Villanueva to the Bullpen; Garza to Start Tuesday

[CaliforniaRaisin]

Sveum suggests the possibiity of a 6-man rotation when Garza comes back. This per Carrie Muskat and Bruce Miles on Twitter.

 

@CarrieMuskat: #Cubs may go to 6 man rotation when Garza returns from DL. Garza's next minor league start Thursday with Iowa

[SouthSideRyan]

Didn't Sveum say no a 6 man rotation like 3 days ago?

[A New Era]

If you're looking to trade Garza, Villanueva, and Feldman, best to keep them as SP through the deadline.

[Andy]

If you're looking to trade Garza, Villanueva, and Feldman, best to keep them as SP through the deadline.

But supposedly they want to extend Garza.

[treebird]

Didn't Sveum say no a 6 man rotation like 3 days ago?

 

yes.

 

maybe he got an order from on high.

[Guest]

If you're looking to trade Garza, Villanueva, and Feldman, best to keep them as SP through the deadline.

But supposedly they want to extend Garza.

Boy I hope not.

[Sammy Sofa]

If you're looking to trade Garza, Villanueva, and Feldman, best to keep them as SP through the deadline.

But supposedly they want to extend Garza.

Boy I hope not.

 

They can probably get him pretty cheap, and the pickings are pretty damn bare both in house and on the FA market.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

Don't screw with Jeff Samardzija just because you can't bear to see Carlos Villanueva or Scott Feldman out of the rotation.

[davell]

If Garza has one more minor league start, he'll then have 13 starts between now and the deadline. The FA SP available in the offseason are putrid. My guess is they'll weight offers versus what he'll sign an extension for and go from there. He wants to be here evidently. If he gives us a nice discount and shows he's healthy by pitching well, I see no reason not to keep him.

 

That said, I kind of wonder if we truly want to lock in 4 spots of our future rotation with Shark, Garza, E-Jax, and Wood. It leaves us one of Appel or Gray for the eventual 5th spot, but I kind of think they'll really attempt to add another young guy via trade, as ABTY mentioned at PSD.

[treebird]

If Garza has one more minor league start, he'll then have 13 starts between now and the deadline. The FA SP available in the offseason are putrid. My guess is they'll weight offers versus what he'll sign an extension for and go from there. He wants to be here evidently. If he gives us a nice discount and shows he's healthy by pitching well, I see no reason not to keep him.

 

That said, I kind of wonder if we truly want to lock in 4 spots of our future rotation with Shark, Garza, E-Jax, and Wood. It leaves us one of Appel or Gray for the eventual 5th spot, but I kind of think they'll really attempt to add another young guy via trade, as ABTY mentioned at PSD.

 

at this point, i really think garza is going to end up signing a 1/10 show-me contract after this season, after which he'll either be good next year and demand way more or still be hurt and then who cares. if anyone is dumb enough to offer us something very significant for him at the deadline, i hope we jump at it. but i'll be very surprised if that happens.

[WrigleyField 22]

If Garza has one more minor league start, he'll then have 13 starts between now and the deadline. The FA SP available in the offseason are putrid. My guess is they'll weight offers versus what he'll sign an extension for and go from there. He wants to be here evidently. If he gives us a nice discount and shows he's healthy by pitching well, I see no reason not to keep him.

 

That said, I kind of wonder if we truly want to lock in 4 spots of our future rotation with Shark, Garza, E-Jax, and Wood. It leaves us one of Appel or Gray for the eventual 5th spot, but I kind of think they'll really attempt to add another young guy via trade, as ABTY mentioned at PSD.

As long as they don't hand out NTC it's really not an issue. Sign 'em and figure it out later. We may not get Appel and if so we may go with a positional player and if we go with Gray he may need a couple years.

[Guest]

i'm kind of leaning towards extension with garza now too, if he comes back and looks alright.

[Little Slide Rooter]

I'm still for trading one of Villanueva or Feldman. A lot of teams could use a quality starting pitcher, and with the possible exceptions of Norris and Nolasco, i can't imagine there's much available at this time. Norris left his last start with back spasms, and at this point, I'd take Villanueva or Feldman over Nolasco. This could be the time to strike. We still have Baker somewhere out there as insurance.

[SouthSideRyan]

If Garza has one more minor league start, he'll then have 13 starts between now and the deadline. The FA SP available in the offseason are putrid. My guess is they'll weight offers versus what he'll sign an extension for and go from there. He wants to be here evidently. If he gives us a nice discount and shows he's healthy by pitching well, I see no reason not to keep him.

 

That said, I kind of wonder if we truly want to lock in 4 spots of our future rotation with Shark, Garza, E-Jax, and Wood. It leaves us one of Appel or Gray for the eventual 5th spot, but I kind of think they'll really attempt to add another young guy via trade, as ABTY mentioned at PSD.

 

Why would any of those spots be locked in?

[Little Slide Rooter]

If Garza has one more minor league start, he'll then have 13 starts between now and the deadline. The FA SP available in the offseason are putrid. My guess is they'll weight offers versus what he'll sign an extension for and go from there. He wants to be here evidently. If he gives us a nice discount and shows he's healthy by pitching well, I see no reason not to keep him.

 

That said, I kind of wonder if we truly want to lock in 4 spots of our future rotation with Shark, Garza, E-Jax, and Wood. It leaves us one of Appel or Gray for the eventual 5th spot, but I kind of think they'll really attempt to add another young guy via trade, as ABTY mentioned at PSD.

