It Has Been Zero Days Since David Ross Last Pissed Me Off

I mean hey, I complained about the lineup before Tuesday's game and then the Cubs scored 17 runs, so how about we go for another day of complaining about David Ross and his managing decisions.

The Cubs have pinned themselves into a corner this month, pretty much needing to win-out this week to give the front office an incentive to be active buyers in the trade market. It would be nice if the manager would put the best players on the team on the field. For some reason Trey Mancini is in the starting lineup against right-handed pitcher Trevor Williams Wednesday night.

Mancini, who has been bad this season, has been especially bad when hitting against right-handed pitchers. So far this year, the right-handed hitting veteran has a slash line of 244/.299/.326, with a 73 wRC+. Bad. Meanwhile, rookie Miguel Amaya, also a right-handed hitter, has been good overall and actually solid against right-handed pitching. Amaya's slash line vs. right-handed pitchers this year is .273/.375/.394, with a 117 wRC+.

Amaya is on the bench tonight after going 2-for-5 with 3 RBI on Tuesday. Amaya has only played in six games during the month of July and he's reached base at least once in his last five. Maybe play him more.

Second complaint, Tucker Barnhart is starting behind the plate and I guess he does have solid numbers against Williams, going 6-for-18, with a home run. OK, fine, but also, for whatever reason Kyle Hendricks has been awful with Barnhart catching.

Hendricks gave up four home runs in his last start against the Boston Red Sox last Friday night and although the veteran starter has been calling his own pitches lately, he did say Barnhart was part of the process in that department against the Red Sox.

Via the Daily Herald.

"Tucker and I worked really well together," Hendricks said after the game. "He put in a lot of pitch calls, actually I would call something and he felt something, and we went with it. He had really good feel tonight. It was just one of those games where they were kind of one step ahead of me, one step ahead of us. You just get beat."

Maybe Barnhart didn't actually have a really good feel.

By the way, this isn't meant to put the blame on Barnhart either because Hendricks, despite his good results, has been really lucky on the mound. So maybe it doesn't actually matter who is catching for him right now.

So hey, let's hope Barnhart can get something done at the bottom of the lineup because holy shit is it bad.

Patrick Wisdom, who yeah sucked really bad and then went on the injured list in June, has come back and hey maybe that wrist issue was actually affecting him because he's looked good in July. Wisdom has hit a home run in the last three games he's started.

We all know by now that Wisdom is as streaky of a hitter as there is, so how about starting him when he's in the middle of a hot streak. Wisdom is on the bench Wednesday night, with Miles Mastrobuoni getting the start at third base.

Go Cubs.