Game Notes for Friday, August 31

Iowa Cubs (78-62) vs.

Omaha Royals (70-70)

Game # 141 - Home Game # 69

 

 

TONIGHT'S GAME: The Cubs and the Royals open a four-game series tonight. The Cubs are coming off a 5-4 road trip to New Orleans and Memphis. The Cubs will send right-hander Cory Bailey to the hill tonight against Royals southpaw Paul Mildren.  Bailey is 1-1 with a 1.17 ERA in three games against Omaha this year (one start), while Mildren was 1-2 against the Cubs as a member of the Albuquerque Isotopes earlier this year.        

 

TONIGHT'S STARTER:  Cory Bailey will make his seventh start for the Cubs.  The Cubs are 4-2 in Bailey's starts and have supported him with 5.67 runs per game (34/6). He is in his 13^th season of pro ball in the United States and had appeared in 665 games without making a start in affiliated baseball until his start on July 5^th. He has pitched in the big leagues with Boston, Kansas City, St. Louis and San Francisco.  Bailey made two starts last year with the independent Long Island Ducks of the Atlantic League. Bailey had pitched as a starter for manager Buddy Bailey in the winter in Venezuela for the Tigres de Aragua. 

 

CUBS VS. ROYALS: The Cubs trail the Royals 5-7 in the season series. Iowa is 3-1 in Des Moines and 2-6 in Omaha.  Iowa won the season series 11-5 last year, with a 6-2 record in Des Moines and a 5-3 record in Omaha. Since the Cubs and Royals joined the PCL in 1998, the Cubs lead the series 82-74. The Cubs are 46-30 in Des Moines and 36-44 in Omaha.  Seven of the 12 games between the two teams in 2007 have been decided by two runs or less and the Cubs are 1-6 in such contests.

 

ROSTER CHAOS: The Iowa Cubs made five roster moves today after making six on Thursday. Today, the Cubs traded infielder Scott Moore and right-hander Rocky Cherry to Baltimore for Steve Trachsel. Lefty Les Walrond was placed on the disabled list with a broken finger (hit by line drive on glove hand). Catcher Mike Mahoney was activated from the disabled list and outfielder Chris Walker was promoted from double-A Tennessee. More moves will take place following tonight's game with major league rosters expanding to 40 players tomorrow. Right-handers Cedric Redmond and Michael Christl are expected to join Iowa tomorrow from rookie level Mesa (Arizona League) to take the place of pitchers promoted tonight. On Thursday, right-handers Kevin Hart and Sean Gallagher were each sent to double-A Tennessee where they began the season, to help the Smokies towards a playoff berth.  Clay Rapada was traded to the Detroit Tigers to complete the Cubs' acquisition of Craig Monroe.  Ryan O'Malley and Mike Nannini were each promoted from Tennessee to Iowa while John Webb was removed from the disabled list.  The Chicago Cubs also announced that Buck Coats, who had been designated for assignment, was traded to the Cincinnati Reds.

 

MVP: The PCL named Cubs catcher Geovany Soto the 2007 MVP.  Soto is the first catcher to win the award since Sandy Alomar Jr. won in back-to-back years (1988, 89) and the first Cub to win the award since Iowa joined the PCL in 1998.  He joins Eddie Zambrano (1993) as the second MVP in Oaks/Cubs franchise history dating back to 1969.    

 

FORFEIT: Memphis' 7-6 victory over Iowa on August 18^th has been nullified by the Pacific Coast League office giving Iowa the victory by forfeit.  The game will be recorded as a 9-0 victory for Iowa although all of the statistics accrued in that game will remain official except for the pitcher decisions.  Please note that the breakdowns in the sidebar and on the following pages in these Iowa Cubs media notes still treat that game as an Iowa loss. 

 

QUALITY STARTS: Les Walrond's quality start Wednesday was just the 39^th of the year for Iowa. In their last 20 games, Iowa is 8-1 when their starter provides a quality start and 4-7 in other contests. 

 

SO MUCH SOTO: Geovany Soto is second in the PCL with a .350 batting average (five points behind Brian Myrow of Portland) and leads the league with a .645 slugging percentage (33 points ahead of Craig Brazell of Omaha) and 106 RBI (four more than Scott Seabol of Albuquerque).  The only Cub to lead the league in batting average was Roosevelt Brown (.346, 2001).  Two Cubs, Karl Rhodes (.602, 1993) and Micah Franklin (.655, 1998) have led their league in slugging.  If the season ended today, Soto's .353 batting average would be third all-time in Iowa Cubs' history behind Derrick White (.363, 1998) and Roosevelt Brown (.358, 1998).  The last Cub to lead the league in RBI was Eddie Zambrano with 115 in 1993....Soto has more extra base hits in 2007 (59) than in 2005 (16) and 2006 (28) combined when he had 44 total........Half of Soto's career 50 home runs have come in 2007...His three triples in 2007 are his first since 2003 when he was with the Daytona Cubs....Soto is hitting .383/.445/.729 (AVG/OBP/SLG) with 11 doubles, a triple, eight home runs and 39 RBI in 28 August games.... Soto was held 0-4 Tuesday night, marking just the eighth time this year (110 games) in which he was held hitless in four or five at-bats in a game.

 

LONGBALL PRODUCTION:  The Cubs have hit 169 home runs this season (87 solo) which have accounted for 293 runs (2.09 runs per game on 1.21 homers per game). In 2006, the Cubs hit 120 homers (76 solo) which accounted for 185 runs (1.28 runs per game on .83 home runs per game).

 

UPCOMING PROBABLE STARTERS (times CT)                             

Date	Time	Cubs Starter	Royals Starter
Saturday, September 1	7:05 p.m.	LH J.R. Mathes (10-7, 5.38)	RH Matt Wright (9-5, 4.15)
Sunday, September 2	1:05 p.m.	RH Randy Wells (5-6, 4.76)	RH Ben Hendrickson (11-5, 4.31)
Monday, September 3	1:05 p.m.	LH Les Walrond (11-5, 4.77)	RH Luke Hochevar (1-3, 5.37)

        

BUY IOWA CUBS TICKETS

IOWA CUBS FAN FEST,  JANUARY 11-12, 2008,  AT HY-VEE HALL IN DOWNTOWN DES MOINES

OPENING DAY 2008, APRIL 3 vs. ROUND ROCK 3:05 p.m.