Pitching Woes

After taking three out of four from the rebuilding Phillies in less than dominant fashion, the Cubs have dropped the last two to the resurgent Yankees.  Friday's loss was a bummer.  Hendricks, who is increasingly becoming the only really reliable starter in the rotation who doesn't give up a crooked number in the first inning, pitched well.  Tough luck for Rondon, who had been very good to that point, giving up the home run to Gardner after forty pitches.

The Cubs made some roster moves after blowing out the bullpen.  They designated Szczur for assignment in order to add another reliever, then demoted Grimm to bring up a fourteenth pitcher.  To me there is something wrong with roster management and bullpen usage when you need to carry more than twelve pitchers, but fourteen is a step too far.

In any case, there are really two causes for this situation.  One is that Maddon really prefers using his relievers for a single inning.  This is fine if your starters are getting out of the sixth inning snf preferably the seventh, but not so good if they are not.

The Cubs starters, even the proven veterans, are not.  More often than not, they are getting beaten up in the first inning.  Are these guys warming up?  Are they so predictable in their pitch selection the other team is ready until they adjust?  Is warming up in the indoor bullpen affecting things?  Not questions a fan can answer, but something is wrong here.

One thing that is definitely wrong is Brett Anderson, who is always full of excuses, but who is just very likely not the pitcher he or baseball guys think he is.  As readers of this blog are aware, I never thought much about bringing Anderson on over the winter and handing him the fifth starter role, a role which I and most other observers though would go to Montgomery on merit and potential.

Acquiring Anderson effectively relegated Montgomery to relief and, coupled with Wood electing free agency, created another hole with respect to having a second lefty for short relief.  With Anderson proving a complete flop and now headed to the DL, the problem is compounded, but possibly creates an opportunity to achieve an appropriate resolution.

I was sorry to see Szczur wind up on the short end here.  He was surely not an integral part of the team, but he was a good bench player who gave it his all.  I hope he lands somewhere where he can get more playing time.

World Series Preview?

The Boston series was widely hyped as potentially a World Series preview.  It did not disappoint in terms of close, tense, hard-fought games.  The Cubs came out on the short end mainly because of two innings, the first inning of Arrieta's start and the eighth inning of Sunday night's game when the team uncharacteristically disintegrated after a botched play by Uehara covering first.

Actually, neither the Red Sox nor the Cubs are playing great baseball these days, though the potential is certainly there for a Series rematch.

On the subject of the Cubs, Maddon insists he has no worries and he is very satisfied, every season is different, the starting pitching will settle down, the hitters will produce.  I suppose he is right.  Almost certainly he is right about the hitting.

Really the only player in the long run who may not right the ship is Baez.  Baez continues to just play in swing mode all the time.  It is possible the Cubs will just get used to that version of things.  However, should Baez continue along these lines, he is effectively limiting himself to his current role.  He also becomes increasingly expendable given the progress of other prospects in the farm system.  Ian Happ, to make the obvious connection.  Happ is beginning to look like Zobrist raised to a higher power.

I'm a little more hesitant to second Maddon's opinion about the starting pitching returning to the dominance they exerted last year.  Lester and Hendricks and probably Arrieta for sure.  Maybe Lackey, who will at least give you six innings in the first half of the year that keep you close.

Anderson, not so much confidence.  His performance last night was terrible, especially when you contrast it with Montgomery's relief innings.  It is clear that, objectively, Montgomery is the reliable starter who completes the rotation.  Montgomery is only relegated to the bullpen because of his versatility and because the Cubs do not have a reliable left-handed option in the pen right now.

Pirates Series

The two wins the Cubs managed in Pittsburgh could not have been more different, a 14-3 blowout on Monday and a 1-0 squeaker the following day.  The Cubs played well though differently on each occasion.  It was good to see Hendricks take some steps forward in regaining his form.

Wednesday night's game was not well-played by either team.  I lost count of how many runners were left on base through the first three innings.  The number climbed to thirteen overall.  Rizzo brought them undeservedly close with an eighth inning two run homer, but they fell short when Almora delivered a pinch-hit double play ball to end the contest.  Not wanting to second guess here, but why was Almora pinch hitting in that spot when he hits so many grounders and Watson was getting ground balls out of everyone.  Jay, on the other hand, hits lefties well and was two for three on the night with a walk as well.  Just saying...

On the whole, the Cubs did not really deserve to win it.

Just an observation: the Pirates have to be the most useless defensive team in the league right now.  They are likely going nowhere fast if they continue to play so poorly in the field.

Cincy Series

I don't know that one can reach any great conclusions thus far based on this and earlier series wins.  One thing is the Cubs are far and away the best team in the division.  Another is the Cubs starting pitching is by no means as dominant as last year.  When they have lost, with few exceptions, though, the bullpen has been more blameworthy.  That may be because the call to the pen is going out in the sixth, not the seventh or eighth.  In the Reds series, however, the bullpen was good.

