Cubs Sign Aaron Miles

I'd wager this is prep for trading Fontenot and/or Cedeno, not DeRosa. I can't imagine the Cubs would be willing to pencil in Miles as their every day 2B. I have a feeling that Hendry's cooking up a blockbuster. This could get very interesting.

What would the Cubs be looking for by trading DeRosa? Seems like if they sign Milton they're good to go. Maybe a RP? CF?

Hmm, I wonder what the heck Hendry is up to.

It surely looks like De-Ro is gone and with the Cubs piling up young pitching depth, it looks to me like they're making another run at Peavy.

Look people, Cedeno is out of options, not a very good player and someone correct me if im wrong, not a favorite of Lou's. This guy was not gonna be a part of the team in '09 and now you have his replacement. I dont think this has any bearing whatsoever on DeRosa. And plese dont start all this Peavy sillyness again. The cubs have to move Marquis in order sign Bradley, now they would ahve to move more tham DeRosas $6 mill to take on Peavy. Lets take this for what it is; an acquisiton a solid veteran IF'er who replaces a bad young player out of options.

Good signing by Cubs.

BTW... the numbers in my post are SWAG's. Too lazy to look up the actual amounts! :)

Those of you suggesting they may trade Cedeno or Fontenot instead of DeRo aer missing the point. Those guys won't bring in the same amount of young talent as DeRo will simply because DeRo is a much better and more proven player. And they need to trade the guy who will give them the greatest return because they are then going to use those prospects to reignite the Peavy trade again. So this is all shaping up as Miles plays 2B, they sign Bradley and he plays RF (with Fukudome as defensive replacement and for when Bradley gets injured), and they acquire Peavy to complete the rotation. Not bad.

"By my account, Hendry has freed up money about $15MM by trading Marquis and Derosa and letting Woody walk. Now assuming $5MM of that goes to Bradley, that still leaves $10MM to apply to Peavy's salary of $12MM. Granted this is assuming the Cubs baked in the rest of the payroll inflation into their budget for 2009."

First off Paul are you crack? $5mil for Bradley? If you think Bradley is only gonna cost the cubs $5mil, there is no sense in talking to you, you dont know what you are talking about.

Second, read Levines post. The deal isnt close, we dont even know if its been discussed. All Levine says is that the Indians would be a match. I'll repeat again, Levine says that the Indians COULD BE a match. The deal is not close and we dont even know what has been discussed. Unbelievable.

Miles is a stud?? lol....Enjoy meaningless singles and average defense... just because he hit A homerun to win a game against you guys a couple years ago does not make him a stud....otherwise you shoulda signed So Taguchi!

Cleveland sources are now reporting that the DeRosa deal is "agreed to in principle".

Aaron Miles will NOT be the everyday 2B, if they trade DeRosa. That job will go to Lou Piniela favorite, Mike Fontenot, with Miles and Cedeno backing him up. IF, and only IF, the Cubs end up with Jake Peavy in the rotation, then trading DeRosa is fine with me. However, if they go with a Randy Wolf or even Derek Lowe instead...then trading DeRosa was a waste. Again, he is a top 5 clubhouse guy and the 2nd best clutch hitter on the team.

This all looks like Peavy a Cub by midnight tonight.

Miles is an excellent pickup for the price and position. He can essentially replace DeRosa's utility role, but do it from the bench. He could add even more value if he ran like he did in the minors.

haha,
the cubs going after more cardinals sloppy seconds...

SCREW the cardinals.. they couldnt go ahead and re-sign a switch hitting over 300 hitter that can play any infield position for 1.6mm a year??.. i think im gonna buy me a new cubs jersey this year.~ Disgruntled cardinals fan

The Cubs aren't going after the Cardinals' sloppy seconds. They're going after Jake Peavy.

The Cardinals on the other hand are hoping for second place in a division that's going to look more like it did in 2007 than it did in 2008.

"haha,
the cubs going after more cardinals sloppy seconds..."

