jersey cubs fan

The end result numbers were good, but the underlying peripherals suggest he got lucky as hell and it would be unwise to expect anything close to similar next season.

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Sharks forward Martin Havlat will miss up to eight weeks following surgery Thursday to repair a partial tear in a tendon in his left hamstring. San Jose general manager Doug Wilson said the team was prepared for the worst after Havlat injured himself jumping over the Sharks' bench during Saturday's 3-2 win over the Edmonton Oilers.

Jesus Christ. No chip sherlock. Obviously this move doesn't torch 2012. It's the lack of other moves that torched 2012.

FSL or SL, sure. If the performance certainty is nothing to write home about you are just unnecessarily putting a ceiling on the value if you insist on MLB ready. 2012 is almost completely gone. If you are serious about acquiring assets to help you be a contender in the future, then get serious about it and don't chicken out by insisting the guy give you some nice innings today. Sign Maholm for that purpose and trade your assets for the future. I think you're really overstating the potential difference between Wood and the hypothetical preferred return(again, who would that be?), or maybe just underestimating attrition. Wood's been a 3 win pitcher in a full season's worth of MLB starts prior to the age of 25. When you think about how likely it is that any prospect that's not in MLB or on the cusp exceeds that value, you have to realize that you're needing Strasburgian levels of potential in order to have a greater value than someone like Wood. You asked me what I'd prefer. I'm telling you what I'd prefer. I see no reason to overvalue "MLB ready" given the current environment and would prefer more potential future impact instead of half assing this offseason to try and solidify a 77 win team. I wanted them to actually try to win in 2012, but if they aren't going to do that I'd prefer they actually get aggressive about the future. I'm not saying getting Wood for Marshall is a horrible deal, I'm saying I would have preferred something else.

Too risky.

Yeah, me too. But I'll have to settle for just getting drunk with my brother since my dad will definitely be shopping.

Lesser compensation? We got a 24-year-old starting pitcher with a career FIP- of 94, and we have him for five cost-controlled years. It'd have to be one *heck* of a A-ball prospect to compete with that in value. I'd like a heck of a prospect, yes.

In the Cubs' current position, I'd rather take the near-ready or ready MLB assets. *Especially* in the rotation. A guy like Wood is perfect for what we need. We've got Garza for two more years, Dempster and Zambrano for one. Wells is a huge question mark at this point. Our upper-minors rotation prospects have all struggled with injuries, ineffectiveness, or both. Perfect? I mean, if they are actually going to do anything to help 2012, sure, it would be nice. But since the team sucks anyway there's no point in taking lesser compensation just because you insist on MLB ready.

It's pretty amazing to me the lengths people will go to try and justify not filling a position of need.

FSL or SL, sure. If the performance certainty is nothing to write home about you are just unnecessarily putting a ceiling on the value if you insist on MLB ready. 2012 is almost completely gone. If you are serious about acquiring assets to help you be a contender in the future, then get serious about it and don't chicken out by insisting the guy give you some nice innings today. Sign Maholm for that purpose and trade your assets for the future.

In more of a package, yes. On his own it's well worth it. I was hoping he'd be packaged into something for greater return though. Did you have anyone in mind? Because I think that gets extremely difficult to manage. Taking a package of Garza/Marshall or Marshall/Byrd or Marshall/Wells is going to be done by a team in contention, and giving up star quality assets at or near MLB isn't going to happen. Even more so in a package deal, I'd want MLB ready assets, and I don't see how you'd be able to get higher potential assets than Wood that are also MLB ready from a contender. I don't see any point in putting an artificial barrier in there like insisting on MLB ready. They are already, at best, half assing 2012. There's just no point in trying to toe that line if you aren't actually trying to be good today.

Which is something we don't have.

You mean like he did the year before? Anyway, I'm with you on Wood. Were people hoping for a future all-star in return for a year of Marshall? In more of a package, yes. On his own it's well worth it. I was hoping he'd be packaged into something for greater return though.

It's a little risky running all these games on the only shopping day of the year for most men.

But it's still valuable. That doesn't address the issue that power is still useful and you should probably have it. All it's saying is that a weak hitting team shouldn't emphasize acquiring power more desperately than an already powerful team. But that's kind of pointless. Weren't people saying in this thread that we should ignore fielder's other faults because he supplies power which this team so desperately needs? This says we need good hitters, it doesn't matter how a player gets a wOBA of .380 only that he has a wOBA of .380. Nobody said ignore things. They said he's good and a perfect fit for a team that lacks a 1B of any kind.

