davell

Their system has underperformed this year. Definitely not the team I'd want to see Garza dealt to. If it helps drive up the price for Boston or Toronto though, more power to them.

Oh well, so much for the Marlon Byrd trade.

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.

In that mock though, he has us passing on Correa, which I just can't see happening. Another thing I didn't know is that Almora is a Boras client. Might not mean anything, but worth noting at least.

Good lord, as the guy who's probably talked ad nauseum about how to overslot and whether we should more than anyone here, I guess I'll just say this: [expletive] it, spend the [expletive] away!!!!!!!

Really, it's horrible? Maybe I missed something there but he's been charged with bringing Cuban baseball players to the DR. Hasn't it always been assumed that there had to be shady ways of doing that? What is horrible about bringing players who want to get compensated for their talents into countries that will allow that to happen? I mean, if he's doing some sex trafficking on the side then yes, it's horrible, but I don't see that referred in the article. To me, it's the term. The implication of human trafficking sounds horrible obviously, no matter the reasons involved. We all know things are shady when it comes to geting guys out of Cuba. We obviously have no idea what else this may or may not encompass. But either way, one of the more powerful guys in baseball has been implicated, so this is horrible, because now MLB has to look at this much more seriously than they have in the past. Whether he's doing good by this, in the fact he's getting these guys the chance to make money and give them freedom or not, it's still illegal, so getting caught could open Pandora's box, on many levels here. I don't get why you keep saying the word horrible. The implication of the word human trafficking is rough, but unless it goes beyond bringing ballplayers from one country to another, I don't see what is actually horrible. Should I say sounds "bad" then. It's pretty much just semantics. If it doesn't go past bringing ballplayers over, it's still considered illegal and could really hurt the Cuban market, in general. I'm sure there'd be more concentration put on this, by all parties involved, and considering how the new CBA looks, I can't see that as a positive in any way.

Evidently on Mike and Mike this morning, Olney said he expects Dempster to be the first big name dealt this year and it wouldn't surprise him if he's dealt in the next few weeks.

http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/blog/jon-heyman/19226730/among-starters-who-could-be-available-yankees-prefer-cubs-garza Heyman says Yanks prefer Garza to Greinke, Marcum, or Dempster.

Strasburg is too risky, not sure on most of the others, but a definite no with him.

Really, it's horrible? Maybe I missed something there but he's been charged with bringing Cuban baseball players to the DR. Hasn't it always been assumed that there had to be shady ways of doing that? What is horrible about bringing players who want to get compensated for their talents into countries that will allow that to happen? I mean, if he's doing some sex trafficking on the side then yes, it's horrible, but I don't see that referred in the article. To me, it's the term. The implication of human trafficking sounds horrible obviously, no matter the reasons involved. We all know things are shady when it comes to geting guys out of Cuba. We obviously have no idea what else this may or may not encompass. But either way, one of the more powerful guys in baseball has been implicated, so this is horrible, because now MLB has to look at this much more seriously than they have in the past. Whether he's doing good by this, in the fact he's getting these guys the chance to make money and give them freedom or not, it's still illegal, so getting caught could open Pandora's box, on many levels here.

Here's my guess at a 10 round mock for us: 6) Fried- Tall, hard throwing projectable lefties are hard to find, and he signs for a tad underslot at 2.800, saving us 450,000 for later on. 43) Matt Smoral Tall, hard throwing projectable lefties are hard to find and we're shocked he's still there. injury and strong commitment to UNC have him on the board and we sign him for 1.850. About 654,000 over slot. 56) Trey Williams 3B Poor play his senior season kept him on the board this long, but he's a potential impact bat that signs for slot at 911,700 67) Paul Blackburn Tall righty who knows how to pitch already and has projection. Probably more refined than either Fried or Smoral, just not quite as much upside. Signs for slot at 769,600 101) Chris Beck Preseason top 10 guy, fell off bigtime in velocity and struggled with his arm slot. Is this him or is he the guy in the Cape League last year? We take the shot and sign him at slot for 471,900. 134) Preston Tucker- Need a senior sign to help out with Smoral's overslot deal, Tucker has fallen off some, but represents solid value and we can sign him for 243,200. 100k under the slot value. 164) Taylor Dugas- Redraft of a heady guy, also a senior, likely to make it to the bigs in some fashion, even if he's not more than a 4th OFer type. Again, we get him at 157,000, 100k underslot. 194) Hudson Randall- Doesn't fit in with the power arms obviously, but he certainly knows how to pitch and should move quickly, even if he tops out in AAA. My guess is he finds his way into the majors somehow. Signs for slot at 192,500 and forgoes his senior season. 224) Cody Poteet- Take a shot at one more overslot guy. Poteet's not a tall guy, throws low 90's, but drops due to lack of projection, even though he knows how to pitch. Has had Oswalt, Hudson comps from a few. We sign him for 600,000. About 451,400 overslot, or the equivalent of the penalty money we have to play with. 244) Drew Verhagen- Added some velo this season, not extremely projectable, but again, is a pitcher, not a thrower. A lot of guys out there like him, he may have the slightly better pedigree and we get him for slot at 138,800 274) Austin Nola- Like Randall, a guy that could come back for his senior season possibly. Should move quick at any rate, and we get him for slot at 129,600. 304) Stefan Sabol- Was a top rated prospect a few seasons ago, but attitude and poor play landed him at a JUCO. Need a C at some point probably, so we take the shot and sign him for slot at 125,000. I emphasized pitching obviously, don't like the position players we wound up with for the most part honestly. Love the HS arms we got, maybe it's not Smoral, but one of the higher ranked arms WILL be there at 43 and my guess is we take him. I figure we're taking Fried in this case, strictly because he goes underslot a bit more than Almora, and we take him over Zimmer, on talent, from our view.

http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/prospects/international-affairs/2012/2613488.html This is potentially VERY impactful news to us. If Cespedes' trainer is involved with this kind of stuff, which is horrible, who knows whether Soler's process just became THAT much harder or not? I can't help but think whether he's ever been linked to this guy or not, his process slows down, because of this, and we may very well not see him eligible to be signed before July 2nd.....

