chibears55
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Fujikawa is going to be evaluated in Chicago today, but the expectation is that he’ll hit the DL again, hopefully with just a minor flare-up of the same forearm issue. The injury, and the timing, really suck because Fujikawa has been excellent this year for the Cubs. It’s easy to focus on the 5.25 ERA and the early outings where he struggled (and was probably hurt), but, since returning from the DL in early May, Fujikawa has given up exactly one earned run. He has a 1.17 ERA over that 7.2 inning stretch, during which he’s struck out 10 and walked just one (Votto, yesterday, when he was hurting).
Even if you don’t want to play the pick-and-choose game, the overall results have been very good so far. Fujikawa sports a 28% strikeout rate and a 4% walk rate, each of which is excellent. His .323 BABIP and 58.8% LOB% probably have as much to do with that 5.25 ERA as anything. His FIP and xFIP are just 2.81 and 2.91, respectively. It’s all a small sample – 12 innings pitched – but, so far, Fujikawa has been great. And it’s hard to ignore that the bullpen – concededly with the emergence of Kevin Gregg – has been much better since early May when Fujikawa returned.
So, yeah, the injury sucks.
Assuming Fujikawa does indeed go to the disabled list again, the Cubs will have an interesting choice to make with his bullpen replacement. They recently picked up upside reliever Eduardo Sanchez off of waivers from the Cardinals, and he’s already on the 40-man. But the Cubs have an open 40-man spot, so they could opt to give a non-40-man reliever at AAA a shot. For example, Blake Parker, who was up with the Cubs briefly last year, has a 2.16 ERA in 16.2 innings of work to go with a very nice 1.020 WHIP and a 12.4 K/9. But he’s also giving up 5.4 walks per nine, which could get you torched in the big leagues.
Bullpen was starting to look OK with Fuji return, along with russell and gregg..
although fuji lone run cost us a game, he has looked better since his return.
Im guessing we see sanchez once he officially put on DL..
Even if you don’t want to play the pick-and-choose game, the overall results have been very good so far. Fujikawa sports a 28% strikeout rate and a 4% walk rate, each of which is excellent. His .323 BABIP and 58.8% LOB% probably have as much to do with that 5.25 ERA as anything. His FIP and xFIP are just 2.81 and 2.91, respectively. It’s all a small sample – 12 innings pitched – but, so far, Fujikawa has been great. And it’s hard to ignore that the bullpen – concededly with the emergence of Kevin Gregg – has been much better since early May when Fujikawa returned.
So, yeah, the injury sucks.
Assuming Fujikawa does indeed go to the disabled list again, the Cubs will have an interesting choice to make with his bullpen replacement. They recently picked up upside reliever Eduardo Sanchez off of waivers from the Cardinals, and he’s already on the 40-man. But the Cubs have an open 40-man spot, so they could opt to give a non-40-man reliever at AAA a shot. For example, Blake Parker, who was up with the Cubs briefly last year, has a 2.16 ERA in 16.2 innings of work to go with a very nice 1.020 WHIP and a 12.4 K/9. But he’s also giving up 5.4 walks per nine, which could get you torched in the big leagues.
Bullpen was starting to look OK with Fuji return, along with russell and gregg..
although fuji lone run cost us a game, he has looked better since his return.
Im guessing we see sanchez once he officially put on DL..
