I'll start off by saying that I know this has no chance of happening, but I still think it is a good idea.
The Cubs should go with a 4-man rotation.
1) Between Z, Prior, Hill, Marshall, and Miller I think we can always have 4 ready to go.
2) The key to making this work is depth of long relief. Eyre, Howry, and Wood can gobble up many quality IP.
3) Aardsma showed me in the 2nd half last year that he is ready for setup duties.
4) Not having to buy a SP frees up money for a closer and the necessary hitting the Cubs need to win something.
5) The NL Central is bad enough where the Cubs will be able to handle bumps in the road if this pitching strategy doesn't work as planned for all 162 games.
6) Stuff Glendon Rusch in a box and send him to Antarctica.
ironman wrote:Are there any free agent closers out there this offseason even worth considering?
I believe Borowski, Gagne, Foulke, and Guardado are all FA"s.
So, to answer your question, no.
Yuck. What about setup guys that have "closer" potential?
No one really sticks out. But I do know the Yankees need relief pitching, and I imagine they will overpay for it.
Seriously though, why the concern about the bullpen? That should be the least of your worries.
Ryan Dempster was far from stellar, so it'd be disconcerting to me to see the Cubs not address the closer.
97% of the team was far from stellar.
We've got enough guys in Howry, Wuertz, Aardsma, Guzman, Mateo, etc. that someone will step up if Dempster gets his job taken from him. I imagine Wood will be back too, throw his name in there as well.
ironman wrote:Are there any free agent closers out there this offseason even worth considering?
I believe Borowski, Gagne, Foulke, and Guardado are all FA"s.
So, to answer your question, no.
Yuck. What about setup guys that have "closer" potential?
No one really sticks out. But I do know the Yankees need relief pitching, and I imagine they will overpay for it.
Seriously though, why the concern about the bullpen? That should be the least of your worries.
Ryan Dempster was far from stellar, so it'd be disconcerting to me to see the Cubs not address the closer.
97% of the team was far from stellar.
We've got enough guys in Howry, Wuertz, Aardsma, Guzman, Mateo, etc. that someone will step up if Dempster gets his job taken from him. I imagine Wood will be back too, throw his name in there as well.
Yeah, I suppose. They'll just keep with their trend of playing musical closers. The last time the Cubs had a reliable closer for multiple seasons was Randy Myers.
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by RugbyD » Fri Oct 27, 2006 8:47 am 