In my mind, here's our chances of dealing guys before the deadline: 100% Johnson and Baker 90% Dempster 60% Soriano 50% Maholm 40% DeJesus 30% LaHair 20% Garza, Soto, Camp, and Barney 10% Campana and Wells 5% Marmol .0000001% Castro Dempster's getting dealt if he allows it. Soriano is if someone takes him. Maholm and DeJesus could, but only if we get something decent back, because they're both cheap next year, LaHair probably has more value with us than not, Soto probably isn't going to be back and playing well enough to deal, Camp has tons of competition out there and may not be dealt for that reason, and Marmol is too much money.

http://t.co/BhiKF4cB Heyman's top 45 July trade candidates. Cubs VERY well represented obviously.

I can't see us trading Castro, but I do like the idea that our FO looks at everything. The Machado/Bundy package would be hard not to do, in my mind, but I hope it doesn't become available, because I do want to see Starlin here longterm.

ABTY just said we are NOT one of the teams that flagged Zimmer and he's probably our odds on favorite to be the pick at 6. Fun to speculate anyway.

Craig, Fried at 6 isn't a reach. He's projectable, has solid velo and conceivably could turn into a future ace. He's almost definitely a top 10 guy. I've kind of gotten to the point I'd like to see us take him just because our system hasn't had a bigtime lefty in quite a while.

My guess on Toronto with Giolito is they're in a much better place than we are to shoot the proverbial wad on a single player. Their system is ridiculously stacked and they have 2 firsts and 3 supplemental rounders. I doubt we think we're in a position to spend that much towards one guy, who certainly has risks attached, whole they could do it without it hurting that much, if they miss. My guess is the Psds take him at 7 anyway.

From PSD, ABTY says KC thinks both Gausman and Appel will be off the board whenh they pick at 5 and they have a deal in place with McCullers Jr if that's the case. Zimmer has had some red flags pop up twice recently and some teams have dropped him. Giolito has negotiated with the Padres, Dodgers, D-Backs, and Blue Jays, telling all other teams he's not going to sign. Fried has also told KC he'd rather be drafted elsewhere. So, if all of this is true, basically Appel, Gausman and 2 of Zunino/Buxton/Correa will be off the board. With us possibly having flagged a sliding Zimmer and KC taking McCullers. Houston-Appel Minnesota-Zunino Seattle- Correa Baltimore-Gausman KC- McCullers CUBS- BUXTON!!!!!!!!(for Tim)

If it weren't for the new CBA, I'd be all about taking him. Hell, I'm still convincing myself we should go in a different direction. But, I'd much rather take one of Almora, Zunino, or Fried(think the other 5 are gone) and have the ability to take high upside guys at 43, 56, 67, and 101. If Giolito takes 5 mill(and that's the low end rumor) it costs us 1.3 mill from our draft pool we could spend elsewhere. And now, it's a requirement to offer a guy at least 40% of slot value for their pick. So, it's not punting one other high pick in order to take Giolito, it more like punting one of 43 or 56 on a college senior, plus 101 and probably one of your 6-10 rounders as well. Young arms are just too volatile. I'd rather have multiple high upside guys than put everything into one, even if he's the best out of the group currently.

Forte's pretty damn good. Forte's possibly an injury risk moving forward. RB's are valued less and less every year. This sucks for Forte. If we have a good enough passing game, we can get enough production out of Bush/Bell to where losing Forte isn't all that detrimental. Let him walk after this season, hopefully pocket a 3rd or 4th rounder out of it and spend his money towards Cutler's extension and another RB that helps us out in whatever way Bush and Bell don't.

Draft picks are going to be much harder to come by, so I'm not even thinking Dempster's a possibility for us to get a comp pick for anyway. I can't see a team willing to give up it's 1st rounder to sign a 36 year old, unless he's a possible top 10 pitcher in baseball, which Dempster is not. I think anything resembling a top 100 prospect in a deal for Dempster is pure gravy personally. I don't see teams offering that much, because they're not getting compensated in return at the end of the season. Whoever trades for him, may as well give him a 3 year dealm to try and get as much production as possible out of him. Toronto has enough arms to where they could be the one team capable of offering something like this, but I can't see AA going through with it, unless he thought it'd definitely put them in the playoffs.

Syndergaard is probably a top 50 guy at the end of the year.

There's a blurb in Mooney's CSN article this morning, citing one source who said the Cubs may have spent 3 to 4 times the allotment amount, if not for the new CBA. Just hearing this, true or not, really pisses me off about the damn CBA.

Yeah, ABTY over at PSD said 5 to 7 mill earlier tonight.