Free Rotation Depth

David Patton is a 25-year-old RH pitcher (from Seattle!) who has spent the past two seasons pitching out of the bullpen in High-A Modesto in the Rockies system. The Cubs claimed him in the Rule 5 draft and have decided to keep him around.

The cost of doing so is the release of Chad Gaudin, who came over to the Cubs with Rich Harden from the As last summer. The Cubs never tried Gaudin out in the rotation which is where the As used him in 2007 and 2008. Over the last 235 innings that Gaudin has logged as a starter, he's posted a pretty close to dead average tRA*. He's not a guy with a lot of upside, but he is the perfect example of depth and even contracts aside, I would take him over either Silva or Washburn.

The Cubs let go of a potentially league average starter in order to keep a 25-year-old reliever who's never even pitched at the Double-A level on their active roster. Some lucky team is going to reap the benefits of the Cubs stupidity.