Cardinals sloppy seconds last year (Jim Edmonds) buried them as well. We'll take them everyday. Pujols is next. ;)

.700 OPS and poor defense. If he wasn't gritty(tiny and white) he wouldn't have a job.

Nice move! If the Cubs get Peavy and all goes well, they shouldn't miss the production lost with the DeRosa Trade. I like Miles as a utility guy. If they get Bradley they should be fine. The middle infield still scares me defensively though. Maybe Hendry still has something up his sleeve?

Has anyone checked out the defensive stats from last year?

Miles was average at 2nd - -1, ranked 17

DeRosa was near the bottom, -8, ranked 28

Fontenot was +11, ranked 7 in limited playing time.

I'm not sure how much stock I put into these numbers (bill james), but if they are true, we upgraded defensively.

I wouldnt be nearly as upset about this move if the cardinals would sign a quality 2nd baseman. Oh wait we have Adam kennedy. haha.

I would have rather seen the Cubs sign Juan Uribe.

"
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Cubs Sign Aaron Miles
By Tim Dierkes [December 31, 2008 at 11:18am CST]
According to the Chicago Sun-Times, the Cubs signed infielder Aaron Miles to a two-year deal worth $4.9MM. The deal was first reported by ESPN Radio's Bruce Levine. Speculation is that the move could allow the Cubs to trade Mark DeRosa.

Miles, 32, hit .317/.355/.398 in 408 plate appearances for the Cardinals this year while playing all around the diamond. Miles was one of the top free agent bargains of 2008 at $1.6MM.

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Trade RONNY CEDENO....KEEP DeRo!!!!

Posted by: jlb1980 | December 31, 2008 at 11:21 AM

I'd wager this is prep for trading Fontenot and/or Cedeno, not DeRosa. I can't imagine the Cubs would be willing to pencil in Miles as their every day 2B. I have a feeling that Hendry's cooking up a blockbuster. This could get very interesting.

Posted by: uni2006 | December 31, 2008 at 11:23 AM

Miles is more similar to Fontenot. Could this mean Fontenot may be included in a future package instead of DeRosa?

Posted by: Art | December 31, 2008 at 11:25 AM

What would the Cubs be looking for by trading DeRosa? Seems like if they sign Milton they're good to go. Maybe a RP? CF?

Posted by: jclay | December 31, 2008 at 11:25 AM

Hmmm. Very interesting, I agree, I can't see them keeping Theriot/Miles/Fontenot as the middle infield when they're all basically the same player.

Padres could use a 2B, just throwing it out there. :)

Posted by: CubbyFan23 | December 31, 2008 at 11:26 AM

Hmm, I wonder what the heck Hendry is up to.

Posted by: jay | December 31, 2008 at 11:26 AM

Damn. Was hoping the Mets would make a run at him.

Posted by: sampsonite168 | December 31, 2008 at 11:29 AM

It surely looks like De-Ro is gone and with the Cubs piling up young pitching depth, it looks to me like they're making another run at Peavy.

Posted by: Paul | December 31, 2008 at 11:30 AM

I just read the new post by Tim. Trading DeRo is a MISTAKE!!! TRADE CEDENO. By the way, CF is locked into a platoon between Reed Johnson and Kosuke Fukudome.

Posted by: jlb1980 | December 31, 2008 at 11:32 AM

Look people, Cedeno is out of options, not a very good player and someone correct me if im wrong, not a favorite of Lou's. This guy was not gonna be a part of the team in '09 and now you have his replacement. I dont think this has any bearing whatsoever on DeRosa. And plese dont start all this Peavy sillyness again. The cubs have to move Marquis in order sign Bradley, now they would ahve to move more tham DeRosas $6 mill to take on Peavy. Lets take this for what it is; an acquisiton a solid veteran IF'er who replaces a bad young player out of options.

Posted by: rollingdeuce | December 31, 2008 at 11:32 AM

"It surely looks like De-Ro is gone and with the Cubs piling up young pitching depth,"

What?? What pitching depth? Luis Vizcaino? Their depth is the same it was at the winter meetings, nothing has changed.

