davell

I'm all for the rebuild. That said, with different ownership, things could certainly be a lot different. Ask the Dodgers. The group we have running things is great and I give Ricketts credit for being smart enough to hire them. But the Dodgers are doing some renovating as well. I guess we'll see, but if Theo had been told we had the ability to carry 180 mill in a payroll, I bet things would have headed in a much different direction.

Raw, I would LOVE to add young talent right now. That said, how? What do we have to trade that'd actuakky get it? Baez isn't getting dealt right now. Maybe in a year or two. Soler and Almora can't be dealt yet. If we paid all of Soriano's contract, could we get a Delgado type guy as the return? I doubt it, since IF is the most plentiful FA position this year. Barney? No idea, but I bet they look into it. I could see Porcekko or Corbin being possibilities. Jackson or Vitters? Again, I'm sure they'll try. Same with Travis Wood. Garza being hurt kills his value right now. And the rest of our minor leaguers are so far away that its better to let them get into full season ball to try and increase their value. Honestly, its why I think they're targeting one year types again: Basically buying prospects. Next year at this time, I'd think we'll be adding much more good as far as the supposed "core" goes. This year, I'm hoping for a Chisenhall or Morrison and a Delgado or Kelly. If we get one, it's not bad, I'm just not seeing how we'll be able to do much more than that, when it comes to trading for the younger guys right now.

Well [expletive]. Thats a good point and I dug myself a [expletive] hole to crawl out of. That said, while its certainly unclear as to who may be rebuilding at that time, having prospects much closer to the majors would help the cause, as would having enough in your system to overwhelm a team into trading that guy for less than MLB talent. My honest guess(obviously hard to project out) is Tampa could look into trading Price and Longoria within 2 years, Miami and Stanton, KC and some of their younger hitting, and Oakland, if the young arms don't pan out.

I want to add the young pitching as much as anyone and think we'll find a way to add a guy somehow. But, the problem is this: Each of Tampa, Oakland, and Atlanta are contenders. It seems likely to me anyway, that if they DO part with young pitching, they'll want major league pieces that help them in return. Same with Arizona, if they actually deal Bauer.

Philly, Atlanta, Yankees, Nats, Reds(I think)

Upton, Corbin, and one of Bauer or Skaggs for Castro. No way Arizona would do it, but it'd take that for me to deal him. I want him to be a lifelong Cub basically.

To me, if you could add 2-3 of that group of pitching and make a trade for a Chisenhall or Bourjos, along with a trade for a Casey Kelly, Delgado type SP, it's a really good offseason for what we're trying to do. You've added a couple of young pieces for your "core" and depending on any additional offensive moves, its possible you contend if things fell right.

If the Cubs are signing 3 somewhat high priced FA starters, they better be contenders. No reason to spend that much money NOT winning and not building for the future. As opposed to what though? If things clicked, that group of 3 could help turn the rotation into something formidable and if the offense improved a bit, who knows? Maybe we're in the Wild Card hunt at the ASB. But, it's likely those things won't happen, and we're selling off. I guess Villanueva gets a 2-3 year deal. McCarthy and Liriano? One and an option? If we want short term guys, may as well get the best we can get, right? If one pitches his ass off, maybe we get a nice haul in return. But with as low as the payroll is, those 3 could be added and we'd still likely have 10-15 mill to use just to make it to a 100 mill and that(hopefully) isn't an issue, even if we ARE rebuilding.

No one's trading for Garza until he proves he's healthy. I can't see him getting moved until midseason. If we landed all 3 of those guys, Wood could be dealt though. That said, if you've got Garza, McCarthy, and Liriano-all with injury concerns and Villanueva-who's never pitched a full seasons worth of innings in the majors......You're likely going to want to have some decent depth behind that.

They want Torii Hunter as insurance for Crawford, Kemp, and Ethier. Coletti said yesterday he has a "rough idea" of what their payroll can be, then added they've not been told "no" on anyone they've asked management about and that the payroll figure could go higher if unforeseen players became available.

