Bea Arthur could use one. If the Cubs lose today, I will be blaming it on their distraction; they are mourning Maude....or perhaps missing (righty bat!) DeRosa.

Rough April for Hendry --

Other than Heilman, all the new guys have been unmitigated disasters so far (or are gone or irrelevant) -- Gregg, Bradley, Miles, Vizcaino, Gathright, etc. Bradley has an injury that will likely nag. ARam's annual leg problem makes the DeRosa trade look even more idiotic. Ditto Fonty's reality check.

The risk of changing key pieces of a 97-win team.

Lee's also off to a brutal start...and he's getting older. Could be a coincidence. Maybe not.

Not the best solution for fan base with fresh scars from October.

http://twitter.com/cst_cubs/statuses/1614688990

Given the injury history of Bradley and A-Ram, trading DeRosa for nothing was one of the most inexplicable and stupid moves Hendry has made. I didn't like the Wood move, but, given his injury history, I understood it.

And if anyone brings up "payroll" -- saving a few million on Mark DeRosa's salary is not going to save the Tribune company. Zell buried the company with a mountain of debt, then the economy cratered which basically made the newspaper assets worthless.

Dumb, dumb, dumb.

preaching to the choir, dude.

so, so, so, fucking stupid.

Rob G: Z or Koyie at 3b?

I would truly LOVE to see Z play 3B or any position. I think he would love it, too. He brings 110% every time and takes the wins and losses personally.

That said, it would be extremely irresponsible and is a terrible idea.

Submitted by billybucks on Sat, 04/25/2009 - 8:14pm.
Given the injury history of Bradley and A-Ram, trading DeRosa for nothing was one of the most inexplicable and stupid moves Hendry has made. I didn't like the Wood move, but, given his injury history, I understood it.

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BILLY B: I was in Chicago the past couple of weeks and had a chance to watch the Cubs first-hand at Wrigley Field in a regular season gajme for a change. We hadn't been back there for several years, and it was great to see Wrigleyville again (as a tourist). But watching the Cubs is kind of maddening right now, even when they win.

As an Article XX MLB free-agent, Milton Bradley has an automatic "no trade" through June 15th. But after that, the Cubs can trade him, and I would not be surprised if the Cubs do end up trading Bradley to an A. L. team where he can DH (which is the only way he is going to stay healthy enough to play even 125 games), and take back whatever they have to take back to get the deal done. Bradley is just not a good fit with the Cubs. He is (as we expected) unhappy, and it's only going to get worse. If the Cubs could get a deal done like when they traded misfitted free-agent OF Candy Maldonado to Cleveland for Glenallen Hill a few years back, that would be good. That deal worked out pretty well for the Cubs.

You know, as it turned out, the Cubs really should have done absolutely nothing this past off-season except re-sign Kerry Wood for whatever he got from Cleveland, but they were so convinced that Fukudome was a bust that they panicked and dumped payroll just to get the cash to sign Milton Bradley. The one thing overlooked about last year's Cubs team is that they led the league in BA, SLG, OBP, and runs scored, and the pitching was in the Top 3 or 4 in most every category. There really was no need to do much of anything except bring the team back and (if necesssry) maybe make a move at the trading deadline to fix any shortcoming or injury issue that might have become apparent by that time.

Having Mark DeRosa around to play 3B-2B-1B-RF-LF would sure be nice. That was the worst move of all. Retaining DeRo would have kept Mike Fontenot's role as more of a LH PH and back-up 2B for whenever DeRosa was playing another position or if Lou wanted to get another lefty bat into the lineup against a tougt RHSP.

Also, I believe Carlos Marmol's best role at this point in his career is as a 7th & 8th inning set-up guy, which would have allowed the Cubs to keep Woody around for another couple or three more years as the closer while Marmol pitches out of jams, strands inherited baserunners, and gets big outs in the 7th and 8th innings.

The bench is out of whack right now because the belief that the lineup was "too right-handed" motivated Hendry & Piniella to panic and put together a roster where too many position players aren't playing enough or else are playing too much and/or at the wrong positions. Micah Hoffpauir is a Gold Glove caliber 1st baseman who doesn't have the aptitude to play OF. Aaron Miles probably needs to play every day at 2B to be the best he can be, but what he would provide doing that is a singles hitter who can hit 2nd or 8th in the order, except the Cubs already have a guy like that (Theriot). Fontenot is probably best-suited to be a platoon player at 2B or back-up 2B-LHPH, but then once again Miles became the only other option on the roster at 2B once DeRosa got traded. And the hottest hitter so far at AAA (Jake Fox) is a defensive liability no matter where he plays.

The best bet will be to trade Bradley to an American League team as soon as he can be traded (mid-June), and then move Fukudome back to RF (where he is most-comfortable and actually REALLY good) and play Reed Johnson in CF, with Joey Gathright getting some occasional starts against RHPs until this year's Jim Edmonds can (if possible) be acquired. And then replace Bradley's slot in the lineup with a more-versatile legitimate MLB-quality bench player who can play 3B-SS for extended periods if necessary.

As for the bullpen, it's getting obvious that David Patton isn't ready for prime-time on a contending team and will need to be replaced, probably either by veteran RHP Chad Fox (who is healthy and pitching well at Iowa), or by Gregory Reinhard (who is racking up K's and throwing lights out at AAA), or by Jose Ascanio (who is being used as a rotation starter at Iowa so that he can work on his secondary stuff, but whose future is an MLB reliever). The Cubs should just stay away from the Rule 5 Draft unless they are selecting a guy with AA or AAA experience who is MLB-ready (like RHRP Rodney Myers a few years ago). .

AA Tennessee LHP John Gaub doesn't have a lot of experience, but he's finally healthy, and he has the stuff to be an MLB LOOGY. All a LOOGY really has to do is get tough left-handed hitters out, and I think Gaub's stuff is filthy enough to do that. Iowa LHRP Jason Waddell pitched very well in Spring Training as an NRI and impressed Piniella, but Waddell's stuff actually works better against RH hitters, which is OK if you only want to use him as a no-pressure middle-reliever, but not if you need to strike out Prince Fielder or get Ryan Howard to pop up with the bases loaded in the 7th or 8th. Too much is being expected from Neal Cotts to do that job. Might as well give a young guy with nasty stuff a chance. If Gaub doesn't work out, it's no big deal because the Cubs have six spots open on their 40-man roster and can afford to try out as many guys as necessary (and option the other ones back to the minors) until they find one who can do the job. Besides Gaub, Tennessee has other lefties with the stuff necessary to be a potential MLB LOOGY, guys like Jayson Ruhlman, Casey Lambert, and Jeremy Papelbon. Give 'em all a shot if you have to, although I suspect Gaub is probably the best bet. He was very impressive in minor league camp.