Anderson Trying To Take Mitre’s Spot
Both The Cub Reporter and The Big Red C discuss the reports in today’s Sun-Times and Daily Herald that Mike Wuertz may make the club as the 12th pitcher. (For those that don’t know, Wuertz has been a below average to plain bad minor leaguer who’s having a good spring.) But at the same time, Jimmy Anderson is trying to make the case that he should be the 5th starter instead of Sergio Mitre. Anderson came into today’s game with a 2.76 spring ERA in 16.1 innings. He threw 5 innings of no earned run baseball in the start today, striking out just 1, but also allowing just 3 hits. This at a time when Mitre is struggling.
I’ve (briefly) panned Anderson before (see here and here). He’s 28 with a lifetime ERA 19% below league average in 559 big league innings, and as many career walks as strikeouts. He’s Shawn Estes, only not as “good” and without the aberration that was Estes’s 1997 season.
If the Cubs do carry a 12th pitcher, either Wuertz or Anderson could make the team. But with just one open spot on the 40-man roster, only one of them can. The Cubs don’t have many days left in which to decide.