Two days after being designated for assignment the Cubs traded Scott Eyre to the Philadelphia Phillies for minor league pitching prospect Brian Schlitter on Thursday. Eyre fell out of favor with Lou Piniella at the beginning of the 2007 and after righting his ship and accepting a new name from his manager, Stevie Ire, the southpaw turned his season around. Eyre was one of the reasons behind the Cubs' turnaround a year ago but according to several reports earlier in the week became a victim of the numbers' game.
Scott Eyre signed a 3-year deal before the 2006 season and will become a free agent at the end of this year. Eyre was one of the colorful characters in the Cubs' clubhouse and, along with Ryan Dempster, one of the most entertaining players at the annual Cubs' Convention.
The Cubs received High-A pitcher Brian Schlitter, the 16th round pick of the Phillies in the 2007 draft. He was 4-3 in 31 games, all out of the pen, with a 2.42 ERA and a 1.30 WHIP. In 44 2/3 innings this season, Schlitter walked 21 and struck out 53. The 6'5" tall right-hander will turn 23 in December.
Good for Stevie! wish him nothing but the best. I also still feel we DFA'd the wrong guy. We should drop Howry too, if Latroy is available he culd be a great fit.
I feel sorry for Stevie as well. I definately think he got the shaft after his last dl stint. I would like to know what it was that turned Lou against him, when he keeps putting the Howry's out there.
Question for Cubs faithful:
I was reading about the Cubs on Wikipedia awhile back and read something interesting.....one of the entries in there said that Palmerio was traded from the Cubs because of an arguement or altercation between him and Ryno. Seeing as a lot of the cubs faithful, including myself Love Ryno.....does anyone know the details?? I emailed whats-her-face on the mailbag but never got a response.
Also, who else thinks that Ryno is being groomed to take over for Lou when he leaves?
I don't have anything but my own memory on the Palmiero trade. At the time I don't remember hearing anything at all about Ryno. It was a matter of both him and Gracie coming up and ready for the bigs at exactly the same time. They were sharing time at first and management wanted to see what they could get for one of them so that the other could play full time. They had two guys sharing the position that were both just as obviously ready for every day at bats. Trading one would give them both an opportunity.
The ironic thing was that one reason they gave for trading Raffy instead of Gracie was because management felt that Grace had more long term power potential. :-)
Just because I don't remember a Ryno angle though doesn't mean there wasn't one LOL - but trading one of them had been talked about for months because it was plainly obvious that they both weren't going to be able to stay. It wasn't as if Raffy just ended up in the doghouse one day.