Off Day Topics

July 23rd, 2007

Cubs; CSN Chicago; 8:10 PM ET; vs. Cardinals; Zambrano, 12-7, 3.69 ERA vs. Wells, 4-12, 5.75 ERA

Instead of doing a preview of the Cardinals vs. Cubs series, like I had originally planned, I am going to cover a lot of topics relating to the Cubs.

Carlos Zambrano in July this year is 3-1 with a 1.42 ERA, having 4 quality starts in 4 starts. His loss came against the Pirates and Shane Youman. At night, like tonight, his ERA is 2.38. On the road his ERA is 3.13, and against the Cardinals career he is 6-4 in 115 innings with a 2.43 ERA.

The Cardinals are 5-5 in their last 10, and are 21-22 at home. The Cubs are 7-3 in their last 10, and 24-22 on the road. Versus teams in the Central, the Cardinals are 21-15, the Cubs 20-18. The Cubs are 11th in the league in batting average at .269. This is 5th best in the NL and best in the NL Central. The Cardinals are 15th in the league with a .268 team batting average. The Cubs are also 4th in the MLB in team ERA at 3.86, and 2nd best in the NL, trailing the Padres. The Cardinals are 26th in the league in ERA at 4.80, giving up almost 1 more run than the Cubs a game.

The Cubs haven't faced Kip Wells this season yet. The Cardinals hitters have faced Zambrano once this year, getting 7 hits, 1 run, a homerun by Albert Pujols. Total this year, in 178 at-bats against Cubs pitchers, Cardinals hitters have a .258 batting average, 18 runs, 7 homeruns. The Cubs hitters against Cardinals pitchers this year have 181 at-bats against the Cardinals, hitting .276 with 6 homeruns and scoring 29 times.

The Brewers, who lost to the Reds 2-1 today, carry a 3 game lead into play tomorrow, in which Yovani Gollardo, 2-1, 2.34 ERA, faces off against Matt Belisle, 5-6, 5.13 ERA. The Brewers are hitting .229 with 16 runs against the Reds this year, while the Reds are hitting .297 with 18 runs off of Milwaukee pitchers this season.

Matt Murton is hitting .326 with 5 homeruns and 21 RBI in 36 games with the Iowa Cubs. Neal Cotts is 0-1 with a 6.75 ERA in 7 games, 6 starts at AAA Iowa, as well. Since returning to AAA following the All-Star Break, Felix Pie is hitting .354 in 48 at-bats. The Iowa Cubs are 57-46 and are 2nd place, as the AA Tennessee Smokies are 14-17 and tied with the Cubs previous AA team, now belonging to the Mariners, the West Tenn Diamond Jaxx.

The Cubs are 2nd in the league in WHIP behind the Padres, with a 1.27 Walks+Hits per Innings Pitched statistic. Cubs pitchers have given up 56 stolen bases, 18th most on the list. The highest is 106 by the San Diego Padres. The Cubs lead the league in batting average against at .238. They are 2nd in the league behind the Dodgers in Ks per 9 innings with 7.51 opposing hitters K'd per game. They have a strikeout to walk ratio of 2.22, which is 9th in the league.

In the series against the St. Louis Cardinals, the Cubs have Carlos Zambrano going up against Kip Wells, Ted Lilly against Adam Wainwright, and then Jason Marquis vs. Braden Looper. After finishing the series at Busch Stadium, the Cubs play the Reds, and then return home to play the Phillies. Also, Derrek Lee returns from his 5 games suspension today which he didn't have a chance to appeal, although he did ask to appeal the suspension after a brawl against Padres starting Pitcher Chris Young in June.

The San Diego Padres lost to Colorado yesterday, putting themselves 2 games behind the Dodgers in the NL West, and 1 game ahead of the Atlanta Braves in the Wildcard. The Cubs are 3rd place in the Wildcard at 1.5 games back.

The Cardinals enter play today against the Cubs to begin a 7 game homestand that includes facing the Cubs and Brewers. They then fly to Pittsburgh to face the Pirates. Albert Pujols has heated up lately, hitting .429 in his last 10 games with 6 homeruns.

Thanks,

Ryan