No Cubs fan shed a tear when GM Jim Hendry traded Jason Marquis to the Colorado Rockies this winter. In fact, many were openly joyous over his departure.
But I ask you, dear Cubs fans, who would you rather have: Luis Vizcaino or Jason Marquis?
The reason I ask this is not so much because of what happened today because, hey, it's only one game.
But the reason I cautioned everyone that the trade may not be so good for us is that you can never have too much pitching, first of all. And, all we got in return is an over-priced middle reliever.
Vizcaino makes $3.5 million this year. For that price, you can get almost six Carlos Marmol's.
Sure, Marquis is set to earn almost $10 million this season with the Cubs throwing in almost $1 million in the deal.
Say what you will about Marquis, but he is a serviceable major league fifth starter. He is an innings eater.
And with question marks due to the health of Rich Harden and Carlos Zambrano, as well as the expected regression of Ryan Dempster, we can't afford to toss pitchers away like yesterday's trash.
All Marquis did was basically win the game by himself on Wednesday at Wrigley. He pitched seven innings of one-run ball, and hit a two-run single in the second inning.
(Column Intermission I: A Cubs ninth inning rally was snuffed out on a very stupid baserunning mistake by the noramlly reliabel Mike Fontenot. He tried to take third on a ball that didn't get far enough away from Rockies catcher Chris Iannettafor the first out of the inning.
Even if he had made it safely, the risk wasn't worth the benefit. Being on third when your team is down three runs doesn't really buy you much).
Back to Marquis. It was the second consecutive solid start by Marquis for the Rockies. He allowed two runs in seven innings in his debut.
We all know that Marquis isn't this good. But if we had him in our rotation, we could keep Sean Marshall in the bullpen and get rid of Neal Cotts, whom Lou does not trust anyway.
(Column Intermission II: Rich Harden did today what Rich Harden does all too frequently. He ran up a big pitch count early. In fact, he lasted only three innings. He struck out eight, but really, so what? He can't be counted on to give you innings).
I'm certainly not suggesting that having Marquis would be of much help in the postseason. I'm just pointing out that we need pitching help to get us there. Since Jake Peavy isn't coming, Jim Hendry should start looking for that guy.
Which is too bad, since that guy was here all the time, right under Hendry's nose, come to think of it. His name is Jason Marquis.
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