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davell

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Everything posted by davell

  1. davell
    Hoyer said he'd LOOK at trade offers for AGON during the offseason. Which basically tells me that he's going to see what's out there, hold onto him and trade him halfway through the year, assuming they aren't contending again. Even though it's only for half a season, my guess is he'd get more of a bidding war going on then, when teams have less options than they do in a free agent market.
  2. davell
    Yeah, the Jay Jackson comments were a bit of a surprise to me honestly. Was it just Cub spin control to say that it was a one time incident with him? I thought that he had went out drinking one night and missed curfew or something to that effect, but that he was considered a very solid character type, which is why they punished him the way that they did, with the demotion......
  3. davell
    He's been extremely good and consistent for them, but something tells me that anyone who signs him to a 4 year 60 mill type of deal will wind up not getting close to their money's worth out of it........
  4. davell
    Probably not, but there's certainly plenty of teams that would look more attractive from a contention standpoint as well.
  5. davell
    I'm hoping they like Barney as an everyday player until they have Machado ready, but I'd expect them to want Guyer or someone else who's a 6-10 talent in our system to go with Barney. Maybe Jay Jackson or Carpenter, to go along with Barney? Their future rotation is fairly well set up, but they could use either of Jackson or Carpenter as a setup guy/potential closer. I like those 2 guys alot personally, so I'm not sure I'd give one of them up for Scott, but I'd consider it...... That said, Rob is probably correct, the O's would probably want Hak Ju Lee and Vitters for him........ :lol:
  6. davell
    He seems like an ideal player for us to pursue this offseason, if you ask me. The Orioles are pretty deep in the OF and look like they're going to pursue a FA 1B, so Scott appears to be the odd man out. Don't get me wrong, they'd play him at DH, but I would think that with their youth movement, he'd be expendable. He's got 2 years of player control and he could play 1B for us this season and move to the OF if we find a way to trade for A-Gon during the season or sign him or someone else after the season is over. He's extremely solid (career .878 OPS against righties) and solid enough (career .788 OPS against lefties) to where he's not a liability to play him everyday. I could even see a scenario where the O's value Darwin Barney as a potential stopgap starter for a couple of seasons until Machado is ready, making us a very solid trade partner with them. Maybe Barney, along with a Brandon Guyer type, could get it done? Scott will be making somewhere around 6-6.5 mill in 2011, making him a solid value to us, especially with his ability to be our stopgap at 1B and eventually moving on to the OF, where he's still a solid value in 2012 for us.
  7. davell
    The thing to remember now though, is IF Aramis is dealt, his 2012 option becomes guananteed and he gets a million dollar assignment bonus as well. So, an extra 17 mill for one season could very well be enough to make Aramis waive his 10-5 rights. That said, Boston wouldn't give up anything close to that AND pay his salary as well.
  8. davell
    Yeah, I'm not exactly thinking they WILL spend more on player development, but I am hoping anyway.(they did at least say the overall payroll would stay about the same, making me hopeful that money would be spent in that area, along with them saying there would be a shift towards that) And yes, what they did this past year is why I'm extremely skeptical at this point of them doing it.
  9. davell
    All of the Cubs brass and acouts were at this game, so everyone was supposed to play. Obviously, Brett Jackson isn't there now, but neither was Vitters(at least not dressed). No idea as to why this would be, unless they were giving him the day off to prepare for the prospects game? But then again, Carpenter pitched in this game and will be there for that as well.
  10. davell
    I'll be beyond shocked if we give anyone more than a 3 year deal this offseason and that's only if we somehow DID land Adam Dunn. I don't see us even considering Crawford or Lee. I am absolutely completely fine if we sign Nick Johnson and he's our BIGGEST free agent acquisition, but only if it's truly apparent that it's a shift of philosophy to where we're spending big on the draft and international free agents.
