badnews

I don't buy. Those comparisons are usually inaccurate/wildly overoptimistic. Two weeks ago he wasn't Jay Bruce. Kyler Burke was another real later riser in the draft that got a lot of gaudy comps.

I'd pass on Fields and his control problems (and, you know, the whole wasting a first round pick on a guy who might not even end up being a high leverage reliever). Jack (Florida): Josh Fields - more Street/Cordero or Wagner/Aardsma? Kevin Goldstein: If the first group is 100 and the second group is 0, Fields is a 45. Is the part where someone comes in with a bogus argument about how if we draft Josh Fields he can be our Francisco Rodriguez in September and we can win the World Series? What's the matter with you California Raisin? Aren't you in favor of winning the World Series?

Presumably we'd get at the very least a strong indication of signability before making the deal. I don't think that will happen with the Yankees, Mets, Red Sox, Dodgers, Angels, and Rangers willing to outbid each other. We're one of the big spending teams too. But we're not as desperate as some of those underachieving teams with deep pockets. How do you figure? At what point do you become desperate, when other teams make trades and become better than you? You play every year to win the WS, not to hold of and hope next year is better? I would understand your point if this was Tampa Bay and someone is asking for 2/9 of the everyday lineup for CC, that simply is not the case. If the Cubs lose in the playoffs without making any moves are you going to feel comfortable not knowing what could have been. Pie and Hill are not anywhere near an Elite Prospect that you simply hold on too. There is no guarantee of winning a WS next year keeping them. You don't know if Lee, Aram, Carlos, Soto or anyone will be healthy. If they get off to a bad start you don't know if you can make up the ground. There are ifs in every single scenario possible. I would much rather go all out on the year that the team is actually playing great, then wait around for another year that simply may not be matched. Remember 2004. 2004 we did "go for it." The problem with your argument is this: people repeat ad nauseum. Pretty much every year every body wants a "go for it" trade for a guy who isn't really a difference maker and that wipes out the farm system. Hell, we saw it this year with Brian Roberts. Trade everybody for Brian Roberts because it's been a long time since we won the World Series. Brian Roberts is the missing key. Brian Roberts is a 1000 VORP improvement over DeRosa. Brian Roberts is the legitimate leadoff man who will lead us to the promised land. We haven't won a World Series in 100 years so he's worth overpaying tenfold for. I've seen your argument too much to be moved by it. Myself, I think the biggest PLAYOFF difference maker would be a healthy Rich Harden. It's hard to get worked up about any pitcher with a pulse as the 100 year difference maker.

A. J. Burnett has ace-like stuff but the results are really rarely ace-like. I just don't like Sabathia. No real reason but the way he crapped out in the postseason last year doesn't help. I get the vibe off of him he's going to be one of those lemons that doesn't help as much as you'd think at the deadline. If the Cubs get him I won't complain though.

Brad Penny's 2007 looks real fluky to me. I've never bought the idea that he's an ace. Still not understanding the interest in DeJesus.

Brad Lidge is an example of how even elite relievers are overrated. And Craig Hansen was supposed to be the better version of Lidge. What craig says makes sense but I don't think it works in reality because not that many teams seem unwilling to draft relievers high, so you don't see the greatly talented falling like described.

If Wilken takes Collier I will start a fire Wilken campaign. This guy is not as much the standard Cubs failure pick as Hewitt, but still. Where was this guy even three weeks ago? No way. Pass.

I was just looking back through this topic, whatever happened to the Jordan Danks love? Also, whatever happened to the love the draft sites had for Cole St. Clair way back when? Some of these guys you heard about and then stopped hearing about and I never heard why.

I have to go on the record here and state how against I am what some posters have said about the willingness to draft relievers high. I probably have less respect for relief pitching than 99% of baseball fans. I hate the idea of drafting a reliever. Relievers have much less impact on the game, and they're not any more of a sure thing than the other guys. Seriously, let's go back over the history of badass relief prospects drafted high. Bill Bray? Not any good. Chad Cordero? Doesn't impress me even remotely. Craig Hansen? NOPE. Joey Devine? He's eh. Still a waste for the pick - he is seriously any better than a no-name draft guy like Mike Wuertz or so on? No. David Aardsma? Waste of a pick. J. Brent Cox? Bah. Mariano's successor, yeah right. I don't like the mentality that because Carlos Marmol is neato, we should try and draft another Carlos Marmol. Carlos Marmol just proves what a crap shoot relievers are in particular. More than any other area in baseball, you can build a decent bullpen out of waiver wire crap - Justin Miller, Kevin Gregg, Bobby Jenks, etc, all of whom may fare better than lights out sexy relief prospects like good 'ol Jose Capellan and Brandon League. After the Craig Hansen hype-a-thon there's nothing anyone can say about a relief prospect that will excite me. We exhausted all of the superlatives on Hansen. He was amazing, incredible, women wanted to get with him and men wanted to be him, talent wise he could've gone in the top 5, his slider was more powerful than Superman and the Death Star combined, there was just no end to it. The litmus for being a reliever is so low that if you fail at that it's much worse than failing as a starter or a position player. You're still talking about an every day player vs. a 200 inning starting pitcher vs. a 65 inning guy. Just say no to relievers.

