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?

Jim Hendry - Supergenius?

After all the bashings I've given to Jim Hendry, I have to give him credit today. He managed to find a trading partner for a soon-to-be 35 year-old first baseman with a sub-.400 slugging percentage and close to $5 million left on his contract. But Derrek Lee rejected the trade, saying that he wants to stay with the Cubs for the rest of this year. Lou Piniella was quoted as saying he was "very pleased" with this news, probably because it not only allow him the opportunity to continue playing the guy who ranks last among all NL first baseman in OPS, but also to keep putting him in the 3rd spot in the batting order.

It gets better, though, fellow Cubs fans. Lee also said he'd like to play next year - and he'd like to play with the Cubs again. But I'm guessing Lee will be gone next year anyway, because Hendry has already decided to trade Lee once, and when Hendry makes up his mind to do something (see, e.g. signing Milton Bradley or Marlon Byrd), not even a Krispy Kreme truck crashing outside of his house can stop him.