I said this in the other thread im ad theriot is gone but liked lilly and keeping him and offerig arb would be a better return

#### Ned Colletti in the heart.

Neither prospect traded is top tier, but they both look promising, especially Wallach. DeWitt is a 24 year old average-ish 2b, with room to realistically improve. For a couple of months of a starter plus a 30 year old marginal major leaguer. I concur with Tripon on this.

Its not even about this trade, its about doing this every year. Carlos Santana for Casey Blake, Josh Bell for George Sherrill, now Blake DeWitt for Lilly and Theriot.

Ned Colletti single handily destroyed any 3B/C depth we had in 3 years.

Now if they could just trade that punk Matt Kemp for say Kyle Farnsworth!

Why in the hell do the Cubs need to send money along on this one as well? This is all the Cubs could get for Lilly and they had to throw in money as well? Meh.

Gotta love a trade where both team's fans are disappointed.

Another 2B for the Cubs!

The way I look at it in terms of trying to figure out Hendry's reasons for this is that he is swapping out Theriot for a cheaper version at second base. Theriot is getting more and more expensive and BLake doesn't hit arbitration until 2012. So Hendry saves about 3 million for next year right there. Then by trading Lilly as well he removes the risk of arbitration acceptance by Lilly and instead of getting draft picks that require signing bonuses he gets two minor leaguers from the Dodgers. Plus the Cubs even save some money this year. If you look at it that way it isn't a bad trade but then that ignores the fact that Lilly is a good pitcher and you have to wonder if this is really the best possible trade.

This trade gives the Cubs about 25 to 30 million dollars to play with next year if they wish to keep the same payroll as they have this year. That is a lot of money for Hendry to play with. I think the last time he had this much to play with he went hogwild and got Soriano, Dempster, Lilly, and Marquis.

A+ Repoz intro.

So how many haircuts will McCourt get from the $2.5 million?

And then, Dotel for Lambo and McDonald.

Blake DeWitt is flat-out a better player AND six years younger than Theriot, so that's great as far as I'm concerned.

But the two prospects aren't all that exciting. Whatever promise Wallach has, he's still in low-A and just cracked 100 professional innings. So he's obviously a long way away. Smit's a bit farther along and was having a really good year in high-A so far, so we'll see how he does in AA (I assume he's going to Tennessee, anway).

At any rate, it seems to me that Lilly accepting arbitration would have been just about the best-case scenario for the Cubs. Lilly on a one-year deal next year is a really attractive proposition unless the price is really absurd, and I don't think there was much risk in that. But that probably wasn't going to happen, and the Theriot-DeWitt swap is clearly an upgrade, so I'm OK with the deal overall.

DeWitt didn't hit for any power this year. But still, he got on base and has had power in the past. He'll be making the league minimum next year. Theriot doesn't hit for power or get on base. So they made the line-up weaker. Even if they got Lilly for free, they'd be a long shot for the playoffs. I don't even know if the prospects are good. In conclusion, Tripon said it better than I could in post [2].

[12] Please tell me that is a joke. Who would want Dotel?

It's true! I went to high school with Lambo. I wanted to see him play for the Dodgers. James McDonald didn't pan out as liked, but Octavio Dotel?! #### you, Ned Colletti!

Thoroughly meh ... as most Hendry trades are. He didn't give up much, he didn't get much in return.

The DeWitt-Theriot part of this deal makes it clear that Hendry wanted DeWitt -- not a great sign given DeWitt is about as uninteresting a player as imaginable. I'd certainly have rather had a prospect or even keep Theriot if it meant 2 better prospects than what we got. Wallach is an interesting looking prospect.

McCoy's attempt to turn this into some clever bit of money-saving is weak. Theriot only costs you money next year if you tender him a contract. Late 1st round and supplementary picks don't cost squat in terms of signing bonuses. Thirdly, there are no useful FA to spend money on this offseason unless you think the Cubs are going to land Lee (why?) or Dunn (possible). Finally, the Cubs are a very bad team and $20 M doesn't fix it.

It's also entertaining that yesterday McCoy had the Cubs with only $20 M to spend this offseason; now they clear an extra $2.5 M and they have $25-30 M to spend.

Guessing now, Hendry's offseason spending spree will be Konerko, Rhodes and at least one of Guerrier, Rauch, Putz, Balfour.

