“The Padres went 71-91 this year, which is the exact same record the Cubs had,” said Epstein. “You can’t teach that kind of symmetry. So we see no reason to believe there will be a drop-off in when Jed and Jason join our club.”

Epstein said he was also looking to poach executives from the Royals, who also went 71-91 this year.

“Yes, it would be great to have a few Royals execs here, but it might be difficult to get them because I hear the Nationals and Rockies are making a strong push,” said Epstein.”We can only hope they decide Cubs baseball is the brand of mediocre baseball they’d like to be associated with.”

Kenny Williams believes the third time is the charm.

After trading for Roberto Alomar in 2003 and again in 2004, the White Sox are reverting to old, reliable means to improve their output at second base. Wednesday afternoon, the White Sox traded the Hall of Fame rights of first base coach Harold Baines and another potential Hall of Famer to be named later for Robert0 Alomar on the same day the retired player was elected to baseball’s Hall of Fame.

“To bring in a player of Robbie’s abilities will be a great addition to an offense already led by Konerko, Dunn and Quentin.” Williams said. “Robbie is a Hall of Fame caliber player … heck, he just made the Hall of Fame a few hours ago.”

Alomar is excited to re-unite with his former Indians teammate, 53-year-old Omar Vizquel, who is currently the White Sox best middle infielder.

“Omar and I were a really exciting double play combination in Cleveland,” Robbie said. “It will be nice to get out there with him and see if we can still throw the leather around like we did in the ’90s.”

White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen and his son responded to the Alomar acquisition via Twitter.

Ozzie: “I hope Gordo Bekam can learned much from former White Sox, Padre, Blue Jay, Indian, Oriole, Diamondback and Met.”

Oney: “Robbie Alomar? Hope he dont spit at me. And have you heard what his former girlfriend’s say about him? hahah.”

“Mark has stolen a lot of money from this organization over the past year, so we think it only appropriate that he agree to the ‘Ski Mask Clause’ this time around,” said Padres GM Kevin Towers. “It’s such a long shot that he actually takes the mound again, but if the miracle happens, at least we have our assets covered.”

The former Cub phenom also missed the entire 2007 season and hasn’t pitched in a game since 2006, when he went a putrid 1-6 for Chicago with a 7.21 ERA. The Cubs tried to write a similar clause into their Prior contract, but were met by resistance.

“We asked Mark to wear one of those Richard Nixon masks, but his dad refused to let him sign the deal, so we had to let him go,” said Cubs GM Jim Hendry. “After that situation, we vowed as an organization to never again sign a player with such a long history of injuries, unless of course they are switch-hitting outfielders.”