Little Slide Rooter

Teams would certainly be willing to give up big league ready talent for those guys, but not the type Epstein would be looking for. I see Epstein prefering to take high ceiling prospects. If he wanted productive, young, big league talent, he'd simply hang on to them. As is, we have several high level prospects whom I think they'll play sink or swim with rather than search too hard for big league level replacements, unless we're talking reclamations or inexpensive "veteran presence." And yes, the payroll would be a low one, as would the W column. I don't want to use the T word, but my hunch is that 2014 will be another one of those seasons where more enjoyment will come out of minor league box score than the big league field. Okay, so you've made the big league team demonstrably worse, and cut the payroll well below even what pessimists think it will be next year. Why? How does that get to be the most logical or best outcome? Unless you think the payroll won't go above 75 million for the next 5 years it doesn't make any sense. It's possible. The free agents that would make the team better are out of our price range, and the free agents we could afford would be lateral moves at best. If the payroll goes up, it will likely be via an extension for Shark. The 2014 team does have some glimmer of hope, but it depends largely on the progress of our young core. Any free agents we sign will be reclamations or inexpensive band aids. Cory Hart wouldn't be your standard reclamation, but after missing an entire season due to injury, and being on and of the DL before that, I could see him available at the right price.

Teams would certainly be willing to give up big league ready talent for those guys, but not the type Epstein would be looking for. I see Epstein prefering to take high ceiling prospects. If he wanted productive, young, big league talent, he'd simply hang on to them. As is, we have several high level prospects whom I think they'll play sink or swim with rather than search too hard for big league level replacements, unless we're talking reclamations or inexpensive "veteran presence." And yes, the payroll would be a low one, as would the W column. I don't want to use the T word, but my hunch is that 2014 will be another one of those seasons where more enjoyment will come out of minor league box score than the big league field.

1B Rizzo 2B Kelly Johnson SS Castro 3B Olt (sink or swim move) OF: Some combination of Lake/Jackson(sink or swim)/Vitters (sink or swim)/Cory Hart (incentive heavy deal) Sweeney or some variation. Schierholtz traded C Castillo Utility: Barney, something resembling Donnie Murphy or Brent Lillibridge A backup catcher SP Shark SP Jackson SP Arrieta SP Villanueva SP Grimm/Cabrera Wood traded, though if it becomes apparent that a Shark extension isn't happening, we could keep Wood and trade him. Pen Some mix of: Grimm/Cabrera Vizcaino if healthy Strop Lim Rosscup Parker Fujikawa Bard Trade Russell

biggest surprise/ most improved: Kyle Hendricks biggest disappointment: 1. Soler and Almora not being able to play a full season. 2. Brett Jackson not being able to stop his free fall. Dishonorable mention: remember that time when we chose Trey McNutt over Chris Archer? As sweet as the Garza return looks, it would be like Pixie Sticks rolled in Fun Dip had we given up McMutt instead. favorite long shot: Daury Torrez any other categories can grow organically out of the wider discussion: Something for nothing: 1. Ivan Pinyero 2. Eric Leal

So I was not alone in doing a triple take when I saw the shell of the man who'd inpregnated so many Wrigleyville college students (and probably a few high school students) take the mound for the Pirates.

He no doubt fits the reclamation bargain bin flier criteria. We should have second crack at him after the Marlins. He has more big league success then the rest of the options for the 4-5 spots in the rotation. I say grab him.

The return for Scott Hairston, ladies and gentlemen. Don't we still have a PTBNL of some sort coming our way for him as well; then again, at this point, even Jed and Theo have likely lost track of the number of PTBNL or Cash owed from various minor transactions.

Probably right on Lincecum, but with JJ, it's a combo of his awful 2013 and injury concern. Again, wouldn't be at an all out reclamation price, but it's not unrealistic that he'd a take an incentive heavy 1 year deal with an option. At age 30, he's still young enough that 1 healthy, vintage season at a bargain price could land him a 4-5 year deal from somebody the following offseason.

