Aramis coming around?

[Old Style]

cantu is a bad defender; beltre is good or very good.

 

Aram wasn't a good defender in Pittsburgh, was he? If I recall, that was the one major knock on him when we traded for him.

He was called Error-Miss when we picked him up.

[sweetpeteman]

There are several teams I could see at least making an attempt at ARam this off-season if he opts out (budget numbers according to Cot's):

 

Red Sox: Lowell is a FA, Ortiz has a club option that I doubt gets picked up, and Beltre is likely to opt out, especially with the weak FA class. Further, V-Mart is a FA and Bill Hall could be gone. They have the money and the need.

 

Angels: The have a lot of people due raises next year, but are still only at ~$80mil right now. Their current roster sits at ~$120mil. With their 3B options not being stellar (Brenden Wood hasn't developed the way they wanted and could be trade bait), they could be looking for offense.

 

White Sox: 2011 budget currently sits at ~$66mil, with ~$100mil being their probable cap. Konerko and Pierzynski are both FA, and they only have 4 or 5 players due raises through Arb. at this time. Their current 3Bman is Teahan, who isn't exactly a stellar bat at a position where you're usually looking for some power.

 

Tigers: Also losing a lot of budget restriction is the Tigers, who could have nearly $80mil coming off the books (depending on Magglio's option vesting or not). Otherwise its still ~$65 mil. (Bonderman, Inge, Willis, Robertson, Damon, and Laird are all gone).

 

Cubs: Duh.

 

 

Also to consider:

 

Mariners: Losing ~$20 mil from the books

Dodgers: Have $40 mil coming off the books

 

 

 

Discussed but not likely:

 

Phillies: Already near their budget without Arb raises. (Blanton is going to go from $3mil this year to $10mil next year)

[dew1679666265]

cantu is a bad defender; beltre is good or very good.

 

That's the only benefit Beltre has over Cantu, though. It's a pretty big one, but I'm not comfortable with the idea of paying a 32 year old Beltre $10+ million over multiple years.

[erik316wttn]

Pass on Beltre. He seems like a contract year player to me, last year in Seattle excluded.

 

After posting his 1.017 OPS his last year in LA, he posted OPS's of .716, .792, .802, .784. .683. Granted, Safeco isn't the best hitter's ballpark there is, but my God.

 

Now that he can opt out in Boston after this year he's posting a .917 OPS. That kind of player always makes me leery.

[TruffleShuffle]

i think he is all the way around now

[ConstableRabbit]

Excluding tonight he's OPSing like 1.100 since he got back.

[Cubswin11]

:oldbluekoolaid:

[Bixby]

Does anybody else kinda hope this hot streak gives him the numbers to opt out in the off-season? With Vitters looming and Ramirez's age, I think it might be best to have his 14 million to spend on shoring up the rotation or getting an upgrade at RF/2B.

[Sammy Sofa]

Does anybody else kinda hope this hot streak gives him the numbers to opt out in the off-season? With Vitters looming and Ramirez's age, I think it might be best to have his 14 million to spend on shoring up the rotation or getting an upgrade at RF/2B.

 

Vitters is not looming; he's still several years away.

 

It wouldn't be a bad thing at all if he opted out, but I'm starting to not mind if he didn't. There simply isn't much of a FA market between now and next season.

[Cubswin11]

I am fine with overpaying Ramirez a little at $14m for next year if it means we don't rush Vitters. Which I doubt because he hasn't given us a real reason to believe he will be ready by next year, even though I think he will be ready within the next 2 1/2-3 years. I would much rather we just have Ramirez for next year at $14m and figure out 3B in 2012 than give a guy like Cantu, Huff, or Wiggington a multi year deal.

[TruffleShuffle]

upgrade in RF? (a) who's out there and (b) where's fukudome going? we already have four OF... don't sign another one.

 

at this point i'm just hoping ARam doesn't go too crazy in the second half, opt out and get signed by the red sox. maybe just a .800 ops the rest of the way so that we know he's still good.

[Sammy Sofa]

What would worry the most about Aramis opting out is if Hendry really is still in charge into next season.

[Outshined_One]

Part of me hopes Ramirez opts out just because it'd give the Cubs incentive to blow the team up, trade off veterans, and basically spend a year focusing on rebuilding the farm system and developing young players. Even if Lee and Lilly come back, Ramirez leaving would really hurt the team offensively, especially considering the lack of quality 3B that will be available in free agency and down on the farm.

 

However, if Ramirez comes back, I could talk myself into thinking this team could compete for the division. I'd really, really, really hate myself for thinking it, but the lineup could hit reasonably well. The rotation and bullpen should be halfway decent, too.

