Is it my imagination or is Wainwright pitching pretty good today?
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Not so fast my friend.
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It’s your imagination.
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Letting Waino go back out there for the 6th was epically stupid. Letting him pitch to the 3rd batter in the inning with 2 on? That was Matheney-esk.
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Ah well. He was doing all right for a minute.
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Did Bader just get to that ball before Martinez?
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Okay, I think that's officially the end of the Dominic Leone experience.

Another in a long line of Mo's recent awful bullpen acquisitions.

Leone, Gregerson, Holland, Cecil, Miller

He is preternaturally awful at acquiring pen arms. You could literally have a monkey throw darts at a list of AAA relievers and not have worse results than this.
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I'm trying to remember a time when these assholes did anything other than embarrass the fuck out me. :-)
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Dumb ass Wacha doesn’t throw a meatball to a scrub and it’s not a sweep.
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It's six weeks into the season and they don't have a single starter with an ERA under 4. That's really fucking hard to do.

I thought the '07 pitching staff was bad, and goddamn, it was, but their bullpen was at least serviceable. This is a goddamned abomination.
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Cubs pitching looks awesome compared to the Brewers and Cards....
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A series like this, especially early in the year sometimes can help force better personnel decisions. Fowler in center was exposed. Waino more than two times through the lineup is rolling the dice.

Our season may well hinge on whether Martinez can get healthy and return to at least close to form for him when he is healthy and whether Reyes can be close to the prospect expected. They also need to make decisions on Hudson/Waino/Wacha vs. Gant/Gomber.

Also phuck Gregerson taking a roster spot up...I get you paid the turd, but that is Cecil/Holland level stupid. While you are at it jettison Leone as well.
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Not so fast. Soft tossing pitchers and especially lefties kill us. Been that way for generations.:-)



Just my opinion, Cubs starting pitching will fall apart eventually. It's always their weakness even if they spend $300 million to fix it.
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They need to make the following roster moves

Waino to the pen, Martinez to the rotation
Hudson to the pen, Gomber to the rotation
Wacha to the pen/IL to be determined, Gant to the rotation

Cut Leone and Gregerson, replace with Ponce de Leon

That gives you the following:

Rotation: Flaherty, Mikolas, Martinez, Gomber, Gant
Relief: Hicks (CL), Brebbia (SU), Ponce de Leon, Wainwright, Hudson, Miller, Gallegos, Webb

Fowler cannot play in center. The ball he didn't get to that helped blow the inning open last night was a 60% catch probability. Maybe he's regained enough value that you can ship him off while only eating a small portion of his remaining salary. Of course, knowing Mo, he'll let him crater his value and kill his value. I think you just have to ride out Bader's bat and take the elite CF defense, especially if you're going to roll with the two oafs to either side of him.

Funny thing is, this team could have done absolutely nothing since July of last year and actually have been in a better shape both short and long-term

Keep Pham and Voit and the offense and defense are both better, plus the team makes the playoffs. Don't sign Miller and the bullpen is no worse off.

It's really like the FO is trying to crater the team.
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AGAIN, Fowler should not be batting right handed. Just stop it.
I think your talking about the ball in the gap that Fowler missed. Bader gets to that ball easily. Its still a 1 run game. Having Fowler out there cost us 2 runs. Defense matters.
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