Zambrano traded to Marlins for Chris Volstad (P. 8)

[Rob]

How many seasons does Volstad have left under club control? 2? 3?

[XZero771679666304]

How many seasons does Volstad have left under club control? 2? 3?

 

Three.

[Castro13]

Toonster, the guys i listed were just names. Replace them with whoever my point is it really makes no sense spending $4.25 mil this yr on an Of'er when you are rebuilding. Hell put Murton out there for all I care. If they are wanting to completely rebuild then rebuild dont waste over 4 mil on an over 30 yr old outfielder who has no long term value to the club. And your suggestion of him as a 4th outfielder would be even worse. Thats quite a bit of money for a 4th outfielder on a non contending team Edited January 5, 2012 by Castro13

[bukie]

There's no reason to blow a season of eligibility on a lost year either. DeJesus is a good signing.

[TruffleShuffle]

I dunno, it seemed like a no brainer to me, but I'm not as smart as Theo so maybe his strategy is better. To me it seems like a decent way to use resources to get more talent. As it stands right now, it doesn't seem like we are even close to spending the supposed $200 mil budget that many reported, unless that budget is going to fixing Wrigley Field.

 

i don't even care about the $200m or whatever. with the cubs dumping zambrano's money and having ARam's contract expire, they were never going to be able to spend that (especially with the new draft rules) unless they went out and signed a few high-priced free agents. there shouldn't be a requirement to spend a certain amount of money each year; that's a nice way to end up with dumbass contracts. if they love next year's free agent class or something, pocket the profits from this season and then go crazy next year. i'm not excited that the team is probably going to be lousy in 2012, but there are smart people running the organization and i'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt.

[Rob]

How many seasons does Volstad have left under club control? 2? 3?

 

Three.

 

Thought so, but I have no idea when Cots updates the service time numbers.

[Castro13]

There's no reason to blow a season of eligibility on a lost year either. DeJesus is a good signing.

Season of eligibilty of who? BJax? I like the signing when it occured but now that the off season has played out this way it seems a waste and pointless. Put some retread out there and spend the 4.25 savings on Soler or Cespesdes, guys who could actually help in the future.

[TruffleShuffle]

again, you can use that logic and end up with a team full of min salary guys. the cubs can be lousy without being horrendous to the point of torpedoing part of their fan base.

[SouthSideRyan]

How is 2012 going to be the beginning of something that will grow into success other than the fact that it will be the worst record for a while?

 

an actual vision for the future and not taking on more bad contracts.

 

let's be realistic, the cubs' core was lousy and the only way the cubs were going to be any good in 2012 was to make at least a couple of expensive free agent signings or trade the few good prospects we have for good major league players on other teams.

 

Doing literally nothing would also help us have a vision for the future and not take on more bad contracts.

 

What do you mean? That would just run out contracts with absolutely nothing in return.

 

Other than the Marshall trade what have we brought in?

[UMFan83]

I dunno, it seemed like a no brainer to me, but I'm not as smart as Theo so maybe his strategy is better. To me it seems like a decent way to use resources to get more talent. As it stands right now, it doesn't seem like we are even close to spending the supposed $200 mil budget that many reported, unless that budget is going to fixing Wrigley Field.

 

i don't even care about the $200m or whatever. with the cubs dumping zambrano's money and having ARam's contract expire, they were never going to be able to spend that (especially with the new draft rules) unless they went out and signed a few high-priced free agents. there shouldn't be a requirement to spend a certain amount of money each year; that's a nice way to end up with dumbass contracts. if they love next year's free agent class or something, pocket the profits from this season and then go crazy next year. i'm not excited that the team is probably going to be lousy in 2012, but there are smart people running the organization and i'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt.

 

Right they don't have to spend the money, but if the money helps them with their goal of acquiring young talent and building a premier farm system, it makes sense to spend it. I'm not suggesting handing out bad long term contracts, I'm suggesting finding a few older veterans who are willing to sign for 1-2 years at a low cost, bring them aboard and if/when we are bad in July, getting value for them. If we do have a $200 million budget, and we are only at like $140 or so (hypothetical number), it seems like going that route is better than not spending the money.

 

I haven't put a lot of thought into this but the types of people I'd be talking about are names like Lyle Overbay, Michael Cudduyer, Luke Scott, Jorge Cantu, Felipe Lopez, Orlando Cabrera, Eric Chavez, etc. No they aren't going to bring the Cubs some top prospect, but if they play well the first few months of the year, they'll probably find a team desperate enough for a 1B (or 3B or whatever) to give us some sort of prospect with upside. If they do, to me that's a better use of resources than not spending the money that has been budgeted for baseball operations.

Edited January 5, 2012 by UMFan83

[SouthSideRyan]

How many seasons does Volstad have left under club control? 2? 3?

 

1 or 2 when we're trying to win games. (Or 0?)

[Rob]

I put my thoughts up in a front page article, if anybody is interested.

 

I thought about calling Kaplan a racist directly in the thing, but I thought Tim might get mad.

[SouthSideRyan]

I put my thoughts up in a front page article, if anybody is interested.

 

I thought about calling Kaplan a racist directly in the thing, but I thought Tim might get mad.

 

Did you at least touch base on him being run over by a steamroller, Naked gun style?

[toonsterwu]

Toonster, the guys i listed were just names. Replace them with whoever my point is it really makes no sense spending $4.25 mil this yr on an Of'er when you are rebuilding. Hell put Murton out there for all I care. If they are wanting to completely rebuild then rebuild dont waste over 4 mil on an over 30 yr old outfielder who has no long term value to the club. And your suggestion of him as a 4th outfielder would be even worse. Thats quite a bit of money for a 4th outfielder on a non contending team

 

Just to be clear, as I don't think my post was clear, I don't think he's a 4th OF, I think if someone emerges to make him an expensive 4th OF for a year (and we'd need at least 2 to emerge to make that happen), then you can live with that for a year.

