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Cubs (Martin) vs Phillies (Nola): 4/14/26, 5:40pm

Brock Beauchamp

By Brock Beauchamp,
in Chicago Cubs Talk

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Brock Beauchamp All-Star

Brock Beauchamp

Site Manager
Posted
Posted

Yeah, so, this continues to not go well.

image.png

  THU FRI SAT SUN MON TOT
Riley Martin 0 13 0 19 0 32
Jacob Webb 0 0 17 0 8 25
Hoby Milner 0 0 12 0 0 12
Ethan Roberts 0 17 0 13 0 30
Daniel Palencia 0 0 17 16 0 33
Charlie Barnes 0 0 0 0 62 62
Caleb Thielbar 0 21 19 0 0 40
Ben Brown 0 0 34 0 0 34

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Jason Ross Myrtle Beach Pelicans

Jason Ross

North Side Contributor
Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, squally1313 said:

Is this an opener situation? Just basically to avoid having Rea face Schwarber and Harper in the first?

Probably, but Martin was being stretched in Iowa so he could conceivably go more than just one if they wanted him to. Maybe a 2/3 inning stint and then piggy with Colin Rea.

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Jason Ross Myrtle Beach Pelicans

Jason Ross

North Side Contributor
Posted
Posted

Luke Little and Ryan Rollison are being called up. 

No known corresponding moves yet, though Barnes back to Iowa feels like one. And maybe Rollison is here to take over for Martin if he goes more than 1 tonight. 

gflore34 Myrtle Beach Pelicans

gflore34

Old-Timey Member
Posted
Posted (edited)
4 minutes ago, Jason Ross said:

Luke Little and Ryan Rollison are being called up. 

No known corresponding moves yet, though Barnes back to Iowa feels like one. And maybe Rollison is here to take over for Martin if he goes more than 1 tonight. 

If Luke could solve his control problems by just a bit, he could be a very big addition.  He's got A+ stuff, my understanding is, given his size, consistency of pitching mechanics is difficult for him.  Is that a correct?

Edited by gflore34
sneakypower South Bend Cubs

sneakypower

Old-Timey Member
Posted
Posted

we didn't see any need to try to retain pitchers who were incredibly effective like Keller, Pomeranz, Kittredge and now i've gotta pretend i know what a Caleb Barnes or Robert Rollison is

Tangled Up in Plaid ACL Cubs

Tangled Up in Plaid

Old-Timey Member
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10 minutes ago, sneakypower said:

we didn't see any need to try to retain pitchers who were incredibly effective like Keller, Pomeranz, Kittredge and now i've gotta pretend i know what a Caleb Barnes or Robert Rollison is

Giving Maton a 2 year deal when they could have given it to Keller is a big head scratcher

Jason Ross Myrtle Beach Pelicans

Jason Ross

North Side Contributor
Posted
Posted

Keller: 5.17 ERA 
Pomeranz: 5.40 ERA
Kittredge: 3.40 ERA

Two of them haven't been very good. Kittredge has been great. Both Keller and Pomeranz have much lower K% than with the Cubs. It's super early so I'm not really worried; bullpen pitchers are super weird and some of their underlying numbers say they should bounce back (particularly Keller). But probably good to point out that if both of them had their 5+ ERA's with the Cubs, people would instead be saying things like "that's what happens when you sign a 37-year old Pomeranz, last year was obviously lucky". 

I agree it sucks that the Cubs are in a position where they're down to Barnes and Rollison and Little and Assad right now. Part of that is Maton's mechanical issues he's working through (I think his injury is for side work) and Harvey's injury stuff, and part of that is because Horton blew up his arm and Boyd is hurt, too. So not trying to at anyone there, mostly just adding context that Keller and Pomeranz haven't been rocks for their new organizations right now, either. 

sneakypower South Bend Cubs

sneakypower

Old-Timey Member
Posted
Posted
4 minutes ago, Jason Ross said:

Keller: 5.17 ERA 
Pomeranz: 5.40 ERA
Kittredge: 3.40 ERA

Two of them haven't been very good. Kittredge has been great. Both Keller and Pomeranz have much lower K% than with the Cubs. It's super early so I'm not really worried; bullpen pitchers are super weird and some of their underlying numbers say they should bounce back (particularly Keller). But probably good to point out that if both of them had their 5+ ERA's with the Cubs, people would instead be saying things like "that's what happens when you sign a 37-year old Pomeranz, last year was obviously lucky". 

