nilodnayr

Heres my video game version of the Winter Meetings: Dolis to Det Porcello to CHI Vogelbach + Vitters + Jackson to CLE Chisenhall + Asdrubal + Masterson to CHI Chisenhall + Asdrubal + Wood + McNutt to AZ Bauer + Parra to CHI Soriano + entire salary + LaHair to Balt Matusz + Reynolds to CHI Garza + entire salary + Marmol + entire salary + Matusz + Villanueva + Underwood to KC Myers + Moustakas to CHI Sign Stauffer as a rehab Sign Ryan Roberts to platoon at 3b and backup 2b Rotation: Bauer Shark Baker Porcello Masterson --------- Vizciano Stauffer Field: Castillo Rizzo Barney Castro Stewart/Roberts Myers Parra DeJesus ------- Reynolds Navarro Valbuena Sappelt

Its the perfect pickup even if it does cost a decent prospect (someone in the Vitters/Watkins/McNutt vein?). Worst case (assuming his back is OK and his performance after his return indicates that) is he doesn't bounce back and you make in a QO next year and get him back on another pillow contract/get draft pick compensation if he signs elsewhere. Best case is he is the top targeted SP at the trade deadline. Trading for Haren is basically going to guarantee that at the very least, you get to add at least a first round-ish prospect down the line. Don't really think of what Haren will do for the Cubs on the field next year (because we aren't going to contend), think about what Haren will net the Cubs when he leaves. And that will be more than just a decent prospect. I THOUGHT YOU WERE DEAD I'M ALIVE Hasn't been much to talk about cub-wise in a while and with the lockout I need to get my fix somewhere.

Umm, no. Let's not do that. Yes, lets. You win as many games as you can, and put yourself in position to win as much as possible. You can't control the rest. Except for when you lose as many games as you can. Worked for the Rays.

Yes yes, we understand that you think that a WS championship team can be comprised solely of spending on FAs. Maybe you should stop being a cubs fan and be a dodgers fan. I think everyone would be much happier.

And the Pirates and Brewers probably won't have any good seasons during that time, either. So we tank 3 seasons, then split the division evenly with the Cardinals for the next six. Congratulations, Theo Epstein and Jed Hoyer, you just matched Jim Hendry's term. Except the aftermath of the Jim Hendry term was a complete and utter mess. The aftermath of the Theo/Jed era will be a team in a good position to continue success (assuming lessons are learned from the BoSox debacle, but the fault of that probably falls more to Lucchino). Hendry mortgaged our future for the present, Jed/Theo are mortgaging our present for the future.

With the new CBA, every team has plenty of access to those assets. With the restrictions on amateur acquisitions, the new CBA only leaves two places where we can use our considerable financial advantages to try to defeat the other teams in our division: Non-player personnel and MLB players. Throwing away one of those two areas seems like an extremely counterproductive strategy, and it appears to me that the reason we are doing it has less to do with the needs of the franchise and more with an intellectually curious itch our new front office always wanted to scratch. The CBA restrictions slows our ability to build the farm and actually forces our hand to be traders at the deadline the next few seasons. We can trade away short term players for prospects (ala Dempster and Maholm) at the trade deadline. We've acquired 2 of our top 10 prospects that way this season and we plan on doing the same again next season. So the question is, do we want to save $ to spend when the "wave" comes through and in the mean acquire on the cheap and sell short term assets for top 10 prospects OR do we want to go for it and spend $ now and only improve our farm as much as we can with the new CBA restrictions. Even with the second wild card, only 1/3rd of teams make the playoffs. Of course, its a crap shoot once you get in, but while the win curve has been changed, it still exists.

Its the perfect pickup even if it does cost a decent prospect (someone in the Vitters/Watkins/McNutt vein?). Worst case (assuming his back is OK and his performance after his return indicates that) is he doesn't bounce back and you make in a QO next year and get him back on another pillow contract/get draft pick compensation if he signs elsewhere. Best case is he is the top targeted SP at the trade deadline. Trading for Haren is basically going to guarantee that at the very least, you get to add at least a first round-ish prospect down the line. Don't really think of what Haren will do for the Cubs on the field next year (because we aren't going to contend), think about what Haren will net the Cubs when he leaves. And that will be more than just a decent prospect.

Doesn't the league have to approve all deals with more than $1m changing hands? Meaning they would be able to kibosh either of those ideas. Heck if they didn't, then we could just pay Loria a $10m vig for his entire draft class if we wanted (after the requisite waiting period).

How about we agree to take buehrle and most of his contract and j Johnson for nothing (a sox/dodgers-esque deal). That's about the only way we are going to get Johnson, because there's no way we'll meet the marlins prospect asking price. And that's about the only way the marlins are going to get significant salary relief on that terrible buehrle contract. I don't like buehrle at all and don't have much confidence in Johnson's health, but we could eat significant $ and get assets back in flipping them.

I'd look into Ryan Roberts who may be non-tendered by the Rays rather than Escobar. Walks a ton, pretty decent defensively, and under control for two more years. Remember, Theo has instituted "the cubs way"...no more Milton Bradleys, regardless of upside. Also, I'd be interested in Niemann if he's available. Not sure if any ones mentioned him, but Tim Stauffer would be a really nice pick up. Great gamble because when he's healthy he's very good and a great sinker baller.

Hey all, have been gone for a long long time, but I really really need 2 more managers for my fantasy league. I've been in a 12 team, roto, yahoo, 5x5 normal scoring, normal positions (including MI, CI, Util, 4 OF, 1 C, etc), snake draft league with 5 keepers forever, but a few managers dropped out this year. Sooo, we are all doing a full re-draft this year (with plans of keeping 5 guys for next year), however, we only have 10 managers...and 10 team leagues are lame. Entry is $100, draft is 4:15 central Saturday. Last ditch effort here....respond if interested.

