BigbadB

I'm going to guess Garrett Olson.

I'm picturing the line up on days that neither Soriano or Bradley can go: Gathright Theriot Lee Ramirez Soto Johnson Fukudome Miles

I doubt they'd load up all the lefties in the 5 (SH), 7, 8 spots. I know Lee has sort of been the staple of the #3 hole the last several years, but it's high time to move him down in the order, IMO. I would go: Soriano Fontenot/Miles Bradley Ramirez Soto Lee Fukudome/Johnson Theriot If Fukudome can find his groove, I'd move him and Johnson back to the 2 hole. Until then, those are some decent OBP guys to get on base at the bottom of the order for Soriano. Now we just need to see what Cleveland might want for Mark DeRosa, and our offense will be all set.

Is anyone getting the MLB Network in HD? And out of curiosity, how many HD channels is DirecTV offering these days? I don't have designs on changing my current status, just wondering how well my cable company is keeping up with the times. I'd say that I'm currently getting between 60-70 HD channels right now. I also wonder how soon we can expect HD MLB EI?

Hopefully soon or right after the Marquis deal becomes offical. I think clearing his salary is holding up the Bradley signing. I dont get whats holding it back. Last I heard, Marquis was out of town, but it's not like he has a NTC, or at least I hope he wouldnt. Why not just pack up his locker, ship it to Denver, and be done with it? I imagine he has to pass some kind of physical. If that's the case, I have a few ideas on how Bradley can safely get to the medical complex without suffering a career ending injury. Some would prefer that you don't share those ideas with him. If all of these rumors hold true, and we don't end up with Peavy, I'll be one of the people who wouldn't want that information shared.

Hopefully soon or right after the Marquis deal becomes offical. I think clearing his salary is holding up the Bradley signing. I dont get whats holding it back. Last I heard, Marquis was out of town, but it's not like he has a NTC, or at least I hope he wouldnt. Why not just pack up his locker, ship it to Denver, and be done with it? I imagine he has to pass some kind of physical. If that's the case, I have a few ideas on how Bradley can safely get to the medical complex without suffering a career ending injury.

For a guy who has seen his share of Dodger games in 2008, Andruw Jones is not someone you want on your team. Besides the obesity, the injury problems, the lack of plate discipline and the ridiculous contract, he did not help matters when he took the "I don't care" approach to his abysmal season. He was constantly seen laughing as he waltzed back to the dugout after a strike out, with an astounding chorus of boos from the fans. I was happy to be wrong about Edmonds last year. I don't think I would be wrong about Andruw Jones. He's done.

The really awkward thing about this whole Peavy fiasco is that the Padres would essentially have some spending money once Peavy is moved. However, the Padres need to make upgrades before all the players are plucked up off the market. Their roster as it is currently assembled is: LF- Chase Headley CF- Jody Gerut/Scott Hairston RF- Brian Giles 3b- Kevin Kouzmanoff SS- Luis Rodriguez 2b- Matt Antonelli 1b- Adrian Gonzalez C- Nick Hundley/Luke Carlin CF, SS, 2b and C are all huge issues for this team right now. And that's not even bringing the starting rotation into the discussion. Even if Peavy were to be traded, this team has a lot of work to do.

While I think you might be right about Peavy, I think you are way off base if you think Boston has any desire to take on Soriano's contract, and that's ignoring the fact Soriano has a no trade clause in his contract. If I'm Boston, and I want to make a big splash this offseason to counter what the Yankees are doing, I'd talk to Milwaukee about Prince Fielder. I'd talk to Oakland about Matt Holliday. I'd talk to San Diego about Peavy. I'd talk to Arizona about Webb or Haren. I'd talk to LA about Matt Kemp. I'd talk to Colorado about Garrett Atkins or Todd Helton. I'd certainly talk to the Mets about Beltran or Reyes. Realistically, Boston doesn't need to do anything. They are deep in talent and could very easily win the division next year with the line up they already have. They certainly have the young talent to trade for someone like Ramirez, who they actually groomed in their own minor league system. It certainly didn't hurt to ask if Florida was ready to part with him. And it's not a surprise that Florida said no. But, that doesn't mean Boston HAS to look to Soriano, who doesn't really make a lot of sense to Boston, since they'd need a CFer or a 1b more than they would need anything else. Boston only plays half their games in Fenway. An outfield of Bay, Soriano and Drew wouldn't be very good. Couple in the fact that Soriano has been a walking injury the last few years, and that contract may look awful ugly in a few more years. It's just not realistic.

Is there any chance that Aurilia's agent also represents Manny Ramirez or Adam Dunn?

None of this makes any sense, whatsoever. Mark DeRosa>>>>>Aaron Miles AND Rich Aurilia a) DeRosa only uses up one roster spot b) DeRosa will arguably put up better production than the two combined c) How much difference in price are we really talking about? 1m? 2m? And if you trade Luis Vizcaino, wouldn't the salary basically be a wash at worst? Sure seems to me that Hendry is setting up a Peavy deal. I would hope he has discussed his plans with Towers, because Towers is either playing stupid at this point or has agreed to play by Hendry's rules of keeping mum through the rest of this whole process of fitting Peavy for a Cub uniform. Pie to Baltimore for Olson. Vizcaino to whoever will take him for whatever you can get Olson, Vizcaino return, Hart, Vitters, Cedeno and Stephens for Peavy? If Peavy isn't in the plans, the signing of Miles and Aurilia to replace DeRosa is just plain stupid. Actually, it's beyond stupid.

Let's wait and find out how much we're actually paying him before getting too upset about that. True. But, haven't we been hearing 3/30m?

My other issue is the 10m allocated for Bradley. Was there really a market to pay Bradley 10m a year? If there was, let whoever else wanted to pay that, pay that. There is just no justification to pay a guy who played a total of 21 games in the outfield last year that kind of money.