This is why I'm skeptical about the explanation I just gave. It seems like an odd way to do business and it seems like there would be a better way to go through the renovation process without completely dismantling the major league (and minor league to an extent) roster. I've never been involved with this kind of large captial project, though, so I don't for sure. It's also possible that the new SABR movement is to put all the emphasis on defense and completely disregard offense - like they've done in Seattle under Jack Z. That doesn't explain Theo falling for soft tossers like Maholm and Wood, though. It kind of explains it. If you don't have defense you need guys who strike out the opposition, but if you do have defense then letting 'em put it in play isn't a bad idea.

14 point underdogs now

The only way I see it being necessary is if the Ricketts value the renovations and more peripheral improvements right now more than putting a good product on the field. If they're pouring enough money into all of that, it may sap enough of the available funds that they can't put a $130 million payroll on the field in the short term. If that's the case, I'll begrudgingly be ok with it because I do have faith in Ricketts/Theo, but if that's not the case then there's absolutely no reason why we should be in complete rebuild mode. I pretty much think that might be what's going on. And if they can't put money into those improvements without sacrificing the quality of the team in the short term, then that sucks, but it's worth it and the right thing to do. But we'll see where we end up after IFAs and everything, since it doesn't appear we'll be blowing a big wad on Fielder. I don't see it. They aren't moving forward with real renovations until they figure something out with the city. That's not happening anytime soon.

Any logical 1st round pick with the Bears taking a player who played college football within 150 miles of Soldier Field would be nice. WR Michael Floyd, C Peter Konz, DE Whitney Mercilus are my 3 favorite options for the 1st round. Floyd had to grow on me this year, as he was only a jumpball threat as a Soph. He was a little bulky as a JR and looked a step slow. But this year, he's shown some ability to separate, looked more fluid, and still has the strong hands. Reminds me of a slightly smaller Vincent Jackson. Konz was Carimi's roommate at UW. Big, strong, and very athletic for his size. C for thenext 15 years. Mercilus may be a 1-year wonder, but that 1 year has been at the top of the nation in TFL and sacks. He had good performances against Ohio St and Wisconsin, who both have NFL caliber OTs, including Mike Adams who will be a 1st rounder this year. I have a real averson to the name Whitney though.

Eh. If Jerry Angelo doesn't force Caleb Hanie down everyone's throats, and gets a competent backup, this team makes the playoffs with the possibility of getting Jay back. Even Martz knew Hanie was no damn good. It was gross negligence than cost this team a good chance of making a decent postseason run. He should probably lose his job because of the decision. How could you not give Hanie a chance after the NFC championship game? That was the only time in his career he saw significant action and he performed admirably given the sitution. It's a logical conclusion to believe with another offseason in the Martz offense he would've been a servicable backup for this team this year. Martz already forced out Olsen. He was negative on the guy last year, and forced an even worse "proven veteran" backup into the roster. If Martz really wanted Hanie out, I'd bet he could have gotten it done. But there was plenty of reason to think Hanie should be the backup. They tried for Orton but because they had a good record at the time, they couldn't get him. By the time McNabb came available it was pointless.

My only problem with a complete rebuild is that with our payroll it shouldn't be necessary. My problem is that it absolutely isn't necessary, and it's pretty much a cop-out.

That's a bit premature. I realize Hoyer has said a lot about improving the defense, but I think that's relative to how bad last year's team was. I'm not predicting it or anything, I just think it would fit their gameplan. They have been all about pitching and defense, and problematic SS defense can really put a hole in plans to be defensively solid. They traded Hanley for pitching. It wouldn't surprise me if they traded Castro for a similarly cost-controlled stud pitcher, even after talking about building around a guy like that.

But it's still valuable. That doesn't address the issue that power is still useful and you should probably have it. All it's saying is that a weak hitting team shouldn't emphasize acquiring power more desperately than an already powerful team. But that's kind of pointless.

Is Jack Wilson still a slick fielder? My guess is the hard ass manager would end up giving serious playing time to a player like that after a Castro misplay. Ronny Cedeno is a garbage fielder though, isn't he? At least very sloppy. It wouldn't surprise me if this organization positions themselves to trade Castro in a mega deal considering their obsession with defense.

It's the 2nd month, and it's almost the 3rd. And those were the two most important months of the year for putting together any semblence of a competitive team in 2012. I guess if you don't care if the team does anything in 2012 you shouldn't care what they've done so far. Personally, I kind of do care how well the team plays in 2012 so I'm disappointed with what they've done.