Hendry's ham-handed habits have his hordes hurting halfway home

Are you familiar with Casey McGehee? After the recent Cubs-Brewers series, you've probably had an assfull of him, as he went 7-for-9 with 6 RBIs in the final two games. That just continued what has been an impressive season for the unballyhooed rookie, as he currently sports a .329/.387/.541 line.

As good as that is, the 26-year-old rookie has been a revelation for the Brewers since oft-injured Rickie Weeks offed himself to the DL with a season-ending wrist injury and McGehee was thrust into a role as a regular. Starting on May 19, McGehee's stats are:

AB----R----H---2B--3B---HR---RBI---BB---SO---BA---OBP---SLG---OPS
130---23--45---11---1----6----27----15---22--.346--.408--.585--.993

I was out of town the last time the Cubs played the Brewers, so I didn't catch the broadcasts of the games. But did you know that, despite that extra he, McGehee pronounces his last name like Willie McGee, not Willis McGahee? I did. How? Because some five years ago, as I regularly frequented a certain team's minor-league affiliates' web sites, I was greeted an audio clip on one of them that said this:

"Hi. This is Daytona Cubs' third baseman Casey McGehee. Welcome to www.daytonacubs.com."

That's right. Casey McGehee used to be the property of the Cubs.

Admittedly, I wasn't high enough on McGehee as a prospect to even notice that he was gone until I saw his name on the Milwaukee depth chart at the beginning of the season. A line of .282/.335/.410 in 1154 Triple-A plate appearances, as well as a .286/.347/.422 one in 934 AA PA's, didn't exactly scream 2009 Rookie-of-the-Year candidate. Perhaps this year's numbers -- boosted by a .359 BABip -- aren't all that sustainable, but that's irrelevant.

Because the Cubs didn't trade McGehee to the Brewers, oh no. Milwaukee merely claimed McGee off waivers from the Cubs on October 29. Which means that the Cubs lost someone who, at minimum, is a viable major-league bench guy, for nothing. To one of their biggest rivals, no less. I have no idea why the Cubs would ask for waivers on a 26-year-old who can play all over the infield. Perhaps Jim Hendry needed to open up a spot on the 40-man for one of his impressive off-season acquisitions. You know, like Joey Gathright.

I mention this not to ridicule the Cubs (though that is a nice bonus) but because the loss of McGehee wasn't among the 12 transactions I covered in my Cubs' season preview. With the Cubs sitting at 43-43 at the break, let's re-acquaint ourselves with the off-season maneuverings that have resulted in the Cubs being 8 games worse than at the same point last year. And for the record, I'm giving Losing Casey McGahee on waivers to the Milwaukee Brewers a good, solid F.

Jettisoning Kerry Wood
Pre-season grade: F
My issue with getting rid of Kerry Wood is unchanged. It's not that they let him go -- the implications of which I will cover in the Kevin Gregg section below -- it's that they failed to offer him arbitration, meaning they received no compensation for losing him. Since that is unchanged, so is my grade. Grade: F

Trading for Kevin Gregg
Pre-season grade: F
Gregg has been acceptable as a closer. He's also been better than Wood, though Wood is pitching for a bad team in the superior league. Let's compare their numbers:

Wood: 30.2 IP, 27 H, 18 ER, 6 HR, 17 BB, 33 K, 5.28 ERA, 1.435 WHIP, 12-of-16 saves
Gregg: 40.2 IP, 35 H, 15 ER, 6 HR, 16 BB, 41 K, 3.32 ERA, 1.254 WHIP, 16-of-19 saves

Actually, some of the numbers are remarkably similar; both have been homer-prone and have shown iffy control. (In addition to the walks, Gregg has hit three batters, Wood none.) Wood has allowed 7.9 hits and has recorded 9.7 strikeouts per nine innings pitched; Gregg has given up 7.7 H/9 and posted 9.1 K/9. Still, Gregg has been the more effective pitcher.

However, the Cubs didn't trade Wood for Gregg, although the latter did slide into the former's slot. Instead, the Cubs gave up top pitching prospect Jose Ceda for Gregg, and that -- in addition to my lack of confidence in Gregg's abilities -- was what resulted in the low grade. Well Ceda, who some gave an outside shot of making the Marlins' pen out of spring training, has yet to pitch an inning anywhere this year. Though minor league injuries are almost impossible to track down, just yesterday the Miami Herald reported that Ceda has undergone shoulder surgery and will miss the entire season. With a hard-thrower, a shoulder injury is the absolute last thing you'd want, so it appears that Hendry either got a little lucky or knew something that the rest of us did not. Grade: C

Re-signing Ryan Dempster
Pre-season grade: D
Halfway through the first season of Dempster's four-year, $52-million deal, it ain't lookin so hot. His line:

5-5, 17 GS, 105.2 IP, 101 H, 48 ER, 13 HR, 44 BB, 89 K, 4.09 ERA, 1.372 WHIP

While those numbers aren't terrible, compared to last season's, there are plenty of reasons to worry.

