Whoa: Jeff Samardzija ASKED to Stay Down at AAA Iowa
As the Chicago Cubs have gone through a cavalcade of young options in their bullpen in the last couple of months, questions have popped up as to why former top Cubs pitching prospect Jeff Samardzija was not getting a look. After all, he had some success in the Cubs pen in late 2008, even if he was a disaster there in 2009. Indeed that 2009 season was a rough one for Samardzija, who bounced from the rotation to the pen, from Chicago to Iowa and back. It was probably no surprise that, when he was given a shot to make the Cubs rotation in Spring Training, he flopped. He lasted just a few weeks in the Cubs’ pen before being sent down to Iowa.
But as the 2010 season went on, things changed. Samardzija was dominating in AAA Iowa, and had added a successful cutter to his repertoire. Why wasn’t he on the list of young pitchers to get a shot this year?
Because he asked to stay at Iowa.
“When I first got sent down, I was (ticked),” he admitted earlier this week. “I came and grabbed the ball and was letting a lot of emotions out. I talked to Mase (Iowa pitching coach Mike Mason) a lot about, ‘Where do we start? Where do we go from here?’ I was just trying to find an identity. We worked a couple different pitches in that we’ve been throwing, and that helped out a lot.
“I came down here, cleared the slate, pitched in relief. I pitched strictly out of the stretch for probably a month in relief. I tell you what, it paid dividends, especially as a starter. You have something to lean back on when a guy gets on base.”
Although he watched as other pitchers got the call to Wrigley Field, Samardzija wanted to avoid a situation like last year, when he had three separate stints with the Cubs.
“I talked to Jim, and I talked to everybody,” he said, referring to general manager Jim Hendry. “We didn’t want to do what we did last year. We didn’t want to go up and down. We didn’t want it to be a roller-coaster ride. Are we paying for it a little now? Absolutely.
“I didn’t have plans of just pitching for the Cubs for a year or two years. For me, this is a long-term decision, and there’s no other place that I want to be – ever – to tell you the truth. You take your licks now, and you learn from them.” Daily Herald.
I don’t know about you, but that’s a huge revelation for me. Not only because it explains why we haven’t seen Samardzija (but have seen Mateo, Stevens, Parker, Maine, Atkins, Coleman, Diamond… the list goes on) this year, but also because it shows a tremendous and profound change in Samardzija’s attitude and maturity.
Recall, this was a kid that, not but a few months ago, was stewing that his near 15.00 Spring ERA didn’t win him a spot in the rotation (contrast that with Sean Marshall, who dominated in ST, and still wound up in the bullpen – and took it like the consummate professional he is, and ran with it). Now, Samardzija recognizes that if he’s going to make it in the bigs, he needs time to develop his craft.
Hopefully Samardzija’s request to not be shuffled between starting in Iowa and relieving in Chicago will prove beneficial to both him and the Cubs in 2011. It certainly sounds like, if nothing else, his attitude is improved.
Carlos Zambrano Handled the Move to the Bullpen Like a Professional, Even if He Was Upset
Now that Carlos Zambrano is back in the rotation and pitching reasonably well (that is to say, the result have been reasonably good even if his pitches don’t look so good), questions are resurfacing about the Cubs’ decision to put Zambrano in the bullpen when Ted Lilly was ready to return to the rotation from offseason surgery.
Was it the right decision? Would he have turned his season around as a starter and avoided all the ugliness that percolated last month? What does he really think? We’ll probably never know the answer to the first two questions, but we’re getting a view to the third – because Carlos is talking.
Does he ever wonder if he’d be pitching like this had he stayed in the rotation from the outset?
“What do you think?” he replied. “The situation we were in, when they moved me to the bullpen, it was kind of weird. But at the same time, they needed somebody in the bullpen in the eighth inning. We were losing a lot of games in the seventh, eighth innings. I think from my perspective we get too desperate too soon. To make that decision, that’s OK. But you know what? I’m trying to finish the season strong and trying to be consistent and prepare for this last month.”
The Cubs were 5-9 at the time and John Grabow and Esmailin Caridad had failed as set-up men for Carlos Marmol. Sean Marshall eventually filled the role admirably, but not until the ill-fated experiment to move Zambrano.
At the time, Zambrano thought it was temporary, saying former manager Lou Piniella told him “when they find a guy and trade (for a) guy and get that guy here, I will be back to the rotation.”
