It felt like a big punch to the gut yesterday when the Mets scored 4 runs off Carlos Marmol in the 9th to steal a victory and avoid the sweep.  Marmol was in the closer’s role because Kevin Gregg had worked 4 days in a row.

I know Marmol has been a lightning rod because of his struggles this season (and early last year too), but what is maddening is the inconsistency.  Lately, he has had some very quick, low-pitch innings which have served as teasers of sorts.

He has appeared in 30 games this season and has pitched shutout ball in 21 of those.  In 5 of the 9 in which he’s allowed runs, he’s allowed more than 1 so it seems like he either has it or he doesn’t — very little in between.

The bottom line is obvious at this point.  Yesterday’s performance pretty much seals the fact that Dale can’t use him in closing situations, even as a fill-in, anymore.

Personally, I’m saddened because Marmol has been a fixture here for a long time and has never shied away from his responsibilities to his teammates or the media.  Internally, he really is the kind of guy you root for.  But results are what matter and when teams lose games like that, it is devastating for everyone involved.

len

* The Cubs and Cardinals have split their two matchups so far this season, with each game being decided by just one run. St. Louis has won each of its last four home games against the Cubs.

* The Cubs saw their three-game winning streak come to an end in a 4-3 loss to the Mets on Sunday. The Cardinals have alternated wins and losses in each of their last six games (WLWLWL).

* Chicago is hitting just .226 with runners in scoring position this season, the second-lowest mark in the majors. St. Louis is hitting .342 with runners in scoring position, the best mark in baseball.

* Shelby Miller, who leads all rookies with seven victories this season, will be making his first career start against the Cubs. Miller is 3-0 with a 0.65 ERA in his last four home starts.

* Travis Wood is 0-2 with a 2.08 ERA in his last two starts and is 3-2 with a 4.71 ERA in seven career starts against the Cardinals.

* Carlos Beltran has collected at least one hit in each of his last seven home games, hitting .364 with two homers and nine RBI in that span. Beltran is hitting .533 (8-for-15) with one double, one homer and four RBI in his last four games against the Cubs.

Theo Epstein, Len Kasper and Peter Gammons will host the second annual Hot Stove Cool Music Chicago benefit concert this Friday,  June 21 at Wrigleyville’s Metro. Epstein, the Cubs’ president of baseball operations, will be joined on stage by Kasper, the Cubs’ TV play by play man, and Gammons, a Hall of Fame-honored baseball writer — as well as feature ensemble performances by headliner Poi Dog Pondering.

Also scheduled to perform are the Parkington Sisters, Brede Baldwin and Kay Hanley, the former vocalist for Letters to Cleo. Epstein, Kasper and Gammons will perform alongside The Hot Stove All-Stars, featuring Jesse Dee, Local H’s Scott Lucas, Will Dailey, Jimmy Chamberlin and special guests.

Proceeds from the event will benefit Chicago Cubs Charities and Epstein’s “Foundation To Be Named Later.”

Tickets are on sale at www.metrochicago.com.

By Bob Vorwald (@bobvorwald) – WGN Sports Executive Producer

Relax, all right? Don’t try to strike everybody out. Strikeouts are boring! Besides that, they’re fascist. Throw some ground balls – it’s more democratic. (Bull Durham – 1988)

If Crash Davis were playing today, he would want to stay in the minors, because major league baseball has been racing toward a true totalitarian state as the number of strikeouts has increased by about 35% over the last 25 years.

If you are a fan of the three true outcomes (walk, home run, strikeout), this is your era. Better plate selection and the emphasis of on-base percentage hasn’t curbed the K’s. Players are seeing more pitches per at bat than a decade ago, but they are going back to the dugout empty-handed at a record pace.

Last year, there were 36,426 strikeouts and 21,017 runs scored across MLB. In 2000, it was 31,356/24,971. Touching the plate is out. Grabbing some bench is in.

