Bruce Levine reports Cubs looking at three relievers

[Hacking Out Machine]

[Piling on]Ironic that those two KC relievers' availability is likely, at least in part, due to the presence of Andy Sisco.[/Piling on]

 

Yeah, but KC would be smart to trade for Sisco's Rule V rights so they could send him down to AA to retool him as a starter. Otherwise it would be a wasted draft pick IMO. Trading Dubois and Sisco's rights for Affeldt sounds like a decent trade to me.

 

Excuse my first post, but I don't think KC has any intention of trading for Sisco's rights right now, because he is actually helping them at the major league level. They aren't going anywhere, so what is the danger in keeping him on the roster? He's still young, so they can start him in AAA next year if they want to go that route.

 

Also, I don't see the point in acquiring Affeldt. He's had some flashes of competence, but what has he ever done to make himself desirable to get, other than that shiny "veteran" label? Arm troubles and middling performance don't excite me. I don't think he'd be an upgrade anywhere on the roster. I'm sure he's not as good as Rich Hill.

[Outshined_One]

[Piling on]Ironic that those two KC relievers' availability is likely, at least in part, due to the presence of Andy Sisco.[/Piling on]

 

Yeah, but KC would be smart to trade for Sisco's Rule V rights so they could send him down to AA to retool him as a starter. Otherwise it would be a wasted draft pick IMO. Trading Dubois and Sisco's rights for Affeldt sounds like a decent trade to me.

 

Excuse my first post, but I don't think KC has any intention of trading for Sisco's rights right now, because he is actually helping them at the major league level. They aren't going anywhere, so what is the danger in keeping him on the roster? He's still young, so they can start him in AAA next year if they want to go that route.

 

Also, I don't see the point in acquiring Affeldt. He's had some flashes of competence, but what has he ever done to make himself desirable to get, other than that shiny "veteran" label? Arm troubles and middling performance don't excite me. I don't think he'd be an upgrade anywhere on the roster. I'm sure he's not as good as Rich Hill.

 

Welcome aboard!

[CubbieSouthpaw]

I'd rather have Preston Wilson than Juan Encarnacion.

 

But, then again, I don't want either.

 

Agreed. I'll take Matt Stairs over either of those 2 guys any day of the week and twice on Sunday.

 

I vote NO on all three. Makes no sense to trade for any of these.

[erik316wttn]

Bruce Levine was just on Mac, Jurko, and Harry. He said the Cubs are looking at three relievers right now:

 

Baez - Tampa Bay

MacDougal - KC

Affeldt - KC (he's on the DL right now)

 

He also said the Cubs continue to talk to Colorado about P Wilson.

 

Glendon Rusch is apparently available, although he probably wouldn't be involved in trades for any of the above players.

 

Did he say a trade was eminant within the next 2 days? :lol:

 

He also reported a huge blockbuster was imminent about a month ago, leading many fans to believe Dunn was coming here, and then didn't do any follow-up reports after he reported it the first time.

[burnt out cubbie fan]

[Piling on]Ironic that those two KC relievers' availability is likely, at least in part, due to the presence of Andy Sisco.[/Piling on]

 

Yeah, but KC would be smart to trade for Sisco's Rule V rights so they could send him down to AA to retool him as a starter. Otherwise it would be a wasted draft pick IMO. Trading Dubois and Sisco's rights for Affeldt sounds like a decent trade to me.

 

Excuse my first post, but I don't think KC has any intention of trading for Sisco's rights right now, because he is actually helping them at the major league level. They aren't going anywhere, so what is the danger in keeping him on the roster? He's still young, so they can start him in AAA next year if they want to go that route.

 

Also, I don't see the point in acquiring Affeldt. He's had some flashes of competence, but what has he ever done to make himself desirable to get, other than that shiny "veteran" label? Arm troubles and middling performance don't excite me. I don't think he'd be an upgrade anywhere on the roster. I'm sure he's not as good as Rich Hill.

Welcome aboard.

 

I think that the main motivation would be so that he could go down in the minors and work on starting and get more innings in. This way he would be able to progress more as a pitcher. While it may help them at the major league level this year, does it really make a difference with that team? They aren't going any where so they might as well work towards the future.

[Hacking Out Machine]

[Piling on]Ironic that those two KC relievers' availability is likely, at least in part, due to the presence of Andy Sisco.[/Piling on]

 

Yeah, but KC would be smart to trade for Sisco's Rule V rights so they could send him down to AA to retool him as a starter. Otherwise it would be a wasted draft pick IMO. Trading Dubois and Sisco's rights for Affeldt sounds like a decent trade to me.

