Justin Grimm and the bullpen.

[Little Slide Rooter]

Last year, Grimm-Strop-Rondon was as dominant a bullpen end game as any. And once Schlitter and Coke were gone, Wood, Rodney, and Richard eventually rounded out a reliable bridge to get there when needed.

 

The plan heading into the season was Wood-Warren-Grimm-Strop-Rondon, with some combination of Ramirez, Cahill, Richard, and Edwards rounding out a solid pen. But that hasn't quite happened. Strop-Rondon are still doing their thing. Grimm has not. Wood has been decent enough in that spot, but now we have nobody in his or Warren's spots. And until now, we'd been too spoiled by long, dominant SP performances and large leads for it to become evident.

 

Which brings me to my point; is a return to form by Grimm something that can realistically happen? He doesn't seem to have any less velo since last year. Is there some mechanical issue that can be be re-Bosioed?

[TomtheBombadil]

Edwards is looking like the new Grimm

[Omar]

hes just living up to his name

[raw]

Don't have a ton of hope for Grimm to regain enough of his form to be the 7th inning guy the Cubs need. I think the Cubs should trade for a cheap reliever sooner rather than later (I liked the suggestion of Cingrani someone mentioned) and then try to find a late inning guy between that cheap option, Edwards, Nathan (because it's inevitable), and maybe Matusz (though I think he should be a starter/long reliever).

 

Best case- one of these guys are really good and the Cubs can still trade and have 4 strong options in the pen along w/ Wood.

Worst case- adding Nathan and a guy in a cheap trade makes the Cubs look less desperate to teams with relief assets to trade.

[Gilby]

Each pitcher we got in return for Garza must have one awesome year before becoming terrible. So the good news is Edwards will fix all of our problems this season.