Offseason Rumors

[Sammy Sofa]

What would you give up for him? I like him as a bounceback candidate too, but he's thrown about 150 innings combined the last 3 years and got shelled last year. Plus, he's either 1/9.5 or 2/20 from FA depending on what you do with his option. If Anderson's going to require assets of significance to acquire, then he needs to either have no financial cost or you're better off bringing back Baker.

 

It's not about "what I would give up for him," it's about what they would accept for him. What do they have to gain from taking our garbage? Just because that's what Anderson's risk is worth to us, does not mean that's his "value."

 

You don't go into Best Buy (you shouldn't anyway, screw you derwood) and look at a $1,400 60-inch tv and go "well it would be nice, but I already have this nice 50 inch" and offer the store $400 for it because that's what it's worth to you.

 

I like you.

[Guest]

Anderson is a refurbished Vizio, not a $1400 60".

 

that's not the point so...

 

 

Who does Anderson have this way higher value to than us?

[imb]

The team who's not going to give him up for Darwin Barney? Might as well just hang on to Anderson and hope he brings back more than the 5th .500 ops middle infielder in your organization

[davell]

Anderson is a refurbished Vizio, not a $1400 60".

 

that's not the point so...

 

 

Who does Anderson have this way higher value to than us?

Toronto possibly. Maybe Cleveland. Braves? Phils? Pirates? Pads? Rockies? Any of those teams could see upside with him and since each at least are attempting to contend, would likely be willing to give up more than a guy that there was legit talk about us non-tendering him.

 

Again, it's about fit. Barney makes sense for them how? He doesn't, unless Callaspo is getting moved anyway.

[jersey cubs fan]

I don't know much about this Anderson guy but he seems pretty bad. But Barney is really bad so he's clearly worth more.

[Guest]

What would you give up for him? I like him as a bounceback candidate too, but he's thrown about 150 innings combined the last 3 years and got shelled last year. Plus, he's either 1/9.5 or 2/20 from FA depending on what you do with his option. If Anderson's going to require assets of significance to acquire, then he needs to either have no financial cost or you're better off bringing back Baker.

 

It's not about "what I would give up for him," it's about what they would accept for him. What do they have to gain from taking our garbage? Just because that's what Anderson's risk is worth to us, does not mean that's his "value."

 

You don't go into Best Buy (you shouldn't anyway, screw you derwood) and look at a $1,400 60-inch tv and go "well it would be nice, but I already have this nice 50 inch" and offer the store $400 for it because that's what it's worth to you.

 

I'm not the one who brought up Barney, and this isn't the first time it's been rumored that Beane likes Barney.

 

But you're right in one sense, no one's forcing Oakland to accept what I or the Cubs think is the appropriate value, especially if there's several teams that are seriously pursuing Anderson. I'm just not sure why a team would pay real player value for the right to pay Anderson ~10 million when there's much better options available for a few dollars more AAV and a draft pick. Burnett and Colon are out there without a QO attached if you want a short term commitment too.

 

The point is that for Anderson to be a worthwhile gamble, he needs to have next to zero player or financial cost. More than that and you're wasting money that is not abundant this offseason.

[sneakypower]

i'd give up nearly any non-top-5 guy as the main piece for Brett Anderson- whatever it takes, really

 

we already blew it pretty bad on Chris Young and (maybe) Bourjos and a couple others lesser so, getting trumped on Anderson would be yet another annoying miss

[SouthSideRyan]

Anderson hasn't pitched a full season since 2009. I wouldn't give up any of our top 10 for him

[ctcf]

Seems like the Orioles are trying to temper expectations.

 

"If we're going to be successful, we're going to have to develop additional starting pitchers to come up through our farm system to make an impact on the major league team," Duquette said. "That's where the Orioles are going to get value from their pitching program. It's not going to come from high-priced free agents. So, if people are expecting the Orioles to go out and sign a significant pitcher, I think it's more realistic to look for good pitchers to come up through the farm system."

 

http://www.masnsports.com/school_of_roch/2013/12/day-one-of-the-winter-meetings.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

[ctcf]

Ty Youngfelt @TyYoungfelt

Mets approached Cubs on a Duda for Villanueva swap- no interest on Cubs end...

 

lulz

[CarolinaCubFan]

Ty Youngfelt @TyYoungfelt

Mets approached Cubs on a Duda for Villanueva swap- no interest on Cubs end...

 

lulz

 

Agreed, although it is nice to see Villanueva's name mentioned.

[Guest]

I don't think that's a terrible value for Villanueva, Duda can hit and has 4 years of team control. He's not a great fit for the team as it stands though, and immediate fit is pretty important when trading for a role player like Duda.

[Guest]

ABTY answering questions about the likelihood of a Samardzija trade and about the Cubs' pursuit of Tanaka:

 

Going off the 'buzz in the bar' , a Shark trade seems as much of a sure thing as these types of transactions get... FO has collected enough from around the league to know that they'll get what he need to make the trade happen- now it's a matter of leverage and pulling the right strings to get the best deal...