Posted by: rollingdeuce | December 31, 2008 at 11:34 AM

Good signing by Cubs.

Posted by: Cyyoung | December 31, 2008 at 11:36 AM

rollingdeuce... you want to rethink that post?

By my account, Hendry has freed up money about $15MM by trading Marquis and Derosa and letting Woody walk. Now assuming $5MM of that goes to Bradley, that still leaves $10MM to apply to Peavy's salary of $12MM. Granted this is assuming the Cubs baked in the rest of the payroll inflation into their budget for 2009.

Posted by: Paul | December 31, 2008 at 11:37 AM

BTW... the numbers in my post are SWAG's. Too lazy to look up the actual amounts! :)

Posted by: Paul | December 31, 2008 at 11:42 AM

I'd say that's a pretty good pick up
Miles is a stud

Posted by: I Like Baseball | December 31, 2008 at 11:46 AM

Those of you suggesting they may trade Cedeno or Fontenot instead of DeRo aer missing the point. Those guys won't bring in the same amount of young talent as DeRo will simply because DeRo is a much better and more proven player. And they need to trade the guy who will give them the greatest return because they are then going to use those prospects to reignite the Peavy trade again. So this is all shaping up as Miles plays 2B, they sign Bradley and he plays RF (with Fukudome as defensive replacement and for when Bradley gets injured), and they acquire Peavy to complete the rotation. Not bad.

Posted by: rememberthecoop | December 31, 2008 at 11:50 AM

"Cubs piling up young pitching depth" is referring to the prospects they will receive in the DeRo trade.

Posted by: rememberthecoop | December 31, 2008 at 11:52 AM

"By my account, Hendry has freed up money about $15MM by trading Marquis and Derosa and letting Woody walk. Now assuming $5MM of that goes to Bradley, that still leaves $10MM to apply to Peavy's salary of $12MM. Granted this is assuming the Cubs baked in the rest of the payroll inflation into their budget for 2009."

First off Paul are you crack? $5mil for Bradley? If you think Bradley is only gonna cost the cubs $5mil, there is no sense in talking to you, you dont know what you are talking about.

Second, read Levines post. The deal isnt close, we dont even know if its been discussed. All Levine says is that the Indians would be a match. I'll repeat again, Levine says that the Indians COULD BE a match. The deal is not close and we dont even know what has been discussed. Unbelievable.

Posted by: rollingdeuce | December 31, 2008 at 11:57 AM

rollingduece, you might be right about Peavy (altho that is what Levine said) but you are wrong about one thing - Miles will be the starting second baseman next season. It wasn't going to be DeRo anyway because the Cubs want more left-handed hitters in the lineup, so Fontenot is the guy who is actually being replaced with the acquisition of Miles. Cedeno is a non-factor. He just doesn't have good baseball instincts and Lou knows it. With Miles & Bradley, they will have two additional lefty hitters (switch hitters actually) and that is something Hendry targeted. Plus hopefully they won't wilt under pressure and choke like we did last year in the plyoffs. The big issue is that Bradely plays lousy defense and he can't stay healthy.

Posted by: rememberthecoop | December 31, 2008 at 11:58 AM

Miles is a stud?? lol....Enjoy meaningless singles and average defense... just because he hit A homerun to win a game against you guys a couple years ago does not make him a stud....otherwise you shoulda signed So Taguchi!

Posted by: stlcards16 | December 31, 2008 at 12:00 PM

I'm not crazy about these moves.

Adding Miles as a backup infielder over Cedeno is great, but trading away Derosa is just horrible. Derosa had 21 hr's and 87 rbi last year. Bradley has never driven in more than 77 rbi. If they want Fontenot or switch hitting Miles to get time at 2b to balance out the lineup, fine, then keep Derosa and put him in RF and skip Bradley.

