Trading Soriano

[El Duderino]

brian roberts? have I traveled back in time?

[toonsterwu]

Much as I'd like an upgrade from Barney at 2nd, I'm not sure Roberts is a good enough upgrade at this stage of his career. I'm not particularly sold that he'll show more power than he did in 2010. He'll be in his age 34 season. I think I'd rather take some low level lottery ticket than Roberts.

[Illini Iceman]

That article is proof that Rogers doesn't think like our new front office. Soriano for Roberts in a trade of over the hill overpaid players would have been something Hendry would be interested in. When (if) this gets done it I have to think it will look more like the Zambrano deal where the Cubs eat a lot of cash and get some younger player(s) back in return.

[toonsterwu]

To be fair, the Z situation was significantly different, though. Many organizations may ponder eating the money on a player like Z because it is only 1 year and it is viewed as a sunk cost. In Soriano's cast, I wouldn't discount the need for the Cubs to take back a contract to make a trade work because 3/54 is a lot do deal with and sort through. I'd rather eat money and take some low level lottery ticket, but we don't know the internal numbers for the Cubs, and well, many other organizations this year, let alone 3 years down the road. Can the Cubs eat the entire deal? Is another organization even willing to pay a tiny amount (seems like Balimore isn't)? A lot of variables that make it tougher, so another bad contract would help alleviate things.

[davell]

Let's ask Bigbird! Seriously though, I'd trade Soriano and 9 mill total for Roberts any day of the week, not even bothering asking for a prospect or two in return. Reason being is it's 3 at 18 per versus 2 at 10 per. If you send 9 mill, you're still saving 25 million total. Plus, Roberts is a better lottery ticket to bounce back than low level question marks anyway. This being said though, Angelos is still in love with Roberts, he isn't going anywhere.

[Guest]

I'd take Roberts back if it meant that the other player(s) in return for Soriano were better. Taking Roberts as the only player doesn't make much sense. He's no lock to be better than Barney, and we aren't short on cash so there's no need to try to take lesser players to save more cash in the short term.

[Little Slide Rooter]

I know, it's Rogers. And it's just speculation

 

Phil Rogers of the Chicago Tribune suggests the Cubs could ask for Brian Roberts in return for Alfonso Soriano.

Roberts has fallen out of favor with the Orioles and is owed $10 million for each of the next two seasons. The Tribune speculates that a reasonable deal could have the Cubs sending Soriano and $9 million for Roberts and a prospect or two, assuming that both players would be willing to waive their no-trade clause. Given the amount of money still owed on Soriano's contract, Chicago's only option may be to take on a bad contract in any potential trade. Roberts played just 39 games last season, but would offer short-term value if he's able to bounce back from his post-concussion syndrome.

 

I think the FO would prefer a young arm, ala Z for Volstad, but what would the reaction here be if this came to fruition? Is there anyone to buy lower on than Roberts? If he has a revival, he'd be good trade bait.

 

If we picked up enough salary and kicked in another player or prospect(excuse the generalization but I don't know what it would take) wed we have a snowballs chance in hell at getting Marusz or Britton? Theo loves him some former top prospects, especially both being only 24-25.

[Backtobanks]

From MLBTR:

 

•Talks between the Orioles and Cubs were probably not very serious, sources told Rich Dubroff of CSNBaltimore.com. Dan Duquette doesn't want to spend heavily on a designated hitter and even if the Cubs ate about 80% of the $54MM owed to Soriano, the O's would still be on the hook for $3-4MM for each of the next three seasons

[Clem Fandango]

If any of their "fallen from grace" prospect pitchers are coming our way, it's Chris Tillman. You might be able to make a case for Matusz if the player going over with Soriano is a quality prospect. But it's not gonna take a toss in to get him, as he's two years removed from being the #5 prospect in baseball. He has his concerns, but you don't give up on that potential so soon while you still have him for league minimum

 

Britton is going nowhere, he hasn't fallen out of favor, in case you might think he has. He made his debut this year and has great potential and he's under control at league minimum for several years. He's not going anywhere

[toonsterwu]

I said it about Tillman already, but I'd be very, very wary of Matusz as well. There's some strong concerns about his arm. The arm was weak all year, and the velocity was steadily getting worse.

 

I think one of them might bounce back (money would be on Matusz), but I'd be very wary of either.

 

All that said, I don't see Duquette dealing either in a Soriano deal barring the Cubs giving up a good talent as well. And that sort of doesn't do the Cubs any good to do that.

 

Britton is going to be really good. Still prefer him over Jacob Turner, to name another young pitcher that's been bandied about. I'd take Britton over a whole heck of a lot of young arms that get bandied. Don't think he's going anywhere, and anticipate him to be at least a solid 2/3, and should be the top pitcher in their rotation this year.

[Little Slide Rooter]

What about Jake Ariatta? He was a top prospect at one point but never as highly rated as Matusz or Britton. He was #67 in '09 and #99 in '10 but hasnt made out so well in his 2 big league stints.

