Through The Muck & The Mire: 2013 Cubs Preview - Bullpen & Outfield

This is the second of a three-part preview of the 2013 Cubs. Check out Part 1 for a quick review of the 2012 season, the offseason, and pitching staff. Next, I'll examine the ramshackle bullpen and a platoon-laden outfield.

Bullpen
Setup/Closer: Carlos Marmol, Kyuji Fujikawa
LOOGY: James Russell
Middle Relief: Michael Bowden, Shawn Camp, Hisanori Takahashi
The Annual Rule 5 Stash: Hector Rondon
Hendry Era Comp: 2010 - Marmol, Cashner, Russell, Berg, Grabow, Mateo, Howry
Future Headliners (with ETA for prospects): Trey McNutt (2014), James Russell, Rafael Dolis, and maybe Arodys Vizcaino

This year's relievers will challenge the 2010 squad for the worst Cubs pen of the new millennium. That team ended up at a 4.72 ERA, a .343 OBP-against, and a 15-27 record. Carlos Marmol & Jeff Russell are the lone holdouts from that team and that fact alone does not give me much confidence.

Love The Bomb Part II: Flip the Fonz

Brian LaHair is having the strongest season of any position player thus far, hitting .364 with 11 RBIs for a 1.190 OPS and completely out-of-whack 226 OPS+ season-to-date. Naturally, he's blocking the prospect with the best chance of making a mark in the majors this season. However, there's a way to get both these players on the field, pending a check of Jed Hoyer's cajones and Tom Ricketts' wallet: Trading Alfonso Soriano.

LaHair has the ability to man the outfield, having played 107 innings there (including 66 in right) in the waning days of the 2011 season. He's not going to make any highlight-reel catches, but you also save yourself from watching another crow hop for the rest of your life.

Is Ricketts ready to swallow $54M to rightfully get Anthony Rizzo some major league at-bats, avoid Soriano's standard second half apathy, and score a couple lottery-ticket minor leaguers in return? Even with his walk-off hit on Tuesday night, Soriano has one extra-base hit on the year (current OPS+ of 40) and provides little value to any team when he's not knocking balls towards Waveland Avenue. Not only would this rid the Cubs of the one major albatross left from the Hendry era, but it would allow the Cubs to add some bat discipline while backfilling Soriano's power with Rizzo.

Cubs Season Preview Part III - The Starting Lineup

The starting lineup - responsible for two-thirds of the game. Yes, the pitching staff leads off each play, but when they don't have a defense behind them (2011 Cubs dead last in majors for fielding %) or an offense generating run support (Cubs 19th in majors in runs scored), a season can only go so far.

The reconstructed Cubs lineup will be tasked with improvements in three key areas in 2012:

• Defense - Again, the 2011 Cubs finished last in the majors in fielding percentage, leading MLB in errors and finishing last in the NL with the lowest defensive efficiency (outs as a percent of balls in play). Improvements have been made at third base (Ian Stewart vs. a declining Aramis Ramirez), right field (DeJesus career average dWAR ~1 win/season vs. Fukudome ~0.4 wins and net zero for Colvin), and backup catcher (how did Koyie Hill stay on this team for the last three years?). However, massive improvements in the middle infield (Castro) will need to be made in order for the team defense to make any noticeable improvement. 
• On-base percentage - The Cubs finished low-middle of the pack in the majors last year in overall OBP (.314 vs. league average of .322). However, they were second to last in the majors in walks (only the lowly Astros trailed). Free swingers like Colvin, Pena, and Soriano don't help with that, but this is a stat especially valued now by the new regime and the "value" lineup the Cubs have put in place will need to capitalize on every chance they get to make it on base.
• Baserunning - The Cubs were third to last in the majors in steals, something they haven't consistently seen since the failed Juan Pierre experiment of 2006 (58 steals but led league with 20 caught stealing). While the major league team is not big at this point on speed guys, the minors have some semblance of baserunning in Brett Jackson, Matt Szczur, and The Little Campana That Could. Manufacturing runs with smart baserunning will be needed and now that basecloggers A-Ram and Pena are gone, Sveum will be called on to move runners along the basepaths in many-a-game.

Here's a player-by-player breakdown of the Cubs lineup, running through the batting order as proposed by the final full-squad Spring Training game played last week: