davell

Damnit. It'd be really funny if we were ready to drop a $75m posting and this costs us the player. Epstein's going to start believing in curses soon. That's exactly what I was thinking. I definitely think the Astros(and White Sox for that matter) would ante up 20 mill and the contract needed to get him. In no way do I think it's fair to give last place teams another advantage and another reason to tank though. If 20 mill is set, I hope he gets to pick who he wants to negotiate with. At least we could try communicating we'd give him the most money on his contract.(whether true or not) Outside of that, giving him the true "staff ace" title is all we've got possibly going for us, in my mind. NY and LA both have much larger Asian populations and better current rosters.

Damnit.

Raciel Iglesias seems like a guy we'll go hard after obviously. Especially since he won't count against the IFA budget. That said, it wouldn't surprise me to see us holding back a bit of cash in case an interesting under 23 year old Cuban hits the market this offseason. Sucks it will cost us double, but it's that type of signing we're trying to find anyway. No idea on Rogelio Armenteros, but he's an 18 year old Cuban pitcher who defected. If he's legit(again, no idea) a 3 mill bonus would cost us 6, which could slightly affect what we spend on the big club.

Of course they're making money. That has nothing to do with the debt structure stuff, which basically everyone has confirmed is an actual issue. Wittenmyer has been the most vocal, but everyone has mentioned it, even the pro-rebuild types. You have a loose definition of the word "confirmed". Has anyone from the Cubs came out and denied it? No? Oh OK then. Why would the Cubs deny the best excuse they have for not spending money? So you think every journalist that has written on this subject, citing sources all the way through(and not from the Cubs) are just making things up?

Of course they're making money. That has nothing to do with the debt structure stuff, which basically everyone has confirmed is an actual issue. Wittenmyer has been the most vocal, but everyone has mentioned it, even the pro-rebuild types. You have a loose definition of the word "confirmed". Has anyone from the Cubs came out and denied it? No? Oh OK then.

Of course they're making money. That has nothing to do with the debt structure stuff, which basically everyone has confirmed is an actual issue. Wittenmyer has been the most vocal, but everyone has mentioned it, even the pro-rebuild types. Confirmed what? That they've been told by the Cubs it is an issue. If it were true I'm not sure how they'd be able to make any capital improvements. Honestly, there are plenty of articles around on here about it. If you think the Cubs are the ones talking about their woes, you've read none of them. Believe what you want.

Of course they're making money. That has nothing to do with the debt structure stuff, which basically everyone has confirmed is an actual issue. Wittenmyer has been the most vocal, but everyone has mentioned it, even the pro-rebuild types.

I want Hoffman, assuming Rodon is long gone. Kolek or Holmes versus Jackson is tough for me to say, luckily we've got an entire season to figure it out.

I think we'll see Ellsbury hit more homers with that porch they've got. You have to pay for talent. If you want a guy really bad, you go get him. I would have been fine with 7/153 on Ellsbury. Tanaka? If we somehow bid 93 mill on the PF(old system, just an example) and find out no one else was within 60 mill-I'm actually still OK with it.

http://mlbdraftinsider.com/2013/12/the-board-2014-volume-way-too-early/ Crawford's top 50.

No clue how the posting fee would be separate than anything else. It just doesn't make sense to me. Possible they had set aside a certain amount of renovation money that's going unused for another year, but still, that's a stretch.

No, but I do think he'll get over 200 mill from someone.

Yeah, for some reason I thought we'd wind up with Ellsbury too. Even more so after basically sitting out of FA this long. And yeah, I know it's silly to say AND it's wrong, but at this point, I don't want to give up a 2nd for Granderson, unless we get Ubaldo(give up the 3rd as well) or Tanaka.

Ryan Webb non tendered by the Marlins? He would have made less than 2 mill in arb, is 28, and put up a 2.91 ERA last year in 80+ innings. Only 6.05k/9, but a 3.60 FIP and a 3.79 xFIP and a 56.3% ground ball rate. (57.3 career) God they're awful.

