Backtobanks

Saying that winning isn't a "priority" with professional athletes never fails to be hilariously dumb. So why sign with Baltimore? They probably have the worst chance of making the playoffs out of every team in MLB. At least the Pirates and Royals and Cubs are in bad divisions. The O's could be way better next year and still finish 4th or last. I can think of 8 million reasons to sign with Baltimore. As Rocket pointed out, it's not like the top contenders were lined up looking for a 1B.

It's a pass on $1 million/1year deal. The Cubs don't have room for a hitter who can't play the field.

Maybe they're discussing Santo's old job.

I suppose it could be affected by the progress of Vitters and weighing whether to re-sign Ramirez to play 1B vs. Pena's production/cost/age.

For all of the criticism of Hendry, lets not forget that he turned these "worthless" prospects into some pretty decent ML talent via trades. What does this say about all of those highly regarded GMs that accepted these lousy prospects.

Hendry's been very good in his time in Chicago about not trading away prospects who end up being good. I think Tim's point was, just about none of the prospects Hendry has dealt have turned into good MLB players outside of Nolasco and Mitre (somewhat) in the Pierre deal. He's not one to trade away prospects on a whim. Hendry always has been a proponent of developing and playing prospects. Baker and Piniella wanted veterans to fill any holes on the team, so Hendry would accomodate them.

I was never into this "anxiety issues" game, but I'll play along. Grienke will be a good fit for Milwaukee unless he's pitching in Chicago, NY, LA, or in a tight divisional race, or in the playoffs/World Series. In other words, he was a good fit in the small market of KC because they didn't play many games that mattered.

Archer and McNutt were 21 and 20, respectively, last season. That's pretty young. They each put up pretty incredible numbers last season at a very young age. You can't possibly know what they are going to do over the next 6-7 seasons. Grienke is 27. We do know what he did over the last 6-7 years. Some good, some great, some not so good. You might be right that Archer and McNutt will never be as good as Grienke is now. There's a chance you're wrong. Obviously, I'd take that chance if it were a straight up one-for-one deal to get Grienke, but it's likely going to take 3 or four top prospects to get him and I'd rather sit back and see what Cashner, Archer and McNutt can do along with Brett Jackson and Hak-Ju Lee. I disagree simply because Grienke is a top pitcher at 27 and should be very good for quite a few more years (assuming we can re-sign him). Let them pick from 3-5 players from a list of Archer/McNutt (one of them), Gorzelanny, Mateo, Russell, Berg, Coleman, Maine, Stevens, Castillo/Chirinos, Guyer, Vitters, Adduci, Snider, Fuld, etc. There are a few players on that list that are pretty good prospects, but none that are irreplacable. But at what price financially? If Archer, McNutt and Cashner (or one of their other prospects) can be 3 of the 5 starters for the Cubs the next several seasons, think of the money that will be available to sign someone like Pujols for example. But if we keep trading our young prospects for older more expensive ones, we never get that window. Yeah, because pitching prospects are sure things. J.K. Ryu, Angel Guzman, Bobby Brownlie all became superstars. Don't forget the guy with perfect mechanics - Mark Prior.

Archer and McNutt were 21 and 20, respectively, last season. That's pretty young. They each put up pretty incredible numbers last season at a very young age. You can't possibly know what they are going to do over the next 6-7 seasons. Grienke is 27. We do know what he did over the last 6-7 years. Some good, some great, some not so good. You might be right that Archer and McNutt will never be as good as Grienke is now. There's a chance you're wrong. Obviously, I'd take that chance if it were a straight up one-for-one deal to get Grienke, but it's likely going to take 3 or four top prospects to get him and I'd rather sit back and see what Cashner, Archer and McNutt can do along with Brett Jackson and Hak-Ju Lee. I disagree simply because Grienke is a top pitcher at 27 and should be very good for quite a few more years (assuming we can re-sign him). Let them pick from 3-5 players from a list of Archer/McNutt (one of them), Gorzelanny, Mateo, Russell, Berg, Coleman, Maine, Stevens, Castillo/Chirinos, Guyer, Vitters, Adduci, Snider, Fuld, etc. There are a few players on that list that are pretty good prospects, but none that are irreplacable. But at what price financially? If Archer, McNutt and Cashner (or one of their other prospects) can be 3 of the 5 starters for the Cubs the next several seasons, think of the money that will be available to sign someone like Pujols for example. But if we keep trading our young prospects for older more expensive ones, we never get that window. That's a big "IF".

