[Name redacted] has $21 million left on his deal. Granderson is due $25.75 million (contract guaranteed through 2012, with a $2m buyout for 2013).

If you made the Tigers take Aaron Miles, who is scheduled to make $2.7 million in 2010, that would come pretty close to matching up the dollars (except for the buyout), and the Cubs would get to stretch that (approximately) $21-$23 million over three years, rather than two.

The Cubs might have to throw a prospect pitcher into the mix, say Jeff Stevens. I’d definitely do this deal.

I dunno what the Tigers want out of a lead-off center fielder if it’s not Curtis Granderson. He hits (albeit, he trades a bit of AVG could be a bit higher, but his OPS+ is good), he is very fast and covers his position well, and is an above-average defender. His Babip should probably be higher for a guy as fast as he is, and his arm is not too good, but I don’t care about that.

And finally, he’s healthy, unlike that other guy.

note what Henning says later:

I’m probably in a group of one who has this conviction, but every time I play GM I come up with no scenario other than inducing another club to deal handsomely for Granderson. And I believe some club will do just that.

Henning admits she’s the only one who thinks this will happen because other Detroit writers have said they don’t buy into this. In other words, this isn’t even a trade rumor. This is a trade speculation by a writer whose understanding of what it takes to win is suspect. I say that because I can’t come up with a Granderson trade scenario for Detroit that is realistic and makes sense for them winning.

But let’s try.
Henning wants a SS and a reliever – so we have to give them Theriot. I think they probably want Theriot and Marmol in this deal, but let’s say we can talk them down to Theriot and Guzman. Then, we add in the proposed Bradley for Bonderman deal, flipping Bonderman to AZ for Eric Byrnes and Stephen Drew. That gives us a Granderson-Byrnes platoon in CF and a Dome-RJ platoon in RF; plus we’d need a platoon partner for Drew. With all those platoons, we’re eating up bench space, but overall, I think the team is improved:
Dome
Drew
DLee
Rami
Curtis
Sori
Baker
Soto

PLEASE GET IT DONE. The only true problem I see, is unless Kosuke’s involved in the deal, which is doubtful, we’re paying a backup centerfielder about 10 million dollars.

If Detroit will do a Bradley-Granderson swap, straight up – I take that in a heartbeat.

I have to admit though – since I don’t view Bradley as a former Cub quite yet, when I first saw this headline, I was thinking “omg, what’s Sosa saying now? He wants to play again?” ;-)

I would love to have him badly!

And to be perfectly candid, while I’ve got other ideas personally, I’m truly expecting Mike Cameron to man center field for the Cubs next season.

If you read the entire article that’s referenced in the fanpost, a couple things stand out.

First, the sportswriter quoted in the fanpost thinks that the Tigers will trade Granderson because of a “personal belief” before going on to add that he’s in a “group of one” in that belief. Using such terms doesn’t make it seem like Granderson is actually available. Second, the sportswriter concludes the article by mentioning that the Tigers are “boxed in by their over-the-top payroll” which means that they would be unlikely to accept an almost equally expensive player, such as Bradley, in exchange for Granderson.

Detroit has a boatload of terrible contracts and Granderson’s isn’t one of them. Granderson is a flawed player (can’t hit lefties, strikes out a lot, not much of an arm) but he gives you decent production while playing a decent centerfield, which is a valuable commodity even at $25m over the next 3 years. Moreover, he’ll be 29-31 years old over the duration of his contract, so it’s reasonable to expect him to play as well as he has over the past few years.

Next year, Detroit is set to pay a combined $65m for the services of Magglio Ordonez, Carlos Guillen, Nate Robertson, Dontrelle Willis, and Jeremy Bonderman. What I don’t understand is why they would trade Granderson, one of their few reasonable contracts, when they already have an overpaid, underperforming right-fielder? If anything, they’d use Granderson as inducement for a trading partner to also take one of those awful contracts.

Detroit has to shed payroll. For a plausible scenario in which the Cubs would give up Bradley and acquire Granderson, the Tigers have to save money. That would mean that, in order to off-load Bradley and get Granderson in return, either a) the Cubs eat most of Bradley’s contract or b) they also take one of Detroit’s bad contracts.

7-week collapse of the 1969 club rather than the 2003 playoffs.

…if the Tigers traded Curtis Granderson to the Cubs under any circumstances, who would play centerfield for them next season? This is a team that came within a game of winning their division and that I think still has a pretty strong 1-3 in their starting rotation (Verlander, Jackson, Porcello).

So I would presume they consider themselves division contenders as is. I notice on their depth chart that they have a strapping young lad named Wiliken Ramirez in centerfield under Granderson. He hit very well in a grand total of 11 ABs this season – would he be considered for a starting role?

How does Bradley solve any problems for the Tigers? How does it make them a better team, given that it creates more problems than it solves (now you have 2 right fielders and no center fielder, and owe more money – something the Tigers are going to have a hard time with next year due to reckless spending)?

The young, cost-controlled Granderson would fetch much, much, much more on the open market than an expensive right fielder with baggage.

And frankly I think it’s hilarious that so many Cubs fans here are drooling at the possibility of adding a guy who is basically an offensive carbon copy of Alfonso Soriano, complete with an awful 2009 season.

…Henning’s article here, and I’ve taken the liberty of inviting them to this discussion.