 

Excuse my first post, but I don't think KC has any intention of trading for Sisco's rights right now, because he is actually helping them at the major league level. They aren't going anywhere, so what is the danger in keeping him on the roster? He's still young, so they can start him in AAA next year if they want to go that route.

 

Also, I don't see the point in acquiring Affeldt. He's had some flashes of competence, but what has he ever done to make himself desirable to get, other than that shiny "veteran" label? Arm troubles and middling performance don't excite me. I don't think he'd be an upgrade anywhere on the roster. I'm sure he's not as good as Rich Hill.

Welcome aboard.

 

I think that the main motivation would be so that he could go down in the minors and work on starting and get more innings in. This way he would be able to progress more as a pitcher. While it may help them at the major league level this year, does it really make a difference with that team? They aren't going any where so they might as well work towards the future.

 

 

Thanks for the kind words.

 

Heck, they might as well just slap him in the big league rotation. He's done ok with major leaguers so far. Might as well give that a try rather than giving something up to keep him at triple A. If at this point, the Cubs can still salvage something for Sisco, Jim Hendry would deserve a medal.

[GaborBako]

But Sisco has not pitched well the last couple months.

 

He had a great, almost unbelievable April with a 1.06 ERA and 20 K's to only 6 walks in 17 innings where hitters only batted .138 against him.

 

But he had a 4.85 ERA in May and his combined June and July numbers are 12 innings, 13 hits, eight walks and only seven strikeouts. Batters are hitting better than .340 against him since June 1.

 

He's certainly pitched well enough that the Royals aren't going to give him up, but you would think they'd like to be able to send him to AAA to get more innings. They're basically "hiding" him in the bullpen now as his 12 innings pitched in the last six plus weeks would show.

[JC]

Sisco has pitched 5 times in the last 10 games. He is hardly being hidden. His ERA in June was 2.89, and 3.38 so far in July. Those aren't numbers that the need to be wary of.

 

Sisco was likely overworked in the first two months anyway. Having been developed as a starter, I was surprised to see at one point in late April/early May that Sisco was leading ML relievers in IP. Bell obviously has different opinions on bullpen usage than Pena did. I don't think KC has soured on him at all.

 

I agree that if KC wants to stretch him out, they have nothing to lose by doing it at the ML level. He has demonstrated that he can play at the ML level, the next step is seeing if he can get people out the next time through the order. In light of his success and KC's woes, I don't see a reason to do that at AA or AAA.

[brinoch]

Ugh. Having had a look at the Royals rotation, were I Pena, I'd start stretching Sisco out. He certainly wouldn't do any worse than, say, Jose Lima or Brian Anderson.

[cheapseats]

Ugh. Having had a look at the Royals rotation, were I Pena, I'd start stretching Sisco out. He certainly wouldn't do any worse than, say, Jose Lima or Brian Anderson.

 

If you were Pena, you would be sitting on a couch drinking beer right now. He resigned as manager in May.

[cheapseats]

ESPN 1000 is reporting that the Cubs are most serious about Mike MacDougal. A trade is not imminent, but it would be MacDougal for minor leaguers.

[ZZ Thorn]

MacDougal was pretty effective as the Royals closer - he's a kind of poor man's Farnsworth. If the Cubs think they can straighten him out, they'd get a huge return and they really don't have too far to go. It'd be a good pickup, depending on who they gave up.

[MustangMike]

Why are we looking at Baez when we've already found an effective closer? Or would this relegate Dempster to setup man/Baez to setup man? Dempster back in the rotation?

 

I think we found a role Dempster is comfortable with, it'd be a shame for the Cubs to screw it up. Especially since TB always asks for a lot when they deal, it seems really pointless to me to try to get Baez.

 

Not to mention having JVB in the minors as a backup option if Dempster walks with a big offer.

[ZZ Thorn]

Why are we looking at Baez when we've already found an effective closer? Or would this relegate Dempster to setup man/Baez to setup man? Dempster back in the rotation?

 

I think we found a role Dempster is comfortable with, it'd be a shame for the Cubs to screw it up. Especially since TB always asks for a lot when they deal, it seems really pointless to me to try to get Baez.

 

Not to mention having JVB in the minors as a backup option if Dempster walks with a big offer.

 

People don't seem to think well of JVB's chances in the majors - they say he's a 4A player. He's put up some great numbers tho.

 

If we lose Demp I'll be incredibly upset. I like seeing him K someone on a great slider and then get all excited and pump his fist.