 

As far as Tanaka, the 20M will be bid and they've been back channel talking to Tanaka and his reps for months- much like it was for Jose Aberu, I don't see any one team completely outbidding the rest (Sox didn't have the high bid) Everyone will likely be around the same four-six years, 15-19M per... Wouldn't be shocked if Tanaka went short term, high AAV ala Cespedes (4 years, 75M type) at which point anyones guess on who he prefers...

[Derwood]

Roy Halladay is retiring

[Fro]

I'm not sure how good of a value Tanaka is if it's going to be $15 million+ a year (probably close to $20 million). Particularly if it's a short-term deal that doesn't even give you all of his prime years.

 

I know everyone projects him to be pretty good over in the US but it's no slam dunk that he'll be as good as expected.

[KingCubsFan]

I'm not sure how good of a value Tanaka is if it's going to be $15 million+ a year (probably close to $20 million). Particularly if it's a short-term deal that doesn't even give you all of his prime years.

 

I know everyone projects him to be pretty good over in the US but it's no slam dunk that he'll be as good as expected.

I don't think anyone really expects his contract to be a good value, anymore. The allure has more to do with the fact that you'll be able to get a pitcher theoretically in his prime years for nothing but money. Typically, you don't get free agents until their best years are behind them.

[Guest]

I'm not sure how good of a value Tanaka is if it's going to be $15 million+ a year (probably close to $20 million). Particularly if it's a short-term deal that doesn't even give you all of his prime years.

 

I know everyone projects him to be pretty good over in the US but it's no slam dunk that he'll be as good as expected.

I don't think anyone really expects his contract to be a good value, anymore. The allure has more to do with the fact that you'll be able to get a pitcher theoretically in his prime years for nothing but money. Typically, you don't get free agents until their best years are behind them.

 

Yeah. Value is low on the list of priorities on this one.

[sneakypower]

Anderson hasn't pitched a full season since 2009. I wouldn't give up any of our top 10 for him

i'd do Vogelbach or Candelario; Anderson has more upside as a pitcher than probably anybody else on our roster come opening day and he's still just 25

 

obviously this comes with the caveat of whether his medicals make you recoil with horror, but if right he can certainly be a poor-man's David Price at a tiny fraction of player cost

 

if you're going to concede contention for one more year, i'd seriously prefer taking gambles with the actual possibility of hitting big and adding another player to your core via extension (or at the very least getting the comp picks); this is why i'm still despondent about losing out on Chris Young, and Liriano last year

[Guest]

I haven't done any research on it, but I don't think there's much precedent for guys who can't stay healthy enough to crack 85 IP in 3 consecutive seasons and then rebound to be good enough to be a "core" piece for 3+ seasons.

[sneakypower]

significantly better than Scott Baker/Carlos Villanueva's chances, i'd wager

 

i guess now would be a good time to go back and look at everyone's declarations last year that Scott Kazmir was toast and not worth bothering with an MLB deal

[Guest]

significantly better than Scott Baker/Carlos Villanueva's chances, i'd wager

 

i guess now would be a good time to go back and look at everyone's declarations last year that Scott Kazmir was toast and not worth bothering with an MLB deal

 

No one's suggesting to pay 10 million plus a decent prospect(or more) for Villanueva or Baker either.

 

Kazmir threw 1.2 MLB innings in 2011 & 2012 and still has only 3 less IP than Anderson the last 3 years. His problem wasn't really injuries like it clearly is with Anderson.

[Clem Fandango]

significantly better than Scott Baker/Carlos Villanueva's chances, i'd wager

 

i guess now would be a good time to go back and look at everyone's declarations last year that Scott Kazmir was toast and not worth bothering with an MLB deal

 

Heh...

 

Scott Kazmir is none of those things, he's [expletive] toast.

 

To be fair, it was in response to why WSR didn't understand why teams weren't throwing MLB contracts at Kazmir, who hadn't really pitched in the majors in two years, and hadn't been effective in 3 years (at the time), and also was fresh out of the independent league where he got lit up to the tune of a 5.34 ERA, a 1.67 WHIP, a 7.2 K/9, and 4.6 BB/9 over 64 innings in 14 starts which is just embarrassing.

 

So yeah, to say Kazmir was toast was not a stretch. He signed to a minor league deal, rightfully so... but WSR was wondering why more teams weren't interested in giving him guaranteed money at the MLB level.

[sneakypower]

significantly better than Scott Baker/Carlos Villanueva's chances, i'd wager

 

i guess now would be a good time to go back and look at everyone's declarations last year that Scott Kazmir was toast and not worth bothering with an MLB deal

 

No one's suggesting to pay 10 million plus a decent prospect(or more) for Villanueva or Baker either.

we'll want to spend money on something, won't we? the remaining dregs of bargain bin SP free agents is just complete gross dog [expletive], so what else is there to even bother with now?

 

playing it safe and only investing in players who are undeniable bargains hasn't really proven to be a super effective strategy; let me remind you 250 AB of Craig Gentry would have led our team in WAR...pretty sickening

[davell]

Levine mentioned this weekend he expects our payroll to be around 100 mill. If that's the case, SOMETHING has to happen anyway.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

I bet we also said a bunch of other pitchers were toast who ended up being toast.