Dan Kolb
I think the days of Dan Kolb being the Braves' closer may be numbered. Indeed, he strung a few saves together in a row--but none of them were comfortable to watch. Today, after the Braves came back from a 4-2 deficit to get ahead of the Rockies in the 9th, 5-4, Kolb again worked his magic for the other team in allowing an HR, two singles, and an intentional walk to Todd Helton, which sent him to the bench and allowed for Chris Reitsma, who is the only dependable relief man at the moment for the Braves, to strike out Preston Wilson and then allow the game-winning flair single to Todd Greene. Loss for Kolb, number 3 on the year. For an entire season, 3 losses is acceptable. For a little over 30 games, it's not.
Cubs: It's getting to where I can actually predict Derrick Lee homers now. The guy is locked in.
posted by Chris @ 5/11/2005 05:04:00 PM
3 comments
3 Comments:
I knew he was going to hit that homer as well, and it's not being a Cub faithful or anything. I was listening to the broadcast on XM radio which had the Cubs broadcast going. When they said that there was no way Lee could save this game with a homerun due to the winds coming in so hard, I knew damn well he was about to hit one. Announcers always seem to be able to do this; it's amazing. And I'm not trying to jump any guns here, but after losing seven in a row they've put on a somewhat impressive 3-1 record. I'm grabbing at what few straws I have as a Cubs fan right now.
Yeah, Atlanta got snookered on Kolby. He did an OK job as the Brewers closer, but his save numbers looked better than he really was. He's not a strikeout guy, he's a ground ball pitcher, and you need your closer to be able to record outs that don't advance runners. Danny can't do it. His best feature is definitely his freakishly enormous chin, especially if he still has the beard.
Reitsma is very good, they should go with him.
Here's a good question. If you take Derrick Lee off of the Cubs (say they had signed Jim Thome instead) how many games would the Cubs have won so far? I'll bet that Lee is single handedly responsible for over half of their wins this year.
While Lee, on the offensive side, is definately responsible. You can't throw away Patterson's eight homers and solid OBP. Nefi Perez and Jeromy Burnitz have definately stepped up to the plate on many occasions. But there starting pitching staff has kept them in probably 80% of the games, maybe even more.
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