Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Waiver Wire Crap Shoot

The Cubs bullpen was horrible at the start of the season.  Carlos Marmol couldn't buy an out and Kyuji Fujiwaka got hurt.  Soon April 14 the brass scanned the waiver wire, found two pitchers, and rolled the dice.

They were one for two.


Kameron Loe was salvaged from the Mariners. Turns out the Mariners had a good reason for releasing Loe: he stunk!  In eight inning over seven games with the Cubs, he gave up 12 hits and five runs.  He was released on May 10.


Kevin Gregg was the other April 14 acquisition.  This was absolutely frightened me.  I knew the bullpen was bad, but was it so bad that Kevin Gregg would be an improvement?  My fright was based on his first stint with the Cubs in 2009.  Kerry Wood has left the team via free agency and Gregg was picked up from the Marlins to be the new closer.

The 2009 Kevin Gregg was not very good.  Though he did have 23 saves, he also had 7 blown saves and 5 losses. The Cubs didn't bother to resign him after the season.  Now, four years later, he returns.

Shockingly, his return has been great.  In 14 games, he's yet to give up an earned run and he's notched six saves.  Whodda thunk that Kevin Gregg would be lights out?  Not me!

Will he keep it up through the rest of the season?  Who knows?  But for now, Theo/Jed looks like a genius for signing Gregg (and an idiot for signing Loe!).

4 comments:

  1. After watching him flounder in Baltimore for the past few years, seeing his revival for the Cubs is doubly shocking to me!

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  2. It's crazy that Gregg has returned and in better form then when he left.

    Fujikawa going down to TJ surgery makes Gregg even more vital.

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  3. It's still a pretty small sample size, but Gregg has been very good. I'm hoping when he comes back down to earth that it's not with a complete thud.

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  4. Yeah, the Gregg thing--shocking. I hated that guy.

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