Backtobanks

That's a whole lotta money for a guy coming back after 2 years of injuries.

It's really a shame that the Cubs can't trade for the right to sign him.

I absolutely do not want the Cubs wasting precious resources on a "closer." The cash and talent spent to acquire somebody to do that job wouldn't be near as much of an upgrade (if at all) in the bullpen than it would be if it were spent on SS or CF. Wood Howry Eyre Dempster Ohman Wuertz That's a freaking stacked bullpen. (relievers not listed in order of talent, but in the likely hierarchy Lou sees them in... Wuertz for closer, w00t!) how is that a stacked bullpen? besides wood, it's the same pen they had last year, and it wasn't anything special. There are enough people better than Novoa that he becomes relegated to towel boy? Most of the criticisms of our pen as a whole last year came about because of guys like Rusch, Ryu, Guzman, etc... coming in in long relief and giving up a good deal of runs. The core of the pen is very solid, and if we're smart enough to keep Wuertz up all year that's just icing on the cake. When you are starting AA pitchers in 60-70% of the games, your bullpen is not going to be as efficient as it should be. The bullpen is solid as long as they don't have to pitch 5-6 innings every game. If the starters can consistently get through 6 innings or more, the Cubs will have a tremendous bullpen.

Sorry, we need a lefty.

Rowand isn't an FA. Fine, trade for him then. He's on the block according to a lot of reports. Rowand's career numbers against LHers is .289/.351/.494/.845. Its not a bad back-up idea to getting Church. I don't think it would impact the decision to get Floyd in that Rowand is a righty and Hendry feels he needs a lefty bat with power who can give the Cubs some added punch on days against those tough right-handed pitchers. Floyd would make a much better DH than either Ward or Rowand. So, if you got Rowand, Floyd would still be an almost necessary upgrade. But acquiring Ryan Church kills all those birds with one stone. I'd love to get Rowand, but he's going to cost you a lot in players.

They're the ones who went out of their way to sign Pierre to a big contract. They bought our weakest OF, I'm just trying to trade them the one that had the best year in 2006.

I agree with you that Dempster needs to be traded, but I don't think the Cubs need a closer. Howry has experience as a closer, Wood (if healthy) will be a lights-out closer, and I think Wuertz is capable of closing. Also, I remember hearing somewhere that people think Marmol could very well develop into a closer for the future.

Harrelson is the worst announcer that I've ever heard. I just hate his "duck snort", "he gone", "put it on the board...yes", ""grab some bench", "Paulie, Scotty, etc." .

How about a 3-way deal: Cubs trade Jones and Dempster to the Dodgers Cubs get Torii Hunter from Twins Dodgers trade Penny to the Twins Dodgers get Jones and Dempster from the Cubs Twins trade Torii Hunter to the Cubs Twins get Brad Penny from the Dodgers Cubs pick up a great free-agent-to-be for about $4 million (after subtracting Jones and dempster's salaries) for 1 year with Pie set to take over in 2008. Dodgers get solid OF plus a pitcher that still allows them to trade some pitching for any other holes that need to be filled. Twins pick up an excellent pitcher to replace Liriano and rid themselves of an expensive free-agent-to be. The deal might need some tweaking (put on your thinking caps), but these would be the major players involved. What do you think?

Signing him to be a full-time player would clearly be a bad idea. Signing him to be a part-time contributor and potential RHP killer could be a very smart gamble. All of this discussion about Floyd is great, but I'm wondering what kind of contract he would get. He's used to pretty big money and I'm hoping the Cubs don't have to break the bank since Ward serves close to the same purpose.

And not just in the NL. Also, as I've posted before, it is still way to early to guess at what the finished rosters will look like for most teams.

Basically you are asking us to rate the pitchers according to abilty (or chance of success). Again this is based on being healthy and reasonable expectation on recent past performance. SP: Zambrano Prior Hill (assuming he continues where he left off) Lilly Marquis- (assuming Rothschild can correct flaws) Miller - most likely to be used as a swing man or in a trade. If Marquis struggles, Miller moves up and Marquis becomes swing man. Marshall - Possible trade candidate Marmol - sent to minors or traded Mateo - sent to minors or traded Ryu - sent to minors Bullpen: Cotts - middle relief lefty Wuertz - middle relief righty Ohman - LOOGY (Possible trade candidate) Novoa - sent to minors Dempster - Trade Eyre - lefty set-up man (possible trade candidate) Howry - righty set-up man (possible closer) Wood - Closer (possible righty set-up man)

There's no way Hill goes to AAA or is taken out of the rotation if he pitches like he did in the 2nd half. Unless Prior comes back at 100%, Hill could be the #2 starter (based on 2nd half performance).

That's ridiculous. Hill has to make the rotation first. By all accounts Hill made the rotation during the 2nd half of last season. Everything I've read has him as the #2 or #3 starter in the rotation.

