davell

But, how about just the first deal? No idea why they'd not like Shark.....And yes, they could get something fairly decent for him alone. But, if they wanted out of Melancon.....I could see the pairing working on some level. Maybe we'd still need to add a prospect or two? If its just the first deal, it adds about 12 mill to our payroll and leaves us our young position players in tact, to still add another SP, if we want. It'd also allow us to pursue a RF again, if we wanted to. Again, not saying it'd be feasible.....Heyward probably would veto. The Giants may not want to pair those 2 together. All sorts of reasons it wouldn't work. But, it'd be fun if it could.

Honestly, I'd be thrilled with the Heyward for Shark and Melancon part, even if the Stanton part didn't happen.

http://www.cubsinsider.com/2017/10/31/rundown-cubs-factor-marlins-looking-dump-stantons-salary-including-jason-heyward-rumors/ So, this ain't happening. But, you gotta admit it'd be fun. And I'm not a Stanton guy. Heyward to San Fran for Shark and Melancon, then Cubs trade Almora and/or Happ for Stanton. Monetarily, its adding some money obviously, but not an exorbitant amount. If itdv work with just one of Almora or Happ, to where you can still trade the other for more pitching.....Geez.

Honestly, I kind of think we'll see a super team era for a few years. Bryce signs, they'll hover above the luxury tax for a few years, then we'll see Theo leave when his and Rizzo, KB, Addy, Javy, and Schwarber all expire. Probably with a Bryce potential opt out too. They'll still have Willy and Almora, tons of money to re-up some of the group, and a solid farm system back in place by then. But, I definitely think Theo has everyone lined up for a reason. Even still though, they'll be in solid enough shape to be playoff contenders.

Yeah, he'd be a damn nice addition, but I'd think they pick his option up. If they don't, he becomes a priority though. And CW11, good call on Nunez. He could fit in very easily.

I put it in one of the pitching threads, about replenishing whatever we trade off..... So, if we trade one of Addy or Javy, it'd be nice to sign Cozart or even Neil Walker, to keep the depth we've kind of grown accustomed to. I doubt its one of them that we trade, so let's look at the OF..... Kind of seems like Almora is safer than Schwarber or Happ to me. Maybe I'm wrong though. At any rate, who can be signed, for replacements? Schwarber gets dealt..... Would we bring in JD Martinez? That'd be pretty nice, even if he's bad defensively. Granted, hes going to get nine figures, doubt we'd spend THAT big on an OF, with Bryce out there next year. How about CarGo? Is he going to bounce back? Almora gets dealt..... I keep looking at Jarrod Dyson and really think I want him on the Cubs. No clue what kind of contract he'd get. Wouldn't need to play every day. But damn, he's a nice player. Lorenzo Cain is the obvious answer, but I think I'm in favor of Dyson over him, the more I look at things. Gomez? Guess he'd still be nice to have. Still, I think I want Dyson. Happ gets dealt.... He's the guy without a true spot already, so he'd be the easiest to replace. Dyson would fit in as a 4th OF. You'd still have Seal Boy as a backup MI, behind Zobrist, who's a backup himself. Maybe a guy like Howie Kendrick? Still has some versatility and a solid bat.

By the way, I kind of think whatever pitching trade we make, its going to happen right at the start of the off season. My reason is it'd then give us the entire allotment of FA to consider still. Even potentially, a re-fill type move. Like adding Cozart, if we traded Russell. Or adding Cain, if we trade Almora(or even Schwarber perhaps). It'd also give us the luxury of looking at the FA Starting Pitchers slightly differently. And could conceivably help allocate more to the pen as well. Anyway, I've got a feeling that it'll happen quick. And I'd love to trade off a guy, then put some money into a solid replacement, to help keep our position player depth.

I do agree with this, but there's just not looking like there's going to be a lot that actually is available. If 2 of this group gets dealt this off season, I'd feel pretty confident we got one of them. I'm honestly unsure of my preferences, out of this group. Fulmers medicals seem like he'd be a tough one to trade for over the off season though.

So, it was Phil Rogers, but we have nothing else to talk about yet..... http://m.mlb.com/news/article/259816146/cubs-may-be-open-to-trading-big-name-players/ He brought up Archer, Stroman, Manaea, Fulmer, and Nola. I've got doubts that ANY of them outside of Archer will be available(and Tampa still has others to move first), but I guess our position players are pretty damn enticing too....

