Little Slide Rooter

Ryno was great and boring, and really only had 1 signature moment in Wrigley. But Wood, Prior, Sosa and the bulk of the 60's guys were entertaining enough. The level of meaningful history is certainly not what it should be for a team that has played in the same stadium in a major market that long. But it's hardly non-existent. That's just it though. Throughout the mid-late 90s, they basically stuffed [expletive] into uniforms to surround Sammy Sosa, Ryne Sandberg, and Mark Grace, occasionally adding a Luis Gonzalez or Henry Rodriguez in hopes that it would mask the fact that they didn't like pitchers.

Just as a quick look at the 2014 Free Agent list, I don't think I'm loving it. This past offseason, Theo and Co. showed that they are willing to spend money on the right guys, but is the right guy out there? Short answer, yes; He is Second Baseman Robinson Cano. At the age of 31, he's likely to get an insane contract; one which will likely be worth it, at least for the first 5 years of it. This being said, I don't think that anyone out there expects any team other than the Yankees to give it to him. A few tempting Center Fielders, depedning on how they feel about Jackson and/or Szczur by the end of this season CF: Jacoby Ellsbury; 2013 will be a huge year for him as far as contract goes. If he can have a bounceback, I'm sure Theo would love to reunite with him. CF Curtis Granderson; Grandy would be a nice pickup, and could move to a corner spot once Almora is ready to take over. However, if he does bounce back from injury, the Yankees will do their best to keep him or jack up the price trying. Still, he's 33 and 5 years should be the max on him. Corner OF: -Hunter Pence: 31. Could be extended. If not, I'd be very interested. -Corey Hart and Mike Morse, each will be 32. Either one's price is likely to hinge on and Hunter Pence and could be viable replacements for Soriano at the right price. Morse is supposedly very bad at defense. Hart isn't great, but can also fill in at 1B from time to time. IF: Chase Utley; 35 and injury prone. As for pitchers, realistically, there's: Matt Garza; I don't see him taking a discount, and he could be risky as his likely steep asking price Jason Hammell is another quality not ace but still front end type starter. The there's some really big names, each flawed; -Josh Johnson tops the list, but will be very expesnive despite the injury risk. Not sure if it's one that Theo would be willing to take -Roy Halladay; 37 and seemingly on the decline. Will still be expensive -Johan Santana has a 25MM team option with a 5.5MM buyout, and the Mets are likely to use the latter. Seeing as he's going to miss the season, he's likely going to take an incentive based deal, but how much? -Chris Carpenter; old. injured. old. injured. -Tim Lincecum isn't showing any signs that he'll bounce back, and could perhaps take a self gsmble 1 year deal. If Theo were to back into Red Sox mode for one reason or another, I could see any combination of these guys scooped up.

I do agree that you can't completely count a game in which the bullpen blew a late lead as a should-have-won. If so, in fairness any came when you rallied against the other teams pen should count as a should-have-lost. This being said, even when at his best, Marmol treated us to a lot of nail biters. When he gets out of them, it's makes the game that much more exciting, but any of those games could have been 1 pitch away from a L. Yes, that's true any time you have a small lead, but in Marmol's case, he seemed to escape by the skin of his teeth with loaded bases more often than your average closer.

I forgot about him. But isn't he still rehabbing? I think that K Rod's unemployment is due to either asking for too much money or not being willing to accept a minor league deal. Just a hunch, because if he were willing to take a minor league deal, I'm sure he'd have no shortage of suitors. Someone gave Kevin Gregg one, right?

That was quick. Question for any of our resident Brewers fans: was Loe the one who was cut because he kept missing practice due to a sleep disorder?

Hope Dolis didn't waste time unpacking.

The fact that Shawn Camp's a 37 year old journeyman with so-so stuff who's never closed is representative of his inability to close. I haven't written off Fujikawa if he returns, but at this point we have no idea when that will be. The reason that I'm suggesting K Rod is because he has the experience and if at a reclamation price, it's a great low risk/high reward, one we should take. [expletive], it's April, we still have players returning and if there are chances to make the team better, take them. We're not beating the Astros or Marlins for draft position anyway. And how on Earth are the Marlins already 9 games back?

Clearly. Rondon, Bowden, and Russell have been fine. Marmol has been fine once demoted. Camp has been fine except when asked to throw 2 innings, and Fujikawa has been fine when he was healthy. Takahashi has been the weak link, but he's already the last man in the pen. And even with all that, the bullpen has thrown less than 35 innings combined. It's been 12 games. plus the cubs aren't a good team and aren't going to contend for anything this year, so who gives a [expletive] if they don't have someone good to close the games they aren't winning. It's April and while its one thing for fans to think that way, it's not OK for a front office to do so. If we can get a one time world class closer at a good price, I'd take it without thinking twice. Deapite the record, this team hasnt been awful. And if July roles around, and we are awful, maybe he builds up a bit of value.

More importantly, it requires more than being fine to be a big league closer. People often talk about how over rated the job is, but there must be a reason that they're as coveted and well paid as they are. Any big league pitcher should be able to called upon to protect a 1-3 run lead late in a game every now and then. It's quite another thing to be prepared to do so virtually every time such a situation arrises, potentially several times per week.

