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If Jacob Turner is really on the table, it'll be tough for another team to beat Detroit's offer. If the Cubs can get Turner and a 2nd piece like Smyly for Garza, I'd be thrilled.

So under the new CBA would Soler (and others like him) be better served playing in Japan until he is 23 and then signing with a MLB team?

No Problem. I just did a quick copy/paste from http://soxprospects.com/dh.htm. I'd say we should have lists like this on NSBB, but it would only make people upset to review past Cubs drafts. It was interesting that the highest Red Sox pick in all those years was #19 overall. It'll be fun to see what they can do with #6, even in a weak draft.

With Theo in the mix I thought it would be interesting to take a look at the Red Sox picks from the first few rounds of each draft since he became GM. There are a few later round successes that I didn't include, but I wanted to focus on what the Red Sox have done with their premium picks. 2011: 1 (19) * Matt Barnes RHP Connecticut 1 (24) (Carl Crawford) - - 1 (26) ** Blake Swihart C Cleveland HS (NM) 1s (36) * Henry Owens LHP Edison HS (CA) 1s (40) ** Jackie Bradley, Jr. OF South Carolina 2 (81) Williams Jerez OF Grand Street Campus (NY) 3 (111) Jordan Weems C Columbus HS (GA) 2010: 1 (20)* Kolbrin Vitek 3B Ball State 1 (29) (John Lackey) - - 1s (36)** Bryce Brentz OF Middle Tennessee St. 1s (39)* Anthony Ranaudo RHP LSU 2 (57)** B. Workman RHP Texas 2 (80) (Marco Scutaro) - - 3 (110) Sean Coyle SS Germantown (PA) 2009: 1 (28) Reymond Fuentes OF Fernando Callejo HS (PR) 2 (77) Alex Wilson RHP Texas A&M 3 (107) David Renfroe SS South Panola HS (MS) 2008: 1 (30) Casey Kelly SS/RHP Sarasota HS (FL) 1s (45)* Bryan Price RHP Rice 2 (77) Derrik Gibson SS Seaford HS (DE) 3 (85)** Stephen Fife RHP Utah 3 (108) Kyle Weiland ● RHP Notre Dame 2007: 1s (55) Nick Hagadone* ● LHP Washington 1s (62) Ryan Dent** SS Woodrow Wilson (CA) 2 (84) Hunter Morris # 3B Virgil Grissom HS (AL) 3 Brock Huntzinger RHP Pendleton Heights (IN) 2006: 1 (27) Jason Place cf Wren HS (SC) 1 (28) Daniel Bard* ● rhp North Carolina 1s (39) Kris Johnson* lhp Wichita State 1s (43) Caleb Clay** rhp Cullman HS (AL) 2 Justin Masterson ● rhp San Diego State 3 (82) Aaron Bates** ● 1b North Carolina State 2005: 1 (23) Jacoby Ellsbury* ● cf Oregon State 1 (26) Craig Hansen** ● rhp St. John's 1 (28) (Edgar Renteria) - - 1s (42) Clay Buchholz*** ● rhp Angelina College (TX) 1s (45) Jed Lowrie* ● 2b Stanford 1s (47) Michael Bowden** ● rhp Waubonsie Valley HS (IL) 2 (57) Jonathan Egan*** c Cross Creek HS (GA) 2 (76) (David Wells) - - 3 (Matt Clement) - - 2004: 1 (Keith Foulke) 2 Dustin Pedroia ● ss Arizona State 3 Andrew Dobies lhp Virginia 2003: 1 David Murphy ● of Baylor 1s Matt Murton* ● of Georgia Tech 2 Abe Alvarez* ● lhp Long Beach State 2 Mickey Hall of Walton HS (GA) 3 Beau Vaughan rhp Arizona State 4 Jonathan Papelbon ● rhp Mississippi State 2002: 1 (Johnny Damon) - - 2 Jon Lester ● lhp Bellarmine Prep (WA) 3 Scott White 3b Walton HS (GA) Jed Hoyer has had 2 drafts with San Diego, and there hasn't been nearly enough time to see how these players will pan out, but I love the number of picks they had in 2011. Whitson was the player I was hoping would fall to the Cubs in 2010, but the Padres were unable to afford him after picking him at #9. 2011: 1 10 Cory Spangenberg 2B Indian River State 1 25 Joe Ross P Bishop O'Dowd HS (CA) 1 48 Michael Kelly P West Boca Raton HS (FL) 1 54 Brett Austin C Providence HS (NC) 1 58 Jace Peterson SS McNeese State 2 82 Austin Hedges C JSerra Catholic HS (CA) 3 112 Matt Andriese P California-Riverside 2010: 1 9 Karsten Whitson P Chipley HS (FL) 2 59 Jedd Gyorko 2B West Virginia 3 91 Zack Cates P Northeast Texas CC