ABTY mentioned a while ago the Cubs have McCarthy, Liriano, and Villanueva all leaning towards signing with them.

Is it still smart if he ends up in the bullpen? Obviously not. But it seems like they're going to buy themselves into and out of mistakes as it is.

I don't think they'll ignore it at all. But it'll be short term deals, with the occasional young guy that we deal for, like a Delgado, Chisenhall, Casey Kelly, whoever else. I expect one guy like that added this offseason. Hopefully more, but my guess is one. And probably the same again next year as well, unless we have enough breakouts to make them move quicker.

USS: This team has 3 building blocks, which all should continue to improve(Shark is arguable, in that aspect). It also likely has a 2B, backend SP in Wood, probably a C, and possibly a midrotation SP in Garza. Jackson has a chance at becoming a longterm CF and Vizcaino has a solid chance at becoming a backend bullpen guy at worst, frontline SP at best. If we use 2014 or 2015 as the "go for it year", all of these guys should be better than they are currently. Other than Garza anyway. At any rate, we'll need a legit TOR pitcher, probably another midrotation guy, and a 3B, with 2 or 3 possible OFers. 2 of these position players need to be middle of the order bats. The higher levels of our system aren't stocked, by any means. But I'd feel comfortable in saying by 2015 one of Soler or Baez is a legit MLB starter and is becoming one of those middle of the order bats. We have the other one, Almora, And everything else in the lower levels of our system, which is substantial, plus the 2013 draft and IFA class, the 2014 draft and IFA class, anything we've dealt for, all to use as currency. I think that it will be more than enough to deal for a middle of the order bat and a TOR SP. Anything else can be filled in thru FA and we should still have plenty of a system left as well. We will have also dodged the Reds best years, likely be watching the Dodgers get too old to keep throwing cash around to bandaid, and we'll be dealing with the Cards and Nats most likely, with more payroll flexibility than either.

Well, every year there are impact players available for trade. And our FO has certainly had success in both developing players and in building enough of a system up to trade from as well. If that isn't the plan, then Hoyers comment about a wave of 26-27 years olds arriving the year we expect to contend had no meaning and he wouldn't have said it. Everyone here wanted a good FO and now we have one. Why not take them at their word, let them do their [expletive] and see what happens? It's not they've torn down some [expletive] juggernaut here.

This IS a smart move for them. They'll have Capuano and Harang off the books next year and Ryu can slide into a rotation spot then. Hell, with the uncertainty of Billingsley, Lilky, and Kershaw to a lesser extent, he may wind up starting for them this year. At any rate, there's no doubt in my mind they're still adding another SP as well, to slot in at 2 for them.

Olney says teams think Dodgers won.

I hate Twitter. The dude who posted the Cubs won the bid has less than 50 followers.

And par for the course.

Thats my guess. Although theres probably about that amount available from last year as well.

I would think he'll immediately slot into the rotation. Doubt he'll need time in the minors.

Happy. Why not? Now, we'll be waiting a full month to get him signed though, with Boras. But still, this is good. If he's good, then we've got a nice, cheap rotation piece. If not, his salary won't hinder us from anything else.

You're right, lets give Sanchez 7/100. That'll work out just swell I'm sure! Do you think when our window opens up in 2016 that there will be a good, young SP signing a 4/40 deal or something? No, not at all. But when our window opens in either 2014 or 2015, we'll have enough young guys and enough top end talent in the minors to trade for the Justin Uptons, David Prices, Asdrubal Cabreras, Jeremy Hellicksons of the world that are available that offseason. Hence, the "wave of 26-27 year olds" comment from our group. I'd expect at least two deals, maybe more, that offseason.

Honestly, Greinke at 6/150 doesn't seem all that horrible to me. Out of the top 10 FA altogether, outside of Upton possibly, the asking price wouldn't scare me. He handled LA alright anyway. That said, I doubt we'll even give him a sniff.

You're right, lets give Sanchez 7/100. That'll work out just swell I'm sure!