davell

I'm in the minority on this one(hell, maybe even alone) but I think he's still got ace(or at least 2 starter) potential personally. Get him out of the AL East and I'm sure he'll be better in the NL Central. If we can get him without having to send any of our top 5 guys(B Jackson, Archer, McNutt, Lee, and Vitters) I'd do it.

I'm fine with this deal. Mainly because it's just for one year. I think I still want them to pursue the Texas deal(mainly for O'Day), sign Webb, and call it an offseason. Deal Gorzelanny away if you have to do so(especially if that puts Cashner in the rotation). I still have a feeling though that Fukudome gets dealt.

I've looked over alot of early lists of the top players in next year's draft. It doesn't look like there are all that many power hitting guys who should go that early, from what I can tell. You have Rendon going 1st most likely. Then, you have Travis Harrison and George Springer and that's about it(Bradley could go top 10, but he's not really a power hitter. Neither of whom I think of as better bets than some of the pitching that'll be available when we pick. I guess I hope we'll take an ace type prospect in the 1st, then follow it up with 3 or 4 Reggie Golden type picks.

Some dude that should be a 5th rounder. Na we have only really done that one time. I am thinking it's time for a tud pitcher we can break quickly. Haven't done that in a bit. Yeah, probably so. FWIW, on Bruce's blog, when asked about LaRoche, he was surprised at the report and so were his Cubs sources. Said that they haven't been all that high on LaRoche all offseason.

Some dude that should be a 5th rounder.

Hendry does. Protection for Castro, being his reasoning.

I'll go with 1/8 with a second year vesting option of 10 mill if he hits certain plateau's......Most likely RBI based(signifying the Cub's diligent usage of metrics)

But he pitched in those games and was pretty bad out of the bullpen last year. He walked 30 people in 54 innings. And he didn't match that up with some ungodly K/9 either. The walk rate's going to need to come down if he IS moved to the rotation for sure. He's probably going to have to trust something other than his FB if his K rate is going to go up some as well(he has a decent changeup, but evidently doesn't use it very often, right?). But the reason I brought up those 2 games is I'd much rather have him be pathetic for 2 games than to have had those 12 runs sprinkled over the rest of his appearances. Basically, I think he pitched pretty well for the majority of his appearances.

Scott Miller of CBS is saying the Cubs want to close a deal with him soon. If there's another Laroche thread somewhere, feel free to merge this one with it. EDIT: PLEASE merge with Keener's thread, which beat mine by a tad. :D

I want Cashner to have every opportunity to win a spot in the rotation. But, I don't think he was that bad out of the pen last year. If you take out his hideous 2 game stretch of July 27th and 30th, his stats look a whole lot more respectable. Those 2 games, he pitched 1.1 innings combined, gave up 8 hits, 12 earned runs and walked 2. His ERA and WHIP for the year were 4.80 and 1.56 respectively. Take those 2 outings away and it's 2.88 and 1.41. I totally understand that there are more meaningful stats than ERA and WHIP(FIP for one, his was 5.03 for the year, but would take a huge dip, I'm assuming anyway, if you take out that 2 game blip) but I don't know how to translate them, minus those 2 outings, to see how he looked. Like I said, I want him in the rotation, but I think he was pretty solid out of the pen, minus those 2 games.

We met with his agent last night and have another meeting scheduled for later today as well. I would be all for this, but if it means Cashner doesn't get a chance to start, then I guess I have to hope against it......

I'l admit that the jump in innings scares me some. But, not as much for him as it would for Cashner. To me, the best rotation we could hope for next year is Zambrano/Dempster/Marshall/Cashner/Archer.......Obviously, Archer would have to prove himself worthy of a rotation spot in ST. But, this is our best UPSIDE anyway, as far as potential combos for the rotation goes. However, I actually think if Cashner AND Marshall were both in the rotation, you'd need a 6th guy(Coleman or Silva) to take a start from each away once a month, to help limit their potential innings. It also brings the question up of who in the hell is left for the pen? If we went this direction, you'd have Marmol, possibly a guy you got for Gorzelanny or at least a guy you just signed to be a set up guy. You MAY get Guzman back, which would be a HUGE asset, just not one you can count on. You'd need Russell to be your LOOGY, since we don't have any other options. Then, you probably need a couple of the guys who were rotated up and down all of last year to become more consistent. But, I figure a couple of Stevens/Mateo/Diamond//Berg/Shark will wind up pitching significant innings anyway, so hopefully one or two of them would work out decently. Then, you have Jay Jackson and Carpenter coming up, both of who I think can fit in near the back end of the pen very soon. Not that this will happen obviously, but I think this would be our best case scenario for the pitching staff, given our financial restraints. That said, I don't EXPECT Marshall to be moved at this stage either. But, I've always thought he would be a better starter than Gorzelanny and if he were to be dealt, then maybe Marshall would get a shot......

I think Marshall would still make a solid 3/4 starter much easier than Gorzelanny can fill a set up role for the Cubs. I don't have an issue at all with dealing Gorzelanny away, assuming we get something usable for him. Either a setup guy(assuming we'd move Marshall to the rotation since we wouldn't have a lefty at that point) or prospects.

Yeah, I'm glad we missed out on him. It's just hearing that we offered him deferred money is what got me. If I was him, I'd rather play for the Cards too.

For $8 million which team would you rather play for? That is the reality of the situation. The Cubs are doing a fantastic job of driving fans away from the team. It is early yet, but so far the Ricketts clan seem to make PR blunder after PR blunder. My point isn't that Berkman chose the Cards though. It's that our offer was deferred money. Seriously, we've never done that type of thing before Ricketts took over(Dempster did it last year for us too). He must really not have any cash available to make this team better. If this is the case, why did he even buy the team?

Levine had mentioned we may would give Wood up to about 5 mill. Not sure if this was expected to be for one year or if they would offer him up to 5 mill per year for multiple years. As far as Cashner goes, he mentioned that if the Cubs couldn't land a starter, then they'd likely move him into the rotation. Guess I'm hoping we miss out on all the reclamation projects now.......

Yeah, that was a bad hire pretty much right from the beginning. Did anyone have any idea he would act like this (driving out Cutler, Marshall, spygate Broncos style, and drafting Tebow) beforehand? Bill Bellichick.

Steylon Peguero signed with the Mariners today for 2.9 mill. Still plenty of guys out there who were considered top notch players available.

If it's next offseason when Wright is truly put on the market, my suggestion would be to use Wright as our 3B.(pretty much better in every facet of baseball than Aramis) Aramis won't be under contract and will be 34 during the 2012 season, so unless he's willing to take a discount from his club option AND play 1B as well, I'd suggest dropping him and moving in a different direction at 1B again from whatever bargain bin type we wind up with over there this offseason, unless it somehow worked out well for us with Pena, Johnson, whoever.....

But that doesn't really fit Wilken's style. Yeah, I know. I think Wilken is damn good at getting guys who can contribute too. Which is hells better than most scouting directors. I know he believes in taking "up the middle" types, which kind of takes the power quotient away right off the bat in most cases. And this upcoming draft appears(too early to tell probably) to be pitching heavy moreso than hitting. Which is fine with me too, if we get a guy who can profile as an ace. In the end, I guess I'm hoping that since we are very strong up the middle now, maybe he'll start swaying from that philosophy a tad anyway.

No one's even mentioned this here, but the Cubs also offered Berkman 8 mill for one year, according to Levine. But, we wanted to defer some of the money. Not exactly a ringing endorsement for Ricketts financial position at the moment.

Not unless its a three team deal, which is now what ESPN is report is in the works. Would the dodgers flip Fielder to the Cubs without pissing off the Brewers? Not unless Ned Colletti is stil on the Cubs payroll. The Dodgers are a power hitter away from being potentially as good as anyone in the NL. If they acquire Fielder, they're doing it to keep him for 2011 and beyond. I think McCourt must have finally heard enough backlash from Dodger fans, because they've been as active as anyone so far this offseason.

Jyason Stark tweeted that he'd talked to an executive that mentioned during their meeting with the Mets, everyone was available. Including Beltran, Reyes, and even Wright. Don't get me wrong, I seriously doubt he gets dealt this offseason, but with the extremely weak FA class coming up the folowing year, he's kind of jumped to the top of my wish list for then, especially with Aramis being under our control at that point as far as his club option goes. We'll have tons of money coming off the books and Wright's due 15 mill in 2012 and has a club option for 16 mil in 2013. Does not have a NTC either. He'll be 28 all of next season as well. I'm sure he'd cost a ton in terms of players going back to them, but I think he'd probably be worth it. Now that Minaya is gone, I wonder if the Mets could open up and start dealing much more freely with Alderson at the helm. I know Wright has been the face of their franchise, but if he's potentially available at any point, I'd hope Hendry(or whoever our GM is at that time) would make a gigantic push for him. And if he becomes available, we may not even be bidding against the Red Sox and Yankees, since they don't have holes at either of their corner infield spots. It sucks I'm already looking forward to finding potential trade targets for NEXT offseason or even mid year of 2012, but that's how little THIS offseason has done for me. At any rate, Wright would be a perfect fit for us, because we'd have the need and also the available salary coming off the books.

One really solid spending spree during the draft could change that though. I really hope to see a few more boom or bust type picks going forward. The more Reggie Golden type guys we take, the better chances we have on getting one or two of them right.

I think that the two main criteria for Hendry as far as our 1B goes for next year are 1) he's lefthanded and 2) he's very solid defensively to help out with Castro's errant throws at times. Meaning that I don't expect to see a guy like Hawpe or even Colvin thrown in there.