The Cubs have several issues and needs this offseason and one of them is to get a guy to play 2nd base and to either turn around Milton Bradley or trade him. There are many problems with these issues, the Cubs will have a hard time trading Milton Bradley and the 21 million left on this contract and the 2nd base market is good but could get very expensive. The Cubs could kill 2 birds with one stone by trading Milton Bradley to the Mets for Luis Castillo.
The Mets are already talking about trading Castillo this offseason and signing Orlando Hudson. The Mets would be taking Bradley's attitude and some money but I would expect the Cubs to pay some of Bradley's contract to get him out of Chicago. The Mets would fill the void of Gary Sheffield in the outfield with Milton and be able to split time between Francouer and Tatis in the corners if they resign Tatis.
The Cubs would get a really good 2nd baseman who hits for average, steals bases, and has a really good OBP that would make Cub fans not miss Bradley at all. The Cubs could then turn to the outfield market which had some really good bargains last season. They could still go sign Chone Figgins or trade for Mark Teahen or Carl Crawford (I WISH!) and have them play right or sign a free agent. The Cubs could go the cheap route and sign guys like Andruw Jones, Scott Podsednik, Marlon Byrd, Eric Hinske, or Randy Winn. They could also get in bidding wars for Jason Bay, Matt Holliday, or Johnny Damon. I think the Cubs should go after free agents Bobby Abreu, Vladimir Guerrero, Hideki Matsui, or Jermaine Dye who will be the in the middle money market and will not break the Cubs bank.
If the Mets would in fact do this trade then the Cubs could get a good guy to leadoff guy (career .293 hitter with a .364 OBP) or 2 hole hitter (.304 hitter a .382 OBP) in Castillo. I would drool over a getting Castillo and Abreu next season or even Dye. The Cubs would not only have better hitters in the lineup but better defenders and a higher team OBP.
My lineup-
1. Castillo 2b
2. Fukudome CF
3. Lee 1st
4. Abreu RF
5. Aram 3b
6. Soriano LF
7. Soto C
8. Theriot SS
9. Pitcher
I love that lineup with speed, power, and OBP. Get it done Hendry!
8 comments:
I know I've always said the Cubs should spend the money.
But this off season I wouldn't mind the "fringe" guys like Abreu or Dye that would only command short one or two year deals. I know its been a collective bad year after two good years of guys like Soriano and Z. But suddenly their long term deals make you nervous after the underachieving seasons they've had.
And whats wrong with keeping Baker at 2B? Is he able to play a little SS? I cant remember. I love Theriot but to be honest he is more like a semi platoon SS. To get the .300 avg we are starting to get used to out of him he needs to be limited to maybe 140 games a season. Maybe Baker can play the DeRosa role? Although I dont think he plays OF. And of course DeRo is a free agent as well.
I wish the Cubs would correct missing out on O Hud this past off season... but he will be pricey now that he has shown he is healthy.
I'm still worried about Soto. Maybe the Cubs can sign Pudge on the cheap and have Soto and K Hill battle it out for the back up spot? Pudge is a platoon C now and I can live with him splitting equally time with Hill or maybe Soto does come back to prove the RoY was not a fluke and Pudge is still a quality back up and veteran bat off the bench that wont command Henry Blanco money (haha).
i hate to say this but i don't believe that trading milton bradley will solve much of anything. well they would get rid of the headache bradley causes. but at the end of the day i still don't believe trading bradley makes the cubs an instant world series contender. to be honest i do not believe this team is good enough to win The world series with or with out bradley. and that leads to only one logical move that ive tried to avoid talking about and something that no big market should ever have to consider. A Fire Sale. at the end of the day a fire sale is the best idea in my opinion. who ever you can get the most amount of top prospects for, trade this offseason. Derrick lee, Aramis Ramirez, Carlos Zambrano, Ted Lilly, Milton Bradley, Geovany Soto, Ryan Dempster, Alfonso Soriano, Ryan Theriot, Kosuke Fukudome. i know that's a very drastic step for a team that just made it to the playoff two years in a row. but nothing the cubs have done this season make's me believe that the cubs will be contenders next season. but their is a problem. most of the players ive mentioned have no trade clauses. and if the cubs cannot get these guys to waive their no trade clauses, then thats going to cause a lot of problems in the club house. it's sad but at the end of the day i believe that this needs to happen. i don't want this to happen but their is no hard and fast ansewer for the cubs problems. and when your a team like the cubs were this year, to good to be Terrible but to bad to be a Contender. you have to do something drastic or you will stay that way for a long time and no one wants to see that.
I have read your blog for a long time, and most of the time I think you do a fair job. I don't like Castillo that much, but no one is taking Bradley's money and giving you something of value in return. I wonder what Castillo's contract situation is? If it's just one year and we don't have to pay any of Milton's deal I'd do it. Let's keep a couple of things in mind though, one, Castillo hasn't been a good leadoff hitter for awhile, two, he doesn't steal bases, three, he would be like having Juan Pierre all over again except he isn't even a threat to steal 20 bases.
The real problem this team has that it can fix is Ryan Theriot. The guy is NOT a shortstop. He is a solid player, but arguably the worst defensive shortstop in baseball. You win games with pitching and defense. You cannot have Theriot playing short. Their first order of buisness should be moving him to second, or to a reserve role. Now I believe Soriano is due 90 million over the next 5 years. If I was the Cubs they should pay 60 million of that for him to play elsewhere because he is just a terrible player. Bad in the field, bad approach at the plate, bad base runner, they need to move him. If they paid 60 million, he would have 30 million for whoever takes him to cover over 5 years, that's just 6 million a season.
Those are the teams most pressing needs, getting a quaility defensive shortstop and getting rid of Soriano. Knowing how stupid Hendry is, they won't do either. In all fairness to him though, I know moving Soriano will take an act of god. Still, Hendry is the moron who signed him. He has dug this hole for himself.
One last thing, please get off the Chone Figgins and Mark Teahen bandwagon. Niether of them is that good. Why would the Cubs go out and spend big money, add another BIG $$$ contract in figgins? That doesn't make sense. We already have way too many. We are trying to dump Bradley, we would love to dump Soriano, and that's not even mentioning Zambrano who has not even come close to living up to his contract. Adding another guy who is going to command in the neighborhood of 10 million a season is insane. As for Teahen, the Royals asked for a lot in trade, and he is as good as Jeff Baker who we got cheap. Why do we need two Jeff Bakers? Please don't tell me it's cause Teahen hits lefty, because so did Aaron Miles.....that's not a good excuse.
Please start talking more about developing the farm system. We have had a ton of terrible draft classes and this needs to be our focus going forward. Any good team builds from within, we are awful at that. Start preaching it on your blog, and people will start thinking it's important. This should then put pressure on the cubs to do a better job of this. It is the most important thing if the Cubs ever want to win a world series. Thanks for your time
I would rather have Dunn as our RF As long as its not Bradley, I am good!
Castillo's best days are behind him.
Agreed. Bad trade.
I guess you don't see Aaron Miles getting a shot at the starting position? Jimbo
now is a GREAT time to trade Derek Lee. He is hitting because the cubs are not in contention. Same thing he does every off year for his team. Could really get something good for him
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