davell

Castro's not an impact player? Really? Monetarily, he's probably one of the 5-10 best values in all of baseball right now. Very likely he's a middle of the order hitter within 3-4 years as well. As I mentioned earlier, both Cashner and McNutt have frontline ability. To think one of them succeeds isn't all that much out of the realm of possibilities. I consider Brett Jackson a top of the order hitter myself, but with his power and his walk rate, it's definitely possible he winds up hitting middle of the order too.

You include a guy like Barney becuae he's cheap and will be useful. In a perfect world, he's not a starter for us 2-3 years from now. But, to say things look bad with this group of youngsters is just flat out wrong. Castro has superstar potential. Barney will be useful obviously. Cashner has front of the rotation or back end of the pen ability. The rest of what was originally mentioned all have longer major league tracj records and are already in arbitration. But, our system is just fine at the top. McNutt has front of the rotation ability. Between him and Cashner, I'm just hoping for one or the other to work out. Brett Jackson has 20/20 ability and should be a very solid OBP guy too. Superstar? Probably not, but extremely solid, possible all star potential. And those guys are CLOSE to helping now. Then, you have LeMahieu(who's only hitting .373 at the moment, by the way). What's his potential? No idea, but he's hitting for more power than last year and if he can stick at 2B, Barney's going to become a utility guy pretty quickly. Vitters? Disappointment for some? Yeah, me included. But, he's 21 and has played over his level each year so far age-wise and has held his own anyway. It's certainly conceivable that he can make the turn back towards elite prospect this season. If there's a "star potential" guy in our system, it's still probably him. Our system is decent right now. Not special, but could become so if the Cubs spend big this draft. But, the key here is the fact these guys are going to be giving cheap production. Which is what allows teams to spend in other areas and to fill in around a Pujols type alot easier.

I look at signing Pujols like this: Window-wise, he's got(probably) a 4-5 year period where he'll still be elite, followed by a 3-4 year area where he'll be solid. My guess is we'd truly regret the 9-10th years based on how much he'll be making those years. Big surprise there. It's not a reason to not sign him though. We'd have a core of Pujols, Soto, Castro, Barney, Soriano along with Colvin, LeMahieu, Vitters, Szczur and Brett Jackson all having the ability to contribute heavily during the early years of his contract. We'd also have Garza, Cashner, McNutt, Wells, Whitenack and the money available to add an ace as well as far as starting pitching goes. With Marmol, Marshall, Rhoderick, Kurcz, Carpenter, and a few other potential bullpen arms as well. If you add Pujols, it's a move where you're "going for it" and if it's followed by adding an ace as well, we'd have a damn good shot, which is much more than what we have currently.

Bour is really confusing me. Is he turning himself into a true prospect all of a sudden? I hope he gets moved to AA quickly so we can see if this is just an aberration.

Do we even CARE whether or not Pujols is making the Cubs money? He'd make the Cubs a much better team. Would we probably overpay to get him? Yeah. Would we have a probable 5 year window to get something done? Yeah. But, isn't that better than hoping Justin Bour, Rebel Ridling or some scrap heap like Pena catches fire and has HALF the season Pujols could have. Is it really going to come down to "well, we're paying Pujols alot more money than what we could have spent at 1B if we had done it smartly". God, I hope not.

Yes. There's no one else to wait around for. These guys are true difference makers(one much moreso than the other) but we need one or the other and a true front line "ace" type pitcher as well, before I'll be ready to say we're truly in another window of chance again.

I gotta admit, I'm confused here. Where is it in those articles that proves Pujols isn't going to make the Cubs money? Isn't it conceivable that while he'll help increase attendance, he'll also help the club get more money spent per person as well? I have no idea as to whether or not he can actually PAY for himself(in fact, i doubt it). But, if he pays for a third of himself even, the gargantuan contract he's going to receive becomes a lot easier for ANY team to swallow, including the Cubs.

I love his ceiling and hate his floor. But I've never been one to let fear behind the steering wheel. I'd love it if he fell to the Cubs. There's a lot of good depth in this draft, but only a few potential superstars and I think Bubba is one of them. Go big or go home. If he fails, and he might, there should still be good, and possibly safer bets, in the 2nd and 3rd rounds. Yeah, this is where I've wound up as well. Considering we can get 1st round talent in the 2nd and 3rd round, take safer guys there and highest upside early(Starling, if he's there).

Perfectgame has their latest mock up and it has Bubba falling to us as well, saying we're really high on him and Lindor. In it, KC takes Lindor and they think he's a near lock to be gone before we pick. Cautiously becoming optimistic Bubba lasts until we pick.

I guess Carpenter got demoted, as he's pitching for Tennessee tonight.

