All year I have been trying to defend Gregg, and to be honest I still stand by my theory that he hasn’t been all that bad.  He definitely hasn’t been good, but there are worse closers out there.  Either way a change needs to be made, but I almost feel too tired and sick of this shit to try to analyze or even care about it.  The bullpen is such a mess that it might be beyond fixing.  I’m sure Lou will try to give guys “new roles” to help them better succeed, but I doubt that will do much.  Here are what I think the roles should be:

Closer: Guzman

Set-Up Man: Player from another team

Left-Handed Specialist: Marshall, Grabow

Middle Relief: Heilman, Player from another team

Long-Reliever: Marshall, Heilman

Ball Boy: Carlos Marmol

Peanut Vendor: Gregg

Annoying Guy Who Keeps Showing Up to Parties Even Though No One Invited Him: Samardzija

The bullpen thing is only one issue among many.  This division race is over.  I’m usually a guy that stays pretty upbeat about my team’s chances, especially the Cubs.  Unfortunately as they fade farther and farther back in both the NL Central race and the Wild Card, I am becoming more and more skeptical, and angry.  I’m sick of defending Milton Bradley and Kevin Gregg.  I’m tired of Zambrano’s endless drama.  I want to punch Hendry in the face for his off-season circus that resulted in more money spent and worse performance on the field.

And the one man I never thought I would tire of, Sweet Lou has pushed me past the tipping point.  His mismanagement of this bullpen has been glaringly obvious, even more so than his refusal to drop Soriano in the order, preach intelligent baserunning, or make adjustments when big-name players were struggling.  If you are any kind of baseball enthusiast, you have to be questioning not whether Lou’s stubborn refusal to change things that aren’t working may be the sign of an old man that has lost his grasp on baseball and even reality.  The guy has heart, wants to win, and I love him, but his decision-making is piss-poor.  Anyone with half a brain knew it was time to get Marmol out of the set-up role weeks ago, instead of “letting him work it out”.  Its been three months!  Let him work it out on his own goddamn time, when its not costing us leads in the 7th and 8th.

I can’t talk about this anymore.  And to those of you who have my gchat, please don’t IM me to see “what I thought about last night’s game”.  It f#$%ing sucked, ok?  That’s what I thought about it.

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Tags: Carlos Marmol, Cubs Bullpen, Cubs Suck, Kevin Gregg, Lou Piniella, Mismanagement, Senility