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<!--quoteo(post=84581:date=Mar 26 2010, 10:39 AM:name=Butcher)-->QUOTE (Butcher @ Mar 26 2010, 10:39 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><!--quotec--><!--quoteo(post=84578:date=Mar 26 2010, 12:33 PM:name=rok)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (rok @ Mar 26 2010, 12:33 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><!--quotec--><!--quoteo(post=84577:date=Mar 26 2010, 12:30 PM:name=Butcher)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Butcher @ Mar 26 2010, 12:30 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><!--quotec--><!--quoteo(post=84575:date=Mar 26 2010, 12:20 PM:name=rok)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (rok @ Mar 26 2010, 12:20 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><!--quotec-->I'm fine with Marshall in the pen actually. The rest of the pen makes me shiver though.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I think Caridad will be really good and Grabow is solid -- we just overpaid for him.
Honestly, I think our pen is just fine if Marmol doesn't implode. <b>If our starters can go 6 or 7 innings consistently</b>, then I'm not worried about the pen.
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That's what has me worried. I think Z and Dempster will be fine. Even Wells seems to be able to consistently go 6, though we'll see how adjusts in his 2nd year. After that though, I have no idea what we are going to get. Even had Marshall been given a rotation spot, being essentially a 5 inning guy, wouldn't have helped much.
We could strike gold with a young reliever or 2, but the jury is still out. Having Gray healthy might make a difference too.
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Believe me, I'm not fooling myself into thinking this is a World Series team, but I actually like the way the pen is built. Sure, it could blow up in our face, but so can signing veteran relievers like Eyre and Howry.
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For the first year, Eyre and Howry were stellar, and until Howry became terrible in 2008, I thought both of those signings were solid.
I hate my pretentious sounding username too.
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<!--quoteo(post=84581:date=Mar 26 2010, 12:39 PM:name=Butcher)-->QUOTE (Butcher @ Mar 26 2010, 12:39 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><!--quotec--><!--quoteo(post=84578:date=Mar 26 2010, 12:33 PM:name=rok)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (rok @ Mar 26 2010, 12:33 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><!--quotec--><!--quoteo(post=84577:date=Mar 26 2010, 12:30 PM:name=Butcher)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Butcher @ Mar 26 2010, 12:30 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><!--quotec--><!--quoteo(post=84575:date=Mar 26 2010, 12:20 PM:name=rok)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (rok @ Mar 26 2010, 12:20 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><!--quotec-->I'm fine with Marshall in the pen actually. The rest of the pen makes me shiver though.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I think Caridad will be really good and Grabow is solid -- we just overpaid for him.
Honestly, I think our pen is just fine if Marmol doesn't implode. <b>If our starters can go 6 or 7 innings consistently</b>, then I'm not worried about the pen.
<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
That's what has me worried. I think Z and Dempster will be fine. Even Wells seems to be able to consistently go 6, though we'll see how adjusts in his 2nd year. After that though, I have no idea what we are going to get. Even had Marshall been given a rotation spot, being essentially a 5 inning guy, wouldn't have helped much.
We could strike gold with a young reliever or 2, but the jury is still out. Having Gray healthy might make a difference too.
<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Believe me, I'm not fooling myself into thinking this is a World Series team, but I actually like the way the pen is built. Sure, it could blow up in our face, but so can signing veteran relievers like Eyre and Howry.
<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I hear ya. I just look at that list, and I really don't know much about 2/3 of it. There's some talent there, but I guess I just need to wait and see how they all fit in.
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Maybe I'm going back to the optimistic side of Cub fandom, but I think overall our pitching staff looks pretty good. I'd actually prefer Marshall as a SP until Lilly returns, but Gorz will be ok. Figure the #5 guy is going to get skipped twice in the first month anyway.
We really don't have an "ace" pitcher. Z, Dempster & Lilly would all be #2's on just about any other roster. If Well's pitches like he did last year, he's a solid #3. Silva and Gorzellany are question marks, but if they both can go about .500 they'll be fine. The bullpen is always a crapshoot. I like that they haven't spent a ton on the bullpen. Grabow is overpaid, but the rest don't cost much and are almost entirely from our minor league system. I'd much prefer that than overpaying for a bunch of middle relievers that seem to always shit the bed for us.
