davell

After signing Hudson, doesn't look like the Pads have enough cash to sign Lee now.

just once though, I would like us to sign a big latin american prospect, rather than buying ten shirts for two dollars at the salvation army I agree completely. That said, with the limited amount of scouting you have down there, the quantity approach isn't necessarily a bad way to go. We at least do usually make one "name" signing each year, although it's not one of the biggest names. However, with the supposed raised amount of spending on our system, I definitely want to see us sign a few more "name" players.

I have a feeling Kerry was so eager to play back here again he took the first lowball offer Hendry gave, not caring about the money and wanting to end his career with the Cubs. I greatly admire that, if it is indeed the case. He might have some explaining to do to the Player's Union, though. Here's the Trib article on the signing. It's Sullivan, but it's the most write-up I've seen on it so far. I love the idea of Cashner getting a true shot AND Brandon Webb possibly competing for a spot as well. Make it happen Jimbo.

The only thing I don't necessarily like out of what I've read is coming from Levine's blog. According to it, if the Cubs go get a SP now, Cashner can stay in the pen and learn from Kerry. I still have no idea(if this is even true) as to why the Cubs can't sign a pitcher AND Cashner be given a shot at the rotation as well.

My guess is there is more deferred money coming. But, I like the fact that this is a one year deal. EDIT: JUST SAW THE MONEY. WOW.

Steve Stone wanted the Cubs to trade Aramis for Cesar Izturis at one point. And Steve Phillips just last year said if he was Washington, he'd trade Strasburg for Oswalt straight up. That about says it all for these two.

I'd lean toward no, but might be talked into it. The only reason I consider it is because Soto is 28 and may only have 2-3 really good years left in him. We could potentially get 2-3 times that out of Montero. The problem with Montero, though, is that he likely won't be much better than Soto at his peak and if he needs to move from catcher, he loses a ton of his value. I actually think this could be a deal that neither team would do this deal. I don't think the Cubs would do it because of Soto's current production and the fact that Montero may not stick at C. And I don't think the Yankees would do it, because I doubt Soto is as well thought of as he probably should be. I know Cashman would value him, but I think that the Yankees COULD actually think of the fans as having a backlash for doing this, since they probably think Montero should get them someone who's CONSIDERED a superstar....... Myself, I'd probably pull the trigger on it. We only have Soto for 3 more years and he could even start trending downward before that's over with. And I wouldn't want to see us give him an extension past then either. While I'm not sure Montero can stick at C either, if he's a bigtime bat at 1B even, I think it'd be worth it longterm for us to make it happen. Mainly because of the extra years of player control and it'd free up even more money to go spend on other spots as well eventually.

Soto for Montero straight up. Consider the Yankees didn't just sign Martin. Who says no?

With this exact roster(assuming we do sign Kerry) this is what I think we'd need to have happen to make the playoffs..... Get the same type seasons we did last year from Byrd, Fukudome, Soto, and Soriano. Have Ramirez bounce back to pre-2010 form and stay relatively healthy as well. At least 130ish games minimum. Pena needs to have a decent season, 30+ homers, lots of walks, and get his BA back up somewhere near .225 anyway.(if so, his OPS should be solid enough). It'd be nice to see DeWitt/Baker turn into a solid platoon offensively, but I don't think that's an absolute must. But, Castro AND Colvin need to show improvement from year 1 to year 2 in terms of their development. Feel much more confident in Castro than I do with Colvin as far as that goes. Pitching-wise, Z and Dempster need to have solid and healthy seasons obviously. After those 2, I'm not positive that anyone is currently a lock to make the rotation myself(although most will probably say Wells is). At the least though, we'll need 2 guys out of Wells, Silva, Gorzelanny, and Coleman to wind up as solid 4-5 guys in the rotation. I don't think of any of these guys as anything more than that myself. But, for us to contend(and probably make the playoffs), I think we'll need one of Cashner or Archer to make serious waves as a starter in 2011. Turn themselves into a solid upper rotation type over the course of the season. I know it's asking alot, but for us to make the playoffs, I think this(or one of the other 4) needs to take this step. As far as the pen goes, we need Marmol and Marshall to stay healthy and continue as they have done. Woody needs to be decent and we need a couple of the other guys(either the ones who don't make the rotation or some of our big group of arms who have SOME major league experience anyway) to step up and be relatively average anyway. If Guzman could come back, that would be huge, but I'm not counting on that, by any stretch.

That is NOT given. The Cubs are in a crappy division; there's no reason they can't compete. While true, I'd still put us 3rd behind the Cards and Reds. I hope we're not done with the offseason at this stage though, maybe we could close the gap a little more.

Yeah, same here. As far as this article goes, it's pretty much wrong in every single facet. So, it's got that going for it anyway.

