Cubs Trade Jason Marquis

by Charlie Wilmoth on Jan 6, 2009 9:52 PM EST

As expected, the Cubs have traded Jason Marquis and cash to the Rockies for reliever Luis Vizcaino.

Marquis' strikeout rates won't impress anyone, but he's reasonably effective when he can keep the ball in the yard. His strikeout and walk rates have remained relatively constant the last three years; the main difference between his disastrous 2006 season with St. Louis and his solid 2008 with Chicago was that he allowed 20 fewer homers in 2008. Still, there isn't much upside there--at best, he's a league average pitcher, and as he enters his 30s he may have trouble even with that.

Of course, Vizcaino isn't any prize either, and it's no accident that he's played for five teams the past five years. He does strike batters out, but he has problems with walks and gopheritis, and moving from one homer-happy park to another shouldn't help him much.

The Cubs save some money and will probably use their rotation spot on a better pitcher in Sean Marshall.

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Comments

so this means that the Rockies will make the postseason in '09?

I’ve never been a big fan of Jason Marquis, but his team has been to the postseason every year (although Marquis himself has only pitched in 5 of 9 postseasons)….

by gonfalon on Jan 7, 2009 11:50 AM EST reply actions

Hmph.

I got kind of excited for a minute because I remembered Marquis as being a fairly good-hitting pitcher, but he’s only .206/.227/.306 for his career. He was good in ‘04 and great in ’05, but other than that he hasn’t been very impressive. Even with a Coors boost, he probably won’t be anything special.

Mike Hampton put up some pretty nice batting numbers in the thin air – .291/.309/.582 (with 7 HR) in 2001 and .344/.354/.516 in 2002. Kind of a pity they expected him to pitch, too.

by Vlad on Jan 7, 2009 12:17 PM EST reply actions