 

Why would any of those spots be locked in?

 

Since the Rizzo extension, there's been talk that Shark and Wood are up next. Not sure how much base there is to it though.

[SouthSideRyan]

If Garza has one more minor league start, he'll then have 13 starts between now and the deadline. The FA SP available in the offseason are putrid. My guess is they'll weight offers versus what he'll sign an extension for and go from there. He wants to be here evidently. If he gives us a nice discount and shows he's healthy by pitching well, I see no reason not to keep him.

 

That said, I kind of wonder if we truly want to lock in 4 spots of our future rotation with Shark, Garza, E-Jax, and Wood. It leaves us one of Appel or Gray for the eventual 5th spot, but I kind of think they'll really attempt to add another young guy via trade, as ABTY mentioned at PSD.

 

Why would any of those spots be locked in?

 

Since the Rizzo extension, there's been talk that Shark and Wood are up next. Not sure how much base there is to it though.

 

Ok? Why would that lock them in?

[jersey cubs fan]

If Garza has one more minor league start, he'll then have 13 starts between now and the deadline. The FA SP available in the offseason are putrid. My guess is they'll weight offers versus what he'll sign an extension for and go from there. He wants to be here evidently. If he gives us a nice discount and shows he's healthy by pitching well, I see no reason not to keep him.

 

That said, I kind of wonder if we truly want to lock in 4 spots of our future rotation with Shark, Garza, E-Jax, and Wood. It leaves us one of Appel or Gray for the eventual 5th spot, but I kind of think they'll really attempt to add another young guy via trade, as ABTY mentioned at PSD.

 

Why would any of those spots be locked in?

 

Since the Rizzo extension, there's been talk that Shark and Wood are up next. Not sure how much base there is to it though.

 

Ok? Why would that lock them in?

 

Extensions for Wood, Shark and Garza would certainly lock them into rotation spots in 2014, and Jackson already is.

[SouthSideRyan]

The Red Sox extended/signed Arroyo to a below-market value contract and then immediately traded him to Cincinnati. There's no reason you can't extend Wood, then trade him away.

[Cubswin11]

The Red Sox extended/signed Arroyo to a below-market value contract and then immediately traded him to Cincinnati. There's no reason you can't extend Wood, then trade him away.

Or extend him and if an opportunity comes up to add a guy that's an upgrade over him simply move him to the pen/make him the long guy. It's not like an extension for him is going to be crazy money and pitching depth is good. It's not like he wouldn't find himself getting 10ish starts a year as the long guy/6th man with pitcher attrition rates.

[jersey cubs fan]

The Red Sox extended/signed Arroyo to a below-market value contract and then immediately traded him to Cincinnati. There's no reason you can't extend Wood, then trade him away.

 

There's a chance anybody could be traded at any time, as long as they don't have a no-trade clause. But an extension for those three guys at this point in time would essentially lock them into 2014 rotation spots. Same is true for Castro and Rizzo.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

The free agent market is Garza, Josh Johnson, Phil Hughes and a bunch of dreck. The most interesting starting pitching prospect we have currently actually pitching above low A is Alberto Cabrera.

 

Locking in too many starting pitchers is not a problem for us.

[WrigleyField 22]

Yes, I'm totally okay with "essentially" locking in 4 spots.

 

Only argument against it is taking away payroll from the offense, but we're much more equipped there to get some pre-arb contributions there. And it's likely that the extensions will be fair and below FA comparables.

[jersey cubs fan]

The free agent market is Garza, Josh Johnson, Phil Hughes and a bunch of dreck. The most interesting starting pitching prospect we have currently actually pitching above low A is Alberto Cabrera.

 

Locking in too many starting pitchers is not a problem for us.

 

Yeah, I mean I don't really think it's a problem, because of the complete lack of a pipeline and the inability/prohibitive cost to go out and acquire more pitching, not to mention that even if they draft a stud #1 he's no lock for opening week 2014. But I don't see how extensions for those guys would be seen as anything but locking them into the rotation.

[dew1679666265]

Somebody explain to me why it's a good idea to extend Wood now. Yeah, he's been really good so far this season, but a lot of it appears to be luck (83% LOB rate! .186 BABIP! .68 HR/9 and a 4.46 xFIP).

 

If the argument is that an extension would likely be cheaper than going year by year with him, then fine. But that seems dubious considering he's having far and away his best ML season ever (SSS) and his traditional stats (ERA and W/L) are incredible and solid, respectively. If it's just purely a financial thing, then I'll trust the board's judgement, but if it's a lock him up because he's a great asset thing, I think we're jumping the gun more than a little.

[davell]

Well, I'd like to see him extended, but that ship has probably sailed, since the reason you give someone an extension pre-arb is to get a nice discount. I think he'll have 4 arb years and with them starting next year, you'd be negotiating at a slight point of weakness. Not only is he pitching great, he's getting a nice raise next year under any circumstance. No, I don't see his current rate as being sustainable, but I do think its possible he could turn into something better than a back end type.

 

If you buy out his arb years, you almost always try to get a FA year or two as well, so giving him a 5 or 6 year deal, unless its cheap, doesn't make a lot of sense. And I doubt he'd do it when he's pitching like this anyway.