A New Era

Turner, Smyly and 2 high upside A level lottery tickets would be absolutely amazing. Who knows what's being realistically offered behind closed doors. But I'd hope Theo and Jed would accept that deal.

Wasn't Vitters a first round pick? So thanks selig you dolt. Even though precident was already set, now just to screw the cubs new precident = GM promotion? 1st round pick. Yeah real FAIR there.

Progress from the minors isnt hindered by signing free agents though. Its not like spending on a free agent hinders us from spending on amateur talent now that there is a cap in place. Also there was no reason we cant sign a young talented free agent like cepedes, fielder, or Darvish and see lots of progress from the minors. Then in two years be ready to compete for the next five. What I'm getting at is that I think we missed a shot to compete in two years by not signing a young superstar talent. and now we are looking at four to five years before we can compete at the earliest. I don't know about four to five years. This offseason has been good. As far as talent given vs. talent taken in. I view more positively the futures of Rizzo vs Cashner, Torreyes vs. nothing, the crapshoot of Stewart vs. the crapshoot of Colvin. If the men in charge keep building up the assets as well as they have this offseason, then you'll have more pieces to make that trade for a guy becoming too expensive for a small market team. I think in 2 years maybe if a big free agent doesn't become available that fills our holes, don't be surprised if Theo and co go for a big trade with all the assets they've built up. They are in asset building mode right now. And we have a fairly decent core that is just about to hit MLB with castro, jackson, and Rizzo. It won't be painful to me in the slightest, because it's gonna be fun watching a new talented core of guys grow into their primes. I am fully confident Theo and Jed have a plan to build around what they view as the next great Cubs team.

Thankfully its at the Marlins stadium. Huh, now that you mention it I was fooled by that artist drawing. It actually had every seat filled.

1) I hope those tanks are atleast 3 foot wide if they expect to keep any kind of "traveling" fish IE: not gobies that just sit there in their burrow or anemone all day. 2) being surrounded by 1000's of drunk noisy fans with alot of movement will limit the types of fish they can keep.

I wonder what kind of reaction he would get sprinting to the mound every time. Would we see fans with coffee helmets screaming like mad?

I'll tell you what silly back and forth is. Tide comes in, tide goes out, no one can explain it.

HELL YA! Nice info to read at 2:00 am b4 bed, thanks buddy! /heading to get podcast now :beg:

I've listened to that a few times and I can't even tell when he's supposed to be saying his name. At the 2 second mark. The way HE says it, sounds like there's a bit of a jza (can't think of the right latters to decribe the sound, just listen closely to the video. Like it starts with a soft j sound jo e ni se peh dez.

not a huge news or statistical addition to the thread. But Garza probably got the hugest fan reaction just under Wood. So obviously the fans love him, and are glad for the moment, he's still a Cub. I mean I feel the same way about the guy. One of our posters had a gif of him getting up and shouting "yeah boy" in the dugout, and to have that kind of enthusiasm even on last years team, bundled with his talent. Is surely a guy that fits into the "cubs way".

I don't think that's certain at all. That's right about where I have them. A whole lot will have to go right for them to win 75 games. LaHair is a downgrade at 1B, Stewart is a downgrade at 3B, and whoever replaces Marshall is a downgrade from a 71 win team. That's with the roster as it stands now (with Garza, Byrd, Soriano, etc.), but trading any of those players would also be an immediate downgrade for 2012. You're kinda forgetting something important. The #4 and #5 pitchers the entire year.

Once Garza is dealt this place is gonna explode. It's like tying a string to your shlong then doing woop woop for an hour then, BOOM! oh yeah baby.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who goes onto cubs.com, then roster, then click the player I wanna check out and watch highlights. thanks for reminding me to do that for all the other new cubs. :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMv9Vls7mRg&feature=player_embedded "I always fondle balls headed in my general direction."

I don't see very much that we have acquired that would be valuable pieces for an emerging superstar. I think Travis Wood and Rizzo have solid futures, but everybody else seems to be roster depth at the ML level or ml level. Torreyes is a potential future asset as well. And the extra draft picks we've acquired + our top pick next year. That's what I'm eluding to. A potential #3 for OUR roster, and a potential guy who could be in MLB's top 10 2B prospects in 2 years, all for one year of a reliever. And they've only been at it for a couple months. I imagine our potential high level trade chips in 2 years, will look pretty good.

I honestly don't think Theo expects, or plans to have it take 4-5 years. I think he expects this years team will be his groundwork, young core. I don't think he can add all of his core at once. I think next year he'll add another young high ceiling guy wherever he sees a hole. And continue to build around that. You've just got to give Rizzo, Castro, Jackson, and whoever else might come in, a couple of years starting in 2012 to atleast approach the cusp of their prime years. At that point, Theo will target either big trades for superstars small market teams can't afford, or a big signing possibly. Put it this way, if they can keep getting the value they are in future trades as they have been, they'll have a whole hell of a lot of valuable pieces to trade FOR that emerging superstar. They are in asset aqquiring mode right now, and I think they are doing a damn good job at it, imo.

psshh. Coward. I'll go ahead and say it. Anthony Rizzo will be a HALL OF FAMER!

http://memegenerator.net/cache/instances/400x/12/12700/13005403.jpg

I think the thing with Hendry, yes he did often get the upper hand in trades. "won" them so to say. But he didn't do enough of these guys of moves. Targeting guys that are just on the cusp of MLB, guys in their low 20s. He was afraid or unwilling to trade assets. "His guys" so to speak. He would hardly ever trade them when their value was at their peak. He only started doing it with Derosa. If he had trinkled in alot more of those types of moves along with his other trades I think the Cubs would be in alot better shape. And that's exactly how I think the new guys are gonna build a perrenial contender. By not being affraid to trade guys at the peak of their value, no matter how many fans that player might have, as long as we receive more in value back, or filling a position of need from a position of surplus. I think it's the little things like that, that Hendry just didn't quite grasp.

Given Rizzo, it's gotta be either Turner + atleast 1 high upside headliner, or just Extend Garza to a 4-5 year contract starting 2012. Ofcourse if they could get a great haul elsewhere I suppose they could spin some stuff for some pitching later. But once we trade Garza we are in dire need of a top of rotation guy. I'd rather just get they guy right away as a part for Garza.

http://chicago.cubs.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=16883961&c_id=chc you won't see Fielder do that. Mostly because he'd bust his gut if he did.

Or push Lahair to LF when Rizzo comes up mid year, if Lahair is hitting well that is.

it's so strange seeing that come out of the cubs front office Mancrush re-growing I know it's like they have, a plan, and they won't let a few weeks of playing change their plan? WTF is this?

Also....kinda like Cashner? Just saying. Love this trade. True, but I was just reffering to the other trades. Were'nt Volstad and Stewart previous 1st rounders?

As am I. Floored, actually. Yeah I know, me too. I thought it would take a couple of the interested prospects needed from the Matt Garza trade, or someone like Torreyes also, whom I really like. Yet we still have Torreys, still have Garza to keep or get a kings ransom for. And added Rizzo. Wow, I am just so happy. The Cubs system is improving 10 fold, it almost seems like Magic. :clapping: