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Overflow Thread 3: Cubs vs. Pirates, Wednesday 5/22, 6:05 CT

2013-05-23T01:50:04Z

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Overflow Thread 2: Cubs vs. Pirates, Wednesday 5/22, 6:05 CT

2013-05-23T01:05:06Z

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Overflow Thread 1: Cubs vs. Pirates, Wednesday 5/22, 6:05 CT

2013-05-23T00:05:03Z

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Cubs, Pirates Continue Series In Pittsburgh

2013-05-22T21:00:12Z

Game threads for Wednesday night's game are all in this StoryStream.

	W-L	G	GS	CG	SHO	SV	BS	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA	WHIP
2013 - Jeff Samardzija	2-5	9	9	0	0	0	0	56.2	47	26	22	6	21	64	3.49	1.20

	W-L	G	GS	CG	SHO	SV	BS	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA	WHIP
2013 - Francisco Liriano	2-0	2	2	0	0	0	0	11.0	12	2	2	0	5	16	1.64	1.55

Today's game is on WGN.

Here is the complete MLB.com Mediacenter for today.

MLB.com Gameday

Baseball-reference.com game preview

SB Nation game preview

Please visit our SB Nation Pirates site Bucs Dugout.

Here's the scoop on game threads for 2013. You'll find the game preview -- like this one -- posting as the first link in the StoryStream™, which will then contain all the overflow threads and the recap. The recap will also be on the front page as a separate post; once I post a game recap, the stream for each game will be retitled "Cubs vs. (Team) (Day of Week) Game Threads" so you can go back and find every thread related to that particular game.

In general, game previews will post two hours before game time. Exception: for day games after night games, that will usually be 90 minutes.

You will also be able to find the First Pitch Thread and all the overflow threads in the box marked "Chicago Cubs Game Threads" at the bottom of the front page (you can also find them in this section link). They will also appear in this StoryStream™. As I've done for each regular-season game for several years now, we'll have the First Pitch thread at five minutes before game time (moved up from actual game time per your requests), then an overflow one hour, two hours and 2:45 after game time.

Discuss amongst yourselves.

Cubs vs. Pirates Preview, Wednesday 5/22, 6:05 CT: Another Lefthander

2013-05-22T21:00:12Z

The Cubs have had a very strange season, split-wise. In addition to having an overall record four games worse than their Pythagorean projection, they are 14-17 against righthanded starters and 4-9 against lefthanded starters. That includes Tuesday night's loss to Wandy Rodriguez.

But it gets weirder than that. Players hired specifically for their abilities to hit lefthanded pitching haven't, or didn't before they were shipped out. Dave Sappelt was 8-for-36 against LHP (.222/.243/.278) before being shipped to Iowa. Brent Lillibridge (remember? He was on this team), though not specifically a platoon player, was 0-for-9 vs. LHP. And Scott Hairston has been awful: 4-for-42 vs. LHP (.095/.133/.333), although three of the four hits were home runs. And Anthony Rizzo has an odd reverse split: .305/.369/.593 against lefties, with four HR in 59 AB; .248/.315/.469 against righties, with six HR in 113 AB. Cody Ransom's done pretty well against LHP since his acquisition: .265/.306/.647 (9-for-34, four doubles, three home runs), but he is, after all, Cody Ransom; this is likely a mirage and won't last.

If you can figure this out, tell Dale Sveum. I'm sure he'll adjust his lineup to your preferences.

Beyond that, Cubs starting pitching has been quite good; the team overall ERA of 3.71 ranks sixth in the National League. That might have resulted in more wins if not for the 20 unearned runs allowed, tied for second-most in the major leagues (with the Dodgers; the Astros have 26).

Also, the Pittsburgh area is under a severe thunderstorm watch until 10 p.m. ET and there's a pretty good chance this game will be delayed, if not postponed, given that there's an afternoon contest scheduled for tomorrow.

Cubs lineup:

Borbon CF, Castro SS, Rizzo 1B, Soriano LF, Hairston RF, Castillo C, Ransom 3B, Barney 2B, Samardzija P

More Julio Borbon against lefties. And Hairston gets another chance.

Pirates lineup:

Marte LF, Snider RF, McCutchen CF, Jones 1B, Walker 2B, Martin C, Alvarez 3B, Mercer SS, Liriano P

Today's Starting Pitchers

Jeff Samardzija

Cubs

vs.

Francisco Liriano

Pirates

vs. Pit

vs. Cubs

	W-L	G	GS	CG	SHO	SV	BS	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA	WHIP
2013 - Jeff Samardzija	2-5	9	9	0	0	0	0	56.2	47	26	22	6	21	64	3.49	1.20

	W-L	G	GS	CG	SHO	SV	BS	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA	WHIP
2013 - Francisco Liriano	2-0	2	2	0	0	0	0	11.0	12	2	2	0	5	16	1.64	1.55

Jeff Samardzija threw his best game of the season Opening Day, April 1 in Pittsburgh, eight shutout innings, allowing two hits and striking out nine. He has been inconsistent since then, but his last outing was a good one, hopefully setting a tone going forward. Current Pirates are hitting just .130 (12-for-92) against him with 26 strikeouts.

Some people here thought the Cubs should take a chance on Francisco Liriano off the scrap heap. Instead, it was the Pirates signing him; he has made two starts since his return, both with decent results. He has one career start against the Cubs, June 12, 2012, while he was with the Twins. The Cubs hit him pretty hard that day. Here's hoping for another one like that one.

Today's game is on WGN.

Here is the complete MLB.com Mediacenter for today.

MLB.com Gameday

Baseball-reference.com game preview

SB Nation game preview

Please visit our SB Nation Pirates site Bucs Dugout.

In general, game previews will post two hours before game time. Exception: for day games after night games, that will usually be 90 minutes.

Discuss amongst yourselves.

Shawn Camp On DL; Rafael Dolis Recalled

2013-05-22T19:41:01Z

If you've been wondering why Shawn Camp's performance this season has been so poor -- including his game-losing stint Tuesday night -- here's a possible answer:

Shawn Camp on DL with sprained right big toe. Got treatment Sunday but didn't feel better. #Cubs
— Carrie Muskat (@CarrieMuskat) May 22, 2013

But wait, there's more!

Treatment over past few days...going home to rest it....dealt with something like this in Toronto appraently,Dolis recalled
— Jesse Rogers (@ESPNChiCubs) May 22, 2013

So if this is a recurring thing, why hasn't it been looked at before now? In any case, for the next 15 days, at least, Camp can't hurt the Cubs. (This also raises the question, why not simply keep Michael Bowden and DL Camp Tuesday?)

Rafael Dolis has been piling up frequent-flyer miles between Des Moines and Chicago all year; this will be his third stint with the club. His previous two stints have resulted in two appearances covering 1⅔ innings and eight batters faced; he's allowed two hits and two unearned runs. Dolis might stick if he could ever command his fastball.

What Should The Cubs Do With Matt Garza?

2013-05-22T16:00:09Z

Matt Garza threw five very strong innings for the Cubs Tuesday night in Pittsburgh, allowing just one hit and three walks. He probably could have gone another inning, having been removed at 82 pitches, but Dale Sveum decided to err on the side of caution and lifted Garza (obviously, the result of the game wasn't what anyone wanted, but that's not an argument for this post).

The question now is, what should the Cubs do with Garza? He'll be a free agent at the end of the 2013 season. He'll turn 30 in November -- he's two months younger than Edwin Jackson. Before his Cubs tenure, which has been interrupted by several DL stints, he was a consistent starter for the Rays, making at least 30 starts a year from 2008-10.

Of course, one start doesn't make a season, but Garza seems quite determined to prove he can still be a solid starter in the major leagues. Naturally, impending free agency will do this to a player, but Garza also has a strongly competitive personality which shows in everything he does. That can be valuable to a team; Garza hung out with the club almost all of last year after he was placed on the DL, supporting his teammates.

I'm still not sure which choice I'd make; I posted a poll like this in Tuesday's game preview, but I'm posting it again, because perhaps you've changed your mind after Tuesday's performance. I think I still lean towards "trade", because he's going to get quite expensive if he keeps pitching the way he did in that first outing. At the very least, he'd have to be given a qualifying offer (in order to get draft compensation if he leaves); that could wind up being in the $14 million range.

Anyway, I thought this was worth a separate post and discussing before we get to Wednesday night's game, and since the recap to Tuesday's game has been mostly about the bad bullpen management.

Poll

All right, time to ask again: What should the Cubs do with Matt Garza?

Pirates 5, Cubs 4: Bullpen Mismanagement

2013-05-22T13:00:11Z

I'll never criticize Matt Garza again.

Wait, that's not true. Of course I will, if Garza does anything on the baseball field worth criticizing. But Tuesday night in Pittsburgh, Garza did everything right. Pitching? Check. Five innings, 82 pitches, one single and three walks allowed. Fielding? Check. Made a nice play on a ground ball moving away from him and took the play himself. Hitting? Check. Garza, a notoriously poor hitter, smashed a two-run double into right-center field. Garza was awesome. I hope every single one of his starts is like that one.

What I am going to criticize is Dale Sveum's bullpen management, which was atrociously bad Tuesday night.

Let's think about this for a moment. Garza's return meant that Carlos Villanueva shifted to the bullpen. Carlos Villanueva, who has been stretched out to start multiple innings, going at least five innings in all eight of his starts. Carlos Villanueva, whose turn it would have been to start Tuesday night if Garza hadn't been ready.

So, Dale, why wasn't Carlos Villanueva in the game after Garza? If you're going to take Garza out after 82 pitches -- and although Garza was cruising and probably could have gone one more inning, I don't have a huge quibble with removing him after five -- why wasn't the one guy who can be an effective long reliever on your staff in the game? Villanueva could have gone two innings, likely without incident, and the Cubs, who had a 3-0 lead going into the sixth, might have won the game.

Instead, we got Hector Rondon, who had trouble throwing strikes, an ineffective James Russell (who walked the only man he faced; yet another issue with Sveum -- he uses Russell as a LOOGY), and Shawn Camp, who gave up a pinch-hit grand slam to Travis Snider that provided the eventual margin of victory in a 5-4 Pirates win that dropped the Cubs' record in one-run games to 6-11.

Many of us were wondering why Camp was kept on the roster instead of Michael Bowden. We're still wondering.

Credit to Carlos Marmol and Kevin Gregg for keeping the game close. The Cubs managed to score a run off Pirates closer Jason Grilli, who hadn't allowed even a baserunner in his previous six appearances, but that provided just moral victory, rather than actual victory. Me, I'd rather have the latter.

In addition to Garza, the offensive star of the game for the Cubs was Darwin Barney, who went 4-for-4 with an RBI and two runs scored. Barney's now hitting .223/.316/.379; the .690 OPS is still too low, although it's now higher than his .653 from 2012 and his current OPS+ is 90, getting back toward league average. Get that OPS over .700 and with Barney's defense, he's still a valuable player.

Another winnable game down the drain, this time because of bad bullpen management. Beyond using the wrong pitcher(s) to relieve Garza, Sveum wound up having to use three relievers in the sixth inning and two more after that. What if the Cubs tie the game up and go into extra innings? Sure, Villanueva's still there, and he can go multiple innings. But after the parade of relievers between the sixth and eighth innings Tuesday night, it would have been just Villanueva and Kyuji Fujikawa for however many extra innings there were.

The two teams will go at it again Wednesday night, weather permitting.