  11. davell
    I don't want one either, but "acquiring starting pitcher depth" is something I've read alot about recently. I'd much rather let the youngsters battle it out for the last spot(or two)
  12. davell
    I'm definitely one of the people concerned with how Ricketts did in year one, but honestly, our major league payroll won't be dropping too much in this upcoming season, if we add a Nick Johnson, a right handed reliever and a middling starting pitcher, which is what we've heard about, to date anyway. Our current payroll is around 119 after arb raises or so and we paid out 132 last year. It's just a matter of raises to different people. If we had kept Lee, Lilly, Theriot, etc, our payroll next season probably would be in the 145-150 range or so. But, if you want to talk about direction of the team, I'm worried until I actually see them putting lots of money back into player development, which they've trumpeted doing, but have yet to show any signs of.
  13. davell
    If this team is seriously thinking about Nick Johnson for 1B, I don't think there will be any big spending in the offseason. Bingo.
  14. davell
    I kind of doubt Sanchez makes any lists honestly. He didn't get a mill+ type bonus anyway and it at least appears to me that most guys who don't get those extreme high end bonuses, get left off of most prospect lists, unless the system is very weak. Not to mention, with as little info that is out there on him, I wouldn't think most would rank him anyway. Last year, Contreras received supposedly about the same bonus, maybe even a little more possibly, and didn't show up at all on any lists. Plus, not many guys get ranked even AFTER playing a season in the DSL, much less before they play there, and I feel pretty certain that's where Sanchez is next season.
  15. davell
    AZPhil made it sound like Hill WOULD be non-tendered most likely, but be given a NRI to camp and if he makes the team, he'd basically get the same 700,000 or so he made last year. it's still really unlikely that they'll keep four catchers on the 40 man. The two "kids" would have to play poorly enough for one of them to be outrighted for Hill to make the roster, in all likelihood. Oh, I agree. Just saying that it's definitely possible we won't be rid of Koyie Hill once things are settled. I could see the Cubs still taking him over Castillo or Chirinos unless one of them is on fire in the spring, no matter how bad Hill is.
  16. davell
    AZPhil made it sound like Hill WOULD be non-tendered most likely, but be given a NRI to camp and if he makes the team, he'd basically get the same 700,000 or so he made last year.
  17. davell
    It's what I think they'll do, not what I'd do at least. But, I figure they'll go get a 4th OFer as insurance for Colvin, after they trade away Fukudome.(again, not something I condone). As far as the reliever goes, while I wouldn't necessarily want to spend alot on anyone, if Cashner is somehow put into the rotation, we don't have anyone I feel comfortable with as a setup type guy, other than Marshall. Carpenter or Jay Jackson would probably be the 2 guys I'd think could grow into it, but I wouldn't mind adding a decent reliever honestly. Which I think may be possible, without spending tons of money on it for a change. You've got tons of type B free agents out there, that won't cost us a pick to sign and if you wait long enough(instead of setting the market for them, as JH loves to do) someone could easily slip thru the cracks. Between Durbin, Benoit, Balfour(type A) Crain, Frasor(type A) Guerrier(type A) Uehara, Contreras(on a one year deal) Mota(one year deal) Putz, and Rauch, surely someone could be had on a short term deal that wouldn't be a Grabow, Howry, Eyre type of deal for us in the long run. If we keep Cashner in the pen though, I agree completely that spending money on the pen is a complete waste at that point.
  18. davell
    What we wound up paying out last season was right at 132.5 mill and after arb raises and minimum salary guys, our 2011 payroll looks to be around 119 as of now. I expect us to add a solid 1B(hopefully Dunn), a solid reliever, a project/injury scrap starting pitcher and maybe a 4th OFer type. To do that, I also suspect Fukudome will be dumped for as much salary relief as we can get.
