Jacque Jones hit .332 with 46 RBIs after the All-Star break this season to help the Chicago Cubs make it to the postseason. So the Cubs, being the Cubs after all, have just traded him to the Detroit Tigers for Omar Infante, a utility infielder who had a total of 17 RBIs for the entire 2007 season.

It wouldn’t surprise me if Jones has a big year in Detroit. He’s a .287 lifetime hitter in Comerica Park, with 13 doubles, 7 HRs, and 30 RBIs in 47 games. As for Infante, well, he’s eligible for arbitration this winter after making $1.3 million this past season.

Don’t most teams usually try to avoid going to arbitration with players? Yet the Cubs actually import a potential arbitration case from somebody else’s team, and give up a decent player in order to do so.

🙄

Then again, I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised at yet another great personnel decision from the same organization that decided Corey Patterson was a better leadoff hitter than Kenny Lofton, let Moises Alou go for Todd Hollandsworth, kept trusting Prior and Wood year after year despite the fact that they proved they can’t stay on the field, and then blamed Dusty Baker for all their problems.

Why didn’t Dusty Baker win in Chicago? For the exact same reason that nobody else has won there in the last 100 years: They’re the Cubs!