Rob

They're non-tendering Wuertz.

That doesn't sound like Jim Hendry at all.

We just traded one of our top prospects for somebody who's no better or worse than Michael Wuertz.

He's a minor league free agent as of Nov. 6th, along with the rest of this crew. Chicago Cubs (15) RHP: Mike Burns (AAA), Hector Carrasco (AAA), Adam Harben (AAA), Billy Petrick (AAA) LHP: Carmen Pignatiello (AAA), Jason Stanford (AAA) 1B: Matt Craig (AAA) 2B: Robinson Chirinos (Hi A), Bobby Scales (AAA) SS: Andres Blanco (AAA), Luis Figueroa (AAA) OF: Doug Deeds (AA), Jason Dubois (AAA), Josh Kroeger (AAA), Andres Torres (AAA) The only ones I'm likely to miss at all are Petrick, Pignatiello, Craig, and Kroeger... though I might miss Harben and Dubois just because I had such high hopes for them.

:confused:

You're a brave, brave man sticking your neck out on the line like this, Raisin.

So now that Raisin is vouching for Donnie, we get to blame him if this falls through, right?

I'd imagine he splits the difference pretty well. The numbers last year looked kinda flukey, but he did lose a tick off his fastball and his slider isn't good enough to cover that up.

Am I the source?

I'm just happy he's not a Card.

I'm really sick of seeing this logic(and the usual accompiniment of IT'S BEEN 100 YEARS GO FOR IT ALL NOW) as if there is no limit to the amount of young players you should give up to try for it all in one season. Let's say we give up all of our best tradeable assets for Peavy. Then Soto goes down and we need a stopgap to catch the rest of the way. What are we gonna give up for that rental? James Adduci? Every player in a system has some sort of value attached to them. Every time one is given up there is an opportunity cost at stake as to what else that player could acquire now, what they could acquire later, what they could contribute now, and what they could contribute later. Throwing the kitchen sink at a team because we've got a chance at it all is a good way to guarantee that you have only a few chances to win it all. - Pie is obviously no longer apart of this team's future plans. - Hill is obviously no longer the pitcher he once was and has already been rumored to be used in this potential deal - Marshall would be replaced with Peavy, advantage Cubs - Cedeno is battling it out with Theriot, and in all likelihood will probably be a bench player next year if Theriot is around - Ceda would be a useful piece for the Cubs in the future, but would his loss outweigh the gain of Peavy? - If Theriot goes, Cedeno probably stays and hopefully he doesn't crap it up like the last time he was given the starting job - Vitters, I would like to keep, but when will he be ready? 3 years from now? 4 years? It's still very early to determine whether or not he'll be a bust or a great signing. You're not understanding. Just because those guys mught not fit into the team's plans doesn't mean they don't have value. You only have so many pieces top use for trades and you want to blow them all. The idea is that trading some players now allows us to let Dempster and Wood walk. If they walk, we get 4 top picks and our farm system might not be any worse for the wear...

If this is the way it is, I'm all about Hermida. I'd much rather have him than Abreu or Dunn, given ages, contracts, and defense.

Maybe, mostly for his arm, but it's close. That friggin hop just annoys the crap out of me. Abreu's arm is worse, and he's even more scared of the wall than Soriano is. By the way, don't most defensive metrics have Soriano as a better than average LF?

I was never a huge fan, but it's nice to see a team taking him seriously and giving him a shot. Best of luck to him.

Buh bye Pie... ](*,)

What did he have, 5 or 6 no hitters? 7 no-no's. Forgot to add that. When you think of Nolan Ryan you think of one of the most dominating pitchers of all time, and it's a shock to see that he's never had a Cy Young award. He could certainly be dominant, but he also had 292 losses and 2,795 walks in his career. He finished most seasons right around .500. That's hardly his fault. In 1987 he went 8-16 despite the fact that his ERA was 2.76... which was good enough to make him the league leader.

Who hits well in the clutch season after season. Uh I dunno... Manny? He's Mr. Postseason. Manny's career postseason line is .286/.399/.550, which is very good... but it's not as good as his career line of .314/.411/.593.

Just worried that we'd be paying so much extra for that speed? 9 SB against those "arms" the Padres catchers had this year... jeebus.

Dude, he's clutch. In the FSL playoffs he went: 6 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 4 BB, 11 K. Shoulda started him over Dempster in game one. did he really? i had given up by then. is the plan still to see if he can hack the rotation? Yeah, he was really unhittable in the playoffs (but was a reliever). I think they want him to go the Jose Ceda route (or Jonathan Papelbon route) - start so he can work on his command and secondary pitches but eventually move to the pen for good. I hope he sticks in the rotation, though. I'm sure the organization isn't going to take their time letting him try his hand at the rotation. They'll let him get his work in there, sure... but when they're about ready to bring him up to the bigs, they'll be looking for excuses to permanently move him back to the pen.

I know this rumor probably wasn't worth much when it was floating around, but apparently the Giants were looking at Derrek Lee as a trade target. Lee + Pie +- ??? = Cain +- ??? I don't know how to even that out, considering Sabean's hatred of young guys. Anyway, that's a consideration... toss in prospects as necessary. Lilly + DeRosa + Wuertz = Beltran + Moviel + cash Try to sign Teix. Toss Marquis at anybody willing to pick up his salary. Since the Orioles are so hard-up at the SS position, see about a Theriot - Guthrie swap... add prospects wherever... C - Soto 1B - Teixeira 2B - Fontenot SS - Cedeno 3B - Ramirez LF - Soriano CF - Beltran RF - Fukudome K. Hill, Hoffpauir and Johnson as notables on the bench... SP - Zambrano SP - Harden SP - Cain SP - Guthrie SP - Marshall RP - Marmol RP - Samardzija RP - Guzman RP - Gaudin RP - Hart RP - Cotts That might crap out the rest of our farm system (esp. trying to even out the Cain trade)... but we'd gain a net of 3 picks... losing the #32 overall for signing Teix, but gaining 2 supplementals and 2 picks for Demp and Wood that could fall anywhere from the bottom of the first round to the top of the 2nd. This is achievable with a modest payroll bump, and I could definitely live with that team.

1. Josh Vitters 2. Jeff Samardzija 3. Jose Ceda 4. Wellington Castillo 5. Dae-Eun Rhee 6. Andrew Cashner 7. Tyler Colvin 8. Jay Jackson 9. Hak-ju Lee 10. Chris Carpenter

I feel a lot better about my statement now that I know badnews disagrees with it.

I like Mark Grace for the two times a year he pops into the booth and tells a funny story... but he's not very good on a full-time basis. Sutcliffe sucks... badly. I wouldn't mind combining the booths and having Len, Pat, and Ron working both the TV and the radio.

Andy LaRoche bats right-handed and plays 3B. Butler bats right-handed and is abysmal defensively... though he should end up being a significantly better hitter than that.

Wait when did Peavy become Johan Santana on a Brawndo/HGH cocktail Good lord, If that's not going to get it done. No one else will be get him either. Short of the Red Sox. But that's besides the point anyways. Shark is not being traded this offseason. Peavy and Santana are the #1 and #2 pitchers in baseball, and it's not even particularly close. And since Peavy is under contract for three years, whereas Santana is under contract for one... well, it's gonna be pretty expensive to pick him up.