DLee Dparts

That Derrek Lee is one smart guy. Three weeks ago, he rejected a trade to the Angels, who at the time were 8 games out of first place. His reward? A get-out-of-jail-free card in the form of a trade to the first-place Atlanta Braves. Good for Derrek. In the last three weeks, he's gone on a bit of a hitting tear (especially against the Cardinals - 4 HR in 3 games), so he's no longer last among NL first basemen in OPS; in fact, he's a slight upgrade over the guy he's replacing, Troy Glaus.

A cynic might say that Lee's hot streak has come with his team completely out of the running and is just a salary drive in what's probably Lee's last shot at a big free agency payday. However, I'm stuffing a sock in that cynic's mouth and duct-taping over it. Instead, I'll choose to remember Lee for his fantastic 2005 season in which he led the NL in hits, doubles, batting average, slugging, OPS, OPS+, and total bases. I still think Lee should have won the MVP award that year (he finished 3rd) and would have had a better chance if his pinhead manager hadn't put two OBP sinkholes in the two spots in front of Lee in the lineup every day.

As for the trade, the Cubs received salary relief for the last 6 weeks of Lee's contract plus three pitching prospects from the Braves. The last time the Cubs received three pitching prospects in a trade with the Braves was in 1999 when they traded Terry Mulholland and Jose Hernandez for Ruben Quevedo, Joey Nation, and Micah Bowie. Yikes - that didn't work out too well for the Cubs. But that was Ed Lynch's trade. I'll just check Hendry's trade record on Braves' pitching prospects...hmmm, let's see...here we go. Juan Cruz for Andy Pratt. Umm, uhhh...maybe the third time's the charm?