I nonchalantly dismissed Ted Lilly's shoulder surgery after initial reports of it being a minor scope. Then I read on, minor scopes don't take pitchers down through April.
Yep, you've got it Cubs fans. Less than one day after the baseball season comes to an end, the Cubs are already screwing themselves out of next year's pennant race.
Rage after the jump.
Jim Hendry, fuck you. You too, Lou Piniella. Now, I try to stay away from the various words you should not say on televsion, but this is a necessary platform in which to do so.
This would not even have been an issue had the Cubs taken my advice (from August!) and cut your losses in early September, rather than push everyone to the limit despite being 10 games behind the Cardinals. I warned you ... I warned you all. Having a sense of pride by beating the Pirates, Mets and Reds is not worth mortgaging the team's future. Apparently, I am one of the few who realize this.
There was absolutely no reason to trot out Lilly for five September starts. None. C'mon, Jim. C'mon, Sweet Lou. Justify Lilly throwing an average of 107 pitches in his five September starts when the rest of the team was either lying on its back praying for mercy or bent over a coffee table taking it from the rest of the National League contenders.
Come on. I dare ya. What? Did you suddenly think that managing a pitching staff like Dusty Baker was still around was a good idea?
Great, the Cubs beat Houston, Pittsburgh and Cincinnati all at the expense of Lilly's health and the mental health for Cubs fans who will be entering their 101st straight season being the hunter rather than the hunted. Seriously, guys, what the fuck where you thinking in September? Did you really think the Cubs were going to overtake the Rockies, Marlins, Braves and Giants with the Jake Fox/Sam Fuld/Tyler Colvin clusterfuck of an outfield?
I didn't think so.
Lilly beat the NL Central's three worst teams en route to having a 12-win season. Those three teams finished fourth, fifth and sixth in the NL Central. You wasted a month of the team's best starter on teams that finished with a combined winning percentage of .441.
Oh, and real Cubs fans know "April" really means "All-Star Break" when it comes to a timetable of a pitcher's return.
Is it too early to prepare myself for 20 starts by Tom Gorzelanny? And if not, how do I do so without getting alcohol poisoning?
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