Yeah, there were just so many tickets sold before today that the supply was extremely limited, especially for high priority games. The sox went to single ticket only nearly instantaneaously and opening day not too long thereafter. Also a buddy of mine was 7000 something on the waiting list for season tickets and got season tickets this year, so I'm thinking they increased the % of seats taken up by season ticket holders by a pretty large margin considering that waiting list usually moves only a dozen a year.

No. They'll trickle in over the rest of the day. You'll probably get them in the next few hours, though. just got one mine have all come nearly immediately, unlike past years

If Thomas was a FA then I would be at least open to the possibility, but his contract is a no-go for me unless Boston took Huet back, which they won't. Now if Cam Ward---I know he's injured---was available that's a different story, but Thomas......thx but not thx. However, you can't count on ward to be healthy

Versteeg, Barker, Niemi. Done. Upgrade to Sharp if they insist. If we did that trade, would we need to do anything in the offseason to get under the cap? If so I'd be interested in that trade. We'd still need to clear out about 20% of our salary.

Is it just me or is the game not coming in for other comcast customers?

Why not wait until the offseason? Maybe a player of Gaines' potential and upside isn't available in the offseason. Trade deadline is Tuesday. Adams himself would have been available in the offseason had the deal not been made with in the next 3 days. UM might have been insinuating that Adams could have been traded to another team either before the deadline or before we traded for him after the season. You trade for him now to lock up the "what to do post-Wale" issue, and because trading for him now means we get him for the remainder of this season. Another very skilled DE in a potential playoff run season has value as well. Unless you think waiting to the offseason would have dropped the price to a 3rd rounder (which it probably wouldn't), then it would make no sense to wait.

it was really fun watching the game from the alumni skybox :grin:

Yep, I'll take that every time. Though I agree that Florida looked completely overmatched most of the last two games and we should have won both. Can't wait to see the home opener on Saturday. The pessimistic view says we only scored one non-PP goal in that game, the optimistic view says if we keep playing like we'll put the puck in the net enough to stroll into the playoffs with home ice advantage. Niemi also looked pretty impressive when he was tested. I think I'm going to go to the home opener.

Huet was fantastic in the first period and just okay the rest of the way. He got roasted on both shootout attempts though. Overall he was pretty good. That's exactly it. We outplayed them like crazy on the offensive-side. Could've easily had 6-7 goals and Kane could've had 3-4 himself if not for some outstanding saves. Oh well, just win tomorrow. Ehh, going back and looking at that first period, Huet got pretty lucky on quite a few plays. Dont get me wrong, I also think he played well (especially his side to side movement), but there were a lot of missed chances by FLA that had nothing to do with Huet. While the goals he let in weren't really soft, he really needs to work on his upper body. Hes a butterfly goalie, nothing you can do about that (and he wasnt really going down too early), but everyone in the league knows to go high on him and look what happens, 3 goals on 15 shots in the 2nd and third. Other than that... Toews looked amazing Buff looked fantastic and in great shape Hjarl was our best d-man by far (just like he was at the end of last year) Seabrook looked bad except for the pass to Kane and that nice backdoor that Brouwer didnt see speaking of, why does everyone think so highly of Brouwer? Bolland was the guy who made that hit that someone mentioned earlier, both he and Madden did what they're supposed to, great D, a bit of O Kane, Sharp, steeg did what they do, a bit of O and little else Campbell was quiet on both ends, which is fine by me (ignoring the fact we're paying him a bazillion dollars) Barker was godawful, sopel wasnt much better Overall, after getting our butts whipped in the first, it was nice to see the boys come out and completely dominate the rest of the game (despite the score). Vokoun stood on his head, you have to tip your hat to him. I'm really concerned with our third D pairing. Q needs to be able to play them more than 10-ish (even strength) minutes a game or Seabrook and Keith are going to be zombies by the end of the year (like we saw last year).

In our very similar keeper league people typically keep 4 hitters and 1 pitcher, but I don't see any hitter other than Longoria, Howard, and Ichiro that is keepable for you. Pick your favorite among Felix, Doc, and Billingsley. I'd pick the first two, but you really can't go wrong. Catcher has now become a pretty deep position, and Weiters hasn't exactly met expectations and its not due to being unlucky.

undervalued? rios might be the most overrated player in baseball Very few people are saying that he is worth his contract outside of a few places. So, there is no way he is the most overrated player in baseball. If he was so overrated, the White Sox would have had to send a token minor-leaguer or something. He is an OK hitter suffering from a little bad luck this year, but he plays excellent defense and plays center. Those are two very undervalued things in the game. I know you don't like UZR, but it has consistently rated him as one of the best defenders in baseball. By consistantly, you mean only 2008, right? Which was a pretty clear outlier in his career. Hes a 1 WAR corner OF. While thats good, lets not go out and anoint him Endy Chavez. Like Rob said, hes an OK player getting paid about market value. Hes adequate in CF or good in a corner and should hit right around his 08 level, flirting with 800 OPS.

His defense must be incredibly stellar, because he's currently OPSing 110 points lower than Kosuke and they're making similar amounts of money. Or Kosuke is worth a good bit more than he's making. Projected <> currently OPSing :hello:

Well he didn't specify what league...

I would have happily taken him for nothing when Blanco was getting regular starts, but now that hes back to a defensive replacement role hes more valuable to the Cubs than Lugo.