Ken Rosenthal has the scoop for us on this signing. It happened relatively quickly, as not many rumors were floating around concerning this for the last few days. There were a couple speculative reports saying that the Cubs may target Lieber, but anyway...the Cubs signed Lieber to a one-year deal today.
Lieber, 38, is a crafty veteran for the Cubs to add to the back end of the bullpen. Lieber was 3-6 with a 4.73 ERA last season when he suffered his foot injury on June 24. Jon also started the season on the DL with a strained oblique. He won't be flashy, but that 4.73 will likely go down playing at Wrigley.
Interestingly enough, the Cubs looked set with their rotation with Zambrano, Ted Lilly, Rich Hill, Jason Marquis, and Ryan Dempster (just promoted to the starting rotation). Rosenthal believes that this move is a precursor to either a Marquis trade, or Dempster moving back to the bullpen, otherwise Lieber would have signed with a different team.
As a Brewers fan, I would hope that Marquis is traded. I would much rather face Jon Lieber than Marquis. The Cubs are most likely going to try to unload Marquis' contract on someone else, then use Lieber as a stop-gap until Sean Marshall or Sean Gallagher can enter the rotation in 09. Then again, Dempster is not a force to be reckoned with, so he very well could be moved back to a bullpen that is increasingly looking very formidable at the back end, with Wood, Marmol, and potentially Dempster.
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4 comments:
I would much rather face Jon Lieber than Marquis.
you're kidding, right?
No, I'm not. Last year, Marquis only gave up 2 ER against the Brewers in 2 games. For one reason or another, the Brewers have not been able to figure him out.
Plus, if you look at opponents batting averages against the two pitchers, Marquis is .274 and .242 against lefties and righties, respectively. Lieber, on the other hand, allows hitters to bat .310 and .278. Marquis had an awful year in 06, but was moving along nicely with a 3.92 ERA until very late July. Lieber, on the other hand will be 38 this season, and his ERA has consistently been above 4.20 the last 4 seasons.
For the Milwaukee Brewers, who are excessively right-handed in their line-up, Marquis is much tougher against righties than is Lieber. Maybe overall Lieber is a better pitcher, but against the Brewers, Marquis has been better.
I wouldn't say Marquis was "moving along nicely" in early 2007, he was very lucky. In April and May his BABIP was an unsustainable .224 and .230 (ERA 2.35 and 3.38), once the luck wore off and it went back to normal levels his ERA followed right along. His June, July, and August numbers (BABIP/ERA) went .292/5.09, .276/6.29, .270/4.45, so it looks like early on he just had a lot of balls hit right at somebody, and once the luck wore off the old Jason Marquis came back.
He walks far too many people and doesn't K enough to ever really be more than a middling 5th starter. Lieber is old, but has much more upside for 2008 than Marquis. The BB rates alone are enough to give Lieber a solid edge, since they each give up a little more than a hit per inning, but Marquis walks twice as many.
That's fair. I don't know if I would consider him being "lucky" early in the year, but it certainly didn't fit with his performances the past few years. Lieber would certainly be an upgrade for the Cubs in their rotation.
I was speaking from the prospective of a Brewers fan. Marquis is much tougher against righties than Lieber, and the Brewers are very heavily loaded on the right-hand side of the plate. That can simply be changed by playing Gross and Counsell, however. I'm not arguing that Marquis is a better pitcher than Lieber, just that Marquis has given the Brewers troubles.
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