With all the guys available, if I'm going to be mad at us picking someone, it's going to be Lindor or Meyer. I won't be too upset, but with what else will be available, I won't be happy and will want us to do extremely well later on in order for me to at least think we had a good draft. Here's my current order of preference. Rendon Bundy Bauer Hultzen Cole Starling Jungmann Springer Jed Bradley Barnes Gray Swihart Josh Bell Guerrieri Norris Cron Purke(could move all the way up to 2-3 overall for me if he shows alot between now and draft) Archie Bradley As long as we wind up with one of THESE guys, I'm not going to be upset at all with our 1st round pick.

Would you take him with a 2nd round pick and throw the money at him? Absolutely, we should take him if he's there.(he won't be though, as Raisin said) With this year probably being the last one where you can overslot players, I'm hoping the Cubs are in the mindset where they take BPA throughout the draft and take advantage of this ability for the last time, as other teams will also be looking at it like this as well. While Purke is highly unlikely to be there, my guess is we'll have the chance to exercise this strategy on someone who's going to require a serious bonus in both rounds 2 and 3. And we should take them as long as they're who we feel is the best talent available. Especially considering we need to revamp our averagish system at the moment and also because our major league squad doesn't appear as if we're going to be needing any extra funds for the deadline. Ricketts, here's your shot. Loaded draft. You've said you want to build from within and we're a major market team. Act like it. Just once, I implore you.

If the future strike in the NBA lasts all of next season, what happens with the draft? Does 2 seasons worth of players all become eligible in one draft possibly?

i know he had some shoulder problems... doesn't seem like he's recovered well from those. another very good outing from whitenack - 7 ip, 3 h, 0 r, 2 bb, 5 k, 11 go/2 fo, 96 pitches/61 strikes. jae-hoon ha is 1-5 with a triple - no strikeouts though. lemahieu is 2-4 and hitting .349 on the year, though it's about as empty a .349 as you can have. kirk has been good - 4.1 ip, 1 h, 0 r, 0 bb, 2 k, 4 go/6 fo. era down to 1.60 on the year. Wasn't that during the middle of last season? I thought he came back and pitched decently after that? Obviously, it could be related though. As far as LeMahieu goes though, i gotta disagree with the empty .349 comment. At least compared to last year. He had 554 at bats last year with 24 doubles, 5 triples, and 2 homers. This year, in 142 at bats, he has 12 doubles, a triple, and 2 homers already. The doubles rate is WAAAAY up and it looks like he may be able to come close to double digit homers as well. To me, that'd be quite an improvement for him. I think he's our best 2B option in the system(hopefully he can stick there).

Nate, if you read this, what's happened to Antigua? He had the best stuff(or close anyway) of anyone at Peoria last year. To see him struggle like this seems odd to me. As far as Jay goes, I would think it's one of 2 things with him: Either he's hurt(obvious one) or he's just in a mental funk from missing out(by being hurt earlier) on a shot at the big league rotation once Cashner and Wells went down. His attitude has come into question a few times now and this could certainly be playing a part in his struggles.

Nah, I know we drafted him. Can't remember for sure, but I think he was like a middle half of the top 10 round pick.

Out of Goldstein's top 20, I'd be fine with ANYONE in the top 16, minus Lindor or Meyer, plus Josh Bell and Purke(if he proves he's healthy) at 9, to be honest. And while I can see why peole are enamored with those 2 guys, I just think there are safer bets to be frontline, potential all stars than them. Yet, for some reason, I think it's probably 50/50 we wind up with one of them.

While I'm not sure Ha is truly ready for AA, I am excited to see how he'll do at least. Yeah, he needs to learn some serious plate discipline obviously and rushing him isn't the way to go about teaching that to him either. But, his hit tool must really be solid, as evidenced by his low K rate and high number of extra base hits. He's not going to be a Vlad, but if he's a guy who winds up as a 300ish hitter with 15-20 homer power, we've found ourselves a bigtime bargain, considering we spent like 200,000 or so to sign him. Silva's numbers aren't anything special, by any means, but it's probably the right corresponding move. He's 21, has played at a high level in Cuba and we gave him a very nice bonus, to top things off. See what he's got: I wasn't that hyped about him, after reading the scouting reports as it is, so hell, maybe he surprises us.

Yeah, when I saw what Bundy may be asking for, the first thing I thought was "drop to 9, drop to 9". If Bradley is wanting that kind of cash, I could even see scenarios where he falls out of the 1st round altogether. Have heard that Swihart and Hedges could both fall to the 2nd-3rd round, based on their signability as well. Kind of doubt it happens, but it'd be really cool if we found a way to get a top flight catcher outside of the 1st round. Especially since I'm losing faith that Soto is anything more than a 2 year answer for us at this point. With how Goldstein typically evaluates players, I'm VERY surprised to see Lindor at 7 on his list. I didn't truly expect to see him anywhere in his top 20. And then, his comments basically say what I thought they would say about him too. If you don't see star potential at least in a player, I'm extremely surprised that he'd show up anywhere on a list like this, because there is a ton of "potential" aces in this draft and more than a fair number of position players that have a chance to be stars as well.