I'm really curious what part of this team make you think Ferrari body. I meant taking a QB at 2 and then not surrounding him with anything at all to help him.

There's no doubt in my mind the Cubs will be in on Harper. Money will be there for THAT kind of move. And Theo will probably be in full "build super team" mode before leaving a few years later. And Bryce ain't shaving to play for the Yankees anyway. They're the ones that'll get Machado.

Shaheen may very well be a bust, but you're not hitting on every pick. I'm not even a fan of Pace, but I'm not about to start questioning individual picks. I wasn't a fan of this draft, as a whole, at the time. But, even though you're hung up on Watson, its far too early to judge QB's. Cohen was a nice grab, so was Jackson. And Trubisky has the necessary tools too. If Shaheen busts, this is still likely a damn good draft.

OK, T.Y Hilton is available. He's evidently wanting to stay put and not renegotiate his deal, he's owed 11,13,and 14 the next 3 years, his 28-30 year old seasons. Ballard probably wants an upper mid round pick for him, according to Rotoworld. Go get him.

why? Goff went through that, Rodgers had to learn McCarthy's playbook, the list of great QBs who had multiple systems early in their careers goes on and on. it's absolutely horsefeathering asinine to hold off on taking someone that you think will be your franchise just because you're afraid you'll change offensive systems. if he's smart enough to be a franchise QB, that new playbook will be nothing for him to learn. As far as Pace signing Glennon.....Pace knew he was taking Trubisky, he knew Glennon was a stopgap. There were no real warning signs to tell anyone that Glennon was going to do what he did. He was capable in Tampa, highly capable.....as long as you had someone waiting in the wings, Glennon would have been an average starter and a good backup. his choke-job in Chicago was unforeseeable. Pace hired Fox because he was a first year GM and Fox was an absolute safety hire, a guy who had been successful everywhere he had been, and the anti-Trestman. Fox was hired to bring in a superior staff, which he did. I probably would have just hired Gase, but whatever. Eh, I'd still have preferred Mitch not needing to go thru this. But you're right, it won't hinder him to the point it'll doom him. If he's going to be good, he'll be good. Its not JUST the Glennon move though. Its very fair to question whether Pace can put together an offense. Which makes me question if he's going to give Trubisky what he needs to succeed.

If you take the reigns off him now, I'm honestly not sure it helps or hurts his development. He's not great at finding receivers currently, so throwing him into the fire, especially with THIS group of receivers? I just don't know..... If you do it, we'd probably lose games worse than we currently are, in my opinion. I think I'd stick towards the 20-25 passes attempted area for the next 2-3 games anyway, just not the dumbass run, run, throw horsefeathers we've been doing. If you beat GB and Detroit and go to 5-5, you've got to do whatever you can to make the playoffs. If you lose those though, or even 1 of them, to drop to 4-6.....You're at Philly and staring 4-7 in the face. At that point, let him air it out the rest of the year.

They've bought a Ferrari body and are currently using a Hyundai engine, to get it some run. I'm not sure why we're supposed to trust Pace, with any of this either. He signed MIKE GLENNON, to be the starter. He DID pass on Watson, which is neither here nor there right now.....But, its certainly not far fetched to see Watson having a better career than Trubisky either. Pace also hired Fox. And he's to look at for our current group of receivers too. He's built one side of the ball in 3 years. Trubisky has the necessary tools. But, he needs better play calling and an entirely new set of receivers just to SEE if he's going to be good. It was one of the main reasons I wanted to hold off on taking the QB.....You were setting his development sideways by changing coaching staffs on him right off the bat. Again, its done. Won't have a hard time finding guys wanting to coach him either. But, it still sucks he's going to go thru that, this quickly. And it really sucks that he's going to need a complete set of receivers to throw to, as well. That's putting him in less than a favorable spot to succeed, to say the least.

There's an extremely noticeable strategy they employed this year.....Out of the 10 Pitchers they signed, 7 of them are 17 years old. Only 2 are 16.(an 18 year old rounds it out) With these kids being signed at 16, the ones that aren't signed, are kind of glossed over after that. The thing is though, its dumb. A year later, you actually know more about these kids anyway. Now, we were restricted monetarily and this certainly played into things somewhat. But, its very intriguing to know we were scouring the "also-rans". Because these kids could easily have big velo jumps, grown a few inches, or whatever, to make themselves much better prospects than they had been a year earlier. And the teams that had money to spend had committed it a year or two earlier. My honest guess is we'll hear something early on about one or two of this group being a potential steal. Love this strategy. We got 5 16 year old position players, 7 17 year olds, 2 18 year olds, and the 20 year old. Same theory obviously. But, I'm more intrigued by the pitchers personally. And if the Cuban C is good enough to warrant a NRI, that's extremely impressive in his own right too. Serrano and Verdugo being signed, while being top 30 type guys, while we were in the penalty box made this class super interesting by themselves. But, this approach is great and I'll bet it shows some very some results.

