The Chicago Cubs: Desperate and Mismanaging Talent Again

by TAB BAMFORD (Senior Writer)

As I wrote back in early May, the Chicago Cubs have no idea how to develop and manage talented baseball players.

As I mentioned back then, the Cubs were risking their team's health by making stupid decisions like pinch hitting with Carlos Zambrano. I also noted that the team was abusing pitchers like Sean Marshall and Jeff Samardzija by continuously moving them back and forth between the rotation and bullpen.

On Tuesday, the Cubs again showed that they not only lack regard for their present salary cap situation, but they have no respect for the future of their franchise by abusing talented, well-payed minor leaguers.

In a move that can best be described as eyebrow-raising, the Cubs optioned Jose Ascanio to Triple-A and recalled Samardzija, sending arguably the best wide receiver in Chicago back to the bullpen.

What troubles me about this move: Ascanio hadn't done anything to merit his demotion.

In fact, Ascanio had the highest strikeout-per-nine inning ratio on the Cubs' roster (10.57).

And despite an 0-1 record, Ascanio's 3.52 ERA is respectable and his ability to work more than one inning was a luxury that, in the absense of Angel Guzman, manager Lou Piniella didn't have in many other relievers.

But for all his good work, Ascanio is now on a bus for Iowa and Samardzija is likely flying to Pittsburgh.

Samardzija received a healthy signing bonus from General Manager Jim Hendry to never play football again. He was demoted, leaving Spring Training to work on his repertoire to be more of a starting pitcher. Samardzija was quickly recalled when the team needed an arm in the bullpen earlier this season.

His first trip to the bigs this year was a failure; his ERA was over eight and his WHIP approached three.

The day before Samardzija was demoted in May, I met Hendry at a Blackhawks game. My fantastically bold acquaintance, Ellen, called Hendry out for abusing Samardzija and blatantly going back on his language from Spring Training, when he said Samardzija would be a starter. I told that story here.

The Cubs apparently saw that Samardzija wasn't even ready to be a bullpen guy for the major league team, so they, again, sent him to Iowa to work on becoming a starter.

And now, just seven weeks later, the Cubs stick Samardzija back in the bullpen. Replacing a valuable asset in the process is just par for the course with the recent trends from Hendry's management team.

Meanwhile, David Patton and his 5.32 ERA remain in Chicago. But heaven help us if Hendry admitted he was wrong with the Rule Five Draft pick and gave him back; he'd rather keep him on the major league roster so Piniella can turn to him in blowout losses to eat a few innings.

By bringing Samardzija back to the major league roster in a relieving role, Hendry is slapping his fan base in the face and letting us all know that he doesn't care if the team develops their expensive draft picks. He is more concerned with throwing together a roster than developing a winner.