ESPN Chicago's Bruce Levine has finally come around to our concerns about the Cubs starting pitching woes. For the entire winter season, Cubs management has taught the media that it was aware of a pitching need and went out and signed a ton of starting pitchers: Baker, Feldman, Villaneuva. The Cubs said their rotation was more solid than last season.
Well, we were among the doubters. Baker was coming off a lengthy Tommy John surgery rehab. Feldman was demoted to the bullpen by the Rangers. Villaneuva was demoted to the bullpen by the Blue Jays. Edwin Jackson was not even a .500 pitcher for the NL champion Nationals. None of these signees were coming off career years.
Levine observed that what initially looked like a deep, if not spectacular, starting rotation now appears questionable ("iffy") at best with two weeks left until opening day.
Baker and Garza are coming off major injuries. They are not expected to be on the opening day roster. Garza's return was complicated by a February 17th left quad strain.
Baker got shelled in his first game appearance on Sunday. Levine reports that six members of the Cubs front office,
including president of baseball operations Theo Epstein and general
manager Jed Hoyer, watched the former Twins pitcher labor through a "less-than-competitive outing." Baker was able to retire just one batter of six that he faced.
Baker's fastball barely tipped 85 mph. That is beyond disappointing if the front office put all their eggs on the Baker basket to repeat a Ryan Dempster type first half.
Levine states that the main concern
for the rotation at this point has been the below-average spring for
both Feldman and Villanueva. Normally spring training is a time to get
your work in and not worry about results but that principle is challenged
when pitchers you are counting on are new to an organization like Baker, Feldman, Jackson and Villaneuva. Likewise, Garza has to prove something to the organization and the rest of the league because this is contract walk season.
As we observed, this new rotation on paper did not blow away last year's staff that included a remarkable run by Dempster and a solid top of the rotation consistency of Paul Maholm.
