Chicago Cubs are on a historic pace to start 2016

The bullpen is doing its job as well

I kept hearing during Spring Training that one of the weak areas of the Chicago Cubs was its bullpen. So-called experts were not convinced that Hector Rondon, Pedro Strop or anyone else there could get big outs late in the game.

I just did not understand that thinking.

In 2016, the Chicago Cubs bullpen has a 5-2 record. They rank seventh in baseball with a 2.99 ERA (the Chicago White Sox, by the way, rank first with an ERA of 1.98).

The bullpen ranks third in baseball with a 1.06 WHIP. They lead the league with an opponents’ batting average of .184. Their BABIP (batting average on balls hit in play) is .236, which ranks second. As with the starting staff, the bullpen does not allow many runners, and they strike people out. Their 28.1 strikeout percentage ranks third in baseball.

We saw just how good the bullpen can be when they picked up Arrieta.

Arrieta only went five innings and was on the hook for the loss. The bullpen, however, shut down the Washington Nationals, one of the best hitting teams in baseball. They threw eight shutout innings, allowing the offense to tie the game and eventually win in the 13th inning.

Rondon does not get the respect he deserves as the Chicago Cubs closer. He was not mentioned among the top closers in the league last year, even though he finished the season with a 1.67 ERA , a 1.00 WHIP and 30 saves.

This season, the same narrative was happening. So far, he has pitched even better. His ERA is at 0.79, his WHIP is at 0.35 and he has six saves.

Now, you may say something about him having only six saves, but that has more to do with the Cubs’ offense preventing him from getting saves. He has yet to have a blown save this season, and he has not had one since August of last season (seventeen saves in a row).

Catcher David Ross says the offense wants to keep scoring runs, which ends up kind of hurting Rondon. “When you’re on the bench and you’re up three runs, two runs, whatever, we have a game we call Screw the Closer,” Ross explained, laughing and admitting ‘screw’ isn’t the word the players actually use. “We want to score more so he doesn’t get the save.”

Rondon does not mind, however. He just wants the Chicago Cubs to win as much as possible.

“Sometimes it’s kind of funny what those guys are doing late in the game,” Rondon said. “It’s much more important we win the game.

“They come tell me they like to ‘screw’ me up.”

So far with the bullpen, it has not been the Cubs who are getting screwed.

Next: The defense is doing its part in preventing runs