2008: 151 ERA+, 7.6 H/9, 0.6 HR/9, 3.3 BB/9, 8.1 K/9, 2.46 K:BB, .227/.302/.341
2009: 108 ERA+, 8.6 H/9, 1.1 HR/9, 3.7 BB/9, 7.6 K/9, 2.02 K:BB, .258/.335/.430

There is no doubt Dempster's 2008 was a fluke. It was by far the best season of his career, and there was no reason to think that he would repeat the success for even one year during his age 32 through 35 seasons. Right now, he's just slightly better than a league-average pitcher. And $13 mil a season is a lot to pay for that kind of guy. Oh wait... Did I mention Dempster's currently out with a broken toe sustained while attempting to enter the field of play for post-game handshakes? Yeah, that too. Grade: D-

Signing Joey Gathright
Pre-season grade: D-
Gathright, predictably, was a disaster. Well, not quite a disaster, as he only got 15 plate appearances, but he was, in every sense of the word, useless. In his limited action, he posted a .214/.267/.214 line, which is even worse than what he had done during his awful career.

Gathright was flipped to Baltimore for Ryan Freel, who proceeded to make Gathright look positively Ruthian, going .143/.226/.143 in 32 PAs. With his laughable OPS, Freel was recently DFA, and then dumped on KC for a PTBNL, who will surely be a POS. Grade: F

Trading Mark DeRosa
Pre-season grade: D-
No offseason move has backfired worse than the DeRosa trade. The move was done in part to free up some cash to sign ahem Milton Bradley. Additionally, it opened up a spot in the lineup for Mike Fontenot, who started strong but has struggled overall. Actually, that's not entirely accurate. Through May 7, Fontenot had posted the following numbers:

AB----R----H---2B--3B---HR---RBI---BB---SO---BA---OBP---SLG---OPS
85----12--21---3----0----5-----17----12---17--.247--.340--.459--.799

That's pretty good for a middle infielder. Since May 8, Fontenot hasn't been nearly as productive:

AB----R----H---2B--3B---HR---RBI---BB---SO---BA---OBP---SLG---OPS
158---10--35---8----1----1-----11----15---42--.222--.287--.304--.591

So what the hell happened on May 8? Aramis Ramirez got injured.

Fontenot was immediately thrust into the role of regular third baseman, a position he'd manned for just 62 (of 632) games in the minors, and one that he had never played in the major leagues until this year. Unfortunately, the lack of familiarity with the position appears to have had a deleterious effect on his hitting. I mean, just look at his K:BB rate. Last year, it was 1.50. Through May 8, it stood at 1.42, but since moving to third it has jumped to 2.8. The adjustment in the field seemingly overwhelmed a player who was only somewhat established as a major leaguer. Now that Ramirez has returned, Fontenot, who never once complained or made excuses, might have lost his job as the regular second baseman to the newly-acquired Jeff Baker, which would be patently unfair. Everything about third base is different from second, and it takes a special kind of player to move from one to the other without a hitch.

A player like Mark DeRosa.

Yes, DeRosa would have plugged that third-base gap quite nicely, doncha think? Ramirez has now missed at least 13 games in five of his six full seasons with the Cubs (and at least 30 games in three of those), so discarding DeRosa and leaving the team without a viable backup at third was especially galling. To make matters worse, Cleveland recently moved DeRosa to the Cardinals, the Cubs biggest rival and the team they currently trail by 3 1/2 games. But that's not the extent of the misery, as Cleveland somehow received a better package of players for DeRosa than they gave up to the Cubs, which is maddening since not only had the Indians gotten a half-season of production from him, but St. Louis was buying DeRosa for only 80 games (as opposed to the 162 Cleveland potentially got when they acquired him), which means the return should have actually been lower. Ugh. Two things are preventing this outright debacle from being an F-minus. The first is that the three middling prospects acquired from Cleveland -- pitchers John Gaub, Christopher Archer, and Jeff Stevens, who was recently promoted to the big-league club -- are all striking out more than a batter per inning and have sub-3.00 ERAs. The second? DeRosa went 0-for-9 in three games for the Cardinals before hitting the disabled list with a wrist injury, meaning St. Louis has gotten absolutely no return on investment. Grade: F

