davell

Mother of God.

Well, while it probably winds up as such, this is his first full year of pro ball. I try and give everyone that long at least. If he struugles bigtime in Daytona, I'll probably write him off too, but if he pitches well, makes it to Tennessee, then he pops up as a potential bullpen arm for the future.

Mitchell Traver, a HS RHP with lots of upside, has to undergo shoulder surgery. He was probably a 2nd round talent. He'll miss up to 3 months. Unsure whether this takes him off boards or not.

Yeah, when I read about him homering and yelling I'll do WTF I want, he immediately became my favorite prospect.

Interesting. Wonder if it's a scheduled day off, disciplinary from our guys, or to possibly protect him from more retaliation? My guess is two, even if I disagree with it. Gotta follow the stupid rules.

I want to do a bunch of 3 for 1 deals and wind up with 1 guy on our 40 man. [expletive] the rules.

I guess Jeffrey Baez is possibly still up in the air, status-wise. He's recovering from a broken wrist, according to AZPhil. I guess it's conceivable he winds up at Mesa at some point. Raisin asked a great question over at TCR, by the way, and AZPhil said we could see a different outlook down there altogether. Players won't be pushed to Mesa as quickly, work visas are easier to obtain, so guys could come and go if they're not ready for whatever reason. Cubs feel some guys have been rushed in the past. It'll be pretty cool to see if guys get promoted midseason now.

Nah, don't think you can roll money over. but starting next year you can trade this money around. you can acquire up to 50% of whatever your allotment is.

I just scanned through BA's top 500 and he wasn't on it, so my guess is you're right and there's not much of a chance he leaves. On a different note, without knowing a single thing about him, there's an OF from Miami Dade we've gotta draft. His first name is Yogey.......

Thanks Raisin. I guess he profiles as a reliever at this point?

Along with Soler becoming a FA, we got more good news today: No draft in 2013. So we will have a very high IFA budget next season, now we just have to hope it's an excellent group available.

No, I think we really need to find at least one TOR starter from within the system. Right now, I'm not confident at all we even have one legit longterm 4/5 in the system. If we do, it's someone a ways away, like Wells or Maples. Both of who conceivably could be much more or much less. But we've got 5 picks or so, the IFA signing period, and some potential trade chips to change a bigtime weakness into a strength inside the next two months. But for now, I'm not sold on McNutt and definitely not anyone else right now to where I'd pencil them in for a SP role on our major league squad.

I feel sorry for the folks on this site that don't follow this side of it all. Has to be hard if the major league team is all you pay attention to.

Damn,you guys are quick. I asked about him, thinking I was original and all, but [expletive].....Not only were you thinking the same thing, you even beat me here to get his answer. [expletive].

Sweet ass sweet.

With the financial resources available to us, it's nothing less than a failure not to be considered the best, year in and year out, in this division, after starting with a clean slate. Not a 2 year back to back postseason appearance, constantly getting there year after year. This group wanted to survey the landscape before jumping in headfirst and they're identifying even now who's going to be here longterm. yeah, I'd rather be on the total polar opposite end right now, but I'd much rather be where we are right now, than looking like a .500ish type team with an aging roster and little flexibility, which in my mind is where we'd be if Hendry was still here.

If this was directed at me, I might not have made my point clear. I was trying to show backtobanks that just because we could have a top 10 minor league system by the end of this year doesn't mean we didn't have a bottom 5 organizational talent at the end of last year. I actually agree with pretty much everything you said. Oh, I took it you agreed actually. Juast wanted to state it for B2B, to try and keep from the expected response of sell off now and go for it again!!!!!!

Other than Stewart not being in the lineup, I think I kind of like the order, with the way we've been hitting.

Actually 2 of the 3 parts would be covered, with the FO adding tons of things to the mix. You just let the system dictate at that point when it's time to spend big. Could be next year, if things fall right, for all we know, depending on who's left standing after the deadline.

Nothing. Other than the ever so vague "discipline from the commishes office"......

Boston, with Barnes as the headliner or Toronto, with tons of options, is where I'd move Garza to. Just don't like what the Yanks have, unsure of the Tigers right now, and not sure who else could even be in the mix.

Any chance they give up Nate Eovaldi or Allen Webster? Doubt they give up Zach Lee, but the first 2 are ML ready starters with some upside. Eovaldi may be in the majors already, IIRC. Other than that, I don't see the Dodgers having any arms in the system that are really all the superior to the Cubs guys that are back-end of the rotation starters or late relievers. They don't have much in the way of hitting prospects either. Webster has struggled in AA both half a season last year and also this year. Not sure how much I like him at this point. Personally, if I'm the Dodgers I'd rather MAKE someone give me a nice bat and overpay for it, than add a pitcher like Dempster. They have a very decent rotation 1-5 already, plus Eovaldi, who conceivably is already better than Harang right now.

You're not mentioning the reason Theo has been given the right to start over is he probably sat down with Tom and calmly explained that if you looked at every single bit of talent within the organization and compared it to other teams, it'd fall in the bottom 5 of baseball. This being the case and having more resources than probably about all of baseball, other than 5 teams or so, is why Jim Hendry was not a good GM. In fact, he's probably worse than I had even thought. The part in blue is a post from you in another topic. Everybody you mentioned in the first part was drafted by Hendry except Soler. I'm not saying our system is great, but looking at your post, it certainly doesn't sound like "it'd fall in the bottom 5 of baseball". Good lord, not even sure where to begin. It's the ENTIRETY of the organization. Not JUST the system. And yes, I think totally we are in the bottom 5 altogether, before Theo got here. Jim provided Brett, Baez, and Szczur, with Lake and Vitters. He did NOT give us the supplemental round picks(because it's not known whether Pena or Aramis would still be here or not). Yes, you could say he "gave" us the 6th pick this season, because of how shitty a major league team he threw out there last year with a gigantic payroll attached. Yes, he gave us Dempster and Garza, 2 of the very best pieces we have, that "help" us get to where we are, which has literally been NO WHERE. Yes, I do think we'll have a top 10 minor league system at the end of this season. But when I say that, we're also going to have one of the 2-3 worst major league teams in the game. And I totally see the reasoning of Theo to do it this way, whether you can or not. If we have enough major pieces in place to warrant spending bigtime money, we'll do so. If not, we'll grow the system more and re-evaluate again. Hendry never re-evaluated ANYTHING. He threw money at problems, changed the team 'theme" every year and literally hoped for the best, while running us as an equivalent of a mom and pop shop. Theo looks at a bigger picture, period. The advances the Cubs have made statistically, growing their scouting department, building up the front office.....These things take time and they didn't have to undo a Hendry mess here, they just had to start from scratch basically. I know you have no idea how to look at an organization from top to bottom, much less put weight on it, but Theo took over a team with a very average minor league system and a very below average major league team, with one of the smallest scouting bases and front offices around. You put those things together, it doesn't equal the UTOPIA of what you think Hendry left the Cubs with. And whether you agree with Theo's way of doing things or not, if you can't look at his track record versus Hendry's and see which one you should be happy with as far as running our team goes, then I have no clue what to even bother saying.

I agree with the 1st 3, but I think he's on the same level as Hultzen anyway.

It'd be tempting to do all 3. I think that's solid value for Dempster and LaHair personally. I'm loving Castellanos, but am not as high on Turner now as I was.