Taking a Break for the Cubs and the Playoffs

With the Cubs clearly in the playoffs and Lou Pinella and Jim Hendry having to put together a 25 man playoff roster, I got to thinking. Who's going to get left off this thing? They going to go with 3 catchers? How many bats? Which long relievers are making this squad? 14 hitters and 11 pitchers?

Gordon Wittenmyer wrote a brief article last week in the Sun-Times speculating who they will go with. But the focus of this article was Geovany Soto's inclusion. To me, Soto is the best catcher in the organization and a lock to find himself on the roster when the Cubs begin their march. Personally, I would tell Soto to prepare to catch every playoff game and let Jason Kendall know to take a seat. Kendall's caught 51 games with the Cubs so far and had 51 guys attempt a steal on him. How many of those has he thrown out? 2. The two victims were a base stealer who slid past the bag and Ken Griffey Jr. thrown out by a wide margin on a botched hit and run. He provides no power and has only batted .169 in September. In fact, I would play Henry Blanco over Kendall.

When I sat down and looked at the current roster, some of my toughest decisions were whether to go 3 catchers (Henry Blanco) or include the extra outfielder (Matt Murton, Daryl Ward). Angel Pagan and Ward's health status will certainly have to be taken into account when deciding, but I had to assume that based on today, Pagan would be out and Ward would be in.

More difficult though was picking the 11 pitchers to go with. The four starters (Carlos Zambrano, Rich Hill, Ted Lilly, Jason Marquis) were pretty simple and I don't see them pitching anyone else in a playoff game (Marshall, Trachsel). I personally think Lou brought up Kevin Hart to get him ready to pitch in the playoffs but I don't see how you add him when you have other, more experienced guys there (Trachsel, Scott Eyre, Wood). Hart though has pitched in 8 games, 11 innings, and only given up 7 hits while striking out 13 since his callup. He's given up 1 run. I like him and think he's got a great future with the organization, but he's still very young at 25 and there are too many others ahead of him. So, he's off the roster.

The next decision was the hardest. The guys on the fringe for the last spot are Kerry Wood, Scott Marshall, Trachsel, and Eyre. Ideally, you carry two guys who are swingmen types that can pitch either long relief or start for you. The Cubs only have two of those types of guys (Marshall and Trachsel), after you've eliminated Hart. In his last 7 starts, Wood has not given up a run. However, his success as a reliever is somewhat deceiving because Lou rarely brings him in with runners on base or in a close game. When you look at Marshall, you see he's only made 3 appearances in September - all in relief. He is very inexperienced as a reliever with the Cubs, so you have to question his inclusion.

At 37, Trachsel holds the "experienced" card in this mix. He has clearly been there before but has been awful since joining the Cubs. He's given up 16 runs over 17 innings pitched and only has 11 strikeouts.

With Scott Eyre, you have a guy who is also experienced pitching in the playoffs in the past with the Giants and Lou has been throwing him quite often in the last several weeks. In fact, in September, Eyre did not give up a run. You have to go back to August 11 in Colorado to find a game where Eyre had a run scored on him. To me, he's a lock to make this roster.

So what do I think Lou will do? Marshall's inactivity signals to me that he's on the cutting block. I assume his confidence has fallen, plus he get's hit hard by right handed batters.

What would I do? This one's easy in my mind. You can have all the experience in the world, but if you're bad, you're bad. Trachsel never pitches another game in a Cubs uniform.

Two things are for certain for the Cubs: One, they will be in the playoffs in 2007 and two, Pinella has some tough decisions to make in the next several days as to who will be on this 25-man playoff roster.


25 man roster (14 hitters, 11 pitchers)

Starters:
Zambrano
Lilly
Hill
Marquis

Long Relief/swingmen:
Trachsel

Closer/short relief
Dempster
Howry
Marmol
Wood
Wuertz
Eyre


Hitters:
Kendall
Soto

DeRosa
Fontenot
Theriot

Lee
Ramirez

Ward
Floyd
Jones
CMonroe
Murton
Pie
Soriano