Hot Stove News and Trade Rumors

November 9th, 2009 | by Mark |

With the General Manager meetings starting today in Chicago, the Hot Stove has officially started. Here are some of the news and rumors going around involving the Cubs.

The Tribune’s Paul Sullivan outlines three areas that they Cubs will look to improve this offseason: Leadoff batter, Center Field and Middle Infield. I addressed some of these issues back on September 30. Sullivan’s article contains a poll asking what the Cubs most important offseason move should be. Not surprisingly, “Getting rid of Milton Bradley” is receiving the most votes, followed by “Finding a leadoff hitter”.

If the Cubs can trade Bradley and get a centerfielder in return (such as Aaron Rowand), they could kill two birds with one stone. There is surprisingly high interest in Bradley. Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports quoted a source as saying “You would be shocked at the level of interest.” Gordon Wittenmyer of the Sun Times says that “three more interested parties contacted the Cubs in the last week or so.”

So, there is interest in Bradley, but just how far are they willing to go. One thing about trade rumors is that they can get pretty ridiculous at times. The most outrageous rumor I’ve seen involving Bradley is that he could be traded for Roy Halladay. C’mon, I know that Toronto GM, Alex Anthopoulos, is new but I don’t think he is naive enough to trade the best pitcher in baseball for a headcase and clubhouse cancer.

So, Jim Hendry will be spending this week rubbing elbows with the other GM’s and trying to find someone to take Bradley off his hands without eating a large part of Bradley’s contract. Hopefully he can get it done quickly so that he can address the other issues.

Finally, on a lighter note (pun intended), Sammy Sosa is apparently turning white. Sosa’s friends are downplaying it, saying its due to some skin rejuvenation process, but if you look at the pictures, the change is pretty dramatic. I guess one could say that now that Sosa’s retired and off the juice, he’s a ghost of his former self.

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