Gallagher likely to remain in rotation

[17 Seconds]

Thought this deserved it's own thread-

 

With Zambrano now starting Monday against San Diego, Piniella said the 22-year-old Gallagher is likely to remain in the rotation and start Friday against Pittsburgh. That means Jon Lieber is probably the odd man out and will return to the bullpen. Jason Marquis will go Tuesday, pushed back from Monday, and Ted Lilly and Ryan Dempster stay on schedule to finish the San Diego series.

 

Gallagher made eight relief appearances with the Cubs last year and was 2-2 with a 3.10 ERA as a starter in Triple-A Iowa this season. Piniella is keen on using Gallagher because he's already stretched out to start.

 

"I'm not exactly sure," Piniella said of his decision. "I want to talk to my pitching coach. But I think that we'll probably keep him in that rotation and probably Lieber stays in the bullpen."

 

http://chicago.cubs.mlb.com/news/gameday_recap.jsp?ymd=20080511&content_id=2682410&vkey=recap&fext=.jsp&c_id=chc

[SouthSideRyan]

Awesome, credit to Lou.

[TruffleShuffle]

i'm guessing that gallagher's stay in the rotation will last one more start, unless he is lights out or hill blows up in his next start at iowa.

[SouthSideRyan]

i'm guessing that gallagher's stay in the rotation will last one more start, unless he is lights out or hill blows up in his next start at iowa.

 

I could see a Marquis demotion to the pen if he blows up his next start.

[Careless]

Hey, a defensible move by Lou!

 

Good luck, Sean

[JimSorgi]

\:D/

[17 Seconds]

Hopefully in a couple weeks the rotation will look like this (not necessarily in this order)-

 

Zambrano

Lilly

Hill

Dempster

Gallagher

[UK1679666180]

This is a good thing and hopefully a long-term thing. Sean has prob. accomplished everything he can at Iowa and has his arm strength up from a month of extended pitching at Iowa followed by the limited usage out of the pen.

 

Now it's about facing ML hitters that have the combo of apporach and talent, rather than one or the other.

[Laura]

YAY SEAN!!!!

[vance_the_cubs_fan]

This is awesome news!

[Vanilla Ice]

Nice

 

On the fast track to second favorite player status

[Andy]

This is great great news. Our rotation just got better.

 

All the luck in the world to Sean when he pitches on Friday.

[Sammy Sofa]

Shweet! Lou annoys the hell out of me, but this is a kickass decision.

[CUBZ99]

Sean looked good for most of the game today, but in the 5th it appeared that he ran out of gas. (From 94-97 in the first to 90-91) and he was getting less break on his off speed stuff. I'm guessing that was a product of sticking him in the pen for the last week or so.

 

BTW was Sean throwing a slider and a curve today? He had some nasty offspeed stuff to start the game, and he seemed to be changing speeds very well.

[brinoch]

I really want to see Gallagher succeed and Hill get his stuff back together so Lou can send Marquis to the 'pen/PH duties. Or Hendry can trade him.

[Roast]

Freaking awesome!

 

WTG sean.

[javy knows my name]

Sean looked good for most of the game today, but in the 5th it appeared that he ran out of gas. (From 94-97 in the first to 90-91) and he was getting less break on his off speed stuff. I'm guessing that was a product of sticking him in the pen for the last week or so.

 

BTW was Sean throwing a slider and a curve today? He had some nasty offspeed stuff to start the game, and he seemed to be changing speeds very well.

Yeah I didn't know he had a slider either. About 10 mph difference between the two pitches today.

Good for Sean, and a little redemption for Lou.

[Outshined_One]

Sean's first start was against one of the best offenses on baseball on short rest.

 

Sean's second start will be against the Pirates. :D

 

This is great news! I've been hoping the Cubs would give him time to develop. I'm also guessing this also means Hill will get at least one more start down in Iowa.

[ChiCubsFan]

I actually wouldn't mind Marquis pitching like the true Jason Marquis in his next start. It will probably mean that Hill would take his spot instead of Gallagher's (assuming Gallagher can pitch a decent game against the Pirates) when he's ready to come up. Obviously Gallagher starting instead of Marquis will likely make us a better team in the long run. As stubborn and short-sited as Lou occasionally is (RJ over Pie against RHP), he usually will eventually figure out the right guys to put in there. I have faith that Pie will be starting almost exclusively against RHP in the not too distant future (although RJ's big homer today will probably make that take longer than it should), and when Theriot cools off I can see Cedeno getting a lot more PT. I also think our rotation will end up going: Zambrano, Lilly, Dempster, Hill, Gallagher by the time it's all said and done.

[Abe Frohman]

Jeez, I didn't know SG could bring it at 97. When I saw that on the gun and then a pitch that was 83 to follow it up. Looked good to me.

[abuck1220]

i think hill should be starting on friday, but i'd rather have gallagher out there than lieber, so i guess that's something.

[UMFan83]

Good move. We are going to beat the Pirates anyways, might as well get the kid's confidence up. Hopefully he believes he is pitching to actual major leaguers.

 

 

 

 

 

(Sorry Jake, I'm kidding I know the Pirates are alright this year)

[Banedon]

Now if we can dump Marquis when Hill comes back. Or even plug in Marshall if Hill continues struggling.

[Soul]

We just need a couple of these guys to find himself a bit, even if it's only for a few months of the season. We could get lucky here, by switching guys in/out of those 4 & 5 spots as they become hot/drop off.

 

....or, it could suck. I dunno. I liked what I saw from SG, hopefully he can continue.

 

And hopefully Dempster continues looking like a good starter.

 

This was a really good weekend, any way you slice it. I don't think many people thought we would do this to the DBacks. So it was awesome to see.

[rawaction]

I'm very surprised with Lou making this move. Gallagher threw well, but wasn't lights out. I did notice that Lou pretty much left him alone on the mound. No visits before Rothschild in the 5th. He also seemed to have a pretty long leash on him considering nobody got up in the pen until the Byrnes double. The Pirates are a nice team for him to start against on the surface, but they do have the LH hitters that Arizona does not, which could give him trouble. Augie and Stephen Drew were less of a challenge than McLouth, LaRoche, and Doumit will be.