The Baseball Zealot

The LaTroy Hawkins deal may help the Cubs. It may even help the Giants. But the one person who may not like this deal is Champaign, Illinois native and reliever Matt Herges.

Herges was designated for assignment by the Giants to make room for Hawkins. Herges was 1-1 with a 4.71 in 21 appearances.

Herges, who had a 2.62 ERA in 2003, has not pitched effectively since then with a 5.24 ERA in 2004.

Apparently, Herges has been a good influence in the clubhouse. At least according to sophomore starter Noah Lowry:

“Hergie’s been an outstanding teammate and good friend. It’s disappointing to see him go. It’s an unfortunate situation he ended up being the odd man out. It’s upsetting, but at the same time, it’s a business.”

Ok, maybe that’s not fair. But let’s face it, LaTroy was not working for the Cubs and probably never would.

I for one, think Jerome Williams has some talent. He is getting off to a slow start (spending most of it in the minors) having to tend to his ill father earlier in the year. Still, he’s 23 and very promising.

I know very little about David Aardsma other than what we are reading in the press now. He was a high draft pick in 2003. The Cubs say they’ll take a wait-and-see approach as to whether he’ll start or pitch out of the pen.

At this point, this looks like a very solid deal for the Cubs especially considering their injury situation. Williams could be the real deal. Aardsma could be the icing on the cake.

But unless Aardsma proves to be strong out of pen, they still haven’t taken care of business.

Followup: Here’s an article headlined “Teammates Will Miss Hawkins”. Yes, and so will Cubs’ opponents.

Ok, I’ll stop being so smart. Seriously, Cubs management did LaTroy a favor by trading him. He can get a fresh start in San Fran. He had too much baggage and there was too much discontent among the fans to be effective in Chicago.

Aardsma Trivia: Just read over at Cub Town (along with their analysis of the Cub trade) that Aardsma displaces Hank Aaron at the top of alphabetical list of career players.

Ok, USA Today’s teaser headline was “Prior injured, Cubs win”. Geez, that’s a tough price to pay for a “W”.

They’ve X-rayed his elbow and the results are negative. Which I guess means he doesn’t have an elbow.

Seriously, he’s lucky not to have a fracture. Especially, since Brad Hawpe’s batted ball ricocheted hard enough for Aramis Ramirez for him to catch it for the out.

Nice play, btw, Aramis.

As usual, we won’t know the extent till later. And knowing Cubs management, probably not then either.

If Cubs fans are looking for some good news, they can take heart that the Cubs have won 4 of their last 6 games.

With Wood and now possibly Prior gone, we’ll see what happens now.

Update: Though X-rays were negative, an MRI showed a slight fracture in Prior’s elbow.