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I saw a report that said that Bowen was on his way to Texas-my guess is that he probably will be there in time for the ballgame.

Well, let's see. Hopefully Jones can continue his last 2 games (4 times on base and 2 doubles in the last 2 games). Theriot has now started 5 consecutive games at SS. Fontenot was being considered for the 2 spot because of how well he was doing-I guess Lou decided to move him to 5 instead while he's hot.

2-6 with a 6.56 ERA actually. He shut down the Pirates last start for 8 shutout innings, so hopefully that was an aberration and the Cubs can bring a few runs home tonight.

I would agree. Floyd is not a big-time run producer right now, but he's not a black hole either. Also, trading for a RF means that Murton cannot come back up and contribute later in the season, and I think he can team up with Floyd again to stabilize RF after the break. SS needs to be upgraded-I'm just not sure how many options there are around the league to be able to do that. Looking over the list of top SS's this year, Harris might be available, but he could majorly drop off at any time. After that, Tejada is the only one that might even possibly be available (as far as I know, I don't think anybody wants Alex Gonzalez). Uh-oh. I just found a guy who fits the Cubs style completely that is currently having a great year-Christian Guzman (.331/.387/.465). I now have to root against Guzman strongly for the next month so the Cubs won't have any interest in him.

Because Blanco is on the shelf, maybe for the year, and Hill sucks. The Cubs need two catchers right now. I would be surprised if Bowen is the full-time starter. Hill does suck, but they've been giving him more playing time. I'm not sure they know that he sucks, and I wouldn't discount the possibility of the Cubs keeping him on as back up catcher. I think Hill will be sent down. I really don't see Bowen replacing Barret. He isn't a full-time catcher. That just wouldn't make sense. In the short-term maybe, but I would hope Hendry and Lou recognize the roster is missing a full-time receiver. The organization has a history of giving players more playing time than their talent justifies. See Neifi, Macias, etc. I'm not convinced in the least that the trade was made to make room for Soto, and if it had been, they could have at least tried to get something of value for him. A back up catcher is pretty worthless. There was a comment made about twenty pages ago about how Levine was talking on the radio that Hendry likes Soto as an everyday player. I've heard enough things that Levine said that were wrong though to not put that much stock in it though.

Bowen is a former good prospect out of the Twins organization who had an absolutely awful season at the age of 24 in AA and then a little better season in AAA in 05. He had a 733 OPS as the Padres backup catcher last year, and has an 810 this year (age 26). He is reputed to be a strong defensive catcher, although that is in great dispute. He is a low BA, high walk, with decent but not great pop in his bat. Burke is a 19 year old drafted in the supplemental round who has been absolutely terrible his first two years in the minors, but still has a lot of tools that could possibly pan out.

He's starting to catch again in the past few days. My guess is that they will wait at least a little while to see if the symptoms develop again (he has shoulder fatigue) before even thinking of calling him up.

I'm mostly pissed off because they traded a catcher that could hit, an extreme rarity, for a back up catcher and a weak rookie ball prospect. Barrett wasn't hitting that well this year. I know it is a very small sample size compared with what he has done the past couple of years, but when you couple his offensive performance this year with his defensive woes and baserunning brainfarts, Michael has hurt the team more than he has helped it so far. I'm indifferent to trading him. Are you indifferent to replacing him with a backup catcher who will almost definitely hurt the team more by being unable to hit? If we could have gotten a decent return for him, I wouldn't shed a tear over the guy. He is in the last year of his contract, after all, and might not have resigned. But to trade him for this garbage is unacceptable. Bowen's not necessarily terrible-he's just a huge question mark. He was a very good prospect who appeared to flame out and then has become a late developing catcher (which is not uncommon at all for a catcher). He could hit decently at this point-he hasn't had regular at-bats in 2 years, so it's hard to say that if he can replicate his part time production of the last year and a half over a full-time job. He is 26 though, so it's not unreasonable for him to be able to do that. He has the patience and the power potential, so he has the ability to succeed. It's just a risk.

I know people love to hate him, but Ohman has been doing really well lately, especially against lefties. He's not someone who should just be ignored like Eyre. Just for fun: Will Ohman's June-6 1/3 IP, 11 H, 4 R, 4 BB, 8 K Scott Eyre's June- 7 IP, 9 H, 2 R, 2 BB, 4 K

The Padres have Chris Young and Greg Maddux, who are going to kill any catcher's throwing stats Exactly-I thought Maddux was bad until I just saw the stats for Young. Since the start of last year, the opposition is 60/64 in stolen bases against him :shock:

No, he's still with the organization.

