Post by yanks26 on May 4, 2009 17:10:54 GMT -5
The new Cubs GM has been a player in the trade market already striking 3 deals before we saw opening day. He has wanted RP's and is looking to make a fourth trade but now we will go over his first 3:
1) Here is a simple one. Josh Willingham of the Washington Nationals was traded for reliever Jeff Stevens. The Cubs need relief pitching but this deal was too good to pass by on. The Cubs needed some right handed power from the bench. It is like this guy was made for Dick Koppel's Cubs. The Nat's got Jeff Stevens who is expected to become better then people say he will be and they dumped a good 3 million dollars on a player they did not need. Willingham was psyched to be a Cub. He said, "With the Nats and Marlins, in the past we did not have that big of a chance to win. Now I am with a sure fire team who will win 90 plus games. I can't fell any happier. When I get to play off the bench I will some how make my way to some playing time. Even if I have to mode positions." Stevens on the other hand was not too thrilled and he refused to talk to media. We can tell this is because he was saying bye to his great friends Ryan Dempster and Ryan Theriot. He will still be friends with them and he will have new buddies with the Nationals.
2) This trade us by far the biggest trade out of the 3 so far and it gives the Cubs a huge chance to get deep into October. In the deal they traded from SP Cliff Lee to add to their already-stacked rotation. Last year, Lee won the AL Cy Young Award because of his outstanding pitching. But there are some bad things in this deal. It was what the Cubs had to give up. The Cubs gave up their top 2 prospects to get Lee. They are third baseman Josh Vitters and starting pitcher Andrew Cashner. They have a very bright future but the Cubs wanted to improve their great SP detph even more. Cashner said that he realized he was going to be traded at some point because he was far way from the MLB and he knew he would not be starting with the Cubs. But Vitters was shocked. "I never thought I would be traded like that. I loved this Cubs system and I am going to miss them a lot." This move gives the Cub a rotation of 4 aces in Harden, Lee, Zambrano, Dempster and 1 good pitcher good pitcher in Marshall. These pitchers can all have 20 win potential so that was a great move.
3) In this final move, the Cubs acquired Bobby Abreu from the Angels who is a cheap and widely underrated outfielder. To make room for Abreu the Cubs will have to move Milton Bradely to center. But the Cubs are willing to do that to improve an already-great offense. By CHONE stats, Bobby Abreu is projected to hit 22 homeruns. He would knock in 103 runs, bat a .301 and steal 9 bases. That sounds like a steal. Plus, they got a great bench outfielder in Juan Rivera also. They traded some lower level prospects in Junior Lake, Ryan Flahtery and Junior Lake. Also by doing this move they got rid of 2 over-payed players. Koskue Fukudome (sounds like (Fuck you dome! sorry had to say that). Also they dumped the salary of Ted Lilly who is good, but they do not need him with their pitching surplus.
Bottom line- The Cubs made some great moves already and they will make more. Right now they are clear to win the NL Central, maybe the NLDS, maybe the NLCS, or maybe just maybe... a broken curse.
1) Here is a simple one. Josh Willingham of the Washington Nationals was traded for reliever Jeff Stevens. The Cubs need relief pitching but this deal was too good to pass by on. The Cubs needed some right handed power from the bench. It is like this guy was made for Dick Koppel's Cubs. The Nat's got Jeff Stevens who is expected to become better then people say he will be and they dumped a good 3 million dollars on a player they did not need. Willingham was psyched to be a Cub. He said, "With the Nats and Marlins, in the past we did not have that big of a chance to win. Now I am with a sure fire team who will win 90 plus games. I can't fell any happier. When I get to play off the bench I will some how make my way to some playing time. Even if I have to mode positions." Stevens on the other hand was not too thrilled and he refused to talk to media. We can tell this is because he was saying bye to his great friends Ryan Dempster and Ryan Theriot. He will still be friends with them and he will have new buddies with the Nationals.
2) This trade us by far the biggest trade out of the 3 so far and it gives the Cubs a huge chance to get deep into October. In the deal they traded from SP Cliff Lee to add to their already-stacked rotation. Last year, Lee won the AL Cy Young Award because of his outstanding pitching. But there are some bad things in this deal. It was what the Cubs had to give up. The Cubs gave up their top 2 prospects to get Lee. They are third baseman Josh Vitters and starting pitcher Andrew Cashner. They have a very bright future but the Cubs wanted to improve their great SP detph even more. Cashner said that he realized he was going to be traded at some point because he was far way from the MLB and he knew he would not be starting with the Cubs. But Vitters was shocked. "I never thought I would be traded like that. I loved this Cubs system and I am going to miss them a lot." This move gives the Cub a rotation of 4 aces in Harden, Lee, Zambrano, Dempster and 1 good pitcher good pitcher in Marshall. These pitchers can all have 20 win potential so that was a great move.
3) In this final move, the Cubs acquired Bobby Abreu from the Angels who is a cheap and widely underrated outfielder. To make room for Abreu the Cubs will have to move Milton Bradely to center. But the Cubs are willing to do that to improve an already-great offense. By CHONE stats, Bobby Abreu is projected to hit 22 homeruns. He would knock in 103 runs, bat a .301 and steal 9 bases. That sounds like a steal. Plus, they got a great bench outfielder in Juan Rivera also. They traded some lower level prospects in Junior Lake, Ryan Flahtery and Junior Lake. Also by doing this move they got rid of 2 over-payed players. Koskue Fukudome (sounds like (Fuck you dome! sorry had to say that). Also they dumped the salary of Ted Lilly who is good, but they do not need him with their pitching surplus.
Bottom line- The Cubs made some great moves already and they will make more. Right now they are clear to win the NL Central, maybe the NLDS, maybe the NLCS, or maybe just maybe... a broken curse.
