When Wells and Cashner hit the DL on the same day in late April, the Cubs slim chances at grabbing a playoff spot disappeared. What we did not expect was the massive pile of fail that came in its wake…which doesn't even take into account the fact that Randy Wells probably came back too soon from his injury because the replacements were pitching so badly. Here are their stats (as starters)
| Player | GS | ERA | FIP | xFIP |
| Casey Coleman | 17 | 6.18 | 4.42 | 4.38 |
| Ramon Ortiz | 2 | 7.20 | 3.73 | 3.00 |
| Doug Davis | 9 | 6.50 | 3.86 | 4.80 |
| Rodrigo Lopez | 25 | 4.50 | 5.40 | 4.40 |
| James Russell | 5 | 9.33 | 7.88 | 5.31 |
| TOTAL | 58 | 5.91 | 4.90 | too lazy |
So, not good. This shitty performance counted for 35% of the Cubs starts this year, more than a third of all games played by the team. Some of these guys had a bit of bad luck by their ERA-FIP splits, but I think a decent chunk of that can be chalked up to shitty pitchers having their pitches tattooed.
If you're looking for any small ray of hope that the Cubs could contend this year, console yourself with the fact that it's very unlikely that the 2012 Cubs are going to give nearly sixty starts to sub-replacement level starting again this year.
Berselius: calculating xFIP:: Aramos: hustling out of the box
/Cubs fan’d
@ Mish:
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Nobody wants to talk about Casey Coleman, Ramon Ortiz, Doug Davis, Rodrigo Lopez, and James Russell. Huh.
uncle dave wrote:
Who’d a thunk it?
Just think, when injuries ravage the Cubs rotation we’ll have Andy Sonnanstine jumping in to fill the gap instead!
Dunno if this was posted but Sickels’s Top 120 prospects: http://www.minorleagueball.com/2012/2/24/2821479/minor-league-ball-baseball-top-120-prospects-for-2012
27. Brett Jackson
37. Anthony Rizzo
109. Javier Baez
Seems like most of the prospect lists agree on where Rizzo should be ranked. Sickels seems to be the highest of al on Brett Jackson, which is more along the lines of what I think. He also has Baez way further down, but points out that he heavily weights closeness to the majors.
@ uncle dave:
I don’t want to speak for anyone else, but I’m tired of focusing on the past. We should turn our attention to the bright future, and talk about Andy Sonnanstine, Ryan Rowland-Smith, Nate Robertson, Jeff Samardzija, and Chris Volstad
@ GW:
Tom Ricketts said:
@ Berselius:
Guess they should figure out a renovation plan pretty soon then.
Soriano on former teammates…don’t know if it’s out of context or a translation issue but what he says about “not missing” Zambrano seems a bit harsh.
http://muskat.mlblogs.com/2012/02/24/224-soriano-on-z-we-wont-miss-him/
@ Rice Cube:
Maybe he means they won’t miss his production?
Ryan Braun’s press conference for anyone interested.
@ Rice Cube:
SFW? Mish made it sound pretty steamy.
@ GBTS:
The only boob on screen that I could see was Ryan Braun.
@ WaLi:
It was just a printed statement so I know not the tone nor intent of that statement. As written, it makes me think that it’s both his presence and his production that will not be missed.
@ Rice Cube:
Yeah. Just giving him the benefit of doubt since I can’t really remember Soriano slamming another player before.
@ GBTS:
Have you seen Lloyd’s Hair? Uncle Jesse would be jealous.
@ GBTS:
Maybe in the steamed ham sense.
@ Berselius:
You have to be from Albany to get it.
@ Rice Cube:
It’s not that big of a surprise to hear someone say that. Despite all the ax-grinding from the media it’s not surprising that Z got on some of his teammates’ nerves. Unlike Soriano who everyone in the clubhouse generally likes despite the dart throwers out there.
@ Berselius:
I think I’m more surprised by the source of the statement than I am by the statement itself. I don’t think Soriano meant it out of malice though.
@ Rice Cube:
I know he’s like an evil spawn-of-Satan Brewer and I still think he looks like a lemur, but Ryan Braun handled himself very well in his opening statement. I didn’t realize he was that good of a speaker. The way he tells it, if you had no idea what had happened to him the past few months, you’d be inclined to believe his side of the story.
I’m betting that quote from Soriano has been truncated and divorced of context. But I also don’t doubt that his antics were starting to grate on his teammates. After all, those powderpuffs got miffed when they weren’t told 4 months ahead of time when they were going to play.
Sorry if some of you are sick of the story, but this headline by Calcaterra made me (dying laughing)
http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/02/24/drug-testing-procedures-expert-dismisses-the-importance-of-drug-testing-procedures/
http://mlb.sbnation.com/2012/2/23/2820374/bryan-lahair-cubs-lineup-update
@ Mish:
Oh yeah? What about Barney? And Campana?
I tend to believe Soriano’s quote is verbatim (Carrie is usually pretty good about that kind of thing), but that he said it without malice, and that there’s a translational thing going on there. Like he meant “We’ll be all right without him” but it came out Spanish-funky.
Yeah, I seriously doubt Soriano meant to say, “good riddance.”
@ Rice Cube:
This is true. He even used “literally” correctly.
I could see him running for office one day. Hey, if Jim Bunning could do it…
BTW, two great posts today, B. Although this one in more of a (dying laughing) way.
@ fang2415:
AC wrote the DFP this morning.
I just read AC’s Ryan Braun post, and thought it was excellent. I also laughed (out loud) at the “too lazy” section of the table in this post.
@ josh:
I need to remember to put that in the paper I’m working on (dying laughing)
Regarding Braun, to be clear, it was not found that he did not use steroids. I’m glad the suspension was overturned. It should have been since MLB can’t even follow the rules (they can’t punish someone for breaking the rules when they themselves are breaking them). Baseball is also better with Ryan Braun playing so I’m glad for that reason too. It’s still very likely that Braun took the drug. I only read one article that contained quotes from him today, but I think he’s delusional. The process didn’t exonerate him. We can still be relatively certain he used.
By the way, b, people say I shit on their parade around this place, but here you are writing one article about a bunch of shitty players. It made my day worse when I read it and I did that 5 minutes before leaving for a funeral visitation. (dying laughing)
@ mb21:
Hey, I offered a ray of hope at the end.
@ Berselius:
True, but there’s this: @ GW
new shit on Ryan Braun: http://www.obstructedview.net/commentary-and-analysis/on-ryan-brauns-overturned-suspension.html