My random guesses sure to be wrong... Albert Pujols - Cardinals Prince Fielder - Cubs CC Sabathia - Yankees CJ Wilson - Nats Jose Reyes - Giants Jimmy Rollins - Brewers Aramis Ramirez - Angels Carlos Beltran - Giants David Ortiz - Red Sox Jonathan Papelbon - Red Sox Francisco Rodriguez - Marlins Heath Bell - Padres Brad Lidge - Phillies Joe Nathan - Twins Jonathan Broxton - Red Sox Ryan Madson - Phillies Mark Buehrle - White Sox Michael Cuddyer - Phillies Carlos Pena - Pirates Yu Darvish - Blue Jays Edwin Jackson - Reds Johnny Damon - Rays Juan Pierre - Marlins Roy Oswalt - Retires

I'm going to go with, the Red Sox compensation demands. So now they would demand compensation for an Asst. GM to get a GM job with another team? That has never been done, and if they ever want to hire someone from another organization they won't be the first to do it. Henry has said you don't block your employees if it's a promotion. Haven't the Red Sox already come out and said they're promoting Cherington themselves? It was tweeted that he was told he will the next GM. If they don't let Theo leave, they aren't going to have 2 GM's, so Cherrington would have to wait. The guy who tweeted that was the same one who said Hendry won't be fired after he had already been fired anyway.

I'm going to go with, the Red Sox compensation demands. So now they would demand compensation for an Asst. GM to get a GM job with another team? That has never been done, and if they ever want to hire someone from another organization they won't be the first to do it. Henry has said you don't block your employees if it's a promotion.

The Red Sox are not going to pay Theo $6Million to be a pretend GM for a year and also give Cherrington a multi-million dollar deal to be a real GM because of Brett Jackson. They could sign 3 Latin Brett Jackson's for that money and not have to deal with a year full of drama. From everything reported, John Henry and Theo are very close. If Theo wants this Henry isn't going to screw him over. To play along though, what would stop the Cubs from hiring Cherington as GM, and then Boston is left with nothing in 12 months? It's a nonissue though. Lucchino (or however it's spelled) is doing his job trying to get as much as he can out of this. I suspect in the end The cubs give up a few mid tier prospects, but no one in their top 5 for Theo.

Very exciting news. My excitment is slightly curbed by the quote about compensation being "something real." Hopefully that means a big check from Ricketts and not significant prospects or players.

We lost 91 games last year. Adding Fielder and 1 pitcher is not going to result in a 18-20 game swing, particularly when you account for the fact that Ramirez is likely gone, Soriano will continue to decline, etc. Do you realize how many games were started by absolute garbage starting pitchers for us this year? Well...... since you asked........... Team record by starting pitcher CUBS are 18-16 when Dempster starts CUBS are 13-11 when Zambrano starts CUBS are 16-15 when Garza starts CUBS are 11-12 when Wells starts CUBS are 1-0 when Cashner starts CUBS are 4-13 when Coleman starts CUBS are 0-5 when Russell starts CUBS are 1-8 when Davis starts CUBS are 7-9 when Lopez starts CUBS are 0-2 when Ortiz starts Great stats. Injuries will happen in 2012, too...but after this September, I think Theo (I hope!) will make rotation depth a top priority when he can.

Or it's more realistic to think that this year's record has little to do with next year's record and they start 0-0. With neutral health this probably wasn't a 90 loss team this year. Exactly. You can't just take last year's record and factor in new players. The returning players will not perform at exactly the same level as last year, and the injuries will not be at the same level. How many games better were the 11 D'backs from the 10 D'Backs? Was Adrian Gonzalez worth 20 wins to the 2010/2011 Padres? Who did the Reds lose that cost them so many wins in 2011 from 2010? If the Cubs add Pujols or Fielder and a solid starting pitcher like a Shields, Danks, CJ Wilson, etc; while the Cards lose Pujols and the Brewers lose Fielder the Cubs could easily be in the divisional race...not to mention set up very well for the following year when they have additional money to spend. With the money the Cubs have to spend there is no reason to punt 2012.

The Chicago sports media are too full of dumb bastards to be able to think about two things at once. They hear that Ricketts wants to develop from within and assume that must be all he's going to focus on. Exactly. Ricketts is talking about building from within like the Red Sox do, like the the Yankees do, and the Phillies do...they all have really freaking high payrolls as well.

Tom Shaer doesn't have any inside information on the Cubs payroll. All these media guys are just reading tea leaves and guessing because none of them can be journalists and find any real information. There is no chance they cut payroll to $100M.

