Hendry looking per Kaplan

[Backtobanks]

With Lilly coming back, the obvious choice to trade is Gorzelanny.

 

 

How about Gorzelanny + Colvin + Berg/Stevens/Caridad for Scott Hairston + Heath Bell

 

Padres get younger and cheaper.

Cubs get versatile veteran OF plus big-time relief help.

 

this is exactly the sort of trade i don't want. Trading something valuable to add a bullpen arm to a crap team.

 

The Cubs are in a win-now situation, so any trade they make will be giving up young players for what they need now. One obvious need is the bullpen. As for "trading something valuable", Gorzelanny doesn't have a role once Lilly comes back, Colvin seems to be destined to be a 4th OF in the ML, and the three pitching prospects are just that - prospects. If we got Bell, we might not be a "crap team" (assuming the offense comes around).

[davell]

There's probably going to be extremely few teams who are already willing to concede their season at this point. At least not without severe overpaying by someone. And I really don't see the Ricketts willing to let Hendry overpay for something, with the off chance it saves his job. I kind of figure we'll sign Looper and by the time that other teams are willing to deal, we'll be far enough out of it to where buying will make zero sense at all.

[CubColtPacer]

Acquiring pitching is likely to be a bad trade. The offense is what needs to be addressed if you're making a trade. Having said that, the only position where it seems they could add offense right now would be (gulp) SS, unless you're talking about something colossal like trading Ramirez/Soriano/Fukudome, which I seriously doubt. Besides, two of those three are hitting.

 

Yeah, it's really tough to decide what to do with the offense. They haven't hit well at all but that's in large part to the two regulars with the most at-bats being absolutely awful (Theriot, Ramirez) with nobody really being hot to counterbalance. Everyone else is close to their normal ranges (Kosuke is probably the next closest to underperforming while the catcher position is overperforming so far).

 

Really the only thing that can be done is if the Cubs want to suddenly pull the plug on Theriot and call up Castro (which I'm not recommending). Otherwise there isn't much to be done because the expected problem areas have not been problems so far.

 

Normally, at least 1-2 players are really hot every single month which really helps carry an offense through the slumps. It's rare that there isn't at least one random .900-1.000 OPS regular player so far. In the last 2 years, one good year and one bad offensive year, the Cubs averaged between 2 and 3 .900 OPS players per month each year (requiring 50 at-bats in the month). Is that a bad sign of things to come or random statistical variation? It could be either.

[Backtobanks]

The "experts" (aka idiots) weigh in:

 

From Jon Heyman of SI:

 

Heyman received indications that Tom Gorzelanny will remain in the Cubs' rotation when Ted Lilly returns Saturday. That would mean Carlos Zambrano, Ryan Dempster, Randy Wells, or Carlos Silva heads to the bullpen. Given his past experience in the Cubs' pen, Heyman finds Dempster the most logical choice. I respectfully disagree, as Dempster is the Cubs' best starter. I'd make Silva the long man and continue to scour the trade and free agent markets for relief help. Promoting Andrew Cashner merits consideration, if the Cubs don't think a temporary move back to relief would stunt his development.

[Sammy Sofa]

The Cubs are in a win-now situation, so any trade they make will be giving up young players for what they need now. One obvious need is the bullpen. As for "trading something valuable", Gorzelanny doesn't have a role once Lilly comes back, Colvin seems to be destined to be a 4th OF in the ML, and the three pitching prospects are just that - prospects. If we got Bell, we might not be a "crap team" (assuming the offense comes around).

 

That's a gigantic assumption at this point.

 

Treating the bullpen as the team's most pressing need right now would be a waste.

[davell]

By the way, the Padres are 8-6 at the moment and their starting pitching has been excellent, 1-5 actually. So getting them to concede this early would almost DEFINITELY mean we'd be overpaying bigtime for Heath Bell, if we're interested in him. No way whatsoever you get him for spare parts, as was mentioned by someone in this thread. Gorzelanny was had by us last year WITH Grabow for the phenomenal package of Hart and Ascanio. Colvin may have some potential, but he's definitely not the main piece involved in getting what the Pads perceive as an elite closer. If the Pads were to deal him, I feel pretty confident that they'd want quality and not quantity. Unfortunately for us, Vitters for Bell IS probably more along the lines of what they would be looking for. I just hope we're not stupid enough to do it.

