davell

We've got 3 top 100 guys right now in Brett, Szczur, and Baez. We've got a guy like McNutt that has solid value. We have guys like Vitters, Rhee, Lake, and Ha that have some value on the trade market or hope that they can become averahish major league starters. And we've got high upside guys like Vogelbach, Maples. Candelario, that could make huge progress and enter into top 100 type lists. Basically, it's a very average to slightly below average system. So, in trading Garza, Marshall, and possibly Marmol and Soto, you're adding at least 3 more top 100 guys and hopefully at least 3 more guys as well that have the ability to do so. Now, the system looks solid for sure. Possibly top 10ish. Then, you go out, sign Soler, sign Concepcion if he's worth it, and anyone else you can. Now, you've transformed your system into a borderline top 5 system most likely in one offseason and have the 6th pick and 3 more within the top 75 to count on as well. This matters obviously, because while we'll be using some of these guys to fill holes and hopefully a couple turn into much more than space fillers, the main thing is it puts us in position to trade effectively for whatever we can or want. I don't know what kind of impact guys will be on the trade market next year, but there's always some guys out there and we could go get them this way, much easier than previously.

Seeing as how the best we could do for Ramirez is Ian Stewart, I'm going to go with "yes." You're better than that. You know Stewart is a stopgap. If he hits, great, but Theo, you, me and probably everyone else too, is fully expecting to go back to the drawing board here next year and hope you've acquired a prospect that's better than Stewart. No, there's not going to be a 3B in FA next year that's going to give us Aramis' production either. But, with that 16 mill he was getting, I bet we can get just as much and probably more WAR out of that somewhere else. To where if you put Aramis and Dempster together, we've upgraded the pair of spots as a whole and probably for less money, so you can then do the same thing for the next grouping.

Did you even attempt to read? I'm sorry, I think you're going to have to explain this "witty" response. Your nonsensical statement about replacing this average group in no way shape or form addresses the issue being discussed. The point is not to replace what is here, the point is to get better. If the first step you take toward getting better is getting a lot worse, it's going to take longer to get better. Ok, the idea here is to trade Garza and get at least one guy who can conceivably replace him very shortly, giving the same production for cheaper as well. Plus, other parts as well could certainly be useful. Marshall nets you at least one guy who you should be able to count on as well to be on the major league roster soon. The rest of what we have can be dealt, like Soto, Byrd, and Marmol. Marmol is replaceable from within, it's possible Soto is as well and Byrd being replaced by Brett hopefully becomes an upgrade. We will have lots of cash available, in this scenario, so if you want to sign a pair of bigtime FA., you have the ability to do so. Seriously, other than Castro, who I don't move under any circumstance, do you think is going to be hard to replace quickly? And when I say replace, I fully expect upgrades in most cases.

Did you even attempt to read? I'm sorry, I think you're going to have to explain this "witty" response.

He absolutely is suggesting punting longterm. If you trade off all your actually productive players, and let the rest walk, without acquiring any impact players in return, it will take an extremely long time to get back to being competitive. You would effectively be starting from scratch and that takes time. The Cubs will suck for multiple years if they do that. You couldn't be more wrong. Do you actually think it's hard to replace the very average group we've currently got? Is Z from the past couple of seasons going to be hard to replace? How about Dempster for 15ish mill? You don't think we can reacquire what he's done for that kind of cash? Newsflash, Soto is an average starting catcher, he's not going to be hard to replace either. Byrd? There's multiple versions of him that can be had each FA class. Seriously, this isn't some major rebuild that takes forever. It's a roster overhaul. But we're overhauling guys that aren't even under contract going forward. Trying to find some young cheap GOOD players to pair with Castro and hopefully Brett on the offensive side is exactly what we need to do. My plan for pitching is the same. I've got us signing Jackson in this, he's been very consistent the last 3 years. 11.2 WAR over that time. Have us signing Chen to a 4 year deal. Hopefully, this takes care of the 3 and 4 spots in the rotation. With all the prospects you've gotten, my hope would be you've added a top of the rotation arm as well. Then go get one in FA and add a 5th starter.

So your goal is trying to win in 2020 (maybe)? How could you possibly come to that conclusion from what he posted? He's sacrificing 2012 to get a boatload of young guys and free up payroll to add significant pieces in the off season next year and be relatively competitive in 2013 with a lot of upside going forward. -Young guys don't always pan out -The FA class next year sucks offensively Young guys don't always pan out. You're absolutely correct. But with this plan you've acquired enough of them to where odds are, some of them will. And yes, as I have mentioned before, next year's hitting class sucks. We've got enough in the system using my plan to go out and acquire something through trade at least. Amd the hope, of course, by doing things this way, is you also add an impact player or two, that you have very cheaply.

I tend to think trading them separately is likely to net a better return for the organization, even if the additional value is simply depth pieces. Maybe so. I think Syndergaard, Nicolino, and Hutchison are all potential studs. Not sure any of them actually even hit the top 100's this year, but all 3 look like they could be top of the rotation guys in a few years. Theo may want guys closer to the bigs though. I'm not really a fan of McGuire personally. Jenkins either.

Garza and Marshall for Snider, Alvarez, Syndergaard, and Nicolino. Spin something off to San Diego for Rizzo.

Damnit, so this is where the Darvish money went. Anyway, glad we keep hiring successful guys and I fully expected we'd come to an agreement where we can't raid the Red Sox.

