KingKongvs.Godzilla

Shapiro, like Epstein, is a very longshot dream candidate. The Cujs and Indians seem to have a decent relationship, but a GM job would he a demotion for him as he's their president. There IS a candidate there though....I think it's Antonelli but don't remember off the top. I love how loaded the Cubs are with upside up the middle guys. So this Amaya guy can legit hit?

Sucks to close out the year like that for Vitters and McNutt, but they'll recover. There's sti plenty of time for them so long as they use it wisely.

You know what's awesome...my team is really really good and the QB hasn't even arrived yet. He's still only two years removed from being one of two college juniors (the less experienced of the two at that) that walked right into the league and started. Oh will the league fear the Jets one day...hopefully we won't be as annoying as Packer fans when it happens, but I don't have much hope for that.

I'm not sure of the exact percentages, but I'd say you're not far off. I'm not arguing we won't see a dropoff from Aramis to a Baker/Flaherty platoon, I'm arguing that that dropoff will be less than the increase we get going from McNutt/Whitenack/Struck/Cashner/middling FA/whoever to CJ Wilson. And that Wilson provides us with much more long term value than Aramis does. Being the best FA starter, I'm a little worried about the cost/years that Wilson may command. I think the best route for pitching might be through a trade. We don't match up with some of these teams tradewise, but the early speculation is that names like Shields, Floyd, and Jurrjens might be available. We might have to get a third team involved. :yahoo: None of of those three really inspire me. They're good pitchers for sure, but they'd cost prospects as well as money and years. I'd much rather overpay for Wilson in money and years than overpay for a non-ace in prospects then money and years. I still think that Wilson at 5/80-100 would be a coup as far as the Cubs adding talent. He's legit, and would become a fan favorite quickly. He as Garza have the same bulldog mentality that I fn love in a pitcher. CJ Wilson IMO is going to age as well as any pitcher in baseball. He's just hitting his stride.

I'd rather see what they want for Choo or Masterson. Sizemore might not be a bad cheap FA buy if he can pass the med tests.

Is this before or after some Project Runway?

Oh at his age he's nowhere near the athlete he was in his prime, but the games played thing is a health thing rather than athleticism thing. Those injuries are the main reason he should only get 2-3 years (MAYBE 4 if the GM feels lucky/crazy) rather than 5-6.

See now I'd like them to lose just to hear what happens. I'm not sure I'd like to hear what happens to the poor sap who might call the Packers overrated for it, but because of that it's worth a shot.

Always great to have a good bullpen. Skaggs seems to be legit.

I would assume so, yes, especially late in the season when the arms are nice and loose. When's the last time Dempster had an arm related injury? '04? Should I still be worried about the '09 toe? Why wouldn't/shouldn't Garza be able to do it? He threw 475 pitches in a 4 game span (two at 120 pitches) during September '09 for a 3rd place Rays team that finished 19 games back. They didn't exactly throw a calf our for the wolves here ala 22 year old Prior in a pennant race averaging over or ~120 in September and October. Both will hopefully recover during their 5 month recovery period. BTW: These "meaningless" games (and believe me they mean nothing to me too) are what these guys do for a living. It comes before a 5 month period these millionaires can use to recover, hopefully responsibly. What are the parameters for a 120+ pitch starts anyway?

Yeah I thought Gausman was a slider guy. Good to see he has better taste. Completely agree with what you bolder CR. That and lack of dominance (pre-Cod, which was 20 IP anyway) are the big knocks on Appel. All I know is that I want the Cubs to walk away with a big time arm.

Bullpen Banter put up some 2012 draft prospect stuff: http://www.bullpenbanter.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=485:2012-mlb-draft-prospects&catid=18:articles&Itemid=11 Here's what they had to say on Gasuman so far: Appel: They have video of HS kids and such...Hunter Virant looks like a talent.

