Cubs Trade for Tim Lahey (1st pick in Rule 5 draft)

[waffle]

I've never heard anything about Lahey and usually I can pick up stuff on most of the minor league players living in MN and wife being a Twins fan.

 

I'll try and talk with the Twins beatwriter tonight if he's at the Bears bar in St. Paul to watch the game. Normally he is. So maybe he'll have some insight.

 

I'll fund you $10 for the first round. Liquor him up... get the story.. at ANY COST

[nikao]

I've never heard anything about Lahey and usually I can pick up stuff on most of the minor league players living in MN and wife being a Twins fan.

 

I'll try and talk with the Twins beatwriter tonight if he's at the Bears bar in St. Paul to watch the game. Normally he is. So maybe he'll have some insight.

 

Which bar is that? I'm in Minneapolis. I think I may have seen a story on it sometime, but there's times when I might be able to sneak out to catch a half at a Bears place.

[Guest]

Yeah, I was going for "edited to add."

 

Sounds like Lahey has a low 90s FB and an ok slider and is a former catcher.

 

Does anyone know who we lost or picked up in the minor league portion of the draft? BA hasn't posted it yet.

 

Lost Adalberto Mendez in the AA portion.

[Guest]

Yeah, I was going for "edited to add."

 

Sounds like Lahey has a low 90s FB and an ok slider and is a former catcher.

 

Does anyone know who we lost or picked up in the minor league portion of the draft? BA hasn't posted it yet.

 

Lost Adalberto Mendez in the AA portion.

So we lost a reliever who is a converted catcher and picked a reliever who is a converted catcher.

 

Both throw in the low 90's with an okay slider.

 

hmm

[CubsWin]

I thought we'd pick someone better with that pick. Something doesn't seem right. I sense a trade.

 

Unless we are moving one of Howry, Marmol or Wuertz, I dont understand why we would want Lahey. He'd be nothing more then a throw-in in a trade and that team would still have to keep him on the big league roster. They could have just picked him themselves if they wanted him that bad. Then asked the Cubs for some other prospect. I think I am going to stop trying to understand anything we do at this point.

 

Well, the coobs went out of their way to make this deal/pick up this guy. Either they truly do see something in him or he is just a piece we are moving to someone else as part of a future trade.

Or they are planning on moving another reliever in a deal. Perhaps Lahey is being brought in to replace another former catcher turned reliever who is going in a deal to Baltimore for Brian Roberts.

 

Or maybe they just liked him and thought they would give him a try in ST. The rule 5 draft is largely a no harm no foul type deal. If the guy isn't ready and doesn't work out, you just return him. All you are out in $25,000.

[Guest]

I thought we'd pick someone better with that pick. Something doesn't seem right. I sense a trade.

 

Unless we are moving one of Howry, Marmol or Wuertz, I dont understand why we would want Lahey. He'd be nothing more then a throw-in in a trade and that team would still have to keep him on the big league roster. They could have just picked him themselves if they wanted him that bad. Then asked the Cubs for some other prospect. I think I am going to stop trying to understand anything we do at this point.

 

Well, the coobs went out of their way to make this deal/pick up this guy. Either they truly do see something in him or he is just a piece we are moving to someone else as part of a future trade.

Or they are planning on moving another reliever in a deal. Perhaps Lahey is being brought in to replace another former catcher turned reliever who is going in a deal to Baltimore for Brian Roberts.

 

Or maybe they just liked him and thought they would give him a try in ST. The rule 5 draft is largely a no harm no foul type deal. If the guy isn't ready and doesn't work out, you just return him. All you are out in $25,000.

Or, in this case, the $25K + whatever we sent to Tampa to get the first pick.

[Sweet Swinging Billy]

From the write -up that I read on http://www.cubs.com Lahey looks like a pretty good prospect. Also from the same article, Toronto selected Randy Wells from the Cubs. His numbers from Iowa don't look too bad. He struck out more batters than innings pitched. Should the Cubs have protected him?

[CubsWin]

I thought we'd pick someone better with that pick. Something doesn't seem right. I sense a trade.

