They had Wells (who, let’s not forget, has been pretty durable for two years). They also had Cashner, Silva and Coleman, and a second tier of Looper, Russell and Wellemyer. Even if the second-tier guys shouldn’t have been considered, trading Gorzo wasn’t something that indicated a lack of understanding regarding pitching depth.

I’m not accusing you of being inconsistent. I was mildly against the trade because the Cubs didn’t have another good lefty for the rotation. But when you have four guys to fill one spot, trading one of them isn’t that crazy. The Cubs understood pitching depth — and they tried to sell Gorzo high. It’s only one start, but Gorzo wasn’t exactly Tom Glavine in his Washington debut, BTW.

Last point, the Cubs had a bevy of left handers in the bullpen (Marshall, Grabow, Maine, Russell). So Gorzo might have rotted in the pen as a Cub.

It worked out badly. But I’m not gonna say Jim Hendry doesn’t get pitching depth because of this.

is that he’s not been very adept at buying low on pitchers. Ryan Dempster and Glendon Rusch were both good pickups that cost the Cubs next to nothing at the time, but Hendry really has done this rarely or ineffectively (Wade Miller) in the past few seasons. And Silva doesn’t count because of the high price tag.

The Cardinals do this exceedingly well. It’s astonishing how they can turn Joel Pineiro or Jeff Weaver into an effective pitcher for half a season, let them go in free agency and then reload.

Hendry, instead, pays market price or higher for guys like Jason Marquis and John Grabow.

I know Dave Duncan is a once-in-a-generation pitching coach. But you figure the Cubs could have done this effectively once or twice since Dempster.