Little Slide Rooter

Castillo's a year off a 4.5 WAR season, and the OF and Rotation may be full of question marks, but I wouldn't call them holes. There's really no reason to trade guys just for the sake of trading them. We should be focusing on a few big deals. Operating like a small market team has been an eye opening experience, and has gotten us where we are. While I'm all for stocking up on reclamations when available, but it's about time for this sleeping giant to wake up and start beating it's chest.

Not sure about the Alcantara deal, as I'm not familiar with those guys. But really not a fan of the Wada one. I'd really like to keep him, as we really have no sure things in terms of pitching. Even if we did acquire one front end and another successful reclamation, we still would need more depth. Wood's a pretty safe bet as a 4-5 guy, but beyond that, Arrieta has his injury history, and between Wada, Doubront, Turner, Hendricks, and Straily, we could just as easily end up with a rotation full of reclamation studs as a dumpster full of bargain-bin busts.

Now if only the rest of the ML teams will cooperate, we'll have multiple WS winning seasons. Cub money's just as good as Yankee, Red Sox, Dodger, and Angel money, and we've got a nice bundle saved up, as well as a very good future prognosis. Assuming the money's comparable, the Cubs are a very attractive destination to any FA.

Just how sustainable is Soler's 2.212 OPS?

That's a shame for Kris Bryant and those 24 other dudes.

STOP WINNING COBS!!!

In case anybody was concerned with Mr. Schierholtz' whereabouts, apparently the Nationals signed him on August 18. He's played 4 games, gone 0-7 since.

In terms of guys still in the minors (I know the others are still considered prospects,) what would our top ten be? 1. Bryant 2. Russell 3. Schwarber 4. Almora 5. Edwards 6. Johnson 7. Zas 8. Torres 9. Rivero 10. McKinney Round out the 20 with some combination of Jimenez, Tseng, Underwood, Vogelbach, Zagunis, Vizcaino, Villanueva, Black, Hanneman, Paniagua,- and I wouldn't even know where to start with the other A pitchers: Blackburn, Torrez, Stinnett, Sands, Steele, Cease, Martinez, Skulina, Masek, Clifton Maybe Dunston, Burks, Hernandez, Amaya with some back end consideration? Do Candelario and Maples get the benefit of the doubt that they're not dead yet?

What's wild is that at this moment, 22/25 of the players on the active roster are guys I could see as canditates for a role on the team in 2015 and beyond. The odd men out are Villanueva, who despite being great since moving to the pen full time would simply be an uneccessary expenditure beyond this year, Baker, who I suppose isn't much better or worse than any other back up catcher, and strikes me as a guy who could Koyie Hill around between Iowa and Chicago for a few years, and Valaika. This beind said, when Theo was hired and wasted little time pulling the rug out from those expecting a spending spree, he stated that his goal was to acquire good, hound players by any and all means. So in terms of what we have at this time, let's take a look: Player (age) How Acquired. Under Team Control Until. Future Role/duration. 1B Rizzo (24) Trade, very team friendly extension. 2021 ('20 & '21 team options.) Starting 1B, long term. 2B Baez (21) inherited. 2020. Starting IF (which spot?)long term. SS Castro (24). Inherited, comically team friendly extension. 2020. Starting SS/3B, long term if not traded. 3B Valbuena (28) Minor league FA. 2017. Utility IF until traded or FA. RF Soler (22) International FA. 2020. Starting RF, long term. CF Mendy (22) Inherited prospect. 2020. Starting IF/CF/super sub. Long term. LF Coghlan (29) Minor League FA. 2017. Possible (between him and Sweeney for spare LH OF/bat) Short term. C Castillo (28) Inherited. 2018. Very likely. Starting C, depends if/when somebody comes for it. OF Lake (24) inherited. Possible, depends on progress. 4th OF/Super Sub, TBD. OF Ruggiano (32) Brian Bogucevic. 2016. 4th OF, short term. IF Watkins (24) Inherited Prospect. 2020. UT, until a younger him comes along. Rotation: Arrieta (28) 3 months of Scott Feldman. 2018. Front end SP, long term. Wood (27) 1 season of Shawn Marshall. 2017. 4-5 starter, until replaced. Hendricks (24). 2 Months of Ryan Dempster. 2020. 3-5 starter, long term. Wada (33) Minor League FA. 2020 (assuming the same rules apply.) 3-5 SP/swing man. Short term/trade candidate. Turner (23) Waiver claim, a couple low levels. 2019. 1-5 SP/swingman, too hard to tell. Pen: Rondon (26) Rule 5. 2019. Back end BP, until he breaks. Ramirez (25) Trade (Garza.) 2020. Back end BP, until he breaks. Strop (29) Trade (2-3 months of Feldman.) 2018. Middle relief, until he breaks or is traded. Grimm (26) Trade (Garza) 2020. Middle relief/swingman. Until he breaks/traded. Wright (29) Free Agent. 2016. Middle relief/LOOGY. 0-2 years. Fujikawa (34) Intnl. FA. Signed through 2015, not FA eligible until 2019,depending on how the rules apply. Back end BP if healthy. Possible for 2015, Doubtful beyond.

