From the starting rotation to the bullpen, the guys who throw with their arms for a living certainly mean a lot to a ball club.
Sure, offensive run production and run prevention (a.k.a. defense) are critical, too. But as someone once said, pitching is 90 percent of half of the game.
Fuzzy math aside, this just happens to be where the current Cubs appear to fall short, unfortunately.
Question marks in the rotation include, well, just about everyone and the bullpen is comprised of three rookies and a closer who has never held that role for a full season and who struggled mightily with his control last season.
Is Carlos Zambrano a true ace? Well, his talent says yes, but his temperament and lack of preparation in the past suggest not. He does look fit this year, however.
Is Randy Wells for real? Only time will tell. No scout predicted his success last season, and he was never a real prospect.
Does Carlos Silva have any value at all? His record in the majors suggests he’s among the worst starting pitchers in baseball. But here he is because of a contract as fat as his belly.
The questions go on and on.
Look, every team has question marks, especially with its pitching. But I can’t recall a Cubs team with so many of them this early, at least in recent years.
The bullpen is probably even more of a concern. With no payroll flexibility to pursue a veteran reliever, and the predictable injury to Angel Guzman, who should have a permanent Band-Aid tattooed to his arm, the Cubs are forced to go with rookies.
Justin Berg is not a prospect; he’s yet another of the older rookies the Cubs have been trotting out since Lou has been manager.
Not all of the older rookies have been bad; in fact, Ryan Theriot and Randy Wells come to mind as guys who have proven they probably should have been up earlier if the Cubs had the proper talent evaluation in place.
Still, if guys like Berg are any good, why has it taken them so long to get to the majors? Berg is not old in the real world but in baseball sense, a guy turning 26 is advanced to still have rookie status.
One of the so-called older guys I like is Esmailin Caridad. But even he may struggle as he learns to pitch regularly in the majors.
But James Russell? I mean, why do the Cubs need three left-handers in the pen? They already have the overvalued John Grabow and Marshall there.
Meanwhile, who knows what to expect out of Jeff Samardzija. He’ll help the club’s pickup football games to pass the time on the road, if nothing else.
But I’m not trying to be flip here. Really, I’m not. I’m just concerned about a ball club that claims to be a contender trying to win with so many uncertainties.
On a positive note, things have a way of working themselves out, and the rotation should look better once Ted Lilly returns in late April or early May.
But Carlos Marmol as the closer has to be considered an experiment at this point. His slider misses bats but a lot of his pitches miss the strike zone. And you simply can’t afford to walk and hit batters when you come into games with men on base in a close game.
Tom Gorzelanny looked sharp in his last start but if his control (here we go again) goes south, Sean Marshall can always take his place. Marshall pitched very well this spring.
But when Lilly comes back, will Silva remain in the rotation even if he struggles as I predict he will? Or will performance trump contract issues like it should?
The Cubs offense is certainly not without its own question marks, with Aramis Ramirez nursing injuries and guys like Alfonso Soriano, Geo Soto and Mike Fontenot looking to rebound from disastrous seasons.
But pitching is the name of the game, as they say. And the objective of any game is to win, after all.
Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com
- Login to post comments