Our Bullpen Needs a Nap

That's right, it turns out that the latest tendency the Cubs have of blowing games when the bullpen comes in to pitch is because they're overworked. Lou mentions the painful 14 inning game we all just had to endure, when he used all six of his bullpen pitchers. He then mentions that Ohman will get his stuff together eventually, which is a boldfaced lie. However, this is my favorite line:

Prior to Wednesday's game, Piniella stated that only Eyre, who used two pitches to get the final out in the ninth, was really rested.

Apparently being rested does not equate to pitching well as Eyre decided to follow up his first two easy outs with a walk, a single, another walk, and then two more singles. The Cubs had the lead for about 5 minutes when Eyre fell apart. I don't care how rested he was, Lou should have taken him out after the second walk. Even Dusty would have seen that coming.

Game Summary for April 18th, 2007

• Score: Cubs lose to the Braves, 8-6.
  
• Player of the Game: Mark DeRosa. The man is a machine. Another home run, two more RBIs, he's on pace to hit about 40 of them. Would have been Pie, but no one has won it twice in a row yet, and I'm trying not to overhype the kid too much.
  
• Subject of Lou's Wrath: Scott Eyre. Was handed the lead on a silver platter, proceeded to vomit on said platter. Bad table manners Scott.
  
• Comments: Zambrano was bad in the first inning, but it's April so we expect that. What's important here is that the offense actually fought back to take the lead, and the bullpen couldn't hold it. Again. Pie scored two runs and is still the most exciting thing about this team.
  
• Magic Number: 152. Slowly dropping, but no fast enough. Remember, this needs to get to zero by the end of the season. A few weeks before would be nice too.

Rich Hill pitches tomorrow, so you can put away the Prozac. He's facing off against Mark Redman, who is 0-2 with a 12.96 ERA. If we can't finish the job here, an intervention is in order.

FINALLY! Volcano Lou Erupts!

I'm usually a big advocate of the Number 13. It happens to be my favorite number. I think part of the fact that everyone else thinks of it as unlucky attracted me to it. It was like, if it was my favorite number, then it wouldn't be unlucky for me, and that would make me different from everyone else. Yeah, maybe that was it.

Turns out that was a load of BS. Today was Friday the 13th, what should be one of my favorite days of the year, and it was on this day that the Cubs had the greatest collapse of the season thus far. So why, you may be wondering, does the title of this post have excited exclamation points in it?

Because Friday the 13th is the day that Papa Lou finally blew his top.

The Priors and Woods of the world are trembling in fear.

You may remember what Dusty Baker would say after Zambrano and Ohman made blowing a 5 run lead look easy. He would be apologetic and protective of the pitchers, saying these things happen sometime, and he'll get his stuff together. Not Lou Piniella, my friend. He's starting to sound like first base throwing, umpire face spitting, getting ejected from the game, 1990 World Series winning Lou.

"What the [heck] do you think isn't working? You see the [darn] game," he said.

"This guy's your ace," Cubs manager Lou Piniella said of Zambrano. "You've got a 5-0 lead with the eighth and ninth hitters coming up. You feel pretty good about that inning. All of a sudden, it turns into a six-run inning. What do I do? I pitch [Zambrano] when it's his turn again. What else can I do?

"Then I bring in a reliever who's throwing 30-40-foot curveballs to boot," Piniella said of Ohman. "I can start to see some of the ways this team lost ballgames. I can see it. We've got to correct it, obviously."

"Look, when you've got a five-run lead, whether a guy misses a ball, makes an error, or what, you should be able to pitch through it," Piniella said.

Zambrano, however, seems to be channeling his inner Dusty Baker.

"When I came in [to the clubhouse] in the fifth inning, I told someone, 'Man, that happened so quick,'" Zambrano said. "I won't be frustrated. I feel good, I feel I'm throwing the ball the way I want to. I have to mix the pitches more and be more aggressive. That's it."

We'll see what Captain Lou has to say about that, Big Z.

Game Summary for April 13th, 2007

• Score: Cubs lose to the Reds, again, 6-5.
  
• Player of the Game: Michael Wuertz. Came in during the 5th inning to strike out three straight batters and clean up Zambrano's mess. We should call him The Janitor.
  
• Subject of Lou's Wrath: Carlos Zambrano / Will Ohman. Zambrano loaded the bases with no outs and gave up 4 runs, Ohman then walked two batters to seal the loss. Lou finally made it obvious that he's sick and tired of managing a crappy team.
  
