in the Rule 5 and give him to the Reds? Too bad we didn’t have the foresight to keep him.

The point is, if you look at Johnson’s stats, he is very likely to peak over the next three years, ages 27-29 with about a .480-.500 SLG. He is there now against righties. He got a lot of doubles and triples to go with his 16 HR last year. He could surpass 20 HR this season. Actually, few outfielders in the league hit lefty with that kind of power.

having a good year too

But if the Cubs insist on acquiring another LH hitter, I think Johnson is a good option. The new guy would have to hit somewhere, and there are no outfield candidates.

Ronny Cedeno and Sean Marshall. The Rangers could move Young to 3B, because Blalock is apparently going to play first when he returns from injury.

I wouldn’t do it, myself.

rupture a tendon having a slap-fest with the ump?

yes to the following
Bradley
Tracy (might not take much)
Dunn
Hawpe
Ethier
Matsui
Hermida

No to
the rest

but good job researching!!!

Do you see the Yankees being more apt to deal Matsui than Abreu this season?

Looking at stats, Teahen has really fallen off the last couple of year, hasn’t he?

my criteria included if it was RF, had to be someone in last year of contract. I feel pretty confident Dome would move to center for the rest of this season if Lou asked him, but I wouldn’t want it to be a permanent move, though I would love to see Hawpe here.

I think Ethier can play center, so I’d at least see what the Dodgers wanted. Although unless Hendry is willing to give up the good stuff, he’s only get “Ethier? I thought you said Pierre” response out of Coletti. For that matter, I’d love Kemp too, even if he is right-handed.

I think Matsui (or Abreu) would be very easy to take – Cashman might not make a panic deal on his own, but with Hank Jr. looming large, it probably wouldn’t take much. Maybe a live bullpen arm or two once Joba goes into rotation. I would hope though that Hendry has our scouts do some serious serious fact checking on either of these guys first though.

And if Lou can convince Hendry that “defense be damned – I want my LH slugger” is the way to go, Dunn fits the bill exactly. Biggest obstacle there obviously would be Cincy dealing within division.

Don’t know much about Tracy so can’t judge that one. Everyone else – I don’t want and I don’t think it’s gonna happen. We’d only offer up our marginal or failed prospects; other teams would want more, and Hendry would [wisely] say no dice.

I think Edmonds needs more AAA time to work on his swing. Pie’s Cub statistics at the plate are better than Edmonds’ anyway….

I bumped on the fence behind Al last night to tell him to put a star in his scorebook when Edmonds was up in the 6th I believe. I told him I would put anyone up there to hit besides Edmonds. Dont we all know its painfully obivous WHEN, the Cubs break out with a great inning in the 7th with two 2 outs hits and take the lead—-Edmonds makes the last out and instead of a big roar from the crowd for the great inning there were boos. Edmonds < Pie.

...you’d have to give up the Cubs farm system to get a guy like that from the Cubs farm system.

The D’backs were looking to move Tracy sooner rather than later; that may have changed, now, with Byrnes out, maybe not. The Indians are publicly trying to get the trade market going. They don’t have anything we want, but if they and other teams are trying to start the market up, I think Lou is also impatient to get his lefty bat, and something could happen. Probably, you are right, but not necessarily.

Dunn is a left fielder…..we are fine save for Marquis, lots of talent, but a headcase….

Lou seems to have an obsession with a HR hitter being a lefthander, not recognizing that Fukudome could hit 40+ doubles this year.

Edmonds couldn’t hit 40 doubles if you gave him 40 more years. He is D-O-N-E.

I think the options we have on the 40-man roster are better than we will find by trade. Jim Hendry has done his job very well. It’s a shame Lou does not agree.

But it’s pretty clear that Lou wants a LH power bat, so I think we’re all just putting on our own little Lou/Jim hats and opining about what we would do in their shoes.

Sooner or later, Lou/Jim will do something. In the meantime, if a thousand BCB users keep pounding on their keyboards and submitting posts, it stands to reason that one of them will end up resembling what actually happens, thus giving that lucky BCB user bragging rights for the rest of the season.