[RedFlash]

There's probably going to be extremely few teams who are already willing to concede their season at this point.

 

To add on to this point, the teams that have already concede the season, ala KC, that all willing to trade pretty much have nobody that can help the Cubs. So trading now is pretty much a panic move, one that I hope Hendry refuses to make. Holding pattern is really the best option for Cubs right now.

[Backtobanks]

The Cubs are in a win-now situation, so any trade they make will be giving up young players for what they need now. One obvious need is the bullpen. As for "trading something valuable", Gorzelanny doesn't have a role once Lilly comes back, Colvin seems to be destined to be a 4th OF in the ML, and the three pitching prospects are just that - prospects. If we got Bell, we might not be a "crap team" (assuming the offense comes around).

 

That's a gigantic assumption at this point.

 

Treating the bullpen as the team's most pressing need right now would be a waste.

 

The bullpen is not the most pressing need right now, but there aren't many impact bats available (especially at whatever positions we have an opening). Obviously, we have to assume that players like ARam, Theriot, Tracy, etc. are going to get at least near their career norms or else the season will be over. The offense has been terrible, but one strong relief appearance at the right time might have given us a few more wins.

[Guest]

Catcher might be a possibility (if a bat is available), but they like Hill's defense. :-k

Wait...

 

you want to improve the offense by removing our player with the highest OBP and OPS? Geo has been nothing short of fabulous so far this season (not that many people are noticing that).

[Sammy Sofa]

The Cubs are in a win-now situation, so any trade they make will be giving up young players for what they need now. One obvious need is the bullpen. As for "trading something valuable", Gorzelanny doesn't have a role once Lilly comes back, Colvin seems to be destined to be a 4th OF in the ML, and the three pitching prospects are just that - prospects. If we got Bell, we might not be a "crap team" (assuming the offense comes around).

 

That's a gigantic assumption at this point.

 

Treating the bullpen as the team's most pressing need right now would be a waste.

 

The bullpen is not the most pressing need right now, but there aren't many impact bats available (especially at whatever positions we have an opening). Obviously, we have to assume that players like ARam, Theriot, Tracy, etc. are going to get at least near their career norms or else the season will be over. The offense has been terrible, but one strong relief appearance at the right time might have given us a few more wins.

 

That's completely backwards. There's no rush to shore up the bullpen when you haven't even exhausted all of the in-house options AND the offense is so bad.

[Keener98]

Moving Demp to the pen would definitely be a idiotic move this management would do. I really can't wait till they are all gone

[Cubswin11]

Picking the weekly lineups/rotation out of a hat would likely lead to more success than any trade Hendry could pull off this early in the year.

[third eye]

Moving Demp to the pen would definitely be a idiotic move this management would do. I really can't wait till they are all gone

 

 

Heyman's only logic in making that claim was that Dempster was the one starter with significant bullpen experience. But I don't see them moving him there when they haven't had problems with the closer. With Ricketts watching over him, I can't imagine Hendry being able to explain a $12 million setup/middle relief man - especially since it was his own contract and he's been the best of the bunch as a starter.

[soapy]

Acquiring pitching is likely to be a bad trade. The offense is what needs to be addressed if you're making a trade. Having said that, the only position where it seems they could add offense right now would be (gulp) SS, unless you're talking about something colossal like trading Ramirez/Soriano/Fukudome, which I seriously doubt. Besides, two of those three are hitting.

 

Yeah, it's really tough to decide what to do with the offense. They haven't hit well at all but that's in large part to the two regulars with the most at-bats being absolutely awful (Theriot, Ramirez) with nobody really being hot to counterbalance. Everyone else is close to their normal ranges (Kosuke is probably the next closest to underperforming while the catcher position is overperforming so far).

 

Really the only thing that can be done is if the Cubs want to suddenly pull the plug on Theriot and call up Castro (which I'm not recommending). Otherwise there isn't much to be done because the expected problem areas have not been problems so far.

 

Normally, at least 1-2 players are really hot every single month which really helps carry an offense through the slumps. It's rare that there isn't at least one random .900-1.000 OPS regular player so far. In the last 2 years, one good year and one bad offensive year, the Cubs averaged between 2 and 3 .900 OPS players per month each year (requiring 50 at-bats in the month). Is that a bad sign of things to come or random statistical variation? It could be either.

