davell

Z IS WHO WE THOUGHT HE WAS!!!!!!!!!AND THEN WE PUT HIM IN THE PEN!!!!!!! (If Denny Green is a Cub fan, this had to have been said by him at some point this year)

Like someone else just said, I expect Colletti to make matters worse and offer him arbitration, since it didn't work out for him this season. I also expect the Dodgers to keep Lilly personally, most likely on a 3 year deal at around 10 mill per or so. If I were a Dodger fan, I'd actually be much more upset that they gave up McDonald and Lambo for a month and a half of Octavio Dotel. They're only getting a PTBNL back for him at this point and since it's came out the Rockies aren't planning on exercising his option next year, my guess is the PTBNL can't be much of a return.

Wallace isn't the type guy a major market team needs to be going after, at least during the offseason. If we find ourselves sellers again next deadline, then going after a Wallace or someone else seems more plausible. They can then spend the rest of the season giving that player a tryout and monitor if they think he's an eventual answer for them. The Cubs should be going after much more of a sure thing, if they're going to try and put a contender on the field to start off the season. (which it appears they're going to try and do.) Billy Butler may be the only option out there for us this year in the trade market, assuming the Brewers won't want to deal Fielder to a rival and San Diego is serious about not putting A-Gon on the market this offseason. My guess is if we don't get Dunn, Aubrey Huff and Carlos Pena are options 2 and 3 for us.

I'm not of the opinion that anyone is talking about Simpson here. He could turn out to be the best player to come out of the entire draft for all we know.(although the mono situation is getting to be troublesome, since he's still not recovered and missing Instructs) But, what I am complaining about is the lack of money spent AFTER that pick. If a team is truly committed to building thru the draft, it makes sense that they would eventually take chances on some overslots later on during the draft. The draft is definitely a crapshoot but it makes sense that you'd spend money like a big market team should be doing, if they're truly committed to building thru it. It just enhances your chances is all, especially with a guy like Wilken, who seems like a very solid judge of talent. Bruce asked Ricketts about this exact thing and here was his quote in today's Daily Herald....." We don't get into how much we spend in any one department but there's no question we're committed to player development and not just signings of the organization." Sorry, but that's saying nothing at all. And I expect more from a guy who said we finally have someone who can give us answers, instead of the Trib. And no, I don't expect anyone to come out and say something to the affect of " We've got 10 mill to spend on this for the upcoming season." But, I do expect more of an answer than what Ricketts said to Bruce. As I've said previously, hopefully this was just because the Cubs didn't see the necessary talent in this past draft or in the international market. Hell, there's STILL plenty of guys available that money could be spent on actually. But, when the Red Sox(who Ricketts says he wants to model our organization after) spend more than double what we did this past draft, it's a cause for concern, if you ask me. It shows one team's commitment to this and makes me question the other's. And unfortunately, we are the one I'm questioning here.

Ricketts said in his initial press conference that profits would go back into the team. So, if payroll is going to be lowered this upcoming season after being profitable, where's the money going? It hasn't gone into the draft or international signings obviously this past season anyway. Nor, did it go towards improving the big league club. I understand completely that he SHOULD make money off an investment like this, but don't say the money's going back into the team, if it's not going to do so. I'm unaware of what projects he may have going on inside the stadium and around it, but is THAT where alot of money is going right now? In the end, he shouldn't have said anything remotely close to that, as it's just overpromising and underdelivering as far as I can tell. Amd without knowing anything for sure, if you read into things, it kind of sounds like at least some ticket prices will be going up too, since he certainly didn't say anything to deny it. This is a different time to be a Cub fan than it was in the 80's, when he was falling in love with his wife and getting drunk in the bleachers every game. We're a major market team and expectations are different at this point. Wrigley is a drawing card, but there will be a point where it's not enough. You can't charge as much as anyone in baseball does and not put a solid product out on the field and expect people to show up continuously. If year one of the Ricketts regime winds down with a horrible major league team, raised ticket prices, nothing major done to fix the team on the major league level and nothing major done to revamp the farm system, he's going to start running the risk of major fan backlash relatively soon. Because trotting Sandberg out there(if it happens) isn't going to appease the fans after mid May or so when the Cubs are faltering again. And yes, I know it takes time to build an organization from top to bottom. But, after a year, I'd like to see SOMETHING that could be considered a positive coming from Ricketts. I don't think that 's too much to ask. But, at this point, I'm not seeing anything that's a positive that can be construed as something Ricketts has done. Because he can't take credit for the youngsters that appear to be the future building blocks of the team, because they were there before he was. I really hope I'm wrong, but I do think it's already time to start wondering where this family is trying to take the Cubs organization.

I'm not a huge fan of Girardi to begin with, but I don't see him leaving the Yankees to take over the Cubs in THIS situation. He'd be leaving a team that has the financial capability to do basically whatever it wants to do, as far as rosters go, to take over a team that's hamstrung for the most part currently and is waiting on some young talent to mature before being able to even think about having anything close to the talent the Yankees have right now.

Not sure whether either of them would be at instructs anyway this year, but did we ever find out the extent of Antigua and Jung's arm injuries at the end of the season?

According to Muskat, while Brenly said THIS JOB isn't the right fit, he may talk to other teams.