And Miles defensively is below avg at 2b in fielding percentage and range for his career. Hendry loves getting 2b who have no range, it drives me nuts. Fontenot, god love him, has zero range.

And considering Miles at SS is a huge mistake, he is a far worse fielder at SS than he is at 2b, and even worse than Theriot at SS.

Miles is a similar to Theriot with the bat, contact hitter with no power whatsoever.

And as for getting Peavy, I love the guy, but taking on another $85 mil in guaranteed salary to a pitcher with elbow problems is crazy. Why aren't the Padres paying at least half of that contract? If they want prospects back, they have to eat salary.

Bottom line, subtracting 87 rbi to plug in a 30 rbi guy and a lefty 2b with no range (Fontenot) isn't an improvement.

Posted by: hemingways | December 31, 2008 at 12:08 PM

Cleveland sources are now reporting that the DeRosa deal is "agreed to in principle".

Posted by: CubFanForLife | December 31, 2008 at 12:09 PM

Yeah, Miles is not a stud. But it is a sound pick up. Playing both 2B and SS will be good for Lou's ability of wanting to rotate guys in/out of the line up.

The three headed mini monsters of Theriot, Fonteno and Miles ;)

Posted by: studio179 | December 31, 2008 at 12:18 PM

Aaron Miles will NOT be the everyday 2B, if they trade DeRosa. That job will go to Lou Piniela favorite, Mike Fontenot, with Miles and Cedeno backing him up. IF, and only IF, the Cubs end up with Jake Peavy in the rotation, then trading DeRosa is fine with me. However, if they go with a Randy Wolf or even Derek Lowe instead...then trading DeRosa was a waste. Again, he is a top 5 clubhouse guy and the 2nd best clutch hitter on the team.

Posted by: jlb1980 | December 31, 2008 at 12:20 PM

rollingduece... how does it feel that all of your posts in this thread are being repudiated by journalists with actual MLB sources?

Cubs won't pay Bradley more than $7MM per and that still leaves plenty of money for Peavy. Remember reading is a skill... do you know what SWAG stands for?

Posted by: Paul | December 31, 2008 at 12:26 PM

This all looks like Peavy a Cub by midnight tonight.

Posted by: paxterj | December 31, 2008 at 12:30 PM

miles is a stud....for a bench player. he played 5,6,7 for the cards and he had to relief appearances for the cards last year

Posted by: bigrob3737 | December 31, 2008 at 12:54 PM

Miles is an excellent pickup for the price and position. He can essentially replace DeRosa's utility role, but do it from the bench. He could add even more value if he ran like he did in the minors.

Posted by: AA | December 31, 2008 at 01:08 PM

kudos to Miles for hitting .317 in 379 AB's

who honestly complains about hits? you can't complain about someone getting hits
that's madness

yea i was also thinking of that massacre the Phillies, i think it was, put on the Cardinals n Miles came in to pitch XD
he's a gritty son of a bitch
i like him

Posted by: I Like Baseball | December 31, 2008 at 01:41 PM

haha,
the cubs going after more cardinals sloppy seconds...

Posted by: kremer | December 31, 2008 at 01:43 PM

...sloppy seconds...doesn't fit the description too well

Posted by: I Like Baseball | December 31, 2008 at 01:48 PM

SCREW the cardinals.. they couldnt go ahead and re-sign a switch hitting over 300 hitter that can play any infield position for 1.6mm a year??.. i think im gonna buy me a new cubs jersey this year.~ Disgruntled cardinals fan

Posted by: AndrewBeavs | December 31, 2008 at 01:56 PM

Aaron miles IS a stud too.. i watched him play everyday last season.

Posted by: AndrewBeavs | December 31, 2008 at 01:58 PM

The Cubs aren't going after the Cardinals' sloppy seconds. They're going after Jake Peavy.

The Cardinals on the other hand are hoping for second place in a division that's going to look more like it did in 2007 than it did in 2008.

Posted by: maynardgilmour | December 31, 2008 at 01:59 PM

he's a natural athlete

Posted by: I Like Baseball | December 31, 2008 at 02:01 PM

"haha,
the cubs going after more cardinals sloppy seconds..."

