BigbadB

I don't think the staunchest supporter of this move wants Gathright to be given a chance to start. It's pretty much the last spot on the bench or bust. Even if the Cubs traded Pie in a mega deal for Peavy, I still don't see the need for Gathright. He'd essentially replace Pie, who didn't have a roster spot to speak of, either. And if the plan is to bring in someone to play RF, the logjam in the OF means one of Micah Hoffpauir or Joey Gathright is the 25th man. In the AL, you can hide a speedy, defensive OF with little bat on the end of your roster, because PH's aren't nearly as needed as in the NL. That you need a productive PH to bat for the pitcher generally two times a game should make the decision quite easy for the manager. Hoffpauir, to me, is way more valuable at the end of the bench than Joey Gathright.

You will know the day when advanced metrics have gone too far when Joey Gathright is considered a better RF option than Abreu. I have no stats to back this up, other than Gathright is really not a good player. In fact, I probably would have rather the Cubs brought back Josh Kroeger and given him the job over Gathright. And I still like Hoffpauir much more, also.

Yeah. But maybe he can get one of them work permits. :D

Sorry to be so late to this thread. Are we considering Justin Morneau for our LH RF?

Also, a full year for Longoria and Carlos Pena had a significant drop off from the previous year. i think it's highly unlikely that pena ever has a season like 2007 again That's fine. I didn't say he would. I just said he had a SIGNIFICANT drop off. Somewhere in between '07 and '08 would still be better than what he put up in '08. I don't see that as "unlikely".

How much salary flexibility did they have coming into the offseason? I'm guessing well more than enough for Peavy and Furcal. Don't forget Javier Vasquez.

Baltimore needed to make a splash after the Burnett and Sabathia signings in NY and the rumored Tex to Boston deal with one of their own. =D>

I'm a bit confused by this move. Already on the roster are: Soriano Johnson Fukudome Pie Hoffpauir And they are trying to get Bradley. Assuming Pie will be traded, that still leaves 5 guys for the outfield, and that still doesn't include DeRosa. I would value Hoffpauir's PH abilities way above anything Gathright can provide. If Gathright is just AAA filler, then whatever.

Also, a full year for Longoria and Carlos Pena had a significant drop off from the previous year.

http://cubtown.baseballtoaster.com/archives/1187307.html Just wow.

I had to chuckle at this. The Nats seem to have a bigger infatuation with RH hitting outfielders than Jim Hendry's infatuation with guys who can play 2b. Josh Willingham Elijah Dukes Lastings Milledge Austin Kearns Wily Mo Pena

There's major league talent and there's quality major league talent. There's a pretty long list of major league talent. But, I don't think he is really talking about Augie Ojeda, Scott Downs, Todd Wellemeyer and the long list of generic ballplayers currently rostered in MLB.

It's certainly possible, but I wouldn't bet on it.

We don't know if they've tried or not.

Dope might be fair. He certainly shot up the list at one point. But, he wasn't putting up those numbers in AA or AAA. His value dropped when he reached AA. There aren't many teams that are going to take notice of a guy like Dope down in low or high A. Harvey and Sisco were also low level guys. Harvey never really put it together. Sisco was certainly getting some notice, but I saw value in keeping him rather than trading him. Marshall is doing what we hoped he would do at the major league level. He's now insurance if Harden gets hurt. That's pretty valuable. Who could have predicted what happened to Rich Hill? It's simply hindsight to say we should have traded him before his control disappeared.

The Cubs should have the best trainers in baseball. They've had plenty of practice. Practice makes perfect.

Spending all their money in all the wrong places. He'll be a big boost to their offense, but Mark Teixeira won't fix their atrocious pitching Just for fun I looked it up to see how right you were. The Orioles were 11th in runs scored this year, but 29th in pitching. Wow what questionable decisions. I know, right? There's big names on the FA pitching market that would be significant upgrades to their rotation even if they got the 3rd or 4th best one available, and they're putting all their eggs into a basket that, while it could always use improvement, won't help them win games. We're looking at Randy Johnson to effectively be our #5 starter, and he'd probably be the #1 or #2 on Baltimore's staff. They are such a poorly run organization. And Angelos is clearly behind the Teixeira bandwagon to get him in Baltimore. Signing Teixeira would never be a bad thing if you take cost out of the equation, but good God their pitching needs severe help I agree in principle. But, Baltimore is in a pretty tough environment to land special FA pitchers. If you are CC Sabathia, and Baltimore, Boston and NYY are all offering you identical packages to be in their rotation, in what order do you sign with those 3 teams? Since every scenario will likely involve Boston and the Yanks first or second, how much more can Baltimore offer above Boston or NYY to push them to the top of your list? Boston and NYY are going to get the leg up simply because they are in pennant races year in and year out. Couple that in with pitching against them for several of your starts, and the appeal for Baltimore is even less.

