ethanator-maybe if you type that no one wants bradley enough times (i.e., in every milton bradley post), it'll come true? rosenthal, the chicago writers, evan grant from dallas, the rays...hell even omar minaya practially admitted to some level of interest. but please, keep telling yourself (and all of us) that no one wants him.

scribble-sully's suggestion is too intelligent to have come from him or hendry. don't tell me someone grew a brain in the cubs front office? i cringe at the thought of burrel in right field, but if you're able to spin him somewhere, then great (obviously).

forgot you mentioned johnson as well. in my opinion that's lopsided in the cubs' favor only as far as quality of players go, forgetting about salaries. i know lowe is expensive, but i have no idea on mcclouth or johnson. i'd preach caution with fox though. i believe he can hit, but i also believed fontenot was an everyday player and that bradley would be productive as a cub. shows how much i know.

bbxxj-i like that trade for both teams, though i doubt atlanta would do it. just don't see bobby cox tolerating milton bradley, but who knows. my point in saying that is i completely disagree with tim about the cubs making it work with bradley. i didn't used to put all that much stock in chemistry (winning creates it, in my opinion) but i watched that team play every night and they were a different team without that guy. with no bradley and a healthy ramirez perhaps they push the cards more. but Bradley's boat has sailed, and if there's potential to get TWO somewhat useful players i'd do it in a heartbeat. defensively fox is crap, but he can hit. i didn't see enough of berg to have an opinion. i liked caridad though. if the braves are really serious about unloading lowe, i would gladly take him for bradley. i would have taken rowand for bradley though.

bbxxj-please God let that happen.

no phil nevin for jerry hairston? neifi perez for chris robinson?

*makes me want...*

Great write-up in Slate, Tim and the rest of the MLBTR staff, congrats on all the success. You guys do great work. That said, for the love of all that is holy and decent, please stop linking to Phil Rogers at the Chicago Tribune. When I see a link to one of his articles it me want to visit this site less. There's plenty of half-way decent baseball journalism out there, but Phil Rogers doesn't qualify.

Holliday's defense is suspect. /couldn't resist.

Phil Rogers-the man who brought you Derrek Lee for Adrian Gonzalez AND Jake Peavy (last offseason, when it looked like Lee's power numbers were gone for good). and Rogers' "baseball people"? yeah, those are other useless chicago beat writers with nothing to write about since both teams suck balls.

The fish don't have much motivation to move him, unless they can get some good return for him. They're very much in the race, they don't need to sell. They should ask for too much for Hermida, especially from a desperate team like the Cubs, who might overpay. I'd pass on Hermida too, though I did want him over Bradley in the offseason. With how much has gone wrong with the Cubs this year, they're still .5 games out. I know the Cards have made significant upgrades, but the Cubs don't need to make panic moves.

"The Cubs are looking for a left-handed hitter who can play right field" This is not a repeat from 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 or 2009.

"It took them 13 innings last night to get more than one run...they have played good against the Nationals and the Reds since the break! All is not well in cubbyville" Every pitcher on the starting staff, minus the 5th starters's spot, has or is currently spending time on the DL. The best hitter, in terms of average, OBP, power and close and late situations was gone for 2 months. A defensive (and often offensive) liability in left field. An absolute disaster FA pickup in right field. A black hole offensively at second base. Sophomore slump at catcher, until he got hurt, which is now another offensive black hole. Spotty bullpen work at the beginning of the year. A mediocre (at best) platoon situation in center field. Hasn't been right in cubbyville all year. Yet here we are. Should have put us away when you had the chance.

"What I am not understanding is if the Pirates have so many pieces that other teams covet, why are they so bad?" I realize the NL central isn't the best division, but the pirates are only 8.5 games or so back. They're main problem is that they're good players are just that, good. Not great. Laroche is useless in the first half, Gorzelanny has taken giant steps backward and Duke had an awful year last year. They had the makings of a real nice rotation a couple years ago, but they've never had all their starters pitching consistently at the same time. Bay was always good, as was Nady, but Bay was the only guy you really feared. And now it looks like Bay has fallen off in Boston. They've always had 3-4 useful position players and a couple of decent pitchers, but overall the lineup was just never anything to be too concerned with.

