The Cubs Chronicle

In addition to being busy with work & family, I am working on a new non-Cubs-related project. As such, The Clark & Addison Chronicle, while hopefully not entering hibernation, will be updated more sporadically than it already is. Go Cubs!

The Sporting News’s Ken Rosenthal calls the Dodgers one of his “losers” following the trade deadline. In calling the Marlins one of his winners, Rosenthal writes, “GM Larry Beinfest and Co. were at their feverish, creative best, acquiring a heart-and-soul catcher, Paul Lo Duca, and one of the game’s top setup men, Guillermo Mota, in a deal in which their only significant loss was righthander Brad Penny.” Strange to say that the loss of Hee Seop Choi was not significant when Choi came in to today’s play ranked 20th in the National League in the Equivalent Average.

I think BP’s Joe Sheehan gets the Dodgers-Marlins trade right:

I was, and remain, absolutely astounded over the reaction to what was an excellent deal for the Dodgers. They traded away two players who have already peaked—-Guillermo Mota in ‘03, Paul Lo Duca in ‘01—-who are rapidly becoming expensive, whose perceived value far outstrips their actual value, and whose in-season trends are downward. In exchange, they upgraded their rotation and acquired a young left-handed hitter with monster upside who is already a productive player.

As Sheehan notes, the mainstream media has portrayed this trade as a huge help for the Marlins. I had not realized that was the case until I was driving home from a wedding last night and Karl Ravech closed his interview on ESPN Radio of Theo Epstein by asking him, with the answer clearly implied by the way in which it was asked, if the Marlins were the biggest winners of the trade deadline deals. Ravech’s “question” caused me to do a double-take. The Marlins stayed the same, at best. The Dodgers seemed to me to have done quite well.

The Cubs, now there’s a team that improved. They got rid of their biggest offensive whole (by far), and replaced it with one of the best shortstops in the game.

Baseball Prospectus’s Joe Sheehan has some good things to say about the Nomar trade, from the Cubs’ perspective. First, he blasts the Red Sox:

The Red Sox didn’t have to trade Garciaparra to get Mientkiewicz. They could have had him, yesterday or today, for whatever version of Justin Jones haunts the lowest levels of their minors.

The Red Sox downgraded from Garciaparra to Orlando Cabrera, and they threw in a good hitting prospect (Matt Murton) for the privilege. That’s not just a bad trade, it’s an awful one. Cabrera has been one of the worst hitters in MLB this year, and his superior defense has slipped a notch, in part due to a bad back. There’s still a big difference between him and Garciaparra defensively, it’s just dwarfed by the offensive difference between the two.

And in praise of Jim Hendry:

The Red Sox essentially gave their playoff spot to the Cubs. Quite frankly, I have no idea how Jim Hendry pulled it off, but he made a massive upgrade to his lineup without giving up anything more than some his second-tier-—albeit pretty good—-prospects. Given that prospects have less value to the Cubs now that Dusty Baker is their manager, that’s just an excellent use of resources. The Cubs, who had been playing better for a couple of weeks, become the favorite for the NL wild card. That’s very impressive for a team that looked done just before the All-Star break.

The win today made it all the more exciting.