 

Unless we are moving one of Howry, Marmol or Wuertz, I dont understand why we would want Lahey. He'd be nothing more then a throw-in in a trade and that team would still have to keep him on the big league roster. They could have just picked him themselves if they wanted him that bad. Then asked the Cubs for some other prospect. I think I am going to stop trying to understand anything we do at this point.

 

Well, the coobs went out of their way to make this deal/pick up this guy. Either they truly do see something in him or he is just a piece we are moving to someone else as part of a future trade.

Or they are planning on moving another reliever in a deal. Perhaps Lahey is being brought in to replace another former catcher turned reliever who is going in a deal to Baltimore for Brian Roberts.

 

Or maybe they just liked him and thought they would give him a try in ST. The rule 5 draft is largely a no harm no foul type deal. If the guy isn't ready and doesn't work out, you just return him. All you are out in $25,000.

Or, in this case, the $25K + whatever we sent to Tampa to get the first pick.

True that.

 

And, darn it, you barely beat me to the Marmol theory.

[St.Paul Cub]

I've never heard anything about Lahey and usually I can pick up stuff on most of the minor league players living in MN and wife being a Twins fan.

 

I'll try and talk with the Twins beatwriter tonight if he's at the Bears bar in St. Paul to watch the game. Normally he is. So maybe he'll have some insight.

 

Which bar is that? I'm in Minneapolis. I think I may have seen a story on it sometime, but there's times when I might be able to sneak out to catch a half at a Bears place.

 

Alary's. http://www.alarys.com

 

There was an article in the Star Tribune last year as the founder played for the Bears in the 1940s. He passed away a few years ago and his son runs it. If you listen to KFAN they have some bits sponsored by Alary's and when LaVelle E Neal III comes on to talk Twins they often mention Alary and the Bears.

 

It's a lot of fun. The pics are somewhat outdated, but some of the waitresses do answer the age old question of "what do strippers do on Sundays?" I'm at the reserved section of the bar counter between the two angriest fans.

 

I'll definitely try to get the information from LaVelle, unless he's boycotted the Bears season already.

[Guest]

Yeah, I was going for "edited to add."

 

Sounds like Lahey has a low 90s FB and an ok slider and is a former catcher.

 

Does anyone know who we lost or picked up in the minor league portion of the draft? BA hasn't posted it yet.

 

Lost Adalberto Mendez in the AA portion.

So we lost a reliever who is a converted catcher and picked a reliever who is a converted catcher.

 

Both throw in the low 90's with an okay slider.

 

hmm

 

We lost 2 converted catchers (Wells!).

 

Normally trades like this end up costing about $100,000.

[Hosak8]

I thought we'd pick someone better with that pick. Something doesn't seem right. I sense a trade.

 

Don't you know who our GM is?

[Guest]

Nice story on Lahey:

 

In 2006, Lahey was promoted to the High-A Fort Myers Twins and experienced another successful season. Featuring a 90-94 m.p.h. 2-seam fastball which tails through the strike zone and two off speed offerings (a 83-86 m.p.h. split finger and a 82-85 m.p.h. slider), he earned a 7-1 record over 71.2 innings pitched. He also notched nine saves, sported a 4.40 ERA and struck out 56 batters.

 

Hendry from Cubs.com:

 

"We feel it's a good opportunity to add, again, to the bullpen candidates for the club," Cubs general manager Jim Hendry said. "He's a young man who used to catch, a big strong guy. He was converted [to a pitcher] two years ago. He has tremendous life on his fastball, a great sinking fastball and the makings of a good slider."

 

"His stuff on paper seemed to play like you'd want at Wrigley Field -- a ground ball-type guy, a big strong fellow, throws up to 92, 93 [mph], and very durable," Hendry said. "The Twins people have said he has outstanding makeup, a hard worker, full throttle effort once the conversion was made.

 

"He's another guy we'll give a chance to make the bullpen," Hendry said. "He was the one guy we felt was worth the gamble, so we did what we did."

[E.J.]

You really have to think Hendry is going to pull a trade soon because right now we have about 50 candidates for the bullpen.

