There’s some inherent danger in trying to draw too much from the collective small-sample practitioners of relief pitching at this point in the season, but the early returns on the Cubs’ bullpen overhaul are very good. And though it wasn’t a full-fledged gutting, the nip and tuck additions of Brandon Morrow and Steve Cishek, not to mention the return of Brian Duensing, have served to solidify a group that was anything but reliable last season.
The Cubs would still like to see improvement in the bullpen’s most glaring weakness, a 4.25 BB/9 average that was a mere hundredth of a point away from worst in MLB last season.