Fixing Rich's Mistakes
Obviously Rich Hill has forgotten to complete his delivery. He's leaving pitches up...and in and out and everywhere but in the strike zone. He needs work and will quickly become Larry Rothschild's special project. Hopefully he fixes himself. Until then, things need to change and here's how I would do it.
Technically the Cubs have seven guys on their staff that have, and probably still can, start for the Cubs. They have the five in the rotation and then Marshall and Lieber in the pen. I would move Hill to the bullpen, Marshall to the rotation and leave Lieber in the long relief role. He has thrived there and I have a feeling we may need his spot starting later in the season. Not to mention the fact that Marshall is a lefty leaving two in the rotation.
I know that Marshall has been working in short relief lately, but I think we can fix his stamina fairly quickly and here's how...
Lilly is slated to pitch today. I would quickly explain to Lilly that because of his later inning struggles this year he's only pitching four innings. Give us four very good, innings. That's all we need. After the fourth (or earlier if Lilly runs into problems) throw Marshall in there. Let him throw at least three or four innings. This could serve a two-fold purpose here. You taxed your bullpen yesterday (as with every other Hill start) so it allows you to go 7 or 8 innings with two guys and it allows Marshall to regain a bit of stamina. Let's not forget he was starting just a few weeks back so it shouldn't take long. I know they could both go out there and get hammered but someone is going to have to take their lumps so let it be these two.
In addition to that I would call up J.R. Mathes from AAA and send down Fox. I know Fox is a great story and he pitched relatively well last night, but he's the weakest link right now. This gives you another lefty in the pen and Mathes has pitched well in AAA this year. He has a 3.41 ERA with a 1.03 WHIP. Regardless, he's a temporary fix.
I don't know how they are going to restore Hill's confidence and I think that's the biggest thing that needs to be done. He looks beat on the mound. He struck out the first batter of the game yesterday on three pitches, which should give him a ton of confidence but he still looked rattled. Last year he seemed to walk out there with this aura. He seemed to say "Here's my fastball, here's my curve ball. Do what you can." Now he looks scared to throw in the strike zone. There's a reason Rothschild is one of the best pitching coaches in the league and I expect him to fix that. We'll see the Hill of last year before the season is over.
I haven't run these plans by Jim or Lou, but they shouldn't have a problem with them so expect to see these roster moves today!
This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of SB Nation or Al Yellon, managing editor (unless it's a FanPost posted by Al). FanPost opinions are valued expressions of opinion by passionate and knowledgeable baseball fans.
25 comments
|
0 recs |
Do you like this story?
Comments
No
Cubs don’t have the luxury of having Rich Hill work out his problems in the pen. We need fresh arms and innings out of the pen, not someone who can’t get his curveball over the plate and has an extremely hittable fastball as his arsenal. The best thing to do is send Hill to the minors and let him hopefully get back on track.
Why
dont you stop commenting alltogether and just provide links to the other times you have said the exact same thing over and over again. We understand you position and opinion and please bring something fresh to the table…..
"Hey.....Cubs win!!!" ---Harry
"Swung on belted!!!"---Chip
I disagree because in AAA you have a ton of “hackers”. Guys come to the plate swinging away. I can’t see how the Cubs want him getting rocked in AAA.
Hill dominated AAA...
... for two years. Why wouldn’t he dominate it now? At least he’d get his confidence back.
"That's my opinion and if you don't like it, well, I have others." ~ Groucho Marx
He posted a 3.60 ERA with 11 home runs in just over 60 innings. Transfer that over 180 innings in a season and it’s 33 with less talented hitters. Not domination. That being said, his strikeouts were really high, possibly a part of the high swing and miss rate?
Did you look at the WHIP?
1.03. 14 walks in 65 innings. That was his 2005 season, incidentally.
In 2006, in 100 innings at Iowa, he allowed THREE home runs, had a 0.83 WHIP, a 1.80 ERA and 135 strikeouts. I’d say that’s “domination”.
"That's my opinion and if you don't like it, well, I have others." ~ Groucho Marx
well
he can’t pitch in games in the majors. we just can’t risk it. he needs a few days off to seriously work on his mechanics. they’re a mess right now. so whether he does that all in side sessions or in the minors is irrelevant. what’s relevant is whether or not we can spare the bullpen slot for a guy we can’t use. i’m not sure we can.
maybe rich needs to discover a “strained oblique” and spend some time on the DL working on this stuff…
The problem with the "fix Rich Hill" diary from the fan perspective
is that we don’t know what’s wrong with him. He pitched a lot of innings last year and he may have a nagging injury, even if he denies it. It may be mental. The solution to Rich Hill would be wildly different depending on what the problem is.
I don’t fault you for making a diary on the subject. It’s just my perspective that on Hill, we don’t have enough perspective.