[Sammy Sofa]

Part of me hopes Ramirez opts out just because it'd give the Cubs incentive to blow the team up, trade off veterans, and basically spend a year focusing on rebuilding the farm system and developing young players.

 

I have no idea why it requires fielding the shittiest MLB team possible to do the bold parts.

[davell]

Part of me hopes Ramirez opts out just because it'd give the Cubs incentive to blow the team up, trade off veterans, and basically spend a year focusing on rebuilding the farm system and developing young players.

 

I have no idea why it requires fielding the [expletive] MLB team possible to do the bold parts.

 

 

Without answering for Outshined, my guess would be we'd have to trade away some of our better minor leaguers to compete next year. Because the free agency class is weak and we conceivably won't have alot of money to work with either.

 

 

If I'm Ricketts, I lower ticket prices next year as a sign of good faith, drop payroll down to 115-120ish mill and spend, spend, spend on the 2011 draft and international signings. In fact, I'd have already done that for 2010 as well, once it was apparent we weren't going to be making the playoffs.

[Sammy Sofa]

Part of me hopes Ramirez opts out just because it'd give the Cubs incentive to blow the team up, trade off veterans, and basically spend a year focusing on rebuilding the farm system and developing young players.

 

I have no idea why it requires fielding the [expletive] MLB team possible to do the bold parts.

 

 

Without answering for Outshined, my guess would be we'd have to trade away some of our better minor leaguers to compete next year. Because the free agency class is weak and we conceivably won't have alot of money to work with either.

 

OK, but why does the team have to be blown up to do the bold parts? It's not like they have a slew of prospects beating down the door who need MLB time. I'm obviously not saying they need to cling to all of their veterans, but why "blow the team up" when the FA class is so bad? It's not like they'd be able to net much in return. Trade the players there's actually a demand for, but don't trade them just to trade them.

[davell]

Part of me hopes Ramirez opts out just because it'd give the Cubs incentive to blow the team up, trade off veterans, and basically spend a year focusing on rebuilding the farm system and developing young players.

 

I have no idea why it requires fielding the [expletive] MLB team possible to do the bold parts.

 

 

Without answering for Outshined, my guess would be we'd have to trade away some of our better minor leaguers to compete next year. Because the free agency class is weak and we conceivably won't have alot of money to work with either.

 

OK, but why does the team have to be blown up to do the bold parts? It's not like they have a slew of prospects beating down the door who need MLB time. I'm obviously not saying they need to cling to all of their veterans, but why "blow the team up" when the FA class is so bad? It's not like they'd be able to net much in return. Trade the players there's actually a demand for, but don't trade them just to trade them.

 

You're right, it doesn't. Playing devil's advocate though, couldn't you see us keeping Aramis and then trying to trade for some guys to fill out the team and in the process, hurting the system......Unfortunately, I know I could imagine that happening. To me, that's the way the system doesn't get concentrated on this offseason.

[erik316wttn]

Holy crap, 3 HR last night?

 

Sorry I missed that.

[Prizefight]

 

OK, but why does the team have to be blown up to do the bold parts? It's not like they have a slew of prospects beating down the door who need MLB time. I'm obviously not saying they need to cling to all of their veterans, but why "blow the team up" when the FA class is so bad? It's not like they'd be able to net much in return. Trade the players there's actually a demand for, but don't trade them just to trade them.

 

 

Agreed completely. If Aramis performs up to his career averages next year, you are getting a deal at 14.6m. Take him out of this lineup for next year, where in world are your RBI's coming from? Obviously, the Cubs should speak with his agent and try to get a feel if he's going to take the option or not and act accordingly. If the team gets no signal from Aramis one way or the other then you plan to keep him going into next year with only two scenarios possible and neither one of them bad: A) He stays on next year and you get a really good player for a bit below market value or B) he opts out and that's 30m over the next two years that we don't have to play.

[ConstableRabbit]

He's now

 

.354/.393/.817

 

Since returning. :shock:

[SouthSideRyan]

Aramis has now passed Derrek Lee in OPS

[lumafia]

He's now

 

.354/.393/.817

 

Since returning. :shock:

 

If you remove his numbers from his first game back (he was 0 for 3 on 6/25), his numbers are:

 

.367/.405/.848

[Flames24Rulz]

Aramis has now passed Derrek Lee in OPS

 

Someone said in the game thread on either Friday or Saturday that Ramirez was going to pass Lee in OPS in the middle of the upcoming week. Good call.

[TruffleShuffle]

hell, how about just the last 12 games:

 

21-48, 17 runs, 5 doubles, 1 triple, 9 homers, 24 RBI, .438/.462/1.146/1.607

 

9 homers, 15 XBH's, 24 RBI in 12 games... yowza

[abuck1220]

man, the offense will suck next year if ramirez leaves.