[Tedward]

More on Lahey from Fleita - BA

 

"He's got real good sink with a ground ball ratio of almost 3-to-1 and the makings of a pretty good slider," Cubs farm director Oneri Fleita said. "It's amazing—I think he has 178, 179 innings and has less than a hit per inning pitched. That's pretty good for a guy who just got converted. We're excited to see him.

 

"You've got to trust your scouts. The backbone of the business is your scouts and Mark Service and Steve Fuller had good reports on him, and Joe Housey saw him recently. You take a stab at it—he's a big, strong durable guy with great makeup and we wanted to roll the dice on it. It wasn't long ago that Carlos Marmol was changed from a catcher to to a pitcher. Boy, if he's half as good as he is, we might have gotten lucky."

[Transmogrified Tiger]

Those comments make it sound like it would be smart to give him a shot at starting at some point.

[Guest]

Toronto was hoping to pick up Lahey but instead got Randy Wells.

[minnesotacubsfan]

I've never heard anything about Lahey and usually I can pick up stuff on most of the minor league players living in MN and wife being a Twins fan.

 

I'll try and talk with the Twins beatwriter tonight if he's at the Bears bar in St. Paul to watch the game. Normally he is. So maybe he'll have some insight.

 

Which bar is that? I'm in Minneapolis. I think I may have seen a story on it sometime, but there's times when I might be able to sneak out to catch a half at a Bears place.

 

Alary's. http://www.alarys.com

 

There was an article in the Star Tribune last year as the founder played for the Bears in the 1940s. He passed away a few years ago and his son runs it. If you listen to KFAN they have some bits sponsored by Alary's and when LaVelle E Neal III comes on to talk Twins they often mention Alary and the Bears.

 

It's a lot of fun. The pics are somewhat outdated, but some of the waitresses do answer the age old question of "what do strippers do on Sundays?" I'm at the reserved section of the bar counter between the two angriest fans.

 

I'll definitely try to get the information from LaVelle, unless he's boycotted the Bears season already.

 

I'm jealous. I'm in DT St Paul but still wont get to Alary's tonite

[St.Paul Cub]

 

I'm jealous. I'm in DT St Paul but still wont get to Alary's tonite

 

Definitely try to get out there sometime. I just found out about it 3 years ago and it's a blast.

[Post Count Padder]

I thought we'd pick someone better with that pick. Something doesn't seem right. I sense a trade.

 

Don't you know who our GM is?

Good point

[Guest]

My updated list of arms for the pen:

 

Can never have too many arms...

 

Righties

 

1. Dempster (?)
   
2. Wood
   
3. Marmol
   
4. Howry
   
5. Wuertz
   
6. Lahey
   
7. Petrick
   
8. Hart
   
9. Ascanio
   
10. Mateo

 

Lefties:

 

1. Eyre
   
2. Cotts
   
3. Pignaiello
   
4. Marshall (?)

[BigbadB]

Be leery of people named Tim.

[badnews]

I am disappointed, but it really seems like a Hendry pick, a big strapping hoss of a pitcher who gets groundball outs? Are you kidding? That's about as Jim Hendry as a raw, speedy outfielder who has the promise for power, gets a 5 tool label, but in reality strikes out a ton and never walks.

 

At the end of the year I don't want to see one of the guys we picked doing well elsewhere. I thought Barton, Bierd, or Fernando Hernandez (the short guy from the White Sox) would've been good picks. All right Jim, let's see what these scouts know.

[questionmarkgrace]

I was very surprised we went after another reliever but i;m more surprised Lubanski wasnt picked at all.

[NCCubFan]

I thought the picks were by worst record...did the Cubs trade to move up? Can you trade to move up?

Picks are traded frequentl. Don't forget the Cubs drafted and traded Josh Hamilton last year. A few years earlier the Orioles drafted Luke Hagerty from the Cubs, then traded him to the Marlins (who eventually returned him to the Cubs).

[St.Paul Cub]

I think the Twins beatwriter is blogging in Nashville, so I didn't get a chance to talk with him. I