Chasing Cubtober: Who pitches the 9th? What about Prior? And More!
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by LMedina86
With Kerry Wood officially in the fold and Ryan Dempster officially in the starting rotation, the debate begins now about who should assume the closer’s role for the 2008 season.
Cub fans have clamored for Wood to close for a while now and may get their wish. Wood has pitched successfully in his 33 relief appearances, and reducing his work load from 200 innings as a starter, to maybe 70 innings could keep him healthy for a complete season.
However, thrusting Wood into the closer’s role could backfire, leaving the Cubs bullpen in a state of panic.
Last off-season, I applauded Jim Hendry for his free agent signings which shifted the organizations dependency from Wood and Mark Prior to guys that had a track record of being healthy. The fact that Wood’s only experience in pitching in consecutive games came in pitching both ends of a double header against St. Louis bothers me.
The worst thing that the Cubs could do this off-season is rely on Wood to be healthy for a complete season and hand him the closer’s role. The Cubs would be wise to sign another free agent reliever such as Octavio Dotel, Eric Gagne or Troy Percival. Each has their own injury issues, but as the old adage goes “there’s no such thing as too much pitching.”
Speaking of having too much pitching, the Cubs seemingly have an abundance of starting pitching. I never thought I’d say that in my lifetime, and you know what, it isn’t a bad thing. As of right now it looks like the Cubs have three “locks” in their rotation: Carlos Zambrano, Ted Lilly and Rich Hill.
The Cubs will have Dempster, Jason Marquis, Sean Gallagher, Sean Marshall and Kevin Hart all vying for the fourth and fifth starter spots. Not to mention prospects Donald Veal and Jeff Samardizija are waiting in the wings.
With this surplus of pitching, the Cubs would be wise to maybe trade some of these assets to improve some of the weaker spots in the everyday line-up.
As of 1:34 p.m., 51% of people responding to a chicagosports.com poll think that the Cubs should trade Dempster. Dempster’s value could be at its peak, seeing that he could be used in the bullpen or in the starting rotation.
The Cubs could also trade Marquis, whose second half struggles seemed to infuriate manager Lou Piniella to the point of not even using him and nearly leaving him off of the playoff roster.
Dempster is due to make $5.5 million in the final year of his contract, while Marquis is due to make $16.25 million in the remaining two years of his contract (including $6.375 in 2008) and that makes them two good candidates to be traded this off-season.
However, young and cheap talent such as Marshall, Gallagher or Hart would likely bring back more to the Cubs than Dempster or Marquis.
And then there is the forgotten man, Mark Prior. Prior hasn’t pitched since 2006, and hasn’t pitched effectively September 2004. Prior is arbitration-eligible and could be due for a pay cut, especially since he didn’t pitch at all in 2007. The Cubs could non-tender Prior or could even trade him.
Non-tendering or trading Prior wouldn’t be wise moves, especially if he is given the proper time to recover from injuries stemming from the abuse he took during the Dusty Baker era.
The Cubs are looking to give Prior a two-year deal, keeping Prior from bolting if he has a breakout ’08 season, or using the ’08 season as a full year of rehab and letting him go all out during the 2009 season.
I wonder if the Cubs would be willing to treat Prior as they have Wood. And by that I mean, I wonder if the Cubs would be willing to try using Prior out of the bullpen.
A healthy Prior could be as effective as a healthy Wood out of the pen. When healthy, Prior is good for a mid-90s fastball and a nasty breaking ball. In 657 innings he’s posted 757 strikeouts and has only allowed 223 walks. That’s good for a 3.39 K/BB ratio.
If the Cubs could somehow have both Wood and Prior healthy at the same time in the bullpen, the back end of that bullpen could potentially put up some solid numbers.
