They still wear Cubbie blue, but the “I” on their caps says it as well as a scarlet letter could.
Though it is certainly no sin playing Triple-A baseball for one of National League’s best teams, it is no party either. Particularly when you are one of five Iowa Cubs who have occupied big-league roster spots this season.
Each player’s situation is different, of course. But for Rich Hill, Felix Pie, Matt Murton, Eric Patterson and even Sean Marshall, the frustration, crises of confidence and bouts of confusion are all shared emotions.
They serve their time in a town 340 miles — but a light-year away — from Chicago for a team that recently saved money by taking a bus to Des Moines from Omaha after a flight from Sacramento, arriving at 4 a.m.
For Rich Hill, the gloomy Memorial Day weekend found him throwing a simulated game off the mound at Principal Park, recovering from back spasms that put him on the 7-day disabled list less than two weeks after he arrived in Iowa. And while he reported Sunday feeling “really good. I feel like I could go out and throw 100 pitches today,” it is clear that the shock he experienced upon being sent down on May 3 has not entirely left him.
Hill was No. 3 in last fall’s starting playoff rotation but then struggled with his command, walking 18 batters over 19 2/3 innings in five starts this season. He says the experience has “toughened me up. It puts another layer of skin on you, I guess. I’ll be less aware of other’s opinions, just go about your business and do what you need to do.”
You continue working on what Lou Piniella and Jim Hendry say you have to work on, even when you’re Matt Murton and it’s not always clear where you have come up short, or you’re Felix Pie and you suddenly find yourself questioning things you never have before.
“I don’t feel very comfortable right now at home plate,” says Pie, whose average slipped to .075 after an 0-for-5 Sunday, though he bounced back to go 2-for-4 Monday. “They’re changing something with my swing and my stance [getting his leg kick down sooner without dropping his hands too quickly] and I’m going to be better. The GM and Lou told me when I feel good and comfortable I’ll be back. But right now I don’t think I’ll be back soon.”
“He’s down,” Iowa manager Pat Listach says of Pie, “because he wants to be playing in between [Alfonso] Soriano and [Kosuke] Fukodome so bad and he didn’t get off to a great start. He thinks he belongs there, he thinks he’s a big-leaguer, but he’s got to come down here and show us he’s a big-leaguer, then he’ll go back.”
In the meantime, Pie, 23, is experiencing something unfamiliar. “This is the first time in five years or so I’ve been around him that I haven’t seen him have confidence,” Iowa hitting coach Von Joshua says. “So we have to rebuild that and hopefully the mechanical things will come along.”
Production valued
But if Pie or anyone else expects to be babied, they should not come to Hendry looking for sympathy.
“If they had all played well enough, they’d be here,” the Cubs’ general manager says bluntly. “We’re going to mix and match the roster all year and if someone is productive in Iowa, we’ll go get him. It’s not about suppressing anyone …
“You’ve got to get here and you’ve got to stay here. You’ve got to produce. They’re in Iowa because they put themselves there.”
Hendry ticks off examples of players who came from Iowa and proved they should stay, like Geovany Soto and Ryan Theriot. He doesn’t deny the urgency to win now. “That’s the way it should be. We’re not playing jacks up here.”
From a Des Moines perspective, that’s clear.
“I’ve been in this organization nine years and I’ve never seen an urgency [to win] as much as I have now,” Listach says.
Hill sees it too.
“They don’t have time to develop players,” he says. “Let’s face it, it’s been 100 years [since the last World Series win]. They want to win now. Any organization does, but some organizations have the luxury of developing players because they might not be in the same [size] market. You think of big markets like New York, L.A. and Chicago and you don’t see the support you see at other places.”
Murton agrees.
“There’s obviously been a lot of money invested in this team where expectations are they have to win,” he says. “If they don’t, obviously, that comes back some way. The imminent sale of the ballclub doesn’t make it easy either because people want to prove their worthiness and their ability to do their job. It places more stress on job preservation over the next year or so just to make sure they do what they’re expected to do.”
Victims of circumstance
Hill is 28, and Murton turns 27 in October, so they feel their own sense of urgency. Murton batted .281 in 94 games (235 at-bats) with the Cubs in 2007 and .297 in 144 games (455 at bats) in ’06, but he hit just 21 homers over those two seasons, and his lack of power as a corner outfielder has long been advanced as the reason for his failure to keep a starting job in Chicago.
After Monday’s game, Murton is hitting .355 in 124 at-bats with one home run and 10 RBIs, defending his long-ball potential by rattling off his numbers.
“There’s no doubt in my mind I have enough power to be successful in terms of driving the baseball,” he says. “I’ve proved it over short spans even on the major-league level. Last year I came back the second half of the year and I hit seven home runs in maybe 116 at-bats. When you start thinking along those lines … you’re talking upper 20s, low 30s in home runs if you can keep that kind of thing going.
