Former Cubs General Manager and President took the job of President of Baseball Operations with the Orioles and since then, has acquired three Cubs in Scott Moore, Rocky Cherry, and Roberto Novoa. There are also many former Cubs on the team which will probably be retained, especially Corey Patterson. There is a good side of this and definitely a bad side at the moment. The good side is that the Cubs could look to acquire someone like Miguel Tejada for several minor leaguers and major league ready players. I could see a trade looking like this: Miguel Tejada and cash to the Cubs for Sean Gallagher, Jim Henderson, Eric Patterson, and, Ronny Cedeno. That is a rough trade for now because I do not know how the Cubs rate some of their players, but they do not think much of Eric Patterson right now after he was late to several games and practices, and was not very effective at the major league level. But trading for Tejada would move Theriot to second base, DeRosa to right field, and Jones platooning with Pie in center field. I think it helps both teams but who knows if the Cubs want to unload some of their system to acquire Tejada, who has just two more years on his contract. But, he is aging and may be forced to switch positions, so the Cubs might be hesitant. The bad side, if the Cubs cannot reach a deal with Kerry Wood, he might walk and go to Baltimore and be with McPhail, who drafted and signed him. I think the Cubs and Wood feel the same way about returning next season, but who knows? Also, if the Cubs non-tender Prior, McPhail could look to add him too. They plan to sign former Iowa Cub pitching coach Rich Kranitz, so this all seems relatively possible because both Prior and Wood worked with Kranitz and one point in the past couple seasons. McPhail will look to upgrade anyway he can, and he might start with unloading the disgruntled Tejada, who was almost traded to the Cubs in 2005.
Tejada would be a good upgrade at short and his asking price is lower than the Prior for Tejada rumor we heard last year. Here is his stats-
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/players/stats?playerId=3727
Good OBP, good average and low strike outs. This guy would look great a short for the Cubs and a cheaper option than Arod. Not to mention he is owed 13 million for 08 and 13 for 09 and the O's would pry eat 5 million of his contract for some young talent.
3 comments:
HR totals dropping every year- RBI's dropping, too- no speed for stealing- maybe not the kind of guy you want to invest big bucks on. Coming off his steroid years??
No way Pie and JJ -- two left handers -- would platoon. And DeRosa doesn't hit enough to be an everyday right fielder. If Pie finally shows up, it's possible Lou could platoon DeRosa and JJ, but I want DeRosa in every day over Theriot.
I'd be OK with the Tejada deal for the price you suggested, but I doub the Orioles would be.
anonymous #2 I disagree. A Pie JJ platoon would work despite both being lefty because JJ would actually be a starter 90% of the time and Pie could come in as a defensive switch and move JJ to a corner spot late in the game.
But what I would rather see is the Cubs going out to get a CF (choices ranging from cheap-band-aid-while-we-wait-for-Pie Lofton to guys like Andruw Jones and Hunter) and have JJ and DeRo platoon in RF.
I feel you are being contradictory if your not ok with DeRo being the everyday RF but ok with him being the everyday 2B over The Riot, assuming in this scenario that the Cubs do get Tejada.
The beauty of DeRo is being able to move him around and that is where he will be most useful and productive, as he was this past season. He'll share time in RF and 2B and spell Rammy.
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