Former Cubs in the Championship Series

Tonight the American League Championship Series begins with Game 1 between the Rangers and Tigers. The National League Championship Series, which begins tomorrow, is a matchup of two NL Central clubs with the Brewers taking the Cardinals. Cubs fans will be forced to decide which is the lesser of the two evils (most will pick the Brewers) to root for.

The Major League Baseball playoff run has been fun to watch thusfar, starting with that compelling final day of the regular season. Three of the four Division Series took five games to complete and one went to extra innings in game five. To make it even more fun for Cubs fans to watch the rest of the way, here is a list of guys with Cubs connections competing in the LCS.

• Al Aburrquerque, Tigers: never played in the big leagues for the Cubs but was the farmhand traded to Colorado for Jeff Baker.


• Josh Hamilton, Rangers: drafted by the Cubs in the Rule Five draft but was quickly shipped to the Reds.


• Ryan Theriot, Cardinals: Played for the Cubs from 2006-2010


• Corey Patterson, Cardinals: Has landed on his feet with St. Lou after bouncing around for a few years. Roamed the outfield at Wrigley during the early part of the 2000s.


• Kyle Lohse, Cardinals: Cubs farmhand who was traded to the Twins


• LaTroy Hawkins, Brewers: Was always better as a set-up man than a closer during his time in the Cubs bullpen


• Casey McGehee, Brewers: Briefly played with the Cubs during the 2008 season before he was shipped to Milwaukee. The Cubs regret letting the talented third baseman go.

That's it for now, but I'll keep you posted!

Granderson Rumors Heating Up

• Cubs GM Jim Hendry is absolutely interested in offering a prospect heavy package to the Tigers for Granderson, according to Phil Rodgers.
• Hendry and Tigers GM Dave Dombrowki discussed Granderson and other Tigers players during the GM meetings earlier this week.
• The Angles and Yankees are also exploring a Granderson deal.
• The Cubs offer could be built around 19-year-old shortstop Starlin Castro, who is emerging as one of the top prospects in the minors.
• Rodgers tosses out other guys that could be included in the deal: Hak-Ju Lee, Josh Vitters, Andrew Cashner, Jay Jackson, and Chris Carpenter.
• Jake Fox, Aaron Miles, Micah Hoffpauir, Aaron Heilman, and Tom Gorzelanny could also be placed in the deal.
• The Tigers will not trade Granderson quickly, they could wait to stike a deal at the winter meetings.
• Keith Law says Curtis has become a platoon player because of his struggles against left handed pitching.
• The Detriot news disaggres with the Chicago Tribune by saying that the deal could happen soon.
• My take: The Cubs should not give up what the Tigers want for Curtis Granderson. I think trading for him would be a big mistake. I would not give up Josh Vitter, Starlin Castro, Jay Jackson, or Andrew Cashner for him, even if it was just a 1 for 1 trade. If they'll take say Hak-Ju Lee and that's it, then it would be an OK deal for the Cubs. However, I feel strongly that this would be another Kosukeish and Bradley-like mistake.
• Only non-Granderson related tidbit today is thanks to Bleacher Nation, and is from Mark Miller- It is rumored that Harden doesn't have much interest in returning to Chicago since he supposedly felt overused and suffered from some poor defensive play by Alfonso Soriano and Milton Bradley. Interesting.

That's all we have today! I would expect for things to be heating back up in the next week. The Rookies of the Year, MVPs, Cy Youngs, and Managers of the year; will be handed out in the next week and a half. Randy Wells in a candidate in a strong NL Rookie field. Tomorrow I'll have a number breakdown for you, Monday we should have some rumors and/or radio recaps, and Tuesday I'll get a Cubs Fun & Games post up, which will include some trivia.

Keep in mind, there's only 62 days until the Cubs Convention!