McCoy's attempt to turn this into some clever bit of money-saving is weak. Theriot only costs you money next year if you tender him a contract.

But you have to pay someone to play 2B. DeWitt is not a very good player, but he has some upside, and he's a cheap version of what the Cubs would otherwise be fielding. Not that your point isn't valid, that it doesn't matter how much money the Cubs have available next year.

But overall, the Cubs turned a couple of useless things into some interesting things. That's all you can ask for. It's pretty clear that there wasn't much interest in Lilly, and to dump Theriot as well makes it a definite positive.

Theriot only costs you money next year if you tender him a contract.

Yep, and the Cubs probably weren't going to tender Theriot a contract.

Instead they traded him for a guy who's six years younger, a better hitter, a better defender at 2B or 3B than Theriot is at this point, and is four years from free agency.

I can see how some people would consider this disappointing. But I didn't think you were a Dodgers fan.

Instead they traded him for a guy who's six years younger, a better hitter, a better defender at 2B or 3B than Theriot is at this point, and is four years from free agency.

I am not sure about the better defender part but the rest is true.

DeWitt is about as uninteresting a player as imaginable

You've forgotten Ryan Theriot already? The only thing "interesting" about him was that his name spelled "The Riot". To me, it makes the most sense to break this into two trades: DeWitt for Theriot is a clear win for the Cubs, who got the cheaper, better player. The $2.5 million the Cubs are sending probably fits best here and probably balances that part of the trade out a bit more. Lilly for two prospects then boils down to whether these two specific guys are better than what the Cubs could have gotten with the compensation picks if they lost Lilly at the end of the season. I have absolutely no basis for judging that at all. Slight win for the Cubs, I guess.

I said around 20 million dollars yesterday. Why would the Cubs non-tender Theriot? When was the last time the Cubs ever non-tendered a starter like Theriot before FA hit? Theriot would get anywhere from 4 to 6 million dollars through arbitration.

I was just looking back at the Cubs roster from 2007 (Ryan Theriot's first season as a starter), and it's hitting me for the first time just how much roster turnover there has been in the last four years - even as the Cubs won two division titles! There are now only three starting position players from that team still with the team (Lee, Ramirez, and Soriano), and four key pitchers, none of whom is in the role he was in then (Zambrano, Marshall, Dempster, Marmol).
I'm not suggesting that they should have kept that roster, which would be pretty bad now, but that just seemed like a lot of turnover in a very short time.

That is actually pretty good stability for the Cubs. The Cubs routinely turnover their roster. The 2007 team only had Carlos Zambrano, Wood near the end, and Aramis Ramirez from the 2003 season and Aramis came half way through the 2003 season. And the 2003 season has little in common with the 2001 season which has little in common with the 1998 season.

I said around 20 million dollars yesterday. Why would the Cubs non-tender Theriot? When was the last time the Cubs ever non-tendered a starter like Theriot before FA hit? Theriot would get anywhere from 4 to 6 million dollars through arbitration.

Non-tendering starters is generally something that happens on really bad teams. The Cubs haven't been this bad in a long time. Did they non-tender Juan Pierre? Fred McGriff? For the most part, non-tendering a starter means not offering arbitration and thus letting them loose to free agency.

The point is that the Cubs were to pick up a 2B next year as good or better than DeWitt, it's likely it would cost them a lot more money. Maybe the sort of money Theriot is going to get.

There is a big difference though between non-tendering a guy who is going to be a free agent and a guy who is still under team control. I don't see the Cubs cutting Theriot loose when he would still be under team control and in the mid single digit range for salary. But yeah the Cubs are saving a bundle by picking up DeWitt which is why I increased the amount of money they have to spend next year. I'm not as down as Walt on the market next year and having a ton of cash available will help. It allows for trades in which Cubs eat a lot of cash as well as signings of FA. The Cubs can sit there and eat a big chunk of Zambrano's and Fukudome's contract and still take on large contracts and even go after Dunn or Lee if they want.

Is this fukudome's last year under contract? Seems like the outfield is pretty set soria o byrd colvin will all be there for the infield aram castro and soto and dewitt will be there so it looks like firstbase and bench is all that would need to be filled out

Of course bref doesnt let me down he is due 13.5 next year if i read it right