I don't like DeJesus. He's really, really blah, acquiring him takes more than blah. The asking price has always seemed to far outstrip the production. He's a 28 year old .760 OPS type, average to below average defensive center fielder... eh. Greinke would be nice but who knows if he could hold up, pitching in Chicago to break "the curse" vs. KC is a whole different ball game.

Who knows who will drop... I didn't think guys like Matt Harvey or Lars Anderson would drop in years past. I just thought they'd be 1st round picks. I'd be very pleased if the Cubs were able to get Aaron Hicks, failing that Brett Lawrie. Ethan Martin wouldn't be a bad consolation prize. I'd rather have those three over Casey Kelly. Getting Robbie Ross, Mike Montgomery, or Brett DeVall at the compensation pick would be neato. If Melville fell out of the 1st round the Cubs would be wise to give him his money in a later round, but not too late (I don't think you can wait until the 12th round to pull the trigger). I don't want to see any of these badass athletes who can't hit drafted high. ENOUGH. This Anthony Hewitt clown sounds like he's tailor-made for the Cubs. Raw, amazing athlete who can't hit for crap. Oh yeah, he's such an amazing athlete he projects as a 3b, not a shortstop. A Baseball America column linked the Cubs with their compensation pick to Destin Hood. If that happens and you don't see me for a while it's because I've broken my computer.

Sickels is ignorant. His site embarrasses me at times. I'm no baseball guru or anything but then again I don't put up a site pretending that I am.

GEOVANY SOTO

CaliforniaRaisin, your apologist stances on Vitters are troubling. I don't like this spin about "all the top 5 prospects had questions." That's like saying both Cody Johnson and Travis Snider had questions. Yeah, but one of them has a hell of a lot more questions than the other. If one of those 5 is going to be mistaken for The Riddler in a suit adorned with question marks, we know who it is. Porcello didn't get a ton of money because he was as questionable as Vitters. And nobody would say Vitters was as likely to make an MLB All-Star team as Wieters. No more spin please.

The next step is to get rid of the minor league clubs and send every player to extended Spring Training permanently. Who did we pick Ryan Harvey ahead of? Nick Markakis John Danks Aaron Hill David Murphy Ian Stewart Lastings Milledge Paul Maholm Conor Jackson Matt Moses David Aardsma Brandon Wood Chad Billingsley Daric Barton Carlos Quentin Adam Miller Matt Murton Jarrod Saltalamacchia Adam Jones Tony Gwynn Jr. Jo Jo Reyes Tom Gorzelanny Jerry Owens Jason Hirsh Andre Ethier Some of those guys aren't good but they're better than Harvey.

Owings or Lincecum or Greene... did they draft LaPorta once or not?

He's raw cuz he split time between two sports and is getting used to wood bats. Just repeat that for the next 5 years.

I don't agree. Do these "paper champ" lineups ever work out as well as people think they will? Are the Detroit Tigers scoring 1000 runs yet? I mean seriously. Let's dig up the Miguel Cabrera thread trade where everyone handed them the World Series. If we could afford Holliday we'd be smarter to use those resources for pitching. Under no circumstances would I send Soriano back to 2nd.

AGH. Come on. I interviewed some tribesmen before the draftin a remote section of Papua New Guinea, they don't know what baseball is, but they said what every****ingbody else in the universe said: MATT LATOS. JORDAN WALDEN. LARS ANDERSON. Not another one of these assclowns only the Hendry regime has heard of. See, this worked with the Angels because everyone actually knew who Adenhart was. He wasn't some jackass nobody that had us all scrambling for Google. Excuse me I'm going to turn into the Incredible Hulk now.

It's ridiculous to put Headley in the same prospect class with Freese, Washington, Moses, etc. Costanzo is not much to write home about. Rowell too, I don't like him as a prospect. Why is Rico Washington a better prospect than Ian Stewart? Andy Marte and Moore? Daniel Murphy of the Mets is a better prospect than Angel Villalona? It's a ridiculous list.

Young players have really stupid agents apparently. The Marlins are probably the dead last team in baseball to deserve any kind of loyalty at all.

I also used to think Victor Diaz was pretty keen.

That list is patently ridiculous. A lot of those rankings seem a year or two too old. If that's the work of PECOTA, here is another good reason to throw PECOTA in the trash.

Specifically, what do you take issue with? You can't be disputing that Snider was seen as far more polished and "major league ready" than Vitters, who was more of a "project" right? I mean, I'm not saying he was a (Braves) Cody Johnson type project, but I remember the Guerrero comps, the raw tag, etc.

We can still pine for Austin Kearns, right? Man we used to love Kearns.