Do we need more moves?

[Guest]

I don't see Howry on the depth chart????

D'oh!!!

[don_kessinger_was_good]

I agree with some other posts--much as I'd like to see the Cubs acquire Greene for SS, what incentive do the Padres have to trade him? They don't have a similar quality replacement for SS that I can see. If we could convince them that Pie + Cedeno is a good deal, I'd go for it, but I can't believe Towers is that myopic.

 

Supposing he were though....with Pie gone, the Cubs could always sign Mike Cameron for CF and call it an offseason. Soriano, Cameron, Kosuke, Ramirez, Greene, Roberts (I'm assuming Jim gets his man), Lee, and Soto. With Ward, DeRosa, Theriot, Blanco, and one of Fuld/Pagan for the bench. That's a helluva team.

[BigbadB]

Say no to Cameron. He's suspended for the first 25 games of the season AND he would cost draft picks. The Padres offered him arbitration.

[Butterscup1679666578]

I don't think we're going to get Roberts at this point. Which is fine, as DeRosa should be playing everyday anyways. If we were able to make a move that involved Pie for Greene, I wouldn't mind taking a flyer on Kenny Lofton for a year. He can roam CF and leadoff for us. He's pretty much a guarantee to have a .350+ OBP and steal 20 bases.

[GoCubsGo1679625768]

So whats the latest with Alexei Ramirez ?

[Backtobanks]

The Cubs have a lot of tradeable players of dubious quality, but they might be able to make up for in quantity what they lack in quality. Murton no longer has a role with this team, one of Theriot/Cedeno could certainly be moved, and at least one of Marshall, Marquis, Dempster, Gallagher and Eyre are moveable. The question should be (a) what teams might be interested in some of these guys, that also (b) have someone the Cubs could use? I will assume we do not have the talent quality (if Pie and Hill are untouchable) to put together a competitive package for either Bedard or Santana.

 

I think that is one of the strengths of this team. Packaging some of these "spare" parts should get us an upgrade at SS or back-of-the-rotation starter. Marshall, Cedeno, and Murton are not only "moveable parts", but players who seem to be unwanted by the Cubs. I know we tend to build up our prospects, but I do believe that these three have a chance to have decent major league careers if they are given a chance to play and I can't believe there aren't some GMs that would love to have them.

[BigbadB]

So whats the latest with Alexei Ramirez ?

 

This was posted at Rotoworld on December 6th:

 

Agent Jaime Torres said he met with five teams with interest in Alexei Ramirez at the meetings and is likely to talk to two more.

 

The Indians sent a scout to watch Ramirez in the Dominican Republic last week and could be one of the teams. It's unclear whether Ramirez, a Cuban defector, is yet eligible to field offers from MLB teams. As of last week, he still has residency issues to clear up.

[WrigleyinEngland]

I know there is alot of talk about us not having 'quality' prospects to deal however not wanting to sound like a kool aid drinker i would try and unload Marquis and let Dempster,Gallagher,Marshall and Hart fight for the last 2 rotation spots. I give Cedeno his last shot at SS and let Pie play with no pressure in CF. I fit Murton in to the right spots to hit vs LHP and raise his trade value. What i'm getting at is that i feel the value with our prospects at the moment is on our team rather than sending 4 or 5 for 1 player. If Gallagher,Marshall and Murton start well you suddenly have a package to get something great rather than currently only having enough chips to get a marginal upgrade ie roberts,hudson et al.

[USSoccer]

At this point, I would probably prioritize the needs in this order:

 

1-Starting pitcher

1a-SS

2-RH bench bat

3-LH bench bat.

 

Jersey said it best, though. This team isn't really much better tha last year's version, and it would be nice to not have to rely on incompetent opponents or extraordinary luck to win.

[rchap24]

At this point, I would probably prioritize the needs in this order:

 

1-Starting pitcher

1a-SS

2-RH bench bat

3-LH bench bat.

 

Jersey said it best, though. This team isn't really much better tha last year's version, and it would be nice to not have to rely on incompetent opponents or extraordinary luck to win.

