Cubs Pitchers Rank Each Other - This Will End Well
The Sun Times’ Gordon Wittenmyer polled the remaining pitchers in Cubs camp regarding their thoughts on, well, themselves. They ranked each other in various categories, and it is certain not to breed subtle resentment and underlying hostility.
But who cares about that part. It’s interesting as hell. Let’s take a look at some of the highlights.
Starter to win one game
Dempster: 55.8 percent
Zambrano: 27.8 percent
Lilly: 11.1 percent
Others: 5.8 percent
The product of Dempster’s ridiculous success last year? His likeability? Or is it simply Zambrano’s unpredictability. Perhaps the most interesting thing is that Rich Harden - no doubt the best pitcher on the Cubs - received, essentially, no votes. I’ll presume that’s a product of his typically short outtings. Still, he’d have gotten my vote.
Nastiest pitch
Zambrano’s slider, slitter, sinker: 5.9 percent
Anything by Zambrano: 11.8 percent
Marmol slider: 47.1 percent
Kevin Gregg splitter: 11.8 percent
Others: 11.8 percent
Why would one of the choices (anything by Z) subsume another of the choices (the also somewhat ubiquitous “slider, slitter, sinker”)? That concern is purely academic, of course, because Marmol’s slider is the obviously correct answer here.
Reliever to get one out
Marmol: 72.2 percent
Others: 27.8 percent
Wow. Well, the most interesting thing there is that it cuts both ways in the closer competition. Obviously his teammates recognize that he’s probably the best reliever on the team. But closers have to get three outs, not just one. Setup men can be utilized in more high leverage situations.
Wittenmyer notes that one Cubs pitcher declined to participate in the survey. Smart guy, that one.
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