marc_foust

Nontender Grimm and Rondon saves around 9 mil Sign Cobb 4/58 Sign Chatwood 3/24 Sign Rene Rivera 1/3 Sign Cameron Maybin 2/8 Sign Bryan Shaw 2/12 Sign Jake McGee 2/15 Sign Joe Smith 2/10 Opening day payroll around $171 mil according to mlbtr arb est and fanrag's heyman's expert free agent predictions. Chatwood should eat innings, with some upside but not a ton of risk. Cobb is the big prize and sounds likely. The three pen arms offer late inning experience with McGee and Shaw and innings in Smith. Maybin gives joe the defensive replacement and pinch runner he wants. Rivera seems like a solid fit. This scenario keeps options flexible at the deadline and next off-season. I'm not a huge fan of trading the mlb hitters right now with none of them at a sell high point. But if at the deadline Happ, Russell, schwarber, almora, or Baez have built up trade value then go ahead.

I wonder if Seth smith could be had? Also I'm wondering if Hendricks is still a part of the plan. From the way he was handled last year, a number of guys getting first crack at mlb starts, and the moves so far, I wonder if the front office really believe in him. Lester, arrieta, hammel, wood, wada and bp of rondon, stropp, Grimm, Ramirez, turner, doubront, roach/schlitter/Ortiz/parker/rosscup. Doesn't even account for Edwin if we can't find a taker.

Ruggiano is probably our best hitter against left handed pitching...

welcome george kotteras

Just a thought, but Garrett Jones dfa. Seems redundant with Shierholtz on the roster, but we could trade Shierholtz for pitching or a right handed hitting outfielder then bring in Jones. Jones set to make 5.3 according to mlbtr so he would cost a little more than Shierholtz. Jones would be under team control till 2016 however. Jones not really a back up 1b unless Rizzo were to get hurt as neither is strong against lefties.

Miggy back to 1B, Castellanos to 3B, and money freed up to re-sign Scherzer. It doesn't really save Detroit that much in terms of yearly savings. They're paying 30M and Prince has 7 years left, so say $4M per year. Prince was scheduled to make $24M per year and Kinsler's contract goes 16-16-14-11 so the first two years they're only saving $4M and the third year is $6M. Scherzer only made $6.725M this year and he's going to make a hell of a lot more than that in whatever long term deal he ends up signing. I think it was more about getting out from underneath the last few years of the contract than this year and next. They have Peralta and Infante off already and Hunter and VMart off the books after this season too. Out side of Verlander, Anibal, and Cabrera, they really have some payroll flexibilty. Should be plenty of cash to lock up Scherzer if they want to. Might be in the same spot as we are with Shark though.

With the Mets and Dodgers 'out' on Cano and the nyy possibly moving on, what is his market going to be. Obviously 300 is not going to happen, 250 is looking doubtful, if his price tag drops to 7/175-200 range what teams would be in? I know the cubs wouldn't be interested but I would have very little problem paying him 25 mil per starting and if we are can plug in league minimum guys(baez, bryant, castillo, lake etc) and rizzo, castro, and sweeney. I understand the plan is going with multiple cost effective guys this offseason, but none of them will really be around when we are ready to compete. So why not just sign an impact guy like cano for 20+ mil instead of giving josh johnson 2/25 and nate mclouth 2/14, and scott baker 1/5. Does that kind off season really help the direction of the franchise? Take Barney, Bard, Shierholtz and Soriano money and get longer term pitching help next offseason when there are hopefully better options. How much better would johnson, mcclouth, baker be than cano, rusin and carlos villanueva in the rotation? Are we talking the difference between 65 and 75 wins?

From hearing hoops report the possible interest in Shierholtz and Barney from other teams and in house options like Vitters/Bogesevuic and Valbuena/Murphy, I would be solidly in favor of opening up the combined 6m in payroll by moving them. Barney would be more payroll motivated, but if Shierholtz can bring back a Pinyero/Black type then why not. If my payroll numbers are close then that would put it at 63m possibly putting giving us close to 25m to work with. Not sure on the actual top number other than less than 90m.

