Well, Hendry, Pinella, and Santo finally got their wish. Milton Bradley, our best outfielder (statistically) last year, has been traded.

Word on the street is that the deal consists of Bradley for Carlos Silva and $9 million. This means, when looking at the two contracts, that the Cubs save around $6 million in total. The trade completes a 2 year series of moves that basically ends up as follows:

Cubs get:

Carlos Silva and $6 million

Cubs lose:

Mark DeRosa, Jose Ceda, and Kerry Wood

Fantastic job. The stated goal of all of this was to get a LF power bat to even out the lineup, and to save a bit of money. Well, mission unaccomplished.

We will hold off on further analysis for now, in the hopes that something additional is on the horizon. If not, be prepared to be peppered with stats proving that not only is Carlos Silva the worst “starter” in baseball currently, but that he possibly also signed the worst contract in baseball history.

Other reactions will have to keep you company for now. We are cooling off:

Friday Headlines: Looks Like Bradley to Mariners for Silva
BREAKING: Milton Bradley Reported Headed To Seattle For Carlos Silva
Nightmare Fuel: Bradley to be Traded for Carlos Silva
Milton Bradley Watch

- Batting cages?!? F, yeah. Can we get a concession stand now? Yes?! Will you carry Big League Chew? Yes?! Oh, my. Mesa, we can never leave you. [Mesa prepares to spend thousands on cages for Cubs]

- The 4th Annual Len & Bob Bash for Cubs Charities will take place at the House of Blues on January 14, 2010. Be there, or, ya know, be somewhere else. G’ Love is the headliner though, so perhaps it won’t be totally awful. [Big News on the Bash!]

- The real news of the day appears to be the absence of news. Paul Sullivan, who I remind you gets paid to write, summed it up in a way only a sports journalist could:

“The Chicago Park District delayed the opening of the new Wrigley Field skating rink until Saturday, which only seems appropriate considering the Cubs’ lack of offseason movement.”

See what he did there? He took something tangentially related to the Cubs, in this case a skating rink located in the Wrigley Field parking lot, and compared it to the Cubs front office. The common theme being “delay.” Genius.

Let me try some:

“As I drove by Wrigley today, I saw somebody wearing a shirt that had a tortoise on it, which only seems appropriate considering the Cubs’ slow movement this offseason.”

“My brother was chewing some long-lasting Wrigley Spearmint gum yesterday. I never saw him reach for a new piece, which only seems appropriate considering the Cubs’ lack of new pieces this offseason.”

Anyway, word on the street is now that the Red Sox have stolen Lou Pinella’s precious, the one CF to rule them all, Hendry has moved on to Marlon Byrd, with “Coco” Covelli Crisp as a back up. Gag. Are the Cubs really at the point that they need to throw money at replacement level players just so they can feel good about getting a “name.” Crisp has a career WARP of 8.0. 8.0! Marlon Byrd has a career WARP of 8.1. Fuku is at 5.7, after two years. His WARP of 4.4 last year is twice as good as Crisp (.4) and Byrd (1.4) combined.

Unless we have some miraculous ability to sign Bay or Holliday, I think it is time to get on board with the fact that a Milton Bradley reconciliation is the absolute best case scenario for this team. Burrell, a 37 year old Cameron, Crisp, Byrd, Posednik, and Ankiel are all marginal players at this point. There is no reason to pick them up, even if we DO trade Bradley. I am crossing my fingers in the hopes that Hendry shows restraint here and doesn’t wade into the waters of replacement level CF hell.

Day 2? Yikes. Who would have thought we would have made it this far?

In the news today:

- Lovable Cubs radio broadcaster, and Hall of Fame snubbie, Ron Santo has extended his deal with WGN and will be in the booth for at least 3 more years. 2010 will mark his 21st season as the Cubs color man. [Ron Santo gets 3 more years in Cubs' radio booth]

By the way, every time I mention Ron Santo on this blog I will make note of the absurd injustice that is Ron Santo’s Hall of Fame candidacy. The man was the NL’s best player at his position, both offensively and defensively, for nearly a decade. He is easily one of the 10 best third baseman to ever play the game. If you don’t believe he should be in the Hall of Fame, you can’t be my friend.

- Lou Pinella’s viagra appears to be going elsewhere. The corpse of Mike Cameron is close to reaching a deal with the Boston Red Sox. Apparently $9+ mil a year can buy you 7 steals, 156 K’s and a .250/.342/.452 stat line these days. [Source: Cameron, Red Sox closer]

If anybody has a better way to note that Pinella has a man crush on Mike Cameron, please state as such in the comments. I am working on little sleep here. Also, before anybody gets on me about cherry picking Cameron’s stat line from last year, his career numbers are .250/.340/.448. And, he strikes out a ton.