The biggest questions on this team aren't going to be on the pitching side of things. It's going to be the offense and defense.
I got nothin'.
Andy
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You know, when you see the rotation on paper, it's really kind of scary.
Wang.
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And yeah, I agree, the offense and defense are the biggest concerns. However, I tend to think that we underachieved so much offensively (Soriano, Soto and Fontenot can't possibly repeat their shitty years can they?), that we'll see a nice bounceback in terms of run scoring. I don't think we will be in the top 5 or anything in the league, but we should be above average at least. Holding leads and not giving away games because of sloppy defense worry me a great deal, but if we score enough runs we will be in decent shape.
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I think the rotation is fine(assuming Lilly is back by the end of April or so). However, I really don't see how you can realistically be happy about our bullpen. It's laughable on paper right now. Probably a couple of these young guys step up, but we're asking a whole lot out of four guys that spent the majority of last season in the minors. They're all capable of great things, but you can't realistically expect it at all. Now we saw what Berg and Caridad can do last year, and I'm a big fan of Caridad. I expect him to do just fine, maybe dominate. But, meh...
I think the most underrated guy on our pitching staff going into the season is actually Randy Wells. Everybody's expecting him to be much, much worse than last year. While I'm not going to predict an ERA under 3.50, I fully believe he'll be rock solid. He's probably the smartest pitcher on the team and just knows how to hit his spots and execute his pitches(which are all very average at best, but when you can locate them, it doesn't matter).
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<!--quoteo(post=84625:date=Mar 26 2010, 03:16 PM:name=Clapp)-->QUOTE (Clapp @ Mar 26 2010, 03:16 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><!--quotec-->I think the rotation is fine(assuming Lilly is back by the end of April or so). However, I really don't see how you can realistically be happy about our bullpen. It's laughable on paper right now. Probably a couple of these young guys step up, but we're asking a whole lot out of four guys that spent the majority of last season in the minors. They're all capable of great things, but you can't realistically expect it at all. Now we saw what Berg and Caridad can do last year, and I'm a big fan of Caridad. I expect him to do just fine, maybe dominate. But, meh...
I think the most underrated guy on our pitching staff going into the season is actually Randy Wells. Everybody's expecting him to be much, much worse than last year. While I'm not going to predict an ERA under 3.50, I fully believe he'll be rock solid. He's probably the smartest pitcher on the team and just knows how to hit his spots and execute his pitches(which are all very average at best, but when you can locate them, it doesn't matter).<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I try and tell myself not to see Wells as the second coming of Maddux but the kid really hits his spots and he's amazingly cool under pressure. I don't automatically get nervous if he's behind in a count.
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I'm not thrilled about our pen -- and I would be much more confident if Guzman was still a factor.
However, if our starter goes 6 and we have the lead, I feel relatively good about Caridad, Grabow, and Marmol.
If our starter goes 5 or gets knocked out early, then we're most likely fucked for that game anyway. Nobody is going to have a bullpen full of shut-down relievers.
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<!--quoteo(post=84625:date=Mar 26 2010, 03:16 PM:name=Clapp)-->QUOTE (Clapp @ Mar 26 2010, 03:16 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><!--quotec-->I think the rotation is fine(assuming Lilly is back by the end of April or so). However, I really don't see how you can realistically be happy about our bullpen. It's laughable on paper right now. Probably a couple of these young guys step up, but we're asking a whole lot out of four guys that spent the majority of last season in the minors. They're all capable of great things, but you can't realistically expect it at all. Now we saw what Berg and Caridad can do last year, and I'm a big fan of Caridad. I expect him to do just fine, maybe dominate. But, meh...