Blake Cooper, who we acquired for I don't even remember who, has been pretty dominant in his time at Tenn; 8 IP, 2/14 BB/K.

Sounds more like some guys spec turned into a rumor. But as a change of scenery for two guys with minimal value and salaries have to be paid regardless, sure, why not?

I still am kind of in disbelief that he's a member of the Cub organization. 11 home runs in a month and a half, as one of the youngest players in a pitcher's league. And he's a shortstop. We have effectively been anesthetized to the pains of any fan who follows a normal minor league organization. It's never been like this before. It may never be like this again. When this wears off, reality is going to hit and hit hard. Maybe not to this extent, but I expect a strong farm system so long as this regime is around. What they're doing now is by necessity, gathering up as many top prospects and former top prospects in hopes of gathering as many cost effective big league pieces as possible. When the phase is over, which I expect will be this winter, then they'll begin behaving like a big market team to fill the remaining holes. While I don't expect any major sell trades, I expect them to continue to operate the draft and international free agency in the same manner they have, as well as acquiring low risk reclamations whenever possible.

Assuming that we acquire a front end starter in the offseason, Wada, Hendricks, Turner, Straily, Doubront, Wood, and Jackson are going to make for an interesting spring training battle for the 3-5 rotation spots.

Over his past 10 games, he has a cartoonish .487/.523/1.231/1.754 line with 7 HR.

Why is our 2014 32nd round pick in AAA? I know when short a body, they'll sometimes they'll just send over the closest one they can find, but this guys played 2 games and started both.

Cuba's like a PEZ dispenser for uncharted uber-prospects.

IMHO, Hendricks, Turner, Wada, and Doubront should be priorities. Arrieta or Wood should be given September off. Arrieta has nothing left to prove this season and Wood is what he is.

Is Dillon Maples still worthy of acknowledgement?

I'll assume that the guys earning this "starting salary" are 17-22 years old living their dream, many of whom just received a signing bonus of $100K-a few mil before being assigned a number. Good luck supporting a family on that. Then again, if you're responsible for supporting a family on that, perhaps it's time to move on. This is true. The trouble is, minor league baseball isn't Major League Baseball. Nobody cares about the W/L record of any given minor league team. The parent organization who pays them certainly doesn't gain any revenue based on the performance of the minor league affiliates, which usually consists of 3-10 guys that matter and 15-22 guys to fill the roster. If the roster filler don't like it, they can go back to school.

I'd have to assume it's all relative. Probably not much more, if at all, than any other AAA player, unless they coach as well. Most of them need the team more than the team needs them, be or because they're hoping for another crack at the majors, or they're simply not ready to hang it up yet.

Ronny Cedeno is still trying to play baseball for a living? Next time you're on the [expletive], sift through some random AAA (or Japanese, Mexican, and Indie league)rosters. You might be surprised at who's still out there.

And we handed Chris Volstad a W on Saturday. But at the end of the day, I don't think anybody really cares about the final score or who does what against the organizational fodder.

Permission to express mild intrigue in Charcer Burks. .318/.394/.437./.831 between AZL and Boise. McKinney light? Almora anorexic?

Last night, we stole a win via faulty equipment. Tonight, we give it back with Edwin Jackson.

Since July 12, Carlos Villanueva's pitched 16 innings with 2/17 BB/K and 0 ER. Any chance that'll be worth something to a contender between now and the waiver deadline?