davell

I don't see Z getting dealt. I think that IF we are even considering it, we'll stop as soon as we find out that he's not tradeable without us picking up some salary in the process and depending on how much we're picking up, we may not get much in return. I love watching Z, as he's pretty much the most entertaining guy we(or possibly any team in baseball) has. If the opportunity came up to where we could get value for him AND get out from underneath his contract, I think we'd HAVE to explore it. That said, I don't see it happening. I think we will be players for Figgins, just not sure whether we have the funds available to sign him. If not, I see us trying to trade for some "speed" we can lead off with.(unnecessary)Hudson is a possibility as well, I do feel like we will find a leadoff hitter that plays 2B, in other words. Harden, Sheets, or Bedard will most likely be a Cub next year, probably Harden. We'll do whatever we possibly can to trade Bradley, but I doubt we accomplish that ether, because at some point, we'll decide it's not worth paying all or close to it anyway, of his contract. I think we'll keep Grabow(2-6 or so), drop Heilman and Reed, DFA Miles or trade him for some other teams crappy overpaid bullpen guy and bring in some sort of C who has had starting experience in the past. (again unneccessary) Basically, I don't see much changing between now and next season. A new 2B, who can probably leadoff and maybe a different injury-prone SP than Harden. That's about it, since Soto will win the C job back and whoever we sign will be relegated to the bench.

I would love Ethier, however, if we moved Z, wed need to find another front of the rotation pitcher. Maybe John Lackey. Rumor has it the D Backs might not extend Brandon Webb, but Im not sure of the extent of his injuries. Ben Sheets and Eric Bedard are also options, but again, theres the injury history. Whether it's Harden, Bedard, Sheets, or Webb(unlikely as I still see Arizona not letting him walk even with the recent comments), I think we'll wind up with one of them.

I didn't think Z wanted to play in the AL because he couldn't hit over there? I could see him blocking a trade for that reason actually. But, Z says alot of things, so who knows what he actually means anyway.......I think the Mets or Dodgers are our best bet. We'd have to throw a ton more towards the Mets, if we were to try to get Reyes. I actually think the Mets would be more interested in Lilly than Z honestly. I don't see any chance we could pry Billingsley away from the Dodgers either. I could see a package centered around Furcal and McDonald. Or maybe even something like Z/Soto for Furcal/Martin.

The Mets hold a club option of 11 mill on Reyes for 2011.

I think we have 3 locks at this point for the BA top 100 in Vitters, Castro, and Cashner. I think Vitters will be in the top 40 or so, Castro will be top 50 and Cashner will be top 80. I had been thinking Jay Jackson was definitely getting in, but the demotion(even as well as he pitched) could hurt him. I figure him, Carpenter, and Lee are all top 150 anyway. And if we get a 4th guy in the top 100, I'm thinking it's going to be Brett Jackson. My guesses at the BA Cubs Top 10 1 Vitters 2 Castro 3 Cashner 4 B Jackson 5 Lee 6 J Jackson 7 Carpenter 8 Burke 9 Colvin 10 Flaherty

This just hit me and it could be extremely important actually: I seem to remember reading somewhere that Minaya and Hendry don't have good history together. They don't see eye to eye on how to make deals with each other. I remember this from the Heilman situation last ofseason for some reason. But, it seems like I read Hendry wanted Heilman for a while but gave up because Minaya was so hard for him to deal with, then got him as soon as he was dealt to Seattle. Reyes could be THAT much harder for us to get if we are even interested. Anyone else remember reading about that though?

Heilman isn't a FA, so I guess we're planning on offering him arbitration and keeping him. Or else we would have gave him to the Giants last week. No way do I see us offering Gregg arbitration. He'd accept. No team would give up picks for him, nor give him the money to make sense for him to decline arbitration. He'll be gone, but we won't get anything for him. By the way, my reasoning for 4-56 on Figgins is this: He's not worth that. But, I think that other than Holliday and Bay, he'll get more than any other position player in this very weak FA class. And he'll have lots of suitors too. The Yanks will be involved and so will the White Sox, who have 57 mill committed next year including Dye. I'd like to have him on the Cubs for the right price, I just don't see him worth anything near what he'll get.

Shark 4.2ip 7h 5r 5er 1w 5k

If that's the case, fire Rothschild and hire Duncan. Hell, do that anyway.

Was Hak-ju Lee hurt or something? Kind of odd for him to miss the last game of the year.

Like I said, I don't WANT us to sign a C, but it's likely to be another misallocation of money by Hendry. Probably won't be more than a mill or two, but it adds up as we all have found out. Figgins will get talked about ad nauseum this offseason and if Hendry can ake it work inside whatever budget he is given, I'm sure he'll try his damndest. Does anyone here want to see Figgins as a Cub at 4-56 or something like that? Because with the amount of teams that will have interest, that's my thinking on what he'll get. Way too much for my thinking anyway.

