Thursday marks the return of our favorite leadoff man and his bombs, his Al-Gonzo bombs! There are a ton of nay-sayers about Soriano batting leadoff, but I'm excited to see that big swing back in our lineup. He eats up fastballs and with the current state of our team patience, maybe, just maybe he'll feel some sort of responsibility to keep it going when he gets the more-popular-pitch-to-avoid-the-Al-Gonzo-bomb breaking balls.
Bright spot: I said that it would take me 6 starts to decide if Ryan Dempster was for real. I think I may have been wrong and that it will take 10, but man does he look good. This post is coming as the Cubs are up 19-5 in the bottom of the eighth of their recent Brewer thrashing that Dempster dealt. He had his splitter backing up like the dancing queen I saw in Harry Caray's Tuesday night. To right-handers it looked like it was going way off the plate - then in Zambrano-esque fashion it would slice back over the outside corner. Left-handers were on their way out of the box only to find themselves blindsided by an inside corner strike and an 0-1 count. Magical Ryan Dempster did it again and could easily be 5-0 or 6-0, but will gladly take his 4-0 I'm sure.
The ONLY downside of this game is that Ronny Cedeno once again proved he deserves to be our starting shortstop by walking twice and hitting a 3-RBI double. I will continue to be disappointed until he supplants the respectable, but low-ceiling'ed Riot.
Alright, come 4:30 tomorrow afternoon this town will be in an uproar... and it all depends on whether or not we can yell AL....GONZO! I take that back. I think most would be happy with an Al-Gonzo-Remove-My-Shin-Plate-And-Take-Your-Base-Walk. Good luck Soriano! Life is good as a Cubs fan... I hope you're enjoying it as much as I am. "Go Cubs Go... Go Cubs Go... Hey Chicago whattya say?"
Where's the beef?
Fat Boy on a diet... Don't try it.