The Cubs Chronicle

Mike Kiley has a couple of interesting things to say in his Sun-Times column today (I say “column” because, despite his designation as a “Staff Reporter,” what he files are most certainly not reports, but opinion pieces):

Cubs general manager Jim Hendry will be put to the test in the next few weeks. Everyone in baseball knows that he needs a starting third baseman to help his club sustain a fast start, and having such an apparent need might make his task more difficult. If he doesn’t make a deal and the club’s momentum fades, Hendry will be the guy on the firing line.

That’s right. Mr. Kiley has scoured the nation and determined that everyone in baseball thinks Mark Bellhorn can’t be the starting third baseman. You are never going to witness a greater example of hard work by a reporter. I mean, he talked to everyone.

Dennis Goodman has more. While Dennis isn’t in baseball, and so Mr. Kiley didn’t call him, he at least thinks Bellhorn is worth playing. And, in fact, should be batting leadoff. The C&A Chron. editorial staff agrees.

The second item of note from Mr. Kiley’s column concerns Antonio Alfonseca. He thinks Alfonseca could be good trade bait, and writes, “[I]f Hendry can get [Shea] Hillenbrand for Alfonseca, maybe that’s worth talking over.”

Maybe? If Boston is willing to trade a regular corner infielder who, though he doesn’t walk much, can still hit a bit and is making minimum wage, for an overpaid just-above-average one-inning-at-a-time relief pitcher, yeah, Hendry should do that. Of course, Theo Epstein would never make such a trade.