Cubs Pitching rotation is not as good as they say.... Needs Peavy.

Yes, yes, the Jake Peavy trade talks are starting to bother me even more than the Kobe Bryant to the Bulls trade rumors. They have not yet surpassed the fiasco from last year involving Orioles infielder Brian Roberts, but they are getting close.... That said, the deal needs to me made, and a true Cub fan, like Tom Ricketts claims to be, should know this and make it, or something equally as dramatic, happen.

I am inspired to write this after seeing that the Boys in Blue acquired Aaron Heilman today.... a good pitcher, but not the answer in the rotation. He may be a good replacement for Bob Howry, but that's about it. Would not Garrett Olsen have been just as good in that role? I am hoping this is a move meant to tide us over until the club's sale in final this spring, but you never know. Why do we need Peavy? Let's go over the Cubs rotation, the one that all the "experts" say is one of the best in baseball.

Our Number 1 starter is Carlos Zambrano. I love Big Z, but he is not consitent, plain and simple. He throws a no-hitter, God love him, but then pitches poorly the rest of the season, and looked like he needed to be on a 6-day rotation rather than a four or five, which you need in a pennant race. Big Z is a number 2 or very good number 3 on a World Series Champion.... not the Ace.... not by a longshot. Prove me wrong, Carlos.

Our Number 2 is Ryan Dempster. He was great last year, and Dusty.... I mean Lou.... made the right call giving him the start in Game 1, Ryan just did not come thru. Can we expect him to be an 18 game winner year in and year out? I doubt that. 2008 was a career year, plain and simple, which is fine, and it came in a contract year, which is not a surprise, and the Cubs signed him to a relatively reasonable contract, which is a surprise, but he is not a Number 2 on a World Series Champion. I think by the end of a healthy 2009 he will have 13-14 wins, which is a respectable total, Hell, Kerry Wood never did better, but his ERA will not be so tiny, you can count on that. He should be a Number 3 or 4.

Our Number 3 has Number 1 stuff, but is Mark Prior's Crimson Twin, and his name is Rich Harden. Thank God he's not in the WBC this spring. He is the best pitcher on the staff, but he can't go more than 5 or 6 innings, so that puts him as a 4 or 5 on a World Series Champion.... likely the latter since he may not even be on the active roster due to injury come October, so you can't count on him to be any higher than that, sadly.

Our Number 4 is Ted Lily, and I have no issue with him. He is a consistent guy, not brilliant or overpowering, but has a little Maddux in him. He is also our only lefty, and the one guy we can't afford to lose. Jim Hendry made the right call signing him over Barry Zito.... boy oh boy did he. Imagine him as a number 4 on a World Series Champion.

Sean Marshall has done nothing to show he does not deserve a shot, but we want to put together a World Series Champion, not another one and done. Anyway, it's pretty likely that with Harden and Zambrano on the roster Sean-o will get his fair share of starts. Which is why we come back to Jake Peavy. Jake Peavy the Ace. The Ace who is available and wants.... again, wants to play in Chicago for the Cubbies.... not for the Yankees, not for the Red Sox, not for the Cardinals, but for the Cubs! Why would you not make a deal, no matter the financial cost, Mr. Ricketts, for the undisputed, no doubt about it Ace on what could be a World Series Champion.

Hendry and Cubs better not be done making moves after Rich Harden

Kudos to Jim Hendry for picking up an ace pitcher in Rich Harden for three average guys in Eric Patterson, Sean Gallagher and Matt Murton. Murton was just about done in Chicago and Gallagher eventually could be a good 3rd starter, so we really didn't give up much. However, it's the opinion of this blogger that the Chicago Cubs still need to make a few moves.... three of them in fact. The Brewers proved yesterday that they're not finished, after picking up C.C. Sabathia two weeks ago, they dealt for Giants 2B Ray Durham. Now, Durham is not an all-star anymore, but he's still a good player, and he murdered the Cubbies over the past couple weeks, a fact which likely played a part in why Milwaukee made the deal. Durham is a ballsy player, a great baserunner, and although he's not as fast as he was when he played with the White Sox, he still can streach a single to a double, and steal a base or two along the way. Nobody on the current Cubs roster is what one would consider a true basestealing threat. Yes, we have Soriano coming back, but he won't even risk a steal anymore, and unless it's a do or die game, I don't really want him to. "Ryno" Theriot is an awful base stealer, I believe he is under .500 in his attempts. Ronnie Cedeno is not the answer either.... if he was, Lou would be utilizing him in that role, which he currently is not.

