Chows get Maine Man

Illinois Times --

And then there were two. Illinois GM/Owner Brad Sherlag inherited a play-off caliber tem from Yorktown just a few seasons ago. At the time Sherlag touted how lucky he was to take over a franchise in such good shape in the NASBL. The foundation that was in place of Beltran, Beltre, Dunn, Kearns, Giles, Barrett, Vidro, Walker, Halladay, Harden, Schilling and Gagne was to leave the Chows in good-standing for years to come. Today Illinois traded Adrian Beltre and the only two left from that promising group are Halladay and Beltran.

"Adrian has been a cornerstone of our team since we moved to Illinois. His defense and his slugging will be missed. However, we were short on pitching this season and having traded both our 2nd and 3rd round picks to bolster our offense, we were not sure we could get enough starting pitching to fill our holes in the draft. We were looking for a pitcher for one of our third basemen and John Maine is a guy we have always liked. We considered him in the draft last year and just one year ago he was a 1st round pick. We think he will be a nice middle of the rotation guy for us for the foreseeable future."

Illinois now holds 1/4 of last year's 1st round in Tulowitzki, Pena, Johnson and now Maine. Maine figures to be the Chows 3rd starter but could be pushed down to number 4 if the Chows go with a pitcher with their first pick. "We really think we can get a good starter if we go that route with the 7th ......... er check that 8th pick." More on the mishandling of the draft and the Micah Owings situation will be covered in the Times editorial on Sunday.