 

Agree with this though I think 1. Starter 1a. SS 2. CF (like Lofton for a year) and so on.....

[A New Era]

Yes we are a good enough team now. I think we are an 87-89 win team right now. I would really like to use some of our trading chips to get a quality #2 or #3 type pitcher so it would be

 

Z

Lilly

New RH

Hill

Marquis

 

If we do not trade for position players I really like just giving Cedeno and Pie an EXTENDED shot (IE not 2 weeks of slumping then down to the minors)

 

Soriano

Derosa

Lee

Ramirez

Fukudome

Soto

Pie

Cedeno

P

 

That's the lineup I'd like to see coming out of ST atleast.

[Bobson Dugnutt]

I like the idea of Lofton for the outfield. He likely continue to be productive next year, and shouldn't cost a whole lot. Would he accept a bench role? Assuming we keep Pie, Lofton would be a nice left-handed bench option. If Pie ends up going in some sort of trade, Murton/Lofton would make for a very nice platoon.

 

More importantly, though, I think shortstop needs to be upgraded. I've seen Greene's name tossed out countless times recently, but his availability seems to be based largely on speculation. Other than Greene, is anyone available? We need to upgrade, and I don't see the Cubs giving Cedeno much of a shot. Unfortunately, I don't see them actively pursuing a shortstop from outside the organization either. But, if they decided to, are there any other names out there besides Greene?

[BigbadB]

I'd see what it would take to get Jhonny Peralta.

[Little Slide Rooter]

If we can nab a solid starter and/or closer, go for it. A quality short stop would have been nice, but that ship has sailed. Otherwise, theres no use making a move just for the sake of making move.

[rawaction]

Peralta is probably most likely to be available in trade. But would be very expensive. Don't know how they would feel about trading in the division, but Cincinnati has Keppinger and the other Alex Gonzalez at SS. Kep's clearly ready. Gonzalez had a very solid year. I'd really like to see if the Dodgers would be interested in trading Rafael Furcal. I'm not really sure how the Cubs would matchup with them, though. Would probably have to be a 3-way trade.

 

And speaking of which, here's my attempt!

 

Cubs get: Furcal and Thomas Diamond

Dodgers get: Blalock, Theriot, CJ Wilson

Rangers get: Marshall, Ethier, Pie, Atkins

[Guest]

I'd say SS is a much bigger necessity than another starting pitcher is and if I had a choice of getting one or the other but not both, I'd definitely pick the SS upgrade.

[WrigleyinEngland]

SS is the most logical as Hendry has had Pie as his project since taking over as GM, they want to give him a legit shot and he obviously has more upside than Cedeno/The riot.

[ThePenguin11]

I'm not sold on this team at all. As presently constituted, this is not a World Series contender. They cannot compete with the top AL teams even if they are one of the better NL teams. I am tired of leaving all the bullets in the gun and not pulling the trigger with our minor league players. Hendry should go ahead and trade just about any of these guys for the best MLB talent that can help him now before they turn into the next Jason Dubois or the next Corey Patterson.

 

I see teams getting aggresive like the D-Backs, acquiring Dan Haren or the Tigers trading the farm Cabrera and wonder what the hell Hendry is waiting for. I'm not sure why he places so much value on guys that he may not be around to see develop anyway.

[SouthSideRyan]

I'm not sold on this team at all. As presently constituted, this is not a World Series contender. They cannot compete with the top AL teams even if they are one of the better NL teams. I am tired of leaving all the bullets in the gun and not pulling the trigger with our minor league players. Hendry should go ahead and trade just about any of these guys for the best MLB talent that can help him now before they turn into the next Jason Dubois or the next Corey Patterson.

 

I see teams getting aggresive like the D-Backs, acquiring Dan Haren or the Tigers trading the farm Cabrera and wonder what the hell Hendry is waiting for. I'm not sure why he places so much value on guys that he may not be around to see develop anyway.