A team with a payroll recently in the 140m range has to spread out a 1 year contract over 3 years now. That's just awesome! That isn't really the case. He gets an immediate signing bonus, which has been a Cubs staple for some reason. The 2011 salary would appear to be $3m and he is reportedly due $5m in January 2012, which means $10m will be paid out over 13 months. I just wonder though if that last 5 mill shows up on the 2012 payroll though......

This sucks, but we should be OK for a while. If he's actually out 10 weeks and you put his return at March 1, he'll miss 34 games. Out of those 34 games, there will be 8 back to backs as well. The schedule though, is pretty soft honestly. The only road games we play against teams that are playoff caliber are against the Knicks, Trailblazers, Jazz, and Hornets. We do have a 5 game West Coast trip during this stretch, including the last 3 teams I mentioned in a row. We have home games against the Celtics, Heat(twice), Magic, Mavs, and Spurs. 18 home total, versus 16 on the road. We even have a nice 6 game home stretch right before the West Coast swing. Basically, if we can stay healthy during this stretch without Noah, I'd still expect us to go 20-14 at the WORST during this time frame. Not perfect, but probably solid enough for us to still finish 4th overall in the East.

While it's probable now that Cashner gets his chance to be a starter, which is great, does this mean we're done with the offseason? Or does it mean we now need to trade one of Gorzelanny/Wells/Silva in order to go get a Garza or a Webb?

$12m for 1 year? you've lost your mind, TT. $11.4M will be deferred though. I'm actually worried this will be the case. All the money we've got coming off the books will slowly evaporate into paying out deferred money next year and we won't have the ammo to make impact moves again.

That was a good find. I'm assuming that we probably make at least 10-15 of these type signings each year that do go unnoticed, to help fill out our 2 DSL teams rosters.

Manny Banuelos is one of the best lefty pitching prospects in baseball. I'd think he's untouchable in a hypothetical trade for Z. Same with Gary Sanchez, a very solid catcher in their system. Andrew Brackman may have turned a corner last year for them and he COULD be a guy the Cubs would want as part of a return. They also have a semi-solid 2B prospect named Adams(David, I think) that could hold some value to us. Solid all around player with a little pop. They have another C prospect, Austin Romine, who had a down year last season, but I'm sure still holds very solid value as well.

MLBTR is saying he's drawing alot of trade interest at the moment. He'll be making 6.1 mill in 2011 and then he has 3 club option years at 7,9, and 11 mill per to follow. I'm very undecided on him personally, is he worth more than a Garza or possibly even a Greinke, because of his team friendly contract? MLBTR raised the question anyway. I'd think he is NOT worth that much of a return, but as I've said, I'm unsure.

There's a chance Noah could have some ligament damage in his right hand. If he does, he could miss up to 8 weeks. :banghead:

Trading Z right now would be interesting. I'm not even sure I'd know what to think. Would this signal a rebuild of some sorts? Would it mean Ricketts is quickly moving payroll back down to previous levels? Would we go after Greinke or Garza? I know Z is overpaid. And there's some inherent risk factor with him too. Do we want to trade him right now? How much money would the Yanks be willing to take on? Would we get ANY sort of usable return? Prospects or major leaguers? I think that this is probably just the NY newspapers stirring things up and I don't expect Z to even be seriously talked about by Hendry. But, it'd be interesting anyway, especially with as boring as our offseason has been.

Yankees got Prior. Minor league deal.

Rightly or wrongly, if I were a Ranger fan and knew that not giving out the 7th year is why Lee isn't on my team, I'd probably be pissed. Yeah, that contract is probably going to suck the last couple of years, but if he helps you win one WS, then it makes it worth it, in my opinion anyway. They've got a decent window here, with young guys still not making alot of money, so adding a couple of difference makers seems like the right thing to do. Go all-in and you've got a 3-4 year window where you're going to be one of the favorites each year anyway. Seems like the thing they should have done to me, since they've never won a WS. They may not get this close again for a long time.

Did bigbird break this riveting news?

Who says he has to get rid of the money BEFORE taking it on though? This is the same crap he did with Sosa and how the Cubs ended up w/ Jeromy Burnitz while legit RFs passed them by. I can't imagine if he only has 5Mil in room that he can't go over that ever between now and when the season starts. No idea and that's a great question, but that exact scenario is what made me bring it up this way. No clue whether or not he's allowed to work around the payroll DURING the offseason, as long as it's at a certain number by the end of it, but if he just doesn't like doing it that way, you're absolutely right: It's stupid and he loses out on lots of potential players by waiting.......

Wakefield? He always seems to get some starts when people go down. Dice-K will be gone somewhere somehow this winter. Damn, I forgot about him being there too. Plus, they have a young guy named Doubront who did decently last year as well. If they pick up all of Blanton's salary, the conspiracy theorist in me says they did this just to allow the Phils payroll flexibility to make the offer to Lee and keep him out of NY.