Signing Aaron Miles
Pre-season grade: D
Miles has been terrible when he hasn't been hurt, which thankfully has been rarely. In 131 PAs, he's at .203/.240/.260, which I'm going to say is probably not a line worthy a 2-year, $5.5-million contract. Considering Bobby Scales could be on the major league roster for about a tenth of that, it's just a colossal waste of five million dollars. Grade: F-

Trading Jason Marquis
Pre-season grade: A
On its face, this move has looked terrible, as Marquis' 11 wins are tied for the most in the major leagues. Despite moving to Colorado, he has an ERA (3.65) that is nearly a run-and-a-half better than his cumulative mark over the previous three seasons (5.08). So what the hell is going on here? Look at his peripheral numbers:

2009: 8.8 H/9, 0.7 HR/9, 2.9 BB/9, 4.2 K/9, 1.45 K:BB
2007-2008: 9.1 H/9, 0.9 HR/9 3.7 BB/9 5.0 K/9, 1.37 K:BB

Really not much has changed. He has marginally better control, but isn't striking out as many guys either. The remarkable thing is, that despite going to freakin' Colorado, Marquis home run rate has dropped. And it doesn't seem to be happenstance either.

Jason Marquis
Ground ball/fly ball ratio:
Career: 0.99
2006-2008: 0.89
2009: 1.33

Ground out/fly out ratio:
Career: 1.40
2006-2008: 1.34
2009: 2.11

Those numbers are shocking. It appears that Marquis has turned himself into a ground-ball pitcher. I know the Cubs aren't exactly renowned for their defense, but why he decided to wait until he got to Denver to do this is beyond me, as Wrigley isn't exactly a pitchers' park either, typically. Although Marquis' strategy seems to be working though, I would nonetheless expect significant regression from him in the second half.

While Marquis has undeniably been good, I still support the thought process behind the trade. Who's spot would Marquis have taken? 26-year-old rookie Randy Wells has arguably been the Cubs best starter, and he likely wouldn't have gotten a shot with Marquis around. Although Dempster's recent toe-ing has left a bit of a void, I doubt if Marquis would have taken his ground-ball tack if he were still in Chicago.

Luis Vizcaino, the man acquired for Marquis, was dumped early in the season, but the biggest upside of the deal was that the Cubs saved about $5 million. Sadly, that's precisely how much they wasted by signing Aaron Miles. Grade: C

Signing Milton Bradley
Pre-season grade: D+
Sure, signing Bradley hasn't exactly panned out, but I don't think the prevailing opinion of unmitigated disaster is quite right either. Among Cubs with more than 20 PAs, do you know where Bradley's OBP ranks? First. Let me type that again, this time in italics: First. In fact, his .379 OBP is exactly 25 points higher than that of Derrek Lee, who is generally considered to have had the best first half among Cubs regulars. Of course, Lee does have a 130-point advantage in slugging, so it's not all farts and flowers for Bradley. In fact, only two Cubs with over 100 ABs -- Fontenot and Miles -- have slugging percentages lower than Bradley's .381. But again, that OBP means he's been far from worthless. And if Lou Piniella would just put him at the top of the order instead of one of his beloved 'fast' guys, the Cubs might have an actual asset on there.

On the other hand, Bradley has already played 71 games, meaning he's just four away from turning his two-year, $18-million contract into a 3-year, $30 million one, and likely five games away from a season-ending injury. Since freeing up money to sign Bradley was a big reason for the DeRosa trade, the deal isn't looking like one of Hendry's more prudent moves. Especially given Bradley's known allergy to playing 100 games in a season. Grade: D-

Trading Felix Pie
Pre-season grade: D
Only one of the two guys the Cubs received for Pie is still in the organization, as the other (Garrett Olson) was shipped to Seattle (see below.) Henry Williamson recently bypassed AA after impressing at Daytona, earning a promotion to Triple-A Iowa; but at 23, he'd better be dominating kids in High-A. Still, his 56 strikeouts (versus 19 walks) and just a single home run given up in 56.1 IP are both good indicators, though his hits allowed (54) are a bit of a red flag. Yet in his first game at Iowa, Williamson allowed just one baserunner in three-and-two-thirds innings, striking out five. He could end up being a viable bullpen arm.

Meanwhile, Pie has yet to blossom in Baltimore, going .234/.299/.355. Sure that's better than his replacement (Gathright) and his replacement's replacement (Freel), but it's still a notch or two below mediocre. Pie hasn't been a regular since early May, however, and he has done much better as a part-time player. Since May 10:

AB----R----H---2B--3B---HR---RBI---BB---SO---BA---OBP---SLG---OPS
50-----11--16---2----2----1-----6-----4----10--.320--.370--.500---.870

And at 24 -- he's been in the majors three seasons, but is only nine months older than Williamson, who is just now pitching above A-ball for the first time -- it's still way to early to give up on Pie. Grade: C

The acquisition of Aaron Heilman for Garrett Olson and Ronny Cedeno
Pre-season grade: F
Heilman has a so-so 4.32 ERA and an alarming 1.63 WHIP. He is just one more horribly unreliable arm in what has been a horribly unreliable bullpen. Heilman's main problem, like so many others in the Cubs' pen, is walks, with 27 in 41.2 innings pitched.

