Quad-Cities Online

Posted 5/4/2009, 11:30PM, by Matt Veto

By Matt Veto, mveto@qconline.com

I had to endure my buddy Jeff giving me the business on Sunday. He said, “There was this guy, who worked for the paper that used to write this VetoPower blog… blah, blah, blah” (I stopped listening).

Yes, he’s right. I’ve been as absent as a Mel Rojas save lately, and I apologize for that. I don’t get paid to do this. There. The secret’s out. I’m simply crazy enough about the Cubs to donate my time to this blog and allow the paper to host it and place my goofy face with each post. (That’s a perfect swing, though, by the way.)

Anyway, I don’t feel like I’ve missed much. Just some average (ugly at times) .500 baseball, but the time I’ve spent not writing a blog, I’ve been talking friends and fellow Cubs fans off the ledge, while soaking in the badgering of Cardinals fans.

OK, the Cubs are not meeting expectations. I participate in a Cubs podcast hosted the the IvyEnvy.com bloggers. (Check it out here. It’s an hour of Cubs fans talking baseball. Very loose.) Corey Fineran, the leader of IvyEnvy and I discussed these expectations. I say after years of watching them lose, and now finally become somewhat successful, we should be allowed to demand success, while he doesn’t want to set himself up for what has seemingly been inevitable failure.

The fact is, if we survived last season, we can survive anything.

So, how about Ryan Theriot? Three home runs is as many as he’s hit in a single season. He did it in 2006 and 2007. It’s really sad that he’s providing the power latley, but it’s nice to see Derek Lee get started here.

Another intesting question posed on the podcast centered on the Cubs pitching. Just how good is it? Carlos Zambrano is going to miss two to three weeks, so that doesn’t help. The starters haven’t met my expectations — granted the bullpen has not been very helpful *coughNealCotts*. (Sorry, you have one job, and it’s one batter.)

So, here’s your blog space. Bicker away. Here’s a topic: you’re on Cubs survivor with Antonio Alfonseca, Felix Heridia, Todd Hundley, Steve Trachsel, Kevin Orie and 1998 Chip Caray … who do you vote off first?

Comments

Heridia (which translated means to pour gasoline on a fire).

You never have enough pitching, so the experts all say. We’re about to find out just how deep this staff is. The pitching will look a lot better when some of our offensive players start hitting at least their weight. I’ve heard someone suggest that a hitter hitting less than he weighs should be automatically benched. (maybe it was here, not sure) Not sure when I’ve ever seen a team with so many guys under 200, it puts a lot of pressure on pitchers to not make mistakes.

Posted by DLReynolds on 5/5/2009, at 9:39 am

You know, and I can remember last year when they had all but two guys hitting over .300 in the lineup… and the lineup didn’t look all that different.

Funny what a difference a year can make.

Aaaaand, I think everyone knows Heridia is off my island as well!

Posted by Matt Veto on 5/5/2009, at 10:49 am

Don’t even consider wasting your vote by voting Hundley off. He will eventually end up eliminating himself when he can’t find a tiki bar on the island and goes off swimming into the ocean in search of a bottle of something.

Kevin Orie will also eliminate himself by fading away into nothing as he did during his MLB career.

Chip will run out of oxygen while trying to come up with witty comments about the native girls and will pass out. Then you just fashion a crude raft and send him in after Hundley.

Alfonseca’s extra fingers may somehow come in handy…I’d save him for last.

Felix will get himself in trouble as he did in so many relief innings. He will eventually be released by the management of the show.

I think you have to vote to get rid of Trachsel. He as we know can stand around and do nothing for a long, long time. He has staying power. Use your vote on him if you want to win.

Posted by L. Janzen on 5/5/2009, at 11:28 am

Welcome back to cubby land Matt….I did like the lineup last night with putting Bradley in the three hole and shifting down the others, gives him some good pitches to see and hopefully get that bat going again. With Z gone I’m not as concerned its early, he kinda burned out last season toward the end, minus his no-no and could use the rest. The staff will hold together its 3-4 starts only.

As I have said before Heridia is gone, I used to turn the TV off and call it a lose when he came in.

Posted by Travis on 5/5/2009, at 12:45 pm

I also considered Trachsel. If he talks like he pitches, that’s a long boring conversation!

And the lineup today? Sounds like a blog for tomorrow. Joey Gathright, Koyie Hill, Micah Hoffpauir and “the Substitute” — Bobby Scales — all in the lineup.

Posted by Matt Veto on 5/5/2009, at 3:25 pm

Hey, welcome back stranger. Now maybe if the paper put this in a more prominent spot on the website, instead of hiding it where only us diehards can find it, you’d write more. I’m not too pleased with this season so far. My least favorite this year has to be Cotts, throw the ball over the plate!!!!!!!! Today’s game was ugly, Lincecum, dominated the Cubs (again). I think the Cubs probably have 7 hits total against him in his career (ok, just looked it up they had 20 coming into today in 4 games 28.1 innings).

Posted by Jeff on 5/5/2009, at 4:44 pm

Cy Young winner. He’s good.

Posted by Matt Veto on 5/5/2009, at 6:02 pm

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