Hill Demoted in Favor of Gallagher; Lieber to Rotation
As expected, the Cubs demoted Rich Hill to triple-A Iowa today, reports the Daily Herald. They called up Sean Gallagher to take his spot on the roster. Gallagher will go to the bullpen and Jon Lieber will go to the rotation. Sean Marshall remains in the bullpen, despite the fact that after last night's game Lou Piniella said, "I would think that if we did something, we'd put Marshall in the rotation, for now." Marshall has not thrown more than an inning in a game this year since being recalled, though, and in his last four appearances he has faced just five batters. It would take some time before he was fully stretched out. One of the strange things that occurred this spring was the Cubs not giving Marshall a chance to make the rotation.
The last time Hill was at Iowa, in 2006, he was utterly dominant in 100 innings.
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Hill
This annoys me. I've actually been a fan of Piniella for the most part since he got to the Cubs, but this reeks of scapegoating. No, Hill has not been good, but neither has Marquis, and neither had Lilly before these last couple starts (and Lilly has had two more starts to get things ironed out). And Dempster's circumstances aren't much different than Hill's, for that matter; like Hill, he hasn't pitched very well, but has been fortunate to keep a respectable ERA nonetheless.
I don't mind moving Hill to the pen, and giving him the innings Lieber had been getting, until he figures out what's up. Clearly Hill needs to work something out. But AAA feels like a drastic move, and one guided more by PR considerations ("look, we're taking action!") than baseball concerns.