Milton Bradley’s time in Chicago if officialy over as he was traded to the Seattle Mariners for pitcher Carlos Silva. Silva has a terrible contract just like Bradley, but hopefully the change of scenery for both players will be good. However, I don’t like this trade one bit.

Trading Bradley for Silva is not a win for the Cubs. Your team is worse off then it was in my opinion. You open up another position in the outfield and lose some of that pop especially from the left hand side of the plate. I agree that Bradley should have been traded, but not for Silva.

“We knew we had to move the player,” Hendry said Friday of Bradley. “In hindsight, obviously, it was an acquisition that I’m responsible for that obviously didn’t work out.”

Gee you really think so Jim? Maybe you should have worked a little harder at the Winter Meetings and got a decent deal done then. Silva has won five games in two seasons in Seattle. Wow what a winner we got coming to the Northside!

The best thing from this trade is probably the $9 million dollars that the Mariners are sending along with Silva. This will allow the Cubs to go after a centerfielder and move Kosuke Fukudome back to right field. I’d like to see the Cubs go after Jacoby Ellsbury who doesn’t have a position with the Red Sox now. Will it happen? I doubt it…

Hey Cubs fans, sorry for not updating the blog on a more constant basis but I really just haven’t been in the mood to talk about the Cubs after the season. Yeah 2009 was a terrible season for the Cubs and it sure pissed off a lot of fans but hopefully things can get turned back around and that all starts with the off season.

So far there have been three players that have filed for free agency. Pitchers Rich Harden and Kevin Gregg have both filed while outfielder Reed Johnson also filed for free agency. The only other potential free agents on the Cubs who have yet to file are pitchers John Grabow and Chad Fox.

A player must file within 15 days after the World Series is over. The Cubs retain exclusive negotiating rights during that 15-day period.

With the new ownership in place it will be interesting to see what happens this off season. I don’t think much will happen as the Ricketts family and Jim Hendry are pretty happy where they are as far as the roster. The one question that keeps popping up however is what will happen with Milton Bradley? There are teams interested in him, but how low will Hendry go to get him out of Chicago?

What’s everyones thoughts on the offseason and any moves Hendry should make?

Jim Hendry has signed his first piece of the puzzle during the offseason as he has signed former Texas Rangers hitting coach Rudy Jaramillo to a three year deal. Jaramillo turned down a one year offer from the Rangers as he was hoping to secure a multi year deal and that is when the Cubs jumped in and took action right away.

Jaramillo is well known for his five step hitting approach and will look to bring that to the Cubs starting in spring training. Jaramillo has already worked with Cubs players Alfonso Soriano and Milton Bradley when they both spent time in Arlington with the Rangers.

“Rudy Jaramillo is widely regarded as the premiere hitting instructor in the game,” Cubs GM Jim Hendry said. “The addition of Rudy to our franchise is a strong statement from our new owners, the Ricketts family, and we thank them for allowing us to move quickly to fill this important role with the best in the business.”

This is a great hire for the Cubs in my opinion. Jaramillo is well known through baseball as being one of the best hitting instructers and he will have his hands full with the happy swinging Cubs. I think he will get the job done and we will see players like Soriano and Bradley have a higher batting percentage as well as on base percentage in the 2010 season.

What’s going on Cubs fans? I haven’t been blogging too much lately as I have had some work related issues come up and well I wasn’t just paying enough attention to the team and their games to really have something to talk about. The team has six games left in the 2009 season and with a double header today, things will be over before we even know it. It sure wasn’t the way that we all had thought the season would go but hopefully Jim Hendry and company will make some good moves this offseason and the team will be back in contention in 2010.

So the team is basically playing with a bunch of young guys and the veterans that are playing should probably be sitting on the bench due to nagging injuries. The team has already shut down Alfonso Soriano, Rich Harden, Angel Guzman and Kevin Gregg. They might as well add Derrek Lee and Aramis Ramirez to that list as both should just rest and let some youngsters play.

Then there is the whole Milton Bradley situation. Right when I heard what happened I told my friends that Bradley was done as a Cub. I don’t care if he wants to come back there is no way the fans would stay off him he would simply not be productive in a Cubs uniform. Lou even said on Tuesday during a press conference that Jim Hendry would be looking for a big bat that can knock in some runs in the middle of the order. He even referenced Bradley’s 40 RBI’s and said that simply wasn’t getting the job done.

So let’s see how these last six games playout and hopefully the team can close out the season on a high note and have something to look forward to in 2010. Before we know it, we will all have our hopes up once again and spring traning will be kicking off. I mean we are Cubs fans afterall.

- Cliff