The Offense Is To Blame, Too; & Farnsworth Demoted
The Tribune’s headline in its recap of Thursday night’s 3-2 loss to the Cardinals is “Cub pen fails again”. The headline, and Paul Sullivan’s recap, both ignore that the offense failed for the second game in a row, too.
AS IF WE NEEDED MORE EVIDENCE OF BAKER’S PREFERENCE FOR VETERANS: A separate Tribune article says that Baker has demoted Kyle Farnsworth to 6th and 7th inning duty. Antonio Alfonseca and Mike Remlinger will pitch the 8th inning now. Here’s Baker’s predictable reasoning:
“He’s young, he still has a lot to learn,” Cubs manager Dusty Baker said. “He never has been in this pressure cooker before. It’s different. You can say, ‘Hey, man, I know I can do this. I know I can handle this.’ But until you’re there. … He’ll be better because of this. I may have to reconsider things in the bullpen.
. . . .
Alfonseca came into Thursday’s game having allowed seven runs in 1 2/3 innings in his last two outings, but Baker said he has experience in pressure situations.
As I noted earlier, Farnsworth has been struggling, so this move could work out. But Alfonseca has been struggling all year. Remlinger has pitched better post-All-Star Break, but giving up game winning home runs to the Kerry Robinsons of the world isn’t exactly shutting the door. In short, the entire bullpen just needs to pitch better. Except Joe Borowski and Mark Guthrie, who are doing just fine. So why isn’t Guthrie a candidate to be the top setup man? I’m sure if you asked him, he’d say he could pitch to more than one batter. And he’s a veteran.
Baker can’t expect us to read the above comments and ever take seriously again any assertions he makes (like he was making in spring training) that he doesn’t have a severe preference for veteran players.
And it’s as if Baker didn’t even watch last year’s World Series, despite managing in it. Two rookie relief pitchers – Francisco Rodriguez and Brendan Donnelly – threw 16.1 innings against Baker’s Giants in that series, allowing just 2 earned runs. To top it all off, a rookie – John Lackey – was the winning starting pitcher in Game 7.
But young players can’t handle the pressure. Alfonseca, though, he’s been there. He can handle it. What’s that you say? Alfonseca was a rookie when he pitched in the 1997 World Series? Well who woulda thunk.