You keep defining very narrow parameters in regards to 2012 in order to make your argument. Now it's "refusing to trade any of the current guys in hopes that mediocre is good enough" when the reality is that the Cubs have a decent chance to be better than that (even though your metric of "mediocre," between 85 and 89 wins, is nothing to dismiss, yet you keep doing just that) and Baker cheaply fills a need, in his platoon-y way, at 2B but also potentially 3B if they end up not bringing Aramis back. He simply has too much specific value to the Cubs next year, a year where they could easily contend, while not having enough general value to net the type of return you're talking about. Like it or not, the Cubs simply do not have any guys right now where you could justify moving them (or are even able to move them) and taking a hit next year because of the return they'd bring. The bottom line is that you are drastically overestimating what the Cubs can get in return for these players vs. what they can ideally provide for an ideally contending Cubs team next season.