davell

Wow, Kiley said teams will NOT be getting Manaea's medicals. Good luck getting a team to pony up on that one Scott......

The problem is there aren't too many signability types who will fall and it sure sounds like Houston will gobble up a couple of those. Yeah, they'll be getting a few. I kind of suspect the Astros will get Biggio and Boldt. I picked Driver for us, because his lack of projectability could scare teams away from giving him a big overslot from his 3/4 round type of grade.

He'll likely have a couple of excellent months and wind up slightly below his career averages, in my opinion. At some point over his 4 year deal, I bet he makes an All Star team.

I'd take the SP, no slight to the HOF 3rd baseman. But a 6-7 WAR SP for more than a decade is too much for me to pass up.

Here's my mock top 10 rounds right now. Price/slot value guesstimate 2) Appel 6.0/6.7 41)RHP Connor Jones 2.0/1.3 75)3B Ryan McMahon .750/.750 108)LHP Stephen Tarpley .500/.500 138) RHP Jeff Thompson .400/.400 168) RHP Dustin Driver 1.200 /.300 198) Senior Sign .010/.200 228) Senior Sign .010/.175 258) Senior Sign .010/.150 288) Senior Sign .010/.125 From what little I can hear, Jones IS signable. Honestly not sure if 2 mill gets him or not. I can't see a team going much over that to get him, at any rate.

As I mentioned earlier, I'd be slightly disappointed if we took Bryant, but I can see why we would. I think the pick wouldn't get great reviews honestly, as everyone has us pegged for pitching. But, that shouldn't and won't keep our FO from making the choice they want to make.

Not as ugly as Ethier out there, which is what I think they'll do.

Yeah, its been discussed. To me, neither Gray or Appel are guys worth doing that for. I just don't see enough of a difference between them to put one head and shoulders over the other. Last year, Byron Buxton got 6 mill as the highest bonus given out. I don't see these guys worth spending any more on than that personally. One of the cool things about picking this high is having extra money to throw out on extra picks as well. We can add a future TOR starter at 2 AND still be able to draft high upside types as well at 41 and 75, if we want to do so. If one of these guys stood head and shoulders over the other- fine, but I don't see that really being the case. I think I'm to the point that while I'd be slightly disappointed, I won't freak out if we take Bryant.

I've thought about this one a bunch. I listed him in my rundown of guys to be dealt and Marshall as a good barometer. That said, I think I'll change my tune a bit. I'd want MORE than that. Our bullpen is a joke to begin with. But he's been excellent obviously. And replacing him will be extremely hard to do. We need more, not less, solid to excellent relievers and relying on FA isn't going to be the answer unless our purse strings DO open up immediately. I want a top 100 guy, maybe another interesting piece as well for him. Otherwise, just keep him. He's got a ton of value to us.

Walks, K rates, errors especially, be damned. Javy is still 1st for me. Yes, Soler has a better shot at becoming a cornerstone, but Baez still has more upside. When will that wear off for me? Likely around this time NEXT year, if there's been little progress made with his approach.

Pair of other notes from McLeod: They've spent around 2 hours on the 2nd pick over the last 4 days, most of their time is being spent on 41 and 75. Will be valuing impact over need.

McLeod says its not about signability, its about getting the best fit for the Cubs.

Glad to see a new member.

We were looking to add a single player last year that could have been construed as a longterm piece. And in both those instances, the player stayed with his original team and with offers extremely close or the same. When the Marlins went on a spending spree, they were able to get players. Can't see why we'd be any different. Not to mention, I really don't see us doing that type of thing anyway. If we have Rizzo, Castro, Shark, E-Jax, Wood, Barney and a few role players left over after the selloff(maybe Garza as well) it won't be that hard to convince players we're on the way up. Especially if we trade for an impact player early on during the offseason. The real silver lining to your fear though, is that the FA class sucks anyway. I can't see Ellsbury not being reunited with this group and Choo is a Boras guy, so he'll follow the cash. I'm pretty confident we'll get one of them. And I figure we'll either have Garza or Suk Min Yoon or the Japanese dude(Tanaka?) that may get posted. We'll be fine. I'm not worried about FA not wanting to be here. Agents are smart enough to know Theo's going to get things done here.

