davell

Starlin Castro continuing to look like a future all star. Some good pitching performances from Cashner, Diamond, and Coleman. Colvin taking walks and hitting for power. That's all I care about at this point. Maybe Gorz and/or Wells pitching well enough to make them a solid trade piece over the offseason. And Geo continuing to hit. If that can be accomplished with an 0-55 record for the rest of the season, I really don't care.

At least Lake was heard from again. And Rusin had a relatively solid debut for Tennessee.

I feel pretty confident that Fukudome is going to be one of those bad contract swaps that happens near the end of spring training.

There is absolutely ZERO reason not to give Jay Jackson a couple of major league starts before the season is over.

I pulled this back up, in lieu of the move made Saturday afternoon. We should have a very interesting offseason on our hands,,,,,,, C SOTO HILL 1B 2B DEWITT FONTENOT SS CASTRO 3B RAMIREZ BAKER LF SORIANO CF BYRD RF COLVIN FUKUDOME This is what we have right now that's under contract or in arbitration for next year. I expect us to let Hill walk and play either Chirinos or Castillo as our backup C. I expect one of Baker or Fontenot to be gone, either through trade this next month or Baker could get non tendered over the offseason. Either way, I think Darwin Barney has a spot on next year's club...... I expect Fukudome to be dealt, with us either eating the contract or taking back someone else's mistake. My guess is we will eat his deal personally.....It wouldn't surprise me to see Brad Snyder make the team as a 5th OFer, while I think we will probably sign a Reed Johnson type to be our 4th. Things could get tricky if Brett Jackson appears to have a shot at making the club out of ST.I expect us to make runs at whatever big name 1B are out there, either through trade or free agency. But, I don't see Lee back with us, unless he gave us such a huge discount, it'd be almost impossible NOT to resign him, which I don't see happening. SP ZAMBRANO DEMPSTER SILVA WELLS GORZELANNY RP MARMOL MARSHALL CASHNER GRABOW SAMARDZIJA RUSSELL GUZMAN I expect Z to be dealt with us taking on a bad contract in return. Best case scenario is he somehow pitches well between now and the end of the season, to help us out some with that. Dempster has a spot locked down. Silva's health scare today has to make the Cubs pause some. My guess is Wells or Gorz could be shopped as a cheap starter as part of a deal for either a 1B or possibly an ace type, if Greinke possibly goes on the market. Either way, I expect 2 spots to be open from what we currently have......Giving some of the youngsters a shot to make the opening day rotation(probably just one will) and allowing us to add one veteran as well. I'd like to see Marmol shopped personally, but I don't see it happening. Marshall has a spot on lockdown. My guess is either Cashner or Jay Jackson gets a setup role(with the other in the rotation most likely) Unfortunately, Grabow will have a spot and Shark will too most likely, based on his contract. I'd think Russell has to be a favorite to win a role and Stevens is probably the other frontrunner, unless Guzman can make it back. If he doesn't, I guess we nontender him. Either way, we've got lots of arms down in AAA to shuttle back and forth for a spot or two in the pen and I'd like to THINK(probably not though) that Hendry won't go spend money on another arm for the pen. At any rate, if the rumors are true about Ricketts wanting to lower payroll down to the 120 range next year, things could move really slow for us this offseason. I think we'll be right at 111 or so with the guys I've got written down. Then, if you subtract maybe 10 mill or so from potential savings of dealing Z and Fukudome, we are probably going to have about 18-20 mill to spend on a 1B and a starting pitcher, along with a couple of bench spots most likely....... Of the 3 big name trade pieces I could see us going after, Fielder will be making over 10.5, as this was his 2nd arb year. AGON will be making 5.5 mill in the last year of his deal and Greinke is making 13.5 for each of the next 2 seasons......And if we decide to go after Brian Roberts again, he's making 10 for each of the next 3 seasons, for what it's worth.(I could see us going on a LEADOFF MAN hunt again.) Whether it's important or not.

For what it's worth, last year's supposed big money Dominican signee Willson Contreras is off the suspended list and played his first game yesterday for the DSL2 team.

It looks like Flaherty is starting to get hot......He's got 4 of his 6 homers over his last 6 games. I had him pretty far down on my list, since he's 24 and in A+ ball. But, if I remember correctly, he finished last season on a tear as well.

