From the Wire … Brewers Claim Jeff Bianchi Off Waivers from Cubs

R5

you have no idea what I can make up!

Don’t know Rip, I never bought anything from the dollar store that lasted or could be re-sold for more than I paid in the first place.:)

Indeed.

Some of the moves have been head-scratchers to me…and what I mean is, then questions I always ask after each move they make is:

a) Are we better off in the short-term?

b) Are we better off in the long-term?

…then, I look at how it affects roster configurations.

With both the Marshall and Zambrano trades, and to a much lesser degree, the Cashner trade…I could see how it makes the Cubs better in the future. In all 3 trades (maybe not the Zambrano for Volstad though), you could make the case that the Cubs are worse off in the short-term.

Let me explain a little more…

When examining our roster, our rotation is downright ugly. Here are the candidates:
Garza
Dempster
Wood
Volstad
Maholm
Wells
Sonnanstine
Samardzija (will be in pen if not)
Coleman
*likely rotation: Garza, Dempster, Wood, Volstad, Maholm (*Wood and Volstad still have options if I’m not mistaken, and could be sent down…Wells does, but would need permission. Sonnanstine would go to pen or be released, and Samardzija is out of options, so he’s either traded or the pen)

Pen:
Marmol
Russell
Wood (likely to re-sign)
Corpas (now we’re finding out he’s actually on the 40-man)
Dolis
Weathers
Beliveau
Cabrera
Carpenter
L. Castillo (has to remain or offered back to Phillies)
Maine
Gaub
Mateo
*likely pen: Marmol, Russell, Wood, Corpas, Beliveau/Maine/Gaub (one of 3), Samardzija, and Castillo. (Dolis, Weathers, Cabrera, Carpenter, Gaub, Maine, and Mateo all have options left)

The best rotation in my mind would be: Garza, Dempster, Samardzija, Maholm, and Wood….but that ain’t happening, or they wouldn’t have gotten Volstad in the deal for Zambrano.  To me, that means they are very serious about trading Dempster, Garza, and Wells.

The best pen in my mind would be: Wood, Dolis, Samardzija, Carpenter, Russell, Beliveau, and giving the kid Castillo a chance to stick.

……but the rotation stands out in my mind as beyond mediocre….as outside of Garza, there’s not a single stand-out guy you’d build around for the future…Dempster’s days as a solid #2…or even 3 are over, and the rest are a collection of 4′s and 5′s. So….The problem you run into later on, is this….

Let’s hypothetically say that all things are equal (meaning all those players I mentioned above are with the team)…and let’s say that the Cubs have a bad record this year, but they have several minor league pitchers like McNutt, Rusin, Whitenack (after his recovery), Antigua, etc. just knocking on the door…where do you find the room for them?

Therein was the problem I had with the Marshall trade, and even the Zambrano one (though I acknowledge getting something of value in return was a major coup anyway….but just follow my point here…) Wood and Volstad offer little that the Cubs don’t already have. Both throw in the low-90′s tops, and both were one-year wonders that have struggled otherwise. Essentially what Theo and Hoyer have done is block their own prospects with mediocre “veterans” (albeit young ones), which is something they claimed they would not do. It would’ve been far better for them to have received A-ball guys that are 3-4 years away in return than Wood and Volstad…and the LeMahieu for Weathers trade was even more confounding, because the Cubs already had a glut of hard-throwing righties in their system, and Weathers was by far the worst of the lot of them…so why was it necessary to trade middle IF depth, which they now desperately need?!?

My hope (and I hope this is theirs as well) is that Volstad and Wood have resurgent years, and the Cubs trade them for better prospects at the deadline or next offseason.

But my point this offseason has been a sort of “trust but verify” situation with Theo and Hoyer, and I have to say that I am very unimpressed by the trades and roster management thus far. It’s one thing to say you’re “getting younger and have a better outlook for the future by trading short-term assets for long-term assets”…..but the main qualifier with that line of thinking should be “quality”…and the Cubs haven’t acquired a single “quality” long-term asset other than Rizzo and the Rule 5 selection in Lendy Castillo.

The moves they’ve made won’t necessarily hamper them (other than LeMahieu) for years to come, because they’re all cost-controlled for the most part, which is the complete opposite of what Hendry did while he was here, but their moves won’t make them competitive this year, and unless they find a way to get rid of Soriano and Byrd in exchange for younger players, this team won’t even be as exciting as it should have been given their youth movement.

And according to my grammar school math more than 50% of the roster:)

You are correct,I would be doing all the work on computers and heaven help it if they broke down and had to do it by hand.

and a plus A student that
sat next to me with a big pen.