Jin-Yeoung Kim made his debut today, striking out 3 and giving up a double in 2 innings of work. 3 groundouts and no flyouts from him. He mixed in a 91 MPH 2 seamer with a curve and a changeup in throwing 20 strikes out of 28 pitches.

Brenly's "dead ass team" comment back in August was one of the funnier moments of the season anyway.

I'll wait until we hear some sort of news from AZPhil on any of the Dominican League guys, but right now Marco Hernandez, Gioskar Amaya, Delbis Arcila, Willson Contreras and Oliver Zapata all hold quite a bit of intrigue with me. All of them are young and all of them seem to have something going for them. Whether it's Arcila's size, Hernandez and Amaya's production, Contreras' signing bonus, or Zapata's power coming from a very small package, they all make me want to hear alot more about them.......

I'll take a stab and say LeMahieu starts hitting for some power over the next season and becomes our next Mark DeRosa type guy as soon as 2012. Not sure what the main thing they are working on with Robinson Lopez, but he definitely could have a breakout next season.

Probably so. Or maybe he's got the inside track on another job possibly?

Top 10 picks in the first round are protected, correct? Meaning the Cubs would not have to forfeit the pick as compensation if they sign a highly regarded free agent? Top 15 picks are protected if one of those teams sign a type A free agent. This upcoming season, there will actually be 18 picks protected, due to the Diamondbacks, Padres, and Brewers failing to sign their 2010 1st round picks.

From most indications, it appears that Dunn WANTS to stay in Washington. If they won't ante up and give him 3 or probably 4 years, then I'd say we have a great shot at him, but it seems like Washington wants to spend some money for once. It won't shock me to see them keep Dunn and make a big play for Crawford as well. If we don't get Dunn, I think Huff is most likely our 1B next year personally.

Ricketts came out Thursday and said the Cubs were a poitive cash flow team this year and basically met their finiancial expectations. He said if there were a better team on the field, maybe they would have done a bit better on the business side. Could mean nothing at all honestly, but MAYBE the early reports of dropping the payroll down a bit were premature? I don't think they even get into these type of things until the organizational meetings after the season is over anyway, but I guess this could be construed as a sign that the Cubs will have some cash to spend this offseason?

Saw we were one of nine teams who watched him throw yesterday. I'm still hopeful we make another signing that requires a solid signing bonus, so it's good to see us keeping tabs on him anyway. Plus, there seems to be quite a few Central American players that haven't signed yet as well. I don't even think Peguero has signed yet, has he?

While I wouldn't mind having Nady back as a bat off the bench, I don't see him accepting that honestly. He'll find a fulltime gig somewhere on a one year deal and try to up his value that way, to eventually get one last decent payday. If we miss out on Dunn, I bet our options 2 and 3 are Pena and Huff anyway.

With guys like Contreras, Amaya, Zapata, Hernandez, Arcila, Paulino, Peralta, and Santana making the trip over here for instructs, does this pretty much assure them of starting next season at Arizona(or possibly Boise)?

I wonder how high BA will have Reed in their top 30 for us at this point? It wouldn't surprise me to see him show up somewhere in the 18-22 range...... As for the NWL, with it being a very large(14 team league) I'd be surprised if anyone shows up for us other than Kirk and Alcantara, unless Szczur had enough plate appearances to make it. Kurcz was dominant though, so he'll have a shot too I suppose.

Oops, double post.

I don't see Z getting dealt this offseason, especially after Hendry's latest comments about him. And I'd be shocked if he retires in two years unless an unforseen injury forced him to to do so.

Yes, that's EXACTLY what I meant....... Do you want Dempster and Fukudome on this team when they are 35? How about Aramis at 34? Z at 31? The way to rebuild this team is by saving money at THAT point and putting guys around the cheap productive players we have at that point. If you really want to keep a couple of these guys, they could be had for probably haf of their current contracts at that point. Which still would conceivably give the Cubs plenty of money to go out and sign some difference makers as well. The bottom line for me is short of spending tons of money this offseason or next, I don't see us as a contender.(and I son't see Ricketts doing that) Of course, the Cubs won't go the total rebuild job either, so signing Dunn and a few others seems likely honestly. But, I'd love to see you show me how we become true contenders before then at the earliest.......

Why would the Cubs have to wait at least 2 seasons to rebuild? In this scenario, I don't see the Cubs throwing money around right now. If they go out and get Dunn, maybe a stopgap starting pitcher, and a bullpen arm or even two, I'd still look at them as an 80ish win team or so. But, 2 years from now, they won't have Aramis on the payroll, same with Z and even Dempster, to go along with Fukudome being gone as well. In this scenario, you'll still have Soto and DeWitt, you'll have Castro cheap, same with Brett Jackson, Cashner, Archer and McNutt. Obviously, not all of these guys will pan out, but if a few of them do, it makes it a ton easier to sign some significant free agents to go with them. I just figure that Quade could be a stopgap type for a few years in order for the Cubs to try to execute something like this. That said, it's very possible this could infuriate quite a few Cub fans in the process, depending on how Ricketts would go about it.

Quade or Sandberg? I think I see the Cubs taking Quade, making him the proverbial sacraficial lamb for the next 2 seasons or so, while we rebuild, then hand it off to Sandberg at the point we expect to be contenders again.