Aaron,

I love your passion and your knowledge, but you had to be drinking something last night when you wrote that lineup up.

First off, you somehow think the cubs can just wave a magic wand and get teams to take their expensive garbage, who also have no-trade clauses. If yes, please call me, I have a bridge to sell you. NOBODY is going to take Soriano, Lee, Fukudome or Bradley unless the cubs pay for at least 75-80% of their salary. And why would any team do that ? Why would anyone want aging, expensive players that are not producing ? Are you kidding ?

Secondly, Sam Fuld ? The guy is hitting .267 at AAA. He's a career minor leaguer that has never proven a thing.

Dunn ? As I have said a million times on here, the guy is bad. Bad, bad, bad. I don't want to re-hash the reasons.

Chrsitian Guzman ? Ok, he's hitting over .300 right now, and is a decent player, he's also making $8M this year. Talk about overpaid. I would much rather have Theriot.

and I hope the cubs don't sign Pedro...do we really need to sign another guy who is at the end of his career just trying to hang on ? How many times have the cubs done that over the years, and it NEVER works. (see goose gossage) Please, let it go. It's so Cub.

The Cubs should trade Mitch Atkins for him, he is a MLB ready pitcher and has no place on this team.

It's true Atkins has no place on this team. However, it's also true that he's not even close to being ready. He's been smoked at AAA, and has lost a considerable amount of value.

Also, a little off topic...

If we were to trade for even better offense than DeRosa, any trade would have to include our top pitching prospect, which, at this point is Samardzija. Only problem is....."No-Trade" Hendry gave Samardzija just that....and there's no way he'd approve a trade, considering he wants to play in Chicago. Also, if memory serves me correctly, since Samardzija has been on our 40-man since he was drafted, I believe he is out of option years after this year.....thus hand-cuffing the team yet again....LOL....Hendry sure knows how to build a winner, doesn't he?

Unless the Cubs are going to sign Dero to a long term contract, trading for him is a mistake. If they give up more than they got for him then I say no as well because you just set back the organization based on a stupid off-season move. Honestly I would love to have him back but not at what the Indians are gonna want for him

According to Ben Maller at Foxsports:

http//msn.Foxsports.comrumors//mlb.

The Cubs ARE interested in Pedro Martinez along with the Rays...(6/15).

He says Pedro is throwing well (94mph) and plans to sign with an mlb team by the end of June.

(My take)

Signing Pedro now...does not make a lot of sense right now...the way the team is currently constructed...UNLESS...it is part of another move.

Couple that with Dave Kaplan's statement

that the Cubs are interested in reacquiring DeRo...(which does make sense)...and there are some interesting scenarios going on in the background.

Considering Kaplan said mlb ready pitching prospect(s)...how do we equal

$$$$....Harden & prospect?...Too much.

Wells/or Samardzia...not enough salary differential...hmmmmm.

Whatever happens here...I hope Miles is included....AND...does this mean Ricketts

is almost here...if the Cubs can trade?

Points to ponder.

The Pedro thing is old news, and Hendry should absolutely be fired if he has to give up more than we received. It just goes to prove how piss poor he is at negotiating deals. DeRo had another hr and like 3 RBI tonight against the Brewers (whom I believe he crushed last year with us too if I'm not mistaken).

With a .279 avg, .348 OBP, 12 hr, 46 RBI, only Fukudome and Lee have higher OBP's than him, and only Theriot has a higher average. With 12 hr, only Soriano has more, and he leads Soriano and Lee by almost 20 RBI. In fact, with 46 RBI, he nearly has more than both COMBINED.

Does anyone else understand the importance of consistency besides me?!? Lee was the closest thing to consistency that we had in terms of average and OBP....but his power stats are wildly inconsistent throughout his career. ARAM obviously was the most consistent, but he's out. Since DeRosa started playing full-time in 2006, he averaged about 15 hr, 80 RBI, .290 avg, .365 OBP The RBI, in particular is something we could count on with him, and he's well on his way to those numbers this year, and will probably end up at .290, .370 OBP, 25 hr, 90 RBI, which would top everyone on the Cubs, and, in fact, might even equal Lee AND Bradley put together for hr and RBI.

I'm still wondering about what it'd take to get him. It might be way too steep of a price, and we might be better off convincing our no-trade players to accept trades, THEN go after DeRosa, and NOT beforehand. The reason is, simply, that we would have additional prospects to trade from those deals. I would wholeheartedly endorse a trade for Nick Johnson, and his .415 OBP average and decent SLG averages.

I'd also endorse going after Cristian Guzman, and Adam Dunn if we could offload Soriano and either Bradley or Fukudome.

Lee to the Giants

Soriano to the Angels or Mets

Fukudome to the White Sox, Mariners, Giants, Angels, or Dodgers...then we offload Theriot for good prospects, and we suddenly have a team:

Fuld-CF

DeRosa-2B

Dunn-LF

ARAM-3B

Johnson-1B

Soto-C

Guzman-SS

Jake Fox-RF

perfect L,R,L,R,L,R,S,R combo in our lineup.

I know it's improbable...hell, even impossible to get all 3 to waive no-trades, but a guy can dream, right?

