Posted by Matt Sisson on Wednesday, January 28, 2009 at 1:32 pm

According to Ken Rosenthal, the Cubs have acquired Aaron Heilman from the Seattle Mariners. Rosenthal states that Heilman will “compete for the Cubs’ fifth-starter job or pitch out of their bullpen.” If the latter happens and the Cubs end up using Heilman out of the bullpen, what’s to say that Chicago won’t end up like the 2008 Mets? With Heilman competing with Sean Marshall, Chad Gaudin, and Jeff Samardzija for the 5th spot in the rotation, there’s a good chance the Cubs have pretty much destined themselves for failure for the 101th season in a row. Heilman hasn’t started a game since 2005 and as a reliever he’s seen his home runs allowed double since 2006, while and his walk total increase from 20 in 2007 to 46 in 2008. To top it off, he’s also blown 5 saves each of the last three season while filling in as the closer.

So what’s the good news for the Cubs? Well, there’s not much. One thing to look at is prior to his awful playoff hope ruining 2008 season, Heilman rarely used his slider. In 2007 he threw his fastball 61.7% of the time, his slider 0.4% of the time, and his change up 37.9% of the time. In 2008 he relied on his fastball 64% of the time, his change up 24% of the time and his slider 12% of the time. If the Cubs can convince him to ditch his slider and go back to using his change up, maybe the problem will solve itself. Maybe not…I’m betting on Heilman costing the Cubbies a few games next year.