Bat Throw 2014 salary 1 C W. Castillo R R 1 2 1B A. Rizzo L L 1 3 2B D. Barney R R 2.1 4 SS S. Castro R R 5 5 3B L. Valbuena L L 1.5 6 RF Shierholtz L L 3.8 7 LF J. Lake R R 0.6 8 CF R. Sweeney L L 1.7 9 S1 Samardzjia R 4.9 10 S2 E. Jackson R 11 11 S3 T. Wood L 3.6 12 S4 J. Arrieta R 0.6 13 S5 C. Rusin L 0.6 14 R1 Villanueva R 5 15 R2 A. Cabrera R 0.4 16 R3 Z. Rosscup R 0.4 17 R4 D. Bard R 1.8 18 R5 J. Russell L 1.7 19 SU B.Parker R 0.6 20 CL P. Stropp R 1 21 C R R 22 INF D. Murhpy R R 1 23 INF M. Olt R R 0.4 24 OF Vitters R R 0.4 25 OF Bogesevuic L L 0.6 Misc Contracts 17.5 Total Payroll 68.2 Using Mlbtr arb estimates. In house 25 man for next season, without a back up catcher Misc contracts includes soriano, soler, hairston etc

I was under the impression that Alberto Cabrera had to be on the 25 man or he would be exposed to FA. Do you see him ending up somewhere else?

Locks: Rizzo, Valbuena, Sweeney, Lake, Castillo, Arrieta, Wood, Jackson, Stropp, Villanueva, Probable: Cabrera, Parker, Barney, Castro, Olt, Rosscup, I think Bard makes the pen, Vitters is up instead of Bogesevuic(need a RH bat in the outfield), I think Shark and Russell are gone by opening day but Castro is still here. I could see Rusin in the pen as a LH longman to pair with Rosscup. I would prefer to see Grimm in AAA stretched out still. So that being said I have those 19 so 6 new faces.

catcher- the front office wants get left handed so they will be bidders on salty. if they get him then Castillo becomes a valuable trade chip. if not salty they keep Castillo. 1b Rizzo isn't going anywhere for at least 3 years. 2b rumors have Barney on his way out and I don't think he makes it past the trade deadline. I think Baez ends up here. ss Castro is the guy and has probably two years to prove who he is for better or worse. 3b olts job to lose and he probably platoons with valbuena. if that isn't productive then Bryant is up opening day 2015 or whenever the super 2 deadline is. rf shierholtz is probably here till the deadline. lake grabs a few starts against lefties. if olt pans out we see Bryant here same timeline. cf I think the Sweeney/lake have the spot till almora takes it (late 2015 early 2016) lf the front office kicks the tires on cargo, like the left handed bat that can slot in anywhere in the lineup. they probably try ellsbury, but he is to costly. so we see bargain shopping with granderson, mcclouth, chris young type group leaving cash for sp. sp it looks like shark is all but gone. I think they like Tanaka and are serious players. if that fails I think ubaldo on a Jackson like deal is the plan b. wood Jackson Tanaka/ubaldo with a flip candidate baker/hammel/etc with arrieta the first option for injury or ineffectiveness or at latest the trade deadline. pen stropp Russell villanueva Cabrera arrieta should be locks. bard is there if he is a cub still, Parker if not. then either Ruskin/rosscup. bench valbuena lake vitters Watkins and scrap heap backup catcher. bogey if no of is brought in. I think this off season is about adding a top of the rotation starter priority while we see what Rizzo Castro Sweeney lake Castillo lot can do. not much chance of realistically catching stl can and pit. alcantara vogey shierholtz barney shark are probably gone by opening day 2015