And that's probably the best way for this deal to go down, especially now that Philadelphia has seemed to move on. Um, not from the Padres perspective. They'd be damn sure to walk away from the deal with the players they want, not the players they don't want and take the chance that at some point in the offseason they might be able to use the players they don't want to get the players they do. There was a point during the winter meetings where someone made reference to the Padres believing the Cubs now had the players to facillitate a straight up trade without needing other teams to be involved. I would imagine that Hendry wasn't fond of that particular trade, since it completely drained his resources. I'm not sure how true that rumor was, but I've been under the impression the Cubs do have the resources to make that straight up trade. From this list, and I'm guessing Hendry wouldn't part with all of them, which created the need for other teams to get involved, I could see the Padres agreeing to a deal with the Cubs: To Padres: Sean Marshall, Josh Vitters, Jason Marquis (plus cash), Mike Fontenot, Rich Hill, Felix Pie, Angel Guzman, Kevin Hart To Cubs: Peavy The Padres wouldn't need to peddle any of those players. The trade of Peavy alone would get them under the 40m budget. They just wouldn't have any real need for Marquis, since he only has 1 year on his contract. And Marquis would actually be pretty easy to move once more free agents are taken off the market. Marquis is someone they could trade in Spring Training when a SP for some other team's arm falls off. Milwaukee would probably only be interested in Marquis after a Cubs/Padres trade has already been made. I certainly doubt they want to help the Cubs get Peavy. But, if it's already done, what's the harm in wanting a solid back end of the rotation guy, especially when the Cubs are picking up most of the tab? Just a bunch of speculation. Who knows what's really going on behind the scenes?

And that's probably the best way for this deal to go down, especially now that Philadelphia has seemed to move on.

The Cubs have had success in bringing in good players for crap prospects, for the most part. But, not every player in the Cubs farm system has been crap. Carlos Zambrano, Kerry Wood, Mark Prior, Carlos Marmol, Geovany Soto are a quick list of players I'm glad they didn't just trade for the sake of trading them. Granted, Soto was never a top prospect, but I'm glad he made the leap he did in '07 with the Cubs rather than somewhere else. The lack of genuine quality talent is pretty staggering when looked at as a whole, however. As far as the team being a day late and a dollar short in trading can't miss prospects? I don't find that to be true. Sure, they could have traded Corey Patterson sooner. They could have already traded Pie by now. Who else are we really talking about here?

I'm the one who said it. The reason I pointed it out was because at the end of the 2007 season, Bradley had a significant knee injury. That he stole some bases sorta says that he feels the knee is strong enough to challenge a pitcher. If the knee is strong enough to do that, then I would think he would be capable of playing the field again. Texas limited his playing time in the OF, mainly because they had healthy defenders that they could play at every position and they could easily hide their knee concerns at DH. Mark DeRosa's presence on this ballclub makes me think that signing Bradley isn't as crazy as you are making it out to be. But, that's also assuming the Cubs aren't giving him 4/40, which I find extremely unlikely. You can post the players demands as their true value all you want, but you still have to find a GM that will give that to him. Considering he's never been paid higher than 6m a single year of his career and his constant injury history, and couple that with an ever shrinking economy, I'll go ahead and take you up on that wager that he won't get a 4/40 contract. There really isn't a single guy who fits the Cubs needs this offseason. Each has his own baggage. And in my own mind, if the Cubs were going to throw 4/40 at someone, I'd much rather see them throw it at Furcal. If Furcal isn't going to be an option, then I don't mind seeing them bring in Bradley as potential help from the left side of the plate. My offseason hopes were to trade for Peavy and Hermida, and then sign Furcal. Probably not all that realistic, but please note that Bradley and his 5 stolen bases are not on that list, Mr. "Let's Take What Someone Says Completely Out Of Context".

Where do you see Humberto Sanchez fitting in this year?

Nostro Damus.

There is no way San Diego does this, and I can't imagine Anaheim would be inspired either. San Diego wants pitching, and this trade gives them less pitching than the previously rumored trades for just Peavy. Unless you just forgot to include Weaver in the deal to San Diego. I still don't see Anaheim giving up that package for Lee. If they are serious about Peavy and Gonzalez, they can offer up a better package than what the Cubs would be offering.

The Dodgers are weird this offseason. Maybe the owner has taken a monster hit on the market. But, they have some serious sunk costs on that roster with Jason Schmidt, Juan Pierre and Andruw Jones. I think they are trimming wherever they can to try to bring back Manny.