davell

Are we sure he's not getting stretched out to start?

Good God, it's like a little kid stomping his feet, holding his breath and [expletive] until he gets his way. We all know you like Aroldis Chapman as a [expletive] starter. There's literally zero reason to keep trying to push him down people's throats.

Hendricks? There may even be a few teams that'd attempt to make CJ a starter. I'll bring it up again though, a package of Javy and Soler would be tough for teams to beat and it'd be a possible marketing dream for the Marlins.

Growing sentiment around Baseball and internally with the @marlins is Jose Fernandez will be traded this offseason.

Kershaw/Anderson/Ryu/Wood......If they added Price, has there ever been a team with a rotation full of lefties?

Martin is headed to the Mariners.

But if we do land an elite FA SP to go along with Arrieta and Lester, do we really need to give up that much for what would end up being our #4 starter? With that kind of 1-3, would Hammel-Hendricks pencilled in at 4-5 really be the worst thing? Or even a bad thing? And after seeing what they've done with Maholm, Feldman, Hammel, and of course, Arrieta, I'm more than confidant that they can keep digging up bodies for Bosio to work with. Its not a bad thing. I'm not so sure they don't move Hammel though in order to give them a bit more money for other stuff.

I think we're going to have to. I definitely think they'll get one e!ite FA. I think they're counting on a trade to give them either the 2nd SP or the CF. But in either case, they'll need to be cheap. Dependent on which way it goes, I'm expecting the other gets 7-10 mill per on a short deal thrown at it. 1 big FA, one nice trade, and a stopgap type that nets us 2 pitchers and a CF. Head into the year with a 94ish win team on paper.

I'm resigned to the fact we're trading one of Javy or Soler. I just want the best young pitcher that it'll net us. And in doing so, I completely expect us to still be able to grab a truly elite FA in the process. Its starting to look to me that there's not a bunch available either. Its a means to an end thing, I guess. I didn't like what Boston had to give up for Kimbrel. But they've still got tons of assets and money to spend. So in the end, I get why they did it. That's kind of what I suspect happens with us in this scenario.

Again, I think the walks can head back down. I think that's his key. The breaking stuff was hit harder than normal and it probably helped lessen the effectiveness of his FB in the process. I'll take talent and let Bosio to from there.

The president of the Javy fan club means zero to me. I'm way too lazy to look it all up, but there's been a group that's been super high on him for the entirety. Myself among them. Rammy, Tim, and TT have been high on him all along as well. I don't hold a poor season against anyone. 1st, 2nd, 3rd or whatever. But bringing Castro's 2013 up is especially odd, considering he bounced back nicely in 2014.

except teheran was pretty bad last year (and not in a superficial way that you could write off as bad luck) and ross was very good. And with pitchers, how much does that actually even mean to begin with? Teheran had a bad year after 2 pretty good ones. bad performance with bad peripherals and recency means plenty. if you can buy low on him and want to gamble on him bouncing back, that's fine. but i'm not giving up any of our big league trade chips for him. Players have off years. His GB rate went up a pretty good amount. Unfortunately so did his walk rate. That seems correctable. His FB lost value for some reason, even if it gained a bit of velo. Again, the talent is still there. I'd definitely prefer not giving up either of Javy or Soler for him. Of course I'd rather give up minor league guys for him. But if you're going to dock him for his ML performance in 2015, then you need to do the same for our guys. Not to mention, Ross and his slider throwing truly seems like a bigger gamble than even most pitchers.

except teheran was pretty bad last year (and not in a superficial way that you could write off as bad luck) and ross was very good. And with pitchers, how much does that actually even mean to begin with? Teheran had a bad year after 2 pretty good ones.

Teheran is under control for 5 seasons at 40.6 mill total. Just 3.3 for 2016. Ross for 2 years and around 10 mill in 2016. I'd take Teheran over Ross easily, considering the payroll expectations. Adding him wouldn't likely affect anything else we do. Adding Ross likely would.

I'd just put him in CF, since he's supposedly going to get some time there next year.

How many wins is replacement level at this point?

He's supposedly not a hard worker, kind of a prick in the clubhouse, has had issues listening to coaching, and may not be able to stay healthy. Its enough to keep me from being all that interested in him. I definitely think our FO cares about clubhouse chemistry and I think that there's enough questions surrounding him, that he wouldn't be anywhere near a priority for us.

Is Parra really going to get that much? I definitely don't want to pay him that much with Heyward also coming here. I'd rather play Heyward in CF than Parra, and that's a lot of OFs with Parra, Heyward, Soler, and Schwarber. I like Bud Norris as the reclamation/6th starter. One of my low key targets I'd like to see the Cubs add. I honestly have no feel for his contract. I almost went 2/12 there but thought it was light. In this scenario, we'd deal Coghlan. Need to add that in my scenario, I guess. At any rate, I kind of figure Parra as the 4th OF, but finds his way to 450 PA.

Zack Greinke- Dodgers@ 6/186 David Price- Giants@ 7/217 Jason Heyward-Cubs@ 10/215 Chris Davis-Astros@ 7/175 Justin Upton-Angels@6/132 Johnny Cueto- Red Sox@5/105 Yoenis Cespedes- White Sox@ 6/144 Alex Gordon- Mariners@5/95 Jordan Zimmermann- Dodgers@ 6/120 Jeff Samardzija- Cards@ 4/64 Mike Leake- Tigers@ 5/80 Denard Span-Mets@ 1/12 Kenta Maeda- Cubs@20M Posting Fee + 6/52 Wei Yen Chen- Angels@5/85 Dexter Fowler-Tigers-@4/68 Daniel Murphy- Diamondbacks@4/48 Scott Kazmir- Pirates@ 3/42 Ian Kennedy- Nats@3/30 in June Yovani Gallardo- Diamondbacks@3/39 Ben Zobrist- Cards@4/68 Few more predictions on FA Ian Desmond- Padres-5/80 Howie Kendrick-White Sox 3/39 Hisashi Iwakuma- Mariners 2/32 Darren O'Day- Dodgers 4/36 David Freese-Angels 2/24 John Lackey-Giants 3/45 JA Happ- Orioles 2/20 Asdrubal Cabrera- Phillies 1/11 Doug Fister-Pirates 2/20 Joakim Soria- Tigers 3/24 Other Cubs signings- Gerardo Parra 3/24 and Bud Norris1/2.5 and bonuses Cubs Cuban Signings- P Vladimir Gutierrez- 4.5 mill, P Norge Ruiz- 7 mill, P Cionel Perez- 2 mill, INF Randy Arozarena- 2.25 mill, 2B Omar Estevez- 1.75 mill Trades- Javy/P Johnson/Hammel for Teheran/Grilli, Coghlan to Giants for LHP Josh Osich and LHP Mac Marshall MLB Trades CarGo to KC for Hunter Dozier, Miguel Almonte, Kyle Zimmer and Danny Duffy Chapman to Toronto for Dalton Pompey and Sean Reid-Foley Carrasco to Red Sox for JBJ, Henry Owens, and Rafael Devers

Yep. If the 130 figure is correct......

I'd be OK with it.

Brett Anderson accepted the QO. Dex turned it down, as did the rest.

#Cubs season ticket prices increase for 2016 https://t.co/vskTPd8Auc 10% on average price hike for 2016.

I've not paid any attention to CBA talk yet, is it looking like a strike is likely or something?

From @MLBBruceLevine: How the #Cubs' creative bookkeeping helps add assets this offseason: https://t.co/6RsInbblVl https://t.co/t7ot0dPzfw Interesting, but I guess this has been the case all along. I'm guessing this is how they squirreled away IFA money. Who knows though?