davell

He was listed as 16th by BA and 18th by Sickels.

While I like the trade, this comment makes me want to remind everyone of something Hendry said(and Bruce reminded everyone in his blog today) back in 2007....... "We're going to get good and then we're going to stay good." Jim Hendry during 2007

My guess is that this is meant more for where the prospects are going to be headed, not to alert anyone that Lee got dealt. My guesses would be Lorick to Daytona, Lopez to Peoria, and Harris to Tennessee. All in all, I'm pretty psyched about Lopez. He seems like he'll definitely fit somewhere in our top 30, maybe even the back end of the top 20.

I'm happy with the return. Lee is getting older and has had a bad season. Not to mention, there aren't that many teams out there in contention that are in need for a 1B to begin with. To get a 19 year old with some solid upside, a reliever who looks like he could possibly contribute in the majors by 2012 at the latest, a lefty who has good stats albeit old for his level, AND save at least SOME money in the process for 5 weeks of D-Lee? I'm thinking Hendry did a solid job on this one.

I read that Lee is only expected to be a Type B FA anyways. That figures he would be a "B". The Braves now could be looking at a late first round sandwich compensation pick if Lee leaves ATL as a free agent and he is indeed a "B". They still have to offer him arbitration to get the pick, which won't happen. No team is baseball would be willing to give Lee over 10 mill on a one year deal next season.

By the way, what's the chances Lee can't pass a physical at the moment?

There's no chance the Cubs were going to risk offering Lee arbitration. He's owed around 3 mill or so for the rest of the year, so if the Braves are paying that, I'll be surprised if we even get one guy that definitely fits into our top 30 prsopects.

I want Cashner in the rotation. That said, I'll play devil's advocate for a minute. He really needs to improve his slider, locate his fastball better, and throw his changeup more. Maybe the Cubs feel he's better suited to the pen because of these things? Maybe they think Jay Jackson is better suited to be in the rotation than Cashner?(At best, I can't see more than one spot being truly up for grabs next year). Plus, with Archer and/or McNutt conceivably not being TOO far away, they just feel that Cashner is best suited at the back of the pen? As I said earlier though, I think the Cubs have messed this up too and just figure that starters are more valuable than relievers. I do have to wonder if the switch has hurt him already due to how he's struggled over the last month and a half or so.

Just curious, but since I've started to see some comments about Ricketts maybe overextending himself, what were the terms of him buying the Cubs? Anyone know? I know that it cost 900 mill and I think he put a substantial amount down to make it happen, because if I remember correctly, Utay may have had a slightly higher bid. Anyway, is this an actual concern already? That we're overextended and will be going cheap? They are spending money already on and around the stadium, correct? I've had issues with what's been done in year one as far as the farm has gone, but I didn't actually figure it was because we don't have the money to do anything.

How about Chris Heisey as a comp for Guyer?

I guess I look at this a little differently. It's not 30 mill that's guaranteed to him(unless we trade him obviously it vests). I would have thought Aramis would have waived the player option in 2012 to play for a team that has a better chance at winning now than what we do. Because in all likelihood, we aren't going to give him that option anyway, come 2012. He'll get his 14.6 next year from us, or whoever had conceivably traded for him, along with the 2 mill buyout. I don't see why the club option would matter all that to him, if it looked like we wouldn't pick it up anyway. I would think having a chance to win would trump playing here for a very average, if not worse team, next season.

How is that number figured? If I add up just what we signed out of the top 10 rounds, counting Szczur at 600,000(I know, he's got to commit before that becomes offical, but still) we're at 3.8 and some change. Once you add in the rest of what we signed, I figure we spent 5 mill, maybe a tad more......But, I have looked at what BA uses as a team's draft budget from year to year and it's always off from what the numbers add up to, if added individually too. Anyone know how these numbers are tabulated?

Some solid pitching outings today anyway with Antigua, Reed, and Serrano all evidently looking great. Not much on the hitting side other than Ha giving a 3-4 day. Same with LeMahieu, who has quietly upped his BA to .313 somehow. Of course, there is literally zero power coming with it, so I don't guess he's projecting as anything other than a backup middle infielder at this point. But, I guess the power can still come on a little later for him.