He played the good soldier, even while his handlers were criticizing the decision behind closed doors. Chicago Breaking Sports.
And Z’s handlers had all the reason in the world to criticize the move – a good 8th inning pitcher is worth vastly less than a good starting pitcher. But, of course, at the time, Carlos was neither.
Interesting to learn that Zambrano was, in fact, told that the move was temporary pending a trade for a late-inning reliever, which never ultimately came. We all suspected as much, but now we have confirmation.
Zambrano’s description of the move as “too desperate too soon” is made even more obvious in retrospect – the team was a whopping 5-9 at the time. But then again, it’s easy to forget how well Carlos Silva and Tom Gorzelanny looked at the time. So maybe, despite everything, it was the right move.
See, we still have questions.
The Problem with an Interim Manager Like Mike Quade: Tyler Colvin to Remain in the Outfield
Being the manager of the Chicago Cubs – even in a mere interim capacity – brings with it certain indelicacies. Most notably? The microscope. Every move you make is scrutinized by a rabid pack of irrational freaks.
Today, I am but one of those freaks.
Cubs interim manager Mike Quade took the reigns yesterday, and in his first lineup, there were more than a few surprises: Alfonso Soriano had been dropped to 7th (good move), Geovany Soto was back to 8th (bad move), and Blake DeWitt was batting leadoff (more on that in a bit). But the most surprising move was a guy that didn’t move: Tyler Colvin was back in right field, not at first base, where we’d been told for days he would be playing this series.
And it wasn’t just a one-game aberration, either. Quade says he doesn’t expect to put Colvin at first any time soon.
“Nothing imminent for me there. We’ll pick a spot,” Quade said. “Maybe see him over there in a late-inning game, where maybe it makes sense to do that. It’s something that we’ll look at, but sparingly, probably.”
Colvin, who started in right field, has been working out at first since the Cubs traded three-time Gold Glove Award winner Derrek Lee to the Braves on Wednesday. The rookie hasn’t played first since his sophomore year in college at Clemson. He had his most intense workout Sunday under the tutelage of bench and infield coach Alan Trammell.
“It’ll hold off. I guess I’m not quite ready,” Colvin said. “It’s good to work over there and I’ll do the work on the side and I’ll be ready for it. It’s fine taking fungos the whole time, but game speed, that’s different. Once I get some balls hit hard at me, I’ll see what I do with those.” cubs.com.
Here we see the clear problem with having an interim manager like Mike Quade. Do I mean that Quade is, himself, a problematic manager? Of course not. I’m sure his managerial style is just fine.
The problem is: he’s up for the Cubs full-time gig in 2011. So when it comes to making choices on a game-to-game basis, Quade is going to make the choices that help the team win today – even if the choice is at the expense of the future of the organization. Quade has himself called his interim job an “audition.” Does anyone really believe he’s going to do anything that lessens the chance he’ll win during his audition? More on the conflicting incentives the Cubs have created, after the jump.
Praise Jeebus: John Grabow to the DL, Andrew Cashner Called Up
Word broke late last week (and then picked up steam over the weekend) that Chicago Cubs pitching prospect Andrew Cashner, recently placed in the AAA Iowa bullpen, would be called up this week. As Tom Gorzelanny was moved to the bullpen – making it a four-lefty pen – we all knew that one of the lefties would go to make room for Cashner.
It wasn’t going to be Sean Marshall or Tom Gorzelanny, so that left rookie James Russell (whose ERA has been around 2.00 all year) and John Grabow (whose ERA has been around 9.00 all year). The Cubs took the cop out route, and I thank them.
Chicago Cubs left-handed reliever John Grabow was put on the 15-day disabled list on Monday with knee tendinitis, and in a corresponding move, the team has selected the contract of top pitching prospect Andrew Cashner from their Triple-A Iowa roster.
Cashner will be brought along in the bullpen so that he can find a comfort level, according to manager Lou Piniella in statements before Sunday’s game. The 23-year-old first round pick (19th overall) of the 2008 draft had been a starter at Triple-A until last Thursday. Since then he has thrown two scoreless innings out of the bullpen, one last Thursday and one on Saturday.
Cashner was a closer at Texas Christian. Cashner is projected as a closer eventually or possibly a top-of-the-rotation starter.
Grabow missed time earlier this month with the same knee problem. The veteran pitcher, who signed as two-year contract with the Cubs in the offseason, has been ineffective most of the 2010 season. Grabow’s role was to be the primary sertup man for closer Carlos Marmol. That role has been taken over by Sean Marshall. ESPN Chicago.
