How about Huston Street?

Now that we’re getting closer to trade season, it’s time to take a look at some holes in this team that need patching. Obviously, the offense has been pretty bad. However, most of that is due to the abscence of Aramis Ramirez and the epic slumps that half the lineup has seemingly had. With Ramirez returning relatively soon the obvious holes to fill on the offense are at C and 2b. However, I don’t see the Cubs giving up on Fontenot or Soto, and Fontenot at least seems to be turning things around. As far as catchers go, even if the Cubs wanted to replace Soto I think they’re pretty much stuck with him, as decent catchers are such a rare commodity that any team giving one up will require a king’s ransom. Which brings me to the bullpen, the other underperforming unit of the Cubs team. The Cubs bullpen has posted a 4.76 FIP this season, which is the worst in the National League and 4th worst in baseball (ahead the Indians, Rangers, and Yankees, in that order). Furthermore, the Cubs closer, Kevin Gregg, has posted the worst FIP (5.12) of all the relievers currently on the team. Not helping matters is relief ‘ace’ Carlos Marmol’s inability to find the plate this season. He has a FIP of 5.0, barely edging out David Patton. The Rockies closer, Huston Street, has been put forward as a trade candidate by several writers, though no one has said that the Rockies have him on the block. I knew he was a good pitcher, but I didn’t know he was this good. Here are his career numbers YearIPKK/9BB/9HR/9BABIPFIP 200578.1728.272.990.34.2512.75 200670.2678.531.660.51.3122.62 2007506311.342.160.9.2782.74 200870698.873.470.77.2883.47 200924.1259.252.591.48.2564.05 2009 RoS (Zips)42439.212.571.07.3043.46 The reason for the lower IP in 2007 was due to time missed from irritation in his ulnar nerve. Much like Jake Peavy, this means that his arm is a ticking time bomb that will explode the moment the Cubs trade for him. I’m pretty sure that FIP does not take park factors into account, so it should not be surprising that it rose when he moved from the spacious A’s stadium to Colorado. Wrigley is a hitter’s park though, so there shouldn’t be that big a change in his projections if he were to come to the Cubs. He’s not your prototypical power closer - his fastball averages 91 and he throws a decent number of sliders and changeups. One reason to be concerned is that his fastball hasn’t been as good this season - his fastball linear weight has dropped to -2.4 from its average value of ~4.5. For some reason, the Rockies put him in a competition with Manny Corpas for the closer’s role during spring training. Street won easily, but got off to a rocky start and actually lost the job to Corpas for a few days in late April. Since then, though, he’s been sparkling, and has only given up two runs (one earned) since April 26. Street has one more year of team control, so if the Cubs trade for him they would also have him for the 2010 season. His arbitration salary for 2010 is likely to be a decent number though, which may play a role in the Cubs aquiring him. I’m sure there will be other bullpen arms on the market, but I think Street is the best target for the Cubs to go after.