This is not the case in Chicago. He has nobody speaking out on his defense. He alienated everyone in that clubhouse from the start and then threw them under the bus when his actions and relationship with the media and fans got out of hand.

Is it hard to imagine Carlos Silva being worth -$2M vs one of the Cubs young pitchers from AAA such as John Gaub, John Stevens, Justin Berg or Mike Parisi? The only way I want any piece of Carlos Silva is if he comes at such a discount that he’s then flippable. Your scenario doesn’t accomplish that. $2M in cost savings isn’t worth it to me, especially when the Mariners would be getting much, much more value out of it. I think the Hendry already helped out the Mariners enough in the Heilman deal. I’d rather he didn’t just hand them a productive DH AND take your problem pitcher off your hands, for a measly cost savings which is a drop in the bucket to the Cubs.

Pat Burrell is close, but then I need confidence Jim Hendry can turn that into some real value for the Cubs… and right now, I don’t have that. So, he’ll most likely waste a spot on the bench. The nightmare scenario is getting hooked into a player such as Vernon Wells. Even at a cost savings, it’s extending the money into the next GM’s tenure… and I really don’t want that.

I don’t want the Cubs to replace a problem with another problem. I just don’t see the point.

I find it surprising that we’re actually discussing trade possibilities involving Carlos Silva. The guy is two years removed from being a productive MLB pitcher and has perhaps the worst contract in baseball.

Zito, Wells, and Soriano are all worse contracts than Silva’s, and I think you could at least make an argument that a few others are worse.

Also, Silva was basically the same pitcher in 2008 as he was with the Twins. His FIP was a mediocre 4.63, but he was really killed by a .347 BABIP (nothing like Betancourt, Lopez, and Ibanez to increase a pitcher’s BABIP) and his LOB% was 61.1%. His xFIP and tRA were both in line with his career norms. The real drop-off in 2008 is that he only threw 153.1 IP (28 starts).

I’ll put it this way. If Silva was a free agent this year and some team was in search of a back-end guy to munch some innings, I might tout Silva as a good low-risk move at a couple million bucks.

I mean, the gap between an average Garland / Looper / Marquis season and the average Carlos Silva season isn’t that big. Carlos Silva just had bad luck in 2008 and was injured and sucked in 2009. He’ll never be great, but he could be servicable again.

I would much, much rather they just cut him. They’re going to have to eat the $20 million no matter what. So, they can either just eat it outright or eat part or most of it and acquire a negative value player on top of that… sounds worse to me … Just cut him and be done with it.

I’ve got to say, I don’t understand your logic at all. I think Bradley has more value than Silva at this point, so consider the following scenario. The Cubs trade Bradley ($9 M in 2010, $12 M in 2011) to the Mariners for Silva ($11.5 M in 2010, $11.5 M in 2011, $2 M in 2012), but because of salary differences and the fact that Bradley is a better baseball player, the Mariners pick up $3 M of Silva’s 2010 salary and $2 M of his 2011 salary, and $1 M of his 2012 buyout. So the Cubs get rid of Bradley and shed $0.5 M salary in 2010, $2.5 M in 2011, and take on $1 M in 2012. The Cubs would shed $2 M salary and could then cut Silva. This saves them $2 M over just cutting Bradley.

So taking on another bad contract under the right circumstances is much better than just cutting Bradley, because you might be able to cut the bad contract you take on for less than Bradley.

(1) The group-think hate on Carlos Silva is getting crazy. Yes, he is overpaid. Yes, he is overweight. Yes, his contract is an albatross. But a lot of you are acting like he was never any good and/or has zero chance of returning to what he was. He put up a WAR over 3 in 2004, 2005, and 2007. Since becoming a SP in 2004, he has 11.2 WAR, which makes him just below league average in a 6-year span.

I don’t like him and I don’t like his contract, but he certainly has a non-zero chance of returning to form as an overpaid, strike-throwing, OK groundballer. I doubt everyone in baseball has so given up on Silva that no one would take him under any circumstances, which seems to be what 1/2 of the posters believe.

Just because he was completely worthless last year doesn’t make him worth less than a generic AAAA arm in a revenue-neutral transaction. AAAA arms can’t put up 3 WAR seasons, which Silva has. AAAA arms will never be good enough to throw 150 major league innings in a season, which Silva has done 5 times. So please, just be reasonable in your hate. He isn’t good and his 2009 was almost indescribably bad. But he probably isn’t as bad and/or hopeless as many people seem to think.

(2) Maybe this is just anectdotal or bad memory on my part, but in the past I seem to remember some of Bradley’s teammates speaking out on his behalf. Maybe they were just doing it for posterity or to preserve some semblance of clubhouse order. But my impression has been that Bradley has had a terrible relationship with the media and umpires, a mediocre relationship with coaching staffs, and an OK relationship with his teammates. He is certainly in the lower tier of personalities you want in your clubhouse, but he hasn’t tried to choke anyone in a front office, beat up his wife (so far as we know), murdered anyone, thrown a ball at a fan, thrown a bat at an umpire, or any of the other even worse things that baseball players have done.

They tried that last year

Silva officially threw 30 innings last year. He sucked. But if we want to sell him as someone with value, he has go out there at some point. I say try it because our D is the best.

So you’ve already given up on 2010?

Never. By priorities I meant filling this season’s obvious needs like 1B and SP. By Felix I meant extending him. And by 2011 FA class I meant payroll could be better spent there than this year, if FA thinks so.

Only someone who doesn’t know this team would ‘give up on 2010.’ To be sure, I am not in that camp.

maybe the Mariners play Silva in enough select situations in 2010 so our world-class defense makes him look good.

They tried that last year.

We should be patient and focus on the team’s priorities, Felix and directing resources to the 2011 FA class.

So you’ve already given up on 2010?