The Cubs offense has been on the upswing.  Playing in Cincinnati doesn't hurt.  Actually, I hate to watch games there.  The place is a bandbox at best.  Nice to see the Cubs smash out home runs all night long, but the stadium is a joke.

Back to pitching, it seems Hendricks is a different player right now.  He has lost about 2 mph on his fastball, which means his offspeed stuff doesn't have as much of a differential, so it becomes rather more hitable.  Hope he straightens this out.

On the roster front, the Cubs optioned LaStella to Iowa.  Not that I like the whole business of eight relievers, but the move was inevitable.  I wonder if LaStella has lost his penchant for being a Cub or bust.  He could certainly be a productive bench player elsewhere or even a starting infielder on a weaker team.  He has no real future in the Cubs organization with all the infield talent on the current roster and moving up through the system.  With the continued development of Happ, one wonders if even Baez has a future here, especially if he keeps swinging at sliders a foot outside.

Brewers Series

The Cubs showed a lot of class coming from behind twice to take the series against Milwaukee two games to one.  They are not yet clicking on all cylinders, but they have so much talent they can usually muster up enough to grit out wins.  For example, Bryant is just beginning to round into form while Zobrist and Baez are struggling.

Some observations to date.  It looks as if most of the off-season moves are paying off.  Jay has been quite good, as has the rookie Almora, even though his ABs in the clutch have demonstrated some immaturity.  I had some doubts about Schwarber batting first, but he has been an on-base machine so far without losing any power even though he is not hitting for average.

Davis has been every thing that was expected as the closer and more.  I have to eat crow on my misgivings about that trade, as Soler, once again, has starter the year on the DL.  Uehara has been solid as well.  Duensing has been unimpressive, but, then again, he has been unimpressive for the past several seasons.

Starting pitching has been pretty good thus far even though the starters are not going deep enough early in the year.  Hendricks has been inconsistent and Lackey has been getting hammered early in the game before he straightens out.  In my mind, the jury is still out on Anderson.  His first two starts were quite good, his last was pretty awful.

Early on the performance of the Brewers and Reds, the latter of which the Cubs have not yet played, has been a surprise.  In the case of the Brewers, they are really hammering out home runs, so much so that both Lackey and Bosio seemed to imply they were juicing.  Who knows?  Marte from the Pirates got hit with an 80-game suspension right after playing a pretty formidable role in his team's weekend sweep of the Cubs.  The Pirates have lost three straight since.  I rather expect them to hit the skids for a while in the wake of that event.

Pirates Series

The Cubs were swept by the Pirates in improbable fashion this weekend.  They wound up blowing the lead in each game, including the Saturday game in which they led by four runs.  Some of this was bad luck.  Some was a lack of timely hitting, especially in the first two games.  Most of it, I suppose, was bad relief pitching.

So who stinks right now in the bullpen?  Mainly Grimm and Strop, who together accounted for quite a bit of the carnage.  Duensing has also been bad, but he was recalled just to cover for Edwards who was off on bereavement leave.  Duensing, however, is not just in a slump, in my opinion, but is just not all that good.

When you look at the season so far, you have to be honest and attribute the majority of the Cubs losses to the bullpen.  Sure, the hitting has been inconsistent, but it is really the bullpen that has failed to hold the lead.  I may be a purist fan in this regard, but I have never entirely bought into the way Maddon handles the pitching.  What I am arguing - and I know he has a history of trying different tactics early on - is that, to my mind, Maddon is a little too quick to pull his starters.  In the Pirates series in particular, I thought Hendricks ought to have had a shot at pitching out of trouble in the sixth inning.  Maybe you can argue that Arrieta should have been pulled, as he was getting hit hard late in the outing. but I would have given him at least another batter.  Lester, of course, pitched seven innings and had over a hundred pitches.

Anyway, we are twelve games into the season and five of the relievers have had six or more appearances already.  That strikes me as rather a lot.  Hopefully, we right the ship against the Brewers.

Dodgers Series

I have to say the Cubs are looking very good these days, having taken two of three from their most recent opponent, Los Angeles, a team that is likely to be their main rival in the NL playoffs.  Actually they have taken two of three in each of their first three series.

The pitching in the latest series was superior and bodes well for the months ahead.  And the team itself is starting to come around at the plate.  Wednesday night's game was rather a horror in terms of weather conditions.  I often wonder why night games are scheduled this early on, though the weather was no bargain earlier in the day either.

I have to say that the team has no visible weaknesses at present.  Especially in the field, they look awfully strong.  Almora in particular has played spectacular defense and has held his own at the plate as well.