Cubs Pitchers Rank Themselves

This is a pretty neat article about a survey of 18 Cubs pitchers as to who has the best stuff.

Notables:

Starter to win one game
Dempster: 55.8 percent

Reliever to get one out
Marmol: 72.2 percent

Nastiest pitch
Zambrano's slider, slitter, sinker: 5.9 percent
Anything by Zambrano: 11.8 percent
Marmol slider: 47.1 percent

7 months ago cubsonWGN4ever 8 comments 2 recs |

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I’m perturbed as to how Marmol isn’t approaching 100% in “reliever to get one out”. Also, I’ve been told Rich’s fastball is deceptively fast and “snaps” out of the hand so hard it can shock the hitter. Yet he doesn’t have the best FB on the team?

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by dtpollitt on Mar 29, 2009 8:40 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

maybe it's because Z's fastball is so heavy

that it’s just so unhittable? Deception and Heaviness are two different traits in a fastball. With a deceptive fastball, it might be harder to hit but with a heavy fastball sinker, the hitter just can’t do much with it because it just demolishes the hitters hands and that’s more fearsome. That’s my theory.

by cubsonWGN4ever on Mar 29, 2009 9:14 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

you can adjust to deception

heavy means also it is hard to get lift. Z’s ball has a very late break, it is moving through the strike zone so when striking the ball you often are not hitting the sweet spot on the bat, and thus why the reference to the hands.

Harden is a swing and miss guy—-timing

Which in many ways why Harden and Z have to be healthy and ready for the post season and why the Cubs need one more horse….Dempster and Lilly are grinders….I really think that getting the one big horse puts the Cubs over the top and allows the Cubs to move Lilly and Dempster to the pen in the playoffs making them very strong.

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by Ivy Walls on Mar 29, 2009 10:01 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Nice analysis

The only disagreement I have is with putting dempster into the pen. More than half the Cubs would choose to have Dempster out of all the starters. starting a must-win game That means something I would think.

by cubsonWGN4ever on Mar 29, 2009 11:55 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Also I believe

that is why Harden has the most feared changeup, because of the deceptive speed on his fastball, the changeup could really mess you up.

Opening Day 2009 can't come soon enough!

by TyCubsfan on Mar 29, 2009 6:05 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

It's encouraging to read

that Gregg’s fastball and splitter are ranked highly. I suspect Gregg will be a pleasant surprise this year, based on what I’ve seen from him so far in ST.

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by Goodie1969 on Mar 29, 2009 10:16 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs