Matt Garza's rehab start was scratched the other day due to soreness in the arm. It's being called dead arm, which is common for players. It's especially common for those coming back from an injury. Most pitchers go through it at some point during the season. The Cubs are saying it's only muscular, which is good news.
Garza recently has had bone-related issues with a pitching elbow that still has a screw in it from a non-baseball injury when he was a kid. But the Cubs say they’re confident his latest setback is unrelated muscular soreness.
“I’m not really concerned right now,” manager Dale Sveum said. “This has got nothing to do with his elbow. This is just normal muscle soreness that he seems to be going through.”
Team officials say Garza reported feeling better Wednesday, and he could be on track to play catch by the end of the week. That could get him back on the mound for his first rehab start sometime next week. Then he might be able to come off the disabled list by the end of May, at the earliest.
Garza has been expected to return around the middle of May, but this will push him back until the end of May. Garza has started a game since July 21st, 2012. He missed the final 2 and a half months of the season with elbow soreness.
When he returns, one of the current members of the rotation will have to move to the bullpen. That guy would be most likely be Scott Feldman, but the Cubs did promise him a spot in the rotation when they signed him a $6 million contract. Here's what Hoyer had to say about it:
[Feldman] did sort of have one foot in, one foot out [of the rotation]. I think he felt like he was looking over his shoulder a lot. If he made a bad start, he might not necessarily make another one or might be in the bullpen. We certainly gave him the reassurance here: ‘You’re going to be a starting pitcher. You’re going to be in the rotation.’ [That] means a lot. It’s hard to perform when you’re always constantly worried about [your] job. — Brett
So maybe Scott Feldman isn't the guy going to the bullpen. He should be. He probably shouldn't have even been signed by the Cubs, but that's already been discussed.
The Cubs will make a few more turns through the rotation before they have to decide anything, but right now the decision is pretty easy. The decision, whenever it has to be made, should be equally easy regardless of how the next few starts go. I'm not sure it will be since the Cubs made a promise they shouldn't have.
Feldman has clearly been a back of the rotation pitcher in his career. Giving him more innings will probably only make him worse. There aren't too many teams that are going to promise a spot in the rotation to a 5th starter, but the Cubs did. And now it could bite them in the ass.
Either the Cubs go back on that promise, which will rightfully upset Feldman. Or they leave him in the rotation and move a better pitcher to the bullpen.
Comments
no brainer. go ahead and upset him.
gaius mariusQuote Reply
Hey guys, long time no see.
My thoughts – it’s stupid to promise a player anything. If you’re going to promise him something, they better be pretty damn good, and Feldman isn’t.
And although he was promised, at some point the onus is on the player to perform. I don’t think Hoyer signed Feldman and expected a 6 FIP. If he continues to pitch poorly into late May, Hoyer doesn’t have a choice, promise or not. And if Feldman is pulled from the rotation after 10 starts, he doesn’t have anyone to blame but himself. Maybe a trip to the pen helps him regain his control.
Serbianking33Quote Reply
@ Serbianking33:
Exactly. The promise was made in Spring training to give him confidence, but if he doesn’t produce after that, then he’s out. I’m sure Feldmen knows that as well as anyone.
joshQuote Reply
@ gaius marius:
Agreed.
dmick89Quote Reply
BerseliusQuote Reply
Serbianking33 wrote:
This. The bigger problem here is that a promise was given to someone undeserving of any kind of promise to get playing time.
You should never make these promises. If the player is good enough, no promise is even necessary.
dmick89Quote Reply
I’m fine with the Cubs promising that to Feldman, since Spring Training shouldn’t make a big difference as to what decision they wanted to make there. I think the subtext was definitely that he’s not guaranteed a rotation spot for the entire season no matter what.
BerseliusQuote Reply
Did Feldman promise to not play like shit? If so he isn’t holding his end of the bargain…
What’s going on with Baker’s rehab, is he slated to pitch anytime this season?
We seem to have a plethora of back-end starters when everyone is good and healthy. I don’t think Villanueva can maintain his awesomeness – are his stats backing up his starts? Last I looked it appeared that nothing has really changed from his career averages to this year.
WaLiQuote Reply
@ josh:
Actually, the promise was made prior to him signing a contract with the Cubs. It was the reason he signed with the Cubs. It was kind of silly to even sign Feldman. It was stupid to promise him a spot in the rotation.
dmick89Quote Reply
Villanueva’s strikeout rate is down, but his walk rate is much improved so far (small sample size!). He’s kept the ball on the ground a hell of a lot more than he has in the past, which probably won’t continue and nearly 20% of his fly balls have left the park. He’s been a bit lucky and unlucky at the same time. He’s also allowed just a .164 BABIP and stranded 100% of the runners.
dmick89Quote Reply
I speculated a few weeks ago that Wood might be the one who gets demoted when Garza gets back. The whole point of signing Feldman in the first place was to hope that he pitched competently enough for the Cubs to get something at the deadline, and Wood is someone they’ll keep around for the long haul. If they demote him his value is shot. Though if he keeps pitching/fielding the way he has so far, his value is shot anyway.
BerseliusQuote Reply
They should trade Villanueva sometime in May before Garza returns so that they don’t have to demote Wood. I’m not always into the psyche of a player and chemistry and all that crap but it’s got to look terrible if the team demotes a guy who’s magnitudes better than a guy who gets to stay just because he needs to get traded *shrug* And I say trade Villanueva because they need to get something good before he turns back into a pumpkin.
Rice CubeQuote Reply
If Garza were coming back TODAY then I think the Feldman thing is a no-brainer. He’s clearly been the weak link, and while Villanueva’s results are likely going to regress (he’s allowed 4 runs on 4 solo homeruns, for crying out loud), he seems to have taken a step forward in his ability to pitch rather than throw. It seems a lot of his success has been due to his ability to change speeds reliably and throw strikes more. Obviously some of those strikes are going to get hit more than they are now, but overall, that’s a good way to approach pitching.