I guess we'd have to trade Marshall, Hart, Samardzija, Jackson, Tony Thomas, Colvin, Caridad, Papelbon, Coleman, Atkins, Stevens, Gaub, and others just to get them, but if we're all about winning now, then we best go for it, plus, if you trade Lee, Soriano, and Fukudome, you get prospects back from that, and we if we got Guzman, then Theriot would become expendable, and he'd bring additional prospects. But if I had a guess, it'd be that Theriot, Fontenot, Lilly, Harden, Marshall, Samardzija (even though he has a no-trade), and Hoffpauir would be on the block right this minute, because all have no trades (save for Samardzija), and all have decent trade value. As for the minors, pretty much everyone but Vitters is up for grabs (at least I hope Vitters isn't available...but Hendry is an idiot, so stay tuned...)

Miles isn't going anywhere, unless it's a DFA, and that's highly unlikely. Johnson is too valuable, playing all 3 OF positions, so he's going nowhere. Koyie Hill remains, because he handles the staff so well. I'd also add Heilman and Gregg as veterans that could be traded, and pretty much anyone with options left (Hoffpauir, Wells, Ascanio, Marshall, Waddell, and Blanco) are option candidates in the event of a trade (assuming they're not involved).

I believe Hendry might be waiting to see what it takes to get DeRosa back, and any other offense for that matter, before he makes a move for Pedro Martinez. If he did Pedro before offense, he'd be crucified, and rightfully so. Perhaps the Indians and others are demanding Wells, and Pedro would make more sense there. Or perhaps we can do a Rich Harden for DeRosa deal straight up?...maybe we could even ask for more than DeRosa in that case, then we'd sign Pedro to take Harden's spot in the rotation, and usual DL-waiting-to happen designation as well...LOL...

Aaron,

1) I realize Pedro is old news...but in my mind...that is mentioned again on foxsports...leads credence to the rumor...

"Where there's smoke..."

2) By itself, Pedro does not make sense.

3) DeRo does make sense....and we know

Cleveland wants pitching prospects.

4) AND THIS IS KEY...until further notice, JH is the trigger man...AND

BRAINTRUST....(along with his staff).

As such, all of your proposed moves are

indeed...highly improbable...at this juncture.

Usually, buyers before the trade deadline

will pull off one...maybe 2 trades...not multiples.

I already think Hendry will be replaced

(or kept as a consultant) when the new

owner arrives...and yes he will have to

pay more for Dero than he got...(his bargaining position has weakened considerably since the start of the season.)

5) DeRo makes sense now...with the Cubs as buyers, not sellers...a month from now, it could be a different landscape.

According to Maller...Pedro wants to be signed by the end of June...with the Rays

in the hunt.

Cardinals and Brewers are said to have interset in DeRo...and I'm sure the Twins still have interest with Crede

and his back spasms acting up...

SO Hendry does not have a lot of time to

rengineer the whole team...///Sori/Fuko/

Bradley if Dero is in fact the goal.

In my opinion, if Hendry pulls the trigger...it will be in the next 2 weeks...for contention this year.

If it happens in July...it will be more likely a retooling for next year...and we are sellers...not buyers...in which case...there are NO untouchables.

SuzyS,

nope...same article....foxsports.com just posted later. Under Ben Maller's section, they take rumors over the past several days, and compile them into that report. Since it was over the weekend when that came out in the Boston Globe for Pedro (maybe it was on Friday?), they posted it late, since they do not update over the weekend in the rumors blog, unless it's something very imminent, then I've seen them update.

I would say the most up-to-date rumors come from mlbtraderumors.com

All of your other points are valid.

If you look at Neil's most recent article, "An Important Stretch for....", he talks about the upcoming series the Cubs have. It is definitely make or break time for us, and if we lose either series to Brewers or Cards, we're finished....completely....and Hendry HAS to blow up this team at that point...which might not be a bad thing (as much as I'd hate losing). The reason is simple. If we're not good enough to win series at this point in the season, then even if we get super hot the last 2 months of the season, it won't make a bit of difference if Milwaukee or St. Louis is 5 or more games ahead, because at that point, you'd need a 10 game swing (5 wins on your side, 5 losses on theirs)...and that's HIGHLY improbable the last few months. The exception to the rule would be collapses like the Cubs in '69, the Mets the past few years, and the Rockies going on that long winning streak a few years ago when they made the World Series, winning like 11 in a row at one point, and something like 18 or 19 out of 20. Think we have that type of run in us? I think not....not with aging veterans. Keep in mind, that Rockies team was pretty much all in their mid to late 20's. That's why young talent trumps old, worn out veterans like Freel, Miles, Bradley, Lee, Soriano, etc. any day.

Kaplan on WGN just said that he's hearing the cubs are after Derosa. Kevin Goldstein, minor league guru, was on and he said the cubs will have to give more than they rec'd for Derosa (i.e more major league ready pitchers). he also said Vitters is absolute stud in the making and he's not a butcher at 3B.

Where are all those "trade anything for Peavy, including Vitters" people now ?

Told ya Peavy would be a mistake ....thank God Jimbo resisted that one. Too bad he didn't resist "Meltdown" Bradley.

It would be great to get Dero back...It will be interesting to see what the Cubs have to give up and how Hendry spins it.

Whatever the cost...please throw in Miles.

I have Ryan Freel.s Rehab start under community blog.