The Lowly Cubs

So, Gaddis and I were emailing a bit after the Cubs fell to 7-12 with another home loss (now 3-8 at Wrigley) and another lead blown by the bullpen to lose 5-4 in 12 innings to the Brewers last night. The good news for the Cubs, they are 3-0 on Saturdays, but are 0-3 on Sundays and 0-2 on Tuesdays, so hopefully Rich Hill (3-0, 0.41 era) can twirl another gem this evening to get the club their first Tuesday victory. Also good news for the Cubs, after they finish their series with the Brewers (2 more games) and visit St. Louis this weekend (3 game set), their next 12 games are against Pittsburgh, who they should beat, Washington, Pittsburgh again, and Philadelphia. That would be a great time to get healthy in the standings and start off May on a high note.

I decided to play GM of the Cubs for this post, and here's what I sent to Gaddis as my plan for the Cubs:

I'm going to show how I want to team to be, so bear with me:

LF Soriano- best leadoff option right now with Pie struggling
2B Theriot- his numbers are too good not to play him everyday
1B Lee- obviously
3B Ramirez- obviously
RF Murton- see Theriot
C Barrett- obviously
CF 3.14- here until he starts hitting ML pitching
SS Izturis- he's been sucking at the plate

Bench

LF- Floyd
UF- Jones
??- Ward
C- Blanco
2B- DeRosa
SS- Cedeno

Theriot can back up both Izturis and Ramirez in the infield, and could play some outfield as well. So, if we rest either Ramirez or Izturis (or even give Theriot a shot at SS since Izturis is not hitting at all) then DeRosa can still get some starts. Don't need to worry about Blanco. They should trade Cedeno, and I don't know what Daryl Ward does other than remind me of a homeless man's Todd Hollandsworth. If Floyd or Jones start complaining about playing time, too bad, we need the young guys to play because they are proving they can. The downside? Obviously, there is only 1 full time left handed hitter in the starting lineup (which wouldn't be if we still had Todd Walker, but I digress), and 1 switch hitter, and if we sit Izturis, there is only 1 person who can hit left handed at all. But, at 7-12, does it really matter if we keep left handed hitters in the lineup? I like Jones, have liked him since they got him, and even though 3.14 is only hitting like .130, he needs to play everyday if for nothing else, he is the best defensive outfielder they have. So there's my everyday lineup bringing Jones and Floyd off the bench. I'd say start Jones in center and bring 3.14 off the bench for defensive purposes late in games, but he needs to get more at bats as well.


P- Hill- lights out right now
P- Lilly- pretty much lights out right now, but no run support (see Matt Clement 2003)
P- Zambrano- can we either get this guy a deal or trade him so he can get back on track
P- Marquis- hasn't been as bad as I thought
P- Guzman- he gets the next chance at the fifth spot, Marmol is next. You get 2 starts and if you can't do it, NEXT PLEASE!

LR- Cotts
RP- Eyre
RP- Howry
RP- Ohman
RP- Wuertz
CP- Dempster

If we need to, send Cedeno down and then we'll have room for Cherry as well. Basically here's how I think the bullpen should go; obviously Cotts gets any long relief duty, then you rank it on who can get one out if you need it, which I would rank in this order:

1. Dempster (but Wuertz is closing in quickly)
2. Wuertz
3. Ohman
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10. Howry
32. Cherry
57. Eyre
and put them in accordingly in close games. They are now 0-5 this season in games decided by 1 run!!!!!! That is ridiculous. Also, they are 7-12 and their bullpen is responsible for 5 of those losses (may be 6, but I am pretty sure it's 5), so the starting pitchers are .500 through the first 19 games, not killing them, not winning them a division, but not killing them.


I say they release Wade Miller, shop Cedeno, Eyre, Jones, DeRosa, Marmol (yes, because I think they can sell high), and see what happens. I'm sure they could trade some of these guys for less money and role players who know exactly what they need to do.

There's my being GM for the morning.

-Until next time...