The first, of course, is the Cubs won their game for this week. After a rough first inning, Paul Maholm settled down, and pitched pretty well once he did so and the Cubs secured a comfortable lead. Maholm has usually done best against free-swinging teams like the Reds.
Sometimes just not having a guy or two in the lineup can benefit a team. This was the case today, as automatic outs Soriano, Soto, and Byrd were benched. Two of the replacements, Clevenger and Mather, contributed to the win and DeWitt did no harm.
Which brings me to the second item of good news, namely, that it appears the Cubs are on the verge of trading Marlon Byrd, a move that has long been overdue. I may be wrong, but I for one do not think Byrd's poor performance at the plate has a whole lot to do with his horrific beaning last season. If you look at the numbers, his production has been in serious and steady decline since the All-Star break of 2010.
By all accounts, the Cubs will have to pay all or most of his remaining salary and will likely get the young but so far disappointing Michael Bowden as part of the deal. Bowden was once a hot prospect from the Epstein era in Boston, an early round pick who seems never to have found himself either in the minors or majors. He projects now as a middle-inning reliever of modest ability.
The fact that we will wind up paying Byrd to play for someone else underscores not only the absolute incompetence of the preceding regime, but another disturbing trend of the current one. I noticed that Carlos Zambrano pitched another good game on Friday, yielding only two hits over seven innings. Unluckily, he got no support. Contrast his performance thus far with that of Chris Volstad, the player the Cubs received in return for Zambrano. In effect, the Cubs are paying Volstad something like $19MM to pitch badly. And Volstad was really, really bad yesterday. Five innings, five earned runs, six in all.
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