Cubs acquire Heilman for Cedeno, Olson

My only hope is that for some reason, the Padres want Heilman more than Olson...I've witnessed Heilman up close and personal for the last two seasons with the Mets...whiplash kid. The short porch at Wrigley means more of the doubles he gave up at Shea will be street balls in Chi-Town.

So basically the Cubs gave up Cedeno and Pie for Heilman? The Padres better want Heilman more than Olsen or I just lost a lot of faith in Jim Hendry. This trade disgusts me. I hope the Cubs dont think they can turn Heilman into Dempster...not going to happen.

All I can think at this time is that I had read somewhere that Cedeno was out of options. If that is true then he was going to be traded sooner than later no matter for whom. Lets hope that either Heilman is used for another trade OR he shows more than he did last year. I have learned to be patient with all of the winter moves that teams make.

Bret, you really summed it up.

You have to remember though that both Cedeno & Pie were out of options...if they weren't on the big league club, they were goners anyway. Better to get something...

I don't get this deal. It really doesn't make sense to me at all.

Hendry has tried to trade for Heilman before. This smacks of J. Marquis, and the 'we think we can right this ship" pick up a couple of years back.
That said Cedeno, and Pie were out of options, and we are lucky to get anything for them now.
This is a big non move. Olson did not figure in the plans that much anyways. We would have lost Pie, and Cedeno by spring training as well.

Now you can add Jake Peavy to the list of all stars the Cubs could have gotten in the past but passed up on for players like Heliman. If the only reason we traded for Heilman is to put him in our rotation and not send him to San Diego, then this was a very stupid move.

Ditto on Brett's comments ... and others. If Heilmann is not traded somewhere else (insert San Diego here, although I am not high on the whole Peavy thing anyway), than this makes no sense.

I think in 1 to 2 years we are going to look back at a litany of moves and see three things. Hendry has lost his mind, and that Dusty and Lou are not the EVALUATORS we thought (although we already knew that about Dusty) they were. Cedeno is out of options because of Lou's lust for Theriot. Theriot is not an everyday SS, we should have traded him and went for an everyday SS like Furcal or even Renteria. Especially if the Cubs were content all along to let Fontenot or Miles start everyday at 2B, or even platoon. Pie, never given a chance by Dusty or Lou, will also come back to bite us. We bring in hitting coaches around here like Hef brings in girlfriends, so we can't know for sure what Pie will be until he gets a full year of at-bats.

We should have offered all of the losses we currently have taken, plus D Lee and Theriot, for Peavy and A. Gonzalez. Than Lou would have the staff and two left handed bats (a healthy Bradley is good for Cubs) he so covets.

Then our lineup would have been

Soriano
Fontenot/Miles
gonzalez
Ramirez
Bradley
Soto
Fuku/Johnson
Cedeno
Pitcher

P.S. Hill is the next to go according to mlbtraderumors.com. Maybe we can trade him for John Rocker.

Just a few thoughts ... but who am I.

I agree with everyone else. Why we trade a young (26) quality lefty capable of starting in the future, for an aging righty reliever, which have planty of, makes absolutely no sense. I understand the trading of Pie and Cedeno, no options left. But I think Jimmy has been taken advantage of with these last few moves. Bradley over Dunn. Come on. You look at both of those players head to head and Dunn screams BETTER ALL AROUND then Bradley and at a fraction of the cost. Then to make deals like Olson and Cedeno for a never was like Heilman? I hope Jimmy has something else up his sleeve.

"Dusty and Lou are not the talent evaluators we thought."

Last time I checked we have won back to back NL Central titles in what is the best division in the NL. This after never winning two titles in a row since the previous '07-'08 seasons. Seems to me Lou and Jim know what they are doing.

I agree that the back to back first round sweeps sucks but this is not the same old Cubs as before.

I will trust Hendry's decisions until he proves otherwise.

Looks like any trade for Peavy could be dead now, unless San Diego likes Heilman? If the Cubs aren't going after Peavy, then they need to sign Randy Wolf to balance out the rotation, and/or the bullpen.

John, what are you smoking?? Winning back to back division titles means NOTHING. Just when I think Cub fans couldn't get any worse.. BAMM, there it is!

Common people stop the Jim Hendry hating right now. Since he took over for Andy McFail in 2003 the Cubs have had 4 winning seasons and 3 division titles. Not to mention coming within 4 outs of reaching a World Series.

Look in your history books and tell me the last time a Cubs GM boasted those credentials. Heilman is not going to be a starter. He will either be a middle reliever, which up until last year he was pretty successful at, or he will be dealt.

What this also tells me is that if he stays with the team, it signals the end of Jeff Szmarja (I know I butchered the spelling, but you get the point) as a reliever. He's a horse and can be a future star in our rotation!

good point Craig..thats why i love blogs...someone always gets to the bottom of it.

Hendry has already proved otherwise. His teams have lost nine straight games in the playoffs, including the sweeps the last two years.

The NL Central is not the best division in the NL. The East is. As a Cub fan, obviously you have low expectations, and that's why you're happy about the previous two years. Until all Cub fans demand more, they'll continue to pretend they're trying to win when they don't even know how to go about it.