“You have to prove it over the long haul of the season, which I really haven’t had the opportunity to do at the major-league level. In the second half of ’06, when I played every day at the end, I showed I could drive the ball. I believe from July 1 on, I was at .319 with nine homers and 46 RBIs in the second half of the year. I think it’s a matter of somebody giving me 500 at-bats and see what kind of season I have.”
In the meantime, reality dictates that the scouts who are in the stands at Iowa Cubs games might help him get the opportunity he needs.
“It’s so hard to say,” Murton says. “Just being honest, I don’t think given the current configuration of the ballclub that it’s possible [to end up back in Chicago]. With injuries, maybe. I know they need left-handed bats up there. It’s something Lou is really stressing, and me being right-handed doesn’t really help. … I’d look forward to the opportunity to get a chance to go up again and play, but if someone else is willing to give me the opportunity to play, I will take advantage of it.”
Patterson spent just three games in Chicago in mid-April, going 0-for-6 with an RBI and a stolen base. He says he refuses to think about being called up and instead tries to concentrate on improving defensively at second base and “being a complete player.”
Still, he acknowledges that at 25, thoughts of baseball immortality give way to hard reality.
“It’s funny, I think this year was the first birthday where I was kind of like, ‘OK, I’d better start [getting it together].’ Not that I’m old, but you don’t want to be sitting here in the same spot three, four years from now. There’s definitely a sense of urgency to get up there and get some time and get your feet wet. But at the same time, so much of it is out of your control and there’s only so much you can do. Just get better and help your stock.”
That feeling of helplessness is shared by all. Less than a week after Hill went on the DL in Iowa, Marshall joined his fellow lefty there with a strained hamstring. Marshall had moved ahead of Hill in line to return and doesn’t view the injury as a serious setback.
“You can never have too much pitching … Our time will come,” he says of himself and Hill. “The Cubs know when we’re ready, we’ll be ready to help them win some games.”
Meanwhile, Hill continues to work on finding the consistent delivery he had last season and trusting the stuff that had him limiting major-league opponents to a .191 batting average.
“He just needed to take a step back and work on his mechanics in a less stressful environment,” Cubs assistant GM Randy Bush says.
As he mops the sweat from his face on a muggy Iowa morning, Hill allows that there isn’t the “same intensity” in Triple A, so he has been able to experiment with pitches he might not get away with against big-league hitters. He says he has also settled into a workout routine off the mound that he lost sight of after last season.
How soon it brings him back to Chicago, and for how long, he can’t say.
“It’s a journey and you don’t always know where that path is going to take you,” Hill says. “You just ride the wave and make improvements here and there and continue to find your way. You never know sometimes where you’re going to wind up, but you can’t question it. You just go with it.”
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Iowa Cubs that have played in the majors
PITCHERS G W-L ERA IP H R ER HR BB SO
Mike Burns 45 0-0 5.88 52.0 69 35 34 8 12 36
Hector Carrasco 647 44-50 3.99 832.2 792 411 369 69 387 66
Neal Cotts 215 10-8 4.55 209.2 193 115 106 28 109 183
Neal Cotts, with Cubs 16 0-1 4.86 16.2 15 9 9 1 9 14
Kevin Hart* 18 2-1 3.33 27.0 24 12 10 2 14 26
Rich Hill* 64 18-17 4.37 337.2 291 173 164 48 137 309
Randy Keisler 55 4-4 6.63 150.2 174 121 111 32 84 100
Sean Marshall* 58 13-17 4.81 237.2 247 141 127 35 101 149
Carmen Pignatiello* 6 0-0 6.75 2.2 5 2 2 1 2 3
Randy Wells 1 0-0 0.00 1.0 0 0 0 0 1 0
HITTERS P G AB R H 2B HR RBI SB AVG OBP
Koyie Hill C 86 210 16 42 11 3 24 1 .200 .271
Koyie Hill, with Cubs C 36 93 7 15 4 2 12 0 .161 .231
Andres Blanco SS 78 226 24 57 6 0 19 1 .252 .290
Luis Figueroa IF 18 16 2 2 1 0 0 0 .125 .125
Eric Patterson* OF 10 14 0 2 1 0 1 1 .143 .143
Jason Dubois OF 86 210 23 49 12 10 29 0 .233 .286
Jason Dubois, with Cubs OF 72 165 17 39 12 8 27 0 .236 .265
Matt Murton* OF 297 844 126 249 38 28 102 8 .295 .363
Felix Pie* OF 117 240 30 52 10 3 27 10 .217 .275
Andres Torres OF 89 257 33 54 6 1 13 9 .210 .258
* – entire major league career with Cubs
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misaacson@tribune.com