I was all for selling high on DeRosa. I didn't think that would mean trading for marginal relief prospects and signing Aaron Freaking Miles. I think BBB's point was that selling high on DeRosa (something I was also in favor of) was fine to the extent you don't "aggrevate" the loss by signing someone who is injury-prone to play in a spot that DeRosa could fill. So, had we signed Adam Dunn, for example, losing DeRosa wouldn't mean as much as it does. The only solace - which I have not seen brought up but might have missed - is that Fukudome can always play RF if and when Bradley is hurt. Johnson would then play full-time in CF, or platoon with Pie (assuming he is still here). Not great, but not horrendous either, IMO. The first paragraph is pretty accurate. I don't mind signing Bradley if DeRosa is the guy who can step into that spot when Bradley is hurt. Now we don't have DeRosa and Bradley WILL be hurt. As far as the second paragraph, I think you are correct up to the point you mention Pie. I think Pie will be the next victim. IIRC, Pie is out of options. The Cubs signed Joey Gathright, so reword your paragraph with Gathright and Johnson splitting time in CF and I think that's the likely scenario. Regardless, I'm very disappointed in the return for DeRosa. I'd have much rather seen some sort of return that might have been included in a deal for Hermida, Hawpe, Choo, Scott, Kubel or some other LH bat that won't cost 10m to play half a season.

I hadn't heard LT wasn't playing. Forget everything I said, then.

Let's hope Dempster's 2009 looks nothing like Escobar's 2008.

I've got the Chargers winning this game. They are coming off a huge win last week, albeit against a bad Denver team, but if the Charger defense can get some pressure on Manning, the offense will do enough to eek one out. It's been raining all night here in San Diego. I haven't heard a weather report lately, but it sure seems like the rains may continue throughout the day.

Except for the fact that he was well on his way to 100 RBI last year. 75 RBI in 109 games is easily on pace to break 100.

I find it extremely hard to believe that other teams wouldn't offer up more for DeRosa. The rumored packages from Philadelphia sounded pretty good. Maybe they really weren't as good as the rumors, but apparently it was good enough for Towers to sign off on a Peavy trade when coupled with Pie going to Baltimore. What about the Twins? Didn't they lose the Casey Blake sweepstakes? Weren't there other teams looking for infield help? Baltimore even seems like a possibility, though I would understand Hendry's reluctance to deal with them ever again. The return package for DeRosa seems more like a panic deal to me.

For some reason, I seem to recall Andruw signing a 2 year/36m contract last year. How would you like to have that contract coupled with Juan Pierre and Jason Schmidt. Ouch!

It came from the DeRosa savings, and they think he can contribute positively. If they were financially strapped, they had no business offering 10m a year for Bradley. How much savings is there from removing Marquis and DeRosa's contract, only to add Bradley, Miles, Gathright and Vizcaino? The Cubs had players to trade to get a lefty bat. Luke Scott, Hermida, Hawpe, Kubel, etc... And they could have made those trades without having to give up DeRosa. Unfortunately it's become painfully obvious they didn't want a lefty bat. They wanted multiple lefty bats at every position. They are going to struggle all year looking for right handed help. I like Bradley a lot when he is actually playing. I'm utterly shocked, however, that a guy who played a total of 21 games in the outfield last year has gotten a 30m contract to play the outfield. And that the Cubs traded their depth at that position to get him.

It came from the DeRosa savings, and they think he can contribute positively. If they were financially strapped, they had no business offering 10m a year for Bradley. How much savings is there from removing Marquis and DeRosa's contract, only to add Bradley, Miles, Gathright and Vizcaino? The Cubs had players to trade to get a lefty bat. Luke Scott, Hermida, Hawpe, Kubel, etc... And they could have made those trades without having to give up DeRosa.

I generally like the idea of taking the sell high approach in some cases. I don't think DeRosa was one of those cases. Paying 10m a year for the next 3 years for a guy who is just as likely to find himself on the DL than on the field screams for the need for quality depth, which is what DeRosa provides. Bradley had 32 doubles and 22 HR's last year. DeRosa had 30 doubles and 21 HR's last year. Edmonds had 17 doubles and 19 HR's last year. While we can all agree that DeRosa won't have another year like he did last year, although it isn't completely out of the question, Bradley will have quite the challenge to replace the production of DeRosa and Edmonds combined. I certainly have reservations about how well Fontenot can match the production he provided last year. And this doesn't even discuss the loss of depth at SP. If all these deals mean that the Cubs get Bradley and Peavy, then I will be satisfied with the offseason. If all these deals were made just to get an oft injured LH bat into the line up, I'm going to be extremely dissapointed in this offseason. I would have much rather traded for a lesser talented lefty bat, or even given Edmonds or someone of that nature another 1 year deal. It's going to be a long year when Bradley tweaks his knee and Joey Gathright, Aaron Miles, Fukudome and Ryan Theriot are all in the line up together. Why not package Pie and DeRosa for Choo or Hawpe or someone who has shown to be healthy all year long? The reason I'm so down on trading DeRosa at this juncture (unless it is a percursor to getting Peavy) is that he was sure to be a Type A free agent next year, and the Cubs could certainly offer him arby and get draft picks (quite possibly better than what they got from Cleveland) while still having a productive replacement for those days Bradley is hurt.

Probably won't need one. At 10m a year, if he misses anymore time, no one will trade for him.

A reasonable person would think that's where this is leading, but these are the Cubs we're talking about. The rumors from early December had Marquis being shipped out and DeRosa being traded for the necessary pieces to acquire Peavy. This is way too coincidental for it not to be leading up to a Peavy deal. If it doesn't lead to a Peavy deal, Hendry will have performed the ultimate torture technique to Cub fans.