Why? Feel free to pick from these: Chicks dig the long ball so hitters are swinging for the fences, which have never been closer.  GMs pay for power. PED usage is down. All pitchers throw harder, especially the succession of flame-throwing relievers that didn’t exist in the past. With the realization that outs are precious, apparently more hitters are following the advice veteran Reggie Smith gave to a young Bob Brenly: “If you feel like you’re going to hit into a double play, just strike out.” The accessibility of every at-bat on video makes it easier for pitchers to identify and attack a hitter’s weakness.

Whatever the cause, a hat trick (3 Ks) barely gets noticed by Generation K these days and a golden sombrero (4 Ks) is hardly a badge of shame. It might be a good time to invest in precious metals because while the platinum sombrero (5 Ks) has only happened 61 times in MLB history, there’s certainly company on the way.  No major leaguer has ever come up empty six times in a nine-inning game, but broadcasters would be smart to keep the name Sam Horn handy,  The “horn” was a term coined for Big Sam after his six Ks in a 1991 extra-inning affair for Baltimore, a feat accomplished only eight times in MLB history. We’re sure to see more hitters go around that horn in the current environment.

Mark Reynolds’ season total of 223 strikeouts is the MLB season record from 2009 and it’s no coincidence the next 12 names below him were added to the list all since 2004. Willie Mays turned 82 not long ago and as his career was dissected on talk radio, it was pointed out while he had 123 strikeouts when he was 40, Say Hey never K’d more than 92 times in any other season.

Take a whiff of how often the whiffs are coming. When Sandy Koufax struck out a National League record 382 hitters in 1965, only two of them had more than 128 strikeouts for the year. Last year, when R.A. Dickey led the NL with 230 Ks, 23 hitters in the senior circuit had more than 128 K’s.

(As you mark more and more K’s on your scorecard, if you’ve ever paused to wonder why you have to use a K, it’s because Henry Chadwick, who developed the scoring system we use, had designated S for sacrifice so he used K for what we now know as K’s.)

What does it all mean? I’m not sure. It’s worth noting that the Atlanta Braves lead the National League in strikeouts while leading the National League East. The Braves have also been shut out eight times, second-most in the NL. The Boston Red Sox are second in the American League in strikeouts and lead the American League East. They lead the majors in runs scored.

Anyhow, people a whole lot smarter than me having been looking at this trend and there’s not a single whiff in this bunch.

Bob

http://www.sportingcharts.com/articles/mlb/where-are-all-of-the-strikeouts-coming-from.aspx  Jeff Shand-Lubbers MLB

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=18079 Jason Collette Baseball Prospectus

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1559656-the-truth-behind-the-rise-of-the-strikeout-in-major-league-baseball Zachary Rymer Bleacher Report

http://sportsjerks.net/2013/04/27/mlb-strikeout-era/   Tom Laverty Sports Jerks

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20130506&content_id=46752166&vkey=news_mlb&c_id=mlb  Anthony Castrovince  mlb.com

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/the-continuing-rise-in-strikeout-rate/ Dave Cameron Fangraphs

http://www.highheatstats.com/2013/01/soaring-strikeouts-its-not-just-the-2-strike-approach/ John Autin High Heat

* The Mets took two of three from the Cubs at Wrigley Field, May 17-19. However, the Cubs have won four of their last five road games against the Mets.

* Cub pitchers struck out 19 batters in the team’s 14-inning victory over Cincinnati on Thursday; their most in a game since striking out 20 in a 12-inning loss to the Marlins, July 26, 2008.

* Met relievers have been unable to bail out the team’s starters with any consistency this season, allowing 36.1 percent of inherited runners to score. Only the Phillies’ relievers have been worse (42.0%).

* Opponents are hitting just .222 (22/99) against Edwin Jackson in his five road starts this season, as opposed to .324 in his seven home starts.

* David Wright has an active seven-game hitting streak against the Cubs, batting .385 (10/26) with seven RBI during this streak.

* While Shaun Marcum is winless (0-7) this season, he is 4-0 in five career starts against the Cubs. He is one of 10 active pitchers who have never lost to the Cubs (minimum five starts).