  19. davell
    Not the worst contract in the world, but with the Ricketts saying payroll will be decreasing, I wouldn't expect to see any further upgrades this off-season. I thought I had read that payroll would be staying about the same. Same here. I know he definitely said it wouldn't be increasing much if at all, but I don't think he said anything about them making significant cutbacks in salary. With Lee and Lilly off the books there's plenty of room for Dunn's possible contract Actually, what he mentioned was that while overall baseball payroll would likely remain about the same, there would likely be more money allotted towards scouting and player development. Meaning that the major league payroll could actually take a slight dip. Of course, Piniella's 4 mill a year comes off the books as well and according to Levine, Quade is making 800,000-900,000 this upcoming season supposedly, so hopefully that's another 3 mill or so that can go towards something else.
  20. davell
    I'm starting to think the Rangers could be a sleeping giant after all of this. They're in a large market and I could see them kind of taking off like the Mavericks did in basketball. I definitely think that they'll be the favorites to wind up with Lee once the offseason free agency dust settles and with their core of young guys, I could see them becoming perennial contenders, moving their payroll up a ton and drawing in many new fans in the process. Ryan and his group picked a great time to buy this team.
  21. davell
    Another way to look at it is Lopez is my guy and Wells is yours. :D Both of us are counting on lots of projection here(although I do think I'm quite a bit higher on Wells, than you are on Lopez,). That being said, listening to you and reading some more on Wells, has me thinking I may have him a tad low myself anyway. :D The cool thing though, is that our system actually has a decent amount of young arms in the lower levels we can dream on for a while with Reed, Simpson, and Kim also being in the mix.
  22. davell
    For me, I think it's basically the age thing. Cabrera is 2.5 years older than him and has really only had success at A+ ball to date. I guess I'm looking at it like this: Lopez' curve and change have 2.5 years to reach the level of Cabrera's slider. Which means I'm expecting over that 2.5 year time frame, he'll feel comfortable throwing the change and his curve will become more consistent, which is obviously a risky thing for me to expect. Personally, I'm not saying Cabrera doesn't have the same talent(or maybe even more) than Lopez, but with age being a factor, I'm betting that Lopez has the better chance to realize that potential.
  23. davell
    Fukudome has been solid for us as far as I'm concerned, but I do remember thinking back when we signed him, he was going to be more of a middle of the order type hitter. Rightly or wrongly, I can justify spending more on that type than I can a top of the order type guy, which I consider Fukudome to be. Is he overpaid? Hell, I don't even know, but I did expect a slightly different ballplayer than what we go anyway. And I think the Cubs did as well.
  24. davell
    Toonster, I see your post at Sickels' site asking about Lopez.......The reason I put him this high is because of his age(19), his fastball hitting 96MPH and the fact that he has the ability to throw his change and curve for plus pitches eventually. Scoutingthesally was very high on him, as was BA last year. What separates him from guys like Dolis and Cabrera to me anyway, is the fact that he is still extremely young, thus, in my case, holding out more hope it all comes together. To me, his struggles in the second half of the season may have been due to him getting tired. On the other hand, in my opinion, Dolis and Cabrera have been around long enough to show more warts basically. If Lopez falters this next season somewhat, the "magic" prospect status that I hold out for him will dry up quite a bit. I guess I look at guys like him and Golden as extremely high ceiling guys that until they give me reason to doubt them, I'm going to rank them very highly.
  25. davell
    The reason I have Simpson so low IS because as much as I want to believe this wasn't a signability pick, the fact he signed quickly for 500,000 UNDER slot keeps me thinking that it likely was. Thing is, we will never know, in all likelihood, unless Wilken keaves the Cubs in a huff and blurts it out or something like that. The mono issue certainly didn't help my thinking either, especially considering how long he's been out with it as of now. If he had pitched in Instructs and did well, I possibly would have had him in my top 10. Obviously, I want to be proven wrong on him. On a side note, I'm more encouraged with Carpenter after reading you guys' reports on him. I was almost positive I read recently that he just doesn't have much movement whatsoever. Maybe I misread or mistook him for someone else.
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