 3 homers the first game of the series. Hudson hits Soriano with a pitch in the second game. Then all hell broke out in the third game of the series. Lilly hits Renteria with a pitch. The umpire says that he knew that Lilly was going to throw at him and tosses Lilly. Then Renteria steals second and delivers a forearm shiver to Fontenot at second Base.

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