I know they sucked last year but we had Byrd in CF and Soto at C, who were on paper supposed to be above avg. There was hope for Stewart, Castro and LaHair. Dempster's and possibly Maholm performance will realistically not be matched by any individual player this season. The hope is that the upgrade in the rest of the rotation and bullpen will help temper those losses. DDJ, Castro, Soriano, Lahair, Byrd, Soto, Stewart, barney vs DDJ, Castro, Rizzo, Soriano, Stewart, Shierholtz, Castillo, Barney

As Kyle has made it his mission in life to report, I really doubt this year's team can be as bad as last year's just based off of the almost inevitable improvement from last year's worst pitchers to who will be this year's worst pitchers. I dont truly believe this team will lose 100 games or anything. Edwin Jackson and some value signings doesnt necessarilly put us on par with the Cardinals next season either. I like the value in the guys we got and love the direction this team is heading in. But until we add some game changers to our team, its hard to get too excited about our chances for the upcoming season. But I love what the FO has done since taking over. The last week or so with the Sanchez dealings and signing of jackson has reassured my hope that this will be a winning organization sooner rather than later. But if we do indeed trade for example, Soriano and Shark, for parts to improve our club that doesnt neccesarily improve our club this season we could be in a bad place for this season.

It's fun having smart guys doing things. They might not do the dumber stuff we all secretly (or not so secretly) wish they would That's some passive aggressive horse [expletive] He's entitled to rub some noses in it. He was patient and showed some faith in the front office. Rub noses in what? Nothing has been accomplished. Nothing at all. Last year sucked and it didn't have to. I am a big fan of our FO, but this season could possibly end up being just as bad as last season. Garza and Baker are question marks, Fuji has never pitched in the states, Feldman isnt exactly a TOR pitcher, and our offense isnt in any better shape than it was last year. A whole lot of things have to go right for this team to make the playoffs this season. And at this point I dont see Bourn being the answer to our offensive problems. So we may have to lose a shark or garza type in a trade to bolster our lineup. I like the depth of assets they have created for us, but we are a still a couple of moves away from this off season being a HUGE success..

That lineup sure could use an impact bat somewhere.... imagine if Soriano is taken out....

Feldman was told he would be a starter too. I guess they arent counting on health from both Baker and Garza then. Or say bye to SHark and/or Garza.

I believe i read somewhere that the reason Villanueva came to the cubs was because he was going to be a starter. So as long as Garza and Baker make most of their starts this season, I believe that would leave Wood and Feldman in the pen.

I am really liking our pitching staff and all. It has me wondering if all of the starting pitcher pitchers that we have gained hurt the market for guys like Marmol, Garza, and Soriano given where it puts our 40 man situation? Mainly the type of packages we get in return arent going to be able to be multi prospect type deals.

The more I look at our position players, 40 man roster situation and our potential lineup, the more I am appreciating what Soriano brings to the table. If we do trade him then it will almost have to be almost a straight up trade unless we are willing to take back non 40 man guys. Losing his bat in the lineup leaves a pretty gaping hole in the middle. I love what we have done with our pitching staff and all but it kinds of limits the type of returns (multi player deals)we can get for guys like Garza, Soriano, Marmol, and hypotheetically Shark and barney.

All of the proposed trades for Garza, Marmol, and Shark are involving mutliple prospects... Do we have 40 man space for that? I have no deal in mind but it would seem these deals would haved to be for low level guys or closer to straight up trades....

Any interest in Danny Valencia? DFA by the Red Sox. Could he be any worse than the Stewart/Valbuena/Vitters effort this past season?

Even better is Chone getting DFA. He did not age well at all.

I was just wondering what the thoughts were for solutions at third base. There are possible FA options in the OF and SP but some pretty unbearable answeres for 3b. With the internal options of Stewart and Valbuena are there any realistic trade options or possible outside the box FA answers to fix the situation with the team direction in mind?

Is garza going to be ready early-ish in the season and will they limit his innings as well?