Send Chad Gaudin To Triple A!
After today's awful performance, it's looking more and more like Chad Gaudin will not have a place on the major league roster come April.
Many Cub fans, myself included, viewed Gaudin as a useful backup starter when he was acquired in the Harden trade. Gaudin does have a decent career ERA as a starter, and has relieved in the majors as well.
But ever since his "accident" (something about alcohol, a dumpster, and falling on his ass?), Gaudin's been pretty useless. Furthermore, I would contend that Gaudin's struggles were fairly apparent even before that incident.
In 2007, Gaudin had a 4.50 BB/9 rate. In other words, he walked a batter every two innings. To me, the only time a walk rate like that is acceptable is when the pitcher has a hard fastball, and just guns it up to the mound at 100mph without really locating. In Gaudin's case, however, there isn't a powerful fastball to match the high walk rate.
In fact, Gaudin doesn't really get many strikeouts at all. Worst of all, in 2006, Gaudin had more walks than strikeouts. In the big leagues, that's just not gonna work.
Both Gaudin and recently acquired Luis Vizcaino are giving youngsters (yeah, I just said youngsters) like Kevin Hart, Angel Guzman, and everyone's favorite, Jeff Samardzija, to start 2009 with the big league club. We'll see what happens in the next few weeks.
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