Seeking New Jacque Jones Trade Ideas

Trading Jones depends on a number of factors:

1.  Does he have a good spring?
   
2.  Does some team that hopes to contend have an important outfielder go down to injury in the Spring or early in the year?
   
3.  How much will the Cubs be willing to eat of the Jones salary.  

In other words, it may well be that the Cubs will need to hold on to him through at least the start of Spring training.

Or we could talk about unrealistic options like trading Jones straight up for Adam Dunn or Jason Bay or straight up for Johann Santana  (yeah.. that's a good one)

Here are the teams that I could see being interested in Jacque Jones

SF Giants
LA Dodgers (in case they're not sold on letting Loney/Nomar man 1B AND a corner OF spot)
SD Padres
Pittsburgh
St Louis
Atlanta (if they didnt like a Langerhans/Diaz combo in LF)
Washington
Baltimore
Minnesota (need to replace Shannon Stewart in LF and dont seem to have much confidence in Kubel)
Texas

those are the teams that "could" be interested in Jones. His salary is reasonable as is his 2 yrs remaining on his contract, the question is how much we'd be asking for him in return

given he's our only LH bat and we're trying to win right away i'm guessing there's not many matches. For those dreaming of picking up young SP like Zach Duke, etc... those guys dont get traded anymore for veteran OF's

If Jones would be moved he could likely only net a "prospect" in return, not a major league ready player

people are forgetting how valued SP is in this market, a middle of the road OF doesnt have the same value as a middle of the road SP so though they're even in relative production they dont carry the same price tag because pitching is in such short supply

since we seem to be using an all or nothing right now mentality to running this team i dont see how they're going to be able to move Jacque for something that can help right now, unless they're packaging him with a prospect or with a solid bullpen arm (like Eyre or Howry... not average bullpen arms like Ohman or terribly inconsistent ones like Novoa)

so i dont see us moving him

i'm not a big Jacque Jones supporter but it seems his value to us (given our intentions for next season) are more than his value on the open market (given our needs, specifically SP)

if Soriano can play CF, Jones in RF and Murton in LF makes for a solid offense

it would be a circus defensively... but its not like we're not used to that

its interesting though to see a team that wasnt a few moves away trying to act like they are...

...is less than 300 characters. C'mon, give it a little more thought;)

Couldn't the Giants use an Outfielder?

BTW Latoya signed with the Rockies today.

Until June, then try to package him. Hopefully some things will shake out this weekend/next week that clear some situations up

on the Frenchman so easily..... Jacque has an all star year this year...

And I don't think it's all that realistic or probable, is a trade with the Rangers.

We give them Jones and Izturis in return for M. Young. Install Young at SS, let The Riot play 2B and move DeRosa to RF.

That will limit the power production from RF, but that's coupled with a power surge from SS over Izturis.

Anyhow, that's my two cents.

1) the Cubs are already a very right handed team at the plate.  I don't think Jones is going to produce like he did in 2006, but we can't just get rid of the guy.  He's the only pure left handed bat that's currently penciled into the lineup.  The only other left handed outfield bats that would make sense for the Cubs are JD Drew who is about to sign with Boston and Barry Bonds who it seems most people here would literally have a heart attack or some kind of identity crisis if the Cubs signed.

Beyond those two, the pickings are slim.  The best of the rest among left handed outfielder include Luis Gonzalez, Cliff Floyd, Steve Finley, Kenny Lofton, Matt Stairs, Todd Hollandsworth, Michael Tucker, and Bernie Williams.  

Are there any outfielders among that group that could out-produce Jones?  Keep in mind that Jones does bring 25-home run power to the lineup, which is a pretty nice thing to have.  If you add some power at SS somehow, Kenny Lofton may be a short term fix in CF with Soriano in RF and Murton in LF.  That's not a very productive outfield though.

The bottom line is that among the left handed free agents outfielders, Jones is probably equal to or better than any of them.

2) Jones is due about $10 million (a little more actually) over the next two years.  Carlos Lee signed for $100 million and Soriano for $136 million while utility players that have no business being starters have been signed to 3-year $13 and $14 milllion deals while back-up catchers have been signed to multi-year, multi-million deals.  

Jones is CHEAP.  Any number of teams out there would take on his contract of just 2 years/$11 million and then laugh at teams like Houston and Chicago for signing these ridiculous contracts.  Teams like the Royals and Pirates...small market teams would be thrilled to get a guy like Jones for 2-years and only $11 million in this market.

The idea that the Cubs would have to pay some of his salary is insane.  The idea that he couldn't be traded is crazy.  He's not going to bring much in return, but that's because he's not a very good player.  

The same holds true for Ryan Dempster.  He's due about the same money over the same 2 years and even small market teams would have interest in putting Dempster in their rotation as a number 3/4 starter and hope for the best.  This is the market where you trade these guys, but unfortunately for the Cubs, they're so right handed I don't know how they trade Jones.  They need to add a left-handed power bat to accompany Jones.  

What they need to make this offense better than average is JD Drew or Barry Bonds, but apparently the world would come to disastrous end if that were to happen.  

...a left-handed bat for our lineup in any deal we got for Jacques, right?

I just don't see a deal happening.  We don't have enough left-handed bats in our lineup right now to lose JJones....plus, where do we find a replacement outfielder? And don't say Pie (who may or may not be ready....this is a win-now-or-very-soon team, so don't count too much on the young guys, beyond perhaps Murton)....

JJones stays, but probably moves to CF (where his weak arm doesn't hurt as much, and allowing Soriano to play a range-wise easier RF but use his strong arm).  Murton stays in LF (perhaps in some sort of platoon if we sign Floyd as a left-handed bat).

On the other hand, if we can convert JJones into a quality SP (I'm thinking solid #3 or higher), then do it and take a risk on the Pie project and Floyd....

Hendry has been discussing a Jacque for Jason Jennings swap.

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/6226820

but his left-handedness is a problem.  I can't see Hendry dealing him without having another left hander in mind, so something else would have to happen.  Unfortunately that something else would probably end up being Cliff Floyd.  Replacing Jones with Floyd would be a downgrade imo.

The best case scenario I can come up with other than imagining a trade that brings a left handed outfielder would be to deal Jones for pitching, essentially selling him high in a sellers market, and then signing JD Drew away from the Sox.  Drew ends up being an upgrade over Jones, we get pitching back in the deal and the only thing it costs us (besides Jones) is money.

He is the only reliable left-handed bat in the lineup.  He also is good for 25 plus home runs and 75 plus RBIs to go along with excellent range in right field and good baserunning wheels.  Oh, and his contract is imminently reasonable.  

Trading him is an idiotic idea.  Unless of course he can land something very good in return.