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And it has been said that it is good to let it out rather than bottle it all in. So with that, I bring you my first angry rant of 2009. Hopefully afterwards, I'll go get a big glass of milk and think more rationally about it. But for now... This bullpen is abysmal. By far it is the 2-ton weight that is holding this team down. Now, to be fair, you can never expect to have 7 all-stars in your bullpen. If you aren't a starter or a closer (or in rare cases an 8th inning guy), you probably aren't good enough. Middle relievers are guys who aren't good enough to start or close. Plain and simple. But right now, the Cubs have middle relievers are not good enough to start, close, or pitch in the majors, AAA, AA, A, rookie-league, little league, or my Church softball league. Tonight's rant will spare only Kevin Gregg (enjoy it this time Robocop, cuz I'm sure I'll hit you sometime soon) and Carlos Marmol. First, Chad Fox. Kudos to him on coming back again from elbow issues, but the Cubs should have just left it after 2005. But he made a courageous comeback last year, only to stink and get hurt again. Not to be deterred, he tried again this year, stunk even worse and is once again out. You can't blame him for trying to come back. But honestly, what is our friggin' obsession with this guy? He's done. He's been done since 2004. He is a waste of money, a waste of a roster spot and he has been since we first signed him in 2005. Stop, Jim Hendry. Just stop. When you get that tingling urge to call Chad up this offseason, go to the bathroom and induce some vomiting. Maybe that way you can get it all out, and only your toilet will be taking on stink, not the Cubs. Chad Fox would have been a good acquisition in 2001, granted, but so would Rob Nen. Please, please, please be done with Chad Fox. Neal Cotts has been living off a magical 2005 season for too long now (though so has Contreras, Podsednik and Uribe- man that Sox team had some lucky performances), and he is an absolutely terrible pitcher. He ALWAYS walks the lefty he is sent out there to face. He is honestly a LOWGY. A lousy LOWGY. Explain to me why Scott Eyre didn't deserve to be on this team, but this scrub does. When we got him, Soxfan Spoden laughed at it. He said, "Enjoy his 90-mph straight-as-an-arrow fastball". Boy if he could get it over, I think I would be even more frustrated with the results we get from this guy. Worthless. And he is our only lefty. We are better off with no lefties. David Patton. Why is he on this team? Why are we wasting a roster spot just to make sure we don't have to give him back to Colorado? Who cares? He had a good Spring, but he hasn't pitched past single-A until now for a reason. I've never seen a team make such a big sacrifice to keep a pitcher with an 8+ ERA on its roster. Maybe he has an upside. Maybe in 2-3 years he will be good. But, here is the key, we are trying to win NOW!!! NOW!!!! It does us no good to keep around a guy like Patton just so he won't go back to Colorado. It boggles the mind that keeping this guy is a priority, at the cost of our already hot-garbage bullpen. And now I get to lay into one Aaron Heilman. If Cubs fans thought the last two years were major choke jobs, imagine being a Mets fan. They tanked in September two years in a row, and didn't get to sniff the playoffs even though they were by far a good enough team. And want to know one of the reasons they tanked? Their bullpen. And who was the key reliever who led the way in that tankjob? Aaron Heilman. And he is showing us why. He has no command of the strike zone. He used to. He had a good '06 and most of '07. But now, he is unbelievably bad. To throw as many walks as he does, only to follow them with 92-mph fastballs right down the chute to hitters like Ryan Braun. Terrible. He is bad. And he should have been the one DFA'ed, not Vizcaino. And I'm not even a Vizcaino fan. That brings me to Jim Hendry. He put himself in a situation where he needed to slash payroll, because he gave away bad, backloaded contracts to players who were coming off one good year. So there is where the bullpen implosion began. Kerry Wood? Screw that man, we got Robocop. And so went our all-star closer. Michael Wuertz? He sucked (which by the way, I always thought he got an unfair rep. He wasn't great but he is no Heilman). Scott Eyre? Well, I suppose that is more on Lou (who I will get to shortly). Luis Vizcaino? Pffft... not walking enough people. Jim Hendry did not do a good job. I really think he is an overrated GM. He makes some good trades, but they are from teams that are firesaling anyways. And then he will lock the team into bad contracts. ANYONE can throw money at Soriano if they have the money to throw. But good GMs are wise with their money, even if they have a ton of it. Boston comes to mind here, as much as it pains me to say. I hate Boston. Finally Lou Piniella. Sir, you were given a ton of crap and told to make dinner with it. That is not an easy task. But you need to be smarter when it comes to using your one reliever worth a hoot: Carlos Marmol. Earlier this week, you used Marmol in back-to-back 3-run games in Houston. I can see you using him in one game, but two 3-run games? It's hard to get too angry, as it is apparent a lot of these guys couldn't hold a 10-run lead, but you've got to give them a chance every once in a while when you DO have some margin for error. Then, when you have a game with no margin for error (such as Friday night), you have Marmol available. I can only assume the overuse of Marmol in Houston was the reason Heilman was out there to cough up the lead. Lou needs to be more judicious in his use of Marmol. It is that simple. What kills me about this is how good the rest of the team is. The lineup, even without Aramis, is one of the best in baseball. The starting rotation, Ryan Dempster's stupid contract-year regression not withstanding, is very very solid. But, the bullpen has negated that. Almost to the point where we are at .500. They are bad. Therefore, tonight, I am lobbying for the return of these players (because it cannot get any worse): Roberto Novoa, Andy Pratt, Dave Veres, Mel Rojas, Jeff Fassero and Antonio Alfonseca. Get it done, Hendry! Posted in: Bullpen, Rant, Aaron Heilman, David Patton, Neal Cotts, Chad Fox, Jim Hendry, Lou Piniella, Walks, Suckiness This may admittedly be a Captain Kneejerk type thread, and I hope by the end of the year I am eating these words. But to be honest, I sang this refrain for a while now, and so far it always ends up true. This isn't a problem that is exclusive to the Cubs (see: New York Yankees) but man, Jim Hendry seems to fall for this a lot. And in the end, I say the same thing: BEWARE THE CONTRACT YEAR. Let's look at the evidence.
I don't believe in curses. I believe in bad management. Jim Hendry has made good trades, don't get me wrong. But I think he is below average when it comes to free agents and contracts. Anyone can throw a bunch of money at the guy who just had a good year, and tie up the organization in a bad contract. It takes a good scouting staff and a keen GM to find guys like Ryan Ludwick, Carlos Quentin (who I do believe was traded for admittedly) and Jason Werth. Heck, David Ortiz was initially signed as a Twins castoff for 1 year and $1.25 million. I have a few other bones to pick with the way the Cubs are run. (Hint: one of the issues rhymes with the word Blinors.) I will talk about those later. Posted in: Free Agency, Contracts, Ryan Dempster, Derrek Lee, Alfonso Soriano, Jim Hendry, Captain Kneejerk | ||