• Comments: We had this game made until the 5th inning. I actually quit listening after the Reds scored their first run, thinking even Zambrano can't blow this thing. Wasn't too surprised when he did though. On the bright side, the Cubs were decent on offense for a change. Zambrano began his push for the Silver Slugger award early this year with a solo home run. He now has as many homers as Soriano, Lee, and Aramis combined. Sometimes I wish the NL used a DH.
  
• Magic Number: Still 156. Reds are first in the division, this number is going nowhere if we keep losing to them.

Tomorrow's game features the only Cubs pitcher that hasn't had a bad game, Rich Hill, against the only Reds pitcher we've beaten all season, Bronson Arroyo. If we can't win this one, I'm fully expecting Lou to start sacrificing young players, Old Testament style. I nominate Angel Guzman and Ronny Cedeno for the first round.

That's What I'm Talkin About

I was about half-way through this post and Firefox froze on me. Not cool Mozilla, I thought you were better than Microsoft. Now I see you're just living a lie.

Because of this I'm gonna keep this relatively short. Rich Hill was completely dominant, and that first inning of offense for the Cubs was all we needed. Now, on to the summary.

Game Summary for April 6th, 2007

• Score: Cubs defeat the Brewers, 9-3
  
• Player of the Game: Rich Hill. Best stuff any of the pitchers have had so far, 78 pitches, 58 strikes, 0 walks, one hit. I know I keep picking pitchers for this, but they've all been solid other than Zambrano. Shame on you Carlos.
  
• Subject of Lou's Wrath: Nobody. I don't think even Lou can be angry after a game like that. Everyone will sleep in peace tonight in Wrigleyville.
  
• Comments: Like I said, Rich Hill was completely dominating tonight. The first inning saw some very solid offense, and Mark DeRosa got his second home run of the year, along with the second for the entire team. Ronny Cedeno was the next Cub to connect, and he now has more home runs than Soriano, DLee, and Aramis combined. Something is wrong there.
  
• Magic Number: 160 and falling fast.
  

It's Like Easter, but the Cubs are rising from the dead instead of Jesus

If you're not watching the game right now, turn it on. WGN. Now. The Cubs are tearing the cover off the ball, it's the first inning, the Brewers already have a man warming up in the bullpen, DeRosa just hit his second home run of the year (he's still the only Cub with any), and we're up 6-0. So turn it on. I'll be back after the game with a giddy recap, assuming Hill can keep it together.

Cruel Irony

So for the second day in a row, the starting pitcher that I fully expected to bomb pitched very well. Except this time our bullpen, which is supposed to be awesome, failed miserably. Disappointing to say the least. That's all I have to say about that, I'm too depressed to elaborate.

Game Summary for April 5th, 2007

• Score: Cubs lose to the Reds, 5-2
• Player of the Game: Jason Marquis, for pitching completely the opposite of what his stats suggested. Runner-up goes to Mark DeRosa for hitting the Cubs' first and only home run of the year thus far.
• Subject of Lou's Wrath: The entire bullpen. Most notably Will Ohman for his horrific display of pitching against Adam Dunn.
• Comments: This game was completely awful from the 7th inning on. Bullpen was terrible and the offense had nothing. We left 14 men on base, completely unacceptable. And our leadoff man that we're paying $17 million for this year alone? One for five. Had a chance to get things going in the ninth, but he struck out. Soriano is the anti-clutch.
• Magic Number: 162. Pittsburgh is 3-0?
  

You want me to wake up before noon? What?

I like a day game as much as the next guy, but today's game starts at 11:35. In the AM. That's just crazy talk.

Todays game features two pitchers who had very interesting years last year. Cincinnati's Kyle Lohse had a 5.83 ERA in 2006, while our pitcher Jason Marquis posted a whopping 6.02 ERA last year. This could be a fun game to watch. I'm predicting many home runs for both teams. Hopefully just our team, but I'm a realist.

Just read the preview on the Cubs' website and I noticed this great piece of writing.

Marquis got to work quickly this offseason. He met with Cubs pitching coach Larry Rothschild in Florida before the right-hander even signed with the team to go over mechanics. Marquis' former teammate Greg Maddux had encouraged the two to get together.

"I knew I wasn't far off," Marquis said when he signed with the team. "Knowing the knowledge Larry had, they said he would be a good guy to see. It was nothing more than to get my mind right and get in a positive frame of mind."

The problem was mechanics, and Marquis said he wasn't far off. But the tweaks that Rothschild made helped him. If he can get his sinker in sync, Marquis will have success.

Wow. Just stellar writing, Ms. Muskat. Maybe if I repeat myself a couple of times in every article I write someday I'll get to write for the Cubs too.

