Ken Rosenthal and Jon Paul Morosi of FOXSports.com write that the Cubs would love to trade for Roy Halladay, however they would need to clear salary in order to pull off such a deal, according to major league sources. Halladay is owed $15.75 million in 2010, but the Cubs already have $42.375 million tied up in Carlos Zambrano, Ryan Dempster and Ted Lilly. Alfonso Soriano and Kosuke Fukudome are too expensive to move in a trade while Aramis Ramirez is too valuable. Derek Lee, who makes $13 million next season, would drum up at least some interest coming off a bounce-back season, however he has a full no-trade clause.
On Friday, Carrie Muskat of MLB.com had basically the same conclusion, saying the Cubs can't take on Halladay's salary, while also noting that they are hesitant to part with prospect Starlin Castro.
Face it, any contender would love to trade for a pitcher of Halladay's caliber, but the Cubs have more pressing concerns, namely finding a new center fielder, a second baseman and a taker for the two years remaining on Milton Bradley's contract.
I am convinced that Milton Bradley is suffering from the colonial era Indonesian prion-caused brain disease De Vloek van de Geitebok which is related to kuru (both cause idiotic grins) and has actually been responsible for the Cubs' inability to finish a season for the past century or so. Unlike kuru, De Vloek is vectored by infected athletic supporters, not by eating infected brains - luckily for a pathogen that infects professional athletes. As occasionally happens, in Bradley's case the disease has spread from his athletic supporter to his brain and may in fact be mutating back into kuru. Canada, with its socialized medical system, is probably a much better place to trade Bradley than, say, Texas.
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