Whether Grabow’s knee is actually hurt, it matters not. The Cubs simply could not boot Russell in favor of keeping Grabow, regardless of Grabow’s bloated two-year contract.
Now, we’ll just hope that Grabow’s knee actually is bothering him and affecting his performance, that he’ll rehab it nicely and slowly, and he won’t come back until/unless he’s moderately effective again.
As for Cashner, the Cubs obviously hope he can be the late-inning righty they’ve been missing all year. He’ll be eased into the role, but if he can throw strikes, he’s got the stuff to handle it. His stint in the Iowa pen was incredibly short, but obviously the Cubs felt like they couldn’t wait.
Sean Marshall is the Man in the 8th Inning for Now
It took the Cubs a year or two to get over their obsession with handedness in their lineup – just get the best hitters out there, whether they’re righty or lefty.
It’s taken almost as long for the Cubs get over their obsession with handedness in the bullpen.
The Cubs will be relying on left-handers Sean Marshall and John Grabow as their primary setup pitchers now that Carlos Zambrano is headed back to the rotation.
Marshall has held opponents scoreless in 17 of his 21 appearances and batters are hitting just .162 off him. Grabow has pitched better since receiving a cortisone shot in his left knee on May 8.
“We’re basically almost strictly going left-handed in the seventh and eighth innings,” Cubs manager Lou Piniella said. “We tried going the other way and it’s worked much better with the lefties, so that’s what we’re going to do.
“I look at Marshall now as our eighth-inning guy, and I look at [Carlos] Marmol obviously as our closer — and the seventh, we need to do what we need to do. You get them out left-handed, right-handed, it doesn’t matter as long as you get them out.”
Cubs general manager Jim Hendry has been looking for an experienced right-handed setup pitcher since the offseason.
“I don’t worry about right or left,” Hendry said Tuesday. “Grabow, for most of his career, has gotten righties out more than lefties. Marshall’s been terrific. People aren’t giving him enough credit.” cubs.com.
I don’t know anyone – *anyone* – who isn’t giving Sean Marshall all the credit in the world for being the best reliever in the pen not named Marmol. What a load of crap for Hendry to say that in the same breath as finally acknowledging that it doesn’t freaking matter whether Marshall throws lefty, righty, or with his feet, as long as he gets guys out.
We’ve said for weeks that Marshall should be the primary setup guy, but all Piniella and Hendry could talk about was a right-handed setup guy. So obsessed were they that they made what may prove to be the most colossal blunder in the Piniella/Hendry era: moving Carlos Zambrano to the bullpen.
As for Grabow, he’ll get chances in the 6th and 7th, but until he becomes more predictably good, he’ll not be used consistently as a setup pitcher – I don’t care what Hendry and Piniella say.
Obsessive Zambrano Bullpen Watch: Cubs Changing Z’s Role
All things Carlos Zambrano and the bullpen have reached obsessive status. And the saga is taking another almost unbelievable turn. I say “almost” unbelievable, because I would have thought moving Zambrano to the bullpen in the first place would have been as close to unbelievable as things could get.
“We’re going to change Zambrano’s role,” Piniella said after the Cubs topped the Rockies, 4-2, in 11 innings. “We’re going to start stretching him out a little bit and gain some stamina and arm strength, and we’ll leave it at that.”…
When asked whether the switch meant Zambrano was returning to the rotation, Piniella clarified his statement.
“I didn’t say ‘rotation,’” Piniella said. “I said we’re going to change his role in the bullpen.”
The change means the Cubs will rely on lefty Sean Marshall as the prime setup pitcher for Carlos Marmol.
Zambrano talked to Piniella and pitching coach Larry Rothschild about the change before Monday’s game.
“[Piniella] told me today there may be a chance to go back to the rotation,” Zambrano said. “We’ll see how everything works in the next few outings for me.”
Zambrano wasn’t happy about going from starter to reliever but accepted the switch.
“I’m happy,” he said. “As long as this team is happy, I’m happy for this team. Like I said, whatever this team wants me to do, I’ll do. This is a business. They’re the boss. If the boss wants me to go close games, I’ll close games. If the boss wants me to start games, I’ll start games. It’s their choice.”
The Cubs are 11-13 since Zambrano moved to the bullpen, and they have won four of the eight games in which he’s pitched in relief. In four starts, he was 1-2 with a 7.45 ERA. On Friday, he was the losing pitcher against the Pirates, giving up three runs on four hits over one inning.