[Clem Fandango]

I think Arrieta fits the mold, though his advanced statistics don't exactly make his 5.05 ERA seem like it's an aberration. Then again there's that whole "toughest division in baseball" thing

[Clem Fandango]

Also, why do you misspell players names so horribly?

[toonsterwu]

What about Jake Ariatta? He was a top prospect at one point but never as highly rated as Matusz or Britton. He was #67 in '09 and #99 in '10 but hasnt made out so well in his 2 big league stints.

 

I don't see them moving Arrieta in a Soriano type deal. He's raw, and there was always some question if he was a starter or a pen arm long term (debatable change and control), but he's a lock for their rotation right now. "Stuff" is still there.

[Little Slide Rooter]

Also, why do you misspell players names so horribly?

 

Because I don't know how to spell them properly.

[Clem Fandango]

Also, why do you misspell players names so horribly?

 

Is that a rhetorical question, because the closest thing to an answer that I have is that my spell check doesn't catch such errors.

 

Fair enough... on this one.

 

There's no excuse, however, at this point for not knowing that Jorge Soler's last name is NOT spelled Solar

 

That is all

 

P.S. You're not the only one who does that with Soler

[XZero771679666304]

Also, why do you misspell players names so horribly?

 

I suspect the reason behind most of WSR's posting issues stem from just spewing stuff out without much thought, like stream of consciousness, except light on the consciousness.

 

If he re-reads anything he writes before he hits the submit button, I'd be shocked.

[Little Slide Rooter]

Also, why do you misspell players names so horribly?

 

Is that a rhetorical question, because the closest thing to an answer that I have is that my spell check doesn't catch such errors.

 

Fair enough... on this one.

 

There's no excuse, however, at this point for not knowing that Jorge Soler's last name is NOT spelled Solar

 

That is all

 

P.S. You're not the only one who does that with Soler

 

Dammit, you beat me to the edit. I like my second answer better. Pray to god we don't acquire Kila Kalahuii or JP Arrenciaba.

[davell]

Short of DFA'ing Soriano, the more I look at it, there's no chance of us trading him, unless we're taking back an equally awful contract, of which I haven't seen.(other than Wells) Pat Burrell, Jonny Gomes, Raul Ibanez, Vladimir Guerrero, Ryan Ludwick, Luke Scott, Rick Ankiel, Cody Ross, Johnny Damon, Hideki Matsui, and Manny Ramirez are all available and can be had for much less than Soriano, unless we're eating 50 mill basically. Even then, these guys are almost definitely going to be signing one year deals. Getting back a former highly ranked prospect, that's only a year or two removed from that? Abolutely ZERO chance. I thought it might be possible too, but after looking at who all's still out there, it ain't happening folks.

[Sammy Sofa]

Also, why do you misspell players names so horribly?

 

Is that a rhetorical question, because the closest thing to an answer that I have is that my spell check doesn't catch such errors.

 

Fair enough... on this one.

 

There's no excuse, however, at this point for not knowing that Jorge Soler's last name is NOT spelled Solar

 

That is all

 

P.S. You're not the only one who does that with Soler

 

Dammit, you beat me to the edit. I like my second answer better. Pray to god we don't acquire Kila Kalahuii or JP Arrenciaba.

 

Go to Google.

 

Type in the player's name as you think it's spelled.

 

Let Google correct it for you.

 

Copy and paste and learn.

[Exile on Waveland]

Jim Hendry always gets his man.

[Little Slide Rooter]

Also, why do you misspell players names so horribly?

 

Is that a rhetorical question, because the closest thing to an answer that I have is that my spell check doesn't catch such errors.

 

Fair enough... on this one.

 

There's no excuse, however, at this point for not knowing that Jorge Soler's last name is NOT spelled Solar

 

That is all

 

P.S. You're not the only one who does that with Soler

 

Dammit, you beat me to the edit. I like my second answer better. Pray to god we don't acquire Kila Kalahuii or JP Arrenciaba.

 

Go to Google.

 

Type in the player's name as you think it's spelled.

 

Let Google correct it for you.

 

Copy and paste and learn.

 

Seems like an awful lot of hassle to spell a baseball players name, especially posting from a phone. I'd just as soon wing it and if someone correct me that's OK.

[TruffleShuffle]

yeah rather than going to the "hassle" of taking 10 seconds to look something up or rereading a post before hitting submit, mineaswell just annoy everyone on the board with constant misspellings and grammatical errors.

[davearm2]

yeah rather than going to the "hassle" of taking 10 seconds to look something up or rereading a post before hitting submit, mineaswell just annoy everyone on the board with constant misspellings and grammatical errors.

Constant annoying misspellings like, say, mineaswell.

[Little Slide Rooter]

yeah rather than going to the "hassle" of taking 10 seconds to look something up or rereading a post before hitting submit, mineaswell just annoy everyone on the board with constant misspellings and grammatical errors.

 

Not quite sure why people even get so annoyed at such things. I guess I mineswell learn to spell.