No interest in Roberts. Not much anyway. I think the opposite on Anderson though. Adding 11 mill on Kazmir and 10 or so for Johnson is a big deal for them. I hope we get Anderson, I think he'll come cheap.

Not sure we ever actually saw his true deal, but think he had chance at making up to 5.5 mill, with the second year containing most of it.

Pretty sure he had a 2.5 mill option we needed to pick up.

Ryan Kalish non tendered, could see us go after him, even if he is LH.

He's broken enough important news at this point I think we can drop the "wannabe." Dude knows how to hustle for sources. Yeah, he broke Nolasco too. Two solid gets for him. Return on this one will be interesting. Fister's pretty damn good.

I can't wait until we're good so Theo can formally apologize to all the locals, for forcing them to write such stupidity that's clearly beneath them.

Cafardo feels like a mouthpiece for the Cubs' front office to me. So I assume that means they want to put out there that they are still willing to extend him. Or maybe I'm reading too much into things. Anything I hear from Cafardo or Gammons, I take as a counter from Theo on other info that's out there. Cafardo likely has a better relationship with Theo than our own beat guys. Seems that way to me anyway.

We've discussed the 40 man in quite a few threads. And unless everyone here is missing evaluations on quite a few players, we're no where near having a true crunch. Are we in danger every year of having the Matt Loosen 's of the world plucked from us? Sure. Is it likely to affect us in ANY matter? Hell no. Will we soon be making 3 for 1 trades where we're adding impact players? Hopefully, or else we're all likely to go crazy. But our 40 man is definitely manageable currently. It's not even close to being a real issue, nor is our ability to comprehend the daunting task of looking at it. Kyle summed up our current state pretty well, in my opinion. And with trades or without, we're no where near having an actual crunch.

Pitching merry go round update time..... Good FA-Garza, Kuroda, Jimenez, Tanaka, Santana(yeah, I know it's a stretch) Mid tier FA- Feldman, Colon, Burnett, Arroyo, Kazmir Trade candidates- Price, Porcello(still don't see Scherzer moved) Shark, Brett Anderson, Homer Bailey? Teams in need-Yanks for 2, Orioles, Blue Jays, Indians, Royals, Angels, Rangers, Mariners, Mets, Nats, Braves, Pirates, Rockies, Dodgers, Diamondbacks Looks pretty good in my mind to get a very solid package for Shark, if you look at it like this. Especially if the Dodgers(or God forbid, us, win the Tanaka derby) and any team like the Astros, Marlins, White Sox, Brewers, Phillies, or A's take from the FA groups.....

Hughes gets 3/24 from Twins. Nolasco and Hughes as anchors to go along with their young hitting? Seems like a lot of pressure on Meyer to be really, really good to me.

Strop has struggled with command and I figure we'll see some of that moving forward. I'm a tad iffy on Parker being a longterm piece, although its not truly founded on my part. He SHOULD be able to hold his own in a middle relief role moving forward anyway. Russell is just a guy, but decent enough, especially if we don't overuse him. Villanueva is a nice piece to have, gives us plenty of options, with his versatility. Rusin seems like a better bet as the 2nd lefty than Raley or Rosscup to me, but I can also see him as the 6th SP, maybe 5th, if Arrieta shits the bed and winds up in the pen. But I think he'll start myself. Rondon and Grimm are the 2 guys I'm irrationally excited about. Hell, I could see him winding up as our closer by the middle of the year. If his velo holds, I'm honestly thinking he's our best RP in 2014. Grimm also pitched at 94-95 out of the pen, up from 90-92 as a SP. Definitely looked the part of a set up guy in September to me. Perfunctory mention of Rivero-AFL wasn't special, but I could see him earning a 40 man spot and slot in the pen during ST. Vizcaino? I think they'll be extremely cautious with him and think we'll see him in Iowa most of the year. If we keep Rusin starting, I can see us giving Howell a 2 year deal. The Mujica rumor makes a bit of sense, but I think we try and create a closer instead of buying one, in the end. But I agree, it's very interesting and could very well become a strong suit very quickly.