I like these ideas. Give the kids a shot, and if one of them doesn’t get it done, send him down and try another one, as opposed to being saddled with a large FA contract that the Cubs may not be able to move if it doesn’t work. Assuming we’re in contention, this may free Hendry to resolve whatever issues we have at the trade deadline.

that I agree with Al on this one. Patton has shown nothing, and Sharky-boy needs to be a reliever until he develops another pitch or two. With Heilman out of the way, let’s give Berg and Gaub both a shot in the spring and see what develops. Use the money for a center fielder!!

Caridad has impressed on every level. I hope he gets a long look.

pitch in Colorado in one of his first outings for us, after the Rockies went up big. He does have a live arm and doesn’t seem to get rattled easily.

All of the aforementioned are indeed mediocre and in all likelihood, given more of an opportunity on this particular club, will perform much worse. Keep in mind here, I’m not suggesting the signing of a free agent mediocre arm, a tick below what Capps actually is. But rather, am recognizing that pitching for Piniella as a younger, inexperienced pitcher in a situation where tensions and expectations are high, is usually a recipe for disaster. Pitching in Pittsburgh and Washington where very few people care or expect success is one thing. Pitching in Chicago in a season that is setting up to be rather turbulent and stressful is difficult to say the least.

I’m guessing that all things considered more of the arms mentioned above will fail rather than succeed under those circumstances…hence Hendry’s likely idea to find a veteran that has had at least a modicum of success in a bullpen role.

As an aside, I think the starting rotation is a much greater concern at this point no matter who you are going to “pencil” in here in December. And lastly, any mention of Carlos Silva pitching meaningful innings at any time, in any role in Chicago is speculative at the very, very best.

in house. i believe we have guys that can do the job. caridad looked really good setting up for marmol. if the team cant or wont spend money then we need to look in house. does not look like ricketts wants to start throwing money around anytime soon. i believe he wants to go the boston way and start developing our own players.

I agree with Al. I think the best way to handle the bullpen is to have young guys from your own org fill the roles rather than pay out big bucks for veterans. Reason being? RP are prone to wildly varying season from year to year due in part to the fact that they only pitch 60 or so innings a season. In the kind of sample size even guys like Joe Borowski can put in a great year or two. The only time I would spend money on a FA RP is to get a guy with a long track record of success or a premier closer if you didnt have your own shut down arm in the pen.

One name Al forgot to include that I think could be the best pen arm of them all was Andrew Cashner. The Cubs are trying to make him a starter and last year was very encouraging but Cashner has the stuff be in the bigs right now. I could see him or even Chris Carpenter getting a look in the bullpen this year.

Still a very well thought out approach Al and one I hope the team sticks to. The only question is will we spend ANY money on ANYBODY this offseason?

I’m sick and tired of getting burned by free agents………..End of story.

I’m not comfortable with the three G’s handling the setup duties, but unless a pen arm is relatively cheap (and I don’t rule out that Kiko Calero might not get more than 2 mil … which I’d be interested in), I don’t really see the point of adding another guy. As for the rest of the pen, I’ve long argued that no team should ever sign middle relievers unless it is for the minimum. I’m just against that. Every organization should have middle relief arms of some sort. Thus, I would be perfectly happy going with a pen full of internal options.

At this early juncture, the indications seem to suggest that Marshall, while likely to get a look at the rotation, is probably going back to the pen. If so, I’d keep Gaub down in AAA and utilize Marshall as a 2nd lefty/long man. While I’ve argued that Gaub has plus-LOOGY ability (able to deal with rh’s a bit … marc hulet has argued that he could be a setup man – numbers wise, I agree with Hulet, stuff wise, I’m not sure), there’s no point to keep him as a 3rd lefty that gets minimal time at the start of the year if Marshall is going to be in the pen.