Nah, its just an example of what could happen. I knew I shouldn't have used Garza. But if we got a very solid offer for DeJesus, Gregg, Feldman in the next few weeks, I'm selling. Honestky, I guess I want to see Garza pitch more before making a decision on him.

Why does record factor in at all? If there are 5 teams that are 10 games up on us, I wouldn't care if we were 70-30, I'd still sell off parts that aren't longterm fixtures. Because you're not making the playoffs. I'll cop out on the number of teams ahead of us somewhat. If we're 5 back, but in 11th place in the NL, I'm selling. If we're 5 back, but in 6th place, my answer may change. But I'm trying to project performance out for the rest of the year, looking at the health of each team, and looking at how many games they're playing against other contenders as well. As for when? My guess is we're already getting plenty of interest, albeit varying degrees. If someone offers us a top 100 prospect for DeJesus tomorrow? I'm trading him now personally. Because the price very likely would lessen the further along we get and I don't see us getting close enough to buy. That being said, in the real world, I doubt many teams are making firm offers right now. So that gives us more time to watch things unfold. Would it be disheartening for the vast majority of fans if we look up on July 1st and see ourselves 2 under .500, 7 back of the 2nd WC, and we trade Garza to Boston for Webster and Ranaudo or Barnes? Hell, I'm not even sure how this board would feel. I'd be very happy, because I don't look at our odds as being remotely good enough to warrant standing pat for a few more weeks. Only to see us 10 back 3 days before the deadline with Garza on the DL. Garza's a bad example in this, since I'd be perfectly happy to extend him as well, but use anyone else that we kind of suspect would be traded instead.

I can't see us doing it this year honestly. We're already connected to the top 2 players in the class and it seems like we can get them inside of our current budget. If we figure out a way to add more money, maybe we can get another seven figure guy. But the class as a whole, isn't strong enough and our finish in this years standings make it extremely unlikely for us to take the max penalty. Not worth it when we'll have a very high limit next year as well and it'd keep us from spending more than 250k on a player at that point. NEXT YEAR, though- different story. Thats the time for us to do it. Our allotment won't be as big for 2015 or 2016, assuming we keep progressing. That said, teams like the Yanks and Rangers ARE in perfect position to do it right now, if they see a guy or two they just can't pass up.

I've wondered that myself. Maybe to a team that doesn't spend big money on the draft is where I usually end up at.

Passan mentioned its likely for this to get tabled until the CBA is up in 2016. Selig wants to retire by then, so unless the new commish makes this a priority, its possible to just watch it get swept under the rug for a while.

No draft in 2014, per Passan.

My guess is Whitson is a guy that goes in round 11. You'll probably see a couple of teams spend light in rounds 1-10 and leave them a little cushion to sign a few guys that impress them from this point forward. I guess the strategy would be to draft a bunch(10+) guys you know won't be signing for 100K that you see potential in. Then spread out your saved 1-10 money on a group of them or on one big expenditure thats a really tough sign. Out of the group Raisin just mentioned, I'd guess Jones and Serrano(monetary demands and rock solid commitment) both last to round 11 as well. I still think Okey and Boldt go somewhere inside the top 50, Krook is a wildcard. He fell off somewhat after a hot start. If he wants mid-1st money, his performance may not dictate a team taking an early round chance and basically guaranteeing they'll do it.

I don't know why you keep saying that. Because its easy to imagine when they have money to spend how efficient things will be. They still had a very high payroll with lots of money to spend last winter and managed to put together a team that could be .500. What the F is impressive about that? Nothing. Is this a joke? They went into the season with the 14th highest payroll in MLB. First off, that qualifies as "very high"? They were restricted within that number by slightly more than 25%, by Soriano and Marmol, which weren't movable without eating the majority of their money anyway. That money alone could very easily give this team a very different look. It's very easy to look at who they can return heading into 2014, with the cash they'll have coming off the books and the system they'll have at that point and see a team thats a playoff contender in 2014. With no additional help from Ricketts.

I don't know why you keep saying that. Because its easy to imagine when they have money to spend how efficient things will be.

It's impressive, in many ways, how well they've built this year, with the limited resources. That said, the 3 teams in our division that are ahead of us are very likely to stay that way. It may be unpopular to say, but I could see Theo blowing this thing up very early, so not to give too much of a "fools gold" type hope. It'd benefit us more longterm anyway.

That gives him a pass on the 1st 2 AB's.