I do wonder if we could trade Hill to a team that’s not planning on contending and get a good pitcher back. Would the Giants be willing to swap us Matt Cain for Hill if we took on another of their bad contracts (not the Zito contract, of course)? I like Hill in their ballpark and leftys in the NL West are valuable. As for the bad contract – I’d take Ray Durham and call him an improvement on Fontenot. Also, swapping Rich for a righty allows Marshall into the rotation and I like a Zambrano-Cain-Lilly-Dempster-Marshall rotation a lot better than the one we have now.
I would hate to see the Cubs dump him already. I would rather see a patch for this season given his potential down the road.
I'm not talking dump him; I'd hate to see that, too.
I’m talking about swapping him for a pitcher with similar service time who also hasn’t had his potential maximized by his current team. Let’s see if our coach can help their guy and their coach can help our guy.
Given the struggles of Zito ...
I would venture that the Giants are wary of acquiring any pitcher who bears even a small resemblance to him, especially one who is also struggling.
I do not think Giants management is down on Cain. Brian Sabean is taking a lot of heat for the lack of minor league development during his tenure. His only saving grace right now is the young starting rotation-Lincecum, Cain, Sanchez, etc-that can deflect some of the criticism. So I don’t think Cain is available. Plus he’s only 23, while Hill is already 28.
I would...
give him another start or two and see what happens. After all, if left in last night, he may just have gotten out of the inning and settled down and pitched a good game. Who knows, stranger things have happened. IMO, Lou did the wrong thing by taking him out so early.
"The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball"
wow that was far too long
He’s just not a good pitcher and not only that, but he has no BALLS when he is on the mound, like i’ve been saying for….ohhh quite some time. He has a GREAT curve but nothing else. That only last’s so many times around in this league if you only have 2 pitches….just ask brry zito. (who actually has 3 pitches).
Over time, your quickness with a cocky rejoinder must have gotten you many punches in the face - Al Swearengen
Barry's facing a loss in velocity right now
and he was successful for seven seasons in a row in Oakland, so I’m not sure how he makes your point. Rich isn’t having trouble getting hit hard right now; he’s having trouble with his command.
by DGU on May 3, 2008 1:40 PM CDT up reply actions
You can't keep a guy in there after he's issued four walks in an inning
He was completely lost out there. Believe me, the last thing Lou wanted to do was go to our bullpen in the first inning but letting Hill face another hitter would have been almost sadistic.
I agree that it’s difficult for any of us to figure out what should be done when we don’t know exactly what the problem is. Assuming that it’s mental, sending him down to AAA and giving him a chance to relax and rebuild his confidence is probably the only thing they can do at this point.
I agree that Lou needed to do what he did but
anyone else think that Lou was also taking out some frustration about leaving in Soriano the night before on poor little Rich Hill?
I think no matter what Lou says, he would have liked to take out Soriano but is worried about his ego. Psychoanalytically speaking, I think Lou showed us all what displacement means. It worked out IMO but I think he was doing what he wished he could have/should have done the day before.
Just sayin…
Calm down.
by Kinky Reggae on May 4, 2008 12:15 AM CDT up reply actions
I am not a big Hill fan
but I still think Lou helped destroy his confidence. How much worse would it have been
if they just let him stay in the rotation instead of throwing him out against the Cardinals
after 9 days off. I don’t care if his numbers were better against the Cards than the Brewers.
We all know Hill is fragile and stubborn but I also think he has great stuff but needs a little
of the coddling Sori is getting. Clearly his confidence is destroyed and while I know he is the problem Lou did not help any. The scrappy guys get a pass despite limited range and problems making contact in key situations but Hill and Murton just end up on the shit list
in Iowa. Soriano is so bad now that Murton would actually be a defensive IMPROVEMENT
which is saying A LOT. Lou should not be letting Soriano call the shots and he might have a little more patience with players not named Soriano.
Totally agree..
Theriot, Fonty, and Sori can do no wrong in Lou’s world. I’m just surprised that Pie is still here. He seems to be on the shit list along with Hill and Murton…
"The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball"
Hill needs to loosen up...
...and just go out there and throw. You can tell, he thinks way too much and ends up getting paralysis from analysis.
I have no idea whether he can change his mental approach or not, time will tell.
"I don't like them fellas that drive in two runs but let in three" Casey Stengel
hill
hill has been struggling since the spring so this is not something new.granted if he were on the rays he could try to work things out.lou wants to win now and will not tolerate this.as we speak hill is on his way to aaa.pie soon to follow????cubs will not commit to this guy.too bad.too many expectations and the need to win in chicago.
It would be so
much easier to read your comments if you used capital letters at the beginning of your sentences and spaces between sentences.

by 
