If he pitched for the Reds, we'd still be in the first inning

One of the highlights of yesterdays game, actually probably the only highlight other than Murton's diving catch, was the opening pitch thrown out by Cincinnati mayor, Mark Mallory. Found a video of it today, and an amusing description of it over at With Leather.





The sad thing is, he didn't look much worse than Carlos Zambrano yesterday.

When Your Expectations are This Low...

Cubs fans know a lot about low expectations. In 2003 when we made it to the NLCS the entire city of Chicago went crazy because we hadn't won a playoff series in decades. Back in '98 we were ecstatic to just make it to the playoffs. This is why the Cubs keep setting attendance records even though last year was the most God-awful display I've seen in my short life. Well it's probably also because going to Wrigley is the cool thing to do, but can you really blame us for being cool? No, you can't.

The bullpen in the past few years has kind of been like the Cubs in the past few decades. It's been so terrible that we just stop expecting it to be good. So when it finally has a decent year we get all excited and pretend like it's amazing. It didn't have to be this way though.

The list of Cubs closers in the past is actually pretty impressive. Joe Borowski, Flash Gordon, Rod Beck, LaTroy Hawkins, Antonio Alfonseca, and Rick Augilera, to name a few. And that's all in the past 10 years. Sure there were a few good years, Rod Beck had 51 saves in the glorious '98 Wild Card season, Borowski had some really good streaks in 2003 and pulled off 33 saves, but the rest were terrible. And most of them were good pitchers before they came here. I guess there's just something in the water.

Here's hoping that this years bullpen gives me something to talk about a few years down the road.

A face only a mother could love. Or thousands of high school girls.

Neal Cotts

• Salary: $825,000
• Key Stat: 1.94 ERA in 2005, 5.17 ERA in 2006
• Comments: First things first, Neal is fresh from the Black Sox. So I should hate him. But he's got a couple things going for him. First of all, he had an amazing year in 2005 when the Sox won it all, which shows me he can pull through and he knows what it's like to play for a winner. Secondly, he's cheap. No extravagant spending tag for this guy. Plus, he makes the ladies swoon. Wait, that's a reason why I would hate him. And I hate him because he was horrible last year, and the Cubs seem to have a thing for picking up pitchers hoping they will return to their former greatness.

"Maybe I suck. But at least my name isn't Kerry Wood."

Angel Guzman

• Salary: No idea. I'm guessing he's cheap.
• Key Stat: 7.39 ERA
• Comments: Guzman and Cotts are both basically failed starting pitchers. Both tried to get a spot on the rotation, both failed, and both are now sitting in the bullpen. But whereas Cotts is normally a reliever anyways and he doesn't suck, Guzman was bred to be a starter and well, he does suck. Badly. I have no faith in the kid.

Even in Iowa, Ohman was a stud.

Will Ohman

• Salary: $900,000
• Key Stat: 2.91 ERA in 2005
• Comments: I like Will Ohman for some reason. His career has been rough, he missed a solid three years in the majors due to a couple of elbow surgeries but followed that up with a stellar 2005. And last year he had stretches of greatness, mixed in with some horrible games. So I have high hopes for him this year.

"Wow it's hard to pitch when you're constipated."

Michael Wuertz

• Salary: $380,000
• Key Stat: 2.66 ERA in 2006
• Comments: Wuertz is the workhorse of the bullpen. All through last year, he was the reliable reliever, the one you bring in when the bases are loaded and you need that last out. Which is why I don't understand how he only pitched 40 and 2/3 innings last year. But that does help explain why we fired Dusty Baker.

"I have a tie. And a goatee. Therefore, I'm cooler than you."

Scott Eyre

• Salary: $3.5 million
• Key Stat: Has only allowed 18.5% of inherited runners to score since 2002 (lowest in the majors)
• Comments: Eyre is one of the two quality setup men that we picked up before the 2006 season. He's probably one of the more consistent pitchers we have, which is especially rare to come by with this organization. Probably one of the best setup men in baseball, which would be really great if we had a decent closer than could finish off the games.

Why does everyone have to be from the White Sux?

Bob Howry

• Salary: $4 million
• Key Stat: 2.82 ERA over the past three seasons
• Comments: Howry is the other quality setup man that we picked up before the 2006 season, and he's an anomaly because he was actually pitching well the year before we picked him up, and not five years before. Likely our best reliever, I honestly believe we could fix a lot of problems if we put him at closer, used Wuertz and Eyre as setup men, and sent Dempster down to AA ball. That's right, it's West Tennessee for you buddy. Which brings us to the man himself.

...I cannot describe this with words.

