For a day or so I thought that the Cubs had actually traded for Brian Roiberts, coughing up Sean Marhsall, Sean Gallagher, and Ronny Cedeno. Thank God this didn't happen yet but lets hope it isn't seriously in the works. I don't know what Hendry would be thinking here but don't forget Andy MacPhail runs the Orioles now. So when the Cubs trade youngsters to Baltimore, they are making the same mistake the Phillies made when they trade Sandberg to Dallas Green after we hired him here in the early 80s. You might recall that there was trade after trade with the Phillies in those days.

the 1984 Cubs won the NL East with the following players in the starting lineup, acquired from Philadelphia: Bob Dernier, Ryne Sandberg, Gary Matthews, Keith Moreland, and Larry Bowa. That is 5 of 8.

So let's not allow MacPhail to use his insider knowledge to do the same to us; it is bad enough that we traded third base prospect Scott Moore to the Orioles for one month of Steve Trachsel. Now, we give up two starting pitchers for a second baseman named in the Mitchell Report. (remember that year that Brian Roberts hit all those homers?)

This doesn't appear to be a bad deal honestly but you have to think twice ab out dealing with someone who has inside knowledge on your organization. MacPhail was a decent enough guy from all accounts, so you can bet he has friends in the Cubs organization he can call when he wants to know about a player. So if he is interested in one of ours, Hendry should say no on general principle.