The Cubs put a major contributor into their starting rotation when they traded a bunch of prospects to the Rays for Matt Garza. When the dust settled, the Cubs got Garza, Fernando Perez and Zachary Rosscup and they gave up Chris Archer (top pitching prospect), shortstop Hak-Ju Lee, Brandon Guyer, Robinson Chirinos, and Sam Fuld.
Garza looks like one of those guys where the numbers don’t really tell the story. 2009 looks disappointing with an 8-12 record but he also saw a spike in his strikeout rate that year (which came back down to earth in 2010). I do like the durability (200+ innings the past two seasons) and he had a career best 2.8 walks per nine innings in 2010. And he’s only 27 years old.
If you want to know more about the minor leaguers in the deal, this is a good profile. Perez is 27 so I’m not too excited there but Rosscup could find a spot in the pen some time down the line.
In short, I like what the Cubs have been doing. They have some burdensome deals but they’re still trying to get better. It’s going to be a tough division, but just in case the Cubs surprise everyone, I’m buying my Cubs tickets early.