Feldman, on the other hand, is supposed to be a guy who doesn’t walk many batters, but he’s been walking people left and right (it seems, I’m too lazy to look it up) and he doesn’t have the stuff to overcome that either.
But since we’re talking about more than a month from now, Samardzija could be traded by then and any number of new injuries could befall the current rotation, giving starts to someone like Brooks Raley or some other piece of crap from Iowa, which makes Feldman look like Feller by comparison.
Aisle424Quote Reply
Should the Cubs get Aceves from BOS for the bullpen? They apparently want to dump him pronto
NateQuote Reply
I can’t believe they would demote Wood at this point. That wouldn’t just piss off Wood, that would piss off some other players, I would think. He’s not a rookie anymore, I don’t think you can just do that to a veteran that’s actually playing well without the players wondering what the fuck the organization’s priorities are.
I think the fan and media shitstorm would also be immense and not fair to Garza who would then need to perform as well as Wood for people not to turn on him as if the decision was somehow his fault.
Aisle424Quote Reply
Nate wrote:
All depends on the price. If it’s for nothing, sure, why not?
MylesQuote Reply
Aisle424 wrote:
Agreed. That would be quite the damning indictment on this FO as far as I’m concerned.
As for Aceves, I’d give salary relief and nothing more. Maybe a FRk arm or something.
MylesQuote Reply
Aisle424 wrote:
FWIW on Feldman
Career:
13.7% K, 8.1% BB
2013:
13.9% K, 13.9% BB
So, yeah, the walks will probably come down, but I wouldn’t characterize him as anything other than league average in that department. Everything else is pretty close to what he’s done for his career, which is not good.
GWQuote Reply
so does it make sense to drop edwin jackson and pick up villanueva on my fantasy team? the league rewards Ks a bit heavily although the scoring system is pretty balanced. also, i would assume that i can pick up jackson later on down the road if/when villanueva starts to blow. i just have a hard time believing that villanueva will outperform jackson even in the short term.
EnricoPallazzoQuote Reply
@ Myles:
aceves is making $2.7 M, so the salary hit isn’t a whole lot. the sox did just demote him, however, so I’m sure Theo is on it.
GWQuote Reply
@ EnricoPallazzo:
i don’t think i would, though they are both getting starts against the marlins, jackson today and villanueva on sunday, and I would try get both of those starts into your lineup if possible.
GWQuote Reply
GW wrote:
Yeah, 2.7 seems like a fair amount to gamble on Aceves. I’m not sure the Red Sox could get anything more than salary relief for him (maybe a desperate team like the Angels will pony up a live arm, though).
MylesQuote Reply
@ GW:
yeah i had thought about a quick drop-add-drop so i could get both of their performances and then re-acquire jackson, but we are penalized pretty heavily for poor outings. i’m better off with nothing than i am with giving up a bunch of runs/walks. so for a question mark like villanueva it’s a toss up. he’s been hot though so it’s probably a decent bet.
EnricoPallazzoQuote Reply
i have also been debating on whether to replace ben revere with dejesus or schierholtz. i don’t think it makes much of a difference in the short term…thoughts?
EnricoPallazzoQuote Reply
@ EnricoPallazzo:
revere can’t hit, but he’s the only one of those three that will steal bases, so it depends on what you need
GWQuote Reply
@ GW:
basically every other offensive stat. i’m fine with giving up SBs. i want a good K/BB ratio and OBP. i am guessing that both dejesus and schierholtz will have similar K/BB but i’m leaning towards dejesus since i think he’ll be better for #walks/OBP/power, although he will probably have more overall Ks.
EnricoPallazzoQuote Reply
@ GW:
Feldman hasn’t pitched too terribly (not that he’s that great), he’s also been self-burned by his own throwing errors in each of his starts. I think he’s been the biggest victim of this team’s bad luck wrt guys scoring after ROE.
BerseliusQuote Reply
fLEDMAN SUXCS – sHITCAN HIS aSS
Suburban kidQuote Reply
wait you can’t listen to gameday audio on a mobile device without spending another $20? what the fuck? apparently you have to spend another $20 on an app to be able to listen on a tablet. i am furious. this makes zero sense (other than the fact that ripping me off = more money for mlb, of course)
EnricoPallazzoQuote Reply
EnricoPallazzo wrote:
You’re like the Cubs. In need of every offensive stat.
dmick89Quote Reply
@ EnricoPallazzo:
That’s still going on? I was surprised that I didn’t have to pay extra for mlb.tv when I did it on our new ipad. Just loaded up At Bat and put in my account info.
BerseliusQuote Reply
dmick89 wrote:
EnricoPallazzoQuote Reply
@ gaius marius:
Isn’t that a no hearter?
shawndgoldmanQuote Reply
That executive should be fired immediately. If there’s no way to figure out who it was, fire them all.
dmick89Quote Reply
@ dmick89:
Yeah, that’s old school bullshit.
joshQuote Reply
Here’s a good way to look dumber than you already are
dmick89Quote Reply
Preview up
http://obstructedview.net/previews/series-preview-cubs-6-14-at-marlins-5-16.html
BerseliusQuote Reply
dmick89 wrote:
JonKneeVQuote Reply
@ josh:
You can promise. But you DONT lie!
TheoJed should have said he was guaranteed a spot in the rotation at the start of the season. But they should have said that it is important to the Cubs organization that all players produce.
If Feldman were productive, this would be a tough decision. But he hasnt been and the decision is easy
GaryQuote Reply