Very happy with the Wells signing, but in all honesty, if I look at it, all they did was give him the rest of the slot money that Simpson didn't get from his first round deal. It's been reported that Rhoderick was going to make 125,000, so it's not like that's some massive overslot obviously. Harman probably cost them some money, but he certainly didn't break the bank. No idea whatsoever on Smith, but unless he was some sort of surprise Logan Watkins type signing, then we didn't do much of anything, as far as I'm concerned. Missing out on Stites, crum, Harper, Brooks and Muno is borderline unacceptable, considering what we spent on this draft, if you ask me. Like I said earlier, if we don't make some sort of splashy international signing between now and the end of the year, I'm going to seriously start to question Ricketts' motives. I really hope someone takes him to task on the lack of spending in the single area where we could have helped the future of this organization this season. There was money available from trading Lilly and Theriot(and even Fontenot for that matter) and there was money supposedly available for us to be buyers at the deadline, if we were in contention as well. What happened to this money? Where was it spent? And I'm not going to buy the fact that this was a weak draft class, because of what the Red Sox, Pirates, and a few other teams did with their picks as well.

Considering they've also inked Sean Coyle to a $1.3m deal and Brandon Workman to an $800k deal today, there's a pretty good possibility of that. They also got Matthew Price today, so was an overslot in all likelihood as well. Don't know what he got though. They still have Jaffe, Duke, Ranaudo off the top of my head to go, probably more......That said, I think it's going to be hard foir them to get Ranaudo personally.

Thats basically the exact amount people thought all along it would take to get him. It wouldn't surprise me in the least to see the Red Sox spend more today than what we spent on our entire draft.

I've been keeping up with this every day for the last week actually. :lol: I think it's possible to finish anywhere from 3-9 personally. The thing I'm pulling for right now is top 4, but definitely not 7-9, since you're going to drop another spot with Arizona most likely getting the 7th pick, with the Loux thing happening the way it appears to be. The reason I'm pulling for top 4(and all this can certainly change obviously) is that you have Rendon, Purke, Cole, and Norris, who seem to me to be a cut above the rest. but, it's looking like a very talented and deep draft class, so who knows how things look come draft time......

I envision Lee and Ramirez both having solid finishes this year, which is totally useless to us obviously. In fact, all it can do is hurt our draft position and possibly knock us out of the running of a potential future franchise type player.

I want Wells signed bigtime as well. But, color me completely underwhelmed if all we do is sign him and one of Rhoderick or DeJesus. Especially since it appears as if Rhoderick is only going to be getting 125,000. If this winds up being the case AND we don't make any other splashy international signings either, I really hope someone brings this up at the Cubs Convention next year to Ricketts. This has been an awful year on the major league front to begin with, so spending on the farm would have been the best thing to do this season. And with the talk of the increased budget to begin with, I'm actually thinking that that was said, based strictly on the fact that our draft position was higher and it was a necessity to spend more anyway. If we're going to model ourselves after the Red Sox, I want to see some actual results and not just talk from here on out, as far as our farm goes. In a way, this is already reminding me of McCourt. He said the exact same thing......We're going to build from within, blah, blah, blah. And all he's done is take the inherited players they've already had in their system when he bought the team and gotten them to the majors(what ones weren't already there anyway). And in the process, spent less than any other team in baseball on the draft and international signings since he bought. The players we currently have are completely irrelevant to this equation and if Ricketts starts talking about guys already in the system and not what's going to BE in the system, I'm going to gag. I understand this was a weak draft, but there were ways to spend smartly nevertheless and it could have boosted our system up a notch or two possibly. Same with international signings.

Aramis' 2012 option of 16 mill becomes guaranteed if he's dealt. I know the Braves are in desperation mode right now, but my guess is they have some ideas to solve their issue before going this route.

I guess I'm still holding out hope we make another splashy signing or two this year. There's still quite a few of the known names still out there from what I can tell.......No idea if we're in on any of them, but with the savings from Lilly, Theriot, and Fontenot, I was hoping to see us jump in and get a guy or two.

The only thing I have read on DeJesus(and actually, I think you asked the question that got answered :D ) was that MAYBE the Cubs underestimated his college commitment......Which, in turn, could conceivably make the Cubs pay up. But, I agree, I haven't read anything to make me think he's necessarily WORTH overslotting a ton for anyway......

That would depend on the gap defensively. My honest guess is it can't be TOO much of a difference, since Castro is considered to have elite defensive potential himself. So assuming that's the case, do you switch Lee to 2B or possibly even CF? Obviously, CF isn't an option unless Brett can't get it done first.......

Rhoderick is the signing that confuses me. He supposedly signed for 125K, not a significant overslot, by any stretch, but hasn't been announced yet.

Best case scenario for Lee offensively appears to be a .300 hitting/high OBP speedster with gap power. If he DOES become that type of player, do you move Castro at that point? Assuming his defense is better than Castro's?