Hendry said that you can't build a different team for the playoffs than you have for the regular season. He doesn't get it. You build a team with a real leadoff hitter, fundamentally sound players along with team speed, you are then capable of manufacturing runs that you need to do to win in the post-season.

And when he ever gets a clue how to draft and develop the farm system, that will be okay with me. That's why position players consistently come up and fail like Pie, Patterson, etc. And don't mention Soto and Theriot because the Cubs didn't even consider them real prospects. They made it on their own, Theriot when he stopped switch-hitting like the Cubs wanted him to, and Soto when he got himself in shape and made himself a player.

As long as Hendry is there, they'll always be short. As for their senile manager...

Obviously this trade isnt loading us up for a peavy deal..Dont you people think the padres would rather have derosa, pie, cedeno, and olsen instead of aaron heilman and a bunch of noob pitchers??

You people sure do complain for a team that most likely will end up in the playoffs again...for the 3rd straight year. I cant think of any team in the national league that got a lot better. and our division just got worse.

What in the world is Hendry doing? I really don't think that this was done for Peavy. In addition, Hendry gave up to much to get someone that was once promising but now is in his 30s and give up two young guys with more upside. Hendry Sucks

You guys are hilarious. Everyone cried when they traded Pie (who is horrible) for Olson. Everyone bad mouthed Olson and let it be known had bad the guy was and that it was a horrible trade. Heilman is a better pitcher than Olson. Olson is a fringe player and not that good. Heilman has has one bad season out of the last four and suddenly everyone thinks Olson is Sandy Koufax. Ronny Cedeno is a pointless piece of the puzzle. Erratic on the field, at bat and on the basepaths. Miles basically takes his spot and is 100 times better.

Peavy is not coming anytime soon. Having alot of decent arms is not something we are used to in Chicago. Stop embarrassing yourselfs by looking at 1 years stats and determining that a trade was bad.

I remember before last season how all of you cried about Ryan Dempster being in the rotation and now you love him. The season is 2 months away, relax already.

In response to darrell's comment aside from cubs fans being a little optomistic it is obvious that you hale from one of 2 east coast cities either philly or new york.. The fact of the matter is that new york fans are so arrogant about there sports teams that you would bring up the notion that your division is better than the nl central.. The phillies were actually the only team to have a winning percentage against the central when even the 5th place reds had a winning percentage against the nl east.. Yes you did yield a world championship team, but to say your division is better is absolutely rediculous..

This was a dumb move. It seems that Hendry is more interested in getting attention than improving the team.
The players that Hendry has given away over the last month could have brought a real star player in return.
Not just other teams cast offs. They had marketable players to trade and they just dumped them.

Spending big bucks on a one year wonder pitcher and a injury prone head case cancer outfielder was idiotic. That money could have brought you proven and reliable talent instead instead of damaged goods and hopes of another career year.

Hendry should have made the deal for Peavy, signed pitcher Francisco Rodriguez, signed SS Rafael Furcal and passed on Dempster and Bradley.

Infield of Ramirez, Furcal, Fontenot, Lee and Soto.
Outfield of Soriano, Fukudome and DeRosa.
Pitching staff of Zambrano, Peavy, Lilly and Harden with Rodriguez, Marmol and Samardzija coming out of the bull pen.

That was doable and would have been a better team.

Yes, seeing Cedeno go is absolutely crushing. I mean, now who will get thrown out going from 1st to 2nd.....on a WALK??

Report: Feds have positive Bonds test | MLB.com: News
Source: mlb.mlb.com
Federal prosecutors preparing for the March 2 trial of Barry Bonds have evidence of a positive urine test linking the former Giants slugger to the use of steroids, the New York Times reported on its Web site on Wednesday night. ...

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20090129&content_id=3781286&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb

Heilman may set a record for most teams being taded from in the off season. As a New Yorker, I can honestly say that Heilman was a total disaster for the Mets since the end of the 2007 season. He was not a crowd favorite. He wants to start but ended up in relief and was ineffective, to be kind. Why the Cubs would want a mediocre pitcher is a puzzle. Do they think he can do great things as a starter? He showed glimmers of that when he was with the Mets. Another move that doesn't seem to make much sense. What they need on this team is Manny.

I actually like Aaron Heilman. He's got good stuff, but last season was pretty much a disaster for the ENTIRE Mets team including their bullpen and I think Heilman just basically got overworked and got that "dead arm" syndrome that people keep bringing up all of a sudden with Marmol and the issues with the World Baseball Classic. 1 bad season doesn't make him over-the-hill all of a sudden. Let's see how he does in Spring Training and then see from there. Olson's stats were worse last season and Cedeno had no future here. Heilman has talent. Give him a chance. Like Matt G said from above, relax people. Hendry is still not done either. As for Manny Ramirez, we can't move Soriano, like him or not, period. Be realistic here, most already know that Manny could make a huge difference in the lineup, but this isn't fantasy baseball.

Rourke,Obama and the Boss....

but no Bonds getting caught lying to the Feds....

hmmmmmm