Personally, I was against the signing of Jon Lester to a long term contract. Signing 31 year old pitchers with a million miles on their arms is just not good business and we see that again and again these days.
But all that aside, Lester pitched in the keg-ball friendly American League his whole career and didn't have to worry about keeping base runners in check. Lester was exposed in the AL play-in playoff game with Kansas City last year (where KC baserunners had a field day running on Lester.)
Pitching with the Cubs this season, Lester is being truly exposed as a pitcher with a major handicap. Not only is Lester incapable of throwing to first base to hold runners, he looks like the second cousin of Matt Garza trying to field his position.
St. Louis runners were taking ridiculous leads on Lester Wednesday night. It almost looked like they were baiting him to throw a ball into right field. Lester was completely frozen and helpless to do anything.
If body language is anything to go by, Jon Lester looks like a beaten man and appears to be on the verge of becoming a multi-million dollar version of Steve Trout. Is this the guy that's supposed to be the Cubs new leader on the mound? I hardly think so.
Sure it's early and Lester has looked okay at times. But at the same time Cub fans have got to be concerned about this guy. Let's hope he's not the second coming of Danny Jackson, or Mel Rojas, or Jose Guzman, or Dave Smith, or Tom Gordon.........
No comments:
Post a Comment