Category: Rich Hill
Hill's tenure with Cubs comes to a close - The Cubs and Orioles have reached an agreement on a trade to send left-hander Rich Hill to Baltimore. The deal was officially announced Monday morning, with the Orioles sending a player to be a named to Chicago. [MLB.com Chicago Cubs News]
Many of us expected Rich Hill to be Chicago's second best starting pitcher this year. Right now, Hill is pitching more like Rick Ankiel. "Rich Hill's long search for the strike zone continued Friday night at Principal Park," writes the Des Moines Register's Randy Peterson. "The former Chicago Cubs' starting pitcher walked four, threw two wild pitches, threw wildly to first and plunked a batter while pitching just the first inning during a 12-8 loss against New Orleans."
Hill has now made 7 starts for Iowa, but has lasted just 26 innings. While striking out 32, he has also walked 28. Hill says it is a problem with his mechanics. Whatever Hill and the Iowa coaches are doing to fix his problems, things are getting worse. Hill has walked 18 in his last 9.2 innings.
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.
Rich Hill has allowed an 83% (39/47) stolen base rate during his career. To help improve that, he has made some alterations to his delivery, which he will use whether or not runners are on base, reports the Chicago Tribune's Paul Sullivan.
2-12 is the Cubs' record in 1-run games, after today's loss to the Dodgers in 11 innings. Today's culprit was a poor offense -- 7 hits and 1 run in those 11 innings, though it would not have looked so bad if Aramis Ramirez's 8th inning, bases loaded, pinch hit flyout had traveled just 10 more feet -- and a hanging 0-2 breaking ball from Scott Eyre. Fittingly, the final play was a bounced Carlos Marmol pitch that struck Juan Pierre in the leg with the bases loaded.
You can't blame Lou Piniella for bringing in the struggling Eyre for Michael Wuertz when the Dodgers used Andre Ethier to pinch-hit to lead off the bottom of the 8th inning.
As I wrote on opening day 2006, big innings win games. Tonight, the big inning came in the 1st inning: 6 runs off Brewers' starter Dave Bush. Bush wasn't throwing too hard, but the Cubs were sure hitting it hard. You don't have to walk all that much if you're hitting doubles and homers all over and out of the yard. (Bush doesn't walk that many: just 5% of the batters he has faced over his career, so it was no surprise that the Cubs only drew one walk off of him.)
Rich Hill, of course, was magnificent, allowing only a solo home run to Corey "I wear my sunglasses at night" Hart. One of the best parts of the night was that he threw just 78 pitches in 7 innings.
Hill climber in Chicago (Nick Cafardo, Boston Globe, 2/4/2007)
Baseball officials are known to gush about their pitching prospects almost as if they were speaking about their own children. Such is the case with lefthander Rich Hill. For while the Cubs spent zillions this offseason, some in their organization are far more excited about Hill than Alfonso Soriano, Ted Lilly, or any of their other acquisitions.
Could Hill be a budding Barry Zito or Tom Glavine?
Obviously, it's too early to tell. But Hill, a 1999 graduate of Milton High School who attended the 2004 World Series parade in Boston as a fan, is one of the Cubs' untouchables, especiall
SI.com's Tom Verducci provides his list of 10 potential breakout players in 2007. Coming in at #4 is the Cubs' Rich Hill:
Chicago pushed Hill to 199 1/3 innings between Triple-A and the majors last season -- way beyond his pro high -- so a potential breakdown looms. But if Hill stays healthy and gets a regular turn in the crowded Chicago rotation, he has the stuff to win 15 games.
That's the
way to end a complete game-less streak. The 2006 Chicago Cubs have now
avoided becoming the only team in major league baseball history to
not have a starting pitcher throw a
complete game the entire season, thanks to
Rich Hill.
Hill not only threw a complete game today (118 pitches, 85 strikes), he shutout
the Cincinnati Reds, a team with a good offense desperately trying to stay alive
in
the wild card race. Hill is now 6-2 with a 2.65 ERA in 68 innings since the
All-Star Break. He has 62 K's and just 20 walks during that stretch. He
continues to cement his status as a
lock for the 2007 rotation.
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