Ted Lilly and Rich Hill- These two have been, to put it mildly, awful or maybe that word is not strong enough. These two have been horrendous! Where are the Ted Lilly and Rich Hill from last year?
Left-handed starting pitching was suppose to be a strength this year, but so far it has made every other day an adventure, and that is usually a job reserved for the bullpen (which will be discussed next).
Rich Hill has already been sent to the bullpen to work out his problems, and if Lilly continues to struggle, then Jason Marquis will be the No. 3 starter followed by Sean Marshall and Jon Lieber.
My only comment there is "Oh My!"
Now time for the wonderful bullpen. For the most part the bullpen has been solid, anchored by Carlos Marmol and Kerry Wood. Yet, the bullpen has already thrown 50+ innings, while starters have been in just over 60 innings. In a word, the bullpen has been overworked.
Yesterday the Cubs bullpen, Michael Wuertz, showed all of its potential to blow games. Wuertz's line yesterday was zero innings pitched, four hits, and three earned runs—stellar!
The bullpen other than Wood, Marmol, and Lieber has been very shaky, and though the Cubs have prevailed in three extra inning games so far, a fan has to be very nervous every time Lou makes his slow walk to the mound to make a call to the pen.
Finally, the defense has been awful, and that is all I have to say about that. The numbers speak for themselves. 10 real errors and many mental errors.
The defense has been atrocious, and it could really hamper the Cubs if they are going to make a run at the Central Division title.
The Cubs are 7-5 in the early season, and most of the problems the Cubs have so far could and should be solved.
Hopefully, most of them are just early season problems, like Zambrano was last year. If not this could be a very long and extremely stressful season because the first two weeks has already aged me considerably!
We're going to send you the most entertaining Chicago Cubs articles, videos, and podcasts from around the web.
2 Comments
Loading more comments...
This comment and all replies have been deleted This comment has been deleted Undo delete