RammyFanny

Not sure if this was posted before, but from a couple days ago: http://www.latimes.com/sports/baseball/mlb/angels/la-sp-baseball5-2008nov05,0,2245652.story?track=rss I have a hard time believing that this would be true with Peavy and one of Demp o Wood. I'm guessing it'd be without Peavy, but with him it would be awesome. They would pobably move Theriot and Fontenot into some sort of platoon at second, put DeRosa in right, and keep Furcal at short.

Would be another good arm available to replace Wood or just help the pen: http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/players/profile?playerId=5641 3.41 ERA/1.28WHIP/29 Saves last year.

http://chicagocubsonline.com/archives/2008/11/cubsrumors11808.php

The problem is that Dempster is very unlikely to duplicate his 2008, so Peavy would be necessary just to match what we got out of Demp last year. And you're missing the key point..which is that we wouldn't be able to re-sign Wood if we had Peavy and Dempster, not to mention any other free agents. So 2009 Peavy might not make us that much better than a 2008 Dempster would, but the loss of Wood make our bullpen significantly worse. If we lose Wood then our bullpen could be in serious trouble. I'd rather have a really good rotation and a good bullpen than a mega rotation with a crappy pen. Bottom line is that Dempster would not be even remotely necessary.... Wood would. Plus it's very possible that Dempster isn't even much of an upgrade over Marquis next season. I'm not counting on Dempster. How bad do you expect Dempster to be? I'm not expecting what he did last year, but I still think he can give a solid 3.40 with a 1.30 WHIP or so. I can't say the same for Marquis. I just think it's easier to find a solid and cheap(er) bullpen guy than a Dempster like starter who will give you 200+ innings of well pitched baseball. Do we really want to be paying 8-10 millionish for Woody, instead of 12 million for Dempster, for 1 inning every few games(not to mention the injury history..not even including his blister problems)? I mean i've got man love for the guy, but i'd rather allocate the money to a quality starter and get a decent bullpen arm who you think can have a good season through trade or FA. I can see where your coming from though, but I guess i'm just thinking different. I wouldn't go 5 years, though. Well I didn't say I expected Dempster to be as bad as Marquis, I just said it's possible. I expect him to have an ERA around 4. And yes, if we got Peavy I feel like it would be a no-brainer to use the rest of the money on Wood and not Dempster. You build you club based on needs and holes. With Peavy the rotation would be the absolute last thing that needed an upgrade, The bullpen without Wood is in big time need of an upgrade. Let's say Marmol steps into the closers role and does well (which isn't a guarantee anyways). Who pitches the 8th? The 7th? Now instead of having Marmol as the fireman/8th inning guy..we're going to Chad Gaudin? Samardzija? Cotts? Every game would be an adventure because we spent money on something we didn't need. It doesn't really matter how good your starting pitching is if you don't have guys to finish it. It's kind of like the Rangers continuing to use resources on hitting instead of pitching and then wondering why they score 9 runs every night but still lose. Fair enough, but Wood is asking for 3 or 4 years at a good chunk of money. I'd be skeptical, considering we found out (last offseason I think) that he's pitching with a small tear in his shoulder that he won't have surgery on.

http://chicagocubsonline.com/archives/2008/11/cubsrumors11808.php

Cuban's interest won't influence the owners to allow him on. The Cubs will be a prosperous organization and will benefit MLB no matter who gets in. I think the second half of the sentence was the important part. We already know he's interested.

The problem is that Dempster is very unlikely to duplicate his 2008, so Peavy would be necessary just to match what we got out of Demp last year. And you're missing the key point..which is that we wouldn't be able to re-sign Wood if we had Peavy and Dempster, not to mention any other free agents. So 2009 Peavy might not make us that much better than a 2008 Dempster would, but the loss of Wood make our bullpen significantly worse. If we lose Wood then our bullpen could be in serious trouble. I'd rather have a really good rotation and a good bullpen than a mega rotation with a crappy pen. Bottom line is that Dempster would not be even remotely necessary.... Wood would. Plus it's very possible that Dempster isn't even much of an upgrade over Marquis next season. I'm not counting on Dempster. How bad do you expect Dempster to be? I'm not expecting what he did last year, but I still think he can give a solid 3.40 with a 1.30 WHIP or so. I can't say the same for Marquis. I just think it's easier to find a solid and cheap(er) bullpen guy than a Dempster like starter who will give you 200+ innings of well pitched baseball. Do we really want to be paying 8-10 millionish for Woody, instead of 12 million for Dempster, for 1 inning every few games(not to mention the injury history..not even including his blister problems)? I mean i've got man love for the guy, but i'd rather allocate the money to a quality starter and get a decent bullpen arm who you think can have a good season through trade or FA. I can see where your coming from though, but I guess i'm just thinking different. I wouldn't go 5 years, though.

