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mrschroeder08 partyvancaptain pee_callus25 Tags 2010 Preview 5 Million Dollar Black Hole AAAA Aaron Heilman Aaron Miles Alfonso Soriano Andres Blanco Angel Guzman Aramis Ramirez Arizona Diamondbacks Atlanta Braves B.J. Ryan Baltimore Orioles Bob Brenly Bobby Scales Bonehead Booing Boston Red Sox Brett Jackson Bullpen Canadian Concoction Captain Kneejerk Cardinals Carlos Marmol Carlos Silva Carlos Zambrano Chad Fox Chad Tracy Chicago Cubs Chicago White Sox Cincinnati Reds Cleveland Indians Cold War Colorado Rockies Contracts Cubs-Cardinals Rivalry Cubs sale Cubs Curtis Granderson Daniel Herrera David Patton Derrek Lee Designated Hitter Detroit Tigers Disabled list Dominance ERA+ ERROR Esmailin Caridad ESPN Sucks Eternal frustration Eternal Optimism Farewell Farney Florida Marlins Free Agency Future Gatorade Geovanny Soto Geovany Soto Gerald Perry Grades Houston Astros I-Cubs Injuries Jake Fox Jason Marquis Jason Waddell Jeff Gray Jeff Samardzija Jim Hendry Jim Wolf Joey Gathright John Grabow Jose Ascanio Kansas City Royals Kerry Wood Kevin Gregg Kevin Hart Kevin Millar Koyie Hill LaTroy Hawkins Legendary Lineup Los Angeles Angels Los Angeles Dodgers Lou Piniella Luis Vizcaino Man Crush Mark DeRosa Marlon Byrd Micah Hoffpauir Middle Infield Midwestern Bias Milton Bradley Milwaukee Brewers Minnesota Twins Minor Leagues MLB 2K9 Neal Cotts New York Mets New York Yankees Oakland Athletics October Offseason Opening Day OPS+ Payroll Philadelphia Phillies Pittsburgh Pirates Playoffs Randy Wells Rant Rich Harden Ryan Dempster Ryan Freel Ryan Theriot Sam Fuld Sam Zell Sammy Sosa San Diego Padres San Francisco Giants Sandy Alderson Sean Marshall Seattle Mariners St. Louis Cardinals Steroids Strikeouts Suckiness Tampa Bay Rays TBS Texas Rangers Tom Gorzelanny Tom Ricketts Toronto Blue Jays Trade Tribune Company Tyler Colvin Von Joshua Waivers Walks Washington Nationals WTF Xavier Nady RSS Feed The Cubs made a few changes today, and thank goodness on at least one count. Bobby Scales and Neal Cotts (YES!!!!) were optioned to AAA. Aaron Miles went to the DL. The Cubs called up Andres Blanco, Jason Waddell and Jake Fox. Cotts was obviously going to be gone shortly, and it is well past due. He can go walk AAA batters now. Bobby Scales supposedly had caught what Derrek Lee has, and his average had been plummeting. Aaron Miles will not be missed very much. Andres Blanco gives the Cubs a bit of flexibility in the infield, as Ryan Freel would have been the only backup infielder left. He was having a pretty good year at AAA, but not groundbreaking. Jason Waddell was brought up merely to have a lefty around. His ERA and WHIP are a very unimpressive 5.40 and 1.44 respectively. He can't be any worse than what we had, so whatever. Way to forget about getting a good lefthander this offseason, Hendry. But Babe Fox finally gets his chance to shine. He was touting a .423 average, 17 home runs and 50 RBIs in AAA. Now, before we all get too giddy, the Pie and Cedeno also put up gaudy AAA numbers before. Fox doesn't really have a position, and is essentially a right handed Micah Hoffpauir. At this point though, you have to give this guy a chance in the big leagues. Worst case you can showcase him as a piece in a trade later on this year. Best case, maybe he ends up finding a place where he can adequately fill-in defensively and give the Cubs some needed offense. Either way, this call up needed to happen. So we will see how things go with these three. At the very least, we better beat Pittsburgh. Posted in: Neal Cotts, Aaron Miles, Bobby Scales, Jake Fox, Jason Waddell, Andres Blanco, I-Cubs I'm upset. 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 It has come to a point where you almost have to expect Aramis Ramirez to end the game when it is extra innings at Wrigley Field. That man seems to live for those moments, and it is almost as if everyone expected. Pat Hughes didn't even sound as excited as he has in past walk-offs. Heck, even Santo almost seemed calm and collected about it. The bottom line is its another win in what is such a good rivalry. It is even getting the Cubs another Sunday night game on ESPN. Can you say Midwestern bias? Neal Cotts does exactly what he seems to think his job is, avoid giving up a big hit. So instead he will walk the world. That dude owes Carlos Marmol his first-born for getting out of that. And an inning later, Carlos Marmol owes Robo Cop that very same first-born for getting out of that jam. I give Marmol a pass though. He's already working a ton for this early in the season. It is inevitible that he will hit troubles. But kudos to Gregg. He will win Wrigleyville over quickly if he can do what he did today. The walks have to be concerning though. That isn't an earth-shattering observation, but doing some quick, and probably faulty, addition, the bullpen has now pitched 40 innings and thrown 25 walks, including Marshall's relief numbers. That is 5.625 walks per 9 inning, and that is WAY too high. Oddly enough, the one reliever who hasn't thrown a walk is Luis Vizcaino, who apparently is on the Scott Eyre usage plan. Disclaimer: I am not advocating more Luis Vizcaino. That could be even more hazardous to Cubs fans with heart conditions. Still, you know it is a good day when your best reliever blows the game, but gets picked up by the rest of the bullpen. That is a sign that this team is still going to be aces for 2009. Kudos to Angel Guzman on his first win, 4 years in the making. Next time I'll try to talk about something other than the bullpen. Posted in: Aramis Ramirez, Neal Cotts, Bullpen, Walks, Cubs-Cardinals Rivalry, Carlos Marmol, Midwestern Bias What an intense first couple of games against the Cardinals. I have to tell say, I think the Cardinals are going to do pretty well this year, and it will be great seeing this rivalry at its peak when both teams are relevant. When is the last time that happened? Probably 2004, and even then, the Cardinals ran away and hid with the division pretty early. Here are some thoughts on the game.
Posted in: Cubs, Alfonso Soriano, Carlos Marmol, Kevin Gregg, Geovanny Soto, Neal Cotts, Captain Kneejerk, ESPN Sucks | ||