White Sox and Mets both Interested In Lilly

Despite the recent string of bad outings for Cubs left handed starter Ted Lilly, he still appears to be a hot commodity on the trade market. As the Sun Times’ Chris De’Luca reports that both the Chicago White Sox, and New York Mets are teams that have Lilly on their radar. The Mets, who lost out on Cliff Lee, have turned their complete attention to Lilly. The White Sox, who lost starter Jake Peavy for the rest of the season, are contemplating going after Ted Lilly.

The Chicago White according to the report have held discussions within in their front office on whether or not the team should go after Ted Lilly. While Lilly would be the cheapest option for the White Sox, they are afraid that Lilly’s would not serve well pitching in U.S. Cellular field. Given the increase in the amount of Home Runs Lilly has given up this year.

The Mets on the other hand, appear to be fully committed to trying to get a deal done for Ted Lilly. Even though Lilly has struggled over his past few starts, the Mets still have shown strong interest in him. According to the report out of the Sun Times, the Cubs are said to be “doing homework” on three pitching prospects in the Mets Organization. All three are in Class A+ and are left handed pitcher Robert Carson, and right handed pitchers Kyle Allen, and Jeurys Familia.

Familia is a 21 year old prospect from Santo Domingo, DO  and has a record of 2-4 with and ERA of 5.85.

Kyle Allen is 20 years old, and was drafted by the Mets in the 24th round of the 2008 draft. This year he has posted a record of 6-5 with an ERA of 5.23.

Robert Carson is 21 years old, and was drafted by the Mets in the 14th round of the 2007 draft. This year he has posted a record of 7-5 with an ERA of  4.17.

I know that Ted Lilly is not going to give the Cubs a grand package of prospects, but I think the Cubs can do a whole lot better than three low level pitching prospects. The Cubs are good at prying away young pitcher from other organizations, as evident by the Mark Derosa trade, however their really is not promise of success when looking at the numbers of these three pitchers.

In any case, I think Jim Hendry will give Lilly two more starts, in order for him to revive his trade value.