Comments on Building an Ass-Kicking Cubs Team

The Cub Reporter has some very good comments on building a strong team for next year.

Much has been written here and elsewhere about Dusty Baker’s use and overuse of the starting pitchers, and I haven't the stomach to review it all in gory detail. In summary, Kerry Wood led the majors in pitcher abuse points (PAP), and Mark Prior came in third. Carlos Zambrano finished 17th. This is in part due to the fact that these guys were actually quite good, but all year long, Baker erred on the side of recklessness and left them in too long. I believe that in the end, this decision-making lost the Cubs the NLCS, specifically in Games 6 and 7, where both Prior and Wood were left in long after it was clear that they were out of gas.

Also if you look at Dusty Bakers starters during his Giants years it was very unusual that any of his starters had good back to back seasons. Dusty has never been blessed with a rotation as good as this but you have to expect some kind of drop off due to the insane workload he put on them this season.

The #5 guy is really the only question mark for the club this off-season in terms of starting pitching. In 2003, Shawn Estes was a bad idea that turned out historically bad last season. He was so bad that he dragged the Cubs' otherwise close-to-best-in-baseball starting pitching to tenth best.

The addition of a strong fifth starter – one who might even surpass Clement or Zambrano on the deprth charts – is something to consider if a special opportunity arises. Back in the 1992-93 off-season, the Atlanta Braves had established the strongest core of young starting pitching in baseball, with more prospects waiting in the wings. That didn't stop John Schuerholz from taking a flyer on Greg Maddux, who was about to turn 27 and, uh, came in handy, if I remember correctly. Is Javier Vazquez, who will turn 28 in July, that kind of opportunity? He might be. And the addition of someone like Vazquez would reduce a lot of the concerns about the overuse Wood and Prior coming to roost in 2004.

While Vazquez would be nice, some small buzz is being heard on the Cubs having an outside chance of getting Curt Schilling. Now i usually dont like to go the rumour mill route but this intrigues me in a couple ways.

1st off the deal does make sense. The Cubs can offer some of the best pitching prospects in the majors who will otherwise rot in our minors.

2nd its about time the Cubs finally invested in some real veteran leadership for the rotation. What Curt Schilling brings most of all is a mentor to Kerry Wood. A power pitcher with exceptional control. Maybe Schilling thru sitting next to him for an entire season can teach him the art of striking out batters without having to strike out every batter.

3rd Playoff experience. If the Cubs happen to make the playoffs again there is no one better to have in your rotation than Curt Schilling. If anything he takes some of that pressure off of Prior and Wood to keep winning. Look at the Yankees, Mike Mussina is their #1 #2 starter and he is what 0-3 with a 4.00 ERA in the playoffs? While their offense helps it has more to do with that the Yankees have 4 starters capable of shutting down other teams.

I know we dont have that confidence in Zamb or Clement yet.



More later........i think........