 

Agreed. They have extremely limited options for upgrading offensively. They're probably going to have to just hope some of these guys come around. They can call up Castro at some point, but I probably wouldn't advocate doing it now. I understand the desire to upgrade the bullpen, but who are you going to get without drastically over-paying in late April?

[A New Era]

Please Ricketts. Fire Hendry before he can do any more damage. You are not in win now mode. You are, and should be focused on, rebuilding mode. Prove you actually know what you are doing, and don't let Hendry do this.

[Guest]

I'm actually hoping they can sell the "Silva is fixed" story to some poor team looking for pitching. If they could get the other team to pick up the rest of the contract and give us a bag of balls, Hendry would come out looking like a genius.

[Banedon]

I'm actually hoping they can sell the "Silva is fixed" story to some poor team looking for pitching. If they could get the other team to pick up the rest of the contract and give us a bag of balls, Hendry would come out looking like a genius.

 

That's the way I was thinking too, but the original report was talking about "not a blockbuster but a decent move"....I'm just not sure that qualifies.

 

But I'm definitely rooting for that.

[SouthSideRyan]

Heyman's only logic in making that claim was that Dempster was the one starter with significant bullpen experience.

 

Sounds like the logic of why Dempster was moved to the rotation in the first place. And why Marshall was put in the pen this year.

[third eye]

Heyman's only logic in making that claim was that Dempster was the one starter with significant bullpen experience.

 

Sounds like the logic of why Dempster was moved to the rotation in the first place. And why Marshall was put in the pen this year.

 

Dempster was making $5 million a year then and Mashall costs almost nothing right now, so it isn't the same situation. Dempster is getting elite starter money and actually living up to his contract. Why would he be the one moved into a less important role?

[SouthSideRyan]

Heyman's only logic in making that claim was that Dempster was the one starter with significant bullpen experience.

 

Sounds like the logic of why Dempster was moved to the rotation in the first place. And why Marshall was put in the pen this year.

 

Dempster was making $5 million a year then and Mashall costs almost nothing right now, so it isn't the same situation. Dempster is getting elite starter money and actually living up to his contract. Why would he be the one moved into a less important role?

 

Just saying, stupid reasons like "he's familiar with the role" aren't uncommon with this organization.

[third eye]

Heyman's only logic in making that claim was that Dempster was the one starter with significant bullpen experience.

 

Sounds like the logic of why Dempster was moved to the rotation in the first place. And why Marshall was put in the pen this year.

 

Dempster was making $5 million a year then and Mashall costs almost nothing right now, so it isn't the same situation. Dempster is getting elite starter money and actually living up to his contract. Why would he be the one moved into a less important role?

 

Just saying, stupid reasons like "he's familiar with the role" aren't uncommon with this organization.

 

Fair point. I shouldn't be counting on reason to ease my anxiety about dumb front office decisions.

[Northside Blues]

Speaking of KC, I wonder if we could dangle Cashner for Soria.

[Backtobanks]

Catcher might be a possibility (if a bat is available), but they like Hill's defense. :-k

Wait...

 

you want to improve the offense by removing our player with the highest OBP and OPS? Geo has been nothing short of fabulous so far this season (not that many people are noticing that).

 

I meant getting a backup C/bat (i.e. - someone like Doutmit), not replacing Soto.

[Backtobanks]

I'm actually hoping they can sell the "Silva is fixed" story to some poor team looking for pitching. If they could get the other team to pick up the rest of the contract and give us a bag of balls, Hendry would come out looking like a genius.

 

There's no way another team is going to pick up the rest of that contract, even if he looks like he's fixed. Getting a team to pick up half of that contract would be miraculous.

[Sammy Sofa]

I'm actually hoping they can sell the "Silva is fixed" story to some poor team looking for pitching. If they could get the other team to pick up the rest of the contract and give us a bag of balls, Hendry would come out looking like a genius.

 

There's no way another team is going to pick up the rest of that contract, even if he looks like he's fixed. Getting a team to pick up half of that contract would be miraculous.

 

Depends on how long he has success. If it's coming down to the wire at the deadline and he's been on the comeback trail since April you could likely move him without having to pay any of the money.