Chicago Baseball Report Card: Cubs Down, Not Out
By Tim Bearden in News on May 12, 2012 8:00PM
Going into the 2012 season, the Cubs and White Sox were not favored to be good teams. At all. But around 30-days following opening day it's not as rough as expected for either team, although they admittedly have growing pains to work through.
The Cubs are bad, don't get me wrong, but they're not out of the fight yet, unlike 1997 when they were mathematically eliminated only 14 winless games into the season. The oral history by Desipio.com is fake, but the plight of the team isn't.
The Cubs (13-19) are in last place in the National League Central Division behind the constantly struggling Pirates. This seems bad only one month into the season but, miraculously, the Cubs are only seven games back in the division, which they can easily turn around in the coming months. They have to continue to get better though.
In this division pitching goes a long way, and the Cubs just aren't producing.
Carlos Marmol, who was placed on the 15-day disabled list today following last night's 13-inning marathon resulting in an 8-7 loss, was removed from the closing position earlier this month after blowing save opportunities and games at the worst time. Last night's game featured two beaned batters at the hand of Lendy Castillo (0-1), Kerry Wood is still injury ridden and can't be relied on to setup a double play, let alone a save opportunity, and Chris Volstad is still struggling from last year.
Wood has posted a 9.95 ERA in seven games, with only five strikeouts. He's expected to be the setup man for the closer, but is only opening games up instead of shutting them down. This is following the 14th anniversary of his 20 strikeout game against the Astros in 1998. But that was a different time with a healthy pitcher. He's just not that guy anymore, but the Cubs need him to be better than he is. If they expect to close out any more games this season, Wood's pitch selection and accuracy has to improve.
The closing pitcher slot is in flux thanks to Marmol, who has posted two saves from four opportunities, an 0-1 record, 12 strikeouts and a 6.35 ERA in 11 innings of work. There's only one word for that kind of closing performance: gross. And that's exactly why he's no longer the closer. Since Marmol has been placed on the 15-day DL, the Cubs would be smart to put him in the minors when he's healthy. He needs some time to get his confidence back as it's obviously shot to hell.
They've had some decent performances from Rafael Dolis in that spot with three saves in five opportunities. Though, Dolis had a helping hand in Friday's tailspin, and his 3.38 ERA is higher than ideal for a closer. Some bullpen help is definitely needed. The Cubs have it in Scott Maine, if they would just give him a chance in that slot. Maine has posted a 1.59 ERA in five innings, ideally the closing stats you're looking for, although much of his ability has yet to be truly proven.
Volstad (0-4) should be sent to the minors to work through whatever psychological slump he's in. He hasn't posted a win since July of last season and is continuing to struggle as a Cubs starter. A case of "the Yips" pretty much speaks for itself.
On the bright side though, the ERA for the Cubs is pitching staff is still 3.76, thanks to Ryan Dempster, Matt Garza, Jeff Samardzija and the improving Paul Maholm. Dempster hasn't played many games due to an early season injury, but in the five games he has played he's only posted a 1.02 ERA with 36 Ks despite being 0-1 in the win-loss column.
Garza and Samardzija have pitched in six games each and both have winning records. They each managed to lead the pitching staff with 39 strikeouts and have been the only saving grace in the starting pitching position in Dempster's absence. Hooray for that—I guess.
The Cubs' collective average on base percentage is .241, which is third in the Central Division and ninth overall in the NL. Respectable, but why are the Cubs in last place then?
They can't score.
The total runs for the Cubs this year is 112—fifth in the Central and 14th in the NL. Yikes. It's not enough to simply get on base—the Cubs have to quit leaving guys stranded in scoring position.
On the positive side, they're in almost every game they've played so far, including some big wins against the Cardinals, who lead the division again this year. The team is scrappy and needs to figure out how to close games. The defense maight be a good place to start—David DeJesus' grand-slam and three run RBI effort last night shows the team has good offensive talent, but lacks the ability to close out on the defensive end. Starlin Castro is another example. Castro has a .338 average with 44 hits and 19 RBIs, but he's posted eight errors so far this season, which leads the MLB.
Overall the Cubs get a solid "C," this season by simply managing to keep many games close and staying in contention despite early struggles.