Rob

What did you guys expect? Theo had been trending hard towards defense since he took over the Red Sox. Hell, he traded Nomar to us in order to get Orlando Cabrera and Doug Mientkiewicz. He spent half his tenure trying to get rid of Manny. He went hard after guys like Adrian Beltre, JD Drew, Mike Lowell, Adrian Gonzalez, and Mike Cameron. He drafted guys like Ellsbury. Theo likes players who have well rounded skillsets. Is that somehow a bad thing?

Defense and baserunning is the new walks (although walks are certainly still welcome). Get with the program already.

Coco Crisp is somewhere from average to above average when healthy. I don't necessarily have a problem with acquiring him, but I have a hard time seeing exactly how he would fit into our plans. Of course, if we're moving Soriano/Byrd elsewhere for salary relief or prospects, he might make sense to replace them. It is becoming abundantly clear, however, that the brass does not care for Brett Jackson's strikeout issues.

That's crazytalk. If that's the case, we're lucky to be in a league with so many dumb GMs. It's only crazy if they think we've bottomed out the price. If they think waiting a bit longer could get him to come even cheaper then they're doing the right thing.

Who was it that everybody was saying had won the Matsuzaka bid at first again?

:beg:

I thought we were officially paid off on Bradley/Silva. I think Silva has a buyout that goes to this year... $2 mil or so.

Didn't rumor have it that Seibu was threatening to send Matsuzaka back down to the minors if he didn't sign? Apparently they can keep guys down there pretty much indefinitely without them reaching FA status. Of course, Boras would file infinity bajillion lawsuits... but Darvish would still end up getting hurt in the long run most likely.

I doubt it. Tomorrow isn't unrealistic though.

I haven't seen anybody suggesting that we can't or even shouldn't spend significantly in free agency right now (though I wont presume to speak for davearm). The vocal "anti-Fielder" crowd is mostly just saying "I don't want to overpay by more than x" I wouldn't be happy with 6/150, but I think our front office is good enough to overcome the 30 mil or so they'd be overpaying by. The problem occurs when we hear people suggesting 7 or 8 years isn't likely to be a problem when -- quite frankly -- Fielder has no real chance of ever even approaching the value he'd need to. Let me pose two scenarios. Scenario 1: We sign Darvish + Fielder. Fielder get a 7 year contract. Scenario 2: We sign Darvish + Edwin Jackson. We work a trade revolving around Z + Cashner to the Marlins for Logan Morrison. We use the extra money left in the budget to sign Jorge Soler. Maybe it's just me, but I don't see much difference in value between those scenarios for 2012... but scenario 2 looks so much better for us in the mid to long terms. Overall, I don't have a problem at all with scenario 2, but you're going to have to kick in a ton of Z's money and add something else (or two) really good to get Morrison. I'm not even sure Z and Cashner are a good start. But, depending on who we lose in addition to those two, I'd have zero problem with Darvish/Jackson/Morrison for this offseason. The Z + Cashner for Morrison thing isn't meant to be exact. That whole situation is strange. The only reason Morrison is available is because the Marlins brass hates him on a personal level. Meanwhile, we know Ozzie Guillen loves Z. Beyond that, it's really hard to predict what it would take.

I haven't seen anybody suggesting that we can't or even shouldn't spend significantly in free agency right now (though I wont presume to speak for davearm). The vocal "anti-Fielder" crowd is mostly just saying "I don't want to overpay by more than x" I wouldn't be happy with 6/150, but I think our front office is good enough to overcome the 30 mil or so they'd be overpaying by. The problem occurs when we hear people suggesting 7 or 8 years isn't likely to be a problem when -- quite frankly -- Fielder has no real chance of ever even approaching the value he'd need to. Let me pose two scenarios. Scenario 1: We sign Darvish + Fielder. Fielder get a 7 year contract. Scenario 2: We sign Darvish + Edwin Jackson. We work a trade revolving around Z + Cashner to the Marlins for Logan Morrison. We use the extra money left in the budget to sign Jorge Soler. Maybe it's just me, but I don't see much difference in value between those scenarios for 2012... but scenario 2 looks so much better for us in the mid to long terms.