Clearly nobody on the roster is it. All I can really think of at this point is K Rod. If were going to throw [expletive] at the wall, may as well be a big, smelly toilet clogger rather than a handfull of nuggets. The fact that nobody has picked him up yet suggests to me that either A. Despite being a free agent in mid April, he's still asking for more than anybody is willing to commit or B. attitude related. I know he's been awful the past few years, but hey, we just gave Kevin Gregg a minor league deal. At this point, I don't know how much leverage he thinks he has at this point in the season. He should just be eager to sign anywhere in hopes of earning himself one more contract. Assuming that multiple teams were to offer him similar low base salary/incentive based deals, a team in the position to immediately hand him the closers role as soon as he's gone through some extended ST should be the most appealing. That's us. We're also in the position to offer him a bit more of a base salary than he's worth. Nothing overboard, but I'd certainly risk about 2.5 mil on him.

I guess I have to wonder if throwing Tony Zych into the fire would be constructive or destructive.

Money *is* being spent. They committed almost $100 million this offseason, and almost $50m of it is being paid out this year. And when something truly worthy becomes available, they'll likely strike. The problem is that teams are locking up their young stars early and often these days, so it won't be as easy as we'll just buy this guy in 2014 and those guys in 2015. Kemp, Hamels, Kershaw, and Upton all would have been viable options, but they were extended. Can't fault them for not just letting the money burn a hole in their pocket and overpay for guys they don't view as fits; although as time goes on, they could very well become less picky about who is and isn't a fit. My point is that I'm not quite sure where I'm going with this due to 2.5 year old and 2 week old related exhaustion and my brain is clouded by hate for our bullpen as well as Brent Lillibridge who didn't even play.

How are we going to get a few competent late-inning relievers? And when exactly is Garza coming back? And why should we believe he won't just get hurt again a month later? Don't know about Garza. But Barney's defense will be big, and if Stewart can hit he will too. The biggie is going to be that pen. With Gregg and Loe, the throwing [expletive] at the wall has already begun, and I suspect that until something sticks, more will be thrown.

It's gonna take awhile. 2015 could become 2016 next year and 2017 the year after that. Just close enough to keep some of the fans calm, far enough away to fend of accountability. God, you can't even be negative right; why would they bother riding that out? If this team is mediocre or sucks after 2015 I could easily see Theo or Hoyer or both quitting. Instead you have to go right back to your stupid, smelly "they want a [expletive] team for some fat reason I don't actually believe" nonsense. I'd imagine that they'd try plan B and do what big market GMs normally do before quitting. Even if not, if the team were bad/mediocre by 2015 and beyond, they'd still have their reputations and the fact that they at least didn't leave the next regime with a massive payroll to land them each another big money gig. If they just walked away from a mess of a team half way through their contract, it suspect that would be far worse their credibility and legacies. "Halfway?" Theo signed a 5-year-deal. Crap. Why was I thinking 7. Either way, I think that before the relationship comes do an end, unless something miraculous occurs between now and the 2015 offseason, money will be spent.

FWIW, we scored 4 runs or more in 7 of the last 8 games. If we can remain relevant until the originally projected starting rotation is in place:Garza-Shark-Jackson-2 of Baker/Wood/Villanueva (sorry Feldman) as well as Barney, Stewart, and maybe a few competent late inning relievers, this team could just be watchable.

It's gonna take awhile. 2015 could become 2016 next year and 2017 the year after that. Just close enough to keep some of the fans calm, far enough away to fend of accountability. God, you can't even be negative right; why would they bother riding that out? If this team is mediocre or sucks after 2015 I could easily see Theo or Hoyer or both quitting. Instead you have to go right back to your stupid, smelly "they want a [expletive] team for some fat reason I don't actually believe" nonsense. I'd imagine that they'd try plan B and do what big market GMs normally do before quitting. Even if not, if the team were bad/mediocre by 2015 and beyond, they'd still have their reputations and the fact that they at least didn't leave the next regime with a massive payroll to land them each another big money gig. If they just walked away from a mess of a team half way through their contract, it suspect that would be far worse their credibility and legacies.

Sounds like the start of frantically scrounging up waiver-wire relievers like a 5 year old birthday boy at Chuck E Cheese grabbing up tickets in the ticket blowing booth thingy.

About 4 hours ago, I was LOLing about signing Kevin Gregg. I now think he might be our best option.

Marmol Fujikawa Camp Closer is the new 5 starter. Maybe as well scrape up Eric Gagne, Bobby Jenks, Francisco Cordero, and every other unemployed former closer.

I blame Brent Lillibridge for all of this. I don't know why, but I blame Brent Lillibridge.

I'm now wishing for an alternate time line in which he ate that slug bunt.

I'm not sure what I hate more; the fact that this happened or that it might be an upgrade over our existing bullpen situation.

Did anybody really feel comfortable with Shawn Camp in the closer role? I mean come on. He's Shawn Camp.

Still have the meat of the Giants lineup to go through. And the Cubs bullpen to do so.

Cubs lead! Lillibridge DFA becomes just that much more likely!