Winter Meetings Thread (Merged)

[IWU_CUBS_FAN]

the only problem with lugo is the wait until izzy is gone...i know everyone has said this already, but im just at my point i need to vent...izzy needs to go and NOW...but i really like the idea of lofton part deux, i didn't want him to leave in the first place.

 

Also, someone earlier said that Lilly plus adding another pitcher of equal or better talent is a good idea and i agree...lilly won't be that bad of a pickup if this is the case, but if it comes down to signing meche along wit him....puke...and if you can't get anything good for jacque JH then don't trade him please

[Vinestal]

yeah I did edit above saying I think its wise to keep JJ. I think there are alot of teams looking for big bats that are capable of out bidding us as far as prospects go.

[craig]

If our starters turn out like this:

 

Z

Hill

Lilly

Jennings

Prior/Miller

 

 

Soriano

Lugo/Lofton

Lee

Ramirez

Barrett

Murton

DeRosa

Izturis

 

 

Would it be a horrible problem or would we have a decent chance at contending?

 

I think that would give you an excellent chance at contending. Soriano, Lee, and Ramirez could be really good, and the 2-5-6-7 spots could all be at or above league norms for those spots.

 

That rotation could be good, if Hill pitched close to his 2nd half level and if Jennings pitched like last year rather than the previous several.

 

But, "chance" is the key word. If Jennings regressed, Hill is erratic, and at least one of Z-Soriano-Lee-Hill is disabled, and assuming Prior is useless, it wouldn't take a lot of bad breaks to turn that into a losing team again.

[don_kessinger_was_good]

Ok, this one from Crasnick is just funny....

 

The agent also said that Barry Bonds would much rather stay in San Francisco than sign with Oakland. "He doesn't want to drive across the Bay, he doesn't want to play in a dilapidated stadium, and he doesn't want to wear the white shoes," the agent said.

 

I wonder if Barry thinks he'd look good in blue pinstripes. Of course, we also have a somewhat dilapidated stadium, but it's a fixer-upper, with charm! And on the historical register fer cryin' out loud. C'mon Barry, you know you want to stay in the NL.

[Guest]

Ok, this one from Crasnick is just funny....

 

The agent also said that Barry Bonds would much rather stay in San Francisco than sign with Oakland. "He doesn't want to drive across the Bay, he doesn't want to play in a dilapidated stadium, and he doesn't want to wear the white shoes," the agent said.

 

I wonder if Barry thinks he'd look good in blue pinstripes. Of course, we also have a somewhat dilapidated stadium, but it's a fixer-upper, with charm! And on the historical register fer cryin' out loud. C'mon Barry, you know you want to stay in the NL.

And his Dad came to the Cubs to finish his career, so it would provide some real nice historic resonance.

[vance_the_cubs_fan]

Jim has said he wants some left-handed power in the outfield....

 

Barry, your table is set!

[Electron Blue]

Ok, this one from Crasnick is just funny....

 

The agent also said that Barry Bonds would much rather stay in San Francisco than sign with Oakland. "He doesn't want to drive across the Bay, he doesn't want to play in a dilapidated stadium, and he doesn't want to wear the white shoes," the agent said.

 

I just read that and it looks like something "The Onion" would write. funny stuff!

 

haha. Good call.

[RynoRules]

Ok, this one from Crasnick is just funny....

 

The agent also said that Barry Bonds would much rather stay in San Francisco than sign with Oakland. "He doesn't want to drive across the Bay, he doesn't want to play in a dilapidated stadium, and he doesn't want to wear the white shoes," the agent said.

 

I wonder if Barry thinks he'd look good in blue pinstripes. Of course, we also have a somewhat dilapidated stadium, but it's a fixer-upper, with charm! And on the historical register fer cryin' out loud. C'mon Barry, you know you want to stay in the NL.

And his Dad came to the Cubs to finish his career, so it would provide some real nice historic resonance.

 

Let's hope he plays better with us than his Dad did when he came here.

[BigbadB]

I think that Lilly is a great move if it's complemented by another signing of a starter equal to or better than Lilly. i.e. if we sign Lilly and follow it up with Marquis or Meche, I won't feel great about it. If we get Schmidt, Zito (unrealistic, I know) or someone like Padilla, then I think Hendry will have done a good job.

