The Chicago Tribune's Mike Downey says that "the known is always preferable to the unknown." He can't mean always, can he? Shawn Estes is known. Rich Hill is not. No one would trade Hill for Estes right now.

Jose Macias is about as known as it comes.

Downey's statement comes in the context of discussing Matt Murton and Ronny Cedeno and whether Dusty Baker could possibly be happy with having to start them (Downey says no, because "the known is always preferable to the unknown"). One of the great criticisms of Baker, of course, is his apparent skepticism of the unknown.

And here's the thing -- Baker doesn't have to start Murton and Cedeno. He has John Mabry and Neifi Perez. It is not out of the realm of possibility that Murton and Cedeno end up splitting time with those two.

No, the known is most certainly not always preferable to the unknown. Hope matters. And sometimes there is no hope in the known.