Backtobanks

Usually, that kind of talk means they do in fact have interest in trading him. I dont think their big league club has any needs despite the rough start, but could a decent prospect package, not including McNutt, Jackson, or Vitters and pick up half the salary entice Boston? Maybe a switch out of the toghest division in baseball would be just what the doctor ordered. Id certainly rather give him a shot than some god awful combination of Coleman, Davis, Samardzjia, Russell, Diamond, god knows what else. I guess it all depends on what you call a "decent prospect package". The talk of trading him for another bad contract and denying they will release him sounds like we shouldn't be giving up too much. Maybe 2 of the names you mentioned (Samardzjia and Diamond) would be enough with them eating half of his contract. Convincing Samardzjia to waive his NTC would also save us $3 million this year.

I think his fitness level makes it a fair concern. Once he's over the hill and declining, he could go from great to worthless in a much shorter time frame than most other elite sluggers would. At the end of the '96 season, Cecil Fielder turned 33. He played in 160 games that year, hit 39 HR, and OPS'd .834. By the time he was 35, he was done with baseball. (Granted, I don't know anything about any injuries.) I'm not saying that Prince is condemned to the same progression at the same age, but I think he'll see a similar rate of decline whenever that decline starts. 2-3 more great years for Prince is almost a guarantee. Another 2 to 3 is definitely very possible, but not necessarily a given, and anything past that is anyone's guess. Signing someone like Fielder to a 6-year-deal is nowhere near being in the same ballpark as Soriano's contract unless he just completely breaks down very early into his career. Hell, even an 8-year-contract wouldn't be the end of the world given the projected level of production and that he'd still be 36 at the end of it, though I really don't think he's going to get that many years. 6 years is probably what he'll end up with at the most, largely due to his weight, and the Cubs would be foolish to not go all in since they opted not to sign Dunn and if Pujols isn't available. Opting not to sign him to such a deal because he's fat and might suck for the last year when they have zilch on the horizon when it comes to someone manning 1B would be just yet another example of poor front office management by the Cubs. Come on, him playing excellent baseball between ages 28-30 is only "very possible?" I think you're dreaming if you think Fielder will end up with only 6 years. Whatever teams are bidding $300 million/10 years for Pujols aren't going to take a chance on losing out on both of them. Also, Fielder realizes that a 6-yr. contract will probably kill any chances of another big contract.

While I'll admit it would be great having a solid offensive 2B, the problem with the Cubs' offense isn't 2B. The reason I say that is the fact that there weren't high expectations for 2B anyhow. I know there's lots of discussion about the reality of "clutch" hitting, but the "clutch" hitting by many of our "high - expectation" hitters has been almost non-existent. Ramirez, Byrd, and Soriano are extremely streaky hitters, while Pena and Colvin have provided next to nothing. This team is certainly not a great team, but almost every team has 1 or 2 "holes" in their lineup offensively. If the other 7 hitters can meet what is expected of them, the 2B platoon won't be a problem.

From MLBTR: When it comes to long-term contracts for young shortstops, three names jump to mind (in recent years): Jose Reyes, Troy Tulowitzki, and Hanley Ramirez. Let's compare their stats through the first 132 or so games of their careers, the number Castro has played to date... Castro: .304/.350/.418, 33 2B, 7 3B, 3 HR, 10 SB Reyes: .283/.307/.407, 28 2B, 6 3B, 7 HR, 32 SB Tulowitzki: .271/.349/.410, 19 2B, 3 3B, 15 HR, 8 SB Ramirez: .279/.345/.447, 32 2B, 9 3B, 12 HR, 43 SB

So does that mean we can stop automatically assuming Aaron was "all natural?" Because that would be awesome. Oddly enough, Aaron's career arc matches up surprisingly well with other known PED users. Steroids and other PEDs were available when he was playing, so it wouldn't be particularly surprising if it turned out he used. That's the sad part of the steroid era, you start to question everybody's accomplishments. Are they clean or is it just they didn't get caught?

Some blogger wondered if Pedro Martinez might be a fit. From MLBTR: •Ivy Report asks if Pedro Martinez would be a good fit for the injury-riddled Cubs' rotation.

The sad thing is that even if this trade was offered to the Cubs, they'd probably turn it down because we couldnt take on all that salary. The six-player deal would actually require the Red Sox to take on salary this year. Soriano (18M), Pena (10M) and DeWitt (0.4M) are 28.4M total while Crawford (14M), Gonzalez (5.5M) and Pedroia (5.5M) are only 25M total. Even if we had to pay some/all of Crawford's signing bonus (6M), it would only be a small payroll gain for the Cubs. Obviously over the length of the deals for all six players, even before Gonzalez gets the monster extension, the Cubs would have to pick up a lot of salary. And think of all the money we would save by not having to bid on Pujols.

let me answer that for you - he cannot. Coleman could be a decent #5 pitcher for a short time. With off days and rain outs he might only be needed for 1-2 starts.

I think they ought to panic and make a 46 player trade (23 from each side except SS and closer) with the Cubs while paying the difference in payroll. If that's too difficult, they should panic into a deal of Gonzalez, Pedroia, and Crawford for Pena, DeWitt, and Soriano. :yahoo: An unusually realistic trade idea from you. I forgot that we need to keep Soto too.

