Take on Cubs trades

By now everyone knows that Greg Maddux was traded to the Dodgers for Cesar Izturis at the trade deadline. Here is my take on the trade. I think that Izturis at SS is an upgrade over Ronny Cedeno at the moment, but putting Cedeno at 2b, gives the Cubs one of the worst hitting middle infields in all of baseball. Unless the Cubs plan to go out and sign both Carlos Lee for LF and Soriano for 2b next season, I don’t see anyway the Cubs can win with these 2 guys both starting. Another problem is we don’t have many pitchers that throw ground balls (we don’t have many that throw strikes either), so the improved defense up the middle isn’t going to help overall much.

I do feel that trading Maddux was the right thing to do for the team and for him. The Dodgers are close to his home and are contending, while the Cubs are not contending and it was the last year of his contract and the Cubs were most likely not going to offer him another contract for the future. I wish him well in LA and hope he has a great last 2 months of the season.

In a minor side note, I am happy the Cubs got Jose Ceda for Todd Walker. I know that Ceda may never make it past AA, but I think getting Todd Walker off the team and out of the clubhouse will benefit the team. He hasn’t been known for his great clubhouse spirit in the past and with the team struggling now he wasn’t going to help it any.