 

As a contrast you have the Yankees holding to Chamberlain, Hughes, and Kennedy. You sound dangerously close to "trade away all prospects for guys in the majors" and that strategy isn't going to work unless(ironically) you have a 200M payroll. Pre-FA players are the most valuable commodity in baseball. Trading them all away because we've had horrible drafting and developing over the past 15 years doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Especially when it was as recent as this season that 3/5 of our rotation was homegrown. That's not to mention of course

 

Geovany Soto.

[ThePenguin11]

I'm not sold on this team at all. As presently constituted, this is not a World Series contender. They cannot compete with the top AL teams even if they are one of the better NL teams. I am tired of leaving all the bullets in the gun and not pulling the trigger with our minor league players. Hendry should go ahead and trade just about any of these guys for the best MLB talent that can help him now before they turn into the next Jason Dubois or the next Corey Patterson.

 

I see teams getting aggresive like the D-Backs, acquiring Dan Haren or the Tigers trading the farm Cabrera and wonder what the hell Hendry is waiting for. I'm not sure why he places so much value on guys that he may not be around to see develop anyway.

 

As a contrast you have the Yankees holding to Chamberlain, Hughes, and Kennedy. You sound dangerously close to "trade away all prospects for guys in the majors" and that strategy isn't going to work unless(ironically) you have a 200M payroll. Pre-FA players are the most valuable commodity in baseball. Trading them all away because we've had horrible drafting and developing over the past 15 years doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Especially when it was as recent as this season that 3/5 of our rotation was homegrown. That's not to mention of course

 

Geovany Soto.

 

I never said trade them all away. I'm saying that for impact talent at the major league level, these guys need to be thought of as tradeable assets. If we are really trying to win a world series, we need to be the team going out and getting a Dan Haren or an Erik Bedard.

 

Soto's been a nice surprise so far, but let's not go crazy about a guy who started mashing AAA in his third year their. In 108 games in AAA soto had 8 HR and 38 RBI. Miraculously one year later Soto mashes 26 HR and 109 RBI. Something does not add up there. He's either completely mastered AAA pitching or he's been "training" with Rocket Clemens. His production was definitely good after being called up last year and his defense is great, but the sample is only 18 games. I like him, but I'm not ready to retire his number quite yet.

[questionmarkgrace]

soto dropped a lot of weight last off season and the hard work paid off. I doubt Soto was ever 'training' inotherwords taking steroids ala Roger Clemens. If anything he stopped hanging out with Cecil Fielder at the buffet line.

[TheRaven]

IMO we need to add a top 3 starting pitcher, need to consider getting a real closer & would help our offense immensely if we got a real leadoff hitter to play either center (Figgins) or 2B (Roberts) so we can move strikeout king (soriano) down in the order where he needs to be. I doubt any of this happens, however. Another year of no closer & w/ Sori batting leadoff is another year of coming up short.

 

We already have someone who could lead off with DeRosa.

[CyHawk_Cub]

IMO we need to add a top 3 starting pitcher, need to consider getting a real closer & would help our offense immensely if we got a real leadoff hitter to play either center (Figgins) or 2B (Roberts) so we can move strikeout king (soriano) down in the order where he needs to be. I doubt any of this happens, however. Another year of no closer & w/ Sori batting leadoff is another year of coming up short.

 

We already have someone who could lead off with DeRosa.

 

:sarcasm: Yeah, but DeRo clearly lacks the base-stealing speed required of a lead-off hitter :sarcasm:

[SouthSideRyan]

soto dropped a lot of weight last off season and the hard work paid off. I doubt Soto was ever 'training' inotherwords taking steroids ala Roger Clemens. If anything he stopped hanging out with Cecil Fielder at the buffet line.

 

Yeah it's not often a guy drops 20 pounds and is accused of taking steroids that same season.

[Ding Dong Johnson]

soto dropped a lot of weight last off season and the hard work paid off. I doubt Soto was ever 'training' inotherwords taking steroids ala Roger Clemens. If anything he stopped hanging out with Cecil Fielder at the buffet line.

 

Yeah it's not often a guy drops 20 pounds and is accused of taking steroids that same season.

I'd take me some steroids if it would help me drop 20