I agree it sucks that the Cubs are in a position where they're down to Barnes and Rollison right now. Part of that is Maton's mechanical issues he's working through (I think his injury is for side work) and Harvey's injury stuff, and part of that is because Horton blew up his arm and Boyd is hurt, too. So not trying to at anyone there, mostly just adding context that Keller and Pomeranz haven't been rocks for their new organizations right now, either. 

i'd reason that getting jerked around from org to org may have some effect on that

we're way too nimble or whatever buzzword Jed is spamming these days to properly compensate somebody who has produced results within the org and are on an eternal cheapskate bargain hunting mission that subjects us to all these castoff loser retreads

Jason Ross Myrtle Beach Pelicans

Jason Ross

North Side Contributor
Posted
Posted
10 minutes ago, sneakypower said:

i'd reason that getting jerked around from org to org may have some effect on that

we're way too nimble or whatever buzzword Jed is spamming these days to properly compensate somebody who has produced results within the org and are on an eternal cheapskate bargain hunting mission that subjects us to all these castoff loser retreads

All relievers get moved from organization to organization. Brad Keller, Drew Pomeranz, Caleb Theilbar were all fine last year with their first year with the Cubs. So was Andrew Kittredge being traded mid year. Thielbar hasn't been as good this year as he was last year. There's just no correlation to these things.

Phil Maton and Hunter Harvey are not "retreads". Maton has been an excellent reliever for years, for example. Harvey when healthy is great. In fact, all of the best Cubs' relievers last your except for Palencia, who wasn't even on the MLB roster on day-1 (because he was a yo-yo arm from Triple-A who couldn't establish himself) were retreads last year. Again, it's kind of disproving your point to clammer for "no retreads" and then also clammer to "sign Brad Keller and Drew Pomeranz" 

Relievers are small sample size and tend to randomly throw in a bad year or two. And it's also why relievers are rarely signed to multiple years. Either they're monsters like Edwin Diaz, players on pre-FA deals like Palencia, or a host of one-offs. 

The Rangers have the 2nd best BP in baseball based on ERA right now and they're using Jacob Junis (1 year), Cole Winn (pre-FA), Robert Garcia (a retread they grabbed from Washington 2 years ago), Chris Martin (the same retread Chris Martin the Cubs signed a few years) and Tyler Alexander (1 year, under $2m deal). 

Relievers just have such a small sample size that they tend to bounce weirdly like this. And why teams only sign them for one year at a time.

squally1313 Myrtle Beach Pelicans

squally1313

Old-Timey Member
Posted
Posted
14 minutes ago, Jason Ross said:

Maton has been an excellent reliever for years, for example.

Excellent? Years? Come on, man. We've got FIPs of 3.50, 4.33, 3.74, 4.26, 2.60, and corresponding fWARs of 0.6, -0.1, 0.6, 0.1, 1.5 from 2021 to 2025 (innings pitched between 61 and 67). He's fine. He was 19th in baseball last year, 73rd since 2021, 54th since 2023. We were banking on 2025, so far no such luck.

19 minutes ago, Jason Ross said:

Harvey when healthy is great.

Which he hasn't been since August 2024. This should not be a guy we're relying on as a key piece!

20 minutes ago, Jason Ross said:

In fact, all of the best Cubs' relievers last your except for Palencia, who wasn't even on the MLB roster on day-1 (because he was a yo-yo arm from Triple-A who couldn't establish himself) were retreads last year.

Yes, and it was a bad bullpen for a team with playoff aspirations! 19th in fWAR, 16th in FIP. We point to Hottovy and Zombro all the time, how is it productive to make them start from scratch every year?

Should we maybe not be clamoring for the Brad Kellers of the world? Sure. But it's an indictment of the organization that we're reduced to wishcasting for the few 36 year olds that actually worked out. Devin Williams, Raisel Iglesias, and Robert Suarez have a total of zero earned runs this year. They're all making $15m a year, give or take. We're paying Maton, Harvey, Thielbar, and Milner $21.5m, none of which are considered anywhere close to elite, because apparently the FO decided they haven't generated a single pitcher capable of pitching the 6th or 7th inning. Which is A. a failure of development, and B. about to be tested because multiple of the guys in the above group, all on the backside of their career, have either gotten hurt or lost their mechanics. 

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