The Money the Cubs Spent; & Is Remlinger Hurt?
Cubs’ $80 million payroll not all spent wisely (Bruce Miles, Daily Herald, 8/31/2003) (thanks to reader Michael C. for the link)
The Daily Herald’s Bruce Miles on how wisely (and unwisely) the Cubs have spent their $80 million. Part of the “bad money,” of course, is Shawn Estes. The Cub Reporter puts Dusty Baker’s continued use of Estes in perspective – somebody pitching this poorly has just never continued to pitch for a contending team before. And Scott and Dennis at Northside Lounge examine Baker’s continued defense of Estes as someone who’s just been unlucky.
There’s one other thing I wanted to note from Miles’s article:
For now, we’re going to cut breaks to reliever Mike Remlinger ($2.63 million as part of a three-year, $10 million contract) and catcher Damian Miller ($2.7 million).
Remlinger hasn’t been himself, but he may yet turn it around. There’s no reason to believe Remlinger has been pitching in pain, but who knows what the Cubs will tell us after the season is over?
Did anyone else notice during Remlinger’s two inning stint in today’s game – in which he didn’t allow a run and continued to strike people out – that WGN was registering his fastball between 84-86, 5-6 MPH below what he normally throws? There’s no reason to think the gun was inaccurate; it appeared accurate for all the other pitchers. That’s a pretty big dropoff in velocity. As noted, though, it did not seem to affect Remlinger’s performance.