The worst thing is that for some reason they insist on putting marmol out there still. Like he might have some trade value down the road. They would be better off cutting his *** and bringing up some career minor leaguer to thros soe of the innings. Sign some schmuck off to a one year deal and take a shot.
MLB: Theo: FIX THE BULLPEN!!!!
- Thread starter tm3308
- Start date
Exactly, this team would easily be .500 if Marmol didn't **** up all those games at the beginning of the year. I don't think very many people realize how many games this team has blown at the end of the game due to a ****** bullpen.
And there is no reason why they can't rebuild the farm system like they're doing AND compete at the same time. How many major market teams go through this kind of a rebuild and actually admit it?
I seriously doubt they're a .500 team, playing that NL Central schedule this year with 3 very good teams. The ****** pieces of their bullpen are really only worth 2-3 wins so far this year...don't forget that most teams have bad bullpen pieces (so your bad relief pitching doesn't really make as much of a difference compared to others), and these teams aren't relying on good seasons from Nate Shierholz and Luis Valbuena to get to 10 games BELOW .500.
The bullpen sucks terribly, and the team has lost 18 games by two runs or less. You're telling me a decent bullpen wouldn't make a significant difference in those close games? The bullpen has 8 losses on its record right now, not to mention numerous games where it may have been a 1-run ballgame before a big inning put the game away.
And again, BAD would be an improvement over the three guys getting most of the innings this year. Chicago is working with three guys performing at the bottom of the barrel in MLB. Almost anyone would be an improvement. Not many teams rely on relievers of this level of ******.
I'm not totally sold on Castillo; he's got potential, but I've not been overly impressed with him behind the plate, which should be the first priority when you're looking for a catcher. I'd also like to keep Barney; he doesn't hit well, but he's a GG-caliber 2B, and when you've got an error machine like Castro at short, having a 1B and 2B who can bail him out routinely is a good thing.
Id agree with only those 3, but the Cubs are getting decent production from their roster right now, and those numbers are only going up as the weather gets warmer. Their starting pitching as been phenomenal for what I expected. The Cubs are on pace right now for about 70 wins, and so far have played a lot of cold weather games. I think warm weather and a decent bullpen could easily give them 10 more wins to get to about .500.
The Cubs would maybe get better in warm weather if it weren't for all of those other teams getting better in warm weather as well.
The starting pitching has been pretty phenomenal, period. The rotation has the 6th best ERA in baseball, despite having Edwin Jackson's 6.29 ERA in 58.2 IP on the record. If you remove him, the other four starters/starter spots have an ERA of 2.93, which would be the second-best mark in baseball.
blah blah blah Lol to the non Cubs fans posting in a Cubs thread.
Hopefully we can move some of the guys who are having good years at the trade deadline for the future.
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DistrictCyclone
Guest
Baseball is all about tradeoffs;very few teams can afford to have all of the right pieces in place. Do you really want Theo to expend resources on the most overrated, overvalued, and inconsistent pieces of a team (relief pitchers) instead of for better hitting or starting pitching, especially when it likely won't make a single bit of difference this year?
Look at the Cardinals. Their bullpen is arguably worse than the Cubs' (higher WHIP, higher OBP, comparable ERA) but they make up for it with sterling hitting and unbelievable starting pitching and they've got the best record in baseball to show for it. Cubs would be better off shedding the dead wood and expensive players and reinvesting that payroll into a few veteran position players to compliment Rizzo, Castro, Barney(?), Soler, Baez, etc. in the coming seasons. Dumping it into the bullpen would be a mistake.
I agree that in the long run, this year's bullpen is irrelevant. But there are pieces out there that are better, and don't require any kind of major investment. Marmol is one of the top 5 paid relief pitchers in baseball, just behind guys like Rivera. Trading off nearly $10 million and picking up a guy for a $1-2 million dollar deal that performs better is a pretty good deal and helps keep fans interested by making the team more competitive now, and it doesn't interfere with the club's long-term vision.
I agree the Cubs are a little better than their record, but the bolded stat is part of baseball. Lots of teams lose games by 1-2 runs. The Cubs are 7-12 in 1-run games (couldn't easily find 2-run game stats) which is a very similar record to other teams with their record. Almost every team has played 15-20 one run games.
2013 MLB Regular Season Standings - Major League Baseball - ESPN
The bigger stat IMO are the 11 blown saves (all of which have come before Kevin Gregg). If they win even 5 of those, they are above .500.
I do think this is a borderline .500 team with a better bullpen.
Who care? They're the sCrUBS. There is no such thing as loveable losers. Just LOSERS. Why not cheer for a team that spends its money.
Great insight. Glad you took the time to come into a Cubs thread and post that.
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DistrictCyclone
Guest
The problem is that making a trade requires a buyer, and unless one of the GMs is on crack, you're not going to find one for Marmol.
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DistrictCyclone
Guest
Plus, we're talking about eight losses here. Eight. Of the Cubs' 32 total, that's all that have been lost by the bullpen.
