Baseball Toaster: Cub Town : Borowski Out

Borowski Out

2005-03-22 07:08

by Alex Ciepley

Funny, that. I'd just written a short Defense of Borowski to a friend in an email, and out come reports that JoBo is expected to be out for about 2 months with a broken hand, having taken a line drive off it in yesterday's game against the Royals.

What a bummer. Borowski was pitching better this spring, and was an easy guy to root for. Even worse: does this make Ryan Dempster the closer? The guys at Rotoworld pontificate:

With all the discussion about whether or not he'd be the Cubbies' closer, it's been easy to forget that Dempster just isn't very good. Sure, he has plenty of stuff, but all that's left him with is a 4.99 ERA and a 1.56 WHIP in 984 2/3 innings as a major leaguer. The upside is there, but he can hardly be counted on to be successful in whatever role the Cubs choose for him.

Comments

2005-03-22 07:18:04

1. nate

wow, that is a huge bummer. despite the bad memories from last year, i would still go with Latroy over Dempster. I agree with the assessment that he "just isn't very good."

2005-03-22 07:41:26

2. Bleeding Blue

God no, not LaTroy. He's a great set-up man, but he's had 2 seasons as a closer, and he failed at both miserably.

I know this is counter-intuative to Dusty's thinking, but maybe its time to give one of the young guys a chance. I think Wuertz could get the job done, or at least have a better chance than the guys we already know won't do well.

2005-03-22 07:53:38

3. nate

Actually, that's not a bad thought at all. Wuertz's K rate is pretty good, and even though he walked a lot of batters with the major league club, he didn't walk as many in AAA.

2005-03-22 07:57:43

4. Alex Ciepley

I think a darkhorse candidate, at least until he gets injured (as no doubt he will), is Chad Fox. But yeah, I wouldn't mind seeing Wuertz make the team as a closer or otherwise.

2005-03-22 08:01:40

5. Derek Smart

Yeah, I'd like to see Wuertz get a shot too, but I agree with Alex that Fox is more likely to get the chance right now. The nice thing about using Fox is that he'll probably work right up until Borowski's ready to come back, then Fox will go down with armimplosionitis, and you get to keep continuity in the rest of the pen. Genius!