In this division, with the Astros regressing and the Cards not improving? No, the Cubs have as good a shot as anyone. In any other division you're right. I would agree. The Cubs may have plenty of question marks, but I can't see anyone in the division that I can point to as better than this team right now either. This is exactly how the Cubs seem to think. They want to compete within the division. I don't give a flying fig what Houston or the rest of the NL Central has done. Wining the divsion only means getting to the playoffs. I'd like for my team that has a top 5 payroll to be a lock to be above .500. I cannot understand how anyone could be happy with the Marquis signing when the Cubs have at least 2 guys under their control for the next two years that can be just as sucky. Everyone would love to have the best team in baseball, but winning your division and getting to the playoffs is what it's all about. The playoffs and the WS are a crapshoot. It's a matter of who gets hot at the right time. How often has "the best" team won in the playoffs and the WS? Look at all the wild card winners. Look at the "mediocre" 2006 Cards.

It's very confusing. What happens if Prior is healthy in ST? Who gets bumped out of the rotation? I wonder if Hendry is planning on trading Hill in a package for a big bat. He's the only guy that isn't being paid starter money (aside from Miller, who was basically gauranteed to start), and we already have another left in Ted Lilly. If Prior is healthy, he becomes the #2 starter. That would really make the season because Prior being #2 pushes Lilly and Hill into the #3 & #4 spots where they really belong. Prior and Wood's injuries really disrupted the pitching rotation for the last few years. Some posters complained about Maddux, but you need to realize that he was signed to be a #4 starter and ended up being a #2 much of the time. Lilly or Hill at #3 (and #4) look great while Lilly or Hill as a #2 is questionable.

I don't think so, they're just spending some of this windfall money that teams get from TV and merchandising. There's a whole lot of owners pocketing the money and crying that they're poor. The way things are now, money made from attendance is a small percentage of what these teams get.

Let's not forget that McCarthy and Hirsh are prospects, so the rotation isn't that strong.

KW would have to trade Garland, Crede, Buerhle, and Konerko for enough prospects to get Cabrera. Nah. I think Sweeney, Fields and McCarthy would probably get it done. I don't think so, maybe a month before Cabrera becomes a free agent, but not now.

KW would have to trade Garland, Crede, Buerhle, and Konerko for enough prospects to get Cabrera.

I think Hendry has spoiled us this offseason with a transaction every 20 minutes. Let's remember that it's still early and holding onto Jones into the new year (or even spring training) might give other teams time to decide they need an OF. As many of you have posted, keeping Jones and picking up someone like Church to have a 4-5 OF platoon might not be a bad idea. Let's be patient and see what happens.

I think the 2007 Cubs will be better than the 2006 Cubs, but there are lots of question marks. If by some miracle Prior returns to health, I don't think a 90 win season is out of the question. Also, the Cubs (along with most of the teams) are not a finished product yet, so we have to wait and see who else they might get and which players might show something in spring training.

My question is who is going to pitch for the WS NEXT year. Trading for the usual suspects (many of whom are free agents to be) won't do much good if you don't have the pitching to compete. Don't forget Dye will be leaving after 2007 and Thome is getting older and injury prone. 3-Way Deal? Sox get: Penny, Hudson, A. Jones Braves get: Garland, Fields, Loney/Kemp/Ethier Dodgers get: Aardsma, Buehrle, Braves prospect Could work out well for all involved. Not likely though. Could then try to spin Hudson or Penny for Tejada. Did you forget that Reinsdorf owns the White Sox? The Sox are cutting costs and are looking to get young and cheap players. Maybe Williams is going to go after one of the big names, but for them to add the contracts of Penny, Hudson, and A.Jones is incredible. Also, I'm sure the plan is to dump Crede's salary in the next year, so I don't think they would be getting rid of his young and cheap replacement (Fields).

My question is who is going to pitch for the WS NEXT year. Trading for the usual suspects (many of whom are free agents to be) won't do much good if you don't have the pitching to compete. Don't forget Dye will be leaving after 2007 and Thome is getting older and injury prone.

How far did we get? We replaced last year's $9m pitcher, Maddux, with a $10m Lilly, and added a utility player who takes on part of the Walker/Perez money, and Soriano. They've added Soriano. It's really not very far. Agreed it's not far, but there are a couple of other things that will help (overall, I think as-constructed this is a .500 team right now, no better): 1. No Dusty Baker. 2. Healthy Derrek Lee for 150+ games 3. Izturis sucks, but he's better than Cedeno 4. No Neifi freaking Perez, John Mabry, Freddie Bynum or other assorted stiffs. 5. Lilly > 2006 Greg Maddux 6. Additional year of experience and maturity for Marshall, Guzman and friends. Cubs need a bonafide #2 starter (Hudson or Penny are all I see out there) and a bat improvement in the OF or SS, then they could have a legitimate shot at a 85+ win season and a postseason chance. That seems about right. With a healthy Dlee and by some miracle Prior comes back then we are right there in the thick of things. You might be right on most of that, but I'm not all the happy with counting on things to go right in order to get a shot at 85 wins. With DLee healthy and a Prior comeback, I would think this team would win 90 games. I'm not saying it would happen, but a healthy Prior is your #2 starter, pushing Hill & Lilly to #3 & #4 with Miller/Marshall/Guzman as #5. That's a very good rotation. With Wuertz, Howry, Ohman, Eyre, and Wood in the bullpen. Very solid. I still think there may be a move with some of the "extra" players......JJones, Cedeno, Dempster, Mateo/Marmol/Marshall/Guzman. There are some question marks, but I don't see very many teams in the NL (and especially in the NL Central) that don't have a lot of question marks.