It's all about having some solid cheap production to go along with a huge contract like Pujols is going to command. The Cubs have Castro, which is so much of a positive, it's not even worth talking about. If Barney keeps this up, he's a bigtime asset as well. It's one reason I really want to see Brett soon. If he can post a the types of seasons it appears he's capable of, we're set up great to add a Pujols or Fielder. The key for me though, is we ALSO need a bigtime starting pitcher to go along with Garza. Z is what he is and we only have him for another year after this one, same with Dempster. And I don't really want either of them back. If we project Garza, Wells, and one of Cashner or McNutt(hopefully both, possibly none, but pitching is too volatile to truly predict a couple years down the road) we'll have 1-2 spots to fill, with the ability money-wise to sign a difference maker there as well. And IF, and it's a big IF, one or both of Cashner/McNutt become frontline guys, we'd be looking like a true WS contender with a couple of additions like I just mentioned.

Is it though? With this draft class, it's not going to shock me if someone who's not even necessarily considered a true top 50 guy winds up being the best player longterm out of everyone, to be honest. Just because of the depth. In Nimmo's case particularly, not having been able to even play HS baseball, because of where he's from, it's at least conceivable, that someone like him could shine a ton more once he's subjected to better competition on a much more regular basis. I do get the main point though, which is basically saying the Mets look like they're going cheap with the pick though.

Archie, Jed, or Jackie Jr.? I'm figuring you mean Archie? And I agree in this scenario, Bubba is the best guy on the board.

One thing you have to keep in mind with acquiring Beltran is that we're losing value in the deal as well. If we add Beltran (1.3 WAR so far this year) we have to bench or trade Kosuke (1.0 WAR so far) or Byrd (0.4 WAR so far). It's still early in the year, but Kosuke has been nearly as valuable as Beltran to this point, primarily because Beltran's been bad defensively and Kosuke's been good. If you deal Kosuke, you have to look at the difference in their production at the time of the trade and determine if the difference in production is worth probably a net negative in prospects. There are questions with both players - can Kosuke avoid his month-long slumps and can Beltran stay healthy - and I think it'd be prudent to wait as long as you can before pulling the trigger on the deals so you get as much information as possible on the two. If you deal Byrd, you have to ask whether Beltran can still play center and stay healthy. He hasn't logged an inning there this year (he's been only a RF) and has been pretty awful defensively in right. Byrd's been bad defensively as well, but he's younger and has much less of an injury history than Beltran and is almost certainly the better bet to rebound. You could always move Kosuke to center if you trade Byrd, but you're losing a ton of Kosuke's value doing that. Beltran's been quite a bit more valuable than Byrd so far, making this the more preferable scenario, but Byrd has recent history on his side. Could dealing for Beltran be a good idea? Sure, but I'd wait until much closer to the deadline before advocating or criticizing it definitively. I'm on board with this scenario: Move Byrd in a deal for Beltran. He makes sense for the Mets from a dollar perspective and he'd be there another year as well. Sure, it'd take some prospect(s) as well, but if it's not anything major, then why not? Beltran can help the offense this year and if it makes us a contender, then great. If not, let him go and get some sort of comp for him pick-wise in the process most likely. Brett will be ready by then, in all likelihood, so we won't need him any longer than this season and it rids us of Byrd, which is something we're going to need to do as well, in the process. That said, if they're going to want anything more than a C/C+ type prospect from us, then my answer is an unequivacable "no". By C type guys, I'm talking Flaherty/Raley types. Fringe top 20 guys in our system basically.

The whole "up the middle, athletic guy" thing? I don't see Cron dropping to us, but for some reason, I DO see us taking a corner guy relatively early this year. Maybe an Eddie Oropesa in the 3rd or 4th round. Since power seems to be the biggest need from a hitting standpoint in our system and our general weakness at the corners as well, I just figure(hope) it's addressed before the typical Cub middle round college 3-4 year big school guy they always seem to take that ends up as an organizational guy inevitably.(hopefully Bour proves this theory wrong obviously)

I agree that he's made the big jump but this year's draft is too deep to risk a top 10 pick on him. There are safer picks with big ceilings. Oh I agree completely. I think there are more than enough "ace" type potential guys that have less to go than someone like Meyer does. I could see where a guy gets enamored with his size and improvement this year and projects him to be better down the line than some of these guys. But, as you said, you should take the safer guy in a situation like this, since there are plenty of guys who are MUCH safer bets to reach their potential or close to it, even if his potential may be slightly higher.(which is debatable as well anyway)