davell

How would it be a misprint if I heard it on the radio? Unless you're saying I typed 200 instead of 150 or something. Either way, I'm not 100% sure on what I heard, but I did hear him say something with regard to "around $200M." Yeah, that's kind of what I meant. Just figured you heard it wrong or caught the tail end of something. Because I can't even fathom how ridiculously awesome that would be, if true.

When I saw the 200 million thing from Levine posted on here, I figure it's just a misquote. If not, having a 170 mill major league payroll with 30 mill going towards the draft and IFA's would be totally incomparable as to how bad ass that"d be. Like I said, I figure it's just a misprint.

You mean Donald Trump. Trump got it from Vince. And if he's going to go all Vince McMahon on Quade, I hope like hell he makes him join the Kiss My Ass Club before he fires him.

FWIW, Jim Callis doesn't seem to think much will change from current CBA concerning the draft.

If total payroll is 150, my guess is it winds up 130 and 20 towards player development.

Not a fan of McNutt being shipped out, if true, but I figure Theo will be concentrating heavily on pitching through the draft anyway next year, since it's a pretty big weakness. So, a couple of bigtime overslots and all's forgiven on that front.

You can't count former players/coaches, or it's too easy. Hello Mike Ditka and Michael Irvin. Good point, but Vitale went to Seton Hall, and certainly never coached at Duke. Maybe he falls into a different category?

On Twitter, Kaplan said if McNutt is part of the deal, it's just the cost of doing business. So, it kind of sounds like he IS going to be moved.

Couple of thoughts: That Rosenbloom article was possibly the dumbest thing ever posted on the site. How he has a job is truly an abomination. Gammons as the biggest homer? Dookie, I mean Dickie V says hello. As far as the news that Theo and Hoyer appear to be done and it doesn't appear as if Jackson, Szczur, or McNutt is involved? Just about time to celebrate fellas.......

McNutt and Castillo.

I really want this to hurry up and come to an end, but it's flat out amazing to me how far Ricketts has moved up in my eyes since the 2010 Hayden Simpson draft. 12 mill spent this year, bigtime spending on IFA's as well, and now the probable hiring of Theo and possibly getting Hoyer as well? Good God, the guy has everything headed in a direction we have never really seen. The right one. I wanted Cuban bigtime as our owner and now I think Ricketts was the better option. Can't even believe what we're seeing, but this ship is turning and we're soon all going to have fun watching the Cubs.

McNutt DOES have 2/3 potential. He's a buy low candidate right now because he had a lingering blister problem all season long and has lost some of his luster. But, while I don't want to give him up, if it's truly going to hold the deal up, I'd pull the trigger personally.

Inside the article on Byrnes is another article that examines every team's trade history of WAR traded for and WAR given up in trades since 2006. And yes, the Cubs were evidently dead last in the NL during that time frame. Although they did count Josh Hamilton as a trade Hendry made, which isn't fair.

Szczur is probably a top 100 guy for BA. He's a potential Crawford or Ellsbury type guy. Honestly, I don't want to see dealt whatsoever. He showed quite a bit last year in his first season of just concentrating on baseball. If he's dealt, it's something that could really come back to haunt us. Flaherty and Jay Jackson don't have the ability to make us really regret trading them at this point, if you ask me.

Obviously I don't know what will appear on the trade market this offseason yet, but we have heard rumors of Danks or Floyd being available, same with Liriano. I could see the Dodgers possibly putting Billingsley out there. You're right about Jackson though, especially after looking at the list of guys available, he's going to cash in bigtime. Maybe signing Bedard and making a trade for either Floyd or Danks? Based on contracts and where we're at right now, I think I'd rather see that than Cc and not much else done this offseason personally.

The reason to steer clear of CC is price. If he opts out, he's opting out of 4/92. He likes NY as well and they're likely to add on at least another year, maybe two at around the same money per year. For 23 mill a year, the Cubs can add an Edwin Jackson, make a trade for another starting pitcher and have money left over to address another need as well.

I don't think I've been this excited since we got Nomar. Harden was close. And this is much more of a surprise to me, than either of them were honestly.

Vernon and I want Soriano over him every day of the week. Realistically, I figure it's better for us to keep him one more year and hopefully we'll wind up eating less of his contract that way. He should give us decent production in 2012, albeit way overpriced. I just don't see anything other than Lackey that's a possibility either, but that's actually not a bad idea.

Go away LaHair. Japan is calling.

With Theo being the stung by Daisuke, my guess is he'd be pretty cautious here. I gotta admit that I would be anyway. That said, I like Tim's suggestion of a 10 mill bid or so. At least that wouldn't kill us monetarily if he wound up being average or worse. Basically, I guess I'm saying to stay away.

We've gone from Jim Hendry to Theo Epstein as our GM. Did anyone actually think this was going to be the case at the beginning of this past season? I'm still in the numb phase, hopefully tomorrow it actually sets in.

It'll be very interesting to see if he's allowed to bring anyone with him/ And if not, I hope we at least somehow find out a little bit of how much change is happening within the front office.

I certainly questioned Ricketts after the 2010 draft. Didn't many changes elsewhere til some of the contracts were gone. In fact, after that draft, I was scared. But, it really looks like he was truly just getting his feet wet and has certainly turned me into an excited Cubs fan again. Rome wasn't built in a day, but the longterm approach that being taken is absolutely phenomenal. Big spending in the 2011 draft and on IFA, firing Hendry, the commitment to the Dominican complex, now this? Unreal. :yahoo:

This was brought up in the Theo thread and I think it deserves it's own thread personally. When asking this, I also mean take into account what the player's situations are contractually, along with how they're producing. Here's my list of hitters I don't want to see dealt away right now Castro Soto Soriano(because of how much it'd probably cost to move him obviously) Campana Colvin(if he even makes the team) LeMahieu I don't see Aramis returning and if it was on a 3-4 year deal, I'm not thinking I'd want him anyway. If we decide not to go after one of the big boys at 1b, then Pena is solid enough to have back, on another 1 year deal. Byrd is totally tradeable and hope we look into what he's worth to soneone else. If Barney could net us something decent, I'd move him. But, if we suddenly look at him as a backup and not as a starter, then I'm throwing him on the keeper list. Baker and DeWitt? Don't really care one way or the other honestly. Would probably rather LeMahieu and Flaherty show enough to make them expendable, but keeping one may be necessary. Pitchers are as follows Garza Cashner Samardzija Russell Wood Marmol(needs to rebound) Did NOT forget Marshall either. Think he'll be gone or overpaid by the time we're truly contending and we could get a ransom for him as well. I just don't think of Randy Wells as anything more than average and now that he's entering his arb years, his value goes away, if you ask me. Dempster is probably necessary to have around, but if we're out of it, I hope he's dealt, because again, I don't trust him heading into his upper 30's. If Z is dealt away and we can save some money off his deal and put it back into the system, then I'm fine with that scenario. Kind of rushed through this, didn't include any minor leaguers at all, but can get in depth later, if necessary.

This site is going to wind up dead, due to the fact we're not going to have anything to bitch about.