CHICAGO CUBS

This is the fork in the road for the Cubs: if the Cubs do acquire Brian Roberts, and if they don’t. If they get Roberts, Mark DeRosa becomes available and, because he has slightly above-average offense and is versatile at all four infield spots and in the corners of the outfield, there will be a good amount of teams that will inquire for his services as an everyday player-slash-super sub. The Cubs don’t have any real weaknesses to address, at least that which a DeRosa trade would fix, so they’d be better off by asking for a B-level prospect.

If the Cubs don’t get Roberts, and if they see Felix Pie as their center fielder of the future, Reed Johnson becomes expendable and if he keeps hitting the way he has so far (and the way he did in 2006 in Toronto), the Cubs could get more for him than he’s actually worth – capitalize on his value. I’ve gone through the list of teams that could be in the market for an outfielder in my previous articles but the Marlins would be a good fit considering that he’s relatively cheap at $1.3 million just for 2008.

The Cubs could use a left-hander in the bullpen, so they could send Johnson and some cash to the Marlins for Taylor Tankersley, who has often been brought up in trade rumors recently.

MILWAUKEE BREWERS

The Brewers have about a billion closers in their bullpen, but few decent, healthy starting pitchers. Okay, “billion” was a bit of exaggeration, but they have Eric Gagne (who has thus far been disappointing), Salomon Torres (12 saves in each of 2006 and ’07), David Riske (not a closer per se but he does have 21 career saves and has had a 100 or better ERA+ in each of the past five seasons ), and Guillermo Mota, who has given up only one run in ten innings so far.

Meanwhile, the Brewers find Ben Sheets in familiar territory – skipping a start due to health concerns – and have only one other league-average starter (Jeff Suppan). Yovani Gallardo made his first start of the season on April 20 and it was promising: one run in seven innings against the Cincinnati Reds. Carlos Villanueva and Dave Bush aren’t going to cut it.

Noah Lowry will likely be available from the San Francisco Giants, but the Giants aren’t needy in the bullpen area. No one out there that is available will be able to make a meaningful impact on the Brewers, so they need to pick up a big-time starter like C.C. Sabathia. He could be a simple two-month rental and they could eat the rest of his ’08 salary for the Indians in return for a prospect or two or they could go for the gold, trade for him, and sign him to a healthy extension before he hits free agency. Given how poorly he’s pitched so far this season despite his most recent start being a vast improvement, Sabathia might capitalize on his value best if he signs a mid-season extension. Believe it or not, the owners do know when they’re paying too much as we saw with Kyle Lohse going jobless throughout the off-season after seeing Carlos Silva sign for four years, $48 million and asking for something similar.

ST. LOUIS CARDINALS

As obvious as it seems, the path the Cardinals take depends on what kind of team they truly are. If they’re a mediocre 79-win team, then they need to think about trading Troy Glaus, Kyle Lohse, and Yadier Molina in favor of younger players.

Lohse is great trade bait because, while he is a serviceable starting pitcher, he’s not a 161 ERA+ pitcher as he is showing now. The Cardinals should hope he continues to pile up gaudy numbers so they can squeeze a bit more value out of him.

The Cards have a catching prospect by the name of Bryan Anderson who should be ready to contribute as a Major Leaguer soon. Jason LaRue can take over as the every day catcher; Anderson can either be called up or, more realistically, be promoted to AAA Memphis.

Glaus is trade bait for obvious reasons: he provides nothing to a team that needs to get younger and develop at a key corner infield position. The Cardinals should inquire about Brandon Wood, the third base prospect in the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim organization currently in AAA Salt Lake. Given how full the Angels’ outfield is, they’ve been using Chone Figgins at third base, who provides adequate defense and above-average offense.

If the Cardinals find themselves in serious contention in the NL Central, they sorely need an upgrade at shortstop. Presently, Cesar Izturis is manning that position and his OBP is higher than his SLG (.333 to .237). Felipe Lopez should be available and he’d be a perfect fit. He wouldn’t cost too much and he’s a huge upgrade over Izturis.

