davell

Things could get very interesting in the next few weeks, because Aramis is definitely dealable at this point.

He played 3rd during his debut. My guess is it's just a snafu on the website.

I agree with this. It wouldn't surprise me if we were after Brignac from them either. With Hendry having said something to the affect of "any trade we make will have designs on next season, I could see Brignac, Rodriguez, or Navarro being guys we'd target. Personally, I think Brignac would be a great haul for Lilly, but others may disagree......I'd take McGee or Moore in a heartbeat, if they were made available though.

They've probably left for Anaheim since they're playing in the Futures Game tomorrow. Yeah, didn't even think about that...... On a side note, where in the world is Hayden Simpson? I had read he had been sick and that was why he hadn't been assigned anywhere yet, but that seems to have been a few weeks ago. Just curious, but I certainly had expected to see him debut by now. Heck, even Dustin Geiger made his debut tonight for Arizona......

Nice outing for Jay.......6IP 4H 0R 1W 5K Brett and Lee didn't play tonight. Vitters went 0-6 with 3K's.

Nobody's going to be interested in a lefty with a 4.08 ERA and 1.15 WHIP? He needs to have a couple of good starts to have a real shot at a really nice return, but there's going to be interest in him (already is from the Mets). Agreed. What better SP is available other than Oswalt, who apparently doesn't want to go to many of the teams that could use him. Haren. If he's available anyway. But even if he is, there's around ten teams supposedly looking at starting pitching and Lilly is definitely next on the list, after those two. I'm not worried if a team will take him whatsoever. That said, he's got 3 more starts between now and the deadline. I'd REALLY like to see him pitch well in each of them, so we can maximize the return. He's got added value as well, since he's going to be a type A and with the scarcity of pitching on the market next year, he's assured of getting more than a one year deal barring injury.......

I'm not seeing him in the boxscore. Szczur DHed for Mesa and went 1/2 with a walk and a SB. Are you looking at Boise's box score possibly and not Mesa's?

Austin Reed pitched 2 innings tonight, giving up a hit and a walk and striking out 4. :D

I'm wondering who "multiple sources" are personally......I actually thought that this WOULD stay a secret until the announcement........I guess we can hope on until it's confirmed somewhere though.

Aramis has 18 games to get his trade value up? Is it possible?

I think that Flores would be too ambitious, even if we were paying Lilly's salary possibly. But, I'd be interested in Ruben Tejada or Reese Havens as an eventual 2B option. I'd also be interested in buying low on Brad Holt. I wouldn't mind getting a 1B prospect either, Nick Evans or preferrably Eric Campbell. Someone like Holt and one of those guys would be a decent haul for Lilly, if you ask me.

I'm not sure Lebron can win here, in the public eye, at least. With this dramatic, all about me and my decision thing he's got going tomorrow, he's going to piss off a ton of people, no matter what he does honestly. My initial thinking is he wouldn't leave Cleveland THIS way, but maybe the charity thing is his last favor for Cleveland, in his eyes.......But if he leaves, they will be pissed beyond belief, probably as much as when Modell left town in the middle of the night to Baltimore. If he DOES choose Cleveland, then everyone else is pissed because he didn't choose their team. Basically, I'm not sure how he wins, at least as far as publicity goes. He has said this is all about winning though, so I don't think Cleveland is in the driver's seat, because I think you can make the case that each and every team's roster that interviewed him is better than Cleveland's(even the Clippers once you add in Griffin) right now, assuming Lebron isn't on any of them. I don't think Lebron is a win at all costs type personally. I don't think he has the fire in him that Jordan did or Kobe does now. If I'm handicapping this thing right now by percentages, I'm going like this: Miami-30% Cleveland-25% New York-20% Chicago-15% New Jersey-10% Clippers-nada I think that he THINKS if he goes to Miami and wins it'll still be considered "his" championship and not Wade's. I'm not so sure personally that it would be the case and I'm also not so sure that you can add enough pieces around them to make them a true title contender for at least a couple of seasons. I can certainly see Cleveland pulling at his heart and him just not being able to leave there in the end. But, I don't see them in the driver's seat and I still see them as being the 3rd best team in the east, if they DO keep him. New York is New York and the bright lights can certainly sway him. Once again, if they get him, they'd still need to find a way to get Tony Parker or some other capable PG, if they're going to contend. But, if they can do that, then they have a legit shot and have one soon. Bulls are a contender if they get him. Immediately. But, when all is said and done, I don't think Lebron wants to have to follow Mike. I just don't think it's in his personality. i really hope I'm wrong here. The Nets would be close if they got him and J-Z and Prokhorov make for a dynamic team that probably really planted a seed during their meeting. But, they haven't lured anyone else, to this point, and that's why I've got them this low. I'm not sure why the Clips even tried. Lebron wouldn't want to share Staples with Kobe, under any seeable circumstance, if you ask me. Although, I actually kind of like a starting 5 of Kaman/Griffin/James/Gordon/Davis......I'm not sure they'd be contenders immediately, but you could see where they could see gains in some of their players and become better by the time the Lakers are fizzling out. I just don't see Lebron wanting to wait it out though. Not to mention, they're the Clippers, which was probably all I really needed to say anyway.

