Saturday, May 18, 2013
Babcock: Can The 2013 Cubs Channel The Turnaround Artists Of 1967?
(chicagosidesports.com)
Could always ask…Rich Nye the Quantum Chronophysics Guy.
Read More...Indeed, scanning the 2013 roster, only an optimist of Ernie Banksian dimensions would find four future Hall-of-Famers. I only count two position players who have even made the All-Star team as Cubs: Starlin Castro (2011, 2012), Alfonso Soriano (2007, 2008). Castro is still a work in progress and The Fonz can only hope for lasting recognition if his outfield hop turns into a Gangnam style YouTube sensation.
Getting more granular, ...
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< 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 >Rumor had it the Mets had a mild degree of interest in Soto.
John Morosi reporting it's Johnson + Maholm to the Braves.
Live-armed 24 yo AA reliever.
I would think he's coming to Chicago to replace Johnson. If he does, I hope they make him the starting CF. I'm curious to see what he can do.
Cubs getting two pitchers back - Crasnick says not anyone from Teheran-Minor-Delgado-Gilmartin
Brigham is mostly a starter.
Yeah - and decent K rate, too... the scouting reports seem to think his future is in the bullpen.
EDIT: Apparently, he's also Ron Karkovice's nephew.
Potential good reliever for our third best catcher is a good enough deal.
Some revived talk of Dempster to LAD, possibly including Soriano.
Guess that'd be the answer to my question "Don't we have any stopgaps other than Casey Friggin' Coleman?". Trading Dempster and Maholm was the right thing to do, but the rotation will now rival 2011's for sheer amateurish ugliness.
Well - Travis Wood had a nice little run when he got his renewed rotation shot. He's fallen back down to earth a bit, but he's still very much worth watching for the remainder of the year.
I feel the same way about Volstad -- yeah, he's been dreadful. But - the team's going nowhere. Let's see if he can actually put together a run that makes it worthwhile to see if he has a future.
Volstad and Wood are certainly in their "last chance to prove you ought to be a rotation regular" phase -- but sometimes pitchers take advantage of that last chance.
Yes, yes... doom... DOOOOOMMM!!!
I mean I'm all for pie in the sky silver lining but you have to be at least somewhat grounded in reality.
Why? That sounds pretty boring.
I wasn't aware we all live in a movie.
Take a few deep breaths. It will be all right. I was pretty shook up when I first found out, too.
I dunno, it sounds a little like the perfect description for Steve Trachsel's career. "Man, this guy's just terrible, we gotta do something about him, this time he's finished for su ... wait, what, he's good again?"
My kidding aside, Trachsel was awfully touch-and-go early in his career. After a good debut year, he was pretty terrible in his sophomore season, then had another bad season in 1997 (albeit one that looks better through the sabermetric lens of today than it did at the time), and was terrible again in 1999. There were plenty of times back then where it was a real question as to whether or not he was good enough to bother with, and indeed the Cubs let him go after the 1999 season (probably a poor choice, but still).
Frank Castillo is probably a better example of what zonk meant. Mike Bielecki is a good one. In recent years, Randy Wells. Jason Marquis (while with the Cards). Honestly, an undistinguished pitcher in his mid-20s having a decent year or two in the rotation seems like the most normal thing in the world.
Coleman to Iowa
Alberto Cabrera recalled
Chris Volstad recalled
Cabrera was a starter until this year, but he's been exclusively a reliever between Tennessee and Iowa this year. He's currently rocking a 74/14 K/BB ratio between the two levels, including 29/4 in 19.1 IP since being promoted to Iowa. May be interesting.
I assume that the Cubs are expecting Garza to make his next start if Coleman's been sent back down. Or be DL'd, I guess, but that's depressing to think about.
I'm not sure Randy Wells fits since we're still waiting on those actual good years to come about.
The Cubs signed Marquis to a 3 year deal. I'm not sure how that qualifies as a "last chance". Frank Castillo was injured in 1994. Mike Bielecki had his good year in 1989 and then stunk as a full time starter after that.
I mean I'm all for pie in the sky silver lining but you have to be at least somewhat grounded in reality.
Cliff Lee.
David Wells didn't really get a shot starting until he was 27 and it would be a few more years before he became "David Wells".
Doc Halladay, of course, had perhaps the worst season ever by a SP at age 23.
Edwin Jackson took seemingly forever to figure things out.