“I had to get used to that role — it’s not that easy,” Zambrano said about being the setup man. “The guys out there [in the bullpen], they’re used to that. I tried my best, I tried to do my best as setup man. So far, I only had trouble with one game and that was the game against Pittsburgh. I think I did a pretty decent job. I think I did a good job as a setup man.” cubs.com.
No, Carlos. You didn’t. If your 6.23 ERA as a reliever were not confirmation enough, this move is.
There is simply no polite way to say it: moving Carlos Zambrano to the bullpen has been an unmitigated disaster. Lou Piniella is conceding his bone-headed move, and Carlos Zambrano is being stretched out for a return to the rotation.
No one has quite admitted this is the case, but it must be true given that any of the starting pitchers could be a “long reliever,” and while Zambrano may have been the best choice among them to become a right-handed setup man, surely he’s not the first choice as long reliever.
So what does that mean for the future of the rotation? Here’s hoping it means the Cubs plan to cash in on the early success of Carlos Silva (or Tom Gorzelanny) and make a trade.
God’s Wrath Watch: Esmailin Caridad to Return in a Week
The Chicago Cubs bullpen – actually not terrible in the last few games – may get a shake-up come next weekend’s series against the Cincinnati Reds. That’s because young righty Esmailin Caridad is expected to get the green light to rejoin the team following several weeks of rehab from a forearm strain.
“I would think if everything is right, he could be joining us by next weekend in Cincinnati,” Lou Piniella said Saturday. “That’s the plan if everything goes right.”
Caridad was projected as the Cubs’ primary set-up pitcher but with his injury, the team moved Carlos Zambrano into that role. That will remain unchanged when Caridad returns.
“I think it’ll make us a little deeper from the right side,” Piniella said of the bullpen makeup when Caridad comes back. “We haven’t discussed what we’re going to do, assuming he’s there next weekend. It’s still too far away. But it’ll be one of the young pitchers he’ll be replacing.” Muskat Ramblings.
If Caridad’s return is going to make the Cubs “deeper from the right side,” that necessarily means Caridad would be replacing a lefty. Surely Sean Marshall and (sigh) John Grabow aren’t going anywhere, which would mean that successful youngster James Russell would get the boot. Russell has had just one bad wind-aided outing.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see Lou rethink things a bit and instead send down Justin Berg or Jeff Gray – each of whom has arguably been outpitched by Russell.
Ted Lilly to Return on Saturday, Big Decisions Looming
As we learned late last week, the plan for Chicago Cubs starter Ted Lilly is to have one more rehab start – tonight for A ball Peoria – and then to join the Cubs late this week, with an eye toward starting against the Brewers on Saturday. And his return could mean big things for the rest of the Cubs’ staff, including the bullpen.
Lilly’s return will trigger several corresponding moves, including moving a player to make a roster spot available and sending one of the starters to the bullpen. Though Tom Gorzelanny, another left-hander, might seem the likely choice, moving him to the bullpen would mean four lefties — Gorzelanny, Marshall, James Russell and John Grabow — in a relief corps of seven.
”I don’t know who’s going to the bullpen,” Piniella said. ”I won’t make any guesses yet. It hasn’t been discussed too much. We’ve been waiting for Lilly to be ready. Let’s wait until after he pitches [tonight].” CHICAGO SUN-TIMES.
If Carlos Silva pitches well again this week, it’s hard imagine he’ll be bumped from the rotation. Then again, if Gorzelanny has a dominant outing and Silva lays an egg, there’s a chance Gorzelanny will get the call – of course, this highlights how difficult it is to make this kind of decision based on just a handful of starts.
In fact, I think those starts probably won’t make the decision so much as how Lou Piniella thinks the placement of the pitchers will help the team. Just as Sean Marshall was the best pitcher in Spring Training, but clearly had no meaningful shot to make the rotation because of his abilities in the bullpen, so too might Lou decide to bump whichever guy he’d rather see in the pen.
As for who heads out from the pen, it will probably depend on which starter is moved. If it’s Gorzelanny, it’s hard to imagine the Cubs retaining four lefties in a pen of seven – which would mean successful youngster James Russell would get bumped (because it won’t be Marshall or John Grabow). The guys who probably should be under consideration are Justin Berg and Jeff Samardzija, neither of whom has been effective on the young season.