CINCINNATI REDS

The Reds have three catchers – Paul Bako, David Ross, and Javier Valentin – yet they still need catching help. However they can, the Reds need to get rid of the latter two and perhaps package Ryan Freel and Matt Belisle for a catcher. Who’s available? The Orioles’ Ramon Hernandez, the Padres’ Michael Barrett, and the Cardinals’ Yadier Molina are three that will likely be available by July 31. The Orioles don’t need any more outfielders so it’s likely they won’t make good trading partners. The Padres, depending on how they handle the Chase Headley situation, probably won’t, either.

The Cardinals also seem to have a decent outfield with Ryan Ludwick, Rick Ankiel, and Chris Duncan. However, Ryan Freel not only fits Tony LaRussa’s scheme perfectly, but he would make an excellent outfield supersub that could still log 150 at-bats in the last two and a half months of the season. Trades between division rivals are usually no-no’s but Freel has been keen to his role as a bench-warmer even before the season started. For a player that has given so much of himself, he deserves to be somewhere where he starts more than once every four or five days. In St. Louis, he’d likely play every other day and could even platoon in center field with Rick Ankiel (however, Ankiel hits better against left-handers, oddly enough).

HOUSTON ASTROS

The Astros, believe it or not, are not far away from being a contending team, especially in the weak NL Central. They need a decent back-of-the-rotation pitcher, a closer, and a third baseman who provides at least league-average offense. These are issues that they will likely be unable to fix in-season, so the modus operandi is to get value on all of the players you don’t see sticking around: Mark Loretta, Geoff Blum, Brian Moehler, maybe even Brad Ausmus.

Even if the Astros find them within arm’s reach of the division lead, trading these players won’t hurt their chances too much and it will give them a chance to both allow some younger players to get some playing time and mix and match some role players. By doing this, they are still not conceding the season.

The Astros aren’t going to make any big trades and don’t need to anyway. They are in an ambiguous position that a lot of Ed Wade teams seem to find themselves: teetering between oblivion at the bottom of the division and tasting clubhouse-chilled champagne (not World Series champagne, mind you; simply division-winning champagne).

PITTSBURGH PIRATES

What isn’t wrong with the Pirates? Of all four major sports organizations – MLB, NFL, NBA, NHL – the Pirates are arguably the worst-run organization of all 122 teams.

The only regulars who shouldn’t be available are Nate McLouth and, perhaps, Xavier Nady. Jason Bay seems to have found himself after a poor 2007 season by his standards, but he’d help the Pirates organization best via trade and bringing back at least two top-notch prospects. Bay is signed through ’09, when he’s owed $7.5 million, and the Pirates organization would have to jump through a lot of hoops to get him to even consider re-signing.

Bay could best help the Mariners, either with Raul Ibanez moving to right field or Bay supplanting Jose Vidro as DH. Although the M’s gave up a lot of prospects to bring Erik Bedard to the West Coast from Baltimore, they might be willing to give up Wladimir Belentien and Juan Ramirez to bring Bay over, assuming they can sign Bay to an extension.

If it wasn’t patently obvious, the Pirates’ are absolutely awful at developing pitching. They have ruined more promising young arms in the last ten years than you can count on your two hands. That’s why it’s not surprising to see Ian Snell, Zach Duke, Paul Maholm, and Tom Gorzelanny all underperforming. Even so, the Pirates will have to live and die on those guys because they don’t have the payroll or the reciprocated interest to bring a big-name free agent to Pittsburgh.

Meanwhile, they have a closer in Matt Capps who looks like he’s the real deal, although his high innings total the past two seasons as a reliever may bring cause for concern. He put up a 3.79 ERA in ’06 and a 2.28 ERA in ’07 to go along with 1.153 and 0.938 WHIP’s, respectively. Even better, he has only walked 30 batters in his career, spanning over 174 innings (or 1.5 walks per nine innings), and he’s struck out 131 (6.8 per nine). Mike Grabow and Damaso Marte (despite his slow start) are exceptional left-handed relievers/set-up men, so they have no problem with late-inning relief pitching.