Pitching simply isn't good enough

Dempster has a sub .200 BABIP, so you know he most probably can’t keep it up (career .307 BABIP).

Bottom line: Hill was expected to improve and is now in the minors. Lilly has been pretty much Lilly like for the last starts. Marquis has been Marquis, which is never a good thing, but it was expected. Zambrano has been gold. Someone will have to step up.

I think people have expected to much from Lieber. He might be an upgrade over Marquis, but not by much. Marshall had a chance today to show what he can do and have up the two HRs. Gallagher didn’t rise up to ocassion either. Seems like noone wants to take it.

What does it all mean? Pretty much that Hill is the one that has to step up to stabilize the rotation. He is the only other pitcher in this staff that has the track record and stuff to be dominant. Hopefully he is back in the majors and being productive SOON.

We all KNEW about the pitching lack of potential, 3-5. Our number 2 starter would be a 3 or 4 on championship-caliber teams. MArquis, Lieber, “They are who we thought they were” Just ok, at best. With MArquis the tendancy to have nothing, several starts in a row.

Keep in mind these things: Jim Hendry is responsible for the Reds getting Volquez (Josh HAmilton), and as much as I totally hate them, the Cardinals are a fantastic baseball organization. Unfortunately, La Russa is the best there is. It makes me wanna hurl. If you look at his WP over the last 10 years, it is truly incredible. This includes a World Series win when a starting pitcher dies during the season. (at least I think it was that year) and, the ressurrection of Jeff Weaver.

“i still wish we had prior”

...season, and things will work themselves out.

IMO, Leiber is going to be fine, and he will end up being very dependable in the rotation. Also, Hendry will be agressive at the deadline if necessary, because he will be trading to get the Cubs deep in the playoffs, and to save his job.

is good enough. They just need to pitch the way their capable of pitching. Lilly needs to keep pitching well and get his era back between 4.20-4.30 by the end of the season. Dempster needs to keep pitching pretty well, and I’m starting to think he will. We just need to get two of Hill, Lieber, Marquis or Marshall pitching well.

but as I have said before I think Lou is messing it up. He threw Hill under a bus for no
good reason. He was no more screwed up than usual until Lou gave him 9 days off and ran him against the Cardinals.

Hill hasn’t been right since the start of spring training, how Lou pitched him wouldn’t have changed anything. It’s up to Hill to throw strikes

He throws out Marmol for TWO uneccessary innings to basically tell the entire BP I don’t trust you.

Or maybe it’s because everybody in the pen pitched Friday besides Marmol? Plus Marmol hasn’t pitched since Saturday and won’t pitch again to Friday at the earliest.

Marshall who pretty much said he WANTED to start in Iowa is rusting in the BP.

100 percent wrong, Marshall wanted to be on the big league roster(said this many times), either in the rotation or in the bullpen. Thats the reason he was cool with trying to make the team as a lefty specialist until Pignatiello beat him up. Pignatiello struggled so Piniella gave Marshall a shot.

Lou needs to show the kind of
faith and patience he gives to LSU boys to some of the pitchers even if many of them
our slightly out of whack.

Stop blaming Lou for our players playing bad. It’s not Lou fault that we made errors and allowed 5 earned runs Monday. It’s not Lou fault that Marquis sucked Sunday, it’s not Lou fault that Wood blew the save in the 9th last week. It’s not Lou fault that Marquis and the pen sucked against the Brewers last week. If the Cubs win two or three of these games they gave away in the last week, were 21-13 or 22-12 and everyone is still sky high and in love with this team.

the reality is, MDBNIUXLML or whatever his name is is right…but not for the reasons he puts forth.

the worry isn’t the cardinals. the cardinals are apparently better than we thought. and we’ll battle them all year along with milwaukee for the central.

but the real worry i have is the playoffs. how are things gonna turn out any different than last year with this staff? z is great. but our #2, lilly, can’t touch arizona’s #2, haren. same with whoever our #3 is vs. theirs, #3 randy johnson.

and even beyond just that match up, how do you win playoff series with a mediocre #2 in this day and age? it can be done. but it’s highly unlikely.

we need another starter. either from within or without. otherwise this year is gonna be a wash, i think.

that’s exactly what i said. i offered no reasoning, logic or support for my worry about the playoffs.

perhaps in my defense i can point out that worrying about the playoffs would make me an optimist, since it would assume we’re going to make the playoffs?

but the real worry i have is the playoffs. how are things gonna turn out any different than last year with this staff? z is great. but our #2, lilly, can’t touch arizona’s #2, haren. same with whoever our #3 is vs. theirs, #3 randy johnson.

Lilly could pitch well against them this year, your talking about one bad start. Maybe Dempster is the number 2 were looking for?

and even beyond just that match up, how do you win playoff series with a mediocre #2 in this day and age? it can be done. but it’s highly unlikely.

No it’s not, everybody besides the Diamondbacks that are contenders have a mediocre number 2. The Mets if Pedro is still hurt it’s John Maine is their number 2, and not a big difference from Lilly or Dempster. Is Brett Myers that much better then Lilly or Dempster in game 2? Is Derek Lowe better then Lilly or Dempster in game 2?

My Hill should NOT have been facing the Cardinals in the FIRST place on 9 days rest. He should have been kept in is regular slot and given a chance to work it out. He was simply was nowhere near bad enough to be treated that way and we all know he is head case so I don’t think "tough love" is the answer

So should he have been facing the Brewers on 6 days rest with his control being awful this year and the way they have pounded LH pitching? I personally don’t think Hill has been treated badly at all. Unless you called being babied as treated bad. If Piniella lets Hill work through some of these jams, or doesn’t pull him early or doesn’t line it up so he can face teams he should do well against. Hill could easily have a high 5 or 6 era right now. If Hill got bombed in a few of these starts Hill confidence could have been crush beyond the point of no return. Now Hill can go down to the minors and get his control and confidence back and look at his ML numbers and say you know what my ML numbers aren’t bad at all I just need to throw strikes and I think I can do that now. If Hill was left in to work himself out of stuff like some are complaining Piniella did with Lilly, and he got crushed Hill wouldn’t be able to say that right now.

”...but I think we have enough pitcher talent here to get the job done.”

CubFan 25 stated the above.

It is obviously a debatable point, seeing all of the posts on the subject. IF (again, IF) the current starters pitch to their abilities, this is probably true when compared to the other contenders. But, we were counting on Rich Hill progressing NOT regressing. Take 15-18 potential wins out of the equation, and we all can do the simple math. I saw a recent stat that was troubling showing Z and Demp were 4 or 5 over .500 in their starts, and all of our other guys were the reverse. Not the mark of a championship rotation. The pitchng pickings were very slim during the off-season, and it appears as we really do not have a MLB-ready stud-in-waiting that can be inserted into the lineup. We are stuck with what we have, and I hope Lilly, Marquis, and Hill can get their shit together, or it is going to be tough to repeat. Good hitting beats crappy pitching.