Time of Death, Friday May 28th

That is the time of death of Joe Borowski when he gave up 4 hits and 5 runs in the 9th inning to blow a 5-4 lead today. One of those hits being a grand slam. While it may be his 1st blown save in 22 chances his overall pitching has been poor all season. His ERA stands at an ugly 8.20 for the season. In 18 IP he has given up 23 hits, walked 15 and struck out 16. That is 38 batters allowed to reach 1st base and beyond in 18 innings. Good closers will have half that amount.

I praised earlier in the year how Joe Borowski pitches with heart and his brain while Farnsworth needs a brain to pitch. I have also noted how Borowski has never been able to get his fastball above 88 MPH this season as compared to last year where he consistently hit 92 MPH. This is what scouts caught onto very early in spring training. I blew it off until now. It is time for a change.

I never said much about Ugueth Urbina, and I should of considering he has a 1.76 ERA in 15 innings with 6 saves for the Tigers. This from a guy no team wanted to sign and missed all of spring training holding out. I know its nice in hindsight to say we should of got him, but I never did fully trust our pen. I thought Remlinger and Mercker were on their last legs. Both are closer to 40 than 30. But hey if our pitchers went deep into games most of the time, all we really needed was Hawkins and Borowski. Now you can scratch off Borowski, and someone needs to step up into either the closers or setup man's role.

Personally I say the Cubs hand the closer job to Francisco Beltran and leave Hawkins in setup. Beltran has been groomed as a Cub closer for awhile. He brings a fresh face to the situation and leaves one of our better bullpen arms in the more flexible position of setup man. Which at this point i still value more over the closers role.

Beltran has shown good command and strikeout ability in his time with the Cubs this season. In 16 innings he has a 3.31 ERA, 9 BB, 21 SO's, and 11 hits given up. Basically in the same amount of work as Borowski he has allowed 20 baserunners to reach 1st base and beyond to Borowski's 38.

What decision will Dusty Baker probably make? Move Hawkins up to closer, and Farnsworth as his setup man. Mister poopey pants will now come into games in tight situations where Hawkins excelled at. Good luck riding that roller coaster. It will be a bumpy ride.

Lets not forget Beltran was used as a closer over some pretty good veteran pitchers in winter ball. He was rated one of the best players in the league. He looks ready to me to step in and give this team a boost. The only question is......will Dusty Baker go with the kid over the veteran?