Marquis deal is finalized

The Jason Marquis trade to the Rockies has been finalized. The Cubs receive reliever Luis Vizcaino in return. Cubs GM Jim Hendry will continue to look for another starter for the team until pitchers and catchers report on Valentines Day, but he also feels good about some of the candidates in the organization. Sean Marshall, Angel Guzman, Kevin Hart, Chad Gaudin, and Jeff Samardzija are in the mix, but cubs.com called Samardzija a "long shot". I would like to see Samardzija get a chance because he grew up right by my home town, however I think Marshall deserves the job.

Hendry Quotes:

• "Anybody would love Marshall in that role and he did great at it, At the same time, in fairness to the young man, if he keeps improving -- he's made big steps each of the last years -- if he makes another step up and comes into camp and competes and wins a job, then he certainly has a right to stake a claim to that."
• "He proved to us last year, whatever role we put him in, and as tough as we made it on him, he did a quality job, sooner or later, you like to reward that, too."
• "We don't call anything a salary dump, we're no different than anybody else except maybe my buddy Brian Cashman. We have a payroll and a fair payroll. You still have to, in this job, especially the situation we have now, until there's a new owner, you follow the guidelines of the payroll and that's what we're doing."
• "We were very fortunate in that we spent a lot of money the last couple years and it turned into two outstanding regular seasons. At he same time, some of those contracts escalate. I have no complaints. No matter who my boss has been, I've always been given a payroll that I've felt you could compete and contend with and for the most part, I've been allowed to spend it how I want to."

I'll keep you posted.