Jason Hammel's having a solid year in Baltimore for the first time at age 29.
Colby Lewis and CJ Wilson didn't become quality SPs until they hit 30.
Sure - there's injuries, role changes, etc sprinkled in -- but the idea that it's a bad thing for the Cubs to spend August and September seeing if maybe the 25 yo Wood and Volstad have a future because... what... they might show sparks that they do? That, I do not get.
I think you're the one who needs to define what you mean by "last chance."
I don't believe that either Wood nor Volstad were or are on their "last chance." Even with neither having done anything to further their causes this season, they will get more chances. Especially the left-handed Wood.
I will be surprised if either of them becomes a front-end rotation starter, but I can easily see either or both having solid careers. Current players that come to mind who had similar track records at age 25 would be Paul Maholm, Kyle Lohse and... wait for it... Ryan Dempster.
And I acknowledged that his 1997 season looks better in retrospect. But I was alive in 1997 and virtually no one was saying that Trachsel was "average" that year and I really doubt the organization viewed him as such. In all likelihood he needed to have a good 1998 to stay in the rotation.
2009 and 2010 don't count? I didn't realize we were limited to Cy Young candidates. We can debate the precise meaning of "last chance" (and it's not like we know that either Coleman or Volstad are on their "last chance" anyway), but he was given a long-shot chance at the rotation as a 26-year-old. How many more do you think he would have gotten? But he had two decent years.
I specifically said "while with the Cards".
I thought your criteria was "productive for at least a season or two".
The point is just like I said - it's not remotely odd for undistinguished pitchers in their mid-20s to have a decent year or two. I don't know if you're objecting to zonk's actual point or if you just don't like the way he chose to word it.
I was alive in 1998 as well. He was in the rotation from the very beginning as their #4 pitcher and in terms of conventional stats he had almost the exact same year as he did in 1997 except his team won 7 more games when he was pitching.
2009 and 2010 don't count?
So when was his "last chance"? Why would his first year as a major league starter be his "last chance"?
Jason Marquis hit FA after 2006 and why would the Cards view 2006 as Marquis' "last chance" to prove himself in the rotation heading into that season?
I thought your criteria was "productive for at least a season or two".
Yes, after their last chance. Zonk stated that the rest of this season was Wood and Volstad's "last chance" to prove themselves in the rotation and I countered with that even if they somehow do decent the rest of this year they'll probably suck next year.
it's not remotely odd for undistinguished pitchers in their mid-20s to have a decent year or two.
Yes it happens but you don't exactly plan for it to happen. You don't pencil in some pitcher into the rotation who has thrown 540 innings of suck so far in the hopes that he is one of those undistinguished pitchers that happens to have a decent year.
Chris is also tied for 4th worst 2nd through 5th seasons since 1982.
We're supposed to be optimistic about Chris Volstad?
Well, that's just plain disingenuous, ignoring one of the key "conventional stats", because you know as well as I do that W-L still had an enormous impact on how people thought about pitchers in 1998. That's why Steve Trachsel was the #1 starter going into 1999 instead of the #4.
I was thinking before that. How much longer do you think he'd have been in the rotation if he had not had a good 2004?
Because he was an fairly marginal player at an advanced age (for his first shot) who was unlikely to get another chance? "First" and "last" aren't mutually exclusive.
Who's planning for it to happen? They're short on options and they might as well see if the guys they have can turn it around. This isn't all that profound.
His ERA was virtually the same. Strikeouts and HR were slightly down while his BB were up.
As for opening day starters who else was it going to be? The only holdovers from 1998 were Tapani and Trachsel and Trachsel was the home grown boy while Tapani was the mercenary in 1998 so Trachesl got the nod despite Tapani winning 19 games in 1998.
Well, Volstad has been allowed to throw over 500 innings of suck and Wood is nearing 200 innings of suck so I think Marquis was going to be allowed to throw some more innings.
Who's planning for it to happen? They're short on options and they might as well see if the guys they have can turn it around. This isn't all that profound.
Turn it around to what? Again, my stance is that even if Wood and Volstad have a good 6 to 10 game run they still are sucky pitchers likely to have sucky years. A decent short run doesn't negate the years of futility.
OK, fine, so what? I don't expect much from Volstad either, and I suspect zonk doesn't either. But what do you do?
Put it this way ... It's August 1, Theo and Jed have just been fired, and McCoy is now GM - who's in the rotation?
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