I'm on board for getting sanchez and snell, though as always the cubs payroll/ownership situation is a problem, not to mention the mostly barren farm system. Any thoughs on the Pirates asking price for either player? Hendry's not dealing with Dave Littlfield anymore, but Huntington didn't get a whole lot for LaRoche either.

i haven't watched lugo much, but obviously he's been mostly worthless during his time with the red sox. if he gets released i actually wouldn't mind the cubs picking him up on a minor league deal like they did with ryan. have him play second and if he's even got a league average bat he'll be a big upgrade at what we have at second right now. have him platoon with fontenot (lugo is RH, right?)

"Headline: Cubs get BJ" Headline: Tired of blowing, Cubs get BJ. Still screwed. Fixed that for you bonds :)

From Heyman's article: "My tweeting highlight of the week (year?) was this comment from noted baseball aficionado @Alyssa_Milano in response to me introducing myself to her at the All-Star Game and complimenting her tweets" Heyman compimented Alyssa Milano on her tweets? That dirty, dirty man.

"What's the word on Aramis? Timetable for a return?" Around the All-Star Break.

good lord does bradley look awful right now. i liked it at the time for the upside he offered, but jesus he's been terrible. as good as ibanez has been, i still don't know how his defense would have played in right field. the cubs' pitching has been nothing short of outstanding this season, and that's with DL time for both zambrano and harden, plus z's suspension. defense has been a big part of that. soriano's obviously a butcher, but the other two outfield spots have been very good. you never know what ibanez would have been like in right, he might have cost some runs, but his offense probably would have outweighed it. all told, bradley's starting to look more and more like a huge mistake. as for ceda/gregg, i also hated it at the time, but apparently ceda showed up at spring training "woefully" out of shape (so say the cubs TV broadcasters). maybe the cubs were really upset with his offseason training. and while gregg hasn't been great, he only has i think 2 blown saves and has shown signs here and there of being dominant. i think with consistent work he can be ok. and woody's not exactly lighting it up in cleveland, either. you obviously never want to eat the contracts of somewhat expensive players, but gaudin's been pretty bad in san diego and i have no idea what vizcaino's been doing in cleveland. cubs bullpen's actually been pretty good lately. i'm starting to be concerned that soriano's decline has started. after a hot april he's taken a nosedive and has shown no signs of breaking out of it. his OBP, which was never anything to write home about, is barely above .300.

he'd be an upgrade at 3rd/SS for sure for the cards, but i think they'd be better off just going for derosa. he's cheaper, first of all, and you probably wouldn't have to pay the "in-the-division" premium. as it is, the 'stros are only 6 back in a very bunched up division. if they haven't called it quits in past years, they won't now. they probably won't even deal tejada unless they completely go in the tank. the team's ability to hit (current series notwithstanding) will probably have them hover around .500 and that's good enough for mclane to not sell pieces off. of course this wouldn't have been such an issue if the outfield was producing like last year. seemed to work out ok last night with rasmus hitting cleanup, though.

i heard someone propose that same zambrano/white sox/peavy nonsense on the radio last night. the sox couldn't get him so they're going to help the cubs get him? are they insane? i've also noticed that in tim's absence ben and the others have started linking to the rosenblog from the chicago tribune. my advice would be to completely steer clear of it guys, unless you're looking to get a bit of a chuckle. it's essentially a blog post from an out of his element reporter that doesn't know how to stay relevant. i read it because he can be kind of funny sometimes and i'm exceedingly bored at work, but it really offers no baseball insight whatsoever. it's basically just him complaining about this and that, daily.

i'll bet mclane is thinking that trading oswalt would really p!ss the fans off and he doesn't want to hurt attendance. i have no idea how they're doing in that area right now, but the team's in last place and doesn't look like it's going anywhere. trading oswalt, while it may make good baseball sense, may be seen as waving the white flag, something the astros have never done. not saying i agree with it, but the astros were an organization claiming in the offseason, louder than other teams, that the economy hurt them pretty bad. maybe they just can't afford to not have people come to the games. just a thought...

any chance the sox are scouting wandy? any chance the astros are even thinking of trading him? he doesn't have a NTC, as oswalt does, and his value is sky-high right now. maybe?

Congrats to both of you Tim!!