 

All in all, I don't get why you are so upset over this. This money is inconsequential overall to our baseball payroll. It doesn't hamper the team short-term (and actually improves it), it doesn't hamper the team long term. It doesn't start the clock on anyone that you don't need to start it on, and it buys time for a top prospect.

 

I mean, I don't think it's that important to save Ricketts that type of money?

[Castro13]

again, you can use that logic and end up with a team full of min salary guys. the cubs can be lousy without being horrendous to the point of torpedoing part of their fan base.

I understand that but it seems to me that most cubs fans understand that a rebuild is happening. David Dejusus isnt going to help the parts of the fan base from torpedoing and using that money to help get guys like Solar or Cespesdes would possibly bring that part of the fan base back when they start contributing like what they are expected to be.

[toonsterwu]

There's no reason to blow a season of eligibility on a lost year either. DeJesus is a good signing.

Season of eligibilty of who? BJax? I like the signing when it occured but now that the off season has played out this way it seems a waste and pointless. Put some retread out there and spend the 4.25 savings on Soler or Cespesdes, guys who could actually help in the future.

 

As it stands now, we still have the room to have DeJesus and go after those guys. If it turns out that the signing of DeJesus prevented a Soler signing (I'm not that enthused about going after Cespedes), then yes, I'd agree with you that it was a problem. It's awfully hard for me to buy 4.25 mil this year as the reason we failed on an IFA like that.

 

_______

 

Total side note, but wasn't that rumored 200 mil budget debunked a long time ago? It came from 1 source, IIRC, while most other places indicated that the baseball budget would be closer to what it was this past year (which, I guess, when you include the draft and FA signings, was what, roughly around 150-160?)

[Sammy Sofa]

David DeJesus isn't keeping the Cubs from signing the Cubans. If Ricketts' comments about the payroll staying around $130 million then they have money to spend.

[Rob]

How is 2012 going to be the beginning of something that will grow into success other than the fact that it will be the worst record for a while?

 

an actual vision for the future and not taking on more bad contracts.

 

let's be realistic, the cubs' core was lousy and the only way the cubs were going to be any good in 2012 was to make at least a couple of expensive free agent signings or trade the few good prospects we have for good major league players on other teams.

 

Doing literally nothing would also help us have a vision for the future and not take on more bad contracts.

 

What do you mean? That would just run out contracts with absolutely nothing in return.

 

Other than the Marshall trade what have we brought in?

 

Four former pretty good prospects in Ian Stewart, Chris Volstad, Travis Wood, and Casey Weathers. Two actual prospects in Sappelt and Torreyes. One semi-prospect in Jeff Bianchi. And David DeJesus, who is just a good player at a very cheap price.

[Rob]

I put my thoughts up in a front page article, if anybody is interested.

 

I thought about calling Kaplan a racist directly in the thing, but I thought Tim might get mad.

 

Did you at least touch base on him being run over by a steamroller, Naked gun style?

 

No, but if you want to make a .gif of that I'll put it in there.

[Castro13]

David DeJesus isn't keeping the Cubs from signing the Cubans. If Ricketts' comments about the payroll staying around $130 million then they have money to spend.

I dont think hes keeping the Cubs from signing the Cubans, but his money is still added into the payroll. Its not a major issue but just 1 I dont see the need in spending 4.25 mil on a guy over 30 who brings zero long term value.

[Rob]

David DeJesus isn't keeping the Cubs from signing the Cubans. If Ricketts' comments about the payroll staying around $130 million then they have money to spend.

I dont think hes keeping the Cubs from signing the Cubans, but his money is still added into the payroll. Its not a major issue but just 1 I dont see the need in spending 4.25 mil on a guy over 30 who brings zero long term value.

 

There's value in keeping at least a decent product on the field so as not to tank attendance and damage revenues.

 

But this team can still compete in 2013 or 2014, and DeJesus can be a part of that.

[Sammy Sofa]

David DeJesus isn't keeping the Cubs from signing the Cubans. If Ricketts' comments about the payroll staying around $130 million then they have money to spend.

I dont think hes keeping the Cubs from signing the Cubans, but his money is still added into the payroll. Its not a major issue but just 1 I dont see the need in spending 4.25 mil on a guy over 30 who brings zero long term value.

 

There's value in keeping at least a decent product on the field so as not to tank attendance and damage revenues.

 

But this team can still compete in 2013 or 2014, and DeJesus can be a part of that.

 

Right. It's not like the Cubs need to play some kind of game to see how little they can spend this season. DeJesus is a valuable player who they got on the cheap who can ideally produce for the next 3 years.

[toonsterwu]

hopefully the next two ... 6.5 mil for him in 2014 isn't that much to gripe about (even as a 4th OF I wouldn't gripe that much about 6.5 mil for him assuming he is still productive), i guess, but i'd much rather hope that, at that point, we buy him out and have either capable talent (or better) replacing him, or at least an intriguing youngster ready for a bigger push and thus move him aside.

 

Actually, I hope he does so well that the team can deal him at midseason for some more assets, this year or next year.

[SouthSideRyan]

Right. It's not like the Cubs need to play some kind of game to see how little they can spend this season.

 

Someone should let Theo know.

[davell]

As far as signing either Cespedes or Soler(who I think fits us better), I read somewhere for Soler anyway, that the majority of hsi contract will probably be coming in a signing bonus. He's expected to receive 20 mill, so if he requires a 15 mill signing bonus, that's 15 mill towards the payroll all at once. Could be why we've cleared so much money already and why we're not looking at larger one year contract guys even.