I know I'm being obvious, but this is where someone who takes walks, hits with power, and has a crap ton of talent could help us out. I actually really, really like the Cubs' hitting philosophy overall, so long as they have guys who can pull it off. Right now, most of the guys on this team do not have the talent. Soriano is too broken, old, and easy to strike out, Barney doesn't offer any power to go with no OBP (though I guess he has the general idea down), Pena is another K-piler, and even Kosuke could be overpowered when he was here. 2010 and and 2009 (given some BABIP luck) Soto, Aramis Ramirez as he is and has been as a Cub, and Castro (with more walks) are the kind of hitters I think that exemplify what the Cubs want to do (basically keep the K rate relatively low and the K:BB close to 1). This is why Fielder/Pujols is so key. Obviously they're just elite players so no [expletive] the Cubs should want them, but it's what makes them elite (strong contact rates, high BBs, lots of power) that is appealing. The fact that these are sluggers who can hit for average and don't swing and miss foolishly is huge, and THAT is what I think is the main idea behind what the Cubs look for. Personally, I think it's closer to the philosophy of top offenses like the Rangers, Yankees, and Red Sox than anyone will give them credit for right now because our offense is just nowhere near as good as theirs right now. So basically, my issue isn't philosophy to hitting with this franchise so much as it is the execution. If I had to pick a moment they went off track it'd be the very desperate signing of Alfonso Soriano, a mostly inefficient player (never could hit a breaking ball, never much of a defender...both despite athleticism that would make you think otherwise) who got away with it because of a power/speed combo, a career year, and I'd guess his playoff background (he would have had the winning RBIs in '01 if the Yankees won). He didn't even age efficiently as he was lying about his age early on in his career. I hope they do a better job of picking who to pay big money to going forward. I really buy that a whole lot of this offenses problems could be fixed by adding a true superstar bat.

I don't know but I'm pretty devastated that it might not happen, let me tell you. see that '6' next to skaggs losses? means he is unbeatable right? Legends have it that he's also immortal.

That's one of the Devil's big tricks. The first two are living comfortably on Mars or some other planet that's been secretly terraformed or on some remote location here on Earth. They're probably playing cards with Hitler as I type this.

Does it sound crazy to say that there's a good chance that I'd take Gausman over Appel anyway? Physically Gausman reminds me of a RH Cole Hamels, all arms and legs and the whole long tapering torso thing. Obviously he's got a more RH arsenal than Hamels, which includes more of a slider than a curveball (though he can spin both) and better fastball velocity. Appel has alot of things I like...his arm is awesome, everything moves...Stanford is a great school with a strong program...he dominated his 20 innings in the Cape...He's got the tools to live up to being the #1 ranked prospect definitely, and I'd like to see him take his Cape dominance with him to the Pac-10. That said, he's not all the way there yet and I don't think he dominates the #1 spot so much as occupies it currently. Giolito might really grow on me. I'm glad to see he's already passed McCullers, who IMO was overrated to start with anyway.

I don't know but I'm pretty devastated that it might not happen, let me tell you.

He's been towing the Cub's party line all summer. That's what I'm doing? Towing the company line? Not only is he the team's best pitcher, but he's a 27 year old with a light at best injury history who's on pace to throw less pitches and innings this year than he has since he was 24. Plus, he was a whole out away from the CG tonight.

Wow so basically they either win or there's no McNutt, unless he comes out of the pen. Interesting.

About that, we're getting close to that point. Yeah but that's BCB. It's where most intelligent comments goes to be ridiculed and/or mostly ignored. If anyone posts there someone post a "Gato would just like to point out that Matt Garza's ERA is hovering around the 3.5 he wasn't supposed to get with periphs he wasn't supposed to be able to put up." They'll tell you something about goalposts, and then point to his W-L record or Quade or something. As far as LaHair pulling a Jones or Ludwick WSR...both are better athletes and IIRC were more significant prospects...I know Ludwick was once pretty well thought of as a prospect.

Not only was it not 125, but what was wrong with letting Garza finish the game? Not only is he the team's best pitcher, but he's young, durable, and had one more out to get. I'm more pissed that he blew it.

Wait, what? If he wants 5-6 years for his oft injured 35 year old, I wonder what he wants for a 28 year old in the prime of his career who happens to be one of the best hitters in the game. Nobody is going to give Beltran 5-6 years, but I would expect Boras to say that. Any agent would given Beltrans performance record this year and historically. Personally, for the team that isn't relying on him to be the man he'll be a coup for at least the next two years. Injuries or not the guy is a legitimately great fn player and one of the games best athletes.

See the problem with LaHair is that his 20's occurred in the minors rather than the Majors. Hell, the majority of his 20's was spent in the PCL. It'd be a whole different story if he was a former top prospect who spent alot of time in the big leagues, failed, came here, reworked his swing like in real life, and did what he did.

http://www.horror-movies.ca/AdvHTML_Upload/goonies-2-movie.jpg

Raley was strong tonight. 6 IP, 1 H, 0 BB, 0 ER, 5 K's. Beliveau struck out 3 in 2 innings of work. Obviously an ugly night for the lineup.