I've read more than once in this thread that Wood was coming home to retire a Cub and now I'm reading "personal services contract" after he is retired. Is his arm at the end of the line now, or are we looking at getting wonderful deals year after year until he eventually does say enough is enough. Basically, I'm curious what he has left in the tank since he's a few generations behind Jamie Moyer. I'm sure the "personal services contract" was a gentleman's agreement because of the hometown discount.

Archer and McNutt were 21 and 20, respectively, last season. That's pretty young. They each put up pretty incredible numbers last season at a very young age. You can't possibly know what they are going to do over the next 6-7 seasons. Grienke is 27. We do know what he did over the last 6-7 years. Some good, some great, some not so good. You might be right that Archer and McNutt will never be as good as Grienke is now. There's a chance you're wrong. Obviously, I'd take that chance if it were a straight up one-for-one deal to get Grienke, but it's likely going to take 3 or four top prospects to get him and I'd rather sit back and see what Cashner, Archer and McNutt can do along with Brett Jackson and Hak-Ju Lee. I disagree simply because Grienke is a top pitcher at 27 and should be very good for quite a few more years (assuming we can re-sign him). Let them pick from 3-5 players from a list of Archer/McNutt (one of them), Gorzelanny, Mateo, Russell, Berg, Coleman, Maine, Stevens, Castillo/Chirinos, Guyer, Vitters, Adduci, Snider, Fuld, etc. There are a few players on that list that are pretty good prospects, but none that are irreplacable.

I don't know how he's throwing (I don't think he's pitching in any Winter leagues this year), but he is a non-roster invitee to spring training. Link If Guzman can come back anywhere near 09 form, we might have one of the best bullpens in baseball.

Not to be too cynical but it's pretty clear that was his intention by doing this. It was an investment in his future. If he never came back he would be a much loved former Cub. Now he's got a chance of living the lifetime icon dream, which is what I'm sure he and Ricketts talked about. We will be seeing a lot of Wood the next 30 years. Yeah, I'm sure the love shown for Santo by the people of Chicago helped persuade him that there's something special about being a Cub hero for life. His career numbers may not put him up there with Banks, Santo, Williams, Jenkins, and Maddux, but the people love him.

From MLBTR: Greinke Wants Out Of Kansas City By Zach Links [December 17 at 6:47pm CST] Royals ace Zack Greinke has asked the club for a trade, writes Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports. Earlier today, the 2009 American League Cy Young Award winner changed agents, opting to be represented by Jeff Berry and Casey Close of CAA rather than SFX. A high-ranking executive from another team tells Morosi that the pitcher "really wants out" of Kansas City. Separate major league sources confirmed that Greinke has unequivocally asked the club to be dealt.

I totally agree, unless the Giants were tossing in a decent amount of money or there were other players involved.

Cano? Teixeira? Both? Z and Soto are both really good at baseball. Z makes a little too much for what he provides, and Soto is one of the most valuable assets in the game. To be fair, Montero is arguably also one of the most valuable assets in the game. If Montero pans out, he'll be Soto. Soto +3 additional cost-controlled years. Assuming he pans out. I think the odds are pretty good that he will be a star, but Soto has proven himself in the ML while a lot of "cant-miss" prospects flame out.

