who's captaining this ship?
Today is the non-waiver trade deadline in baseball. The Cubs made two trades. Separately, they're not horrible, but taken together they suck. Todd Walker (good hitting, sub-par fielding 2B) went to the Padres for a 19-year old rookie league pitcher Jose Ceda. Not horrible; Walker's contract is up this year and it was unlikely he would be resigned due to the ridiculous abundance of cheap mediocre middle infielders with the Cubs both at the MLB and AAA levels (Perez, Cedeno, Theriot, Fontenot). Plus it would encourage Dusty to actually play the young players for evaluation purposes, as 2006 is a lost season.
The worse deal was Greg Maddux to the Dodgers for César Izturis (SS, Gold Glove winner, sub-par hitter), contingent on approval from the commissioner's office due to the amount of cash that is also trading hands. We already have defensive middle infielders - a lot of them (see above) and now it suggests playing Izturis at starting SS and Perez or Cedeno at 2B, negating the major plus of the Walker trade; namely, the chance at evaluating Theriot or Fontenot at the MLB level. Plus losing Maddux just sucks. I know that he's not the pitcher he used to be, but he's still a serviceable 4th or 5th starter, and the mentorship he provided for the rookies (Sean Marshall and Carlos Marmol both have been quoted many times this season as picking Maddux's brain while sitting on the bench together) is invaluable. He started his career in a Cubs uniform, and I would have liked to see him finish it in one.
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The Cubs seem hell bent on surrounding Aramis Ramirez with people who cannot get on base and don't have much power. Izturis is a horrible acquisition; by all accounts, he isn't even a good fielder after he had elbow surgery last year. Why couldn't they get Joel Guzman from the Dodgers instead? After all, the Dodgers traded him for a 2 month rental of Julio Lugo. Tell me you'd rather have Lugo than Greg Maddux, even in his old age.
At the same time, the Cubs' futility in trades is matched only by the Cardinals. Their big deals: Trading Hector Luna (young, talented, cheap 2B who hasn't gotten a lot of playing time) for Ronnie Belliard (older, way more expensive, a free agent this year, probably about as good as Luna). And then, as an added bonus, we got Jorge Sosa. That'll really help the bullpen, or wherever he ends up pitching.