All in all, I’d rather be in Philadelphia, to paraphrase W.C. Fields. From a distance, we’ll provide a few facts and figures on the Cubs and the defending world-champion Phils.
The ghost of Ben Franklin sends the lineup over that kite wire:
Fukudome, CF
Theriot, SS
Lee, 1B
Ramirez, 3B
Hoffpauir, RF
Soriano, LF
Fontenot, 2B
Hill, C
Lilly, P
Word from my colleagues in Philly is that Milton Bradley worked with Lou on his hitting today. I’m assuming it’s his “left-hand” hitting, to use Lou’s term. Bradley is batting .201 (32-for-159) as a “left-hand” hitter. He’s at .333 (21-for-63) righty. Two hitting coaches and a manager have now worked with the Cubs’ $30 million right fielder.
Here are some Cubs’ batting lines, going average, OBP, slugging and OPS:
Bradley: .239/.372/.369/.741
Lee: .284/.354/.518/.873
Soriano: .238/.305/.433/.737
Theriot: .295/.347/.422/.769
Fukudome: .262/.377/.439/.816
Ramirez: .317/.361/.495/.856
Fox: .326/.365/.595/.958
I threw Fox’ numbers in there for the heck of it. Notice that Bradley’s on-base is higher than his slugging. And Theriot has a better OPS than Bradley and Soriano.
How about some Phillies:
Ibanez: .316/.375/.669/1.045
Utley: .312/.427/.573/1.000
Victorino: .306/.374/.456/.830
Howard: .262/.347/.535/.882
Werth: .262/.370/.502/.871
Rollins: .236/.290/.367/.658
Those are some numbers. You wouldn’t be comparing Ibanez with Bradley, would you?
Here is how the two teams rank in several key categories:
Phillies
Runs: 1 (.475)
Hits: 7 (804)
HR: 1 (126)
OBP: 3 (.342)
SLG: 1 (.452)
OPS: 1 (.794)
BB: 5 (343)
ERA: 13 (4.39)
Cubs
Runs: 12 (381)
Hits: 14 (767)
HR: 4 (99)
OBP: 11 (.324)
SLG: 6 (.405)
OPS: 9 (.729)
BB: 11 (310)
ERA: 4 (.3.76)
We’ve got a few other things from the Cubs’ game notes, and thanks to the media-relations staff for e-mailing those notes to me while I’m away.
--Cubs catchers are 23-for-72 in throwing out baserunners. That 31.9 percent success rate is best in the NL and fourth in MLB. Koyie Hill is 7-for-18, or 39.9 percent.
--Closer Kevin Gregg has a 1.61 ERA in his last 27 games, dating to May 19.
--Sean Marshall leads the majors in stranding inherited runners, at 96 percent. Marshall has stranded 24 of 25 inherited runners.
--The Cubs have 56 quality starts, tied for Arizona for the tops in the majors. The Cubs are 35-21 in quality-start games, and their starters have a 2.34 ERA in those games. When the Cubs don’t get a quality start, the team record is 12-22. The Cubs were able to hit they way past three straight non-quality start games in Washington over the weekend.