I think the most underrated guy on our pitching staff going into the season is actually Randy Wells. Everybody's expecting him to be much, much worse than last year. While I'm not going to predict an ERA under 3.50, I fully believe he'll be rock solid. He's probably the smartest pitcher on the team and just knows how to hit his spots and execute his pitches(which are all very average at best, but when you can locate them, it doesn't matter).<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Looking at what he did last year, Wells was our best pitcher. If the team had given him at least a little offense in a few of his starts he could very well have gone 19-8 instead of 12-10
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<!--quoteo(post=84630:date=Mar 26 2010, 02:21 PM:name=Butcher)-->QUOTE (Butcher @ Mar 26 2010, 02:21 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><!--quotec-->I'm not thrilled about our pen -- and I would be much more confident if Guzman was still a factor.
However, if our starter goes 6 and we have the lead, I feel relatively good about Caridad, Grabow, and Marmol.
<b>
If our starter goes 5 or gets knocked out early, then we're most likely fucked for that game anyway. Nobody is going to have a bullpen full of shut-down relievers.</b><!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Well that's certainly going to be the case quite a bit in April at least.
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<!--quoteo(post=84633:date=Mar 26 2010, 03:23 PM:name=Clapp)-->QUOTE (Clapp @ Mar 26 2010, 03:23 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><!--quotec--><!--quoteo(post=84630:date=Mar 26 2010, 02:21 PM:name=Butcher)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Butcher @ Mar 26 2010, 02:21 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><!--quotec-->I'm not thrilled about our pen -- and I would be much more confident if Guzman was still a factor.
However, if our starter goes 6 and we have the lead, I feel relatively good about Caridad, Grabow, and Marmol.
<b>
If our starter goes 5 or gets knocked out early, then we're most likely fucked for that game anyway. Nobody is going to have a bullpen full of shut-down relievers.</b><!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Well that's certainly going to be the case quite a bit in April at least.
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Then throw Marshall in for the 6th.
Marshall, Caridad, Grabow, Marmol.
That really isn't such a bad back end of the bullpen.
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Not bat at all Butchie. Could be a hell of a lot worse.
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<!--quoteo(post=84633:date=Mar 26 2010, 03:23 PM:name=Clapp)-->QUOTE (Clapp @ Mar 26 2010, 03:23 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><!--quotec--><!--quoteo(post=84630:date=Mar 26 2010, 02:21 PM:name=Butcher)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Butcher @ Mar 26 2010, 02:21 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><!--quotec-->I'm not thrilled about our pen -- and I would be much more confident if Guzman was still a factor.
However, if our starter goes 6 and we have the lead, I feel relatively good about Caridad, Grabow, and Marmol.
<b>
If our starter goes 5 or gets knocked out early, then we're most likely fucked for that game anyway. Nobody is going to have a bullpen full of shut-down relievers.</b><!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Well that's certainly going to be the case quite a bit in April at least.
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With Samardzijia and Marshall already in the pen. Sloth or King Hippo will be there when Lilly gets back, there should be plenty of long relief to fill the gap and let Marmol blow the game in the 9th.
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<!--quoteo(post=84642:date=Mar 26 2010, 03:35 PM:name=ruby23)-->QUOTE (ruby23 @ Mar 26 2010, 03:35 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><!--quotec--><!--quoteo(post=84633:date=Mar 26 2010, 03:23 PM:name=Clapp)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Clapp @ Mar 26 2010, 03:23 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><!--quotec--><!--quoteo(post=84630:date=Mar 26 2010, 02:21 PM:name=Butcher)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Butcher @ Mar 26 2010, 02:21 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><!--quotec-->I'm not thrilled about our pen -- and I would be much more confident if Guzman was still a factor.
However, if our starter goes 6 and we have the lead, I feel relatively good about Caridad, Grabow, and Marmol.
<b>
If our starter goes 5 or gets knocked out early, then we're most likely fucked for that game anyway. Nobody is going to have a bullpen full of shut-down relievers.</b><!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Well that's certainly going to be the case quite a bit in April at least.
<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
With Samardzijia and Marshall already in the pen. Sloth or King Hippo will be there when Lilly gets back, there should be plenty of long relief to fill the gap and let Marmol blow the game in the 9th.
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[img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif[/img]
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Jesus... Samardzija used to at least have a fastball.
Well, not a well located one, but it had velocity at least.
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