the NL central 3 years from now...

[davell]

A scenario was given. What exactly did THAT accomplish? You missed the playoffs, have two more years of Aramis, don't have the minor leaguers I mentioned and worsened your draft status and IFA budget very considerably. If you think Aramis has that kind of trade value, more power to you.

 

The request was for a simple, realistic scenario that put the team in contention last year. Not for a scenario that guaranteed we'd be better off than we were.

OK, so you're basically admitting our FO made the right choice.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

OK, so you're basically admitting our FO made the right choice.

 

No. I'm saying that I filled the scenario that was requested, and that shouldn't be taken as an implication that I think it was the best possible scenario.

[USSoccer]

There's been a bunch of whining, but I've yet to see someone present an alternate scenario (a realistic one) where the Cubs compete in 2012 and still add a bunch of young premium talent.

 

Re-sign Ramirez

Sign a couple of useful veteran relief pitchers to get the bullpen to average

Put the best players on the roster from day one (see ya, Clevenger, Mather, Volstad).

 

That'll get you to.500 right there, and you can still do the Rizzo trade and the Marshall trade and sign Soler and draft Almora.

Who are these veteran relievers? And again, if those things happened, congrats you've won half your games, don't have Pierce Johnson, Arodys Vizcaino, Christian Villanueva, went from picking 2nd in this draft and IFA budget to probably in the 15-18 range, missed the playoffs, and have two seasons of Aramis Ramirez to show for it moving forward.

 

Oh no, surely we would not have been able to replace those 3 players with any other combination of decent prospects had we done the bright thing and not set out to be terrible.