Chicago Cubs Week One Recap

Or, Who's Hot, and Who's Not.

First, the good news:

• Kosuke Fukodome - .458/.581/.708, 1 HR, 6 RBI, 2 SB, and needs to sit down and explain to Alfonso Soriano what "Situational Hitting" is.
• Derrek Lee - .400/.455/.833, 3 HR, 4 RBI. Basically, what we've come to expect from MVLee.
• Carlos Zambrano - 1-0, 1.32 ERA, 0.80 WHIP, 12 K and only one walk. Big Z showed up ready to go.
  
• Ryan Dempster - 1-0, 1.50 ERA, 5 K, 2 BB, and a good 6.0 IP in his first start since '05.
  
• Mark DeRosa - .320/.414/.560, 1 HR, 4 RBI. Working his way towards stopping the Brian Roberts (.333/.484/.542) talk.
• Reed Johnson - .308/.400/.385, and has shown Felix Pie that, in Sweet Lou's World, if you hit, you play. And, promptly goes to the bench in the ninth for Pie's D.
• Mark Fontenot - .429/.429/,571, 1 SB. I know, only 7 AB, but, hey, he's made those seven count.

And then, there's these guys...

• Ted Lilly - 0-1, 9.72 ERA, and only 8.1 IP in two starts (i.e. has yet to see the end of the fifth inning).
• Alfonso Soriano - .094/.147/.188, team leading 6 K, and no doubles or triples.
• Felix Pie - .188/.235/.188, 4 K, no extra base hits.
• Carmen Pignatello - 13.50 ERA in two horrible outings, 0 K, 2 BB.
  
• Bob Howry - 12.27 ERA in 3.2 IP. Second most team ER (5) to Lilly (9).

Well, there's week one for ya. Nice to see the guys respond with three straight. Fukudome shows that Spring Training doesn't translate into Japanese. MVLee shows he's always got it. Sean Marshall maybe feels he should be on the squad over Piggy. And Ryan Dempster looks like he was right about being rotation-worthy. At least in Start #1.

Nice to see Kerry Wood respond so well after that Opening Day debacle.

Two more games with the Bucs in Pittsburgh, and let's hope the Cubs keep moving up in the Oh So Early Standings.

Well, I'm off to watch a little Yanks-Royals. Prob post again later tonight. Good to be back.

Go Cubs!!

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