Rob

At this point, I'm still a bit worried Aramis wont play up to his contract for the rest of its duration. If another team came along and said they'd take him off our hands, I'd have to consider it. That said, it seems we're going for it again next year, and losing him would impact the chances of that very significantly even if he doesn't earn the paycheck.

If memory serves, he's a converted position player. So the 26 thing doesn't bother me so much. But yeah, he sucks.

There's a few ways this turns out: 1.) Trade him in the offseason = Tons of very good prospects 2.) Hold onto him and the team tanks, allowing you to trade him at the deadline = Some very good prospects 3.) Hold onto him and the team stays competitive through the deadline, but tanks in august and misses the playoffs = Two comp picks 4.) Hold onto him and the team stays competitive through the deadline, follows that up with a playoff appearance = Additional money and two comp picks. Holding onto Gonzalez carries with it some risk, and doesn't seem to offer much in the way of a return. If the rest of the team were better and you could pretty much pencil yourself in for the playoffs next year, I would understand it... but the supporting cast sucks. The only way he doesn't get traded is if there's a stupid ownership mandate. Any GM worth a damn would definitely want to trade him.

Am I missing the point of this comparison? Dunn is a FA this offseason, and it makes no sense to give up prospects just to have a chance to resign him. Gonzalez will be on the trade block after this season. The rationale behind trading him was always that they were not going to be able to resign him. That underlying principle has not changed with their surprising season. They simply cannot afford to keep him. But of course Gonzalez would cost more in prospects. He's younger, cheaper, and under contract for longer. The "taste of winning" has nothing to do with it.

I'd be more excited if I didn't think the Cubs would yank him back out of the rotation when Silva comes off the DL.

At least Lake was heard from again. ? He's batting .333/.421/.727 his last ten games.

Firing Hendry after saying that would be a bad PR move, but a collapse in the second half would remedy that. If the Cubs are awful in the second half, Ricketts could easily say that recent occurences changed the situation and he is acting accordingly. At that point, it's not reneging on his word (even if it was just lip service), it's being pro-active in a changing situation. Purely PR, but you'd like to avoid PR hits if you can. Right. The statements in regards to Hendry in no way lock the Ricketts in to keeping him. No, but they do seem to indicate he's leaning towards it, which is bad enough on it's own.

Because we're gonna make an ill-advised attempt to go for it next year. I imagine we'll trade Hak-ju Lee, one of Archer or McNutt, and a couple other prospects for Adrian Gonzalez in the offseason. Trade Z for whatever salary relief we can get, spend the savings on a bullpen guy, and run this team right back out there.

Jose Reyes.

Peoria Top 1st Hak-Ju Lee walks. With Matthew Cerda batting, Hak-Ju Lee steals (28) 2nd base. Matthew Cerda flies out to center fielder Aaron Hicks. Matthew Szczur walks. Justin Bour strikes out swinging. D. J. Fitzgerald singles on a fly ball to right fielder Steven Liddle. Hak-Ju Lee scores. Matthew Szczur to 3rd. Jae-Hoon Ha homers (4) on a fly ball to left field. Matthew Szczur scores. D. Fitzgerald scores. Nelson Perez homers (7) on a fly ball to left field. Mario Mercedes singles on a ground ball to center fielder Aaron Hicks. George Matheus singles on a ground ball to center fielder Aaron Hicks. Mario Mercedes to 2nd. Hak-Ju Lee doubles (16) on a fly ball to right fielder Steven Liddle. Mario Mercedes scores. George Matheus to 3rd. Matthew Cerda homers (3) on a fly ball to right field. George Matheus scores. Hak-Ju Lee scores. Matthew Szczur flies out to right fielder Steven Liddle.

Over the age of 25, I have a real hard time putting somebody on my list.

lmao

My Top However Many I Feel Like: 1. B. Jackson 2. Lee 3. Archer 4. Lake 5. Vitters 6. McNutt 7. J. Jackson 8. Golden 9. Carpenter 10. Rhee 11. Simpson 12. Kim 13. Dolis 14. Rusin 15. Wallach Full disclosure: I may have Lake ranked ahead of Vitters due to a gut feeling. But hey, it's what kept him on my top 10 even after last year's disaster.

Yeah, most of the people we want to trade still will be unaffected by the waiver situation. Nobody is going to pick up the full contract of Fukudome, Zambrano, Soriano, Lee (if he changes his mind), Ramirez, or Silva. And while somebody may file a claim on Nady or Fontenot, I don't think it's terribly likely they would.

I'm really seeing some potential from Wallach to jump up our list next season if he adds some velocity over the offseason. If that happens, he could be a pretty quick mover.

Neifi's only full season with us was significantly better than Ryan Theriot's 2010 has been. Think about it.

Does Hendry not understand how this process works? is there something i'm missing here? i really feel like i just must not understand the process very well, cause offering him arbitration kind of seems like a no-brainer When a player accepts an offer of arbitration, they are bound to a one year contract. Each side submits a figure, and if a compromise on salary cannot be reached, an arbitrator decides which person made the more compelling argument and awards the figure they requested. (Most everybody already knows this, I'm just trying to be clear). However, the absolute lowest salary that a team can offer is 80% of the player's previous year salary. (This changed from 90% in the last CBA). Therefore, the absolute lowest amount of salary Ted Lilly could have ended up with was 80% of his 12 million salary this year, or 9.6 million dollars. There is certainly a degree of risk in offering a player a contract when you know you'll have to pay them between 9.6 million and whatever number it is they decide to submit. That is, of course, assuming they accept the offer. Most offers of arbitration are made when it is assumed the player will be offered a lucrative multiyear deal elsewhere... hence making the prospect of a one year contract less appealing to them. I would have assumed Lilly would get a 2-4 year contract offer. So I'm not quite sure why we wouldn't offer. But there could be an underlying medical condition that we were afraid would affect his FA appeal.

The real irony in all this is that he didn't actually upset me. I was just practicing my imb impression.

Yeah, they're in a rough spot. Bad farm system and bad major league team.

This wasn't a bad deadline. In the last 24 hours, Roy Oswalt, Lance Berkman, Ted Lilly, and others were traded. In 2005, the big deadline move in MLB was our acquisition of Matt Lawton. Kyle Farnsworth and Ron Villone were the others of note that were traded.

Lambo already has two drug-related suspensions under his belt. One more and he's out. I did not realize drugs of abuse had the same penalty structure as PEDs. Nevermind.

Okay, the Dodgers gave up Andrew Lambo and James McDonald for Octavio Dotel. Now this deal sucks.

There was nowhere near that level of hate. You're just misconstruing the times when people would point out he's not very good.

Given the returns for guys like Haren and Oswalt, I'm pretty happy with this return. Not a huge DeWitt fan, but he could be interesting as he enters his prime. And the young arms are interesting. All in all, we got a bit more than the expected value from keeping Lilly and hoping he stays healthy and effective enough to produce a couple draft picks. I'll give the trade a B. It gets better if we flip DeWitt or Fontenot.