I think they ought to panic and make a 46 player trade (23 from each side except SS and closer) with the Cubs while paying the difference in payroll. If that's too difficult, they should panic into a deal of Gonzalez, Pedroia, and Crawford for Pena, DeWitt, and Soriano. :yahoo:

Where in the world is Carlos Beltran going to play on this team? If we could find a way to move Byrd, CF. No, that would be Cubs get Beltran Aaron Hill Mets get Thomas Diamond Scott Moore Justin Berg Jays get Jeff Samardjzia Darwin Barney Nothing like being criticized about "ridiculous" trade proposals by someone who suggest we trade for a 34-year-old OF with bad knees making $18.5 million this year when we don't need an OF. :lol:

Kelly Johnson would probably be the most available/affordable because the DBacks won't be contending. Also, he's LH. Reyes and Hill might be other possibilities.

Ricketts must be a little concerned about all of those empty seats during the first weekend of the season.

I wish the White Sox gave up on Beckham. Cubs should be first in line to get him if that ever happened. You'd have an awesome, team-controlled up-the-middle core for a long time (Soto, Castro, Beckham and Jackson). As long as we're talking about untouchables (Beckham), I wouldn't mind getting Neil Walker from the Pirates.

That'd be some amazing magic because Barney was never even a decent hitter in the minors. Barney has a career .708 minor league OPS and it was never higher than .758 (his first pro season, he's been worse than that every year since). His slugging was over .400 one time during a full season and his OBP was better than .340 once. DeWitt posted a .709 OPS last year in the majors - and both Barney and DeWitt are the same age (25). Even if Rudy worked some great magic on Barney, I don't see much of a chance Darwin is even mediocre offensively. My point is that Barney had a good spring while DeWitt sucked. Give Barney a week or two to "stay hot" or show anything offensively, if not pull back the short leash and go with DeWitt. I'm sure there won't be much difference in the Cub's record if you go with Barney/Baker instead of DeWitt/Baker for a week or two.

The "experts" are putting the Cubs somewhere around .500 (78 - 85 wins), with more of them predicting just over .500. In the NL Central, that certainly gives you a shot if certain things go your way. So far, the injuries to the other contenders have helped their chances. Hopefully they get off to a fast start with 9 out of their first twelve against the Pirates, DBacks, and Astros.

Maybe the Cubs ought to play Barney (with Baker) just in case Jaramillo worked some magic on him. The worst that can happen is going back to the DeWitt/Baker platoon that everyone expected anyhow.

Where the decimal point is in his average. :yahoo:

It was refreshing to hear; I was thinking it was the most outspoken I've ever heard Hendry. However, you really have to wonder how big of a vagina Hendry actually was with Silva and letting him in on this info. I know the Cubs don't owe Silva anything other than his $$, but Hendry's comments really lead me to believe Silva had no chance from the start. Silva's an idiot and I'm happy, but I'd probably be a little pissed if I were him as well. To me, the only way Silva truly had a right to be pissed was if he had came out and pitched great this spring, Cashner didn't, and he STILL got passed over. Then, I could see him having a reason to be upset. But, he didn't.(thank the lord) It all goes back to when we traded a turd sandwich for a giant douche. Hopefully Hendry learned his lesson with that one. What lesson was that? I won't repeat BeertownCubbie, but Hendry did just fine in that situation, given the options he had. It never should have gotten to this in the first place. Along with Juan Pierre, signing Milton Bradley was one of the biggest mistakes ever made by Hendry. He did it out of a need to get "more lefthanded" which was completely idiotic given that the idea grew out of a three game sweep by the Dodgers, and ignored the fact that we were one of the best teams in baseball against righthanded pitching in 2008. It was a mistake the moment the ink dried, much like Soriano's contract. And combining this with the "Soriano Signing" thread, I wonder if the need to get "more lefthanded" was pushed on him by the manager and not necessarily Hendry's idea.

This is what I've been saying all along. It's easy for us to criticize him, but without knowing all of the behind-the-scenes stuff makes you wonder whether he deserves the criticism.

Silva was released this morning. Rangers wanted an actual piece or two for Young, not garbage, and we don't have money to make additions right now. I realize what the Rangers want for Young, but they're kidding themselves if they think they can get a decent prospect or two and not eat most of his contract. As it is they have a $48 million utility IF/part time DH. They better hope a rich contending team gets hit with an injury. Also, every month that passes Young gets more untradeable.

If Silva can pitch decently on Monday: From MLBTR: •The Rangers aren't looking for a centerfielder as they believe that Julio Borbon will be okay after suffering an elbow injury, tweets Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports. It's not realistic to expect the club to land a starting pitcher either as there isn't much out there The Rangers are calling teams about Michael Young and are willing to eat about half of the $48MM remaining on his contract, tweets Tim Brown of Yahoo Sports How about talking Shark into waiving his NTC and offering this deal: Silva + Samardzija + Stevens/Berg/Diamond/Coello/Maine for Michael Young plus $20 million ($2 million in 2011, $9 million in 2012, $9 million in 2013). Rangers get possible starter plus 2 young pitchers and save $17 million ($3 million in 2011, $7 million in 2012, $7 million in 2013) Cubs get Young for $3 million in 2011, and $7 million for each of 2012 and 2013.

From MLBTR: •Matt Eddy of Baseball America explains that prospect Matt Szczur will be eligible for this winter's Rule 5 if he's not on the Cubs' 40-man roster because of a technicality

Baker against RH pitchers is like starting Koyie Hill at C for 162 games. I always wonder how a guy like Baker makes it to the ML without being able to hit RH pitching since most RH are probably 70% of all pitchers.

The gist of the article is the black hole the Cubs have had in CF for decades. Might be a nice problem to have 2 great young CFs.