15 and 8 in 28 minutes for Markkanen, as the Bulls lost a heartbreaker, 101-69, to the Thunder. Dunn looked rusty at first, but played decently in the second half, albeit in garbage time.

I didn't know where to put this, so I'm putting it here. I took the 2017 Opening Day payroll of all 30 teams and also listed what Cot's has, as their current 2018 payroll, before the off season starts. It gives us an idea, at least, as to what teams may or may not have to spend. I'm also including the HIGHEST Opening Day the team has ever had, to possibly use for what the team MAY be capable of spending.....2017 comes first, then 2018 projected, amount they're currently over or under in parentheses, then their highest ever....Current means they're 2017 Opening Day salaries. I'm updating as I go, so bare with me. AL EAST Baltimore 164.3, 129.7,(-34.6), Current Boston 197.0, 202.2(+5.2), 197.9 Yankees 196.4, 156.2(-40.2), 228.1 Tampa 70.1, 85.0(-14.9), Current Toronto 163.4, 148.0, (-15.4), Current Looking at these figures, the Yankees stand out because they're about to be the bully again. They're in ridiculously good shape. Boston is consistent and can likely move upwards, if they choose to. Toronto is going to need to rebuild or retool very soon. Tampa seems like the team that's going to be stuck in .500 Land for a while. Baltimore would be smart to rebuild. But, they're not. AL Central White Sox 97.8, 58.5(-39.3), 127.8 Cleveland 124.1, 115.7, (-8.4), Current Detroit 199.8, 129.2(-70.6), Current Kansas City 143.0, 127.3(-15.7), Current Minnesota 108.1, 93.7(-14.4), 113.2 The White Sox have plenty of money, but they're a year or two away from needing to spend it. Detroit has the financial resources of a top end franchise, but won't be needing them for a while. Cleveland is heading towards the time where they'll need to up the ante, or fall back down the division. Not 2018, but soon afterwards. KC needs to scrap things and hit reset. Minnesota is in decent shape, but now that they're heading upwards, how high will their payroll go? AL West Houston 124.3, 143.6(+19.3), Current Angels 166.4, 145.5(-20.9), Current Oakland 81.7, 52.7(-29.0), 86.8 Seattle 154.3, 142.1(-12.2), Current Texas 165.3, 115.8(-49.5), Current The Verlander move puts Houston in a new era financially. Be interesting to see how high they go moving forward. The Angels have money, at some point, they're going to try and put some good stuff around Trout. Oakland is stuck, they need help. Seattle is stuck in hell with no rebuild in site. I can see them burying themselves further, prior to being relevant again. Texas has some cash to spend and I figure they'll be a major spender this off season. NL East Atlanta 122.6, 97.6(-25.0), Current Miami 115.4, 131.7(+16.3), Current Mets 154.4, 123.7(-30.7), Current Philadelphia 100.0, 37.6(-62.4), 177.4 Washington 164.3, 170.4(+6.0), Current Atlanta doesn't NEED to spend big yet, but my guess is they're going to try to anyway. Miami wants to get down to 90M, they're going to be in the news a lot this offseason. The Mets need some stuff, no idewa if they'll spend or not, even though they've got the ability to. Philly may spend this off season AND next off season too. I don't think they'll be quiet any longer. I see Washington staying quiet, scraping their money together to try and keep Bryce next off season. NL Central Cubs 172.2, 137.1(-35.1), Current Cincinnati 95.4, 95.9(+0.5), 115.4 Milwaukee 63.1, 68.4(+5.3), 104.2 Pittsburgh 95.8, 102.5(+6.7), 99.9 St. Louis 148.2, 126.3(-21.9), Current We've got plenty of resources. Cincy probably stays conservative for a while. My guess is Milwaukee gets pretty aggressive now. Pittsburgh is about to hit reset, if things don't turn quickly. The Cards likely linger in the same payroll range they're currently occupying. NL West Arizona 93.1, 120.8(+27.7), 112.3 Colorado 127.8, 99.5(-28.3), Current Dodgers 241.1, 202.3(-38.8), 271.6 San Diego 69.6, 53.4(-16.2), 108.4 San Francisco 180.8, 187.8(+7.0), Current Arizona is super interesting. No idea if they're ready to move their payroll north or not, considering they've thought about moving on from Greinke. The Rockies seem set to spend a bit, to try and stay competitive. The Dodgers are going to spend, but I think the 240+ days are behind them. San Diego doesn't need to spend currently. The Giants do though, if they want to compete. They're not in good shape at all and need to go the other direction. Teams are certainly spending more than they used to. But, some of these teams are going to need to scale back, based on the fact that they're just not good. Free Agency is going to be extremely interesting. Most teams are near their prior limits to begin with, plus some teams are looking towards the better class in 2018.....I think prices are going to be pretty damn reasonable this year, for those reasons alone. Teams ranked from most under last years spending, heading into FA.... Detroit 70.6 Philadelphia 62.4 Texas 49.5 Yankees 40.2 White Sox 39.3 Dodgers 38.8 Cubs 35.1 Baltimore 34.6 Mets 30.7 Oakland 29.0 Colorado 28.3 Atlanta 25.0 St. Louis 21.9 Angels 20.9 San Diego 16.2 Kansas City 15.7 Toronto 15.4 Tampa 14.9 Minnesota 14.4 Seattle 12.2 Cleveland 8.4 Cincinnati (0.5) Boston (5.2) Milwaukee(5.3) Washington (6.0) Pittsburgh(6.7) San Francisco (7.0) Miami(16.3) Houston(19.3) Arizona(27.7)

