davell

Complete list of Bears FA's: Forte, Idonije, Bell, Jennings, Okoye, McCown, Steltz, Graham, K Davis, Meriweather, Bowman, R Williams, and Hanie.

He's 18 and pitching to players in their primes. His league is considered to be the equivalent of AA ball. I'm not worried at all about an 18 year old's K rate, that's pitching at a much higher level than where he should be.

For the money outlay, Darvish needs to be a top 10 to 15 pitcher in baseball over the next 6 seasons for the contract to be worth it. I would've been fine with us taking this kind of chance too, but it's certainly risky as hell. Given the option of Cespedes and Soler combined, for less total money, versus Darvish, it's a no brainer for me, in taking the Cubans.

By the way, I think they retracted part of that statement. I think he's already been approved and is eligible to sign now.

We've talked about him some in the minor league thread. I thought he was 19, not 18. Anyway, he's crafty. Pretty advanced to be successful at his age, in the league he played in. I asked Ben Badler if he's a top 100 prospect and he said no. To me though, we have a huge void in our system for pitchers, lefties even moreso than righties, so I hope we find a way to get him. He's not a hard thrower, but it seems like he knows how to pitch. No clue what kind of cash it will take, nor do I know whether he's looking for a major league deal. But, there's not much besides him and another 19 year old Cuban Omar Luis out there, pitching-wise, as far as IFA's go. Especially since Onelkis Garcia was told he's in the draft next year and not a FA. At Concepcion's age and success level, I'd think he'll be pretty expensive myself. Maybe we can put the full court press on and lock him down soon.

Power's a 60, pimp tool's an 80-Keith Law on Twitter tonight.

I think Clevenger is our backup. Castillo needs fulltime at bats and has more upside. But Clevenger has a very solid set of tools for a backup catcher. Makes good contact, can probably hit for a decent average(no real pop though), smart, and solid defensively.

The more I think about Cespedes and Soler, the more I wonder if the best play here is to sign BOTH. The reason being risk factor. It's at least fairly likely one of these guys doesn't live up to their hype. I'd also say it's at least as likely that between the two of them, at least one pays for the pairs contracts. If Cespedes gets 40 mill(I don't think he's getting 60) and Soler gets 20, my guess is it's a better bet that we'll get sufficient production that covers their money. Meanwhile, with one or the other, to me, there's much more of a chance we don't. Granted, worst case being neither winds up helping out all that much and we've basically wasted 10 to 12 mill per year over the next 6. But, I think we could live with that kind of downside, based on the possible upside involved as well. But, to maximize the upside, I think it's smarter to grab both. Thoughts?

I think Selig SHOULD take into account, that the new CBA certainly keeps Theo's actual value down somewhat. And, he was in the last year of his deal as well. When he could have left on his own anyway. It's Lucchino's fault that he didn't talk compensation previous to allowing us to talk with him.

I saw a tidbit from Levine in his Soriano article, that basically said we had asked Detroit for Turner and a =young lefty". I guess it means Smyly or Crosby? At any rate, if that's where Detroit is at with us, I hope they blink. Even if it's a 2 for 1, I'm fine with that.

Onelkis Garcia is now draft eligible for 2012. I'd have much rather he have been able to be signed as an IFA.

On my cell, so I'll list pitching separately. Ryan Searle is a decent bet to put things together. In fact, I could see him showing us the same, minus a couple MPH, as what we're hoping out of Ben Wells. He's had about as good a showing this offseason as anyone in our system, so a breakthrough is a solid possibility here. Robinson Lopez went from being a top 10 guy for me, to outside my top 30 in one season. But, in his defense, he battled injuries all season and never really pitched healthy. He's still very young and while his secondary stuff needs work, he's still my favorite of the "live arm" group we can dream on. Yao-Lin Wang is smallish and has a violent delivery, but looked the part of a back end of the pen guy last year. This year, in full season ball, we'll start to see if he may have the stamina to continue in a starting role. If he holds up, he's got as good of stuff as anyone,short of Maples, in our lower levels. I'll throw Brian Smith out there, since we're short on interesting pitchers, in my opinion. Raw, but projectable, could add some weight and amp his fastball from high 80's into lower 90's and with decent control, as a lefty, could establish himself, especially in the lower levels.

