Blow-Up

Al, you said "In a stunning display of inept relief pitching".

How is it so stunning when we should epect this for a poorly talented bullpen.  Obviously you don't expect them to pitch this badly, but whenever they blow a save (13 this year) or lose a game (18 this year), it really doesn't stun me anymore.  i have almost become immune.

But yes, it was a very touhg loss today.

I'm not off the Adam bandwagon, but he did have a poor performance today; 0-4 with a couple of strikeouts and 7 (!) runners stranded.

I understand that Baker is trying to find a guy to consistently be in the set-up role, but I really don't think that Big Wacky (my personal nickname for Novoa) is going to be that guy.  He got some key outs in the seventh today, but his performance in the eighth was really really bad.

I agree with anyone who says that the Cubs should focus on acquiring a solid reliever, and just wait a couple more weeks for Nomar to be able to (hopefully) provide that extra bit of offense.

I don't think Rusch should start in place of Wood. Mitre needs it more. Like Dusty would ever do that though? COME ON!

Games like today's sometimes have a lingering effect, but not always.  It was just one game, and if we do well against the Cardinals it will be forgotten about.

Two weeks ago, if someone had offered 8 of 11, but the 11th was to be a painful blowout, what would you have said?  Let's not get too down on them.  

...Did excellent last year, quite a turnaround from his 1-12 season in 03 with the Brewers.

What I mean is that Dusty has Mitre, a starter who has many good innings under his belt, sitting around in the bullpen, getting to pitch every other day. He needs to quit wasting that talent and let Mitre start. This is an opportunity that Dusty should notice.

I don't see how anyone thinks the Cubs have a chance at the wild card. And this is even if Wood could have stayed healthy.  I would be amazed even with a healthy Wood that they could even play 550 ball against Houston and St Louis.  When is the last time they have even won a series there.  They still have series against the Braves and Phillies.  The Phils are certainly an up and down team, but they are capable of taking three from the Cubs.

The Bull Pen has been far from dependable. Only the great catch by Harriston kept them in the game today.  I think Dusty should be batting him and Walker 1-2 every game from here on out.  I don't get to watch enough games, because I am not in a comcast area, but it seems to me they have to be more agressive in their base running.  

I don't know if any one would take Wood at this point, but I think he has to go.  He has great stats as far as era and batting average.  I don't put that much stock in actual pitchers win, because it is a team effort.  But he can not stay healthy, his control is terrible.  He is 28 and there doesn't seem to be any hope he can remain healthy for an entire season.  If Patterson shows any type of improvement, trade him too.

...not enough reality. There are some ridiculous ideas floating around Cub Nation after yesterday's deafeat and I for one would like to see us all catch our breath and face facts. No, technically the Cubs have not been eliminated, and there is a precedent of mediocre teams turning it around in the final two months. But come on, there seems to be a Steinbrenner disease going around: "I demand untenable solutions to problems that are of our own making and I demand them now!" To wit:

1. NO ONE IS GOING TO TAKE KERRY WOOD OFF OUR HANDS. Keep repeating that. To think otherwise is nuts. What GM worth his salt would mortgage the final two months on a pitcher with obvious structural and mechanical flaws? None. He's our Kerry, at least for the rest of this season.
2. All this hand-wringing over the bullpen: "Hendry better get bullpen help now! I demand bullpen help!" Just who is Hendry going to get? Has it not occurred to Cubs fans that every GM of a team in true contention is looking for bullpen help? Theo Epstein is DESPERATE for bullpen help and he has the talent, money and will to make what little is out there happen. Hendry is competing with at least half a dozen teams for very few reliable arms.
3. All teams, including the Yankees, must live with offseason mistakes, and the Cubs are now living with the lack of roster foresight that characterized the winter. It can't be "fixed" now, only tweaked.

This might sound like heresy to some of the blindly faithful out there; but there is no savior  waiting out there to propel this team to the wild card. Honestly, if the Cubs can't ride the wave of baseball's best player, what can they do with Kearns/Dunn/Huff/Griffey/Wagner/Guardado/Winn/blah blah blah whomever...keeping the faith doesn't mean giving up reason; let's enjoy the rest of the season with a sense of hopeful dignity, not irrational hysteria.

has a no trade clause.  So basically he ain't going anywhere because of that.  I am SURE there would be GM's who would take him, but the only place I see Wood accpeting a trade to would be Texas.

Remember some GM's signed some crazy deals (Milton, Brown) to pitchers that were crazy, so with Wood's potential it is not crazy to think a GM would take him, but he would have to agree.  Remember we got LA to take Hundley for Grudz and Karros.

...the intelligence of good GM's, and good GM's work for good teams in the playoff hunt who are looking for bona-fide investments for the short and long term. Kerry does not fit that description.

You also fail to appreciate that the Cubs wouldn't get fair trade value for Kerry even if some GM were to take that risk; a couple of years ago, Kerry would have commanded top talent, but that's not the case right now. Eric Milton was signed because 1)He was healthy and available in a weak off-season for FA pitchers and 2)becuase Dan O'Brien overvalues W/L records and doesn't look at peripheral stats. LA took Hundley before Paul DePodesta took over that team, and that was a fluke steal. Kevin Brown was a broken pitcher, but he had at least put up phenomenal numbers MANY times in his career and the Dodgers and Yankees historically overpaid free agent veterans. Both teams are learning their lessons.

Younger GM's with some business and SABR smarts aren't going to take a 28 year old pitcher who has only started 30 games twice and has obviously been throwing the wrong way for a long time. More and more it appears that Kerry's future is in the pen, where minimal use may yield maximum value.

I often think that the reason no major Cub deals were made during the past off-season was the need to payoff a lot of Sosa's salary this year.  It may be that the Cubs brass looked at that and decided to let the team do what it could without any expensive acquisitions.  

If the Cubs were in a better position now, then they might splurge on someone to help their wild card chances, but I doubt they'll be willing to take on much extra salary.  

A straight trade, in which the salary obligations traded away about equal those taken on, would be consistent with what they've been doing.  There will be some trade, just to satisfy the fans who demand it, but not necesarily anything big.

Really, I think that as early as last winter they were already looking to the 2006 season as the time to make their move, and that's why they didn't look for obviously needed relief help then.