Since it appears as if this will be the offseason theme, lets look at our needs and what is out there. Needs include a SP, 2B and/or SS, possibly a veteran C and possibly a RFer(since Hendry may be hell-bent on getting Bradley out of town for all we know) Starting Pitching- Do we keep Harden? I'd be OK with it, as long as we get him on a 2 year deal with options, or something like that. Very incentive laden with less guarantees. On the other hand, getting picks for him and letting him walk is attractive as well, especially if we wind up outside the top 15 and lose our 1st by signing a type A ourselves. Lackey, Bedard, and possibly Hudson would seem to be the top 3 guys on the market, along with Harden. We'd really have to pay up for Lackey. Hudson could probably be had for a shorter term deal and Bedard is pretty much in the same boat as Harden. To me, a perfect world would be to let Harden walk, take his picks we get for him, and sign Bedard if we finish with a protected pick. 2B and or SS are definitely needs. I love the idea of trying to pry Reyes from the Mets, but obviously that's not going to be easy. Some other options include Hudson, who won't be signing a one year deal this time around, Felipe Lopez, Figgins, Polanco, DeRosa, Iwamura, Tejada, and Scutaro. Lopez is someone I like a little bit and would fit the "athletic" label. I really see value in Iwamura personally, but more as a super-sub type. We may already have found our guy like that in Baker as it is. That would kind of eliminate Polanco and Scutaro as well. I'd be fine with Figgins if it weren't for the fact I see him getting a larger contract than Pierre got from the Dodgers a few years ago. What about Tejada? He certainly won't get a longterm deal this go around, but 2-3 years? Would give us another middle of the order type and could allow us to move Milton to 2 fulltime, assuming we keep him. But, it doesn't get us the speedy leadoff hitter Jimbo is going to inevitably look for. As far as our catching situation goes, I hope we go into next year with Soto as our starter. We can even keep Hill as far as I'm concerned and if the need arises, we can trade for a catcher during the year. But, I'm very afraid this is where Jim will waste money this offseason. Would Hendry go after Bengie Molina? I could see him doing that possibly. Not sure San Fran will be willing to let him leave anyway, but we have much more pressing needs. More likely, I see Hendry going out and signing a Barajas type. Lastly, we have the OF issue with Milton. I hope we keep him personally, because I see no value in trading him. We'll have to pay money to get rid of him and we wouldn't get much in return either. Still, Hendry could go ahead and do something like this. Anyway, if we got rid of him, Carl Crawford would be my top choice. Seeing Tampa get rid of Kazmir though, makes me think they are now hell-bent on keeping Carl now. Still, he'd be the guy I go after hard, if Milton is shipped out and he obviously would give us the speed we supposedly want(Reyes would too obviously) Not much speed on the free agency market but other options would be Vlad, Abreu(who seems to be a lock to return to the Angels) Mike Cameron, Marlon Byrd, Scott Podsednik(yuck and I could see Hendry going after him) Damon(who won't be leaving New York) and Holliday, who we won't have the money to go after most likely anyway. Some of these guys would make us put Fukudome back in RF obviously, which I don't have an issue with, othe than I like his production more from CF than on a corner OF spot. My predictions: We let Harden walk, getting the picks. We entertain Lackey, but don't get him. We sign Bedard to replace him. We flirt with Reyes all offseason but can't get the Mets to pull the trigger. We lose out(luckily) on Figgins and sign Lopez. We sign Barajas or some other fringy starter catcher. And we trade Bradley for jack squat, eating about half his contract in the process. Then, to top that off, we sign Podsednik to be our leadoff hitter. Offseason over and Hendry is gone by 2011.

Jay Jackson thru 5: 5IP 4H 1R 1ER 2W 4K Vitters went 1-3 with 2 RBI Brett Jackson is not in Peoria's lineup again today. Burke hit a 2 run homer in the first.

Aaron Miles has been and is basically a continual kick to the groin until he's gone from this team. Even then, it will take time to get over his sucktitude.

I think Blanco probably hurt himself on that slide last inning. If not, this is obviously laughable.

I don't see this season as being alot like 2004 honestly. I can remember looking at our lineup and our staff in 2004 and thinking that we were the best in baseball. The only similarity I see with 04 is this team was picked to win the division. Because at no point this offseason or especially since the season started, did I think of them as the best in baseball. This season is frustrating, but 04 was way worse. I still don't see how we missed the damn playoffs that year.

The Miles situation is interesting in this way: NO ONE liked the move when it happened to begin with. In fact, most everyone hated it with a passion. But, he's genuinely been WAY WORSE than what anyone could have possibly imagined.