- You should follow me on Twitter. I have all of one tweet, and have not yet styled the background or uploaded a picture – - if that helps sway you.

Bruce Levine, of ESPNChicago.com, is reporting that Matt Capps and the Cubs share a heavy mutual interest in each other. Though the sensationalized headline of, “Capps love Cubs, but market is hot“ doesn’t mean anything (except perhaps an impending kickback by Capps’ agent to Levine), I am left with no choice but to ask…

Five Questions About Matt Capps:

1. Wouldn’t signing Matt Capps just be Jim Hendry’s 2010 attempt at reliving the Kevin Gregg experiment?

No. Matt Capps could put up the same exact numbers as Kevin Gregg did last year (4.72 ERA, 23 Saves, 7 Blown Saves, etc.) and it wouldn’t be near the same level of mistake that Hendry made in trading for Gregg last year. Gregg was part of a larger series of deals that cost the Cubs Mark DeRosa, Kerry Wood, and Jose Ceda. The decision making behind those deals was flawed. The returning parts of Gregg and Bradley did nothing but hurt the Cubs. Matt Capps would only cost the Cubs money, and not that much of it, in the scheme of things.

2. Doesn’t Matt Capps suck?

Again, no. Or, well, at least, “not really.” Capps’ 2009 season, though horrible, doesn’t seem to represent the pitcher he had historically proven to be. For example:

: Capps’ BABIP skyrocketed to .370, after consecutive years in the low .270’s, and a career average below .300 (including last years debacle).

: Capps’ HR/FB rate jumped to 13.5% after not even touching 7% in the two previous years. It also jumped while his LD and FB percentages declined by demonstrable amounts.

: Capps’ K/BB rate plummeted even though his K/9 reached a career high (7.62) and his strikes thrown percentage was right around what it had been during the rest of his career.

Going into the 2009 season Capps’ was sporting the following career line:

25 Years Old

IP: 217.1
ERA: 3.06
WHIP: 1.06
K/9: 6.75
K/BB: 5/1
HR/9: .91

3. Okay, so what the hell happened?

Bad luck (based on the ridic BABIP), decreased control (as evidenced by his higher walk rate), and overuse (the Pirates trotted him out to the mound a combined 161 times in 2006/2007) all seem to have played a role.

On top of all those, as noted in this Fan Graphs column, a big reason might have been the decreased effectiveness of Capps change up. The theory being that the decreased velocity difference between Capps’ fastball and change negated the ability for either pitch to be successful. The same could be said about the decreased velocity difference between his fastball and slider, which accounted for almost 90% of the pitches Capps threw last year.

4. Should the Cubs sign Matt Capps?

I don’t think it would hurt. Capps, if willing to take the role, would be a good rightie setup guy to help solidify the bullpen. If his signing comes at the expense of getting help somewhere else though, I say pass. If it comes with the expectation (by him or the Cubs management) that he closes, I say pass.

When it comes down to it, I think all signs point to Capps being better next year than he was last year. If he gets close to returning to his 2006 and 2007 form he will be a steal for whatever team gets him. If the Cubs can be that team, why not?

5. Can Matt Capps complete a sweaty fist bump?

Yes. The picture above depicts just that.

Ah, it feels good to be home. For the 42 43 time, I am re-starting this blog. Rooftop Report has been the place to go when searching for random, out of date, moderately uneducated views surrounding the lovable Chicago Cubs.

I hope to alter the out of date part, but, as evidenced by the picture above, and the words below, the random and moderately uneducated parts are going to be tough habits to break.

In the news today:

- The Ricketts’ have drawn a line in the sand regarding an issue near and dear to every male Cubs fans heart, the bathroom urinals. The Sun-Times staff deems this move (to update the bathrooms, but leave the troughs) a victory for equality. I deem it a victory for the makers of Purell. Either way, a tradition saved. [Cubs: Troughs an equalizing ritual]

- The Pirates decided to not offer Matt Capps a contract (due to arbitration judges hearting saves – - over, of ya know, talent). Capps is 26 and sports a career ERA+ of 119, while maintaining a 208/50 K/BB ratio over 271+ innings. We could do worse, I am sure. [Cubs show interest in released closer Matt Capps]

- Cool story of the day. Last month Tim Souers, over at Cubby Blue, once again put his great talents to work. This time by creating a get well card for Ted Lilly. The cool part? He got a call from Lilly’s agent. Shoot over to Tim’s site to read more about it.