Trade Deadline

The day of reckoning arrived, and now let's see how things panned out. I'll start by talking about non-Cubs deals (or non-deals, as the case may be), then talk about the Cubs-specific ones.

The Quaker State needs to get out the Quaker State after their trades today. The Yankees stole Abreu from the Philles, and followed that up by dumping Chacon on the Pirates and getting Craig Wilson (by far the most underrated commodity on the market) in return. The Yankees are clearly the favorites in the AL east now. I feel bad for the Jays, they really had a chance to contend this year.

The Nationals failed to trade Soriano...which may end up being a good thing. They couldn't get the price they wanted, so they really need to focus on re-signing Soriano now. There were signs from Soriano that he wanted to stay in DC, and talk that the new owners will bring out the checkbook to keep the star power their franchise desperately needs. If he walks, things won't be looking so good. Although, even if he does leave the Nats came out ahead due to the most lopsided trade of the season in the Kearns+Lopez for 2 relievers and parts.

As far as the Cubbies went, I have extremely mixed feelings about their trades. I had a feeling Maddux would be gone, and statistically they made the right move by trading him. Aside from his last start, he's been terrible for the past 3 months (6+ ERA terrible). The Cubs could get more bank out of his reputation than what talent was left to him. They received Izturis in return from the Dodgers, which is intruiging. If he has more than this season left on his contract it could be a great trade. The talk seems to be that they will move Cedeno over to 2b and have Izturis play SS, which could end up working well (Izturis is great defensively). Offensively, Izturis is not known for his bat, though he does have decent speed. His OPS isn't much better than Perez's but at least he gets on base. Here's my guess at how things should play out for the rest of the season.

Usual lineup (Assuming we don't see Lee again for a while):

CF Pierre
SS Izturis
C Barrett
3B Ramirez
RF Jones
1B Nevin
LF Murton/Pagan
2B Cedeno
P Whoever

Rotation:

Zambrano
Prior
Marmol
Hill
Marshall/Miller/Guzman/Rusch (In that order, depending on health)