I guess some of the guys I could see making jumps from now until this time next year that I don't have in, or necessarily, even near my own top 30 would be Micah Gibbs. Since he's supposedly excellent behind the dish, if he hits .260ish and starts to show average pop(10 homer type) then he could become a solid asset. Willson Contreras hasn't done a whole lot yet, but he's been underaged for his levels, so if his swing gets a little loft, I could see him developing into the power hitting corner guy we thought he'd become when we gave him a sizable bonus. Oliver Zapata has a Kirby Puckett body, but he was the first of his group to actually receive a promotion, so maybe that means something? He's shown decent power, decent speed, and advanced plate discipline. I could conceivably see him having a solid year across the board for Peoria and showing up on our radar. While Candelario was the standout and Penalver is at least in everyone's peripherals, Jeffrey Baez also was excellent last year. Has solid pop, excellent speed, and solid discipline as well, I could see him skyrocket with a solid season in Arizona, which I kind of expect. Although obviously hard to project guys coming over. AZPhil liked what he saw though. While it appears as if Michael Burgess is now considered a AAAA slugger, it's not too late at all for that to change. My guess is he's one of the guys at our workout camp and if he's in shape, things could change for him.

Geraldo Concepcion has established residency in Mexico. I think it takes around 2 weeks before a player gets approved by MLB? At any rate, he'll be available before Cespedes or Soler will be.

Part of me thinks Levine actually meant Silva and Cabezas, when referring to signing 4 Cubans within the last month. Although we did sign Del Valle, Reyes, and Bonne after them even. On a side note, one of the top 2 July 2nd pitching signees, Mauricio Silva signed with the Twins recently for a very reasonable 375,000 bonus. Also, the best SS prospect left, Ronniel Demorizzi, signed with the Blue Jays today. We really need to get a few of the guys who are still out there with bigtime ceilings. Manny Gonzalez and Helsin Martinez appear to be the 2 best guys out there.

Now the Red Sox are wanting Selig to get involved, lucchino's doing, of course.

If anything, maybe this puts a little pressure on KC to make a "go for it" type move. They certainly have the pieces, even without dealing Myers or even Montgomery, who I'm not all that thrilled about as it is. A package of Cuthbert/Odorizzi/Duffy would be great value in my opinion.

I'll be very surprised if we open the year with BOTH Dewitt and Baker on the roster.

Dewitt 1.1, Stewart 2.237, Baker 1.375, Wells 2.705, and Volstad 2.655

Money unknown, but Cubs agreed with Baker, Dewitt, Stewart, Wells, and Volstad.

Personally, if not for having the group we have doing the research, I'd be worried about the latter. Wouldn't that concern be there with Soler as well? Yep. But, at least I know he played against Bryce Harper in some Junior National games. if he was 23 or 24 playing against 15 and 16 year olds, it'd hopefully look fairly obvious to someone. That said, if he's 25ish and THIS raw, he would go from elite prospect, to a fringe guy, at best. One that you just gave 20ish mill to. In the end though, I'm not all that concerned about either. I really, really want Soler.

I hope it's Concepcion and Luis. But. I figure we'd have seen that reported by now, if it was the case.

Personally, if not for having the group we have doing the research, I'd be worried about the latter.

If not for the group we have now, I'd probably be terrified about Cespedes' being older than what is being claimed. Even now, I am still cautious, but certainly think our guys have done alll that's possible to find out as much about him as there is to find out.

Avila is damn good. Do you want them to DH Soto? To me, Garza and Byrd makes sense for them now though. Could be a way to get Turner and Castellanos, even if it wound up a 2 for 2 deal. I'd still prefer Turner, Smyly, and Crosby, even for the pair personally.