Stockpiling

What are the Cubs going to do with all their minor league talent? There is not room for most of them at the major league level, even should they all develop -- which they won't. Look at the prospects for the starting rotation. There’s Sergio Mitre, Bobby Brownlie, Ricky Nolasco, Jae-Kuk Ryu and Angel Guzman to name five. But looking at the rotation, one sees that there are only 2 spots available over the next 3 years. Greg Maddux will be out after 2005 or 2006 and Glendon Rusch is probably only good for one year. Wood, Prior and Zamboni are locks until 2007 at the earliest. So, Jim Hendry has 5 guys and only needs two of them. What to do with the other three?

My advice: Trade them.

Oh, but Jim doesn’t have a history of doing that. He could have traded some of these guys in a package last year and perhaps received Carlos Beltran (yeah, KC wanted a catcher – the Cubs could have traded for someone else’s catcher and sent that guy to KC). But, no. Let’s not do that. Instead of using Andrew Sisco as a trading chip, just let him go as a Rule 5 free agent. I realize that Sisco could, and probably will come back. But who cares? Trade him last year and Houston doesn’t get Beltran and doesn’t win the Wild Card and probably doesn’t even stand a chance of signing him for 2005.

The Cubs need a two outfielders and a closer. "But none are available!" I’m told. Who knew that Mark Mulder was on available? I guess the general public doesn’t know everyone who is available for trade. I guess a guy like a Billy Wagner or a Juan Pierre just can't be traded for because we haven't heard Jayson Stark mention their names in potential trades.

The Cubs have plenty of ways of getting their missing positions filled. If they don’t fill them, there will be a lot of fruit left to rot on the vines. Jim Hendry needs to use these minor leaguers for something. I wish I had confidence he would. The point of a team's minor league system is to yield solid pros. I don’t care if that happens via development (Zambrano) or trade (Ramirez, Lee). What I do know is this: Sergio Mitre, Bobby Brownlie, Ricky Nolasco, Jae-Kuk Ryu and Angel Guzman will not all be members of the Cubs’ rotation. Fine. Get something for them.