Pray that it’s not Blue MIke….

rather, it’s clear that Lou, a WS-ring-wearing-genuis-ML-manager-whose-authority-and-judgment-are-not-to-be-questioned doesn’t value DeRosa all that much and wants to jimmy a LH power bat into the lineup either in the OF or at 2B. Why DeRosa is behind Theriot on Lou’s depth chart no one knows, but his judgment is… well, his judgment. You’ve trusted it before, why not now?

Here’s my trade proposal – Lou and Theriot to the Mets for Jose Reyes. They get their sparkplug and a manager. We get a real SS and a CF.

has the confidence to know he can still get out of bed correctly…...

They are (ahem) “jacking” with his swing because it is there professional assessment that his swing does not work at this level. They are “jacking” with his swing in hopes of reclaiming a major league future for Felix Pie. He should be very thankful the extreme patience and intensive investment this organization continues to make in him.

here is a fanpost I added yesterday about how Pie’s AAA demotion is taking a toll on him… an interesting read.

Plus, why would the Braves trade Kelly Johnson and replace him with Omar Infante? That’d be really stupid.

his versatility is irreplaceable….wait!! we can get Perez back…...

Why are we even discussing modifications to the offense? Aren’t they leading the majors in runs scored?

If you want to make a trade, get us some starting pitching that can be relied on in the post season.

...that excuses this whole mess. Edmonds no longer has the range to play an above-average center field. Calling him average is more an act of charity than it is supported by the facts.

The fact of the matter is, a player providing average defense and providing a .285 OPS when always hitting with the platoon advantage is the most absolutly worthless player in baseball. Hands down. You will not find a player in baseball doing more to hurt their team right now than Jim Edmonds. Brian Bixler? Better than Edmonds. Barry Zito? Better than Edmonds.

Edmonds is costing this team runs whenever he plays center field instead of:

Felix Pie
Reed Johnson
Mike Freaking Fontenot
Alan Trammel
Matt Sinatro
Devin Hester
Brian Urlacher
Lovie Smith
Joahkim Noah
JUST ABOUT ANYBODY

Felix Pie can help the Cubs simply by not being Jim Edmonds.

Clearly the organization has faith in him. Otherwise they would have taken the selfish route and kept him up here to play a couple days a week and otherwise provide very good defense. Pie should realize that unless he restructures his hitting approach then he has no major league future. He needs to stop sulking, get to work and come to the realization that the organization is being very generous to him.

ANY.

Does he have any RBIs? I can barely remember when he’s gotten on BASE.

...unable to hit three-fifths of your starting rotation costs the team runs? Really? Because that’s the whole point of having good hitters, to score more runs.

Because of his lack of range, he simply cannot get to as many balls as Pie or even Johnson. So he’s not making as many plays as they would, and thus is costing the team runs on defense as well.

How about this Cubs loss to the Astros?

Top of the 7th, Cubs Batting, Behind 2-4, Chris Sampson facing 6-7-8
G Soto Single to LF (Ground Ball thru Weak 3B)
J Edmonds Ground Ball Double Play: 2B-SS-1B
M DeRosa Single to LF (Fly Ball to Deep LF)
M Hoffpauir Walk; DeRosa to 2B
A Soriano Strikeout Swinging

Edmonds is terrible. It wasn’t a bad gamble but he needs to go now. He’s done. It’s not like there is any hope he will improve. He’s supposedly healthy but his bat is too slow. He has zero power. He either hits a weak flyball to the opposite field or weakly grounds out (usually to 2nd base).

I’d rather see Corey Patterson at this point in CF over Edmonds. Will Dusty release him?

just a mercenary with no loyalty to anyone but Kenny Lofton

he’d be playing baseball by now. He must be holding out for something that’s not ever going to be offered. Why, for example, hasn’t Cleveland re-signed him? He must be asking for the moon.

because Lofton has so many rings. SARCASM…..!!!!!!!!

Lofton stopped being an adequate CFer a very long time ago. He’s also been out of baseball this season so it’s silly to think he could round himself into baseball shape anytime soon.

You’d be cursing Soriano for his 2B defense in about 5 minutes. He’s a butcher.

Further, what makes you think the Reds would take that deal? And Dunn’s no great outfielder, either.

what a terrible idea.

... who ever said Kelly Johnson was even available?