Another reason i'd try and resign Dempster with Peavy (hopefully) is because without Demp, did we really improve all that much? Obviously, Peavy figures to be better than Dempster for the upcoming year, but I doubt even Peavy would reproduce what Dempster did last season. The upgrade from Dempster to Marquis would be what really improves the team.

Is that Podcast up yet?

You're right asbout the service time too, but I just (personally) get the impression it's close because we know Towers likes Pie and has tried acquiring him twice over the last few seasons.

edit: wrong quote

2 years younger. Zero major league service time. Young for his league. What do you mean he doesn't walk? His OBP in '08 was more than 100 points better than his AVG. Over a full season, that equates to more than 100 walks. Yeah, worst comparison ever. I'm not sure where that "doesn't walk" stuff is coming from either. Not sure if the defense argument holds much weight, either. Schafer was listed as the best defensive outfielder and best outfield arm in the Braves farm system, not to mention a top prospect. I'm not saying it isn't close, i'm just saying that it's up for debate.

2 years younger. Zero major league service time. Young for his league. What do you mean he doesn't walk? His OBP in '08 was more than 100 points better than his AVG. Over a full season, that equates to more than 100 walks. Unfortunately for Pie, the major league service time he does have has displayed rather poor results, especially against lefties. I didn't realize that he had improved on his walking last year, though he was still putrid against lefties, and that isn't likely to change once he gets to the majors. I was going off of remembering his high A ball stats at the end of 07, where he had like 36 walks in just under 450 AB's.

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=jp-peavydeal110608&prov=yhoo&type=lgns With this latest news, I would imagine the Cubs are the team looking at a 3 or 4 team trade, since the inclusion of Tommy Hanson and/or Jordan Shafer trumps any players we can offer. Only thing is, I don't see Atlanta doing this. Towers is playing poker with Atlanta and Chicago, hoping one of them ups the ante enough to pull the trigger. Luckily for Atlanta and Chicago, Peavy is the pit boss in this card game. How is Schafer any better than Pie. The guy is just like Pie (.605 OPS vs. lefties and can't walk), is probably slightly worse in the field than Felix, and just got suspended for hgh or something (I know it was something...not sure if it was hgh). In my eyes a Pie, Cedeno, Marshall, Ceda and 1 of Castillo/Hart/Atkins is just as good as anything the Braves offer outside of putting Hanson in a deal. Jo-Jo Reyes and Gorkys Hernandez are you kidding me. I'd have to agree. The Padres are getting what they want: a speedy CF, a middle infielder, a major league ready starter and some other good prospects. Castillo could be a nice get for them, coming off of that future's game appearance along with the fact that Hendry can probably say "we wouldn't trade him if we didn't have Soto".

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=jp-peavydeal110608&prov=yhoo&type=lgns With this latest news, I would imagine the Cubs are the team looking at a 3 or 4 team trade, since the inclusion of Tommy Hanson and/or Jordan Shafer trumps any players we can offer. Only thing is, I don't see Atlanta doing this. Towers is playing poker with Atlanta and Chicago, hoping one of them ups the ante enough to pull the trigger. Luckily for Atlanta and Chicago, Peavy is the pit boss in this card game. How is Schafer any better than Pie. The guy is just like Pie (.605 OPS vs. lefties and can't walk), is probably slightly worse in the field than Felix, and just got suspended for hgh or something (I know it was something...not sure if it was hgh).

I don't know, the guy has been incredibly honest and public so far.

Yahoo updated the Shark article by the way: http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=jp-peavydeal110608&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

Mini update from Rosenthal, nothing groundbreaking: http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/8770300/Value-of-Holliday,-Atkins-questioned

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/chi-081107-mark-cuban-chicago-cubs,0,5829530.story I think it was De Luca that had that story yesterday, and lately he seems wrong on everything. He wrote an article saying how his sources said we weren't going after Peavy, and then that same night writes an article saying his sources are saying we are in heavy pursuit of him (after all of the other articles).

If this is what they want from the Indians, God knows what theyd want from us. If the O's are really that bonkers, I think we can forget about Roberts. Saw that too. They are crazy. McPhailing. Big time. Unless this is Angelos flexing his love We should all storm the OH if we land Peavy less for what they all were demanding fo Roberts.

If this is what they want from the Indians, God knows what theyd want from us. If the O's are really that bonkers, I think we can forget about Roberts. Saw that too. They are crazy.

http://www.ajc.com/blogs/content/shared-blogs/ajc/braves/entries/2008/11/07/pondering_peavy.html

Braves seem to be the frontunners by a good margin.

Wow. If the Padres take that, Jim Hendry ought to be arrested for rape. For the second time. Serial rapist.

And even if it does it involve Josh it will go from amazing to completely fair. I think one thing is for sure, if Peavy didn't have that NTC we would be completely screwed.