Elrhino

yeah, after seeing all the comprehensive evidence laid out as it has been, i tend to agree. girls want easy money to go shopping and get manicures and stuff. that's all the evidence i need And Castro is a latin baseball player, so that means he's got a sense of entitlement and is all hot blooded. That means he's extra rapey. Putting words in people' mouths to make them look like a dick is a fun game to play.

Yeah, I really don't know how you prosecute this case given the info at hand. If the reports are correct she voluntarily went to Castro's place black out drunk and woke up to him assaulting her without consent. It's a he said/she said case in which the 'she said' testimony is in question because she was admittedly blacked out drunk.

right now i'd say these are the things that will hold my interest in 2012, even if the cubs aren't contenders: 1. minor leagues. they spent a lot of money last year and hopefully some of the guys in the low minors will break out, plus they may get some good prospects in return for a potential garza trade. 2. ian stewart - can he be at least a league-average 3b? if so then the cubs made a very good trade. it appears he'll get an extended shot at the job. 3. travis wood - can he be at least a league-average starter? again, probably not a really high impact player but if the cubs can look forward to cheap league-average or better production from him, then that's a nice plus. 4. catcher - will soto be healthy and productive? if so, do they try to deal him with the idea of castillo becoming the starter for the next few years? 5. castro - really, he's fun to watch, but i'm hoping his power and patience continue to improve, and i hope he gets better on defense. if his defense doesn't improve then it could be time to start thinking about him as a 3b or 2b while finding a long-term answer at short. 6. can they find a taker for any of the high-salary guys (soriano, zambrano, dempster) that brings salary relief and/or good prospects? the salary relief is obviously soriano; zambrano and (moreso) dempster could bring back prospects if they have a nice first half. 7. bullpen - can marmol build up his trade value? also eager to see if some of the young guys like beliveau can stick in the bigs. 8. nsbb - how short will the game threads get if the cubs are lousy? how quickly will some people give up on epstein/hoyer? will da bum ever be freed? Add Cashner to that list . If we could get a package centering around Montero and Banuelos for Garza, I would probably be as excited about a Cubs season as I've been in several years. Banuelos, Cashner, Wood, Volstead and maybe McNutt later in the year could possibly fill out the rotation of pitchers that I would be interested in watching most days. Montero would provide the first young exciting power bat we've had since God knows when.

I could see Hoyer getting free reign on smaller things like Rule V draft, just as a division of labor thing to divide up the day to day work responsibility of running an MLB front office. But there is absolutely no way Theo wasn't heavily involved in a deal that includes the Cubs eating $15 million of remaining salary on Z's contract.

Theo and Hoyer are likely making decisions as a collective braintrust. It just hurts people's feelings that a "smart guy" didn't share their outlook on how to conduct the offseason.

I hardly doubt Theo is finding a lack of quality offers given what other teams have gotten for starting pitchers on the trade market this offseason. The Cubs certainly don't have to trade Garza now, but then again I'm not sure his value will be any higher than it is now coming off last season. A team like Toronto could find themselves 10 games back by the 2012 trade deadline and out of the market.

The Rangers should be interested. They're looking to minimize Hamilton's injury risk by moving him to a corner outfield spot full time and they need a short term bridge player until Martin is ready. They loved Byrd when he was there.

Garza is far away superior to anything else on the market, especially where Toronto and the Yankees are concerned. Garza is a proven TOR pitcher in the AL East. You don't have to project his performance from lesser competition. Those guys rarely become available, much less available with 2 years left before they hit the market.

I would be surprised if Drabek isn't part of the package, but probably not the centerpiece. He's the young buy low guy Theo has gone after this offseason. His command went off kilter this year, but he's still got great stuff.

Seems like we got a pretty good haul for Marshall, but quite frankly we should have gotten a good haul for Marshall. He's a valuable player, the Cubs had plenty of leverage and they likely had no shortage of suitors and bids. They should get an exceptional deal for Garza as well. If you're tanking 2012, you better get a good haul in return.

No we don't. So it's not a problem that we gave superstar money to Soriano and Zambrano, and gave $12 million a year to solid players like Fududome? Aren't these years supposed to be the "budget hell" years of the Soriano and Zambrano contracts? And aren't we serious contenders for a one of the two superstar free agents during this time of supposed "budget hell"? It appears as though it hasn't been too restrictive.

This. 143 lifetime OPS+? Yeah, that's good enough for me.

Rangers are the best potential trade partners for Garza to me. They have more lhp prospects than they know what to do with.

A Henry move would be filling 3rd base by giving Miggy Tejada 2/$10, or resigning Aramis to 4/65. The only time I recall Hendry taking a flier on trading for young, underperfoming, potentially undervalued talent was Michael Barrett. And of course Aramis, but that was more the Pirates making a salary dump. That said, I'm pretty meh on Stewart.

They said that about the Rangers after they lost Cliff Lee. But now they don't have Cliff Lee, and their new best pitcher and the best player in baseball went to their rival. If Harren and Weaver have the same years they had last year, that's definitely a filthy rotation. Rangers still have a lot of room for improvement in house with young pitchers continuing their natural career arc and Feliz moving to the rotation. They're also the reported front runners for Darvish. The Angels finished 10 games behind the Rangers last year, so they'll need Pujols to be more of the 8+ WAR player he's been over his career than the 5.4 WAR he was last year.

Rangers really seemed to make a very lack luster attempt to resigning Wilson despite the fact that they have new ownernship with deep pockets and a new TV contract similar to the Angels. They seemed pursue Buehrle with more gusto. Maybe Wilson's arrogant attitude wore thin. Puhols has to be scary for the Rangers, although your biggest in division big market rival may have financially painted themselves into a corner for the next decade.

He was upset because the Cards didn't want to give him 10yrs 250-275m. You mean his now established market worth? If the Cards would have offered Puhols an 8/180 deal when Mark Tiexeira signed his contract with the Yankees, I bet he would have taken it. They decided to let him keep playing at a discount. They made their business decision. Puhols just made his.

If so, it's a stupid game. As I said before, even if Theo thinks that he has a shot at Headley between now and next winter, there's no reason not to jump on Stewart if the price is DeWitt. The question isn't the cost. It's whether you want Stewart at all. If you pick him up, you are giving him a roster spot, playing time, and $2.5 million or so. I'm not convinced that's worth it. And I consider giving crappy players at bats a cost.

Headley's a nice player, but he's not worth trading your top prospects for. The Cubs need to save their trading chips for better players. Depends on who and what your "top prospects" are.

As someone who's really hoping for Headley, the fact that Theo didn't agree to this deal on the spot gives me hope. I'm a big, fat meh on Stewart.

Assuming Soriano is moved, Jonny Gomes is a nice cheap righty platoon candidate. He crushes left hand hitting. Utterly useless against right hand pitching, though.

I wonder if Theo and the gang came away less than blown away by Cespedes in the private workout.

I could see the Marlins being interested if they're looking to add some big recognizable names and the Cubs are willing to eat contract. They're reportedly exploring trading Logan Morrison for pitching. Soriano might be willing to wave his no-trade to take his talents to South Beach. Ozzie would convince himself he could turn him around.

I wouldn't expect anything different. I'm sure it's hard to woo free agents from other suitors by dangling a potential platoon role in front of their faces. ... that doesn't mean things don't have a way of working out differently once the season starts.

Did you look at some of the other pictures? It must suck to be Brad Pitt. http://yfrog.com/mfantgj