After today’s 6-0 shutout at the hands of the White Sox, cubs.com is running the headline, “Cubs raise White flag in Crosstown Showdown.“  The headline is, of course, evocative of the famous “White Flag Trade” the Sox made with the Giants in 1997. On July 31, 1997, the Sox, 3.5 games out of first place, traded three major-league players for six prospects (including now-former Cub Bob Howry). The Sox went on to lose their division by six games, and the Giants won theirs. Now, today, the Cubs are 3.5 games out of first place a month earlier. At some point you have to ask if they should just pull the plug and build for the future. I’m not saying they should - if your roster underperforms like the Cubs have and one of your best players is about to come off the disabled list, and you’re only 3.5 out, you’ve at least got a shot. But what would it look like if the Cubs wanted to unload veterans for prospects?

The problem here is that you can’t have a fire sale without product to move. The Cubs only have a few players who might be attractive trade targets for another team, and even those have problems. Here are a couple of likely suspects, though:

• Derrek Lee - Lee is hitting well and has a contract that only goes through next season, making him a reasonably acquisition for a team looking for a bat. At the beginning of the year it looked like he was pretty much done, but he’s been the best hitter on the Cubs since the start of May, and he’s got a reputation as a very good defender. This might also work for the Cubs because they could platoon Jake Fox and Micah Hoffpauir at first without totally crippling themselves. The problem here is that Lee has a no-trade clause, which, supposedly, he told the Cubs he would not waive when asked about it this winter.
• Kevin Gregg - Gregg is only signed through the end of the season, after which he’s a free agent. So his contract is right. Unfortunately, he hasn’t been all that great. Still, he’s striking out a lot of hitters (more than one per inning) and his walk rates are where they’ve always been. A team in a pitcher’s park might decide he’s worth the risk.
• Reed Johnson - Reed isn’t expensive, so he’s not usual fire sale material. But, assuming he’s fine when he comes off the disabled list and can put together a couple of decent weeks, he might net something. He’s a free agent at the end of the season, so his contract doesn’t require any commitment. He can play all three outfield positions, he’s hitting decently (although not great), and he’s better if you can use him mostly against lefties.
• Rich Harden - Harden is another 2009 free agent. The knock on him in his career is that he’s been unhealthy. Except for a DL stint for back problems he’s been healthy this season, but he’s been another victim of the home run ball. He still has some value, especially if teams are willing to look at what he’s done in his career rather than this season - but he’d be a lot more valuable if he were playing well.
• Angel Guzman - Guzman is cost-controlled a while longer, but he’s pitched very well this season and been mostly healthy, and the reason to get rid of him now would be because you’re not certain he can stay healthy. Of course, he’s on the disabled list at the moment, so like Johnson he would need to come off the disabled list and put together a couple of good weeks to have much chance of bringing anything in return.
• Ted Lilly - Lilly could go and would probably bring back the most return of anyone the Cubs could trade. Like Lee, he’s signed for another season after this. Also like Lee, he’s playing very well this season, with an ERA under 3.5. Unlike Lee the Cubs couldn’t provide a reasonable facsimile of his production with other players, so if they pulled the plug on this season but wanted to compete next year, they wouldn’t do this.

And that’s more or less it. A lot of Cubs fans would like to see Milton Bradley go (and maybe Lou would, too), but he probably couldn’t be moved for much of anything. I can’t imagine the team would want to trade Aramis Ramirez when he got back off the disabled list. Soriano’s contract will keep him in town. Dempster and Zambrano’s contracts would probably also make them hard to deal in a deadline move - teams usually aren’t looking to take on long-term contracts in July.

So, if the Cubs keep floundering, those are the players who might go. But given the type of returns you’d get for most of them, it might not be worthwhile - if the Cubs are still hanging around at 3.5 back in a month, it may make more sense to hold steady and hope for the best than it would to get some mediocre prospects.