The struggles that the Cubs’ Opening Day bullpen have recently endured are still somewhat beneath the surface, as no truly crippling detrimental issues or real red flags have popped yet, but the Cubs organization is still taking no chances. “We’re aware of it,” Cubs GM Jed Hoyer told the media on Monday, and with the […]
Tag: Bullpen
An Old Idea as New: Let’s Turn This Thing Down to Eleven
Baseball is a beautiful game but also a cruel one. Often it can be both at the same time. That might lead one to call baseball a crueltiful game. On second thought, don’t call it that. That would be weird. Perhaps no better example of the sport’s essential duality has been the recent injury bug […]
The Bullpen: Not the Achilles Heel You’re Looking For
The irony of the legend of Achilles is that his name, far from being a symbol of strength, is now largely associated with the notion of a single critical vulnerability. And, more to the point, whenever we’re confronted with something that strikes us as without weakness, our minds immediately flit to the young demigod, dipped by […]
A 10¢ Bullpen for a $20 Job; and It Might Be Enough
Over the last few days, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about the Cubs’ bullpen. It’s not something I do regularly, I assure you. It’s just that it seems to me—and maybe, in a few minutes, it’ll seem to you as well—as if the bullpen’s current construction is something that feels hard to think through […]
Building a Better Bullpen: Theo Epstein and Free Agent Relievers
In the early weeks of the offseason, with trade rumors galore and free-agent names like David Price and Jason Heyward being thrown around, it is a bit difficult to get excited about the Cubs’ offseason bullpen options. But—make no mistake—the Cubs do have interesting questions in the bullpen that they will have to answer. From […]
Russell Rests as Cubs Consider Arms Race
It wasn’t quite on the order of the sword of Damocles—the Cubs are too happy right now to feel anything approaching anxiety—but it was certainly an open question heading into the workout day on Thursday: What was Addison Russell’s status? The last anyone had heard of his health was on Tuesday night, manager Joe Maddon was […]
The Cubs’ Bullpen High-Wire Act
Last weekend was an exciting one for the Cubs, sweeping the Giants and firmly establishing their claim as the team to beat for the last NL playoff spot. They certainly made it interesting, with James Russell and Jason Motte combining to turn a mop-up game on Saturday into something interesting, and Hector Rondon giving every […]
Travis Wood, Shutdown Reliever
Cubs fans have short memories. Travis Wood was actually really good in 2013, his second full season with the team. I mean, I know you, the educated reader, know he was really good, but perhaps the average reader wouldn’t know that his 4.2 DRA-derived WAR that season—which is a measure of a pitcher’s overall contribution to his team—was 11th […]
The New Motte
It’s not the first time you’ve heard it and it certainly won’t be the last, but pitching isn’t all about velocity. However, the fact is, if a pitcher could once pump high-90s gas and then finds himself struggling to touch the mid-90s, it can take a toll on his confidence. That may have been the […]
A Modified Piggyback, with an Earl Weaver Gambit Kicker
The Cubs carried 14 pitchers for Sunday night’s game against the Reds, and if they’d played on Monday night, they’d have done the same. That’s one more hurler than threw a single pitch for the 1993 Atlanta Braves, and just one fewer than pitched for the 2005 Twins, 2001 Mariners, 1999 Astros, or 1996 Dodgers. […]