Gloves were flipped with splitter grips, bats were broken over knees, Sharks were jumped (from A ball to the Show), a Fox and an Angel returned, there was an embarassment of Riches, but no gloves were thrown after HRs.  Who was the Cubs pitching MVP?

I'm giving season stats for the players, so for several it incorporates their work across two teams.  Below we have their innings pitched (IP), hitters AVG/OBP/SLG against them, their Batting Average on Balls In Play (BABIP), the hits per 9 innings, bases on balls per nine, strikeouts per nine, home runs per nine, their groundball percentage, the number of balls and strikes they threw, and finally the number of outs they recorded.

N. Cotts 35.7 IP, .266/.325/.455, .333 BABIP, 9.59 H9, 3.28 BB9, 10.85 K9, 1.77 HR9, .38 GB%, 308 Strikes, 258 Balls, 107 Outs

R. Dempster 206.7 IP, .227/.300/.341, .283 BABIP, 7.58 H9, 3.31 BB9, 8.14 K9, .61 HR9, .49 GB%, 1543 Strikes, 1252 Balls, 620 Outs

S. Eyre 25.7 IP, .242/.302/.432, .344 BABIP, 8.06 H9, 2.45 BB9, 11.22 K9, .70 HR9, .37 GB%, 225 Strikes, 180 Balls, 77 Outs

S. Gallagher 115.3 IP, .263/.349/.439, .315 BABIP, 9.21 H9, 4.53 BB9, 8.04 K9, 1.01 HR9, .37 GB%, 917 Strikes, 851 Balls, 346 Outs

C. Gaudin 90 IP, .265/.319/.412, .315 BABIP, 9.20 H9, 2.70 BB9, 7.10 K9, 1.10 HR9, .39 GB%, 625 Strikes, 560 Balls, 270 Outs

R. Harden 148 IP, .183/.269/.287, .254 BABIP, 5.84 H9, 3.71 BB9, 11.01 K9, .67 HR9, .31 GB%, 1232 Strikes, 913 Balls, 444 Outs

K. Hart 27.7 IP, .325/.423/.492, .389 BABIP, 12.69 H9, 5.86 BB9, 7.48 K9, .65 HR9, .60 GB%, 250 Strikes, 243 Balls, 83 Outs

R. Hill 19.7 IP, .191/.360/.324, .216 BABIP, 5.95 H9, 8.24 BB9, 6.86 K9, .92 HR9, .36 GB%, 145 Strikes, 164 Balls, 59 Outs

B. Howry 70.7 IP, .309/.338/.543, .352 BABIP, 11.46 H9, 1.66 BB9, 7.51 K9, 1.66 HR9, .35 GB%, 552 Strikes, 418 Balls, 212 Outs

J. Lieber 46.7 IP, .306/.328/.549, .314 BABIP, 11.38 H9, 1.16 BB9, 5.21 K9, 1.93 HR9, .41 GB%, 306 Strikes, 221 Balls, 140 Outs

T. Lilly 204.7 IP, .239/.300/.432, .274 BABIP, 8.22 H9, 2.81 BB9, 8.09 K9, 1.41 HR9, .35 GB%, 1569 Strikes, 1115 Balls, 614 Outs

C. Marmol 87.3 IP, .135/.250/.257, .174 BABIP, 4.12 H9, 4.23 BB9, 11.75 K9, 1.03 HR9, .36 GB%, 759 Strikes, 601 Balls, 262 Outs

J. Marquis 167 IP, .268/.339/.403, .292 BABIP, 9.27 H9, 3.77 BB9, 4.90 K9, .81 HR9, .49 GB%, 1093 Strikes, 1057 Balls, 501 Outs

S. Marshall 65.3 IP .245/.312/.424, .287 BABIP, 8.27 H9, 3.17 BB9, 7.99 K9, 1.24 HR9, .43 GB%, 492 Strikes, 379 Balls, 196 Outs

