Sitting at .500 at the All Star break, the Cubs haven't had too much to celebrate lately. Some of that changed yesterday when they signed former Blue Jays closer, lefty B.J. Ryan. Ryan was release by the Jays earlier this month and the Cubs have snatched him up, Signing him to a Minor League contract. B.J. will start off at the Cubs in Spring Training facility, then join Triple-A Iowa.
With the scarcity of left handed pitchers currently on their roster, and the creative player juggling Piniella has employed with left handed reliever Sean Marshall, they might want to look at getting him up to speed with the organization as quickly as possible.
The Cubs also did the happy dance last evening with the defeat of last place Washington Nationals, under the leadership of Jim Riggleman for the first time.
By all accounts, Riggleman didn't inspire any more than Manny Acta had, and although the Nats' play in the earlier innings could have been called somewhat equal to the Cubs, with Ryan Zimmerman getting his 15th home run of the season, the team faltered in the last three innings and lost 6-2. There seemed to be more errors than necessary with Zimmerman going from hero to zero and making a costly error in the third inning. Although the Nats are looking to improve, it's obvious it isn't going to happen overnight.
Meanwhile, Cubs manager, Lou Piniella wasn't sure what to say of the leadership change:
“You never know. You don’t like to see anybody get fired. Riggleman’s … an experienced guy (but) sometimes it takes a while,” Piniella said.
The Cubs and the Nationals meet up again tonight and while the Nats will be trying to turn around their season, you can bet the Cubs will be looking to put another one in the W column as well.
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