Come To Think Of It...Has the Cubs' Jim Hendry's Activity Improved the Team?

First off, let me begin by saying that I'm ready for the baseball season to begin.

In fact, I'm as excited as Michael Jackson at a boy scout convention.

But I'd like to take a few minutes of your valuable time to dissect some of the Cubs offseason transactions.

On the surface, it would seem that most of the Cubs off-season transactions, with the exception of the Milton Bradley signing and the re-upping of Ryan Dempster, are not worthy of concern.

But I'm here to tell you, as a long-time Cubs fan who is very realistic and often unwilling to drink the Cubbie koolaid, sometimes smaller moves that seem unimportant at the time can often prove to be meaningful during the season.

Take, for instance, Jim Hendry's decision to let Kerry Wood walk away as a free agent. Sure, he's been injured much of his career. But he was finally healthy last season, and was a key contributor to the Cubs winning 97 games during the regular season.

And while it would appear to be a logical move to save the $10M per year and instead use one of their other options as closer, I say not so fast. That ninth inning is often a difficult thing for even good pitchers to close out. And we know that Kevin Gregg wasn't good in that role, and Carlos Marmol is unproven.

Marmol has the stuff to be a closer. But lots of guys with great stuff have failed as closers. And we're losing his value as a set-up man, a spot in which Gregg will now have to fill. Or Aaron Heilman, assuming he doesn't grab a spot in the rotation.

And to add insult to injury, Hendry didn't even offer Wood arbitration. Fearing he would have accepted (he wouldn't have), Jim Hendry was apparently unwilling to give Woody even a one year deal. Hey, Woody on a one year deal would have been a very prudent thing.

Instead of being scared off by the possibility of having Kerry accept the offer, Hendry should have been daring Wood to accept, knowing it would be a great move for a ballclub that is ready to win now, and can't afford to take chances with such a critical position.

But no, Hendry didn't see it the same way as I did, so the Cubs are left without even a draft pick for the closer with the best stuff of all of them (per ESPN.com's Keith Law) when healthy.

Now, I do like Hendry's move to sign Milton Bradley and not have to guarantee the third year of the deal. If healthy, and of course that's certainly a serious question mark given his history, Bradley's bat and fiery attitude will be valuable to the team.

And Hendry has certainly done a terrific job of balancing out the lineup, bringing in switch-hitters or lefties, such as Bradley, Joey Gathright (if he can improve his hitting), and Aaron Miles.

But can someone please explain to me how swapping Henry Blanco for Paul Bako is a good thing? Isn't that taking this lefty hitting thing a bit too far? It shouldn't matter if your backup catcher bats righty or lefty when you have the reigning NL ROY behind the plate. It's not like you're going to platoon with him. And you often don't use your backup catcher as a pinch hitter in case your starter gets hurt. Plus, Bako can't hit anyway.

And trading Mark DeRosa and getting only very marginal prospects in return was a questionable move at best. Look, I understand that as Cubs fans we can't fall in love with players to the point where we disregard moves that are beneficial to the team.

And let's face it, you can't as easily move guys like Alfonso Soriano, Aramis Ramirez and Derrek Lee, so DeRosa was an obvious right-handed bat to trade. But couldn't Hendry have at least received a solid set up man or 5th starter in return?

For example, if Hendry could have received a lefty reliever in return for DeRosa, he could have put Sean Marshall in the 5th spot in the rotation without having to worry about who will be our main lefty in the bullpen.

As it is now, if Marshall is in the rotation, which is clearly the Cubs best option at this point, they have a glaring hole in the pen. Sorry, Neal Cotts, but you haven't impressed since 2005. 

And speaking of the rotation, I'm willing to bet you that the Cubs will actually miss Jason Marquis. Yes, I really did write that.

Now look, I realize that Marquis often wasn't very good as a starting pitcher,  particularly in the second half of most seasons.

But he was an innings eater and his 4.53 ERA was better than Aaron Heilman or even Sean Marshall's ERA as a starter last year. Hey, guys like him are not that bad as 5th starters, believe it or not. And they got little in return for him, as Luis Vizcaino has a higher career ERA (4.34) than the recently departed Micheal Wuertz (3.57).

Vizcaino's ERA last season was 5.28, and Heilman's ERA was 5.21. Wood's was 3.26, Wuertz was at 3.63. This is supposed to be improvement?

Felix Pie and Ronny Cedeno are gone with nothing to show for them. They may never be any good, but isn't it funny that Baltimore seems to be getting the players they wanted last year for Brian Roberts without actually having to give him up?

I understand that some players get traded because they are out of options. I guess one man's trash truly is another man's treasure. But every move has consequences.

Another concern about the rotation is what to do when the fragile but talented Rich Harden can't go. Even the Cubs admit they expect only 15-20 starts from Harden at best. So they will need another starter to take his place, often on short notice.

Sure, they have other options. But don't confuse quantity with quality.

Unproven guys like Chad Gaudin, or bad starters like Heilman are not what one would expect for a team that's built to win now. Especially after over one hundred years of futility.

And can we finally all forget about Jake Peavy now? It should be obvious to even the most blindly loyal Cubs fan that Peavy isn't coming.

I believe Peavy could be killed by a freight train and some Cubs fans would still think he's coming.

Here's hoping that if some of these early moves don't work out, that Jim Hendry will have the payroll flexibility to add help during the season. But don't expect new owner Tom Ricketts, even if approved and financed by April, to spend much money initially.

A Cubs team that choked in the playoffs has now lost some very good character guys from the clubhouse. And they still lack a lead-off hitter and need a part-time 4th and full-time 5th starter and don't have the closer position solidified.

Fortunately for the Cubs, the NL Central is weak. The other teams haven't really improved themselves much, and the Brewers have seemed to have taken a step backwards.

But my concerns are aimed at being the best we can be so that we can win it all.  Just winning the division won't satisfy my hunger any longer. We need to win the World Series once and for all.

The Cubs are still the best team in the division and among the best teams in baseball. Yet, I don't know if they actually are any better than they were last year.

And they will need to be better in the playoffs, come to think of it. Nine consecutive losses has got to end. At least we are in position to win the division again, which is certainly a huge improvement over Cubs teams of the past. But that has only made me greedy, left wanting more. And small things can equal big things sometimes.

Let the games begin.