Cubs going after star-studded roster

[goonys evil twin]

That absurd team has also surrounding Beltran with good players.

 

Wright and Reyes are the core of those good players, who happen to be extremely good and come from within and currently underpaid for their production. Their value allows the Mets to pay FA prices for Beltran and surround him with very good players.

 

Exactly.

 

Spend more money on player development too!

 

Whatever it takes to do it from within, do it. They won't win without improving from within 1st.

 

Not necessarily true. It's better for longterm stability to build from within true, but not necessary to win in the first place.

[David]

But to say that he wasn't a target is revisionist history and just isn't true.

 

I don't recall any speculation that Hendry was interested in Beltran for the number of years he was asking at the time he was a free agent. He was never a strong target of the Cubs organization that year. I don't get where the 'revisionist history' part comes in.

 

 

All reports were there was an offer made, and it was believed to have been either 5 or 6 years at either $75-90 million.

 

Granted, Hendry wasn't willing to go the 7 or 8 years that Beltran was seeking, but I'd say that offer qualifies as him being a strong target. Maybe you think it was just a token offer, but I considered it more than fair and a solid offer at the time.

[UK1679666180]

That absurd team has also surrounding Beltran with good players.

 

Wright and Reyes are the core of those good players, who happen to be extremely good and come from within and currently underpaid for their production. Their value allows the Mets to pay FA prices for Beltran and surround him with very good players.

 

Exactly.

 

Spend more money on player development too!

 

Whatever it takes to do it from within, do it. They won't win without improving from within 1st.

 

Not necessarily true. It's better for longterm stability to build from within true, but not necessary to win in the first place.

 

Even being a Cubs fan, I still measure success in the long-term parameters rather than short spurts.

[BigbadB]

That absurd team has also surrounding Beltran with good players.

 

Wright and Reyes are the core of those good players, who happen to be extremely good and come from within and currently underpaid for their production. Their value allows the Mets to pay FA prices for Beltran and surround him with very good players.

 

Exactly.

 

Spend more money on player development too!

 

Whatever it takes to do it from within, do it. They won't win without improving from within 1st.

 

So, in other words, it might have been a poor decision to trade 3 pitching prospects for a 1 year rental CF who doesn't provide much outside of a stolen base threat?

 

:D

[Jazz]

That absurd team has also surrounding Beltran with good players.

 

Wright and Reyes are the core of those good players, who happen to be extremely good and come from within and currently underpaid for their production. Their value allows the Mets to pay FA prices for Beltran and surround him with very good players.

 

Exactly.

 

Spend more money on player development too!

 

Whatever it takes to do it from within, do it. They won't win without improving from within 1st.

 

Not necessarily true. It's better for longterm stability to build from within true, but not necessary to win in the first place.

 

Even being a Cubs fan, I still measure success in the long-term parameters rather than short spurts.

 

how exactly can we alocate more monetary resources towards builing from within. Doesn't it all just start from the draft and player scouting in Latin America? Would spending more money on scouting be considered improving from within?

[Rob]

Have I not been paying attention? When did Carlos Lee become a star?

 

Hell, when did he even become a very good hitter?

[UK1679666180]

how exactly can we alocate more monetary resources towards builing from within. Doesn't it all just start from the draft and player scouting in Latin America? Would spending more money on scouting be considered improving from within?

 

Definitely can spend more on the upper tier Latin America prospects, become more active in Venezuela, establish a Pacific Rim base again. Focus on player development once signed as well, they have to evaluate the injuries with the pitchers as well as some of the struggles of the hitters as a group and as an individual.

[UK1679666180]

I should also state that baseball is a giant pyramid with the scouts and minor league instructors as the base of the pyramid.

[CaliforniaRaisin]

how exactly can we alocate more monetary resources towards builing from within. Doesn't it all just start from the draft and player scouting in Latin America? Would spending more money on scouting be considered improving from within?

 

Part of the problem is that the Cubs aren't even well established in parts of Latin America (and obviously not at all in Asia).

 

Err, what UK said.

[CubFanPhilly]

Found this...

"Something that's never mentioned is that there are still limits to the type of free agents that teams may sign.

 

If there are 14 or less type A and B players available, no team may sign more than 1 type A or B player. If there are 15-38 available A and B players, no team may sign more than 2. From 39-62 this becomes 3. The club quota increases accordingly for higher totals of available free agents. There is no maximum allowed for type C free agents. Lastly, a team can sign up to as many type A and B free agents as they've lost, regardless of the above quota."

 

Soriano and Schmidt could be our two if there are at least 15 Type A-B.

 

Pierre leaving would give us one more. The good thing is that Daisuke would not be subject to that quota if we can land the winning bid.

 

I read that last clause as meaning the Cubs would have to lose at least three A/Bs for the FA signing limit to be three. What are the chance that happens? Wood, Pierre, Blanco, Miller, & Mabry. How many A/Bs in that group?

 

This might mean the Cubs part ways with Wood and Miller regardless of their willingness to sign a low-base high incentive deal.

 

CFP

[UMFan83]

Have I not been paying attention? When did Carlos Lee become a star?

 

Hell, when did he even become a very good hitter?

 

According to Baseball Reference, these are his 10 most similar batters:

 

1. Cliff Floyd (943)

2. Jermaine Dye (936)

3. Mike Sweeney (934)

4. Paul Konerko (932)

5. Magglio Ordonez (928)

6. Carl Everett (921)

7. Richie Zisk (917)

8. Derrek Lee (916)

9. Carlos Beltran (914)

10. Rondell White (912)

 

Pretty good representation of above average yet not quite star hitters of this generation (and pretty bizarre that 9 of the 10 listed here are active players)

[frostwyrm]

What puzzles me is that the Cubs project Soriano as the top target for leadoff/CF, yet they didn't trade Pierre at the deadline. Even without Soriano in the picture it was silly to keep Pierre, with Soriano the logic becomes even murkier.

[Fro]

What puzzles me is that the Cubs project Soriano as the top target for leadoff/CF, yet they didn't trade Pierre at the deadline. Even without Soriano in the picture it was silly to keep Pierre, with Soriano the logic becomes even murkier.

 

More likely, the decision wasn't made yet to bump the payroll up 15-20%

 

When you do that, Soriano makes a lot more sense. And you can move him to LF or 2B when Pie is ready.

[frostwyrm]

What puzzles me is that the Cubs project Soriano as the top target for leadoff/CF, yet they didn't trade Pierre at the deadline. Even without Soriano in the picture it was silly to keep Pierre, with Soriano the logic becomes even murkier.

 

More likely, the decision wasn't made yet to bump the payroll up 15-20%

 

When you do that, Soriano makes a lot more sense. And you can move him to LF or 2B when Pie is ready.

 

If the decision was just recently made that was pretty dumb on the Trib's part. It would have been a whole lot cooler if it had been done before the trade deadline, while Hendry was still deciding whether to trade Pierre.