Rob

He's been signed to be our 4th OF. His lefty mashing abilities may make some sense in the event the front office concedes DeJesus shouldn't face lefties. He's not blocking anybody and he's pretty likely to provide surplus value over whatever paltry amount he ended up signing for. Not worth getting upset about.

It's more than just about him being fat. It's about trying to match up his best years when we're going to be competitive. If we're signing him while accepting the fact that we still won't be much more than an 80 win team next season, then likely his best season as a Cub was just wasted. Also, a lot of posters seem okay with the thought that the end of the contract won't be great for Prince personally, so there's 2-3 wasted years of a huge contract. It's just a bad time. But yes, fat players have shown more of a propensity to decline sooner. Well, then, by all means, lets suck for three years. You've convinced me. So, "there's a better way to spend that money" is the same thing as "let's suck for three years?" Sign Edwin Jackson (3/$36?) and Hiroki Kuroda (2/$25?). Together, they should cost about the same as Prince will on an annual basis. Trade Z, Cashner, and Brett Jackson to the Marlins for Logan Morrison. Fielder may be better than Morrison... at least in the short term. However, Jackson and Kuroda covers the gap pretty well when our 4/5 starter options is some disgusting mishmash of Z/Cashner/Coleman/Samardzija based on health, anger issues, and performance). There's significantly less risk and more long-term upside.

If your referring to Davis, it wouldn't be a straight up deal, but TB would be the perfect trading partner for us. They're looking to move Davis or Niemann, I'd much prefer Davis as well as Brignac, who seems like the type Theo would be interested in. They're looking for back end relievers as well as a starting catcher and offense in general. Would Soto and Marshall for Davis and Brignac be reasonable? Anything either side would need to add? I mentioned this before but something like Marshall/Marmol, Soto, and Jackson for Upton and Davis could be an interesting blockbuster with some additional pieces changing hands as well. I could see them being interested in working Soriano into it assuming we pick up most if the bill. Why in the hell are you all about Wade Davis now? Wade Davis has a higher career FIP than Casey Coleman. He doesn't strike anybody out. He doesn't even throw hard. Unless we have a pitching coach or a scout that sees something that could make a huge difference, there is absolutely no reason at all to give up anything of even the slightest amount of value for Wade Davis. I know he was a prospect at one point, but he's just a below average major league starter now.

Honest question... Is there any actual evidence to back up the old "get more for pitchers/relievers/lefties at the deadline" theory? I'd be really interested to know.

I suppose we could also pay for two closers... but with as many holes as this team has, does anybody really think the bullpen is a great place to be allocating all our resources?

Am I missing something? The Cubs pretty much have to trade at least one of Marshall/Marmol. Marshall is one of the best relievers in baseball and is a FA after this season. Somebody will make him their closer (and give him closer money). So we can either trade him now and get something, trade Marmol and extend Marshall (who would be our new closer), or let Marshall walk after the season (for which we would not get any compensation under the new CBA).

If Wood is the pitcher he was in 2010, that's a great move. If he's the Wood from 2011, I'd rather try to snag a nice upside prospect elsewhere.

Well, hell, sign me up twice then. Good thing we didn't waste money on a fatty Seriously guys? Yeah, this is getting a bit silly... and not just because it's in the Darvish thread.

But why spend 12 or 13 mil per year when you can get the same value from a guy for half that? We just got DeJesus, a better player, for about 1/3 of what Ethier will make per season.

I was asked who we COULD spend money on in 2013. BASED ON A SCENARIO I had mentioned. As one of the biggest bats avaialable that offseason, I mentioned him, proceeded to say he wouldn't hit the market, followed by saying he had tons of red flags, followed by saying if I'm signing a bat from that class, it'd probably be Upton or maybe Ethier, but we'd probably have to trade for a bat because the class is so weak. What a ringing endorsment for Josh Hamilton I gave! Ethier? Jesus Christ. What's wrong with Ethier, other than he's evidently a prick towards some of his current teammates? He played hurt most of this past season and his 3 previous ones he had OPS'S of .885, .869, and .857. He'd be 31 at that point and could probably be had on a 3 or 4 year deal. I don't see a problem with him. He's not great defensively? That's not enough to bother me about him. "Not that great defensively" is an understatement. He's abysmal in the field. Last year he had a huge dropoff in power and the only reason his overall numbers didn't look terribly out of the ordinary was a BABIP of .348. I'd suspect that's the start of his decline. For a player that was never much more than a 3.0 WAR guy anyways, I don't want him for anywhere near what he's gonna get paid. That fun old game again. Figure out the mystery early 30's outfielders based off their WAR every year since 2006 (when Ethier broke into the league). A: 2.4, 2.0, 3.5, 2.8, 2.2, 2.9 Total - 15.8 B: 4.4, 1.9, 2.5, 3.7, 2.6, 2.2 Total - 17.3 C: 1.0, 4.4, 1.6, 1.5, 3.3, 2.2 Total - 14.0 There are free agent outfielders every year with comparable or better value than Ethier who will only come at a fraction of the cost. You want to be able to afford to take risks on guys like Fielder and Darvish? We do that by not wasting money elsewhere.

I wont lie... this hurts. And now I'm worried we're going to sign Fielder to a poorly advised deal in a desperate bid to show we're doing something. Sleeping on it for a night will perhaps provide some more perspective, but for tonight at least I've reached the point where I'd be fine with a full-scale rebuilding process.

Buster Olney is reporting Pushfrog98 is getting banned.

BAN!

C'mon $48,151,623.42

And suddenly, I realized that Hollandsworth's mug wasn't a moron... he was just a frustrated guy with blue balls. CONSUMMATE SOMETHING ALREADY!!!

Were you asking me that and who the hell is that? its the person you share an IP address with... Very Thundergun.

I'm in. Is there any chance of getting Oddibe McDowell on the coaching staff?

I seem to recall seeing that the Marlins TV ratings were actually quite healthy... people just didn't want to go to the stadium. I imagine there were more than a few causes for that.

The Yankees supposedly only made a "modest" bid. And most people comparing notes seem to be relatively confident the Blue Jays outbid them. I'm not sure why you would be so certain the Yankees won the bid.

You have to keep in mind that he's still only 22 and did miss significant time because of the Hodgkin's Lymphoma. I'm well aware. I'm not saying he's not a nice prospect. He's a bit overrated on account of being a former Red Sox prospect and co-headlining a trade for Adrian Gonzalez, but he's a nice prospect. I'm just saying I'm not sold on his ability to step in and produce much in the next couple years. He's a bit raw to be expecting the kind of production we'd be looking for if we want to compete in the short term.

I feel like I'm missing something on Rizzo. It's not like he's Eric Hosmer, who has very few holes in his game and sparkling scouting reports. Rizzo needs a lot of work... He's young enough he could certainly figure it out, but the scouting reports I've seen were always kinda "meh" on his power until he started mashing in the PCL. He strikes out too much and runs too slowly to be much more than a .260 hitter (crazy .350+ BABIPs through the minors make his numbers look better than they should've). His walk rate is okay, but it's not particularly exciting either. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to have guys like him in the system. But I'm just not sold on him as a guy we should be looking at as our potential opening day 1B.

Don't see the Padres doing that. And I hope the Cubs wouldn't.

There's something about Wells that people just do not trust. Even me. I wish I knew why.

I'm not huge on Rizzo, honestly. There'd have to be another piece of similar value and a couple others before I'd entertain the thought of trading Garza.

that's a pretty damn good haul, and I'm not high on Alonso at all My thoughts exactly. I love Grandal though. Of course, this deal does make the Reds better too. They've still got Votto and Mesoraco at 1B and C.