You’d think that the Chicago Cubs would be grateful for any player they could get, especially a pitcher, since they finished in the bottom three in NL team ERA last season. But Carlos Silva, who hadn’t won a game since July 26 of last year, was released by the team, who was really, really sad to see him go.
“Basically, he wasn’t good enough to make the team,” general manager Jim Hendry said. “We try to factor in not only spring training, but the second half of last year. You’re looking at a guy who had a 14-something ERA from July 11 on, and came to camp with the notion that he already had a spot in the rotation.
“Obviously, the first three or four outings (were) quite poor, and basically you try to give him every opportunity, which we did.”
That’s pretty frank for a GM. But it gets worse. I mean better.
“Obviously, we’re dealing with a man who at this particular point of his career is not willing to face the facts that what he’s done the last few years, except for a two-month period (last year), is well below major league standards,” Hendry said.
“And he seemed to make a continual problem of blaming everyone but himself. (He gave up) 29 hits in his first 11 innings of camp, and I’ve never had anyone I’ve dealt with classify that as ‘bad luck.’ His comments (criticizing pitching coach) Mark Riggins were totally unacceptable. And once again, it’s a weakness for someone that doesn’t perform well and choose to blame somebody else on the way out.”
The Cubs tried to shop the obese right-hander, who went to the Windy City in a trade for Milton Bradley to the Mariners. Oh, and the Cubs still own Silva about $12 million for the last year of his contract. The Cubs keep inventing new ways to fail, which is odd, because their old methods for failure were working just fine.
