Garza, Dempster, Feldman, Maholm is a pretty good four man rotation of starters to dump over 2 seasons for a team with one of the worst records in baseball over that time period.
Leyland wanted to give him his spotlight moment and was afraid that if he waited until the 9th and the NL took the lead in the top of the 9th he wouldn't get a chance to pitch.
Would have been so much better if Leyland had the guts to hold him back until the bottom of the 9th. He has a bullpen full of all-stars and is afraid they can't hold a 3 run lead for one inning.
This is very encouraging. I'm really hoping that untapped talent comes to fruition. Unless the Cubs get a major league ready arm in the deal I assume the plan is for Arrieta to be first in line for Garza's spot when he is traded.
Is there a reason Fox uses Pitch Trax constantly on their local coverage but hardly ever on the Game of the Week? Seems to me the Cubs are getting screwed left and right on strike calls.
Yeah, and apparently the Cubs should look to move Castro to the OF to make room. And they could not be rooting harder for the Cardinals to score this inning. They definitely suck so I am not defending them but in general in these national games they tend to always talk up the team trailing and make it seem like they are on the verge of making a comeback. It is more about keeping the audience engaged than them pulling for one team or the other. I know trading Garza now is the right thing to do but it would be nice to have him in the rotation for a few more years. They guy is a really solid pitcher.
sure is fun to watch his rack bounce when he's running, though. A lot of the experts say that Vogelbach can't make it except as a DH due to his size / defense, but can he be that much worse than Adams?
Maybe the Cubs will get a big enough lead that Sveum will actually use Henry Rodriguez or Brooks Raley instead of Parker and Russell for the 18th straight game.