While we strained to watch the game Monday night through a thick fog at Wrigley Field, Cubs’ top prospect Javier Baez was having the game of his life in the Florida State League.  He hit 4 home runs in 4 at-bats, creating quite a Twitter buzz.

Amid the excitement, there were a few Cubs fans who were hoping the Cubs would pull a Yasiel Puig move and promote Baez to the big leagues to give the team a shot in the arm.

Ummmmmm, no, that’s not going to happen.  While it’s fun to dream about Baez hitting 4 homers for the Cubs sometime soon, it won’t be this year.  It may not even be next year.  He’s a raw 20-year-old minor league baseball player who obviously can hit, but his K/W ratio is 60/11 in High A ball and he’s committed 26 errors in 56 games at shortstop.  He has a long way to go.

Also consider the last Daytona Cub to hit 4 in a game was Ryan Harvey, who is currently playing in independent ball and has never gotten to the big leagues.

Take a breath.

It’s OK to be in awe of what he did last night and it’s also OK to acknowledge that it’s still going to take some time for him to be big-league ready.

len

Woody’s Wiffle Ball Classic

Wrigley Field, Saturday, August 10th

10am-4pm – Wiffle Ball Tournament featuring Corporte teams

5pm -Celebrity Home Run Derby pitched by Kerry Wood

6pm -Wiffle for a Diffle Celebrity Game Tickets are $15 for adults and $8 for kids 12 and under and tix are on sale NOW at www.woodfamilyfoundation.org

Confirmed VIPs/Celebs:

Richard Marx

Bill Murray

Ed Swiderski

Neil Flynn

Kevin Farley

Garry McCarthy

Glendon Rush

* The Reds lost, 11-4, to the Cardinals in 10 innings last night and are now 3-6 in extra-inning games this season. The only National League club with a worse win percentage in extra-inning contests in 2013 is, ironically, St. Louis (1-4 record).
* Chicago beat Pittsburgh, 4-1, on Sunday, salvaging a win in its 3-game series with the Bucs over the weekend. The Cubs have now dropped two straight and three of their last four series at Wrigley Field.
* Cincinnati has won seven of nine meetings with Chicago this season, including all three games at Wrigley Field. In fact, the Reds have won nine straight road games vs. the Cubs overall – the longest active road winning streak by one team at any opponent.
* Homer Bailey went 7.0 innings and allowed three runs (all earned) in his last outing, taking a no-decision last Tuesday vs. the Rockies. Bailey is 5-0 with a 3.68 ERA in his last seven starts vs. the Cubs overall and 3-0 with a 2.70 ERA in last three starts at Wrigley Field.
* Scott Feldman faced the Angels in his last outing, going 6.0 innings and allowing two runs (both earned) last Tuesday, garnering a no-decision for his efforts. Feldman is 5-1 with a 2.39 ERA in his last eight starts, his only setback coming vs. the Reds on May 24 (5.1 IP, 5 ER).
* Joey Votto reached base safely three times on Sunday (hit, two walks), and now has a .445 on-base percentage in 2013 – best in the NL and second best in MLB. Votto is batting .565 (13-for-23) during his current 7-game hit streak at Wrigley Field.

In the second round on Thursday’s draft, the Cubs selected left-handed pitcher Robert Zastryzny from the University of Missouri.

Zastryzny, 21, posted a 3.38 ERA (34 ER/90.2 IP) with three complete games, one shutout and a 2-9 record for Missouri in his junior year this season. He struck out 82 in 90.2 innings compared to just 24 walks in his 13 starts, holding opponents to a .266 batting average. In his 2012 sophomore campaign, he struck out 76 batters compared to just 31 walks while compiling a 5-5 record.

His 228 career strikeouts in three seasons at Missouri rank tied for eighth-most in school history. The 6-foot, 3-inch, 193-pound Zastryzny was raised in Corpus Christi, Texas, and was 17-1 with a 0.20 ERA and 198 strikeouts in his senior season for Calallen High School.