davell

Grabow's contract is backloaded. He makes 2.7 mill this and 4.8 mill next year. There's zero chance we DFA him this year, if you ask me. Personally, I'm targeting mid-June of NEXT year as to when he's DFA'd. And then he'll catch on with someone else for the minimum and pitch fairly decently for the rest of the year, in all likelihood.

I certainly want to see Cashner as a starter, but at least instead of the assinine moves where he and Jackson were having to "prove" themselves able to pitch out of the pen, at least they're going ahead and bringing him up. Conceivably, he COULD get 50ish innings over the rest of the year out of the pen, putting him over 100 again anyway. And I have hope that once they fall out of the race, they'll trade Lilly and stretch him back out again, to where he could get to 120ish or so. I doubt it happens and I don't want to see him going back and forth, but I really, really want to see him and Jackson in our rotation next season and this scenario may be the only way we could see that happen.

McNutt's final line: 5IP 4H 1R 1ER 1BB 6K I'm hoping he gets moved to Daytona soon.

Unless Gorzelanny is dealt, my guess is Grabow to the DL, Guzman to the 60 Day(that hasn't happened yet, right?) and Cashner brought up. If Gorzelanny IS dealt, I think it's going to have to be for guys who are not on the 40 man roster. We don't have the spots available, assuming we're going to add Cashner to it, as it is.

Definitely a class move by Dempster. That said, I'm GLAD that the money looks like it's already spent, since trading for another reliever just isn't what this team needs. I'm hoping Ricketts doesn't want to spend on this year's team and lets go of everyone available to let go of in the offseason as well.

Ha was raking down in EXST, so he'll be someone to keep an eye on.

Someone mentioned it in yesterday's game thread, but this is totally a move of a desperate team, searching for quick fixes. Hendry and Lou are trying to find ANYONE to lock down the damn 8th inning(because Sean Marshall OBVIOUSLY sucks) and doing it at the expense of Jackson and Cashner, because neither of them are going to be around here to see the eventual possible ramifications. Don't get me wrong, both of these guys are young and if they were brought to the majors and put in the pen, it wouldn't be the end of the world, as they could both have their shots at the rotation next spring, but that's not what's going on here. They're being AUDITIONED for roles in the major league pen and having their routines messed up because of it. If you're going to do it, just bring them on up. And if you do, be prepared to keep them up and in the same damn role you brought them up for, for the rest of the year. This isn't Jeff Stevens, Esmailin Caridad, or Justin Berg here, these are two VERY legit prospects that theoretically can be your damn 1 and 2 starters within 2-3 years. They deserve better treatment than this crap. Hendry and Lou created this damn mess to begin with, live with the consequences now fellas. It's needless to jerk these guys around during the middle of the season. Especially after they've seen what it did(along with a lack of talent) to Shark. And what makes this even more mind-numbingly stupid is the fact that Blake Parker and John Gaub ARE ON THE 40 MAN and sitting down in AAA without ever getting their shot.(yes, Gaub is yet another lefty and I understand we don't need another one right now, although that just brings me to yet another point, of why not just move freaking Silva to the pen, since it's obviously a flat-out necessity to bring Z back) Not to mention the fact that Thomas Diamond has pitched great this year and if anyone was going to be moved to the pen, it seems like he'd be the perfect choice, due to his former arm issues to begin with. I really hope Ricketts looks long and hard this offseason at EVERYONE from top to bottom in this organization and holds them accountable. Because if he does, there are going to be very few people left standing.

Pathetic. But I wish like hell I could say I'm stunned by the move. It's hard to pull for this damn organization, as Truffle just said.

That was his final line. I think I'm pretty much ready to see him in Daytona and possibly even Rusin in Tennessee.

Kyler Burke with a 3 run homer, his 3rd in his last 6 games. It'd be great if this is the start of his turnaround.

After Cashner and Jay Jackson, McNutt probably has put himself right there with Carpenter, Rhee, and Archer, at least for me.

The market has changed over the last few seasons as far as trading goes. I think some of you will be surprised what Oswalt brings in return. With the money he's owed, it eliminates quite a few teams from even looking his way. And I don't see the Astros sending money in the deal either, so they won't be maximizing their return. I think they get something in the middle of the package it took to land Peavy and the one that it took to land Cliff Lee.

I think the book on Castillo defensively is he has a great arm, but is lazy behind the plate.

I thought the thumb thing had been going on for around a week now?

As much as I DO NOT want to see the Cubs put Cashner in the pen, Toonster just made a great point. How many innings are the Cubs going to give Cashner this year? He pitched 100 last year and unless I'm mistaken, he's never hit that many before. (Since high school anyway). He's at 55 innings right now. Maybe the optimal thing to do is let him pitch through July in the rotation at Iowa, possibly getting him up to the 100-110 inning range, maybe even a tad higher than that. Then, bring him to the majors in the pen, to where we keep his innings at a manageable level? Maybe he winds up the year at 150 or so that way? I'm not sure how much over that, I'd feel comfortable with, although his pitch counts have been very reasonable to date..... Like I said, I want him in the rotation. But, how many innings do we feel comfortable putting on his arm this year? I normally wouldn't be THIS cautious with someone, but considering his max has been 100, I figure it's a topic we could discuss.