How does the whole world decide which lucky team will get the Cubs castoffs at 60 cents on the dollar? If you're an owner of some other team do you not ask your GM why he isn't the one ripping off the Cubs? Who knows, but it does disturb anyone else that Jim also seems to be trading with the same three or four damn teams over and over again? Didn't he go with the Fish at least twice (the Pierre deal, Clement / Six Fingers, and Lee), the Tigers twice (Farns and Neifi), the O's twice (Sosa and Patterson), and now SD twice (Williamson and Barret)? I know he sprinkled in deals with the Braves (Cruz), Giants (Hawkins), and both Sox (Nomar and Aardsma), but this patten concerns me greatly. I think I have officially lost any glimmer of hope that Jim has a clue as to where this thing is going. I know many of you jumped ship long ago. I was just holding out a scintilla; now even that is gone. (see my sig) Another Padres trade: Todd Walker for minor leaguer Jose Ceda. Another Marlins trade: Todd Wellemeyer for minor leaguer Lincoln Holdzkom. and he also has worked with the A's twice (Barrett and Bynum), the Pirates twice (Ramirez-Lofton, Simon) the Dodgers (Izturis), the Twins (Nevin), the Devil Rays (Ryu), and probably a couple other teams that I haven't thought of. I don't think he necessarily is just focusing on certain teams.

There's quite a bit of confusion on which side is actually giving money. ESPN says the Cubs are giving money to the Padres, and mlb.com is reporting that the Padres are giving money to the Cubs. No word on the amount from either side.

Is that before the year or now? Before the year... but still, it's a pretty stark difference. True-but in that, it has to gauge Bowen's absolutely awful 2004 and not good 2005 with his ok 2006 in the majors. Which one is supposed to be believed more? The projections would say 2004 and 2005, but that hasn't happened in his at-bats so far this year. The same thing has happened to Barrett the other way. Will Bowen outperform Barrett with the bat for the rest of 2007? I don't know. Does he have to? Not necessarily-if he gets somewhere close, the improved defense might be enough to make up for it. That's really all the Cubs need to make this a good deal-Bowen to stay close enough to Barrett to not make it too much of a downgrade this year (which is certainly possible), and then the Cubs benefit in 2008 and beyond with Bowen and the prospect. I haven't dug too deeply, but what in Bowens 2007 campaign is drastically different than previously besides BABIP? Not much, but even if he just repeats 2006 that graph will change, because now less importance will be shown to his worse 2004 and 2005.

If this clears the way to become a Soto/Bowen pairing this year (and soon) the chances of this being a good deal go way up.

Is that before the year or now? Before the year... but still, it's a pretty stark difference. True-but in that, it has to gauge Bowen's absolutely awful 2004 and not good 2005 with his ok 2006 in the majors. Which one is supposed to be believed more? The projections would say 2004 and 2005, but that hasn't happened in his at-bats so far this year. The same thing has happened to Barrett the other way. Will Bowen outperform Barrett with the bat for the rest of 2007? I don't know. Does he have to? Not necessarily-if he gets somewhere close, the improved defense might be enough to make up for it. That's really all the Cubs need to make this a good deal-Bowen to stay close enough to Barrett to not make it too much of a downgrade this year (which is certainly possible), and then the Cubs benefit in 2008 and beyond with Bowen and the prospect.

Is that before the year or now?

I think you will see Bowen and Hill for a while at least. Soto might come up later in the year. Of course, this team has made so many out of the blue moves so far this year that almost nothing will surprise me anymore.

Barrett for Bowen, a raw 19 year old prospect, and cash considerations.

The report is that Barrett is already on his way to SD-so I would hope Bowen is on his way to Texas. Theriot and Ward are the emergency catchers right now (reported a few days ago).

3.96, and he saw 4.15 pitches last year. His ISOD has always been really good-probably the only thing we know for sure about him is that he is going to walk quite a bit.

That wishful thinking as unfortunately Hill didn't accompany Barrett to SD. Also, I really hope this isn't the last trade that sees a player who needed to leave, leave. I didn't necessarily mean immediately, Soto's still nursing a shoulder injury. Maybe Blanco will need that surgery and be forced to retire. Yeah, I can definitely see a Bowen/Soto pairing in 2008, which would be better than the Cubs had before now. Basically, this deal is uncertain to how it affects 2007 (will Bowen continue to hit better than Barrett? How good is Bowen's defense really?), and better for the Cubs in 2008 and beyond.

I've seen the arguments for him spelled out...can you do the same from the other side? 703 career OPS. Heavily influenced by some bad at-bats in the Twins organization when he was 22 and 23 years old. He had a 733 last year and 810 this year, and he's supposed to be a really good defensive catcher, and he's still only 26. It's possible that his hitting is just finally catching up to his defense-he does have power, and he does have patience, so that will keep him from dropping too far.

This is from a scouting report on Bowen 6 years ago-obviously the offense has probably changed a little bit, but the defensive probably has not: I don't mind Bowen at all. He's apparently a strong defensive catcher who is patient and has some power. His home runs should improve when he goes from Petco to Wrigley. If he even puts up the numbers he did last year (which this year he's been a lot better than that) he'll be an upgrade at what the Cubs have had so far this year, and he is cheap for the next couple years. Plus then you add in the fact that there are tensions between some pitchers and Barrett, and I think this is a solid deal.

Every report I've seen has labeled Bowen as at least an above average defender.