Cardinals sloppy seconds last year (Jim Edmonds) buried them as well. We'll take them everyday. Pujols is next. ;)

Posted by: CubbyFan23 | December 31, 2008 at 02:39 PM

Oh God, the bandwagon fans are at it again. This is just like the Bo Hart drama...people still complain that the Cardinals used Womack instead of him.

Miles is a bench player. A bad defensive bench player. Get that through you head. I'm guessing you still cry over So Taguchi, John Mabry, and Kerry Robinson.

Jesus, you would have thought that the Cards let Wainwright or Pujols go the way some people cry over it. It was Aaron Miles, the back up infielder.

Posted by: mtzxc | December 31, 2008 at 03:05 PM

.700 OPS and poor defense. If he wasn't gritty(tiny and white) he wouldn't have a job.

Posted by: ArodSucksAtLife | December 31, 2008 at 03:18 PM

".700 OPS and poor defense. If he wasn't gritty(tiny and white) he wouldn't have a job."

OPS is not the measure for this guy, OBP is. He had a .355 OBP, which is excellent. Also, his RF/9 at SS was above league average last year.

Posted by: AA | December 31, 2008 at 03:50 PM

Nice move! If the Cubs get Peavy and all goes well, they shouldn't miss the production lost with the DeRosa Trade. I like Miles as a utility guy. If they get Bradley they should be fine. The middle infield still scares me defensively though. Maybe Hendry still has something up his sleeve?

Posted by: matt_g3 | December 31, 2008 at 04:01 PM

I think Fontenot/Miles will be just fine for the Cubbies. I don't love the defense, but it wasn't that good when DeRosa was there either honestly. As long as Theriot, Fontenot, and Miles can get on base, they will be doing their jobs...and I believe they will do that very well.

I honestly wouldn't mind seeing what is out there for Cedeno and Pie, and getting a couple more pitching prospects. We could just go into the season with Marshall as our #5, Bradley as the RF, and Fontenot and Miles platooning at 2nd base. If something becomes a need, like Marshall not doing well or something, you can address that at the deadline. The Cubs, quite frankly, if they sign Bradley, shouldn't have a lot of trouble winning this division. I'm not saying they won't...just saying that talent wise, they shouldn't.

Posted by: Aduncaroo | December 31, 2008 at 04:11 PM

Has anyone checked out the defensive stats from last year?

Miles was average at 2nd - -1, ranked 17

DeRosa was near the bottom, -8, ranked 28

Fontenot was +11, ranked 7 in limited playing time.

I'm not sure how much stock I put into these numbers (bill james), but if they are true, we upgraded defensively.

Posted by: Aduncaroo | December 31, 2008 at 04:16 PM

Miles '08 season was a complete fluke. At 31 it was the first time he earned his contract,

Due to a spike in his babip he reached base only two less times that in '07 but in 40 less plate appearances.

Why couldn't you get the exact same(slightly better) performance from Bobby Scales for league minimum?

Posted by: ArodSucksAtLife | December 31, 2008 at 04:29 PM

I wouldnt be nearly as upset about this move if the cardinals would sign a quality 2nd baseman. Oh wait we have Adam kennedy. haha.

Posted by: AndrewBeavs | December 31, 2008 at 04:50 PM

"Miles '08 season was a complete fluke. At 31 it was the first time he earned his contract,

Due to a spike in his babip he reached base only two less times that in '07 but in 40 less plate appearances. "

If you look at his April/March numbers, he put up a .344 OBP despite a .288 AVG and .309 BABIP. That is a very solid combination for a singles hitter with a some speed, and works fine for a utility man who can play premium positions."

I'd much rather look at the 2200 PA that say he sucks than the 66 PA that say he is even worse.

This is the guy my White Sox traded for Juan Uribe. Belive it or not but that was a blockbuster at the time. They were both great prospects, now they are just big flukes