Forget about Kerry. Ffrom MLBTR: Kerry Wood wants a two-year, $12MM deal, Rosenthal reports

The fact that they have Girardi and Rothschild might be the reason they don't want Zambrano. :yahoo:

Not trying to defend Hendry, but all this speculation about him delaying a decision is just speculation. What if the Rays really wanted a boatload of top prospects (stated earlier in this topic) and/or Webb wanted more money/more years than Hendry was willing to give?

Yes, and that reason is that anybody who sticks around long enough in baseball gets a reputation for being good at what he does. I guess you're going to believe what you want to believe, but when I see coaches that are respected by players and owners throughout the majors, I tend to believe they've had an impact in helping a player maximize their natural ability.

There's a reason certain coaches (pitching and hitting) have the reputation they do, that's why guys like Rothschild, Duncan, Jaramillo, etc. are so respected. They actually get the most from a player's natural ability.

Remember when every player wanted to play for the Cubs, which coincedently ended when Hendry lost his bottomless money pit? Do we really want a player that "remains excited" about the Nationals?

Yeah, he even admitted that Garza's WAR has been half that of Haren, but still tried to compare prospects evenly between the DBacks and Cubs. That would be a horrid trade, but luckily I don't think there's any credibility to it whatsoever. I would think they can't be asking for all of those players because the rumors wouldn't have said a deal centered on Chirinos if he was the 4th best prospect in the deal. It's like saying we're making a deal centered on getting Ryan Theriot and it included Pujols, Holliday, and Wainwright.

Yankees have a 1B too, but I suppose one of them can DH.

The link for this blog(The Process Report) was on MLBTR and obviously written by a Rays fan: The Template For a Matt Garza Trade to The Chicago Cubs Posted on December 10, 2010 by R.J. Anderson Billy Beane pulled the trigger on a surprising trade during the 2007-2008 offseason by sending Dan Haren to Arizona. At the time, Haren had three seasons remaining on his contract – part of an extension that held a value of roughly $16 million. He was coming off a career best season according to FanGraphs WAR, and had win values of 4, 4, and 4.9 in the past three seasons. In exchange for Haren (and Connor Robertson) the A’s received Brett Anderson, Chris Carter, Aaron Cunningham, Carlos Gonzalez, Dana Eveland, and Greg Smith. That package appeared to include the Diamondbacks’ best and brightest; with four of the D-Backs’ top ten heading to Oakland: Gonzalez (1), Anderson (3), Cunningham (7), and Carter (8). Gonzalez (22) and Anderson (36) also earned placement on BA’s subsequent top 100 list, suggesting they were amongst the game’s 40 best prospects. Garza has three years of control remaining but lacks the locked-in salary and performance that Haren held. Garza has about eight wins over the last three years, halving Haren, but carries ostensible upside and the benefit of moving out of the game’s best division. For those reasons, though, Garza likely holds less trade value now than Haren did then. Nevertheless, the package that Bruce Levine reported about doesn’t seem too farfetched. Robinson Chirinos is the only player named, and while BA will not release their top 10 list for the Cubs until 2011, Kevin Goldstein ranked him as the system’s twelfth best prospect. The identities of the other three players are unknown, but one has to assume that the shortstop prospect might be Hak-Ju Lee (whom Goldstein ranks as the fifth best) and outfielder Brett Jackson (ranked as the system’s best prospect). The last player, again reported as a top prospect, could be one of the Cubs’ arms, like Trey McNutt (second), Chris Archer (third), Chris Carpenter (sixth), or Jay Jackson (ninth). Jackson ranked 74th on BA’s top 100 list last season and after hitting .316/.420/.517 at High-A and .276/.366/.465 at Double-A without showing a notable weakness, he figures to move up – perhaps into the top 50. The pitcher Jackson also finished in the top 100, at 98. A Garza-to-Chicago deal probably won’t top the Haren-to-Arizona in terms of mass or quality, but really it shouldn’t. Haren was the better pitcher. Don’t be surprised if Garza is dealt, nor if the trade quickly replenishes the Rays’ system alongside the upcoming draft.