I really don't think we have much of a shot with Wade, even with the custody battle. I can't see him leaving 30 mill on the table to play at home, especially with the divorce situation. Hell, he can spin it and say it's BETTER for his kids if he STAYS in Miami, because of the extra money involved. This, in turn, probably means we don't have much of a shot with Bosh either, unless Lebron actually decides to play here. And even then, I'm not sure we can get Bosh from Toronto without giving up Noah. My guesses on where these guys wind up are as follows and I really hope I'm completely wrong, but I think all these guys will wind up going for the absolute most money they can possibly get, in the end...... Lebron-Cleveland Wade- Miami Bosh- Houston Boozer- Miami Lee- San Antonio(sign and trade for Parker) I'm praying we don't get shut out of this mess and I am certainly a pessimist, but I think this is a very real possibility......

I think we'll need an entire season of Silva continuing what he's done to date, for us to get out from underneath his contract. If we trade him after the season is over, we're only on the hook for 6 mill next year and a 2 mill buyout after that. If he keeps this up, he'll definitely be tradeable and we may actually see some sort of decent return as well.

Not a whole lot of positives tonight, but Austin Reed made his minor league debut for Arizone tonight and struck out the side in his only inning of work, so there's that anyway.

If I had to make a guess on what Colvin eventually becomes, this is what I'd say: Over the course of a season, he'll probably hit around .270ish or so. He won't be walking much, so maybe a .315ish OBP to with 20ish to 25 homers, if he got an entire season's worth of at bats. I would also expect him to be VERY streaky in the process. To me, this is not a longterm starter on a major market team honestly. Of course, it's too early to know for sure......So, if he somehow played his way into a regular spot next season, to the point where we were CONVINCED(and I'm not sure there is a way for him to do that this year) he was a solid, longtime fixture in our lineup, what to do with our OF at that point, with Brett Jackson soon to be ready....... Couple of choices right now and I don't really like any of them personally. Byrd can play any of the OF spots and so can Colvin, so they do give you some flexibility that way, which is a good thing. That said, given our current team setup, the options to me are to move either Colvin or Soriano to 1B, play the other one in LF with Jackson in CF and Byrd in RF.(Colvin could play RF and Byrd LF too, I suppose) Needless to say, I don't like these choices and don't know that maybe signing a 1B and just using a 4-Man OF isn't a better option than this. Personally, I want to sell as high as possible. And in order to do this, I think he'll have to keep doing what he's doing all season. I'd much rather trade Colvin with Vitters and whatever we get for our future Ted Lilly trade to try to get AGon myself. Sell high on Colvin while we can and while there are probably still a ton of doubters of him, if he can exprapolate his current production into a full season, this IS be our best case scenario for him.

I kind of agree with all of this actually. I'd just add that I'd hire someone other than Sandberg to be our next manager.

For anyone that doesn't at least check out minorleagueball.com, Frankie Piliere(former scout and current baseball writer) stopped by to answer a few questions regarding his most recent top 25 list. Which does NOT have Brett Jackson on it, but DOES have Hak Ju Lee sitting at number 23.(Jackson was among his final cuts) He answers a few questions about Lee in the fanposts section too. Pretty interesting stuff.

Or they attempt to get another OF on a short term deal after Kosuke is ideally traded and let Colvin go back to the minors. My prediction on our OF situation for 2011: Fukudome traded away in offseason, Soriano in LF, Byrd in CF, and Colvin in RF to start the year. By June, our starting OF will be Soriano in LF, Brett Jackson in CF and Marlon Byrd in RF with Colvin settled in as a solid 4th OFer, where he will likely remain for his career as a Cub.

Yeah, as much as I'm liking what Colvin has done to this point, I don't consider him a "build around guy". We may as well give him this year and next to show us what he's got though. Also, I think Lilly can bring us a very solid return at this point. By that, I mean a borderline top 100ish type and 1-2 guys who are at least in their teams top 30 lists.

B Jackson isn't playing today. McNutt had a very nice outing: 5.2 IP 4H 1R 1ER 1W 6K

I wasn't thinking about that when I posted earlier, but I like Wilken enough to where I'd keep Hendry around for another year, just tie his hands from making FA signings, to insure we don't lose Wilken. Who evidently IS extremely tight with Hendry, at the very least. In a perfect world, I'd drop Hendry and keep Wilken, if it's actually just that easy of a decision.

I want Hendry and Lou both gone ASAP. That said, part of me does at least wonder if the Trib telling Hendry to win now at all costs(supposedly anyway) doesn't have something to do with the predicament that he's currently in. Oh well, nice guy, but time for a change.

Well, I have to think Sanchez must have been cleared of the steroid/age issues because a lot of teams are waiting for Dominicans to be cleared by MLB's investigations before they sign. Yeah, I was trying to say that about the Central American signees in general and that it's definitely possible to wind up with some issues, as it just seems very corrupt. But, I agree that Sanchez and anyone else who actually signed today have probably been cleared. In the end though, it's a necessary risk to spend some cash down there. Like I said, I hope we sign a few more guys to decent bonuses personally.

Great to see us make a signing on the first day. Not a whole lot happened today actually, as far as big name signings anyway. It's definitely a risk with all the roids and the age issues, but I still hope we make our presence known down in Central America and keep up the Pac Rim signings as well.