Sell off Garza, Marshall, Soto, Marmol, and Byrd. This takes payroll down to 80ish mill range. You'll get 2 top 100 prospects for Garza, plus more. 1 top 100 prospect for Marshall. Decent returns for Soto and Marmol. DeRosa like return for Byrd. Add Edwin Jackson for 4/48 and Beltran for 2/30. Puts payroll at around 107. Get Rizzo somehow, even if it's 3 team deal involving Garza. Sign Chen for 4/20. Sign Soler for same. Payroll at 117. If you can get someone to take Soriano for 3/9, go ahead and pull trigger. Midseason go ahead and unload Dempster and Z for whatever we can. Spend as much money on IFA as is available to be had. Spend leftover money on penalties for going over in draft. You've probably got a mid 70's win team this upcoming season, with lots of ability to find out some things about some of the youngsters you've acquired. And tons of cash and assets to load up next offseason.

Oh well. I wasn't all that thrilled with Garza to Texas. Toronto has much more to offer us anyway. Let's blow this thing up now, Theo.

Brett has never passed any info he has gotten off as fact. That's the big difference between him and this guy. It's why Brett will continue to grow his site too, he doesn't take chances where he'll look bad in the end.

From what I've read, coming over here isn't necessarily what Darvish wants. He's happy over there, but thinks he'll break the bank over here. So, he's expecting to make much more here than over there, or else what's the use of him coming, in his mind.

The 12 mill figure is counting endorsements, I think.

Yeah, Knobler tweeted within the last hour we may still be 3 or 4 hours away from hearing. I'm not thinking we're going to win, but I do think that this could set off a rash of moves from us this week anyway, win or lose. If we win, I could see Fielder signed before Christmas. If we lose, I could see Garza and Marshall dealt and we go in a different direction.

I think there's still some sort of 2 week process he's got to go through, even after establishing residency though. I think he's not going to even be eligible to sign until January.

If we miss on Darvish, I'm hoping someone other than Toronto or Texas wins the bid. We've talked about Texas quite a bit as a stop for Garza, but Toronto is LOADED. You've got Drabek, Alvarez. Arencibia, Cooper, and Snider all at the major league level basically. I'm not necessarily a huge fan of some of these guys, but a pair of them and a pair of some of their young arms would be phenomenal. Syndergaard, Nicolino, and Hutchison all appear to be potential studs. They're further away and all, but this franchise is absolutely stacked, because they have plenty more I haven't even mentioned.

He's going off of what Cafardo said. I don't think ANYONE outside of a very select few FO people inside our organization has any clue what we're doing. Because as soon as a report comes out we're "in" seriously on someone big, within an hour another report comes out to refute it. And this is obviously by design, because it's happened with everyone. Are we going to spend big this offseason? I have no clue, but neither does anyone else. It's possible. It's also possible we're about to hold a massive firesale, revamp the system quickly, find out what guys like Shark, Carpenter, Dolis, Castillo, and God forbid, even LaHair can do given some time. Worst case is they fall flat, best case is one or two of them becomes viable longterm options that are cheap for us. We've got plenty of money to spend, but whether it's spent immediately is going to be a question mark until we know what Darvish and Fielder are doing.

I'd rather have Keith Moreland than Mitch Moreland. I would as well, but whether we like it or not, he's a possibility to be trotting down 1B next year for us. Would be a stopgap and not the headline piece of any Garza trade, but a space filler. The Cubs better not be trading assets for space fillers. They won't obviously. But, it's not like we're going to get 4-5 top 100 guys for Garza either. If we got Perez and Olt from them, I could see Moreland being a piece aftet those 2. Just an example, not even saying I think Perez/Olt would be our best option, in fact I hope it's not. EDIT Jason Parks was just asked if Olt and Perez was fair for Gio and he said it was, for Oakland. Hell, I'd take it, but I wouldn't be thrilled, just OK with it and I figure Gio has more value than Garza does.

I'd rather have Keith Moreland than Mitch Moreland. I would as well, but whether we like it or not, he's a possibility to be trotting down 1B next year for us. Would be a stopgap and not the headline piece of any Garza trade, but a space filler.

If we miss on Prince, I fully expect to add a 1B through trade. Whether it's Rizzo, Moreland, Morales, Smoak, whoever.....That said, if we're punting on 2012(and if we miss on both Yu AND Prince, I think that's safe to say) we may as well give LaHair a solid amount of at bats. It's a win-win at that point really. Either he sucks and lends us a hand in getting a better draft pick or he shows SOMETHING and becomes a guy with a little bit of value. I guess I'd throw him out in LF some and give him some 1B at bats, if it comes to this.

I think this is the preceding move that leads to a Chris Young trade.

Jason Kubel 2!5 with 3rd year option to Arizona. John Grabow signs minor league deal with Dodgers.

The Pads have Jedd Gyorko, who kind of profiles as another Headley actually. They also have James Darnell, who's bat is probably ready right now, but is a butcher in the field and probably moves to the OF. They also have a guy lower down their system named Juan Rincon, who is a very solid prospect as well. In other words, them trading Headley doesn't mean they don't have answers for 3B pretty soon.

Look two posts up from yours. Tomorrow. I thought it was this Morning. My bad. Tomorrow morning in Japan. We'll find out tonight.