mul21

The Game 5 Carpenter/Halladay duel was pretty good. But yeah, other than that, some sloppy baseball with a decent number of not very close games.

The system is lackluster and aggressive promotions is a part of the system. The system is lackluster because of a lack of overslots, taking some chances early, and not spending jack in Latin America for several years. Combine that with a few guys being traded or not panning out, and I think you have a much better case for saying aggressive promotions haven't hurt in any significant way than arguing they have.

I have a feeling he has relationships with people in Latin America that are probably pretty important to the Cubs continuing to be able to sign pretty highly regarded guys from down there. I think they need to make sure he's treated well so they don't burn any bridges, but at the same time, him having less influence on the minor league instructional philosophy is something I'd like to see as well. He's got to be the guy most responsible for the aggressive approach they've been preaching for years now.

I may be erring in assuming the Red Sox can bump payroll up as necessary if they choose to, much like the Yankees but not to the same degree. In all honesty, I think NL teams will have the inside track on Pujols anyway. I'm pretty sure he prefers playing first rather than DHing and while I think he'll entertain offers from AL teams and use them to boost the overall value of the deal, I think he'll end up in the NL. Fielder's more likely to be in the AL, I think. Something like the Cubs getting Pujols for (throwing out a random amount) 10/280 and then the Angels/Red Sox/Yankees fighting over Fielder at a little less in money and years than Pujols got. I just don't see the Cards being a factor. It'd take nearly everything they have just to bring Pujols back and they may not even be able to afford him alone without boosting payroll. If he were going to go back to St. Louis at a major discount, I think he would have done it before the year. Something that most people tend to forget about when trying to figure out payroll for the Cards is their stadium payments. They're paying off a significantly higher portion of principle on their loan than they're required to every year. I'm thinking I remember it being in the $10 million range that they're paying on top of what they're required. So, regardless of what they're payroll currently is, I think they can easily bump it by $10 million for at least a couple years (especially with the WS run this year) and be okay. I think Pujols ends up back in a Cards uniform.

Man, he hates him some Szczur.

Wait, who the hell are you? So confused!

I'm pretty sure it wouldn't matter if they had clean medical records or not, Boston is still going to do their due diligence and have a full physical done before they fully sign off on the deal.

Levine says Red Sox are being asshats and deal is likely to be pushed back further.

I'd be interested in reading what he had to say. Link?

Well, that clearly trumps Hue Jackson's claim that the Carson Palmer trade was the best ever. I mean, can you claim any trade is better than one that probably saves a guy's life?

I can see the way Boston is going to play this: "We didn't like the compensation being offered, but the Cubs called in the Commissioner and he made us take what they were offering. We're not happy about it, but we're left no other choice at this point." Which hopefully means we're screwing them and they're trying to save face after getting Flaherty and Gaub or something.

How would it be a misprint if I heard it on the radio? Unless you're saying I typed 200 instead of 150 or something. Either way, I'm not 100% sure on what I heard, but I did hear him say something with regard to "around $200M." You did say baseball budget though right? That could theoretically include front office personnel salaries and not just ML salaries and draft spending. The way it was worded made me think it was including something other than just player salaries and draft spending.

The reality is Ricketts has given the go ahead to essentially sign as many over slot guys as possible in the draft. Just by doing that our chances of stocking up the farm with top prospects significantly increase. Overslots may not be around for much longer. I really hope that Selig can't push that through, but I suspect he might. I think there's going to be enough pushback from enough teams other than the Yankees, Cubs, and Sox to keep that from happening. They're far from the only ones who do it. What i don't get is why that's part of collective bargaining. It would seem that the players would be totally against it (although I guess that would leave marginally more money for ML players) and that enough owners would hate it that it would be one of the first things to get dropped from negotiations.

Boers and Bernstein are talking about Gammons' comments that whatsherface posted. Making a big deal out of the fact that it sounds like Crane Kenney and Randy Bush are doing the negotiating. I find that hard to believe. I think Gammons is wrong and that these two are blowing things out of proportion. Everything we've heard is that Ricketts is doing the negotiating right?

He really fills up a stat sheet (good and bad). Is there anybody comparable to him who's had success in MLB? That's the only thing that's holding me back. Otherwise, I love that combination of power, speed, and the position he plays. He has that horrible BB/K ratio, but he's good in every single other area. Dunston?

I have no idea what the Tapatalk crap is, but I hate it more every time I see it. Make it stop!

Use all caps so he understands better.

No. When you sell your car, does your price depend upon how the person buying it is going to use it? Only if the car is getting promoted to a 4 wheel drive truck. I just don't understand how you don't get this. It's the same thing as an NFL coordinator being allowed to interview for a head coaching job. There's NEVER any compensation when a promotion is involved. In fact, the only time permission is even considered to be an issue is in a parallel move, which we've clearly determined is not the case here.

that would give me a huge boner but i think the dolphins can get more, considering brandon lloyd is now the focus of a bidding war. Sounds like Lloyd to the Rams is a done deal based on radio reports down here per a Jason LaConfora tweet.

Plus, the Marlins threw in the prospects they did so they didn't get hit with tampering charges, so that situation bears pretty much zero comparison to Theo.

If that's how it's going down, I like him even more now. Giving the Sox a big F you.

With Vandelay Industries? And you want to be my latex salesman?????

Fair points, and those are the concerns. But if it works, he's worth 5 WAR every year. If it only kinda works, he's still probably going to be worth 2.5 (Randy Wells 09-10 range). If you don't think he can even replicate Wells, then sure, leave him alone. I'm less worried about him replicating Wells than I am with him ending up broken given his history. It could work, but even if he gives you 150 IP and then gets hurt, WAR may say you gained something, but you've lost a valuable guy by taking an unnecessary risk.

Then there's the issue of filling the role he vacates as well. I agree, too high of a risk for an unknown when he's been as great as he's been in the setup role.

I'm not sure exactly what you're asking or what you mean by "built into an agreement between clubs" but Theo is still under contract with the Red Sox. Yes, there is a multitude of reasons why they don't have much leverage in this matter, but in terms of their ability to demand compensation, he is under contract with them and they decide whether he can go or not. For him to come here, they (technically) have to let him go. Right, but even if Epstein breaches his contract, the Red Sox are only entitled to money (which the Cubs could easily pay), unless there's some sort of MLB contract where teams have agreed to exchange players instead of money in situations like this. Outside of this, I'm sure there's a non-compete in place that would prevent Theo from going to work for another organization. The penalties for that, I'm sure, would have to be determined in a court and I'd bet the Sox would be well within their rights to ask for players as compensation. Then there's the whole tampering thing if the Cubs hire him without the Sox releasing him and the potential penalties from MLB if that happened. This negotiation is by far the quickest and most simple route to go.