What in the Heck Happened to Carlos Marmol?

[lcbj68c]

This guy was probably the best middle reliever in all of baseball last season?

 

Again today, he blew up so far. Came in with a 7-2 lead, has promptly let 7 men reach base, two runs in and still pitching.

 

Make that 8 baserunners..3 runs..and now a hit batter.

 

Overuse not seemingly the problem, as he is on 3 days rest again.

[lcbj68c]

9 baserunners....5 runs to blow the game.

[brettac1]

Well, he just has had a brutal game. It happens. (and I love that it has happened)

 

In general, though, he's pretty much just had a consolidation season. He has virtually the same BB and K rates this year as he had last year. He's a very good pitcher. He had a ridiculous/unsustainable HR rate last year, and this year it has normalized. I don't think he's hurt or anything like that. Just human.

[lcbj68c]

It seems like he is throwing less 1st pitch strikes and really falling behind hitters.

[giffted1]

I think it might be a bit of overuse. He's 10th in the league for innings pitched, 5th for number of pitches, and 3rd for appearances as a reliever.

[kmcasper23]

He is relatively young yet and he has been used frequently. If Panella wouldn't trot him out there in games that he shouldn't be pitching (such as the 19-5 debacle at Wrigley earlier this year, maybe he wouldn't have become as ineffective as he has lately.

[Postseason2006]

Creole Carlos Marmalade is very overworked and with Hardin on your team, he'll be pitching those games, you can bet. Keep doing it Lou!!!

[naivin]

Lou has done his very best to channel the ghost of Dusty Baker where Marmol is concerned - pitching him at every opportunity this season. I have been leveling abuse accusations since 2-3 weeks into the season. That may or may not be what's going on, but dude has had a lot of innings and appearances.

[brettac1]

Not trying to absolve Lou of blame, but you're almost bound to rack up a lot of innings/appearances for your #1 set-up guy when you are winning 60% of your games. I guess what I am saying is that the modern mindset for bullpen management is more to blame than simply one manager being a moron.

 

The same thing happened last year with the Brewers and Cordero, Turnbow, and to a lesser extent Shouse.

[Ennder]

His numbers were partially smoke and mirrors last year which is why most projection services had him closer to a 4 ERA. Think a slightly better version of Turnbow. When you struggle to throw strikes it catches up with you eventually.

[dlk9s]

9 baserunners....5 runs to blow the game.

Rats. You got my hopes up. I saw it was 7-2 and when you said he blew the game, I went back to check the score to find that they still ending up winning.

 

[brewjihad]

http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/anatomy-of-a-player-carlos-marmol/

 

Josh Kalk weighs in, his problems seem to be due to overuse and a change in his fastball arm angle.

[ELCABALLO45]

His numbers were partially smoke and mirrors last year which is why most projection services had him closer to a 4 ERA. Think a slightly better version of Turnbow. When you struggle to throw strikes it catches up with you eventually.

 

Agreed. Marmol does not throw strikes, hitters finnaly figured that out.

[RedFlash2]

At one point, Marmol was on paced for 100 APPEARANCES. Piniella has already said Marmol isn't pitching on Sunday and the earliest he would pitch again would be Friday, which would be 5 days rest.

 

Remember this young man, is still trying to figure out how to be a pitcher. If memory serves me correct, Marmol has been a pitcher for less then 4 yrs. He was a former catcher turn pitcher. I think he's struggles will benefit him very much. For the past couple of yrs, he has gotten by on his stuff alone, now that major league hitters have adjusted to him, it's is Marmol's turn to adjust to hitters.

 

I suspect he will spend the week with Rothschild, and perhaps even Blanco and they will go over tapes of him, and figure something out. If everything goes to plan, Marmol will be back to being stud shortly. But if he struggles out the gates of then 2nd half, I expect two things to happen: 1. Marmol could see DL time, on a flimsy excuse and 2. I would expect the Cubs to jump into the market for a set-up man, like Fuentes, Mahay, Beatencourt, or even Marte. The Cubs could/should still do #2 (no dirty jokes, plz) even before Marmol struggles, but could intensify if Marmol doesn't come out firing BB's.

 

Just my POV.

[Gobias Industries]

I saw the higlights of the game. It looked more like Theriot blew up rather than Marmol.

 

I agree that he does have some control problems. Early in the year against the brewers, he was getting behind 3-0 with remarkable consistency and then wind up striking out the batter with a nasty slider a foot of the plate.

[Trombone482]

just been reported on mlb.com that marmol is replacing Kerry Wood. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/mad.gif Apparently he was the next highest vote getter, but Hurdle couldn't have picked someone else that is better?

[Brawndo the Thirst Mutilat]

Per the bottom line ticker on ESPN, Carlos Marmol is an All-Star, replacing Kerry Wood. Heaven forbid if half the players on the NL roster aren't Cubs!

[Trombone482]

Little late there Brawndo http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/wink.gif Seriously though it is disgusting, they couldn't have picked someone else? Torres or Fuentes come to mind, or at least someone else that is a closer. What about Valverde? He is leading the NL in saves and not in the all-star game? That is a joke

[silversurferr]

Dusty and Loopy; Overuse; Too many sliders and imperfect mechanics.

[SoCal Brew Crew Fan]

I'd love to see three innings each from Marmol & Z in the all-star game...let's burn them out.

[tristarscoop]

Marmol was the next highest vote getter among players, that's why he was put in place of Wood.

[naivin]

Good. Hopefully he gets an inning. I ain't into that whole home field thing. (If the Brewers are in the WS, they could play on the moon for all I care. Not sure location will matter much agains Boston or Anaheim anyway.). I'd just as soon see Marmol pitch any chance there is. If anyone appears to need some time off, its him. Let's hope he doesn't get it.

[Trombone482]

Marmol was the next highest vote getter among players, that's why he was put in place of Wood.

i am not arguing that point, but there a lot better choices and to he is not even the closer

 

[Thurston Fluff]

Marmol was the next highest vote getter among players, that's why he was put in place of Wood.

 

 

 

Those same people who voted for him also booed him. Even they would chose someone else at this point. No middle reliever with an ERA over 4 should be anywhere near the allstar game. As far as what happened to him he's been used a lot and isn't used to that type of workload. Lou makes Ned look like a genius with the bullpen.

 

[Fear The Chorizo]

I'm pretty sure it's the players who vote for all of the pitchers, not the fans