 

Looking at Lilly's stats and splits, I think that he'll benefit by moving to the NL and at the very least that will cancel out his possible trevails of moving to Wrigley (which is a coin-toss as to whether it is a hitter's park or a pitcher's park from year to year). Personally, I think that it's right in the middle of being either. Wrigley's stats are going to be up if the Cubs have bashers and a crappy pitching staff and down if they can't hit and get decent pitching. In my eyes, it pretty much averages out.

 

Anyway, to me, a move to the NL away from the likes of the AL east's bashers, Lilly fare a lot better. TB has had an underrated offensive team for two years even though they're not HR heavy, the Red Sox and the Yankees are bashers, and the Orioles are decent offensively.

 

Like I said, if Lilly is complemented by an equal or better SP move, I think it's a great move at 4 years $36M-ish.

 

The move from the AL East bashers to the hitter friendliest division in baseball scares me. Wrigley is fairly neutral, for the most part, but Busch, PNC, Minute Maid, GAP and Miller all are good parks to hit in, which is where most of Lilly's starts will be when he isn't pitching at home.

 

I think I like Lilly more than some of the other options out there, but I'm not so sure we can expect him to much better than what he accomplished in the AL East.

[CubinNY]

Jim has said he wants some left-handed power in the outfield....

 

Barry, your table is set!

 

What CFer is avalable that is left handed and has power assuming Soriano is in RF? If the Cubs use Soriano is CF I'd like to see them go after Dunn if possible.

 

To me it makes much more sense to put Soriano back at 2nd, but that isn't going to happen.

 

The Cubs are put together like a Piccaso painting from his Cubist period.

[goonys evil twin]

Jim has said he wants some left-handed power in the outfield....

 

Barry, your table is set!

 

What CFer is avalable that is left handed and has power assuming Soriano is in RF? If the Cubs use Soriano is CF I'd like to see them go after Dunn if possible.

 

To me it makes much more sense to put Soriano back at 2nd, but that isn't going to happen.

 

The Cubs are put together like a Piccaso painting from his Cubist period.

 

Piccaso was Cuban?

 

Jones is a CF with power, or at least he could be. I can't imagine Lofton or Lugo playing any better defensively.

[CubinNY]

Jim has said he wants some left-handed power in the outfield....

 

Barry, your table is set!

 

What CFer is avalable that is left handed and has power assuming Soriano is in RF? If the Cubs use Soriano is CF I'd like to see them go after Dunn if possible.

 

To me it makes much more sense to put Soriano back at 2nd, but that isn't going to happen.

 

The Cubs are put together like a Piccaso painting from his Cubist period.

 

Piccaso was Cuban?

 

Jones is a CF with power, or at least he could be. I can't imagine Lofton or Lugo playing any better defensively.

 

I agree. I don't think they will find a left handed CF with more power than Jones.

[cjbucks]

Ok, this one from Crasnick is just funny....

 

The agent also said that Barry Bonds would much rather stay in San Francisco than sign with Oakland. "He doesn't want to drive across the Bay, he doesn't want to play in a dilapidated stadium, and he doesn't want to wear the white shoes," the agent said.

 

I wonder if Barry thinks he'd look good in blue pinstripes. Of course, we also have a somewhat dilapidated stadium, but it's a fixer-upper, with charm! And on the historical register fer cryin' out loud. C'mon Barry, you know you want to stay in the NL.

And his Dad came to the Cubs to finish his career, so it would provide some real nice historic resonance.

 

Let's hope he plays better with us than his Dad did when he came here.

 

I have no interest in Barry but if we get him we also get Pedro Gomez.............. :wink:

[Balsa]

Wow, what a slow start. Nothing's even happened yet.

[CuseCubFan69]

Jim has said he wants some left-handed power in the outfield....

 

Barry, your table is set!

 

What CFer is avalable that is left handed and has power assuming Soriano is in RF? If the Cubs use Soriano is CF I'd like to see them go after Dunn if possible.

