11/18/2005 09:28:00 AM by Rob

What he is, and isn't

The Cubs have signed Scott Eyre as their first free agent splash this offseason. Very well, he's not Mike (Sling Blade) Remlinger, he's had more than one good year, he's not 40 years old, he's not washed up. If all is well, he prevents Glendon Rusch from getting jerked around into a swing role, which has not gone well for him personally. The Eyre signing is as much about Rusch as for himself, because Rusch is a left handed starter with modest talents, and what appears to me to be a similarly modest intellect. He needs to "know his role", and if so, he can be a fairly successful change-of-pace fourth starter, after teams get their fill of Zambrano, Prior, and perhaps Kerry Wood, more likely Jerome Williams. Mr. Maddux (and I will only refer to him this year as Mr.) should be our fifth starter and de facto pitching coach.

We then have, what? Dempster, Williamson, Eyre, Ohman, Novoa, and Wuertz as our bullpen? I've seen worse, I guess. The Ice man is gone, and I suspect that Wellemeyer (or Ohman or Wuertz or Novoa) would also serve as part of the bait that we need to pursue a Kevin Mench from the Rangers, or a Juan Pierre from the Fish, assuming that we're NOT going to get into a bidding war for the Drunken Master Rafael Furcal...which hopefully means that Ronny Cedeno IS going to play short.

One more thing: Chuck mentions the Rule V draft as the reason why Jon Leicester was traded. Chuck provides quite a shocking list of some of the available bodies that are eligible to be chosen if they are not protected. These include ALL of the brightest names from our vaunted (overrated) farm system. After Eyre's signing, we have three open slots on the 40-man roster. Obviously, we'd like to have more, and you start to look at some of the names (Corey Patterson) who are currently taking up space.

Hendry needs to start dealing, fast, furious, now.

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