And Another Thing! has a post up on today's 5-3 Cubs win. Including this....

Derrek Lee is... well, using the trite phrase en fuego doesn't do him justice. He is 11 for his last 14, has also walked twice, homered (today, a bomb onto Waveland), and has four RBI.

Hey, naysayers who looked down on the Lee-for-Choi deal when Hee Seop was so hot in April, let's look at a comparison now (stats complete through today):

G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS BA OBP SLG OPS Lee 67 248 36 77 25 1 9 44 28 52 5 3 .310 .387 .528 .916 Choi 63 184 35 49 12 1 12 31 33 53 1 0 .266 .383 .538 .921

Man, you can't get too much closer than that. I am, however, particularly impressed with the 25 doubles that Lee has, which would translate to about 58 doubles in a full season. Furthermore, Choi has cooled off to what I would think is about his best level, while I think Lee might increase his power numbers.

Choi's numbers are still pretty good for a guy who has about 60 less AB's than Lee and is pretty much in a 80%-20% platoon. I posted at the end of May how Choi was making this deal look really bad for the Cubs, and I hoped Lee started his normal hot hitting to get some respect back. Here we are at June 20th and Lee is doing his normal hitting like his track record indicates.

I really like Hee Seop Choi, and I don't think we have even see his best yet. The Choi for Lee deal I have never been a big fan of, but I know we got a quality somewhat sure bet of a .270 hitter who can hit 30 HR's and knock in around 90 RBI.

But Derek Lee is on our team, and Hee Seop Choi is a Marlin. I am ecstatic about Derek Lee's play this month and for the season. And I am equally as happy with Choi's play as he is proving all those people wrong that he was a worthless bum after getting injured.

This trade is a win win for both teams. As neither team would be disappointed if they never did this trade. The Cubs could afford 6 million on Derek Lee, the Marlins couldn't and are getting just a good production for 300k.

Note: After struggling with a .221 average in May, Hee Seop Choi is hitting .300 for the month of June. Like I said, we haven't seen the best of Choi yet.