So in a hypothetical world where any mistakes our front office makes are forgiven and we just keep throwing money at problems, you'd be okay with giving him whatever? Great, that's useful. Theo has a budget. And at 25 million per season, Fielder would represent anywhere from 15%-20% of Theo's total budget (as well as have the 3rd highest yearly salary in baseball). This isn't chump change. This is without a doubt the sort of contract that can become an albatross that will prevent the Cubs from making worthwhile moves later on. Given the significant amount of risk that Fielder poses as well as his questionable overall production (both now and especially in the later years of his contract), there has to be a point at which it ceases to be a good idea to commit to him. Anybody who is willing to blindly throw money and years at a player in order to dig the Cubs out of a hole might do well to look at how we got into our current hole.

Mojo, do you still believe the Cubs should have spent whatever it took to get Adam Dunn last offseason?

Side note -- has anybody looked at what's happened to Ryan Howard the last couple years? And that crazy extension of his starts next year. That's gonna be a rough five years.

There's a decent chance Clevenger gets it so Castillo can get ABs in Iowa. I'm fine with it either way though.

There are some young options if you're looking a bit more long term. They've all got their own unique upsides and downsides, but I wouldn't be terribly upset if we went with any of them. (Sanchez and Smoak are likely only available if their team ends up with Fielder) Logan Morrison Gaby Sanchez Justin Smoak Ike Davis Kyle Blanks Mark Trumbo* Daric Barton Travis Snider There's also a slightly older tier that has some pretty major power, but has major questions too (health/defense/approach). They're not under control all that long and so are likely to come cheaper. Kendrys Morales Mark Reynolds Adam Lind Then there's the obvious "placeholder" group that can provide decent production for a year or two until we figure out something better to do at 1B. Carlos Pena Michael Cuddyer Carlos Lee After that point, it gets a little messy. But there's a host of other teams guys who haven't really had a good chance yet or blew it in a short chance (Brett Wallace, Brandon Allen, Chris Carter, Lars Anderson, David Cooper, etc...) There's also the "shitty retreads" group with guys like Brad Hawpe and James Loney... but it's obvious there's enough options there's no reason to go into these groups unless a scout was visited by an angel who told him David Ortiz was reborn into Chris Davis's body. *I would be upset with Trumbo. He sucks.

My excitement to see Ryan Theriot taken down a peg is somewhat offset by the fact the Cardinals can now spend that elsewhere. Oh, what's that you say? They gave Skip Schumaker 2 years? Huzzah!

For clarification, Barton has been tendered a contract. He is not a FA. Yes, I know. I mistakenly wrote non tendered instead of tendered. Otherwise I wouldn't have suggested the possibility of trading for him. The shame I feel is far greater than anything you can say or do. And when I read it I assumed you had a brain fart and thought non-tendering was the same thing as DFA. If you don't want people to clarify your mistakes, edit them yourself.

I could kiss you right on the [expletive].

OMG, RICH PEOPLE AREN'T ALLOWED TO BE STRESSED OUT ABOUT PUBLIC PRESSURES. HANG HER!

For clarification, Barton has been tendered a contract. He is not a FA.

The Brewers just sent Casey McGehee to Pittsburgh for Jose Veras, now that they don't need a 3B. We should probably check in on the availability of Pedro Alvarez.

Except one is a roller coast and the other is a ferris wheel. Fielder produced in his "down" year. Comparing age 23-26 seasons with age 28 seasons also isn't fair. Not to mention fielder putting in full seasons to soto playing much less. Fielder has varied from ver goo to great. Insinuating that he's as unreliable as soto or terribly inconsistent just doesn't hold up. Prince has absolutely not "varied from ver goo to great." [sic] 1.3 5.1 1.7 6.4 3.4 5.5 ~2.0 is an average position player. Fielder isn't exactly putting up the types of numbers that justify throwing caution to the wind. He's can be (and has been) a below average starter. Since I know you'll dismiss those first three years, you'd be more accurate in saying he's varied from above average to all-star, but not MVP level. And just because I find this interesting... in each of the last three seasons (which includes Fielder's two best), Fielder has been out-WAR'd by Ben Zobrist. Worth thinking about for a moment...

Do you read what you write before you hit submit? Ever? He doesn't read what the rest of us write. Why should his own posts be any different?

Except instead of giving up junk, you have us giving up McNutt and Barney, both of whom have real value as 0-3 guys... and Byrd, who should net a B prospect at the deadline. And instead of getting something, you have us receiving a guy whom the Dodgers should be nontendering. Brilliant!