As I sit down to write this, Jake Peavy, Randy Johnson, Milton Bradley, Bobby Abreu and Raul Ibanez are not Chicago Cubs.
Mark DeRosa is not a Philadelphia Phillie.
Felix Pie is not a Baltimore Oriole.
Ronny Cedeno, Jason Marquis, Kevin Hart, Michael Wuertz, Angel Guzman and Sean Marshall are not San Diego Padres.
Kerry Wood is not a Cleveland Indian.
And though it falls outside the normal purview of this blog, I am proud to point out that I did not vote to keep the State of Illinois' Chief Narcissist and Sociopath in office the last time he ran.
On a night when Ben Sheets, the best pitcher on the Cubs' chief NL Central rival, struggles to get through five innings, walks a career-high seven hitters, and allows more runs than he has in all of his other starts this season combined, it looks like the Cubs are going to fall to the Brewers.
Jason Marquis seemed to have little command of his pitches tonight, which simply set the stage for relievers Hart and Wuertz, who had no more command than the starter.
What a rough night for James Van Der Beek to sing "Take Me Out To The Ballgame."
Labels: Jason Marquis, Kevin Hart, Michael Wuertz
One of the brightest bright spots in the '07 Cubs season was young Carlos Marmol.
Following a forgettable 2006 rookie year--5-7, 59 K, 59 BB, ERA+ of 76--the righthander started the '07 season in Iowa, was summoned to the big club in mid-May, and buckled National League knees the rest of the summer. Marmol finished the year 5-1 with 96 K in 69 1/3 IP and a jaw-dropping 1.43 ERA (ERA+ of 326).
Maybe more impressive than those numbers, however, was this one: Marmol inherited 41 baserunners in his 59 appearances for the Cubs last season, and he only allowed 5 of them (12%) to reach home plate.
Interestingly, Marmol's bullpen-mate, Michael Wuertz, was almost as adept, preventing 33 of his 38 inherited baserunners from scoring.
Marmol and Wuertz rank second and third among all Cub relief pitchers in stranding inherited runners (minimun 50 IP and 20 Inherited Runners). The arcane list follows:
| Pitcher | Year | Inherited Runners | % of Inherited Runners Scoring |
| 1.) Joe Borowski | 2003 | 21 | 10 |
| 2.) Carlos Marmol | 2007 | 41 | 12 |
| 3.) Michael Wuertz | 2007 | 38 | 13 |
| 4.) Turk Lown | 1957 | 54 | 15 |
| 5.) Terry Adams | 1997 | 43 | 16 |
| 6.) Bill Long | 1990 | 25 | 16 |
| 7.) Steve Wilson | 1989 | 51 | 16 |
| 8.) Dave LaRoche | 1973 | 43 | 17 |
| 9.) Randy Myers | 1993 | 24 | 17 |
| 10.) Lee Smith | 1984 | 41 | 17 |
Marmol and Wuertz finished 1-2 among all NL pitchers in stranding inherited runners in 2007 (again, minimum 50 IP and 20 Inherited Runners). Teammate Bob Howry, who allowed 24% of his inherited runners to score, was 12th.
(Stats from Baseball-Reference.com Play Index)
Labels: Bob Howry, Carlos Marmol, Cubs relievers, Joe Borowski, Michael Wuertz