While Eric Patterson will likely never be any better than his brother, Cory, and while he brought us a stud starter and a good reliever, he did bring one thing to the table, and that was scary speed. He made pitchers think, he made them worry. In my opinion, we need another guy like that. The question is.... who can fill this role? Well, in my opinion, it should be one of three guys. Two of whom played here before and another who was in a similar situation to that of this year's Cub team and had success.

First, there is former Cub Kenny Lofton. He's a free-agent and will be signed soon by somebody, so it may as well be us, especially since he won't cost his suitor any prospects. Other than K-Lof, the afore mentioned (gulp) Cory Patterson could be a great pickup for the Cubbies. He is what he is, and that's a 2.5 tool player, not the 5-tool guy he was projected to be at Iowa and the guy who showed such promise in the early stages of 2003 when he made the All-Star final vote. Lucky for us, though, the two tools he has left are speed and defense, and we all know that with the botchery that Soriano calls "D," we need another good defender. I'd give him a half a tool for power, as now it's pretty clear he wont hit 20-30 homers as we thought back then, but saying he would hit 10-15 in a full season is not too nutso. Cincy has no need for him, especially with mega-stud Jay Bruce in town and tearing the cover off of the ball. Nothing against Reed Johnson, but I think Patterson would be better than Reed as a late-inning fill-in for Fonzie, leaving Reed to platoon with Edmonds in center. That's the first piece to my puzzle, the first deal we should make.... but not the last.

The second and third move I am in favor of are really no-brainers. Jason Marquis has pitched much better than I think anyone expected, but we all know the blow-up is coming.... as sadly, it always does with Jason. Unless Lou does something unorthodox and does a "platoon" with him and Sean Marshall (another guy who is great the first time thru the order), we need to upgrade the 5th pitcher. Now, a platoon could work, pitching, say, Marquis for 4 innings and then giving Marshall the next 4, and doing this every 5 days might turn out to be enough to get us to October, at which point they would both be relagated to bullpen duties anyways, but it'd make more sense to just make another two moves.... but for whom? Well, we need one starter to replace Marquis in the rotation and one reliever to take Michael Weurtz's (who Lou is apparently scared to use) place. For the relief spot, there is only one guy I would like to see come to Wrigley, and that is "soft-tossing lefty" Brian Fuentes of the Rockies. he has experience as a closer and would give us three southpaws in the 'pen Scott Eyre (when he is activated off the DL) and Neal Cotts. This would help offset the mostly righthanded rotation. He really is the only move that makes sense, with 16 saves, he can back you up as closer and with an ERA of 3.23 he is as solid as you are gonna het. It's unfortunate that we need to be so picky, but since Rich Hill has only proven that he really does stink at all levels, our hands are, or at least should be tied. I don't see this move as a move we "could" make.... I see it as a "must".... especially with Cotts' being a touch erratic and Estes injury-plagued history. A good second option could be Huston Street, but since he plays in Oakland, and we just made a deal with them for Harden and Gaudin, it seems likely that if it were to happen it already would have. Another possible arm would be George Sherrill, as with the deadline rapidly approaching, Baltimore's Andy MacPhail is said to be quietly gauging Sherrill's value. However, Mick Fail screwed Hendry around for three months about the Brian Roberts trade, (and ended up screwing himself as he won't get as much for B-Rob now... if anything) so I don't think Jim can stoumach any more of his former boss right now.

As far as the 5th starter, I like, believe it or not, Randy Wolf. He is not having the best season, but maybe a change of scene would do him good. He is a great strikeout guy and his ERA is not that bad at 4.74 and he is a lefty, so it would open up more options with the "must have" tag I gave to Fuentes. Plus he only makes about 6 million, which today, sickeningly, is not all that much dough. The other guy is A.J. Burnett, usually seen as the 3rd best guy (behind Sabathia and Harden) available this year. It would be a big morale boost to the Northsiders to pick up 2 of the top 3 hurlers out there. Both Wolf and Burnett, however, have injury risk and both can be erratic. Both also have veto-power on any potential deals. A final candidate is an old friend, and an old nemesis.... Greg Maddux. How fitting it would be to score him as our #5 starter, and how clutch would he be coming out of the 'pen in a playoff series. He is traditionally great in the late innings and would bring experience and sanity to the club trying to cure 99 years of heartache.

In any regard, we better go buy lots of asprin and alka-seltzer this September. It's never easy for the Cubs.... never. GO CUBS GO!!!!