Good Times with Ted

By all accounts, Ted Lilly will be an ex-Cub by Saturday's trading deadline, in which case tonight's start at Houston will be his last for the team. Signed in December, 2006 after finalizing a deal with Cubs GM Jim Hendry moments before Hendry underwent an angioplasty, Lilly will go down as one of the GM's savvier acquisitions.

Coming into tonight's game, the lefty's four-year record with the Cubs is 47-34, 3.73. His strikeout-to-walk ratio is better than 3:1 and his ERA+ is 122. For what it's worth, Carlos Zambrano, who was ostensibly our ace when Lilly signed, has gone 44-32, 4.04 (113 ERA+) over the same period.

Lilly's 3-8 mark this season is far from indicative of how he has pitched. According to Baseball Prospectus's Support-Neutral pitchers stats, Lilly would have 9 wins this season with league-average offensive and bullpen support.

In honor of Ted's presumed, imminent departure, here is a list of Lilly's best starts as a Cub, ranked by Game Score (shown in parens).

9/15/08 @ Houston: 7 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 9 K (83)
6/13/10 v. White Sox: 8 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 K (82)
9/2/09 v. Houston: 8 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 5 K (79)
6/8/10 @ Milwaukee: 8 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 0 BB, 8 K (78)
5/2/09 v. Marlins: 8 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 0 BB, 10 K (78)
4/13/09 v. Rockies: 6.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 8 K (78)

No official word on the fate of the Ted Lilly Fan Club or the disposition of the Ted Lilly Supercomputer. 

Tags: 
Ted Lilly
Jim Hendry
Submitted by Cubnut on Tue, 07/27/2010 - 3:35pm
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Comments

Submitted by QuietMan
on Tue, 07/27/2010 - 5:06pm

Some Mesa spring training stuff.

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2010/0...

Submitted by Paul Noce
on Tue, 07/27/2010 - 5:18pm

Cubs "Officially" put Z on the trading block, not that it matters:

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2010/07/cubs-ma...

Submitted by crunch
on Tue, 07/27/2010 - 6:07pm

via cm

#cubs lineup tues nite is rf colvin, ss castro, 1b lee, 3b ramy, cf byrd, lf sori, 2b riot, c hill, p lilly

also this...for those that care

#Cubs promote OF and Villanova football star Matt Szczur from Boise to Class A Peoria

Submitted by Cubnut
on Tue, 07/27/2010 - 7:08pm

Stephen Strasburg scratched from start when he can't get loose in the bullpen. Will receive MRI, possibly tonight.

http://bit.ly/cOK2xV

"Strasburg had a bullpen session just minutes before Tuesday's game and pitching coach Steve McCatty and trainer Lee Kuntz noticed that something was wrong with the right-hander. McCatty and Kuntz called (Washington GM Mike) Rizzo, who pulled the plug on Strasburg's start."

Submitted by Paul Noce
on Tue, 07/27/2010 - 7:16pm

Was Marcus Giles jogging in the bullpen?

Submitted by Charlie
on Tue, 07/27/2010 - 8:02pm

The Mark Prior Part Deux jokes I want to make just stand as evidence of how bitter I still am over Prior (and Wood).

Submitted by Tony S.
on Wed, 07/28/2010 - 11:57am

You need to hang on to it, waaaaaaiittt for it.....

He'll be doooooinngg....

TOWEL DRILLS!!!

KA-BLAM!!!

THAT'S when the Prior jokes hit (and hurt)...

Submitted by Paul Noce
on Tue, 07/27/2010 - 7:51pm

I think it was about the third inning of Strasburg's MLB debut when Bob Costas, doing the game on MLB Network, said Strasburg could be the greatest pitcher in the history of baseball. I cringed. It was such a stupid thing to say, and so early in someone's career. He didn't even say Strasburg had Hall of Fame talent, he just jumped straight to the "greatest pitcher in the history of the game" nonsense.

I couldn't help but think of all the hard throwing pitching prospects who had their careers cut short by injuries.

Submitted by crunch
on Tue, 07/27/2010 - 7:55pm

MLB Network is marketing this kid more than f'n WAS is...it's weird. Well, it's not that weird, but it's very aggressive.

Submitted by The Real Neal
on Wed, 07/28/2010 - 9:30am

I think that's a misquote.

Submitted by Tony S.
on Wed, 07/28/2010 - 11:58am

And along with that, he'll get signed by the Yanks in a few years to a contract of

Infinity/$Eleventy-kajillion

Submitted by Newport
on Tue, 07/27/2010 - 7:51pm

Marcus Giles + Lee Kuntz= a used infield rake and a can of Simoniz?

Submitted by Ryno
on Tue, 07/27/2010 - 8:06pm

I hate it when we get a runner caught in a rundown and he steals anyways.

Submitted by crunch
on Tue, 07/27/2010 - 9:24pm

can someone check the pulse of lou?

Submitted by crunch
on Tue, 07/27/2010 - 9:28pm

well that's awesome...go cashner.

2hbp and a grandslam. along with the hits and 2 other runs...all in all a great inning.

ugg...

Submitted by Ryno
on Tue, 07/27/2010 - 11:02pm

Cashner is:

* savior of the team
* a club house cancer

Submitted by The Real Neal
on Wed, 07/28/2010 - 9:34am

Regardless, he should be allowed to use his third pitch.

Submitted by Paul Noce
on Tue, 07/27/2010 - 9:33pm

Shhh, he's napping.