No they won't. They never released Neifi. Hendry's not going to admit that mistake. I don't think they'll release him as much as I expect us to take on a crappy middle reliever with a bad contract in return for him.

Yeah, I agree with EJ, Miles will be gone next year. It's mind boggling to me he's lasted this long.

He needs to be on our roster next year, even if it's as a late inning defensive replacement.

Jay to Iowa? Wouldn't it make more sense to send him to Tennessee for their playoff race?

I'll give a top 20, since we actually have guys outside the top 10 that are worth watching for the first time in a long time. 1 Castro 2 Vitters 3 Cashner 4 J Jackson 5 Lee 6 B Jackson 7 Carpenter 8 Burke 9 Flaherty 10 Rhee 11 Colvin 12 LeMahieu 13 Antigua 14 Watkins 15 Archer 16 Searle 17 Huseby 18 Castillo 19 Barney 20 Gaub It's becoming too hard NOT to put Castro at 1 at this point. He could conceivably be playing in Chicago at this time next season. Vitters will figure out Daytona next year and hopefully make it to Tennessee midway through. I still put Cashner 3rd, even with his late struggles. I see him in Chicago at some point next season, albeit as a reliever most likely. Jay at 4 was hard for me to do, as he has the best shot at joining our rotation as far as I'm concerned. Lee at 5 was an easy choice, as I see him making alot of noise next year in full season ball. Brett at 6 surprises me, but right now he's making a believer out of me. Hopefully he continues it at Daytona next year. Carpenter at 7 was an easy choice for me. He's just too fragile for me to truly get excited over. He may have the best stuff of anyone in our system, I just have serious doubts as to whether he'll stay healthy enough to capitalize fully. Burke has played his ass off this year and if he's truly "gotten it" he's going to go nowhere but up from here. Next year will tell his tale. I'll put Flaherty in here at 9, hopefully he moves to Tennessee next season and succeeds as well as his second half in Peoria. I'm putting Rhee at 10, expecting next year to show he's worth this rank and more. A month ago, I would have had Colvin outside my top 20, but this surge at least gives hope he can be a 4th OFer anyway. DJ is at 12 for me and probably won't get higher until he shows some extra base power. Antigua could easily move into the top 10 next year. It won't shock me to see him start out in Daytona actually. Watkins is quickly moving up the list as well. Lee and him are going to be fun to watch develop. Archer is at 15 for me and if he cuts down more on his walks next year, he could be another guy who vaults up bigtime. Searle was young for his league this year and held his own. I think he's got potential to move higher as well, considering he's not played baseball for all that long to begin with. I'm hoping they move Huseby back to the rotation next year, but he's had a hell of a year for Peoria and deserves to be in the top 20 somewhere. More upside with him too. I've got Castillo at 18 as he has been unlucky earlier in the year and is playing better now. Still don't see him as anything other than a backup though, so I'll keep him down this low for now. Barney is at 19, as I see him playing in Chicago next year at some point, unless he's used in a trade before then. Not a starter for us, but he'll have a long major league career for someone as a backup/fringe starter. Have Gaub at 20, as I think he SHOULD be our LOOGY next year. And the coolest thing is, we have guys like Raley, Kirk, Rusin, McNutt, and Cerda ready to have a full season next year. All of them have shots at making the top 30 next year for sure. Raley probably will this year as it is. AND we have the Pac Rim fivesome coming in next year, along with Contreras. We've got lots to look out for. I see us as a top 15ish system right now, but I really think we'll be top 10 at this point next year. The lower end of our minors is pretty damn stacked really, for the first time in a very long time.

At this point, I think he totally deserves to be a top 50 prospect. In fact, it's not going to totally shock me if he winds up ranked higher than Vitters honestly.

In a perfect world, I'd love to trade Milton.(which means trading him for something else of solid value to our major league team) He IS a headache and brings alot of stuff on himself. That said, he's not why this team has tanked and there is literally NO way we can deal him away without picking up a big portion of his contract unless we dealt for someone else's garbage. It's not worth it, period. He's a very solid player and we need to learn to deal with it. We're not the Yankees and it'd be dumb for us to trade him, opening up another hole we'd have to fill and paying him to play(solidly, I might add) for someone else. Hopefully Hendry realizes that there are plenty of holes to fill on this team already and he doesn't need to go create another one as well.

Reyes at SS and Theriot at 2nd or Theriot to somewhere else? My honest guess is that as much as Lou and Hendry seem to love Theriot, he'd almost have to be part of the deal. Maybe something like Theriot/Vitters/Wells/Carpenter/Fox for Reyes? The Mets need cheap, ready to play in the majors talent and sending them Theriot, Wells, and Fox could fill 3 holes for them immediately.