Chicago Cubs Roll the Rule 5 Draft Dice... Again

On Thursday morning, Major League Baseball held their annual Rule 5 Draft, in which teams can pirate other teams' minor leaguers for nothing.

The deal with the Rule 5 Draft is that any player selected must be on the selecting team's major league roster for the full season, or the selecting team is forced to send said player back to their original team with cash considerations.

Last year, the Cubs selected David Patton, who had an incredible spring and then disappeared because of "injuries" and poor performance.

This morning, the Cubs selected Mike Parisi out of the St. Louis Cardinals organization.

Parisi, a right-hander who will be 27 in April, and was 3-2 with a 4.44 ERA in winter ball, allowing opposing batters to hit .257 in seven major league relief appearances.

That begs the same question I had last year when the Cubs selected Patton: Why?

The Cubs have a fair bullpen already, with Carlos Marmol, Angel Guzman, Sean Marshall, and John Grabow returning from last year's pen as veterans. Also in the mix will be some of the youngsters that came up late last year.

And now, Parisi.

So what does this mean for more of the young pitchers that are already within the Cubs' system? Where will names like Gaub, Stevens, and Caridad end up because Parisi now has an essentially guaranteed roster spot?

Personally, I would rather see if some of these kids can pitch than picking up a guy that wasn't good enough for the rival Cardinals. But Hendry apparently thinks another team's garbage is going to make the Cubs' bullpen competitive.

Meanwhile, the Astros added Brandon Lyon and the Brewers brought in Randy Wolf and LaTroy Hawkins. Oh, and the Rangers traded Kevin Millwood...to Baltimore for Chris Ray, not in a deal for Milton Bradley. Bradley is still on the Cubs' payroll, but apparently not part of their future.

This is one more move that makes me question the validity of Hendry as the Cubs' general manager.