Could be a good crop; Tim Lincecum (29, 30 in June) 2013 To Date 4.50 ERA, 1.341 WHIP, 172 IP 59/172 BB/K Doing better than I'd thought, but he's young enough that he might want to opt for something team friendly and incentive laden to rebuild his value in hopes of something big in 2015. Josh Johnson (30) 2013 6.20 ERA, 1.660 WHIP. 81 IP. 30/83 BB/K. Worse than I thought. Been broken on and off for a bit now. Should be cheaper than Lincecum. Johan Santana (35) 2013: Broken. Mets have a $25M team option, 5.5MM buyout. Very tempting at the right price. Nelson Cruz (33) 2013 27 HR .269/.330/.511. Far from bargain bin numbers, but the suspension is likely to knock the price down quite a bit, maybe enough so that he could be worth sniffing around for some much needed power. Corey Hart (32-33) 2013-Broken Will have to sign a team friendly deal with somebody to rebuild value. At the right price, we could be that someone. Again, none of these are guys that you bet the farm on, but with 1 year, incentive heavy deals they'd all be worth a look. Or dare I say, a flier.

why, because 27 year old pitchers with good stuff who have been close to league average for most of their career never get signed to league minimum non-guaranteed deals? It happens. And if he was willing to take such a deal, I'd take him in a heartbeat. I'm not saying that we have a set rotation. I'd love to see Vizcaino and Arrieta have first crack at the 2 open spots, and even if they look like aces in Spring Training, both are guys we'd need a break glass in case of emergency backup for. What I am saying is that if we do seek rotation help that we either aim big, such as Price or dig into the reclamation bin for guys that would take a deal like that.

Hughes would be a nice pick up on a minor league deal, but I don't see that happening. We have Arrieta, Grimm, Vizcaino, Cabrera, Bard, Hendricks, Villanueva, Rusin, Loux and whomever we can pick up on minor league deals with invites to compete for 2 rotation spots and round out the depth chart. No reason to give someone else's castoff any kind of big league money, with the supposed financial situation in mind.

but maybe the most interesting part, to me: those are basically all legit prospects he's being lumped in with Why is it so hard for some to accept Hendricks as a legit prospect? He's 23, dominated AA for the bulk of a season and didn't seem at all phased when bumped up to the next level? Nobody's going to confuse him with Matt Harvey, but I could see him contributing at the big league level by next summer.

http://i.imgur.com/pZaUjNK.gif Huge reward that we likely won't receive, but minimal if any risk.

Here's an informative Q&A on Cubs prospects with Sickels. Enjoyable though disturbed at the very and when asked about the long term prognosis for several Cubs prospects and young players, and for Castro, his response is "some other team."

I definitely would; however, assuming that it's one of those things where every AL team gets first crack, then the Marlins I can't imagine he'd make it to us. In fact my money's on the Astros grabbing him.

Never heard of him, but the fact that he's 25 and a former top 100 (#100 in 2011, #99 in 2012) certainly makes him too Theo bait.

Flier? He no doubt fills all the criteria to classify as prime Theo bait.

More importantly, a lot of it depends on the preference of the writer compiling the list; some are going to prefer pitchers to position players, and lets face it, unless we're talking can's miss studs like Strasburg or Harper, when making these lists, it has to be difficult to rank pitchers vs. hitters on the same list. In the case of Baez vs. Lindor, some are going to prefer a defensive stud over a guy who's known primarily for his bat.

Mike Olt with 2 BB; he now has 12 in his last 11 games.

Sounds like someone could use an exciting and fun filled winter at Camp Colvin.

The Cubs/White Sox rivalry continues, and for the first time since 1906, there's something of value on the line: the #3 pick in the 2014 Draft.

His contact rate at AA (swing and miss divided by swing and miss/foul ball/BIP/HR) is just a touch about 65%. That's awfully low, and 65% in the majors is about as low as you can possibly be and still be remotely useful. It's Reynolds/Stanton territory. So you're saying that he could be as useless as Giancarlo Stanton? As a SS or 3B? Whatever would we do. I just hope that they let him grow out of it on his own rather than toy with his approach as they did with Starlin.

Olt with 3 BB so far tonight.

http://t.co/fXYKHWqFDE In other news, Andrew Cashner still doesn't get it.

http://t.co/fXYKHWqFDE Lou Brown admires his attitude. Sadly, he still doesn't get that the trade was for the purposes of picking up a potentially elite player and not to run another Hendry guy out of town.