I think we'll sign one of the top end guys for sure in the off season. If Inman shows anything, we'll bring him back. Unless someone else shows a good bit between now and the end of the season, we'll be starting fresh. Meredith and White will be there, maybe with Inman. I doubt they go into next year with White as anything more than a 5/6 guy competing for a spot. Meredith, Inman, White plus one of the top FA, a 1st or 2nd rounder spent on WR and either a secondary FA or a 4th or 5th spent on a WR too. That's kind of what I suspect. How hard is it to find a deep threat? I'm not sure. I've not given it a lot of thought. My guess is there's got to be some guys out there. I'll look, but I'm definitely OK using a pick on one. I'm OK with Bryant, but a 4th or more is just too high for me, considering his situation.

He likes drugs. The NLF does not. Fyi So you're dismissing him out of hand because of the possibility of another failed test? When his next one is a year long suspension, it definitely plays into things. I brought him up, I'd take a shot on him. But, I'm not giving up a 4th or more. If he's a nuisance and they'd deal him for a 6th or 7th, I'd be in. But, he's not a guy you extend currently. He's definitely a guy you proceed with caution on, especially considering his immaturity that he's showing currently. I love the talent, but I'm not even sure I'd truly want his potential attitude issues around Trubisky.

You gotta suspend Gurriel after that crap.

If Philly is going to give Okafor away, I hope we find a way to get him. He's fallen out of their rotation and they've got to make a decision on his option of 6.3 by Tuesday. No idea what they're looking for, but it doesn't seem like much. Not sure if Portis could get it done, but I actually think they've soured on him to where that MAY be feasible lol.

Well, its pitching, so obviously, it can go south quick. That said, we'll add a guy thru trade and a guy thru FA. We'll also make a trade or two like last year, that brought in Butler and Mills.....Granted, those didn't particularly work....But, they'll continue to try, on this front, to eventually find that diamond in the rough. They also have MORE money available, if they need to address things early in the season, due to multiple injuries. Meaning they can buy a slightly bad contract guy or something. They've got enough still IN the system to acquire multiple guys as well.....Not the elites, but the JA Happ's of the world can still be had. They unearth every avenue, their process is damn good. Of course, its POSSIBLE to get snakebit. But, these guys will have done their absolute damnedest to guard against that. The offense can take this team to the playoffs, with very average pitching. It'd take a hell of a lot to go on, if we failed to be average. And I suspect we'll look somewhere between damn good and horsefeathering awesome by the time the season starts anyway.

They've got money, they've got major league talent to trade from, and they've got 3 damn good starters currently and one of the best 6th guys in the league too. Not a bad situation to be in at all.