I think Buster is saying Theo and the Red Sox aren't putting a stop to the speculation, not that Theo and the Red Sox aren't putting a stop to the Cubs efforts. It just sounds like more "well they aren't denying it, so it must be true" reporting. I hope that is the case, but I wouldn't get excited about that. As much as it sucks that we can't get any good info on this, it's very impressive how secretive the Cubs and Red Sox have been. The media seems lost without Hendry or his people feeding them info.

Can people also please stop talking about taking on Lackey's contract like that is a realistic possibility. He is still owed somewhere around $50 million. The Cubs are not taking on a bad $50 million contract to hire a gm. If they get Theo, I expect the compensation to Boston will be mostly insignificant, either lesser prospects or Ricketts will write them a check as a courtesy.

Based on nothing but my guess, I fully expect them to say Theo will be interviewing with the Cubs. They hope he chooses to stay in the organization, but if he doesn't they are fully confident in the people they have in the front office to get the job done. They won't duck the question. They are doing an hour long interview on a radio station they have a partnership with. They are either going to say they granted him permission, or they didn't. I don't think there is anyway they annouce he is leaving the organization tomorrow morning. I bet they spend about 5 minutes talking Theo and more time talking about the manager situation, the drinking in the clubhouse, the big money underachieving players, plans for 2012 free agency, etc.

Zach Wheeler has a decent chance of joining that group.

According to this post in the JAD Forum, it looks like the Cubs got the 6th pick (I'm not sure how accurate that is): If teams finish tied, the tiebreaker is final record from the previous year. So KC is 5th, Cubs 6th, and San Diego 7th.

Past #6 overall selections... 2011 Anthony Rendon 3B 2010 Barrett Loux RHP 2009 Zach Wheeler RHP 2008 Kyle Skipworth C 2007 Ross Detwiler LHP 2006 Andrew Miller LHP 2005 Ricardo Romero LHP 2004 Jeremy Sowers LHP 2003 Ryan Harvey CF 2002 Zack Greinke P 2001 Josh Karp P 2000 Rocco Baldelli OF 1999 Josh Girdley P 1998 Ryan Mills P 1997 Geoff Goetz P 1996 Seth Greisinger P 1995 Jaime Jones OF 1994 McKay Christensen OF 1993 Steve Soderstrom P 1992 Derek Jeter SS 1991 John Burke P 1990 Marc Newfield 1B 1989 Paul Coleman OF 1988 Monty Fariss SS 1987 Derek Lilliquist P 1986 Gary Sheffield SS 1985 Barry Bonds OF 1984 Erik Pappas C 1983 Jackie Davidson P 1982 Spike Owen SS 1981 Kevin McReynolds OF 1980 Darnell Coles SS

Going into the last day the Cubs are in line for the #6 pick. They "win" the tiebreakers against San Diego, Colorado, and Florida. They "lose" tiebreakers against KC and Pitt. So if the Cubs lose and KC wins the Cubs pick 5th. If the Cubs and KC lose the Cubs pick 6th. If the Cubs and Pirates win the Cubs pick 7th. If the Cubs win and the Pirates lose the Cubs pick 8th.

Because Montanez isn't a kid and has little to no future with the organization? Not the point. They were basically giving all the vets the day off and letting the callups play, as well as Castro and Barney, so why not just give Pena the night off too? I'd bet money it was because they want to give Pena a shot at 30HR's. Which is fine.

You just mentioned Joe Girardi and Joe Torre. Aside from first names, what do they have in common? They were catchers, so what? No. Not that. What do their successful years have in common? Go on, tell me. Really?

Last night's loss eliminated the Cubs from the 10th or 11th spots. As it stands now they could be anywhere from 5-9. If they lose today and tomorrow, the Cubs will pick 5th. If they split they will need Florida, KC, and Pittsburgh to split their last 2 games for the Cubs to finish 5th. In a weaker draft the difference between 5th and 9th could be pretty significant.

Also, I don't think Ricketts has implied he wants to avoid big contracts. I've alsways read his remarks to mean they want to build from within so that when they sign a free agent they are spending on the right guy. I think he wants to avoid huge contracts to players like Soriano. Even when he was a freee agent not many people thought Soriano was one of the top players in the game, he was just the best of a weak free agent class. I think that's what Ricketts wants to avoid. He wants to be like Boston. Boston signs big money players.

There have been 9 contracts in MLB history worst over $150 Million dollars: ARod - 275 ARod - 252 Jeter - 189 Mauer - 184 Teixeira - 180 Sabathia - 161 Manny -160 Tulo - 158 Cabrera - 152 You can argue a few of them, but Mauer is the only one of those the team will really regret. When elite players get elite money, they typically continue to be elite players. When very good players get elite money, the results are not as good. Albert Pujols is elite. If the Cubs can get him for 7-10 years around $200M they would be crazy not to do it.