Hendry a little frustrated at lack of deals this off-season
MESA, Ariz. -- At last month's Cubs convention, general manager Jim Hendry expressed hope he could make one or even two more deals before spring training.
Spring training is upon us, but Hendry still hasn't been able to make even one trade. Talk about a deal for Baltimore's Brian Roberts has been going on for 2½ months. The Cubs also talked with Texas about center fielder Marlon Byrd.
Cubs representatives said Wednesday that nothing is imminent on any front and that recent talks with the Orioles have yielded nothing.
Hendry addressed the situation Wednesday during a news conference with field boss Lou Piniella as pitchers and catchers reported.
"I'm always disappointed when we don't make the club better when you feel like you might have an opportunity," Hendry said. "This has been a really strange off-season. The magnitude of the trades like (Johan) Santana and (Erik) Bedard made in February are hard to believe.
"Hopefully there will be some deals that'll be made. We're going to keep our options open on how to make the club better if we can."
Hendry was asked if the process had turned frustrating.
"A little bit, yeah, because when you write things up on paper, you have visions of how you'd like it to be by Opening Day," he said. "We're still seven weeks away, but you'd like to have everything the way you wanted it, but it doesn't always work out that way."
Both Hendry and Piniella reiterated that they like their team even without a trade. But Hendry said he is keeping the lines of communication open with other GMs.
One player mentioned often in trade talks has been lefty pitcher Sean Marshall. He seemed flattered and not bothered by the rumors.
"It's good," he said. "I'd like to stay a Cub. I like pitching in Wrigley Field and playing for the Cubs. Hopefully this will be our year, and I'll be there to help them get a championship."
Closer question: With Ryan Dempster moving from the closer's role to the starting rotation, it appears Bob Howry has the inside track to finish games.
"Howry, in my mind, can close," Lou Piniella said. "There's no question."
Piniella added that he will know well before spring training ends whether it will be Howry, Carlos Marmol or Kerry Wood. Piniella termed Marmol's stuff "electric" and said all Wood has to do is prove he is durable enough to pitch a lot over a few days.
Even though closers don't often face a team's best hitters in spring-training games, Piniella appeared confident he will know who's throwing best.
"You can basically tell by the stuff and also by the presence, also by the strikes that are being thrown," he said. "We'll have one guy. By the end of spring training, there's no question. Probably, by three-quarters of the way through spring training, we'll have one guy."
The only thing Dempster predicted for himself was pitching 200 innings as a starter. Piniella didn't want to speculate what would happen if Dempster doesn't look good this spring.
"Let's just wait and see what happens," he said. "We've got plenty of time to figure that out. If Dempster ends up in the rotation for us, we're going to have a good closing situation here. If he doesn't, he did a heck of a job for us in the closing spot for us last year. So it's a win-win for us."
Playing the kids: One of the knocks on former Cubs manager Dusty Baker was that he didn't like young players. Jim Hendry gave Lou Piniella high marks for playing the kids last year. He also praised farm director Oneri Fleita.
"A big key to us getting back on track last year was we had a manager who played the people that came up right away, which is very important," Hendry said.
"Oneri did a very good job of telling (assistant GM) Randy Bush and myself and Lou who we should bring up, what their roles should be, and Lou plugged them right in the first two or three days and got the most out of them.
"So you don't have to have all just high-profile prospects. The guys that filled in the cracks last year helped us win the division as much as the star players."