Cubs Masochist

If baseball movies have taught us anything, and they haven’t, it’s that bringing in a high-priced free agent will immediately cause huge chemistry problems, the team will start to lose and the team will continue to lose until said free agent is shipped out and replaced by a misunderstood homegrown talent or killed by a lunatic fan.

Perhaps they are cautionary tales; what baseball general managers shouldn’t do.

A suggestion for Cubs general manager Jim Hendry: go ahead and risk disrupting the chemistry.

Get another starter.

The fourth and fifth starters for the Cubs are so bad it’s more accurate to say the Cubs don’t have fourth and fifth starters. The two and three starters are hardly Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale. The trouble here, beyond having a crappy rotation, is that the crappy rotation is going to destroy the bullpen as it gets overworked to pick up the slack.

Hendry should take stock of what he has now before he goes out shopping. Sean Gallagher and Sean Marshall should each get at least one turn. Jeff Samardzija, bad hair, bad strike out-to-walk ratio and all, should get a start. Anyone else AA or above that hasn’t pulled a Rich Hill, well, come on down! Take a look at what the farm system has to see if someone might catch on and be a surprise. The two weeks after the Diamonback series are as good a time as any since the schedule favors the Cubs with series against San Diego, Pittsburgh, Houston (I don’t buy it), Indiana Jones and Pittsburgh again.

It’s doubtful that many teams are going to be ready to deal yet, and even more doubtful that Hendry is going to turn up someone who can pull a Rick Sutcliffe and go 16-0 after a midseason trade.

What is beyond doubt is that the rotation needs to be fixed.

Immediately.