Submitted by QuietMan
on Tue, 07/27/2010 - 11:07pm

From Bruce Levine:

At least six teams have interest in Lilly, including the Twins, Tigers, Dodgers and Mets. According to major league sources, the Twins have been the most aggressive team in their pursuit of Lilly, although the Dodgers, who had early interest in the pitcher, may have found a way to pick up the $5.5 million left on his contract.

http://espn.go.com/blog/chicago/cubs/post/_/i...

Submitted by Dr. aaron b
on Tue, 07/27/2010 - 11:34pm

It sure would be neat if we could pay Lillys salary and get actual good prospects in these deals.

Submitted by The Real Neal
on Wed, 07/28/2010 - 9:33am

Shitzturis trading not withstanding, Hendry has shown he's much better getting MLB guys than minor leaguers. I have pretty much 0 faith that Hendry would identify a good minor league player to grab, regardless of how much money the Cubs pay.

If they're going to pay for Lilly's contract, they should just lose him via free agency and get the draft pick(s).

Submitted by big_lowitzki
on Wed, 07/28/2010 - 10:23am

Well... Hendry hasn't done many re-building trades. And the DeRosa trade is looking decent.

And they only get draft picks if Lilly were to be offered arbitration and get signed elsewhere rather than accepting arbitration, which isn't necessarily the likely outcome.

Submitted by The Real Neal
on Wed, 07/28/2010 - 10:55am

I think that is the most likely outcome, particuarly if there are six teams vying for his services right now.

"Which isn't necessarily the likely outcome." what's the phrase for that, a non-sequitir?

Submitted by big_lowitzki
on Wed, 07/28/2010 - 11:07am

Six teams may want Lilly now, but that doesn't mean that they would want Lilly for at least $12M for next year.

I would bet that Lilly would most likely make the most money next year by accepting arbitration with the Cubs.

Submitted by Arizona Phil
on Wed, 07/28/2010 - 11:25am

Submitted by big_lowitzki on Wed, 07/28/2010 - 10:07am.
Six teams may want Lilly now, but that doesn't mean that they would want Lilly for at least $12M for next year.

I would bet that Lilly would most likely make the most money next year by accepting arbitration with the Cubs.

===========================================

BIG LO: I agree. But the Cubs won't offer arbitration to Lilly if he remains with the Cubs and files for free-agency after the season.

The only times Hendry got a compensation pick for losing a FA was when Juan Pierre and Jason Kendall signed with new teams prior to December 1st, so that the Cubs did not need to offer arbitration in order to get the compensation picks.

Submitted by garsky
on Wed, 07/28/2010 - 10:49am

On the other hand, Hendry really hasn't traded away many veterans during his tenure; he's mostly been a buyer at the trade deadline. Lilly would clearly be the cream of the crop among guys Hendry's traded away. On the rare occasions when he was the seller, he's done OK considering what he was selling. He got Fontenot for Sosa when nobody thought there was any market for Sammy; Jerome Williams and David Aardsma for Latroy Hawkins; Justin Berg for Matt Lawton; Chris Robinson for Neifi Perez; Rob Bowen and Kyler Burke for Michael Barrett; and Jeff Stevens, Chris Archer and John Gaub for Mark DeRosa, among a lot of no-so-good others.

Submitted by The Real Neal
on Wed, 07/28/2010 - 10:53am

I think you've just proved my point.

Sosa, Hawkins, Lawton, Perez, Howry, Eyre and Barrett have been turned into a couple solid months of Jerome Williams, Fontenaught and a not very good year of Kevin Gregg.

Submitted by big_lowitzki
on Wed, 07/28/2010 - 11:08am

Well... several of the players are still in the minors, and look like they could end up being moderately productive MLB players.

And most of the veterans the Cubs traded sucked, and had little value at the time. They are hardly comparable to Lilly, or even Lee.

Submitted by WISCGRAD
on Wed, 07/28/2010 - 10:51am

Hendry hasn't made many trades where he was expected to get decent prospects. The vast majority of his trades are trading away Cubs prospects (who usually turn out to be terrible) for major leaguers. In other cases, he is trading crap veteran players for payroll relief (e.g. Jeff Fassero in late 2002) and got low level minor leaguers in return who were not expected to be good.

But in the few trades in which he was expected to pick up prospects, I think he has done better than you realize.

Matt Murton was gained in the Nomar trade, Fontenot in the Sosa trade, Scott Moore and Roberto Novoa for Farsworth, David Aardsma for Hawkins, Justin Berg for Lawton, Kevin Hart for Bynum, Jose Ascanio for Infante and Ohman, Brian Schlitter for Eyre, Jeff Stevens for DeRosa, and Jeff Gray for Aaron Miles

None of those guys are stars, but the fact that Hendry was able to get this many minor league players who eventually developed into major league players says a lot, especially since many were lower level prospects at the time of the trade.

Submitted by MikeC
on Wed, 07/28/2010 - 10:20am

You have 0 faith that Hendry can identify a good minor leaguer to grab but advocate just getting draft picks who will be minor leaguers? Odd.

Can't we trade Tampa Bay something so we can get Brignac?

Submitted by VirginiaPhil
on Wed, 07/28/2010 - 3:41pm

I can't keep up with all good ones any more. So many prospects, so little time. Who's doing what at Boise these days? Don't ask me.

What the Cubs really need is roster space, and less dead wood. I wouldn't be surprised if Lilly or Lee go, not for prospects, but for inventory reduction. "If you want Lilly, you have to take Fukudome. You can have Lee and Theriot, but take Zambrano or Soriano." Throw in Nady and Fontenot somewhere.

Ship out a truckload.

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