J. Samardzija 27.7 IP .226/.323/.274, .296 BABIP, 7.81 H9, 4.88 BB9, 8.13 K9, 0.00 HR9, .47 GB%, 209 Strikes, 211 Balls, 83 Outs

K. Wood 66.3 IP, .219/.286/.344, .319 BABIP, 7.33 H9, 2.44 BB9, 11.40 K9, .41 HR9, .43 GB%, 568 Strikes, 357 Balls, 199 Outs

M. Wuertz 44.7 IP .267/.339/.400, .305 BABIP, 8.87 H9, 4.03 BB9, 6.04 K9, .81 HR9, .46 GB%, 325 Strikes, 289 Balls, 134 Outs

C. Zambrano 188.7 IP, .241/.314/.370, .273 BABIP, 8.20 H9, 3.43 BB9, 6.20 K9, .86 HR9, .48 GB%, 1281 Strikes, 1204 Balls, 566 Outs

So, who here thought at the beginning of the season that Ryan Dempster and Jason Marquis would be better pitchers than Rich Hill and Jon Lieber?  That's one of the best arguments for pitching depth.  Pitching is a tough thing to do.  The more options you have, the better.

Bob Howry turned all opposing hitters into Alfonso Soriano.  Jon Lieber's season line looks similar in several ways  to Howry, although there's a mystery to Lieber's season.  Against all teams other than Cincinatti, Lieber had a 1.81 ERA.  I still wonder if Cinci had a scoop on Jon tipping pitches.  I would not re-sign Howry.  I would re-sign Lieber.  In fact, if Lieber's healthy, I think there's a decent chance Lieber could out-perform Dempster in 2009.

Carlos Zambrano's K9 was 5.84 in the first half when his ERA was 2.84.  It was 6.85 in the second half when his ERA was 5.80.  Is this representative of Zambrano's intial shift in pitching style, where he tried to pitch to more contact?  Over the past three years, Z's K9 has taken a steep drop - 8.83 in 2006, 7.36 in 2007, and 6.20 this year.  I'll be curious to hear BCB's opinions on Z's pitching shift, both the one at the beginning of the season and the one he made in-season.

Rich Hill - what is there to say, other than to marvel that the Cubs lost their #2 pitcher and won 97 games.

Look at that line from Samardzija - no Home Runs.  None.  There's definitely something here and someone who, at the beginning of the season, was a poster child for a failing farm system, is now the poster child for a farm system that has brought productive players out from places the scouting writing community didn't expect.

Kerry Wood was very good.  He fits the closer role very well.  You look at his BABIP and see that he had a good season despite a bit of bad luck among his fielders.  Carlos Marmol, on the other hand, looked absolutely unhittable for large sections of the season.  I'm noting, however, that low BABIP and wondering how much of Marmol's season was luck.  Thoughts?

Lou gave more of a chance to Kevin Hart than to Scott Eyre.  Eye for talent, right?

Ted Lilly with back-to-back 200+ IP seasons - whodathunkit?  Ted cut his walk rate back to 2.32 in the second half and that's really key for him.  Because he can give up a HR at any moment, he has to keep his free passes low.  All in all, the Cubs have managed Ted well - this has been a good match for Ted, Lou, Larry, and kudos to Jim - a feather in his EKG machine.

For 3 out of the last 4 years, Jason Marquis has been pretty much league average or slightly better.  Despite the fact that his contract jumps this year, I wonder if the Cubs wouldn't have to eat that much of his salary if they wanted to trade him.  Marquis is an asset as a 4/5 starter.  I'd just rather see the Cubs use a combo of Samardzija/Marshall/Lieber in that spot in 2009.

So, I'm comparing Gallagher's line to Chad Gaudin's and I'm wondering - is Gallagher really any better than Gaudin, let alone worth Rich Harden, too?  Thanks, Billy, although, I must say, what we got from you didn't work in the playoffs for us either.