Speaking of not good, have you looked at Cedeno's numbers? .168/.227/.301. Yuk. That's very nearly Aaron Miles-caliber bad, although the 26-year-old Cedeno actually plays a passable shortstop. He would have been a much better (and cheaper) option.

Olson's been surprisingly effective splitting time between Triple-A and Seattle, posting a 4.42 ERA and an impressive 1.19 WHIP with the big club, while walking just 18 in 57 IP. Olson is 25, Heilman's 30. Cedeno and Olson's combined salary is $1.25 million, while Heilman's "earning" $1.63 million this year. Grade: D-

Trading Rich Hill
Pre-season grade: D-
Like Kerry Wood's, this grade was mostly based on a major mistake regarding the transaction, not the deal itself; as shaky as the Cubs' staff has been at times, I doubt they're missing Hill's 6.92 ERA. The problem is that the Cubs waited way too long to deal him, and could have gotten some actual value had they traded him three years ago. Instead, they labeled him untouchable and watched his value decrease to the point that he could only yield a PTBNL, one who, nearly six months later, still hasn't been N. Grade: D

Trading Michael Wuertz
Pre-season grade: C-
Wuertz, as he was during most of his Cubs tenure, has been very reliable. In fact, he's been much better than that for the A's:

5-1, 42.2 IP, 31 H, 14 ER, 3 HR, 12 BB, 53 K, 2.95 ERA, 1.01 WHIP

Those would be by far the best numbers in the Cubs' pen. I'm not sure why he fell out of favor with the Cubs, because while he's not young (30), he is still relatively cheap -- tragically, he will make half a million dollars less this year than Heilman.

As for the players the Cubs got in return? Well one of them, shortstop Justin Sellers, has a rather respectable .375 OBP in AA. Unfortunately, it's not for the Cubs' affiliate in Tennessee -- he never appeared a game in the Cubs organization -- and I have no idea why. He's playing for Chattanooga, which is in the Dodgers system, but I don't recall any deal between the teams, and an internet search proved fruitless. I suspect the Cubs may have dumped him. He recently played in the Southern League All-Star game.

The other, Richie Robnett, went 3-for-21 at Iowa before being demoted to Tennessee, where he went .184/.253/.303 in 83 PAs before being let go. So to summarize: the Cubs traded a guy who would be their best reliever and just months later, have absolutely nothing to show for it in the entire organization. Excellent work, gentlemen. Grade: F

Overall GPA: 0.8

So even though some of the grades have shifted, the net result has been even worse than I thought before the season started, when I gave the Cubs a 1.0 GPA. The overall failure is not surprising when you look at this:

Players subtracted:
Henry Blanco, Ronny Cedeno, Mark DeRosa, Jim Edmonds, Chad Gaudin, Rich Hill, Bobby Howry, Jon Lieber, Jason Marquis, Casey McGehee, Felix Pie, Daryle Ward, Kerry Wood, Michael Wuertz

Players added:
Jeff Baker, Milton Bradley, Ryan Freel*, Joey Gathright*, Kevin Gregg, Aaron Heilman, Aaron Miles, David Patton, Jeff Stevens, Luis Vizcaino*

* No longer with team

I know which list I would rather have. As I wrote at the end of my season preview:

The bottom line is, I don't think this team is as good as last year's. The outfield seems shaky, the infield is a year older, the bench is weaker, and the roster in general seems less versatile. Plus the bullpen is markedly crappier. The only area that's not appreciably worse is the starting rotation. And while I love the Marshall-for-Marquis swap, they're counting on Dempster recreating his fluke season, Carlos Zambrano stopping his regression, and Rich Harden staying healthy. I don't hold out a lot of hope that even one of those things will happen.

Of course, unduly influenced by most of my sources, I then pussed out and predicted an 89-73 record, which was, in my defense, 8.5 games worse than 2008. But to reach my prediction, the Cubs will have to win at a .605 clip the rest of the way. I suppose it's possible, if everything goes right in the second half, and the team gets healthy relatively quickly. But seeing who we're dealing with, I don't see that being very likely. All of the questionable moves appear to have doomed this team.

And possibly Jim Hendry along with it.