Rob

Manny Parra Sean Gallagher If people actually think more highly of Parra, the only reason I can think of is that Parra is a southpaw. Gallagher has put up equal or better numbers at every level and at a younger age.

What do the Brewers have that could be traded for Bedard? Sheets - Will be a free agent after this season. No real value to the Orioles, who are likely 3-4 years away from competing. Capuano - coming off a down season Gallardo - more valuable than Bedard straight up Parra - Has real value. Vargas - probably a toss-in Fielder - more valuable than Bedard. Weeks - A good possibility, but MacPhail does have that defense fetish, which may preclude him. Besides, the available 2B market consists almost entirely of has-beens or never-weres. Only Marcus Giles and Jorge Cantu might provide value, and they are shaky propositions. Hardy - Another good possibility, but the FA SS market is even worse. Braun - Even with his horrific defense, he's far more valuable than Bedard. Hall - coming off a huge down season. Besides, the Brewers are already struggling to fill out their outfield. Hart - Real value, but again, the Brewers are already shorthanded in the outfield. LaPorta - Can't be traded until one year after he's drafted. I just don't see the Brewers having the pieces to put a Bedard trade together while managing to actually improve their team. We should all be so lucky as to see the Brewers trade Hardy, Parra, and Hart for him. It'd cost them a few wins the next two seasons, and many more after that.

If memory serves, the only published offer from the Tribe was Lee, Shoppach, and Gutierrez.

God bless Ed Wade. Is there a good Astros board to look at to see their reactions?

Actually, Olivo was on the list of guys I would like to sign to replace Blanco. I'd still prefer Lieberthal, though.

Z's peripherals are heading in the wrong direction, and while Bedard is due for some regression, he's still likely to be better than Z next year. That being said, Z doesn't have the same injury issues that Bedard has, so I'd still take Z.

The chicks in San Diego only dig pitchers? And Chicago girls love the men with big sticks?

That has the potential to hurt pretty bad.

I think Harvey converts to the mound sometime shortly after a horrific showing during spring training, personally.

I doubt I'd ever stop laughing if you guys traded away the farm for Bedard.

That's what I'd like to see. Cleveland wants Jason Bay really bad and they haven't made an offer yet that Pittsburgh would be satisfied with. A 3 way deal that sends Bay to Cleveland, Peralta to the Cubs and major league ready players go to Pittsburgh would make a lot of sense, IMO. Cleveland has Cabrera to step in and play SS. Cubs could use a SS. Pittsburgh wants players that will, well, I've never really understood what Pittsburgh wants, so I'll just say a package of players. :D I totally agree with that deal, even if the Cubs don't make the Roberts deal. In fact, I would drop the Roberts' deal and send those players (Gallagher, Murton, Patterson) to the Pirates in this 3-way instead. SS is the position the Cubs most need to upgrade. It would be great to expand the deal to include Jason Michaels (maybe send Cleveland Marquis/Dempster or a young player), who can play all 3 OF positions and would be a RH bat off the bench. How About: Pirates get: Gallagher, Murton, Patterson, Theriot Indians get: Bay, Dempster/Marquis Cubs get: Peralta, Marte Soriano LF DeRosa 2B DLee 1B ARam 3B Fukudome RF Peralta SS Soto C Pie CF Bench: Michaels, Cedeno, Ward, Blanco, ????? =D> =D> =D> Just a few things here... 1. Did you want Marte or Michaels? Cause you put Marte in the actual trade proposal instead. Cause depending on if that's Damaso Marte or Andy Marte, that could change things quite a bit. 2. Any way you want to cut it, the Pirates would not be getting enough for Bay. 3. DeRosa shouldn't be batting #2. If we have to go with a semi-typical lineup (i.e. Lee not batting 2nd), Fukudome is our best option there.

Blanton's a decent #3, but he's not worth what it would take to get him. Pass.

The only big difference is that if it doesn't get done today, it probably wont get done til after the holidays.

Theriot is easily the worst of our available options there (Cedeno and DeRosa being the others). If, for whatever reasons, Cedeno and DeRosa are not going to be given every single opportunity to take over the starting SS role, then we absolutely need to acquire a real SS. If Lou is going to allow Cedeno and DeRosa a real chance to take over at SS, I feel just fine going into the season. And as far as pitchers are concerned, the only way to go right now is Bartolo Colon. Two years, club option for a third, and incentives based on weight and innings pitched. He's got the upside, and he's not about to bankrupt our system of propects like Blanton or somebody would do.

Yeah, I wouldn't part with Marmol for Nathan. We might get a small marginal upgrade for one year, but it would cost us millions of dollars and 4 or 5 more years of work from Marmol. If we pulled the trigger on that trade, Hendry would be in the Bavasi class of GMs.

At almost the same cost as Fukudome of 12 million a season its not going to be too hard for him to fail. The more home games he pitches the better off he will be. Can't do much worse than Kei Igawa. Kei Igawa makes 4 Million per. If he is anywhere close to Kei Igawa's number he is a SPECTACULAR failure at 12! I also do not think he will do well. You can't ignore that posting fee, even if you are a Yankee fan.

Just passing along. We've been hearing this for 2 weeks. To be fair, since then we've seen the Tejada trade, the Haren trade, and now the Kuroda signing. Haren and Kuroda were seemingly dictating the terms of the Bedard trade... and since he's now expected to move quick, and since Tejada is gone already, we should see something pretty quick after the Bedard deal.

Make a case for him being in the HOF. I just don't see it. 129.4 career WARP3 Wow. That is really good. That's quite a bit better than just "really good."

Make a case for him being in the HOF. I just don't see it. 129.4 career WARP3 His numbers don't look as good simply because the 1980's don't have the same sort of inflated offensive numbers, but rest assured, he was well above average with the bat and pretty amazing with the glove.

I'm just having trouble keeping up with who is joking and who isn't.

Rumor has it, this probably makes Rasmus the starting CF. Considering that even if he performs as well as he can, they wont be contending this year, this is great news. I love that they're starting the arbitration clock on him.

I don't think it's possible to get both Bedard and Roberts without giving up Hill. Just gonna work down the list of our most valuable young trade chips, starting after Hill... Pie Marmol Soto Gallagher Colvin Ceda Veal Hart Cedeno EPatt Wuertz Marshall Then we start getting to lower-minors guys like Huseby, Suarez, Hernandez... the kind of guys we wont get much value for, simply because they're so far out. If we were to cut Soto out of that list, and give them everybody from Cedeno up, we might be able to get both Roberts and Bedard... but we'd be shooting ourselves in the foot as far as trying to acquire a CF via trade to replace Pie.

Line Drive percentage. Is that a real stat? Yeah. It's right in there with ground ball percentage and fly ball percentage... which a lot of people look at.

Sean Marshall pitched 125 MLB innings at the age of 23... not 26.

The follow people will have their salaries escalate between the 2008 and 2009 season. Zambrano (2.75 mil) Aramis (1.65 mil) Soriano (3 mil) Lilly (5 mil) Marquis (3.5 mil) DeRosa (.75 mil) And Wuertz should hit arbi in that time, so he'll cost an extra half mil or so too.