 

To me it makes much more sense to put Soriano back at 2nd, but that isn't going to happen.

 

The Cubs are put together like a Piccaso painting from his Cubist period.

 

Piccaso was Cuban?

 

Jones is a CF with power, or at least he could be. I can't imagine Lofton or Lugo playing any better defensively.

 

They also don't throw the ball into the ground as well!

 

I imagine the Cubs could try either Soriano or Jones and see who does the best in CF.

[CuseCubFan69]

Wow, what a slow start. Nothing's even happened yet.

 

I can't even watch the grass grow, we have too much snow!

 

I think once someone makes a move a domino effect may happen, kind of like the rush for certain postion players in the NFL draft.

[Post Count Padder]

Wow, what a slow start. Nothing's even happened yet.

First day, things are just starting to heat up. I didn't think we would have a flurry of signings and trades right away. I expect things to get in gear sometime tonight.

[A New Era]

Wow, what a slow start. Nothing's even happened yet.

 

Yeah, tell me about it. So why haven't we traded Hill yet to further degrade our pitching staff?

[Bull]

Jim has said he wants some left-handed power in the outfield....

 

Barry, your table is set!

 

What CFer is avalable that is left handed and has power assuming Soriano is in RF? If the Cubs use Soriano is CF I'd like to see them go after Dunn if possible.

 

To me it makes much more sense to put Soriano back at 2nd, but that isn't going to happen.

 

The Cubs are put together like a Piccaso painting from his Cubist period.

 

Piccaso was Cuban?

.

 

No. Mark Cuban uses Picasa

[Balsa]

Updated Draft rankings:

 

http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/askba/262950.html

[Soul]

Wow, what a slow start. Nothing's even happened yet.

First day, things are just starting to heat up. I didn't think we would have a flurry of signings and trades right away. I expect things to get in gear sometime tonight.

 

It is the winter "meetings." So I assume during the day they have scheduled meetings----you know, like seminars and conferences and stuff like that.

 

Then at night they start dealin'.

[Southpaw191679666239]

FOXSports.com's Ken Rosenthal believes the Rangers could offer Barry Zito a six-year, $102 million contract.

 

That's the kind of offer they'd likely need to make in order to sign him, as Zito is believed to prefer the West Coast or New York. Rosenthal believes the Rangers are aiming to both sign Zito and keep free agent Vicente Padilla.

[Ding Dong Johnson]

FOXSports.com's Ken Rosenthal believes the Rangers could offer Barry Zito a six-year, $102 million contract.

 

That's the kind of offer they'd likely need to make in order to sign him, as Zito is believed to prefer the West Coast or New York. Rosenthal believes the Rangers are aiming to both sign Zito and keep free agent Vicente Padilla.

 

:shock:

[Burtonbell]

FOXSports.com's Ken Rosenthal believes the Rangers could offer Barry Zito a six-year, $102 million contract.

 

That's the kind of offer they'd likely need to make in order to sign him, as Zito is believed to prefer the West Coast or New York. Rosenthal believes the Rangers are aiming to both sign Zito and keep free agent Vicente Padilla.

 

 

:shock: :shock:

[don_kessinger_was_good]

FOXSports.com's Ken Rosenthal believes the Rangers could offer Barry Zito a six-year, $102 million contract.

 

That's the kind of offer they'd likely need to make in order to sign him, as Zito is believed to prefer the West Coast or New York. Rosenthal believes the Rangers are aiming to both sign Zito and keep free agent Vicente Padilla.

 

Boldface is mine. You see, this is what I hate about the Hot Stove, a lot of these guys like Rosenthal don't make the distinction between actual scuttlebutt, and off-the-cuff guessing. I guarantee you Rosenthal has not heard that Texas is offering 6/102 to Barry Zito. Instead, he is ruminating to give himself something to write about. It's just like the pap Phil Rogers subjects us to all the time.

 

Here's my Winter Meetings Blog entry, Ken. The Cubs could offer Jason Schmidt 4 years, $60MM. Really, they could. The Cubs could also trade for Manny Ramirez and Miguel Tejada. Quite the scoops, huh?

Edited December 4, 2006 by don_kessinger_was_good