Series Preview: Padres (13-19) vs Cubs (17-14)

What a crummy weekend of baseball. Strangely enough the Cubs won the Sunday game despite the fact that Marshall gave the shakiest pitching performance of the weekend. He didn’t seem to have anything working for him but somehow escaped with a win - as if we all don’t already know how useless pitcher wins are. Derrek Lee did not play the entire weekend, and Aramis Ramirez injured his shoulder and is not likely to return for 6-8 weeks. Luckily, the best prescription for a banged-up team is a diet of the Padres and Astros, two of the worst teams in the National League. Injuries Obviously, the huge blow is the shoulder injury to Ramirez. Lee had an MRI on his neck which confirmed his herniated disk issues but did not show a potential for a more serious injury. The Cubs might just have to consider him day-to-day for the rest of the season, which sucks. I’m going to add Lou to this injured list because something must be injured in his head. Why put Dempster out in the Saturday game? Aaron Miles batting second? I think Lou needs an MRI too. For the Padres, David Eckstein is day-to-day after being hit by a Roy Oswalt pitch last Sunday. No big loss there - not much to report on injury-wise with this team unless it’s Peavy or Gonzalez that are out of the lineup. Also, a shocker, Cliff Floyd is injured as well. Honestly, I forgot he was still playing. Players to watch For the Cubs, the obvious choice is Milton Bradley. Losing Ramirez is a huge blow to this lineup, and they really need someone to pick up the slack. Bradley has looked better at the plate the past few games, and hopefully will start hitting the ball with more authority. On the Padres side, be sure to appreciate Kevin Kouzmanoff, who is one of the most underappreciated players in the game. He plays plus defense and puts up great numbers even in the cavernous Petco field. If he had stayed in Texas he would be the next Mark Teixiera, but he’s likely going to toil away in obscurity for most of his career. Speaking of his time in Texas, the Padres obtained Gonzalez along with Chris Young and Terrmel Sledge for Adam Eaton and Akinori Otsuka, which is certainly among the top ten heists of this decade. Pitching matchups (I will give the pitchers’ current and roughly projected FIP next to their names) Tuesday Jake Peavy, RHP (3.44, 3.35) v Rich Harden, RHP (4.85, 3.1), 7:05 PM CT If you read BTI, you would expect that Peavy is even more of an injury risk than Harden. He had some elbow trouble last year, so clearly his elbow is a ticking time bomb, ready to explode Chad Fox-like on any given pitch. All kidding aside though, this is probably the best pitching matchup of the entire season. Peavy has had a few rough starts this season, and was hit hard in back-to-back games by the mighty Giants and Pirates, so he’s more vulnerable than you might expect. However, he has struck out 20 batters in his last two starts, giving up only 2 runs and 4 walks. Harden has changed his approach in the past few games and has started pitching to contact more to ensure that he gets deeper into games, which has led to a drop in his strikeout rate. He induced more groundballs than flyballs in his last start, which is surprising given his flyball tendencies. Both of these pitchers will make the opposing offenses look silly, but I think the Cubs pull this one out in a close game. Wednesday Chris Young, RHP (3.38, 4.22) v Ted Lilly, LHP (4.67, 4.32), 7:05 PM CT I wouldn’t mind seeing the Cubs go wild on the bases in this game, as Young is terrible at holding runners on. Dave Cameron recently referred to Young with Young is worse at holding runners than anyone else in baseball is at any other skill”.