Confident About the Bullpen Now, Lou?

Before the beginning of the season Cubs' manager, Lou Pinella, was quoted saying that he was confident in his young bullpen. Well 17 games in and the Cubs' bullpen has a dismal 2-8 and a combined 7.51 ERA, if you include Carlos Zambrano.

How much confidence does Lou have now? I wouldn't say he has much. The organization doesn't even have much confidence in their #1 starter. Paying $18 million dollars for a setup man is just plain ridiculous, and I am sure Zambrano is laughing all the way to the bank.

The decision to move Zambrano to the 8th inning setup role was not a strategic move but a desperate one. It's merely a move to make room for Ted Lily. Carlos Sivla has surprised everyone, and is actually pitching very well, as well as Tom Gorzelanny.

The fact Pinella had confidence in his bullpen seemed ridiculous to me, even at the moment he said it, and now it seems like I, as well as everybody else, was right in saying we were skeptical. When your bullpen has eight out of your ten losses, and one of them has allowed 11 runs in 3.1 innings,  you know something just isn't right.

So the Cubs start another year exactly were I thought they would be, 4th place in a mediocre division, with really no good sign of solving any of the bullpen woes. I think the Cubs are going to keep Zambrano in the bullpen for awhile while Lily gets back to his starting role, or at least until they can find a team that would make a trade for him.

Getting rid of Zambrano would be like throwing dead wood off a sinking boat. It'll help the Cubs get back on the right track of not dealing with mediocrity from such a high paid player. But it was the Cubs' fault in the first place to sign so many "proven" players to high contracts, only to see them dramatically under-perform.

Or is the Cubs' curse to blame. Not a chance. Sure, 100+ years of not winning a World Series seems unlikely, but when organizations make bad choices, it's no surprise that the outcome isn't as they had hoped. 

Curse or no curse, the Cubs should have never been content with their bullpen staff.