It's actually quite scary, in a way. To see fans react like that. Because you have to wonder sometimes, if moves are or are not made to help placate the majority. I know it sounds like it'd be a stupid thing to do, if you're running a company, but yesterday on MLBN, they actually mentioned that Toronto wouldn't trade John McDonald one year because of the public outcry they thought they would face from it....... And what's worse than anything, I could see the Cubs thinking cubs.com is a place to use to follow public opinion.......

Micah Gibbs better be one hell of a fielding catcher, because he makes Koyie Hill look like Bonds, Ruth, and Aaron all rolled into one at bat. Now 8-81 at Boise after 0-4 in Arizona. That's gotta be pretty damn hard to do honestly......

And Brennan Boesch.

While I don't see Lee as ever being a power hitter, I can easily turning into a high average/on base percentage guy who hits lots of doubles and has great speed......A Lee/Castro 1-2 punch at the top of the order would be very nice....... Lake is a guy we can all dream on right now. He certainly has an extremely high ceiling. But, he's also got a very long way to go to reach it. But, if this last month is any indication, he's on the right path. Going forward though, is 3B his likely position, if he does make it to the majors? Because part of me thinks he may wind up as a corner OFer, if everything pans out with Castro/Lee/Vitters......

My honest guess is that if we had wanted Lambo or McDonald, we could have had them, as I'd think Lilly was more important of an add than Dotel was......That said, I think if given the option of either package, I'd have taken the one the Pirates got honestly. But, I'll defer to Wilken and Hendry, since we don't know all of the info on these guys that they have available.....

I think it depends on HOW he's walking guys, in a way, as to what kind of prospect he is right now. Is he barely missing? Is he trying to get cute? Is he losing concentration? All of these situations sound better to me than having a Ricky Vaughn streak in him...... That said, if he does fairly decently from this point forward to the end of the season, I'll be shocked if he doesn't make BA's top 100......In fact, I honestly think he's got a better shot than Vitters right now.(and I'm not trying to start anything about Vitters) Great to see McNutt pitching extremely well tonight and same for Antigua......

Marty Lamb's an area scout for the Dodgers. It'd be hilarious if they traded one of their scouts for Dotel. :lol: Oh man, I was on that Dodger site you linked earlier and had no clue the dude was a scout...... As it stands, Lambo included in this deal could be a ridiculously good deal for the Pirates. On the other hand, he could be out of baseball next week too.

There's a chance its some dude named Marty Lamb and not Lambo.

Andrew Lambo possibly? Holy crap.

For what?!? I don't see that as a minor trade. Yeah, if he's part of a deal, they're bringing back something pretty major......

Yep.

Am I missing something here? I haven't seen Tim's midseson rankings yet......Even if Vitters is 1 on his list...... 8-) Either way, I don't see how feeling like a guy is our best prospect makes for trying to get a rise out of folks.

I didn't realize that DeWitt isn't arb eligible next year. Getting him is more valuable than I originally thought, especially since Theriot would have been non tendered.......

I like Lilly a ton, as probably just about everyone does here. But, if you look at this from a Dodger fan's perspective, they really can't be all that happy. Lilly doesn't separate himself from anyone that's currently in their rotation, even Padilla. Theriot sucks. What does this move actually do to help them, since there's no chance in hell they actually offer Lilly arb? They are 4.5 back of the wildcard right now with quite a few teams ahead of them to pass. Honestly, I'd probably be underwhelmed if I were a Dodger fan, watching Oswalt, Haren, and Lee all get dealt, wind up with Lilly(the best of the 2nd tier SP's available) and downgrade from Dewitt to Theriot.......

Which makes me wonder if Fontenot isn't dealt today as well.

I'm a tad disappointed, but it's fair. I was hoping for one of their top 10 guys somehow. Oh well. Wallach definitely moves into our top 20, maybe higher.......Not a horrible return. Now, lets see Ricketts take his "savings" and spend it on international signings immediately. Then I'd like this quite a bit more.

Wallach is Tim's kid and is a hard thrower, if I remember correctly. He was like a 2nd or 3rd rounder last year or 2008, I think......Never heard of Smit.

I'm remembering last year when we were all scared Jay Jackson was getting dealt in the Grabow/Gorz deal and then saw we gave up nothing.......I'm hoping the situation isn't reversed here.