The Cubs Chronicle

Welcome to The Clark & Addison Chronicle’s opening day diary. Read from the bottom of the post up.

3:43pm Final: Cubs win 15-2. What a day!

3:05pm End7th: Juan Cruz looks like the Angels’ Francisco Rodriguez (aka K-Rod) right now. 6 straight strikeouts.

2:55pm Top7th: It’s now 15-2. The Mets outfield defense has lived up to its poor expectations. According to Chip, the Cubs’ 15 runs ties an opening day franchise record.

2:30pm Top6th: Let’s just call him Mr. April. After starting off the season great last year, Corey Patterson is doing the same this year. A three-run homer gave him 5 RBI’s on the day and put the Cubs up by 8. . . . After Damian Miller grounded out to short following Patterson’s homer, Mo Vaughn went little league and threw the ball into leftfield trying to throw the ball around-the-horn. . . . With an 8-run lead, Baker pinch-hit for Wood with Lenny Harris. Probably the smart thing. Juan Cruz is coming on in relief.

2:15pm End5th: Kerry Wood has continued to struggle with the location on his fastball, yet is seemingly throwing every breaking ball for a strike. The Mets, thankfully, have failed to take advantage of his fastball troubles, except for 2 runs in the second. Wood has thrown 88 pitches now, though. It seems unlikely that he’ll pitch more than one more inning. High pitch counts is a problem he’s had throughout his career, making it hard for him to go deep into games. Unlike last year, though, the Cubs’ bullpen should be able to hold the lead.

2:05pm Top5th: Grudzielanek is now 3-for-3 with a walk. As a poster at The Cub Reporter writes, “Grudz is on pace to be the best lead-off Cub of all time.”

2:00pm Top5th: I really like Steve Stone and am glad he’s back broadcasting. But he just said something indefensible. He said that the Red Sox are going with a closer-by-committee this year (which isn’t really what they’re doing, but that’s another point) and as a result they’ll finish 10-15 games behind the Yankees. How in the world is trying to use your best relief pitchers in situations other than when your team is up by 3 in the 9th going to cause you to finish so far back of first place?

1:36pm Top4th: With two outs in the 4th and two runners on, and after having thrown 90 pitches, Art Howe pulled Tom Glavine. While Glavine certainly didn’t have his best stuff today, credit the Cub hitters for laying off Glavine’s outside off-speed pitches, drawing 4 walks to go along with their 8 hits.

1:15pm Top3rd: Well, we’ve already witnessed one difference between Baker and Don Baylor. Choi led off the inning with a double. Such an event would have put Baylor into bunt mode, giving up an out to move the runner to third. Baker let Bellhorn swing away. Though Bellhorn didn’t drive him in, Patterson did.

1:00pm Mid2nd: Glavine threw 31 more pitches in the 2nd inning, moving him up to 65 already for the game. . . . The first two hitters in the Cubs lineup – Grudzielanek and Gonzalez – are a combined 2-for-2 with 2 walks. If we assume that they are both .300 OBP% players, the probability of them getting on base 4 times in 4 plate appearances is less than 1% (.81%). Of course, low probability of things happening certainly doesn’t prevent them from actually happening.

12:40pm End1st: Early signs on Kerry Wood: The location on his fastball wasn’t great in the first inning, but his hook looked great. When he’s able to throw that for strikes, he’s tough to score off of.

12:30pm Mid1st: Glavine threw 34 pitches in the first inning. The Cubs should get to the Mets bullpen early.

12:17pm Top1st: A lot of people have mentioned the defensive problems the Mets are likely to have this year. Those problems evidenced themselves with the second batter of the game. Ty Wigginton couldn’t stop a hard grounder hit by Alex Gonzalez, and then no one covered second, allowing Gonzalez to take the base. Sammy Sosa took advantage of the RBI opportunity. We couldn’t ask for a better start.

12:08pm: Mike Piazza is playing today, but likely won’t play the rest of the series, as his suspension will start after the game.

11:50am Opening Thoughts: The weather in New York is sunny but cold, in the lower 40s. . . . The lineup is slightly different than what Mike Kiley reported it would be. Mark Bellhorn is hitting 6th, while Corey Patterson is hitting 7th, instead of the other way around. . . . Despite my displeasure of the Bobby Hill situation, I admire Dusty Baker for starting Hee Seop Choi in this game despite the Mets starting a lefthander (Tom Glavine). I’m sure Eric Karros will see a lot of time against lefties this year, but Choi is the future, has demonstrated an ability to hit lefties, and deserves to be in the opening day lineup. . . . Both ESPN and FSN Chicago are broadcasting the Cubs game today. I’ll be watching FSN so I can hear what Chip and Steve have to say throughout the game.