By the way, Antigua has had a couple of bad outings in a row. Hope he gets it going soon. I had hopes of him reaching Daytona this season. Juan Yasser Serrano made his EXST debut today, pitching a 1-2-3 inning. AZPhil thinks once he builds his arm strength up, he'll head to Daytona.

With the work that they've done with Cashner already to get his arm strength built up to this point, I really find it hard to believe they'll put him in the bullpen this year, especially after seeing how Shark has done after being yo-yoed around. Granted, Cashner has more talent in his right pinky than Shark does in his right arm, but still....... I think the fact that they moved Jay Jackson to the pen is pretty telling as well, at least for this year.

I think Barney is a solid defender, but not good enough to move Castro off SS, by any means. Using him as a backup 2B/SS is probably the most prudent thing for us to do with him. And whether we lose Theriot's contract, or Fontenot and Baker's in the process, it at least could save us some money that could go elsewhere.

Could he not start putting together some Theriot years for the Cubs starting next year as a replacement for Theriot? If it saves a few million, why not? Yeah, I guess so actually. It'd probably be smart for us to at least give him a shot at 2B next year, because conceivably it could save us 4-5 mill that we could spend somewhere else. That said, has he EVER played 2B anywhere? I'd figure he could probably make the transition, but who knows?

Very solid day in the minors. Glad to see Vitters off to a very solid start in Tennessee and happy Brett finally hit a dinger. I'm guessing he'll be moved up fairly soon anyway. Hope Burke can translate this into a prolonged hot streak. Glad to see Lee starting to hit down in Peoria, although the article on him the other day was enough to keep me extremely happy about him. Raley's control issues were something I didn't expect honestly. As for the unsung crowd of Campana, Coleman, and Barney: I agree that Campana probably will never get a shot with us. Probably not even as a 4th OFer type. If anything, maybe he's a 5th OFer/pinch runner and gets some time once the rosters are expanded in a future playoff push? If not, my guess is we trade him off to a small market team, where he MAY get a shot at some point. Darwin Barney is a guy that when we inevitably trade him, I hope we at least get something fairly useful for. I see him having a long major league career. He's definitely not flashy and may or may not ever be a true starter for anyone, but he at least has the ability to put together a few "Theriot" years as well. Just won't be for us obviously. Finally, Casey Coleman has done nothing since we drafted him, other than pitch very solidly. I think the Cubs are probably HIGHER on him than what we would assume, based on BA rankings and other lists. I definitely agree with BA on him, which said there's a very high chance he reaches his upside as a 4/5 starter.

Well, they're only paying the pro-rated amount of the league minimum for him, so if he does suck, like we expect, it won't be all that hard for us to release him, at least. My guess is Grabow goes on the DL and we move Guzman to the 60 Day to clear a roster spot for him.

There was a blurb about Colvin in the BA Handbook that kind of stood out to me. It basically said the Cubs are high on him, but other teams don't see what the Cubs do in him. Obviously, this happens alot with players, but I wouldn't think a hot spring training and a small sample size of major league at bats will have changed any teams opinions on him. Basically, I'd keep him. He has more value to us as a 4th OFer that can play all 3 positions than whatever we can get for him, in all likelihood.

Why would you want that at all? Jay Jackson in the major league bullpen is better than Jay Jackson in the AAA bullpen. He's already relieving, might as well get something out of it. My thoughts exactly. If hes going to be in the minor league pen, call him up to the majors and put him in the pen instead of signing guys like Bob Howry Yeah, that was my thinking as well. I'm not a fan of putting him in the pen, but he's blocked right now as far as the rotation is concerned, so since they've put him in the pen down in AAA, might as well give him his shot at the major league level. It's not like a young guy can't spend some time in the pen and still end up as a starter eventually.(although trusting the Cubs to do this correctly is iffy) I'd even let Blake Parker get a shot before going out and signing someone like Howry. And that's knowing that it's not like we're paying Howry any real money and can cut him at any point.

Signing Howry instead of bringing up Jay Jackson is Cubs management at their finest.

I honestly don't think Z is tradeable right now unless we take on a bad contract in return. And if we do that, it's doubtful we could find someone with the upside Z has. Who at least has the ability to be a frontline starter. On the other hand though, if Z pieces together some solid outings between now and the deadline and we fall out of contention, it is POSSIBLE some team would be desperate enough to take him on, although I doubt we'd receive much in return, even at that point. Just salary relief.