I’d rather see Silva in the pen, but I think Al is probably correct and that Silva will be given a chance to fail first. I’d guess that the loser of Gorzelanny/Samardzija also heads to AAA (ideally, we’d add another arm to the mix to compete, but working off what we have right now). I imagine Caridad will get one slot … unless we sign someone, which might push him back to Iowa to keep his arm stretched out. That said, Caridad throws strikes, which makes any manager happier. He got a bit overhyped off AFL last fall, as people saw the velo from short stints and assumed he could hold it as a starter, but he could be a quality pen arm with some borderline setup potential. Berg probably gets the other spot, and while I’m okay with that (both Berg/Caridad, as former starters, could also probably be asked to shoulder some extended innings if called upon), I’m a bit concerned that Berg may be more a situational righty. We need more data to really know, but even though pen arms can survive off a limited arsenal, he really goes to the sinker the way that Wuertz went to the slider. Sure, he has a great sinker, a true power sinker, and he could be called upon when you need a dp. But that’s a very limited use for a guy.

At some point this season, I think Blake Parker will take a slot in the pen. His stuff is solid enough and he has a good approach, despite the walks. He’s got borderline setup stuff, but with the addition of Gray, I think they keep Parker in Iowa as the closer to start. I know there’s going to be a lot of clamoring for Cashner, but I imagine that won’t happen until midseason at best. The Cubs are going to try this starting experiment as long as possible. Samardzija might make a solid pen arm if they committed to that. Chris Carpenter and Jay Jackson are both watching, as both, if they struggle as starters, could be late inning pen arms. Scott Maine, from the Heilman trade, could figure into the lefty mix this year if the need arises. There’s other arms. Greg Reinhard might be an overachiever of sorts that finds a role.

Short of it is, there’s more than enough options for the future, and more than enough options for the present. Outside of an occasional signing, our pen should be built from internal options as much as possible.

To the posters in this thread who feel that this list of internal candidates reeks of mediocrity I say “this is the mid/back of the bullpen, it is in some ways supposed to be mediocre.” Every man on the pitching staff can’t be closer quality, and frankly the prospect of paying millions for supposedly elite setup men is not that enticing. The Nationals might have their man with Capps, or they might have spent dearly for a 5+ ERA guy who might end up worse than the guy they let go (McDougal) who actually did a decent job for the Nats last year.

Kind of the same argument with expecting our #5 starter to be ace quality. I think of the guys available to fill the 3 slots there is enough talent – the trick of course is seeing if 3 of them step up in Spring Training and then picking the right three if in fact their Spring performance is muddled. That latter scenario is probably most likely – 5 or 6 guys who do pretty well and then Cubs brass have to make tough choices.

I am less excited about Marmol/Grabow/Guzman component than many here. Guzman was not the same pitcher once he came back from the injury and gave up a lot of HRs. Grabow did not finish especially sharp either and Marmol is a complete question mark. But more than that, the Cubs – even during non-playoff seasons – play a lot of close games and if the rest of the bullpen doesn’t step up Pinella is going to once again feel compelled to ride these 3 guys for serious innings.

Can he be sent to AAA? He seems to have been up and down quite a few times.. anyone know the answer?

Spending money on relief pitching is such a gamble, and tested relievers usually only pan out for part of their long-term contracts (see: Howry, Bob) — if they pan out at all (see: Heilman, Aaron). That said, I wouldn’t mind Calero for a year.

But I’d much rather see the Cubs upgrade at second and in center. The organization has been much deeper when it comes to young arms (Marmol, Guzman, Shark ‘08, Marshall) than young bats. If we’re going to depend on call ups, I’d rather have them be pitchers.

2010 shall be a season where Cub fans wait patiently for the offseason, when presumably Jim Hendry and Lou Piniella will be gone as part of Tom Ricketts FINALLY implementing his strategy for the baseball operation.

When the Cubs are rumored not to be able to afford Reed Johnson then that tells you all you need to know about this offseason and how 2010 will likely pan out.

Go with the internal options…Stevens, Gaub, Berg, etc. Give Ryne Sandberg a leg up on piecing together his bullpen for 2011.

A small sample size to be sure, but he is a big framed guy who has a good command of the strike zone. As much as you can guess on any pitcher he looks like he’ll hold up physically. He seemed to have a good mental make-up too.
Caridad looked good too. I am not just putting an apple on Al’s desk, but I think we have enough in-house options. And, lets face it, the number one thing was to get rid of some of the deadwood.
If Hendry is smart this year he’ll save some money so that if bullpen help is needed he can go out in June or July and add an arm or two. That is the same reason I applaud Al for proposing a Johnson/Fuld CF platoon. We could do much worse, and we need some flexibility.