Ryan Dempster

• Salary: $5 million
• Key Stat: A paltry 24 saves last year
• Comments: I feel bad for Dempster. A former starting pitcher with decent stats, he had to undergo Tommy John surgery and had the unfortunate luck of having the Cubs take a chance on him. I'll give credit where credit is due though, in 2005 he was solid. Last year though, he was 24-33 in save opportunities. That's 72%. Basically one in every four games where the Cubs were ahead by three or less going into the ninth, he would blow it. I understand he wasn't working with the best team last year, but come on. A 4.80 ERA? Are you throwing the other team wiffle balls?

So there you have it, a review of the entire 25-man roster, spread out over three laborious posts. All that's left then is to review the coaching staff, and I don't know if I have the heart to do that. All you need to know is that if Lou doesn't return to old form and pulls a Dusty Baker, it's going to be a long year. All I want for Christmas (Opening Day) is to see him punt first base. Please?

Can't We Just Clone Zambrano Four Times?

Ok, so you've looked over the batting order for opening day and you're thinking to yourself "Wow, I'm impressed." As well you should be, the Cubs brought in some nice talent and resigned some key players over the offseason to make our lineup one of the most fearsome in baseball. But the Cubs have never really had problems scoring runs (last year doesn't count in my mind). Where we do usually have problems though, is with our pitching. Usually it's the bullpen that causes the headaches, but this year the rotation is taking the lead role in increasing aspirin sales. Let's have a look-see, shall we?

"RAAAAAAAHHHHHHHRRRRR"

Carlos Zambrano

• Salary: $12.4 million
• Key Stat: Every stat he has is impressive.
• Comments: Zambrano is the star of this team, Mark Prior be damned. The man is a workhorse, he piles on the innings, racks up the pitch counts, actually shows some emotion out there on the mound, and never gets injured. All of this is even more impressive when you realize that he plays for the Cubs. There were some tensions between him and the team this offseason, there still are, but he deserves every penny he makes. I'm not saying he deserves $18 million a year, but he definitely deserves at least as much as Zito is making. Zito is just overpaid.

"Wow I suck..."

Ted Lilly

• Salary: $9 million (includes $4 million signing bonus)
• Key Stat: Career 4.60 ERA, 59-58 W-L
• Comments: Come again? Our second starter is a career .500 pitcher with a 4.6 ERA? And we're paying him $40 million over 4 years? I'll have some of what Jim Hendry is smoking please. This is what Zambrano should have been using in his negotiations. "You only want to pay me $11 million this year and you're giving this puta $9 mil? ¿Estás loco?"

"Wow Ted Lilly sucks"

Jason Marquis

• Salary: $4.75 million
• Key Stat: Career 4.55 ERA, 56-52 W-L
• Comments: This makes two people that should be pissed off at how much Ted Lilly is making. Basically identical stats, Jason actually has the edge, and Lilly is raking in the dough. Lilly is averaging $3 million more a year over the length of his contract, and that's ridiculous. I know Marquis used to be a Cardinal, so by nature we start things off hating him, but that's in the past. He's a Cub now, and he deserves to be treated like one. Or maybe that has to wait until his initiation (when he breaks something).

"I look like I'm 14. WEEEEEE!!!"

Rich Hill

• Salary: $380,000
• Key Stat: 3-1 W-L with a 1.93 ERA in his last 6 starts last season
• Comments: Rich hill had a rocky start last year, let's be honest. But I'm all about giving people second chances. He tore up the mound in September, the guy was amazing. Made us forget all about the money we had sunk into Kerry Wood and Mark Prior. Why Lou feels like he deserves to be stuck in the fourth starting spot is beyond me. I have much more faith in this kid than in Lilly and Marquis combined.

"Kei....Jason....Rog...Keith....you're drunk. Gimme your keys."

Wade Miller

• Salary: $1.5 million (with lots of performance bonuses)
  
• Combined 31-12 record with a 3.45 ERA in 2001 and 2002
• Comments: If Wade Miller manages to start in at least 30 games and pitch 200 innings, he stands to make a cool $5.8 million instead of that 1.5 number. Kinda wish all pitching contracts were written like that, don't you? He's been very shaky the past three years and has spent a good portion of time rehabbing his right shoulder, but he's looked strong in spring training and we know he can be great. He just needs to bring the greatness back. I hope working for an extra $4.3 million will help him do that.

So there's the rotation, as initially set by Captain of the Sinking Ship Lou Piniella. It has its flaws, no doubt about that. If Mark Prior can toughen up a bit and somehow make it back, all we need is for Ted Lilly to suffer a Prior-esque injury and I think we'll be set. I still can't figure out why we're paying him that much.

Sometime tomorrow I'll discuss the bullpen, to be honest I haven't even looked at who Lou has chosen yet. It could get interesting. See you then.